The poet is placed beyond the mundane passions and temptations, and his role defined as a saint preacher, a champion of truth and justice. Pushkin’s quest for civil rights and his mighty aspiration for freedom combined with the unrivaled poetic talent contributed to further development of the prophetic trends in Russian literature. After Pushkin’s tragic death gloomy pathos of M. Lermontov allowed critics to see in him a new brilliantl prophet summoned by God to point out the sins of his generation and to predict the tragic future of the country. In the meantime, he was a typical Byronic personality staying in opposition to the establishment. Lermontov’s dark demonic gift filled his poems with mystic premonitions and macabre presentments that have not lost their appeal to the heart of a Russian reader even nowadays.
The so-called democratic poets and critics headed by Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Gertsen succeeded to turn the mainstream of Russian poetry in an attempt to make of literature a weapon in their ideological struggle against the absolutist regime. Their poems, essays and manifestoes are full of the unconcealed and irreconcilable hatred towards the oppressors. The Narodniki movement with its extremism fluctuating from the propaganda of «Going to the people» missionary ventures to the declarations of the merciless war on the government was the practical implementation of the prophetic slogans put forward by the first revolutionaries. The poetry by P. Lavrov and his associates demonstrated a perverse vision of reality in which violence and terror were supposed to pave the way to the ideal realm of justice.
Late in the XIX c., Russian intellectual elite was deeply impressed by the ideas of Nietzsche propagating the «superhuman» individuality standing over the conventional rules and limitations of society. On the Russian soil, Nietzsheanist prophecy of spiritual «supermoralism» was challenged by the indigenous concept of the «God-human» put forward by the famous philosopher and poet Vladimir Solovyov. His sophiological and historiosophical theories as well as his specific interpretation of the «yellow peril» pattern revealed in treatises, essays and poetry influenced greatly the Russian Symbolists led by Merejkovsky, Block, Bryusov, Vyacheslav Ivanov. Building a new realm of dreams they demanded that the old routine world should be destroyed and replaced by the Myth. Living by the anticipation of the advent of Messiah they kept preparing their readers for the inevitable Apocalyptic catastrophe that was regarded as a prologue to the new history of mankind.
The First Russian Revolution of 1905 was supported and glorified almost unanimously by the leading poets of the time although some tended to regard it as a rehearsal of the Final Judgment. Still Russian intelligentsia demonstrated readiness to accept its fate — to become a holy sacrifice for the messianic ideal of Freedom and People’s Happiness. Inspired by the heroic mythology of Nietzsche and Wagner, they would condemn the government, reject «conservative» laws and approve any bloodshed by the rebels. The defeat of the uprising just gave the intellectuals another several years for developing their liberal views into a complex revolutionary archetype to which many of them remained loyal even during the hardest years of the Bolshevist tyranny. However, in the period between the revolutions, many poets, artists and philosophers managed to predict consciously or subconsciously in their works the awful consequences of the forthcoming revolt and even their own tragic destiny. Still they pursued the kenotic principles of self-abasement and self-sacrificing loyalty to their own newly invented myths of Democracy and Humanism.
The Futurist school and other avant-garde groups formed the extremist faction in the pre-revolutionary Russian culture calling for the annihilation of the traditional ethics and aesthetics in every possible way. The militant manifestoes by Bourlyuk brothers, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, V. Kamensky, B. Livshits claiming the advantages of the modernist art and literature and negating the cultural heritage of the past stipulated the emergence of a popular concept: implementation of a social revolution through the revolution in art.
The transition from the joyful anticipation of freedom to the realization of the tragedy accomplished was not easy. After the peaceful February bourgeois revolution, it could seem that the advent of Messiah was happening. However, after the bloodless triumph of February the bloody October followed bringing with it many months and years that were nonetheless full of bloodshed. The Civil war was devouring the best sons of Russia — both those who believed in the Bolshevist Utopia and those who did not want to surrender to the barbarian rule. The peasants would massacre each other in vain expectation of Land and Freedom. Merciless terror of The Emergency Committee (Cheka) swept over the towns and villages paralyzed by horror. Time was passing and it was getting more and more clear that nobody would manage lo survive safely till the storm is over.
Few intellectuals of those who have witnessed the October atrocities and the terrible course of the Civil war would cherish any illusions concerning the future of the country. While staying in starving and freezing Moscow after seeing off her husband to the White Army, Marina Tsvetaeva watched the triumphant plebs with horror, pain and disgust. It was at this period that her poetry manifested bitter tones of Biblical prophecy. When by Lenin’s order the freedom of speech was abolished in Russia, when the Civil war broke out and the red terror stamped upon liberal ideals of the intelligentsia with the iron heel, the poet, much earlier than her fellow-writers, came to the realization of the end of Russia — which was for her equal to death.
Irreconcilable hatred for the «Bloody Soviets», the impossibility to bear the violation of freedom and democracy led Zinaida Gippius, Dmitry Merejkovsky and all the other ardent opponents lo the Bolshevist terror into the camp of the White resistance movement and further — to exile, where they were destined to stay forever and watch from the distance the implementation of their worst premonitions.
However, some poets preferred to stay in Russia and to share its destiny in hope that the country sooner or later would revive in glory. A. Akhmatova was one of the first to announce her stand of «sharing the destiny with Mother Russia», expressing her feelings in prophetic Biblical diction. It was an acceptance without approval or reproach, without any reservations — an unconditional surrender to Fate embodied in the revolutionary storm, a renunciation of any struggle. Such kind of fatalism implied the readiness to suffer and die, if necessary, together with the country Akhmatova’s position by that time was shared by many literati, including her fellow writers Acmeists: N. Gumilyov, M. Zenkevich, O. Mandelstam, not to say about V. Bryusov and A. Block. All of them still considered themselves closely related to a great common cause, to the spiritual rebirth and liberation of mankind, so that they were ready (still speculatively) to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the long-cherished revolution.
For those dreamers who have been enjoying years of fame and emotional comfort it was dififcult to realize the true meaning of the catastrophe. Their Russia did not exist any more. The refined culture produced by the Silver Age renaissance was doomed and its creators soon found themselves thrown out of life. Nevertheless, many talented poets and artists, generally realizing the deplorable situation they were facing, deliberately doomed themselves to the hardships, humiliation and possible oblivion.
With a «greeting hymn» addressed to the Huns whose arrival he had predicted in 1904, Valery Bryusov dedicated himself to the fulfillment of a historic mission. He agreed to cooperate with repulsive man-slaughtering administration in hope to enlighten and purify the barbarians. It was not easy for him to take this decision but being a historian and a man of universal culture, he considered himself to be an envoy of Wisdom in the country of prevailing chaos and brutality. He deliberately submitted his emotions to prophetic civil duty lamenting in the meantime the plagues of Russia in the vein of traditional Biblical prophecy. Bryusov was nearly the only one among the writers of his milieu, who openly joined the Bolshevist party and till his death remained involved in the social activities in the Soviet Russia.
However, the poems from Bryusov’s literary archive of 1918–1919 that could not be published until recent years, were written in parallel to the revolutionary hymns. They unveil the moral sufferings that this compromise cost him and make clear his controversial attitude towards the authorities. Undoubtedly, his enthusiastic collaborationism was a deliberate act of a prophet, who decided to postpone his death in order to bring the God-inspired truth to people. Bryusov confirms it in his poem «Prayer» (1918). This standpoint is also manifested in his activities after the Bolshevist revolution — which at least allowed to preserve Bryusov’s name and works for the coming generations even during the gloomy years of Stalin’s obscurantist rule.
Alexander Block responded to the October coup with a slogan «Listen with your hearts to the music of the revolution!», which let the bolshevists register the poet as their adherent. Along with the selection of the apologetic articles where Block tried to justify the destruction of culture by the interests of the future, a poem «The Twelve» was composed — and it was immediately proclaimed a revolutionary masterpiece. This poem included in the Soviet school program and highly praised by critics in fact did not cultivate the ideal of the socialist revolution. It was more likely a macabre ode singing the bloodshed, established anarchy and coming terror — an ode to the victors written by the vanquished. Like any other composition of this kind, «The Twelve» at close consideration doesn’t seem to be a masterpiece neither in the aspect of its artistic merit nor in comparison to any of the previous Block’s poems. Vile element overwhelming the characters of the poem is alien to the nature of its author. However, this rather weak work was lauded to the skies by the Soviet critics.