The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-09
The Literature of New Russia

The first instalment of this
article on the neU Soviet htera-
ture discussed ats emergence dur
ing the storm and stress period
of the ciuN aoars as an effort of
the 10riters to eapress those
mighty days IN aVuy that aUould
Vitally influence the masses. Verse
rather than prose fIourished IN
those first gears. Demyan Bedny
sought to Influence the masses
1cith simple dgitational poems.
Vladimir Mayakovsky, leader of
the Futurist school, tried to break
completely aoith bourgeois tech
nique, qvhile Alexander Blocks
; famous "The Twelue" aCas the eff
fort of q confused bourgeois intel
lectataL to grasp the meaning of
the Revolution. Serge Yessenin,
one of the outstanding poets of
the In,agist group, represented
the psychology of the backward
peasant. The conclusion of the
ciuit aoars gaze the opportunity
for more sober reflection and the
Development of prose. Outstand-
ing prose Uorks of the period im-
mediately following the ciUil avars
are Furmanou's "Chapayev," Le-
bedimsky's "A Week. and Serafi-
movich's "The Iron Stream"
The peace following the civil war
encouraged the development of the
so-called "Fellow-Travellers," writ
ers of various types and talents who
were not themselves of the new or
der, but who accepted the revolution,
and were willing to travel" along
with it. They came from the peas
antry, the intellectuals and the urban
middle classes. These writers lacked
the active spirit of the revolution
animating the works of Demyan
Byednyi, Mayakovsky, Serafimovitch
and Lebedinsky. They retained a
good deal of pre-revolutionary pas
sivism, being content to portray
events as they saw them, without
seeking to extract their full social
implications. Because many of these
writers had come from classes which
enjoyed higher education, their
works show great technical mastery
This, combined with their sincerity
enabled them to produce works Of
great social and literary significance
In fact, it was they who laid the
ground for a realistic literature
which Soviet Russia is coming to &C
cept as the most desirable kind a
this stage of it's development. TIL,
"Fellow- Travellers" also wrote thei
first books around the civil wa
from which they had just emerged
Among the best of their novels ar
Vsevolod Ivanov's "Armored Train
and "Colored Winds; Yakovlev'
October; Babels "Red Cavalry
and "Tales"; Seifulina's "virineya'
and Dung; Artyom Vesolyi's 9TH
Homeland; Malishkin's "The. Fall o
Daira"; Leonid Leonov's Badger
and Boris Pilnyak's Leather Jack
cts" and "The Naked Year"
The last of these works appeared
at psychological moment. 1t wal
the first novel which set itself the
task of reflecting Russia's social lif'
in the throes of the civil war. TIL,
novel presents the various socia
strata during the famine period
portraying peasants, city workers
intellectuals, and the Communist
the "people in leather jackets" re
building Russia out of chaos. A!
might be expected from a work O.
fiction produced by the famine years
the chaotic and the rebellious pre-
dominate, while the creative and or
ganizing elements are described il
much weaker manner; the authol
was not yet able to compose whole
which at that time was still uncleal
to him.
The period Of the civil war 'ant
the days of peace Immediately fol
lowing it also produced Ilya Eren.
burg's novels, notably "Julio Jura
nito," ''Trust D. e., "Nikolay Kur.
bow" and "Jenny Ney," the last Of
which was filmed and shown in New
York. These works are permeated
with scenticism. The author docs