Osip Mandelstam between Vecherniy Kiev and Leningrad’s Rezets (1927—1929) <i>On the real-life sources of the poet’s verse and prose

Abstract

The search method demonstrated in the discovery and examination of the new sources of O. Mandelstam’s poems and prose is the subject of this article. The author suggests consistent analysis of the mentions of Mandelstam and his works in the newspaper Vecherniy Kiev in the years from 1927 up to 1929. Among them is the poet’s name mentioned in the article by the Leningrad-based ideologist A. Stetsky, attacking the local literary journal Rezets. The study of the two publications reveals a number of real-life sources of the pivotal images in the poems Down the Streets of Kiev, the Viy... [Kak po ulitsam Kieva-Viya...], I’m not Quite a Patriarch Yet... [Eshcho dalyoko mne do patriarkha...], The Fourth Prose [Chetvyortaya proza], etc. More new sources are uncovered to explain the ties of Mandelstam and his works with D. Zaslavsky, I. Selvinsky, M. Tarlovsky, N. Ushakov, etc. A special emphasis is placed on the changing perception of Acmeism by the Leningrad bureau of RAPP [Russian Association of Proletarian Writers], as well as different perceptions of Mandelstam as an active Soviet writer, on the one hand, and àn acmeist, on the other. The study also looks into the roles played by K. Tokar and B. Rosenzveig (the editor and a contributor of Vecherniy Kiev, respectively) in the poet’s life, and discusses the episodes related to B. Lecache, whose novel Mandelstam was translating.