Russian poets are futurists. Futurists of the Silver Age

By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, a new modernist trend was gaining acceptance in Western Europe with the term "futurism" (in Latin, "the future").
Its ancestor is considered to be the Italian writer Filippo Marinetti, who in 1909 proclaimed the complete destruction of all established cultural values and traditions in depicting the world. Instead , the futurist poets drew the readers' attention to the rapidity of modern life and preferred to talk more about the future. All the main provisions were set forth in the Manifestoes, the first of which became Marinetti.

The creation of a fundamentally new art was the original goal of the Futurists both in Europe and in Russia. The writers were subsequently supported by artists who took as their basis the image of a person in the center of a moving world symbolically represented in the form of a large number of geometric figures.

Features of the Futurist Lyrics

The hero of the works of the new avant-garde direction is a resident of the modern city with its dynamism, high speed, abundance of equipment and electrification, leading to an ever-increasing perfection of life. The lyric "I" of the futurists persistently strives to escape from the classical past, which manifests itself in a special way of thinking that does not accept the rules of syntax, word formation and the lexical compatibility of words. The main goal set by the futurist poets is to convey their attitude and understanding of what is happening around in any way convenient for a person.

The formation of Russian avant-garde

In Russia, a new direction begins to take shape in 1910. This is the period when many poets of the silver age are known . Futurists very quickly attract attention. In addition to the unique artistic form of the verse (in all respects), scandalous public appearances and trips to the largest cities of Russia contribute to this.

Russian Futurism, unlike the European one, was not integral and differed in its heterogeneity. Between the avant-garde factions there were sometimes quite bitter disputes. There were also cases when poets-futurists moved from one association to another. But the greatest successes were achieved by two centers of this direction: Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Ego Futurists

In the northern capital of the poets, innovators by 1912 rallied around Ivan Ignatiev. They christened themselves ego-futurists, which meant "I am the future". Leading position in this circle was occupied by Igor Severyanin (Lotarev), who a year earlier marked the main features and the original name of a new trend in poetry. In his opinion, "all-powerful egoism" becomes a force before which nothing can stand. It is he, who can not be pacified, has reached the peak of triumph, raging, according to the poets' conviction, is the only correct norm of life.

The publishing house "Petersburg Herald" became a tribune with which the futurist poets appeared. Their verses were distinguished by new word-formations and adaptation to the Russian language of foreign vocabulary, mostly German and elegant French. As a result, the creativity of the ego-futurists acquired features that little resembled the legacy of their Italian counterparts who stood at the origins of this avant-garde trend in literature.

Gilea

The Moscow poet-futurists differed somewhat from Petersburg in terms of attitude to the image of reality. The list of them begins with the brothers Burliukov, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov. They contrast the "I" with a more confident "We" and proclaim themselves to be cubo-futurists. The ideological platform for them was the association "Gilea", formed in 1910 in Moscow.

They remembered their roots and proudly bore the name "Russian Futurists". The poets tried in every possible way to separate themselves from their Italian counterparts, and V. Khlebnikov even offered to give the direction a new name - "willowland", which would emphasize his originality and individualism. It was then that the scandalous manifesto "Slap in the face of public taste" was published, immediately attracting the attention of the entire Russian intelligentsia. Then followed spectacular performances and performances, at which poets-futurists shocked the public with their appearance and disgust (it is enough to recall V. Mayakovsky with his famous yellow sweater or painted faces of poets). The editions of their poems, programs and manifestos, printed either on old wallpaper or on wrapping paper, did not always look appealing, and not always in order to save money. Someone was indignant at the complete ignorance of the existing literary norms and the creation of unusual words and completely unconventional ways of texting, but, anyway, all this subsequently ensured the "hooligans" (as they were often called in society) a loud and well-deserved title "Poets of the Silver Century ". Futurists "Galei" took a firm place in Russian literature and contributed to its development and improvement.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

The poet-revolutionary and rebel - so often spoke about the most famous representative of Russian futurism. In 1912-1914, the beginning of Mayakovsky's creative career begins. And we can say with confidence that the ideas of the avant-garde direction formed the poet's aesthetic taste and determined his future destiny in the literature. In the twenties, many were convinced that Mayakovsky was a futurist poet, since his work was characterized by unusual syntax, peculiar vocabulary, an abundance of author's word forms, stunning metaphors. All these features of the poet's artistic style are rooted in early creativity, which evokes and screams. And decades later, it is with his name that the activity of the futurists is primarily associated.

Other avant-garde directions

In 1913, the "Mezzanine of Poetry" (B. Lavrenev, V. Shershenevich) and "Lyrics" took shape, after which the "Centrifuge" (B. Pasternak, N. Aseev) separated after a year (they are sometimes called futurists of the second convocation). The first group disintegrated fairly quickly. "Centrifuge", which existed until 1917, relied on classical literary traditions, organically combining them with futuristic innovation. However, this great popularity of the poets did not bring. B. Pasternak, for example, very soon departed from this direction and took the place of independent lyric poetry in literature.

Famous silver futurist poets

List of the masters of the word, who supported the idea of avant-gardism at a certain stage of their creativity, is quite extensive. The participation of some in the activity of the futurists was short-lived, while others remained within the framework of the direction throughout the creative path. Here are the most striking representatives of the noted groups.

Kubofuturists:

• Burliuk - the founders;
• V. Khlebnikov - the ideological inspirer;
• V. Mayakovsky - the most brilliant personality, whose work subsequently went far beyond the direction;
• A. Kruchenykh.

"Centrifuge":

• N. Aseev,
• B. Pasternak,
• S. Bobrov.

Ego-futurists:

• Founder - "the king of poets" I. Severyanin,
• S. Olimpov,
• G. Ivanov,
• M. Lokhvitskaya.

Mezzanine of poetry:

• V. Shershenevich,
• S. Tretyakov,
• R. Ivnev.

The First World War and the Revolution

1913-1914 is the time of the peak of glory achieved by the Russian futurists. Poets were well recognizable in all literary circles, organized a large number of exhibitions, reports, poetic evenings. In 1915 they started talking about the "death" of Futurism, although the Centrifuge existed for more than 2 years. The echoes of futuristic ideas are heard in the post-revolutionary 1920s: at the beginning of the decade - in the works of Tiflis poets from the group "41o", then in the poems of the Petrograd Oberiut. They were still actively engaged in "improving" the language, changing its lexical, syntactic, and graphic structure.

The attitude of the Russian intelligentsia to futurism

The emergence of a new direction and the extraordinary actions of its representatives attracted attention from the Russian intelligentsia. A lot of contradictory statements during the activity heard about themselves poets-futurists. The list of critics is opened by the symbolist V. Bryusov, recognized at that time. In a reproach to "innovators" he put their manifestos, largely "decommissioned from Italian", and a negative attitude to the traditions of Russian culture. At the same time he noted the rational grains in the work of Moscow and St. Petersburg futurists and expressed the hope that they would be able to "grow into flowers." The main condition is to take into account the existing experience of the Symbolists.

Negatively perceived the new poets I. Bunin and M. Osorgin, who outlawed their creativity and behavior hooliganism. M. Gorky, on the contrary, considered the appearance of Futurists in Russian literature timely and appropriate to reality.