Вячеслaв Лебедев: Поэма временных лет, Алексей Эйснер: Конница : образ революции в творчестве поэтов литературного объединения "Скит"

Abstract

The article presents two Russian émigré poets, Viacheslav Lebedev and Aleksei Eisner, both of them were members of Prague literary group Skit poetov (Hermitage of Poets). It focuses on their long narrative poems, Lebedev's Poema vremennykh let (The Poem of Temporary Years) and Eisner's Konnitsa (Cavalry) and compares the way Russian revolution is reflected in these texts. Eisner gives another version of traditional interpretation of Russia – Europe / East – West relationship, he draws a stylized picture of a conflict between the powerful, wild and primitive eastern force and the fragile, fatigued, overcultivated west. Lebedev, on the other hand, presents Russian revolution and the events it was followed by in the context of world history, using parallels with the French revolution, he interprets it as a part of historical cycle of revolutions, wars.