«Apocalypses of Revolutions», Mass Terror, War in Perception of Maksymilian Voloshyn as Eyewitness of the Events

Abstract

The article offers a new interpretation of a creative output of Maksymilian Voloshyn in 1917–1924 in the light of his reactions on the apocalyptic events of the early 20th century — revolutions, wars in Russia. His own understanding of the October Revolution and Bolshevik terror, Maksymilian Voloshyn as the poet, the artist, and the thinker with the European outlook, comprehensively expressed in the complete conceptual text — in poetry, publicism, letters and diary notes. The proposed article underlies the idea of cause-and-effect relationships in history, which provoked an attempt to logically justify the systematic destruction of the country’s citizens by the same citizens. Using thorough historical sources, Voloshyn pointed out the spontaneity and cyclic character of the Russian history, specified immorality of the governors, their despotic style of state management, identified the inhuman nature of state structures at all times. His merit lies in the fact that during the years of the Red Terror, he frankly spoke about massacre, artificially created famine, tortures and executions of hundreds thousand people in 1919–1923, documented crimes of the Soviet government and its representatives. Maksymilian Voloshyn depicted many disgusting types generated by Bolshevik system. He revealed simultaneously historical roots of Russian terrorism, and also presented options for its manifestation at the level of both the authorities and the lower strata of society. Through parallels with revolutionary events, the analysis of the historical past of Russia, visualization of personalities, the writer shows internal mechanisms, which define a role and a place of Russia in “the general tragedy of mankind”. Besides, considering Russia the country with a “mad and terrible destiny”, an aggressor, a threat to the entire civilized world, Maksymilian Voloshyn managed to provide markers of its neutralization.