A.M. GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
Issues
The Debate on Proletarian Poetry 1920 in a Historical and Literary Context
- DOI:
- EDN:
- УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.1
- Publication Type: Research Article and Publication of Archival Documents
- Received: 21.02.2026
- Approved after reviewing: 20.04.2026
- Date of publication: 25.06.2026
- Issue:
no. 2 (40), 2026
- Abstract:
The debate on proletarian poetry, which took place on January 26, 1920, at the Moscow Polytechnic Museum, is considered in the article as an important link in the formation of literary organizations of the first Soviet years. The transcript of the debate, which is kept in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History in the fonds of the ideologist of Proletkult A.A. Bogdanov, is being introduced into scholarly circulation. The participants of the meeting expressed their attitude to Bogdanov’s report, in which a number of serious complaints about the works of proletarian poets were voiced, as well as to the speeches made by A.B. Marienhof and S.A. Esenin. The analysis shows that the most important consequence of the debate was the decision taken on February 1, 1920, by a group of proletarian writers to withdraw from the “Moscow Proletkult” and to form a section of proletarian writers at the literary department of the People’s Commissariat of Education. At a meeting of this section on February 11, the leadership of the Sub-Department of Proletarian Literature under the “LITO” of the People’s Commissariat of Education was elected and a decision was made to publish the magazine Kuznitsa. This is how the literary association of proletarian writers Kuznitsa (1920–1932) was born, which played a significant role in the literary process of the 1920s.
- Keywords: Russian Literature of the 1910s–1920s, literary process, Proletkult, literary association Kuznitsa, A.A. Bogdanov, S.A. Esenin, A.B. Marienhof.
- For citation:
Skorokhodov, M.V. “The Debate on Proletarian Poetry 1920 in a Historical and Literary Context.” Literaturnyi fakt, no. 2 (40), 2026, pp. 253–276. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2026-40-253-276
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