Russia and the Metaphor of the Seed: The Case of M. A. Vološin’s “Posev” Poems

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article I analyze the biblical intertextual connections of two poems by M. A. Vološin from the war and revolutionary period, both titled “Posev.” The poems are intertextually connected through the parable of the wheat and the weeds from the Gospel of Matthew. When read side by side, the interplay of their structures is discernible, and this, I argue, exposes a hidden signification in the poems. The poems’ symbolical meanings are interconnected also on a deeper level. I show how the poems render Russia’s destiny and future through some of the philosophical ideas and movements that impacted on the Russian Symbolist movement, such as myth-creation, theurgy, the Russian idea and anthroposophy. In particular I focus on the ‘seed metaphor’ that is central in both poems. In this metaphor Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical predictions are merged with the messianism of the Russian idea as expressed in its perspective on Russia’s destiny. I argue that the poems, written within the context of the Symbolists’ myth-creating program, can be interpreted as attempts at theurgic art with the aim of inciting a national spiritual revival shaped by the Russian idea and by Steiner’s predictions about the Russians as the “people of Christ,” leading humanity’s spiritual evolution. 1