Fashioning a Folk Identity: The “Peasant-Poet” Tradition in Russia (Lomonosov, Kol’tsov, Kliuev)

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lntertexts,Vo\. 5, No. 1,2001 Fashioning aFolk Identity: The Peasant-Poet” Tradition in Russia (Lomonosov, Kol’tsov, Kliuev) u J. Alexander Ogden U n i v e r s i t y o f S o u t h C a r o l i n a Where have Russians looked to find that which is most truly, funda¬ mentally Russian? Often, and particularly in the period from the early nine¬ teenth century to the early twentieth century, members of the Western¬ ized, educated elite turned to the narod (“the Folk,” “the People”), at¬ tempting to reacquaint themselves with aRussian identity they felt they had lost. This inquiry took many forms, from agrowing fascination with collecting folklore to the Populist and “Going to the People” movements.' But often, in asearch for living folk wisdom, educated society turned to peasant poets, who were seen—and saw themselves—as expressions of the narodh voice and who thus gained aprivileged place in Russian culture. This paper, drawing on examples from three distinct historical periods, at¬ tempts to problematize the concept of aRussian “peasant poet” through an investigation both of individual poets (Mikhail Lomonosov, Aleksei Kol’tsov,andNikolaiKliuev)andofsomeofthebroadtheoreticalissues raised by this phenomenon in Russian cultural history. InThePracticeofEverydayLife,MicheldeCerteaudiscussesaconvic¬ tionthathasarisenasaby-productofthegrowthofawritten,“scriptural” culture:“theconvictionthatfar,toofarawayfromeconomicandadminis¬ trativepowers,‘thePeoplespeaks’”(132).DeCerteaugoesontoenumer¬ ate some of the reasons why it is problematic to construct such avoice—a voice, as he says, “that has been simultaneously colonized and mythified by recent Western history.” In fact, of course, there are many voices, all medi¬ ated by many contingencies both in their production and their reception. Thus,deCerteauconcludes,“wemustgiveupthefictionthatcollectsall these sounds under the sign of a‘Voice,’ of a‘Culture’ of its own—or of thegreatOther’s.Rather,oralityinsinuatesitself,likeoneofthethreadsof whichitiscomposed,intothenetwork—anendlesstapestry—ofascriptural economy” (132). The construction of a“voice from the people” is thus in¬ evitably afiction, but it is worth pausing over this fiction: it has been an evocative and adurable one over the past two centuries. And it is intimately bound up with the concept of what makes apeasant poet. As if anticipating de Certeau’s dismissal of this mythical voice, and ris¬ ing up in its defense, the early twentieth-century Russian poet Nikolai Kliuev (1884-1937) wrote aprogrammatic poem entitled “Voice from the Narod.” The poem appeared in Kliuev’s first collection. The Ringing of 3 2 3 3 Ogden—^Fashioning aFolk Identity P/wM (1911), which established the poet’s public reputation in the literary world, although he had already been conducting alively four-year corre¬ spondence with Aleksandr Blok, the most famous poet of the day. KUuev’s success and wide popularity were based in part on his claim to speak for the narod and on his audience’s willingness to accept this assertion. In his let¬ ters to Blok, his poetry, and his self-presentation in literary circles and at stagedreadings,Kliuevadoptedaninsistentlypeasantstance.Inspiteofall evidence to the contrary, Kliuev’s contemporaries (and subsequent readers aswell)oftensawthepoet’ssignificanceinthecontextoffolkratherth^ literary tradition—specifically in the context of the still-thnving oral epic tradition of northern Russia. Nowhere was Kliuev’s claim to serve as a mouthpiece for the Folk clearer than in “Voice from the Narod. y t«rojioc M3 Hapona» JlacKa nesMVba npnpoflu Bh oiryjT rjiyxoii, rpeMyveti, OOeccMJieBmeii Mu—npenyrpeHHMe TyHM, 3 o p M p o c H h i e s e c H u . Bac saCBeHbeM He flapMT, B O J I H U , TlapojienHbi HamM aoflu M o r O H b M H O r O O H M T. 3a cJiMHHbe HeT nopywi: nepeaan cKanwcT mKpyx, Ho OecnJioflHO aamM cTywi BjiaOiipiiHTe He saMpyr. BaniM noMbicjM—HenacTbe, Apoacb MT6HM BevepoB, HauM—MepHoe corjiacbe T w k k m x B p e u e H M m a r o B . Mu,—xax pex nonseMHux cTpyM, KB3M HespMMO npMTeveM, II BOeaOpeacHOM nouejiye n p o s p e B a e i c J ! J a c o b b K H M r e B a M M MyjipOCTM KOUeUr B K a a c fl O M o C j u i K e m M M r e AyiuH OpaTCKMe coxbeM. Hani B3bicKyxoKMn OTeu. (Sosm Perezvon...