Centennial Representations in Fiction and Film

Abstract

Iurii Tynianov (1894–1943) spent most of his career challenging accepted conventions of Russian literary criticism and history, beginning with his work as a graduate student in S. A. Vengerov’s graduate seminar and ending with his historical novels. Tynianov’s novel Kiukhlia (1925), based on the life and art of the Decembrist poet Vilhelm Kiukhelbeker and titled after Kiukhelbeker’s nickname, was commissioned by Kornei Chukovskii at Kubuch publishers as a popular brochure for young readers in honor of the Decembrist centennial. One of the few literary works produced for the centennial, it diverged significantly from a children’s story by the time it was finished. Only one other novel written for the centennial, Sevemoe siianie (Aurora borealis, 1926) by Maria Marich (1893–1961), had staying power and was reprinted 20 times into the 1960s.² (Soviet print runs did not necessarily indicate popularity but instead reflected what the authorities considered an ideologically useful work and what the public should be reading. Hence the huge print runs of Lenin and Stalin’s collected works, for example, compared to the dearth of volumes of Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva). Aurora borealis did not match Kiukhlia’s literary quality or provide a new perspective. Chukovskii attests to Kiukhlia’s uniqueness, calling it “remarkable” for its recreation of the epoch, elegance of its overall composition and psychological richness, and affirmed its acclaim: “Immediately after its appearance in print Kiukhlia became the most beloved book of both old and young Soviet citizens, from twelve to eighty years of age.

If not for my childhood, I wouldn”tunderstand history. If not for the revolution, I would not understand literature.

—Iurii Tynianov¹