The Secret Meaning of the Long Poem “Pyrotechnic”: Poetic Autoexorcism of Georgy Shengeli

Abstract

The long poem by Georgy Shengeli “Pyrotechnic” (1931–1933), which is his most signifi cant poetical work of the fi rst half of the 1930s, has not yet been analyzed in the context of the author’s biography. Why did Shengeli turn specifi cally to the history of France at the end of the 19th century and made a “lone anarchist” (the author’s defi nition) committing a terrorist act against ordinary citizens the main positive hero? The author of the article suggests that the writing of this long poem became an act of autoexorcism for Shengeli – an attempt to sublimate personal experiences and gloomy thoughts caused by diffi cult conditions and circumstances of his life, and to give them the form of a literary work, outwardly devoid of connection with the reality surrounding it.