‘We will not see the forest for the trees…’ Mikhail Zenkevich’s speech on poetry in December 1931

Abstract

The article contains the transcript of the poet and translator M. Zenkevich’s remarks at the 1931 conference of Soviet poets. The public discussion at the conference was triggered by N. Aseev’s speech ‘The present day of Soviet poetry,’ which appeared in print soon after the event, in 1932. Opening with a mention of the ‘inadequacies’ and ‘dawdling’ of fellow poets, Aseev proceeded to classify the contemporary ‘poetic forces’ into three troops: archaists, eclectics, and innovators (‘former LEF members’), speaking about the latter with undisguised sympathy. In the closing words, he urged poets to finally shoulder the responsibility for the development of the problems and themes that are demanded by the class, the country, and the party. One of the first speakers to offer their remarks on the speech, Zenkevich tried to refute the statement about the inherent necessity for poetry to be subjugated to the social and political agenda and for critics to judge poetry ‘on a scale of an ideological charge.’ The article supplies the transcript with comments and discusses the circumstances of Zenkevich’s speech, including the reaction it provoked among the participants of the conference.