The Influence of Silver Century Culture on NEP Literature

Abstract

The beginning of the XX century was marked by a titanic shift in the history of Russia. It would seem that the revolution of 1917 changed everything, including art, culture, society, everyday life and public consciousness, but some cultural forms have demonstrated its stability. Thus, many storylines and figurative series of Silver Age’s popular literature have not lost their relevance, and most impor­tantly, the interest and love of readers throughout the new cultural era. The deca­dent leitmotifs were particularly acute and strong in the early Soviet erotic litera­ture that emerged during the NEP period. The wave of erotic prose literally absorbed the early USSR – it attracted, thrilled, provoked heated debates and discussions, outraged and literally turned the lives of its authors upside down. Literature of this genre seems to be the most sincere and realistic: it reveals the very core of life and way of thinking of the twenties, illuminates acute angles of the new reality. The hidden and unflattering aspects of Soviet life, which the of­ficial literature cautiously avoided, became more apparent in the works of S. Malashkin, G. Alekseev, L. Gumilyevsky, P. Romanov, N. Nikandrov, I. Rudin and others. Undoubtedly the realistic depiction of reality did not contribute to the popularity of these works among the authorities, but it made the general public love it. Curiously enough, the early Soviet erotic prose still exploits decadent motifs that seem to be quite outdated even by the standards of the Silver Age. All of a sudden, the themes of disastrous, miserable, but passionate love, death and suicide, satiety and disappointment with life were again brought to the forefront.