Title of the article:

“WE NEED SOVIET CHEKHOV”: ABOUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE OF THE JOURNAL “NA LITERATURNOM POSTU”

Author(s):

Viktor S. Zaytsev

Information about the author/authors

Viktor S. Zaytsev — PhD in Culturology, Researcher, Vladimir Dahl Russian State Literary Museum, Trubnikovsky Lane, 17, 1 bldng., 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0790-2635. E-mail: vik.zaytsev2014@yandex.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2020

Volume

Vol. 57

Pages

pp. 116-130

Received

March 25, 2019

Date of publication

September 28, 2020

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2020-57-116-130

Index UDK

821.161.1.0

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)53 + 76.02(2)

Abstract

The period of 1920–1930s has a reputation of “anti-Chekhov times” in Russian historiography: the writer's works were subjected to numerous aesthetic critical revisions, the very relevancy of Chekhov’s legacy for post-revolutionary culture was an actual issue on the agenda. The subject of one of the most interesting discussions in this context came to be the anniversary questionnaire about Chekhov by “Na literaturnom postu” magazine in 1929–1930. From 1960s to date many researchers (M. L. Semanova, E. A. Polotskaya, I. N. Sukhikh) cited that questionnaire as the most striking example of anticlassical and anti-Chekhov tendencies in literary criticism which were characteristic of the first post-revolutionary decade. A thorough analysis of answers to that questionnaire demonstrates the complexity and ambiguity of this survey`s results, as well as the incorrectness of its widespread assessments. Most of the writers and political functionaries of the survey`s participants were complimentary towards Chekhov’s work pointing out the need of studying Chekhov's literary methods for Soviet writers and emphasized the importance of reading Chekhov's works by mass readers. It is difficult to cite more flawed material for illustrating “anti-Chekhov” tendencies in the literary criticism of the 1920s than that of the questionnaire for “Na literaturnom postu”. The questionnaire and a survey dedicated to the Chekhov's 150th anniversary in the “Neva” magazine have much in common which demonstrates the stable nature of many formulations that are not reducible to “Soviet” or “post-Soviet” patterns.

Keywords

A. P. Chekhov, Soviet literature, Russian literature classics, ideology.

References

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