Куда плыли «Марсельские матросы» в 1917 году?

Литературный факт. 2022. Т. 1. № 19. С. 181–199.

Pakhomova A.

The article analyzes the history of lesser-known literary union “The

Sailors of Marseilles” that existed in Petrograd in 1917. Mikhail Kuzmin was the

central figure and the most popular writer in this union. Other “sailors” were young

poets who wanted to reach out the audience and to get the opportunity for publication.

Until now, this union has not been studied in the context of Kuzmin’s oeuvre, literary

reputation and author’s strategies. Some conclusions have been made in the process

of our research. First of all, Kuzmin’s attitude to literary unions has been specified.

As we can see, he considered literary groups as a commonwealth of independent

authors exploiting shared writing technics. On the other hand, he did not approve

ideological unification within such unions. Denying hierarchy in literary groups,

Kuzmin strove to create a literary union on an equal footing. He emphasized the

individuality of each “sailor” to create to make it real, but in fact, this union was just

adopting Kuzmin’s techniques, i.e., it followed the authoritative model. It should be

mentioned, that the organization of the group was also the Kuzmin’s endeavour to

assert his literary reputation that was in decline during 1917. Moreover, the whole

concept of “The Sailors of Marseilles” was carried in accordance with the nautical

symbolics developed by Kuzmin in 1917. The sea was the sign of power and war, and

the sailors were the image of fraternity capable to contradict this power. “The Sailors

of Marseilles” in the final count can be considered as creative-life Kuzmin’s project.

Keywords: Mikhail Kuzmin, “The Sailors of Marseilles”, literary union, literary

Keywords: литературная репутация, literary reputations, Mikhail Kuzmin, Михаил Кузмин, литературные объединения, Writers strategy