Nikolaeva A. A. “Village Languishing in Ignorance...”: Woman’s fate in the lyrics of S. A. Esenin during the World War I // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2024. V.9. №2. P. 79-88.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2024-9-2-79-88

Annotation

As its witness and participant, S. A. Esenin responded to the World War I with works written in 1914–1915. As the “singer of the village”, the poet sincerely worried about peasants who were close to him and went to the front. Most of Esenin’s works about the World War I reflect the village life and changes in the usual peasant way of life, especially the unfortunate fate of the peasant woman, to whom the poems “The Patterns” () and “The Mother’s Prayer” () are dedicated. Esenin shows the bride’s grief and tells the story of the lonely mother commemorating her breadwinner son. Other works inspired by war events also present female images: in the little poem “Rus” (1914), Esenin describes militia, departure of men, women waiting for and receiving news from the front and faith in victory as moments in the life of peasant women inseparable from village realities. When repeatedly describing the sendoff of men from villages, Esenin not only emphasizes the crying of women anticipating troubles but also mentions outdoor festivities of recruits with playful girls, referring to his personal experience (“Through the Village by the Crooked Path...”, 1914). However, the main result of war for the poet is the death of soldiers; therefore, the images of peasant women in his works of the World War I are associated mainly with tears, suffering and commemoration.

Keywords

S. A. Esenin, World War I, village, motives, “Rus”, “The Mother’s Prayer”, “The Patterns”, “Through the Village by the Curved Road...”.

About the author

Alla A. Nikolaeva, PhD (Philology), Senior Researcher, Scientific Seсretary of the Esenin Group, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Povarskaya St., 25а, bldg. 1, Moscow, 121069, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The article was submitted on 19.02.2024.

Chayanov A.V. What will our national economy be like after the war? (Article of A.V. Chayanov) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2021. V.6. №1. P. 6-12.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2021-6-1-6-12

Annotation

This article by A.V. Chayanov was published in the edition of the Moscow Union of Consumer Societies “Cooperative Rural Calendar for 1918” (Moscow, 1917, pp. 42–44). The article is of interest mainly as a short, impressive, journalistic, rapid forecast of the possible evolutionary directions of the Russian economy and society in the short-term and mid-term national-economic perspective. This is a polemical political-economic article due to Chayanov’s reflections on the interpretation of such concepts as ‘state socialism’ and ‘socialism’ in general, on the meaning of ‘public reason’ in the ongoing and future reforms, and also due to Chayanov’s forecasts of the Russian economic development as determined by such multidirectional economic, political and social factors as the state debt that had multiplied during the war, the weakening impact of inflation on the economy, and the after-war tasks of transferring the economy to a peaceful track. In his positive forecasts, Chayanov put special hopes on the awakening social and productive forces of the Russian peasantry. Chayanov believed that the growth of culture, labor productivity and cooperation among the peasantry would allow to find a way out of the impasse of the 1917 economic devastation. Although, as the later historical events showed, Chayanov’s belief in ‘public reason’ and the corresponding humanistic socialist prospects for Russia did not come true, he systematically identified the key dominants of both revolutionary and evolutionary transformations of the huge peasant country under the great social-political upheavals of the 20th century. 

Keywords

Agrarian reform, A.V. Chayanov, state socialism, cooperation, peasantry, public reason, World War I, revolution.

About the authors

Chayanov Alexander V.
Afanasenkov Vladislav O., Researcher, Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences; Junior Researcher, Research Laboratory of Economic and Social History, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Vernadskogo Prosp., 82, Moscow, 119571, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.