“Not Always Bad” or “Pleasant Exception”: Poet Georgy Rybintsev and His Critics (1913–1914)

Abstract

For the first time, the article examines the critical reception of the poetry of Georgy Ivanovich Rybintsev (1885–1944), an “unknown poet” who unwittingly became involved in the literary struggle of 1913–1914. Rybintsev’s first collection of poems, A Necklace of Tears and Flowers (1913), went unnoticed by reviewers but allowed the author to enter literary circles close to the publishing house “Alcyone” (“Altsiona”). The owner of “Alcyone” A.M. Kozhebatkin published collections of aspiring poets of modernist orientation at the expense of the authors, but the appearance of the book under this brand meant belonging to the circle of Moscow modernists, which was considered by critics. The second collection of Rybintsev’s poems, Autumn’s Blueness (1914), published by “Alcyone,” unlike his first collection, attracted the attention of critics. However, their reviews were dictated not so much by the advantages and disadvantages of the poems as by the logic of the literary struggle. V.F. Khodasevich, who published his collection of poems Happy House (1914) in the “Alcyone,” spoke approvingly about Rybintsev’s book. S.M. Gorodetsky, who was at enmity with “Alcyone” for personal and literary reasons, subjected Rybintsev to sharp criticism, putting him in a row of incompetent amateurs. The radical modernist S.P. Bobrov attacked Rybintsev’s book in his usual mocking manner, both in futuristic (almanac “Rukonog”) and non-modernist editions. The critic of the realistic orientation V.V. Brusyanin, on the contrary, gave a detailed positive review of Rybintsev’s poetry, contrasting it with modernist authors from the circle of “Alcyone.” Critics’ reviews of Rybintsev’s poetry are reproduced here in full for the first time.

Keywords

• g.i. rybintsev
• publishing house “alcyone
• ” v.f. khodasevich
• polemics
• s.m. gorodetsky
• acmeism
• s.p. bobrov
• v.v. brusyanin