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Nikolai Klyuev’s early works as the poetry of “social Christianity”

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the early poetry of Nikolai Klyuev—its social and political motives are studied in the context of the poet’s biography and in terms of the essay Modern Slavery, written by Hugues-Félicité Robert de Lamennais, the French Catholic philosopher and forerunner of social Christianity. This paper identifies two stages in Klyuev’s assimilation of the philosophy of social Christianity. Klyuev’s poetry initially reproduced the main message of Lamennais’s essay—the rejection of “slavery” as a “heritage” by recognizing the human dignity of “today’s slave” and rebelling against the existing socio-historical tradition. In the second stage, the most important categories of Lamennais’s works—brotherhood, cooperation and sacrifice—find their full meaning in Klyuev’s poems. Work “for brethren’s sake” becomes a form of co-operation with God, while experiencing severities and hardships on the revolutionary path is a form of spiritual co-crucifixion with Christ.

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Notes

  1. Further research will require consideration of the relationship between the topics raised in this paper and the fundamental concepts of Old Belief and sectarianism.

  2. In the original version:

    My – znetsy vselenskoi nivy,

    Vecherov uborki zhdеm.

  3. Further analysis of Klyuev's set of ideas, which can be tagged as “social Christian,” will require taking into account editions of revolutionary songs, Marxist pamphlets, revolutionary appeals to peasants, etc.

  4. It should be noted that Klyuev’s father worked as a rural police sergeant.

  5. In the original version:

    ‘Bezotvetnym rabom

    Ia v mogilu soidu,

    Pod sosnovym krestom

    Svoiu doliu naidu.’

    Etu pesniu peval

    Moi stradalets otets

    I po smert’ zaveshchal

    Dopevat’ mne konets.

  6. In the original version: “Pot, gore, nagota, golod pri zhizni, a posle smerti – mogila v obshchei iame.”

  7. In the original version: “Narod, rab, probudis’ zhe, nakonets! Vosstan’te raby, sbros’te vashi okovy, ne dopuskaite bol’she, chtoby unizhali vashe chelovecheskoe dostoinstvo!”

  8. In the original version:

    No ne stonom otsov

    Moia pesn’prozvuchit,

    А raskatom gromov

    Nad zemlei proletit.

    Ne bezglasnym rabom,

    Proklinaia zhit’e,

    A svobodnym orlom

    Dopoiu ia ee.

  9. In the original version:

    Naperekor zakonu veka,

    Chto k svetu put’ zagorodil,

    Sebia schitat’ za cheloveka

    Ia ne zabyl! Ia ne zabyl!

  10. Prosnis’! Ustalost’ prevozmoch’

    Ty dolzhen v prazdnik voskresen’ia,

    V velikii prazdnik obnovlen’ia –

    Iz serdtsa zlobu vyrvat’ proch’!..

  11. In the original version: “Zabud’te svoiu lichnuiu pol’zu, chtoby dumat’ tol’ko o pol’ze vashikh brat’ev. Tak, chtoby, kazhdyi vecher vy mogli skazat’ sebe: ia rabotal na nikh, khotel umen’shit’ summu ikh bedstvii, uvelichit’ summu ikh budushchikh blag. Ia po mere svoikh sil pomogal veleniiu Boga, ispolneniiu Ego voli, ia zhil ne dlia sebia, a dlia chelovechestva. …. Kak soldat, pogibaiushchii v boiu, tak i vy, byt’ mozhet, ne budete svideteliami pobedy, no torzhestvennyi krik vashikh pobedonosnykh brat’ev … prozvuchit nad vashim prakhom, – i vy v glubine mogily zatrepeshchete ot nezemnoi radosti.”

  12. In the original version:

    Segodnia nebo, kak nevesta,

    Slepit venchal’noi beliznoi,

    I ot vorot — do kazni mesta

    Protianut svitok zolotoi.

    Leleiat’ nam odno lish’ nado:

    Po zlom minutii kontsa,

    K uborke trav i vinograda

    Pribyt’ v obiteli Ottsa.

    Chtob ne opali iagod grozdi,

    Poka otbyt’ia dlitsia chas,

    I nashikh nog, ladonei gvozdi

    Mogli svidetel’stvovat’ nas.

  13. Klyuev’s autobiographical myth “is built around a plot about an esoteric path, which a chosen poet-theurgist makes, experiencing suffering and falling or successfully overcoming all hindrances. The poet-theurgist is initially the bearer of the ‘ideal of being’ and secret knowledge, which only deepens as the initiation stages are passed, and, ultimately, through a theurgical act, should contribute to the realization of the ideal in reality” (Seryogina 2017b, p. 458).

  14. In the original version: “Esli by Khristos zhil teper’ sredi nas, politseiskii oskorbil by Ego svoim grubym prikosnoveniem, a sud obvinil by v brodiazhnichestve, tak kak Syn Bozhii ne imel kamnia, na kotorom mog by priklonit’ svoiu golovu.”

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Seryogina, S. Nikolai Klyuev’s early works as the poetry of “social Christianity”. Stud East Eur Thought 72, 303–312 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09385-z

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