«Святой Павел большевизма»: к вопросу о восприятии С.А. Есенина иноязычной прессой США 1920-х гг.

Abstract

The article provides an overview of publications dedicated to S.A. Esenin, in Spanish, Czech, Slovenian and Finnish, proving the interest in the poet by the audience of various diasporas that settled in America at different times. The materials identified by the author in the American newspapers La Prensa, La Opinión, El Imparcial (Puerto Rico), Toveritar, Svět, Telegraf and Glas svobode are introduced into scientific circulation. The changes made when borrowing publications from European publications are considered. The comparison of the work of E. Izvolskaya “Bolshevik poets-mystics” and the article “Bolshevik poetry” by M. de Marcos, in which Esenin is called “the furious Saint Paul of Bolshevism”, gives reason to talk about an individual creative approach to the translation and republishing of the material. Based on the study of the identified articles, new information about Esenin's entourage is revealed, previously unknown information is given about Esenin's communication with the Latvian journalist A. Toupin. While publications in the newspapers Toveritar, Svět, Telegraf, Glas svobode, concerning his personal life and more devoted to Isadora Duncan, only prove the presence of the Esenin theme in the sphere of interests of the Finnish, Slovenian and Czech diasporas, the analysis of materials in Spanish allows us to conclude that there is a certain trend in the perception of Esenin's personal and creative biography in the context of the social and cultural life of the Spanish-speaking audience on the American continent. Discovered articles for 1921–1922 allow us to talk about the lifetime reception of the poet's work, in which the mythical image of the poet was already laid, for whom Bolshevism became a religion. Having first appeared on the pages of newspapers in the form of a preacher of the new system, Esenin subsequently, together with Meyerhold and Mayakovsky, appears as its victim.