Poetry of Donbass as a Document and Evidence

Abstract

The author performed a detailed motive­thematic analysis of the Donbass poetry, presented in the book “The Great Checkpoint: an Anthology of Donbass Poetry” (St. Petersburg : Piter, 2023). The following motive­thematic lines have been identified and analyzed: premonitions of war; native land, Donbass and Donetsk; experiences of the fiery reality of war in all its manifestations; death, memory, connections of the historical past and present; the mystical unity of the living and the dead; cultural and linguistic identity. The range of attention also included the journalistic component of the Donbass lyrics — its open evaluation, reportage form, polemical orientation. The conclusion is made about the inclusion of this poetry into the tradition of Russian civil and political lyrics, marked by the names of A. Akhmatova, N. Gumilev, M. Voloshin, A. Blok, O. Mandelstam, I. Savin, N. Turoverov, V. Smolensky, Yu. Sofiev, O. Bergholz, K. Simonov, I. Elagin, poets of the front generation.