DOI: 10.36871 / hon.202001009

Authors

O. M. Kirillina
Russian State Specialized Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract

Bohemia arose in opposition to the values and to the way of life of bourgeoisie at the moment when bourgeoisie became the largest customer in the art market. In Russia bohemia was more respectable, far from social problems and less revolutionary than in Europe, that is why representatives of the Russian avant-garde did not feel very comfortable in the restrictive bohemian environment. In the first years after the Revolution, the intense struggle of various art groups stimulated creative search and bohemia could find quite a comfortable niche. However the abolition of all art groups except the Union of Soviet Writers as well as the approval of the only acceptable method, socialist realism, in the early 30s eliminated the existence of such a free and asocial community as bohemia. Many poets and writers were repressed. These were not only critics of the government, but also totally apolitical or too revolutionary nonconformists, such as members of the OBERIU. Writers were destroyed not only by the state, but also by the deep disappointment due to the return of the spirit of Academism, Philistinism and bureaucratization, which penetrated the art world. At the same time loyal poets and writers generously endowed by the state turned into an elite.

Keywords

bourgeoisie, tower, art cabaret, RAPP against Pereval, fate of avant-garde associations LEF and OBERIU, repressions and suicides of poets, socialist realism, the Union of Soviet Writers