“A strong artist” or “a powerless clicker”: Ivan Shmelev in the mirror of soviet crit-icism of the 1920s

Lyubomudrov Alexei M.,

Doctor of Philology, Leading Researcher

Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the

Russian Academy of Sciences;

F.M. Dostoevsky Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy

e-mail: anketaspb@yandex.ru

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4351-6774

The article is devoted to the reception of Ivan Shmelev’s creative work in Soviet literacy criticism of the 1920s. The basis of the study is some critical articles in various periodicals which have not yet been the subject of special analysis as well as literary history courses and memoir sources. The article reviews the editions of both former and new works by Shmelev which appeared in the Soviet and emigrant press. It has been established that despite his anti-Bolshevik views Ivan Shmelev constantly attracted the attention of the publishers and readers. The variety of approaches of critics who paid attention to the poetics, semantic, moral and social accents of Shmelev’s work is also revealed. It was concluded that the range of his assessments was very wide. It included not only ideological labels and a sociological views but also the idea of Shmelev as a major and talented artist-humanist whose books should take their rightful place in the libraries. The thesis that a political position of the artist should not prevent an objective assessment of his talent has become fundamental for many literary reviews during the epoch under consideration.

Keywords: Ivan Shmelev, Soviet criticism, Russian emigration literature, book publishing

The study was funded by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RNF, project No. 23-28-00665, https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-00665/);
Russian Christian Humanities Academy named after F.M. Dostoevsky. F.M. Dostoevsky

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