Поэтический цикл С.А. Есенина «Москва кабацкая» и его оценка в критике 1920-х гг.

Abstract

The paper addresses Sergei Yesenin’s poem cycle Tavern Moscow, characterized by a set of motifs and images which dominate his 1921–1923 poems, and its critical reception in the 1920s. It looks into the history of the creation of the cycle as the poet’s fictional autobiography and enumerates the main principles of cyclisation Yesenin used. The author analyses multidimensional and controversial protagonist figure, whose mask (the poet-ruffian) is a form of protest against everyday life. Tavern Moscow, as an incarnation of the Russian rebellious soul, also acts as the document of a spiritual crisis caused by the clash between the romantic ideal and current life, and the overcoming of this crisis. No other work by Yesenin caused such an animated discussion and controversy as Tavern Moscow. The study analyses literary and critical material presenting mixed reviews, which can be explained by political and group preferences. The critical responses fall under three large categories: critics praising Tavern Moscow as “having a high aesthetic value”; critics speaking favourably of the cycle as an important step in Yesenin’s work but at the same time warning of their “corrupt influence”; critics describing the poem cycle as a “sinister drunken poem sequence”.