Slavistische Beiträge ∙ Band 142 (eBook - Digi20-Retro) Halina Stephan „Lef“ and the Left Front of the Arts Verlag Otto Sagner München ∙ Berlin ∙ Washington D.C. Digitalisiert im Rahmen der Kooperation mit dem DFG-Projekt „Digi20“ der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München. OCR-Bearbeitung und Erstellung des eBooks durch den Verlag Otto Sagner: http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de © bei Verlag Otto Sagner. Eine Verwertung oder Weitergabe der Texte und Abbildungen, insbesondere durch Vervielfältigung, ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages unzulässig. «Verlag Otto Sagner» ist ein Imprint der Kubon & Sagner GmbH. Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access S la v istich e B eiträge BEGRÜNDET VON ALOIS SCHMAUS HERAUSGEGEBEN VON JOHANNES HOLTHUSEN • HEINRICH KUNSTMANN PETER REHDER JOSEF SCHRENK REDAKTION PETER REHDER Band 142 VERLAG OTTO SAGNER MÜNCHEN Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access 00060802 HALINA STEPHAN LEF” AND THE LEFT FRONT OF THE ARTS״ « VERLAG OTTO SAGNER ■ MÜNCHEN 1981 Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München ISBN 3-87690-186-3 Copyright by Verlag Otto Sagner, München 1981 Abteilung der Firma Kubon & Sagner, München Druck: Alexander Grossmann Fäustlestr. 1, D -8000 München 2 Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access 00060802 To Axel Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access 00060802 CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................. ix I. Futurists in search of Soviet legitim acy.............................................. 1 1. Toward a Futurist dictatorship in the arts ............................. 1 2. The Futurists and Soviet cultural policy ................................. 15 3. The publishing firm “L e f "...................................................... 24 II. Lef: History........................................................................................... 28 1. The editorial board and its activities ..................................... 28 2. The Left Front of the Arts........................................................ 37 3. Critical response......................................................................... 52 III. Lef: T heory......................................................................................... 57 1. From pre-revolutionary Futurism to the Soviet left a rts ___ 57 2. Program for the new a r t .......................................................... 64 3. Formalism and Marxist literary criticism ....................... 70 4. Futurist “language engineering” ............................................ 77 5. Industrial art, theater and film................................................ 83 IV. Lef: Poetry........................................................................................... 90 1. Poetry as a “verbal laboratory” .............................................. 90 2. Khlebnikov ................................................................................. 114 3. Mayakovsky............................................................................... 121 4. Aseev............................................................................................ 141 5. Kamensky and Kruchonykh.................................................... 148 6. Pasternak ................................................................................... 153 V. Lej: P ro se .............................................................................................. 158 1. In search of a model for Soviet p ro se ..................................... .158 2. Poetic p ro se ............................................................................... .166 3. The political adventure story .................................................... .175 4. The literature of f a c t..................................................................182 5. Prose of authenticity and literariness...................................... .186 Epilogue: Lef in critical perspective ........................................................ 191 N o te s............................................................................................................ 205 Bibliography................................................................................................235 Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access 4 V jł,Ł*41 IpE dtf ^ ■'־•ע״־^•*־1י ו »Ž4 ■-*r.1י —־ ^л ■■7 ^ .ь ■ 1 ł,J» i ft « ü l i ļji^. % C ^־■ך * -a ■יш » ן > ■| 1 * ^ ־J ^ I - І Л г ^ * Д 4 І ļ> Ttffl >Д| у *J ļ 1 ־|j i f ' I ' M » • V- 4 » • » j » itf I I • Г) 1■ p 1׳ ļM4i т : ffanpHMfojVtSC hft® **tematr)! Ji ׳• = »ff ÿ f«' ־ ^ ״ < r * ־־ V ļ j 'Л| יי AlJft ין• *.• ^ą .n 1,>« . ן in Г;.Ц «־►■ • ■ • C ^Q >1£Í:< V !*♦ .VjlC ־ i a JMIr*• V • ו Ч п ci־-;11► ״чваг jtal.A., ft, ^w , bī^? W.l "i■! - j-i.ļ-ļ•■ • p. - вит.{ tat-ffjgWbfaw■! *t tø iŁiijft-ł <t J ь < ^x>i(ļ v J ,2-5 ■ .* . ן..־k * י Г11* ׳•*•■!י ■;4ל■ V№ 1 rTWWl-Wl#«^^l»!U<<M.srfT J.,. י.־ י*. ♦י ••• n1»״I 1 i^njT ,... M < fl ><îTז>ז » ivví.k_- • !t : ; s i V>»,Mil י.*.. ״■־ ־■ 1־• ■• *f-v■ ־f _ !в!”1 ū- ā " ДО? . н.' .i^ ļT i. .«snhffruīf Ы»4)ЬН*^• v• | ц Л \ □ V .5»«а^»фЯ<׳1:11МІ «К«ѴВФ*ѵІ r. ^vífjíK^ísç 1«И>łtc rt •s־* і ккѴ^Гf ׳ ЬЙР_ій*_ . Jr *1 *л .ѵ hi ' ЛКГ ־יс<«4і .<״ - Iוי• • -.י • 1י.-• л ii <•«.*־- *,Í Г,ІГЛУ>■j rš1rW* ־ £M!Д4 M 'jiV ï י ЙК* * . *. «с■tfr .к\ .«(,»ivS Si»• *4«I ־ . Ш -VC Jf 1 I" віі rP*r•.►* yíiyKiJJlíiWi J ’ ו״i»4ļ»ļjііл м n i , 4 - 1 D lh Im ו I I * Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 I II Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM '.,;!PW l ī . i ī f ļ via free access INTRODUCTION This study analyzes the artistic theory and practice of the Left Front of the Arts (Levyi front iskusstv—Lef) with a special focus on the journal Lej (1923-1925). Two themes are central to this account: the organiza- tional activities of the Lef group directed toward making Futurism a formative force within the Soviet culture and the artistic proposals pub- lished in Lej that had the same goal. Although the core of the Lef group consisted of the former Futurist poets, the term “Futurism” after the Revolution became synonymous with modern art in general. As the Futurists sought to expand their role in Soviet culture, Futurism encompassed all avant-garde art, regardless of the medium. In effect, the journal Lej, designed according to this broad interpretation of Futurism, was envisaged as an organ that would bring together all the experimental art of the early Soviet period. As a result of these efforts, Lej provides a unique synchronic view of the early Soviet avant-garde. In addition to Vladimir Mayakovsky, who was the main editor of the journal, numerous Soviet artists, writers, and critics of the 1920s who eventually achieved international recognition worked within the orbit of the Left Front of the Arts. Among those who published in Lej were the Formalist critics Yurii Tynyanov and Viktor Shklovsky, the poets Veiimir Khlebnikov and Boris Pasternak, the prose writer Isaak Babel, the then-theater director Sergei Eisenstein, the movie- maker Dziga Vertov, and the artist Aleksandr Rodchenko. Some of them became involved with the Lef group because they sympathized with Lef s attempt to design an entirely new kind of functional art that would shape the society as no art had done before. Others did not believe in the Lef ver- sion of politicized arts, but they were brought into Lef because the Lef group planned to act as advocate for all the avant-garde artists of the early Soviet period. The Soviet Futurists began with the hope that the Communist Révolu- tion, which they believed had established the most progressive of world political systems, would establish an era of correspondingly modern, nontraditional art. As the best foundation for this future art, they pro- posed the esthetics of Futurism. While they continued the path of formal experimentation that they had begun in the earlier stage of the Futurist movement, they now introduced a new concept of the artist. The artist Halina Stephan - 9783954792801 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:25:44AM via free access 00060802 X INTRODUCTION was to become a specialist in the creation of new artistic forms, a pro- fessional whose formal experimentation promised to be directly functional in fulfilling the needs of the new society. By proposing this new social identity for the artist, the Lef group made an attempt to establish Futurism as a major movement in the Soviet state. The Futurist effort met with almost uniform resistance from the leftist proletarians, from moderate intellectuals, and from the Soviet cultural administration, all of whom were antagonized by the intense anti-traditionalism of Lef and its utilitarian view of art. The Lef group soon found that it would not have the opportunity to act as a pressure group to defend the interest of the avant-garde, and, in fact, that its efforts to do so would receive no outside support. Even though Lef was devoted to developing the theory of avant-garde, or left arts, it remained primarily a literary journal, run by the former Futurist poets and focused mainly on adapting Futurist poetics to