"Grain’s Way" as a Formula of a Revolution: Khodasevich, Nekrasov, Peasant Poets and the Agrarian Topoi in Russian Poetry

Abstract

The article discusses the poetic formula of Vladislav Khodasevich’s "Putiom zerna" ("Grain’s Way"). It is argued that the phrase goes back to the New Testament and is associated with Biblical ideas of timeless values. The aim of the article is to show that the formula putiom zerna (grain’s way) is also tied to the Russian poetic revolutionary myth, in which the agrarian imagery was consistently endowed with the social and revolutionary connotations. Khodasevich’s poem and his collection bearing the same title are a convenient starting point for elucidating this poetical myth. The article considers its development in the lyrics by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolay Nekrasov, as well as its transformation in the poetry of the Symbolists. Special emphasis is laid on the lyrics of the Peasant Poets and their responses to the Revolution of 1917. In the light of the article’s topic, the poems of the Peasant Poets feature the myth with very high intensity. We’re thus justifi ed in comparing the images of Khodasevich with those of Yesenin, Klyuev and Oreshin.