The group of ego-futurist poets, who declared themselves in St. Petersburg in 1911, was led by Igor Severyanin. It included G. Ivanov, K. Olimpov, I. Ignatiev, V. Gnedov and others. “Ego” translated from Lat. - "I". At the center of the work of the egofuturist poet is his “I”, his personality.
Glory to Igor Severyanin, one of the most popular poets silver age, was at one time “all-city” (neologism of Severyanin). His books “The Thundering Cup” (1913), “Zlatolira” (1914), “Pineapples in Champagne” (1915) and others were talked about everywhere. His performances in the cities of Russia - “poetry concerts” (about 100 of them took place in the period from 1913 to 1917) attracted the public with constant success.
There are interesting facts in the history of Russian literature of the twentieth century: in 1918 in Moscow, at a poetry evening at the Polytechnic Museum, Igor Severyanin was recognized as the king of poets, second place was given to V. Mayakovsky, third place went to K. Balmont. I. Severyanin, as befits a king, publishes the poetic “Rescript of the King.” The winner is royally generous and magnanimous, he forgives and blesses everyone:
From now on, my cloak is purple, I wear velvet in silver: I am chosen as the king of poets To the envy of the boring midge. I am so great and so confident in myself - so convinced that I will forgive everyone and give a respectful bow to every faith... ...I have been chosen as the king of poets, - May there be light for my subjects! 1918About the appearance egofuturism I. Severyanin announced in 1911, and in January 1912 he sent out to the editorial offices of a number of newspapers his program “Academy of Ego-Poetry (Ecumenical Futurism)”, where K. Fofanov and M. Lokhvitskaya were called the forerunners of ego-futurism, and theoretical foundations Intuition and Egoism were proclaimed (The program was signed by I. Severyanin, K. Olimpov (K. Fofanov), G. Ivanov, Grail-Aprilsky (S. Petrov). “The slogans of my egofuturism,” Severyanin wrote in his memoirs, “were: 1. The soul is the only power. 2. Self-affirmation of the individual. 3. Searches for the new without rejecting the old. 4. Meaningful neologisms. 5. Bold images, epithets, assonances and dissonances. 6. The fight against “stereotypes” and “screensavers”. 7. Variety of meters "2. The literary program of the group, as we see, was rather vague. There is no need to talk seriously about the literary movement headed by I. Severyanin. The group disintegrated very quickly. In 1912, the struggle between Severyanin and Olympov for futurist primacy intensified, Severyanin left the group" Ego,” considering “the mission of my Ego-futurism completed”: “I, a year ago, said: “I will be!” / The year has sparkled, and now I am!”
In some ways, Severyanin was close to the Cubo-Futurists. In 1914, I. Severyanin performed together with the Cubo-Futurists in the south of Russia, taking part in the so-called “Olympiad of Futurism” (1914). But cooperation with the Cubo-Futurists turned out to be short-lived, and in 1914 Severyanin parted ways with them.
Just like other futurists, Severyanin in his poems paid tribute to the technical achievements of the new century and focused on the fast pace of life. However, his urbanism was more of an external nature and had a salon-like connotation of comfort and elegance:
Overture Pineapples in champagne! Pineapples in champagne! Surprisingly tasty, sparkling, spicy! I'm all about something Norwegian! I'm all in something Spanish! I'm inspired by impulse! And I take up the pen! The sound of airplanes! Running cars! Wind whistle of express trains! The wing of the boats! Someone's been kissed here! Someone was beaten there! Pineapples in champagne are the pulse of the evenings! In a group of nervous girls, in a sharp society of ladies, I will transform the tragedy of life into a dream-farce... Pineapples in champagne! Pineapples in champagne! From Moscow to Nagasaki! From New York to Mars! January 1915 PetrogradLike other futurists, Severyanin has many neologisms, but they are “meaningful”, exquisitely accessible, and the poet never abuses them (cf.: wind blower, winged wing). He wrote with disapproval about the Moscow futurists: “...in their word-creation they often reached complete absurdity and bad taste, in the fight against the canons of aesthetics they used disgusting and simply indecent expressions.” Neologisms with foreign roots and suffixes, charming with their extravagance, captivating us into an exquisitely exotic world, gave a peculiar chic to Northern poetry:
Kenzel In a noisy dress of moire, in a noisy dress of moire Along the sun-lit alley you pass the sea... Your dress is exquisite, Your talma is azure. And the sandy path is patterned with leaves - Like spider legs, like jaguar fur. For a sophisticated woman, the night is always newlywed... The rapture of love is destined for you by fate... In a noisy moire dress, in a noisy moire dress - You are so aesthetic, you are so graceful... But who should be your lover! And will there be a match for you? Wrap your legs in an expensive jaguar blanket, And, sitting comfortably in a gasoline landaulet, You entrust your life to a boy in a rubber mackintosh, And close his eyes with your jasmine dress - A noisy moire dress, a noisy moire dress!.. 1911The Northerner, like all futurists, was characterized by the desire to shock, to amaze the reader, and to assert himself. This was especially clearly manifested in his poem “Epilogue” (a kind of “yellow jacket” of Severyanin):
I, the genius Igor the Severyanin, am intoxicated with my victory: I am screened all over the city! I am completely confirmed!.. I, a year ago, said: “I will!” The year has sparkled, and here I am! Among my friends I saw Judas, But it was not him that I rejected, but revenge... There were four of us, but My strength, united, grew. She didn’t ask for support and didn’t grow older... 1912Igor Severyanin, like other futurists, was irritated by the vulgarity of the world around him. The poem with the oxymoronic title “In the Brilliant Darkness” is about this:
In tuxedos, chicly disheveled, high-society boobies swayed in the prince's drawing room, their faces dumbfounded. I smiled strainedly and remembered sarcastically about gunpowder: Boredom was blown up by an unexpectedly neo-poetic motif. Every line is a slap in the face. My voice is completely mockery. Rhymes are formed into figurines. The language seems to be of assonance. I despise you ardently, your dull Lordships, And, despising, I count on a worldwide resonance! Brilliant audience, you are evilly fogged with brilliance! The horizon of the future is hidden from you, unworthy! Dull your Lordships! During the time of Severyanin, you should know that Blok and Balmont were behind Pushkin. 1913However, Igor Severyanin did not strive, unlike the Cubo-Futurists, to break with the culture of the past and “throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity.” He believed that both Pushkin and Blok should be known even “in the time of Severyanin” 3.
Criticism, and this has become a commonplace, noted the mannerism, boudoir nature of Igor Severyanin’s poetry, its restaurant character and vulgar sophistication, salon dandyism and extravagance. The absence of a “theme” in I. Severyanin’s poetry worried A. Blok: “ Where will it go he, it is impossible to say yet what will happen to him: he has no theme. God bless him."
Perhaps the reproaches of Severyanin’s contemporaries were not unfounded: Severyanin’s poems are characterized by a certain mannerism, boudoirism, and dandyism. All this happened. For example, his famous “mignonette poem” “It Was by the Sea”:
It was by the sea, where there is openwork foam, Where a city carriage is rarely found... The Queen played - in the towers of the castle - Chopin, And, listening to Chopin, her page fell in love. It was all very simple, it was all very nice; The Queen asked to cut the pomegranate; And she gave half, and she tired the page, and she fell in love with the page, all in the tunes of sonatas. And then it echoed, echoed thunderously, Until sunrise the mistress slept like a slave... It was by the sea, where there was a turquoise wave, Where there was openwork foam and a sonata of a page. February 1910I. Severyanin had passionate admirers (even more passionate admirers), there were also those who did not accept his poems and created parodies of them. A wonderful parody of the poem “It Was by the Sea...”, absolutely accurately conveying the rhythm and intonation of Severyanin’s verse, was written by I. Severyanin’s contemporary, poet A. Shiryaevets:
It was by the sea, where the azure foam... It was at the square where they eat yogurt, Where there are fruit waters, it was yesterday. There Glasha said to me: “Oh, I swear, I will be yours! And I swear that my mother is very kind!” But what does mom have to do with it? - I said, turning pale. Oh, I can’t live without my mother - I’m a poet and an esthete! But Glasha answered: “I don’t dare without my mother. I’ll be yours with my mother, but not without my mother!” And she left without saying goodbye, without finishing the yogurt, and I was oppressed by the blues until dawn. I wanted to be on maternity leave, without priests, without my mother. So I parted with Glasha. It was yesterday. 1918Although the reproaches against Severyanin were largely unfounded, in reality everything was much more complicated, and his work can hardly be reduced to salon dandyism. In the poems one cannot help but see the irony, the self-irony of an intelligent poet. The northerner himself called his fame “ambiguous” and regretted that in his poems they often saw something that was not what he wanted. In the poem "Ambiguous Glory" he wrote:
They were looking for vulgarity in me, having lost sight of one thing: After all, whoever paints the square, He paints with a square brush.Yes, Northerner often spoke in his poems in the language of the salon audience, but this does not mean that it was the language of the poet himself, that it was his - the poet's - voice. At least his "only" voice. An analogy with the heroes of M. Zoshchenko’s stories and Zoshchenko himself, whom contemporary criticism of the writer did not want to differentiate, would be appropriate here. The essence of I. Severyanin’s poetry lies elsewhere - in the finest lyricism, in exquisite elegance, in an amazing sense of rhythm and in that which is generally difficult to define, since we are talking about Poetry. No matter how critics treat the notorious “Pineapples in Champagne!”, no matter how they ironize them, it is impossible to immediately forget, not to feel the charm of this poem. It cannot be ignored. Severyanin's lyrics are not burdened with moralizing; they are far from philosophical insights. Well, but Northerner is a subtle lyricist, amazingly sensitive to Nature, Beauty, the human soul in its diverse manifestations and experiences.
In 1918, in the poem “Introduction,” I. Severyanin directly wrote about himself as a poet without tendencies and even without much meaning:
I am a nightingale: I am without tendencies And without much depth... But be it old men or infants, They will understand me, the singer of spring. I am a nightingale, I am a serpent bird 4, But my song is rainbow. I have one habit: To draw everyone to otherworldly lands. I am a nightingale! What do I need a critic with all his ungodliness? - Look, pig, for delight in the trough, and not in roulades from branches! I am a nightingale, and besides songs, I have no other use. I am so senselessly wonderful that Meaning bowed down before me! March 1918 ToilaI. Severyanin is also known as the author of quiet, poignant lines about Russia and his fate. After the revolution, Northerner ended up in Estonia, where he lived until his death in 1941. “I’m not an emigrant or a refugee. I’m just a summer resident,” I. Severyanin said about himself. Abroad, he published seventeen collections of poetry, but they were published in small editions; the peak of the poet’s fame was left behind, in past Russia. In 1925, the no less famous poem by I. Severyanin “Classical Roses” was written:
How beautiful, how fresh the roses were in my garden! How they seduced my gaze! How I prayed to the spring frosts not to touch them with a cold hand! Myatlev 1843 In those times when dreams swarmed in the hearts of people, transparent and clear, How beautiful, how fresh were the roses of My love, and glory, and spring! The summers have passed, and tears are flowing everywhere... There is neither a country, nor those who lived in the country... How beautiful, how fresh were the roses of Memories of the day gone by! But as the days go by, the thunderstorms are already subsiding. Return to home Russia is looking for a path... How beautiful, how fresh the roses will be, thrown into my coffin by my country! 1925Egofuturism is a movement in Russian literature that formed at the beginning of the 20th century, in the 1910s. It developed within the framework of futurism. In addition to general futuristic features, it was distinguished by the use of foreign and new words, the cultivation of refined sensations, and ostentatious selfishness.
The Birth of a Current
Egofuturism is a literary movement that has developed around its most famous representative, Igor Severyanin. In 1909, he gained several followers among St. Petersburg poets. Two years later they founded a circle called "Ego".
After this, Severyanin himself published a brochure “Prologue (Egofuturism)”, which he sent to all newspapers. In it he tried to formulate that this is egofuturism.
The literary movement quickly became fashionable and successful. Representatives of egofuturism of that time were Georgy Ivanov, Konstantin Olimpov, Stefan Petrov, Pavel Shirokov, Pavel Kokorin, Ivan Lukash.
Having founded the society, they began to say that egofuturism is a new direction modern literature, which should be fundamentally different from everything that came before. For this purpose, manifestos and leaflets were published. At the same time, the principles of the new literary direction formulated in esoteric and abstract terms.
It is interesting that the poets of the “old school” are called the forerunners of egofuturism. For example, Olympov’s father Konstantin Fofanov and Mirra Lokhvitskaya.
Ego-futurists call their own works not poems, but poetry.
Development of egofuturism
The very first creative association quickly disintegrates. At the end of 1912, Severyanin separated, beginning to gain rapid popularity, first among the Symbolists, and then among the general public.
After this, Ivan Ignatiev took over the propaganda of this literary movement. At that time he was only 20 years old. He founded the “Intuitive Association”, began writing poetry and reviews, even the theory of egofuturism. The literary movement turns out to be strongly connected, since it pursues the same principles of the avant-garde. In versification, poets of both movements are more interested in form than content.
"Petersburg Herald"
In 1912, the first futurist publishing house appeared. It begins to publish books by Ignatiev himself, as well as Vasilisk Gnedov and Vadim Shershenevich. Egofuturists actively publish in the newspapers "Nizhegorodets" and "Dachnitsa".
In the first years of its existence, ego-futurism and cubo-futurism are contrasted on stylistic and regional grounds. This is a kind of confrontation between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Representatives of Cubo-Futurism in poetry were Olga Rozanova.
In 1914, the first joint performance of the Ego-Futurists took place in Crimea with the Budotlyans, as the Cubo-Futurists were also called. The northerner collaborates with them for some time, publishing the “First Journal of Russian Futurists,” but then completely moves away.
The Petersburg Herald publishing house closes in 1914, when Ignatiev commits suicide. He cuts his own throat the day after the wedding. The reasons for this act still remain unknown.
Since then, books by egofuturists have primarily been published in The Enchanted Wanderer and The Mezzanine of Poetry.
Swiftness and short duration
It is these two definitions that can characterize egofuturism. It was an uneven and very short-lived phenomenon in Russian literature. The attention of critics and the public was focused on Severyanin, who kept himself aloof from the others.
Most representatives of this movement quickly outlived their style, looking for themselves in other genres. For example, many in the 1920s went into imagism, which was actually prepared by ego-futurists.
In the 20s, Petrograd literary groups tried to support the traditions of this trend: “Ring of Poets named after K. M. Fofanov” and “Abbey of Gaers”. But they did not achieve success. The “Ring of Poets” was completely closed in 1922 by order of the Cheka.
Many egofuturists who remained in Russia were repressed. Such a fate awaited Konstantin Olympov, Vasilisk Gnedov, and the Grail of Arelsky.
The brightest representative
The name of Igor Severyanin has long been firmly associated with egofuturism. Real name this poet Lotarev. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1887.
According to him, he received his education at a real school in Cherepovets, graduating from four classes. In 1904 he left for the city of Dalniy on the territory of modern China and lived in Port Arthur. Returned to St. Petersburg shortly before the start Russo-Japanese War.
At the same time, he began to publish regularly. The poet himself proposed combining his first eight brochures into a cycle " World War". Since 1907, he began to sign his books with a pseudonym. Moreover, in the author’s version he looked like “Igor the Northerner.” This was an act of initiation, therefore a kind of mythologeme and amulet.
It is with the publication of the brochure “Prologue of Ego-Futurism” that the existence of a new literary movement is counted. However, he did not stay with his supporters and followers for long. He separated from them, declaring that he had completed his task.
In 1913, Severyanin’s famous collection in the style of egofuturism, entitled “The Thunder-Boiling Cup,” was published. In the same year, he performed twice together with Vladimir Mayakovsky, and in 1914 he went on a tour of the south of the country.
King of Poets
It was during one of his performances with Mayakovsky that Severyanin received the title of King of Poets. Witnesses claim that the ceremony itself was accompanied by a playful crowning with a wreath and mantle, but the poet himself took this with complete seriousness.
The performance took place in the hall of the Polytechnic Museum in 1918. Eyewitnesses recall that the elections were accompanied by passionate shouts and arguments, and during the break there was almost a fight between supporters of Mayakovsky and Severyanin.
The northerner was recognized as king, ahead of Mayakovsky by only 30-40 votes. A myrtle wreath, rented from a nearby funeral home, was placed on the winner's neck. The wreath hung down to his knees, but the Northerner continued to read poetry already in the rank of the king of poets. They also wanted to crown Mayakovsky as viceroy, but he refused to wear a wreath, jumped on the table and read the third part of the poem “A Cloud in Pants.”
Life in exile
Soon after this, Severyanin left, finding himself in forced emigration. He leaves for Estonia with his common-law wife. In 1919 he began performing in concerts. In total, during his life in this country, several dozen of his performances took place, the last in 1940 on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of his creative activity.
In 1921, he separated from his common-law wife Volyanskaya for the sake of getting married to Felissa Kruut. At the same time, the poet completely abandons ego-futurism in favor of simple and realistic poetry. In exile, he publishes many collections of poems, in which his nostalgia for his homeland is felt; they are completely different from anything he wrote in Russia.
In addition, he became the first major translator of Estonian poetry into Russian. He toured extensively throughout Europe, visiting Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Lithuania and Latvia. In 1931, he made two performances in Paris.
The poet spent the winter of 1940-1941 in Paide in central Estonia. He was constantly sick. When the war began, he wanted to evacuate to the rear, but was unable to do so due to health reasons. In October 1941, he died of a heart attack at the age of 54.
Slide 1
“Egofuturism” by Igor Severyanin
BEKETOVA OLGA ALEKSANDROVNA MBOU "Secondary School No. 5" Aleksin, Tula Region
Slide 2
Futurism as a literary movement was born in Italy. Its theorist was the philosopher Filippo Marinetti, who wrote futurist manifestos celebrating rebellion and audacity. European fu-tourism influenced Russian. Russian futurism had many similarities with Russian nihilism: the basis of philosophy for both is not affirmation, but negation. The birth of Russian futurism is considered to be 1910, when the first futurist collection “Zadok of Judges” (authors: D. Burlyuk, V. Khlebnikov and V. Kamensky) was published. Futurism went beyond literature itself and was closely associated with avant-garde groups of artists of the 1910s.
Emergence of flow
Slide 3
Futurism (from Latin futurum - future) is the most extreme movement in aesthetic radicalism. Its representatives denied the artistic and moral heritage. Entering the arena of literary struggle, they declared that everything accumulated by the old culture should not be renewed, but destroyed. The first declaration of the Futurists, “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,” was published in 1912. Young poets (D. Burliuk, A. Kruchenykh, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov) declared their contempt for “common sense” and “good taste”, expressed hatred of the language that existed before them and decided to “throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy off the Steamboat of Modernity.” The futurists laid claim to a universal mission: they put forward a program for the birth of super art capable of transforming the world.
A new trend - a duel with culture
Slide 4
Groups
cubo-futurists, or poets "Gilea" ego-futurists group "Mezzanine of Poetry" association "Centrifuge"
D. Burlyuk V. Khlebnikov V. Kamensky V. Mayakovsky A. Kruchenykh I. Severyanin I. Ignatiev K. Olimpov V. Gnedov and others V. Shershenevich Khrisanf R. Ivnev and others B. Pasternak N. Aseev S. Bobrov K Bolshakov et al.
Slide 5
Egofuturists The name “egofuturism” puts the “ego,” that is, the “I” of the poet, at the center. The brightest ego-futurist - Igor Severyanin (real name and surname - Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev) put forward the idea of the triumph of the individual (hence the “self-aggrandizement” that irritated many): I, the genius Igor Severyanin, / am intoxicated with my victory: / I am screened everywhere. / I am firmly established!
Slide 6
Igor Severyanin (Igor Vasilievich Lotarev) was born on May 4 (16), 1887 in St. Petersburg. His father, Vasily Petrovich, a military engineer (a native of the “Vladimir bourgeoisie”), who rose to the rank of staff captain, died in 1904 at the age of forty-four. His mother came from the famous noble family of the Shen-shins, to which A.A. belonged. Fet (1820-1892), threads of kinship also connected her with the famous historian N.M. Karamzin (1766-1826). It is interesting, by the way, that on his mother’s side Igor Severyanin was related to A.M. Kollontai. In 1896, his parents divorced, and the future poet left with his father, who had retired by that time, to Cherepovets; shortly before his father’s death, he visited the Far East with him and in 1904 settled with his mother in Gatchina. He studied nothing at all and completed four classes at the Cherepovets Real School. He began writing poetry at the age of 8. He was first published in the magazine “Leisure and Business” in 1905: there, under the name Igor Lotarev, the poem “The Death of Rurik” was published. The pseudonym appeared later.
Slide 7
By the way, Igor-Severyanin himself wrote it with a hyphen: as a middle name, not a surname. The name Igor was given to him according to the calendar, in honor of the holy ancient Russian prince Igor Olegovich; the addition "Severyanin" made the pseudonym close to "royal" names and meant a place of special love. But the tradition of writing "Severyanin" as a surname was entrenched in the same way as the tradition of interpreting a poet one-sidedly based on his "ecstasy" poems.
Slide 8
One of the first vivid impressions was falling in love with Zhenechka Gutsan (Zlata), who inspired the future poet.
Spring is coming in a lilac cape, In a wide pale blue hat, And invisible streams of lilies of the valley Sound like bells in the air... She, laughing, tickles my nerves, Flirts sweetly and sharply... I hasten to her, and suddenly becomes golden and young spring, Walking in a lilac cape, In a wide pale blue hat... I was poor, and the poorer I was, The more I wanted to live... From the autobiographical novel in verse “Falling Rapids”
Slide 9
His youthful experiences did not attract the attention of readers and critics, and the poet had to publish (from 1904 to 1912) more than thirty different booklets-brochures at his own expense, sending them for review to the editors of magazines and eminent people (“Zarnitsy thoughts" (1908), "Intuitive colors" (1908), "The Princess's Necklace" (1910), "Electric Poems" (1910), etc.).
Slide 10
In 1909, Leo Tolstoy became indignant at the collection “Intuitive Colors” (the great old man was outraged by the lines: “Put a corkscrew into the elasticity of the cork / And the gaze of women will not be timid”) and attacked the poet with a rebuke. “...With the light hand of Tolstogo...everyone who was not too lazy began to scold me. Magazines began to willingly publish my poems, the organizers of charity evenings vigorously invited me to take part in them – the evenings, and perhaps even the philanthropists –.”
Slide 11
Why did the poet so attract his readers and contemporaries? The northerner fascinated with the unusual, bright, new - sounds, sensations, colors, rhythms. He turned everyday life into a holiday, took him into an imaginary world of luxury and beauty, albeit “beautiful.” In this fictional world live kings and queens, princes and princesses, pages, fairies. Here is modern life: restaurants, concerts, clubs, living rooms, country dachas, motor landaulets, biplanes, express trains, veils, fans, liqueurs... In this world there is speed, beauty, love, youth, luxury, “height of the spheres” - exotic, unique and at the same time modern.
Slide 12
It was necessary to write about this extraordinary world in an extraordinary way: and Severyanin invented new genres. Most of the names are neologisms: mignonette, cinematograph, square of squares, egopolonesis, poemette, assosonet, sketch, disson, gazella, medallion, nocturne, habanera, romance. Usually the poet indicated the genres of his poems. Many of them have the character of a ballad: they have a short, unusual, intense plot.
Slide 13
In 1911, Igor Severyanin, together with the poet K. Olimpov, the son of Fofanov, declared himself the creator of a new poetic school - egofuturism. In “Prologue of Ego-Futurism” (1911) he manifested: “We are alive in the sharp and instantaneous... and every word is a surprise”; in his poems, narcissism and self-praise took on hypertrophied forms - on the verge of parody and vulgarity: “I, the genius Igor Severyanin, am intoxicated with my victory.”
A.N. Chebotarevskaya, F. Sologub, V. Bayan, B.D. Bogomolov and I. Severyanin
Slide 14
Slogans of “egofuturism”:
The soul is the only truth. Personal self-affirmation. Searching for the new without rejecting the old. Meaningful neologisms. Bold images, epithets. Fight against “stereotypes”. Variety of meters. (Where is the narcissism, shockingness and vulgarity here?!)
Slide 15
Be that as it may, the Northerner has become fashionable. In 1911, Valery Bryusov (1873-1924), the then poetic master, wrote him a friendly letter, approving the brochure “Electric Poems.” Another master of symbolism, Fyodor Sologub (Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov, 1863-1927), accepted Active participation in the compilation of Igor Severyanin’s first large collection, “The Thundering Cup” (1913), accompanying it with an enthusiastic preface and dedicating a triolet to Igor Severyanin in 1912, beginning with the line “A new star is rising.” Then Fyodor Sologub invited the poet on a tour of Russia, starting joint performances in Minsk and ending in Kutaisi. Success grew.
Slide 16
Triumphant fame came to the poet in 1913, after the release of the collection “The Thunder-Boiling Cup.” Soon Igor Severyanin refuses to participate in any literary associations, preferring not to share laurels with anyone. The following collections “Zlatolira” (1914), “Pineapples in Champagne”, “Victoria Regia”, “Poesoantract” (1915), etc. They did not add anything new to the existing appearance of salon-boudoir poetry, disappointed serious readers who pinned their hopes on Severyanin for updating the poetic language, but secured his reputation as the “idol of high school girls.”
- “I, the genius Igor-Severyanin”
- King of Poets Igor Severyanin
Igor Severyanin wrote his first poem at the age of eight. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he became the first pop poet, performing his “poetry concerts” in different cities Russia. In 1918, at a poetry evening at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Museum, Severyanin was declared the “King of Poets” - he beat out all the participants, including Vladimir Mayakovsky.
“I, the genius Igor-Severyanin”
Igor Severyanin (born Igor Lotarev) was born in St. Petersburg. Already at the age of eight he wrote his first poem - “The Star and the Maiden”.
There was a difficult relationship between his parents, military engineer Vasily Lotarev and Natalya Lotareva, who came from a wealthy noble family of the Shenshins. In 1896 they separated. In the same year, the father of the future poet resigned and together with his son moved to the Soyvole estate near Cherepovets. There Igor graduated from four classes of a real school, and in the spring of 1903 he and his father left for Far East. The trip across Russia inspired the 16-year-old boy, and he began writing poetry again. At first love lyrics, and with the approach of the Russo-Japanese War - patriotic texts.
At the end of 1903, Igor Severyanin moved to St. Petersburg to live with his mother, breaking off relations with his father. The Northerner never saw him again: a year later his father died of tuberculosis.
Vadim Bayan, Boris Bogomolov, Anna Chebotarevskaya, Fedor Sologub, Igor Severyanin. 1913. Photo: fsologub.ru
Igor Severyanin. 1933. Photo: stihi-rus.ru
Alexis Rannit and Igor Severyanin. 1930s. Photo: pereprava.org
In 1905, Severyanin’s poem “The Death of Rurik” with the signature “Igor Lotarev” appeared in the soldier’s magazine “Leisure and Business”. With his uncle's money, he began publishing thin brochures of poems and sent them to editors to get feedback. The poet recalled: “One of these little books somehow caught the eye of N. Lukhmanova, who was at that time in the theater of military operations with Japan. I sent 200 copies of “Novik’s Feat” for reading to wounded soldiers. But there were no reviews...” In total, the poet published 35 brochures, which he later decided to combine into “ Complete collection poet."
Soon Severyanin met his main poetic teacher, Konstantin Fofanov, who later introduced him to editors and writers. The day of his first meeting with Fofanov was a holiday for Severyanin, which he celebrated annually.
Then the poet took a pseudonym for himself - Igor-Severyanin. The poet intended just such a spelling - with a hyphen, but it was not fixed in print.
Around this time, the first notes on poetic brochures began to appear: “There weren’t many of them, and the criticism in them began to scold me a little”. Leo Tolstoy also scolded the poet. In 1909, the writer Ivan Nazhivin brought the brochure “Intuitive Colors” to Yasnaya Polyana and read some poems to the count. “What are they doing!.. This is literature! All around are gallows, hordes of the unemployed, murders, incredible drunkenness, and they have the elasticity of a traffic jam!”- Tolstoy said then. The negative review of the venerable writer caused a wave of interest in Severyanin’s work: comments appeared in the press for each of his brochures (not always positive), the poet was invited to charity evenings, and magazines began to publish his poems. Igor Severyanin has become fashionable.
I, the genius Igor-Severyanin,
Intoxicated with his victory:
I'm completely screened!
I am completely confirmed!Igor Severyanin, excerpt from a poem
"Association of Egofuturism" and poetry concerts
In 1910, the main literary movement of the early 20th century - symbolism - began to experience a crisis: internal contradictions and different views of symbolists on the tasks of art were revealed. Igor Severyanin came up with the idea of creating a new direction - egofuturism. The Association of Egofuturism includes poets: Konstantin Olimpov and Ivan Ignatiev, Vadim Bayan and Georgy Ivanov. In an interview with a Belgrade newspaper, Igor Severyanin spoke about the creation of a new direction and emphasized that it “ the main goal was to assert one’s self and future. And the main doctrine was “Soul-truth”. The circle of egofuturists did not exist for long: a year after its formation, the poets dispersed, and Igor Severyanin wrote “Epilogue of egofuturism.”
Severyanin gained even greater fame after his first volume of poems, “The Thundering Cup,” was published in 1913, in the publication of which the poet was helped by the writer Fyodor Sologub. In the same year, Northerner, together with Fyodor Sologub and Anastasia Chebotarevskaya, made his first tour of Russia. During these years, the poet’s fame bordered on idolatry: poetry concerts, as the poet himself called them, were literally bursting with audiences, mesmerized by the peculiar musical manner of reading. Igor Severyanin performed in a long black frock coat. Measuring the stage with long strides, he recited poetry in a chant, without looking into the audience. The poet Abram Argo in his book “With My Own Eyes: A Book of Memories” wrote about Severyanin’s performances:
“With great long strides in a long black frock coat he went out onto the stage A tall man with a horse-like oblong face; with his hands behind his back, his legs spread like scissors and pressing them firmly into the ground, he looked in front of him, not seeing anyone and not wanting to see anyone, and began chanting his chanted caesura stanzas. He didn’t notice the audience, didn’t pay any attention to it, and it was this style of performance that delighted the audience.”
At the height of the First World War, Igor Severyanin began publishing collections one after another: “Pineapples in Champagne”, “Our Days”, “Poetic Intermission”. However, they no longer caused such delight as the “Thundering Goblet”. Critics scolded the poet for shocking the audience and using many foreign and made-up words. The poet Valery Bryusov spoke about him in an article in 1915: “As soon as Igor Severyanin takes on a topic that requires primarily thought... his powerlessness is clearly revealed. Igor Severyanin lacks taste, lacks knowledge".
King of Poets Igor Severyanin
In January 1918, the poet moved from Petrograd with his seriously ill mother, common-law wife Elena Semenova and daughter Valeria to the small village of Toila in Estland (today Estonia). After some time, he briefly went to Moscow. On February 27, a poetry evening was organized in the Great Auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum. Posters hung all over the city: “Poets! The Constituent Tribunal convenes all of you to compete for the title of King of Poetry. The title of king will be awarded by the public by universal, direct, equal and secret vote. All poets who want to take part in the great, grand festival of poets are asked to sign up at the box office of the Polytechnic Museum until February 25.”.
The audience was overcrowded: Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was reading “Revolution” that evening, barely had enough space to wave his arms. Igor Severyanin appeared at the end - in his unchanged black frock coat, in his usual manner, he recited poems from the famous collection “The Thunder-Boiling Cup” and won. The public awarded him the title “King of Poets.” Mayakovsky became second, Vasily Kamensky - third. In March, the almanac “Poetry Concerts” was published, on the cover of which it was stated: “The King of Poets Igor Severyanin.”
From now on my cloak is purple,
Beret velvet in silver:
I have been chosen as the king of poets
To the envy of the boring midge.Igor Severyanin, excerpt from the poem “Rescript of the King”
Soon after this, Igor Severyanin finally moved to Estonia. In 1919, his first Estonian poetry concert took place in Reval (today Tallinn) at the Russian Theater. When Estonia declared its independence in 1920, the poet found himself in the status of a forced emigrant. However, he did not return to the USSR. In exile, Northerner translated into Estonian poetry, collaborated with Riga, Tartu, Berlin and Russian newspapers. During his entire emigration, Igor Severyanin gave about 40 poetry concerts, published 17 books, including: “Classical Roses”, “Novel in Stanzas”, “Royal Leandra”, “Zapevka”, “No More Than a Dream”.
Maria Dombrovskaya. 1920s. Photo: passion.ru
Igor Severyanin. 1933. Photo: russkiymir.ru
Felissa Kroot. 1940s. Photo: geni.com
In December 1921, Severyanin married the homeowner's daughter Felissa Kruut - this was the poet's only legal marriage. Kroot was also a writer. She introduced Igor Severyanin to popular Estonian writers, accompanied him on poetry trips, helped with translations, making interlinear translations for her husband. However, in 1935, Severyanin and Kruut separated, and the poet first moved to Tallinn and then to the village of Sarkul. At the end of the 30s, he wrote practically no poetry, but translated many poets, including Adam Mickiewicz, Hristo Botev, Pencho Slaveykov and others.
The poet died after a long heart disease on December 20, 1941 in Tallinn, where he moved after the Germans occupied Estonia. He is buried at the Alexander Nevsky Cemetery.
Lecture: “Igor Severyanin. Life and art"
Lecturer: Oleg Kling
The originality of Severyanin’s futurism
| Parameter name | Meaning |
| Article topic: | The originality of Severyanin’s futurism |
| Rubric (thematic category) | Literature |
I. Severyanin and egofuturism
“Egofuturism” was another variety of Russian futurism, but apart from the consonance of names, it essentially had very little in common with it. The history of egofuturism as an organized movement was too short (from 1911 to the beginning of 1914).
Egofuturism was an individual invention of the poet Igor Severyanin.
Northerner found it difficult to get into literature. Starting with a series of patriotic poems, he then tried his hand at poetic humor and finally moved on to lyric poetry. However, newspapers and magazines also did not publish the young author’s lyrics. Published in 1904-1912. At his own expense, 35 poetic brochures, Northerner never gained the desired fame.
Success came from an unexpected direction. In 1910 ᴦ. Leo Tolstoy spoke with indignation about the insignificance of modern poetry, citing as an example several lines from Severyanin’s book “Intuitive Colors”. Subsequently, the poet gladly explained that the poem was satirical and ironic, but Tolstoy took it and interpreted it seriously.
The scandalous fame played its role: the poet was noticed in literary circles, and in 1911 V. Bryusov’s laudatory review of the collection “Electric Poems” appeared.
In the same year, a new literary association was formed around Severyanin - “ego-futurism”. Egofuturists (in addition to Severyanin, the association included Georgy Ivanov, Grail Arelsky, etc.
Posted on ref.rf
Intuition and Egoism were declared the theoretical basis.)
The poems he placed in the second section of this collection, “Lilac Ice Cream,” brought the poet widest fame. The poet was able to correctly grasp the desire that was in the air in society: to escape from the tragedy of the pre-war thunderstorm, to escape from reality, but not into the elegant “dream” painted by the symbolists, but into a stormy, passionate, bright “other life.”
Some saw in his poems the birth of a new art, others a sign of the decline of literary morals. But the poet responded to his detractors with a poem from the fourth section of the collection “Egofuturism”, where the declarative slogans of his work were collected:
I, the genius Igor-Severyanin,
Intoxicated with his victory:
I'm always screened!
I am fully confirmed!
Indeed, the poet's success was stunning. Over the course of two years, nine editions of the collection “The Loud Boiling Cup” were published.
Before the First World War, his poetic fame reached its apogee. The halls at his “epic poetry evenings” were crowded with audiences, and collections of poems were snapped up instantly.
The focus on the listener rather than the reader also determined the special structure of Severyanin’s poems. His poetry is characterized by melody and euphony, the poems have a strophic structure close to the romance with numerous repetitions and pick-ups of individual words and entire phrases, replete with refrains and anaphors and various internal consonances inherited from Balmont in the verse - assonance and alliteration.
Severyanin invented ten new verse forms: “mignonette”, “poemetta”, “lyric”, “diesel”, “quintina” and others, the rationale for which he gave in his unpublished work “The Theory of Versification”. In line with his futuristic quests, the poet was also engaged in word creation.
On February 27, 1918, at a “poetry evening” at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, Severyanin was proclaimed “the king of poetry.” It was the highest and last point the dizzying success of Igor Severyanin. In the summer of 1918 he found himself in exile.
The general trend in his work is a return to the classical traditions of Russian verse. “The simpler the verse, the more difficult it is...” will become his motto. Leading a semi-fishing lifestyle, he, as in childhood, begins to draw vitality from communication with nature, and also turns to it in creativity:
Nostalgic motives and a bitter recognition of a life that has already passed penetrate into his poetry. In addition to three autobiographical poems, he wrote the poem "Leandra's Royal" (1925), written in Onegin's stanza. In 1931, his collection of poems “Classical Roses” was published, summarizing the poet’s creative quest recent years. Now the poet has again found his way to the hearts of readers and listeners through the classical sound of Russian verse, but his former popularity was no longer there and the poet was in poverty.
After 1935, Severyanin wrote almost no original poetry, translating mainly from Estonian.
N. Severyanin comes to Russian poetry when the authority, traditions, and canons of symbolism have been seriously shaken. Young poets entering literature have ceased to consider the ideas and creative techniques of the legislators of symbolism - K. Balmont - Vyach as unshakable models. Ivanova, F. Sologuba and others.
Posted on ref.rf
Young servants of the Muse are looking for their own path, grouping according to their common views on art (futurists, acmeists).
I. Severyanin represents a special direction of Russian futurism. In 1911, he announced the creation of ogofuturism by publishing his manifesto, the points of which were as follows.
1. soul is the only truth;
2. self-affirmation of personality;
3. searching for the new without rejecting the old;
4. meaningful neologisms;
5. bold images, epithets, assonances and dissonances;
6. fight against “stereotypes” and “clichés”;
7. variety of meters.
As the leader of this new movement, Severyanin appointed the “Directorate of Egofuturism,” which included the poets Konstantin Olimpov, Grail Arelsky and Georgy Ivanov. Cubo-futurism arose a few months later (A. Kruchenykh, the Burliuk brothers, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov).
His ego-futurism can only be reduced to northern jargon: unexpected phrases, musical chants (“I drank the dreams of violets, a violet vial...”; “Weary and mooning: now Verlaine, now Prud’homme”; “The lake-castle of Mirra Lokhvitskaya is ominous and lilac”; “Merrily, merrily to the heart! ringingly, soul, become wild!”; “When the violet is veiled, the stream flows... - all this is also oversaturated with unexpected neologisms (“fial”, “ofialchen”, “olilien”, “ became wild", "veiled violet", etc.)
Moreover, there is so much poetic novelty and artistic perfection in the genre-diverse dedications to nature. The sonnet-poetry “About Forget-Me-Nots” is touching:
June sings, and songs of this heat
My chest, my dreams, my mind are burning,
I'm exhausted and thirsty for forget-me-nots,
Children of the ditches who dream under the moon
A different flower, a different side.
I want them: the smell of lilac is terrible,
He intoxicates the chest with an unrealizable spring;
I want them: their gaze is a little azure
And the aroma is as healing as space.
How I love their sympathetic gaze!
Shy, how languid are your charms...
Bring me a laughing bouquet, -
It will have something that lilacs don’t have,
And you, lilac, wither in the melancholy of nectar.
I. Severyanin announced the emergence of ego-futurism in 1911, and in January 1912 he sent out his program “Academy of Ego-Poetry (Ecumenical Futurism)” to the editorial offices of a number of newspapers, where K. Fofanov and M. were called the forerunners of ego-futurism. Lokhvitskaya, and Intuition and Egoism were proclaimed as the theoretical foundations (The program was signed by I. Severyanin, K. Olimpov (K. Fofanov), G. Ivanov, Grail-Aprilsky (S. Petrov). “The slogans of my egofuturism,” Severyanin wrote in his memories, - were: 1. The soul is the only force. 2. Self-affirmation of the individual. 3. Searches for the new without rejecting the old. 4. Meaningful neologisms. 5. Bold images, epithets, assonances and dissonances. 6. The fight against “stereotypes” and “ screensavers". championship, Severyanin left the “Ego” group, considering “the mission of my Ego-futurism completed”: “I, a year ago, said: “I will be!” / The year has sparkled, and now I am!”
In some ways, Severyanin was close to the Cubo-Futurists. In 1914, I. Severyanin performed together with the Cubo-Futurists in the south of Russia, taking part in the so-called “Olympiad of Futurism” (1914). But cooperation with the Cubo-Futurists turned out to be short-lived, and in 1914 Severyanin parted ways with them.
Just like other futurists, Severyanin in his poems paid tribute to the technical achievements of the new century and focused on the fast pace of life. At the same time, his urbanism was more of an external nature and had a salon-like connotation of comfort and elegance.
Like other futurists, Severyanin has many neologisms, but they are “meaningful”, exquisitely accessible, and the poet never abuses them (cf.: wind blower, winged wing). He wrote with disapproval about the Moscow futurists: “...in their word-creation they often reached complete absurdity and bad taste, in the fight against the canons of aesthetics they used disgusting and simply indecent expressions.” Neologisms with foreign roots and suffixes, enchanting with their extravagance, captivating us into an exquisitely exotic world, gave a peculiar chic to Northern poetry.
The Northerner, like all futurists, was characterized by the desire to shock, to amaze the reader, and to assert himself. This was especially clearly manifested in his poem “Epilogue” (a kind of “yellow jacket” of Severyanin).
Igor Severyanin, like other futurists, was irritated by the vulgarity of the world around him. The poem with the oxymoronic title “In the Brilliant Darkness” is about this:
At the same time, Igor Severyanin did not strive, unlike the Cubo-Futurists, to break with the culture of the past and “throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity.” He believed that both Pushkin and Blok should be known even “in the time of Severyanin”3.
Criticism, and this has become a commonplace, noted the mannerism, boudoir nature of Igor Severyanin’s poetry, its restaurant character and vulgar sophistication, salon dandyism and extravagance. The absence of a “theme” in the poetry of I. Severyanin worried A. Blok: “Where he goes, it is still impossible to say what will happen to him: he has no theme. God bless him.”
Perhaps the reproaches of Severyanin’s contemporaries were not unfounded: Severyanin’s poems are characterized by a certain mannerism, boudoirism, and dandyism. All this happened. For example, his famous “mignonette poem” “It Was by the Sea”:
Yes, Severyanin often spoke in his poems in the language of the salon audience, but this does not mean that it was the language of the poet himself, that it was his – the poet’s – voice. At least his "only" voice. An analogy with the heroes of M. Zoshchenko’s stories and Zoshchenko himself, whom contemporary criticism of the writer did not want to differentiate, would be appropriate here. The essence of I. Severyanin’s poetry lies elsewhere - in the finest lyricism, in exquisite elegance, in an amazing sense of rhythm and in that which is generally difficult to define, since we are talking about Poetry. No matter how critics treat the notorious “Pineapples in Champagne!”, no matter how they ironize them, it is impossible to immediately forget, not to feel the charm of this poem. It cannot be ignored. Severyanin's lyrics are not burdened with moralizing; they are far from philosophical insights. Well, but the Northerner is a subtle lyricist, amazingly sensitive to Nature, Beauty, the human soul in its diverse manifestations and experiences.
I. Severyanin is also known as the author of quiet, poignant lines about Russia and his fate. After the revolution, Northerner ended up in Estonia, where he lived until his death in 1941. “I’m not an emigrant or a refugee. I’m just a summer resident,” I. Severyanin said about himself. Abroad, he published seventeen collections of poetry, but they were published in small editions; the peak of the poet's fame was left behind, in the past Russia. In 1925, the no less famous poem by I. Severyanin “Classical Roses” was written:
The originality of Severyanin's futurism - concept and types. Classification and features of the category “Originality of Severyanin’s futurism” 2017, 2018.