“Solovyov's Trailing”: A.A. Blok's review of the poet V.P. Lebedev for the Admissions committee of the Petrograd Union of Poets

Author: korolevaNV / Date: 10-01-2026 /
Publication Title: 
“Solovyov's Trailing”: A.A. Blok's review of the poet V.P. Lebedev for the Admissions committee of the Petrograd Union of Poets
Publication author(s): 
N.V. Loshchinskaya
Abstract: 

The article examines the aesthetically and axiologically significant influence of V.S. Solovyov's ideas on Blok's post-revolutionary creative work, which is evident in Blok's review of the poet V.P. Lebedev. The identity of the writer, whom the first publisher of Blok's Review, P.N. Medvedev, referred to by “cryptonym” “L-v,” was established through archival and historical-literary research. The article reveals the paradox of Blok's assessment of the traditionalist poet V. P. Lebedev, a former participant in K.K. Sluchevsky's literary “Fridays”, who was far from Blok's aesthetic views. The article analyzes the motives that led Blok to recommend Lebedev as a member of the Petrograd branch of the Union of Poets. It is suggested that the reason for the positive recommendation lies in an episode from Blok's early youth. In 1901, Lebedev translated Adam Asnyk's poem “A Wonderful Dream” (1872), whose ideological and artistic content was close to the ideals and poetics of both Vladimir Solovyov and the young Alexander Blok.

 

References: 

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33. Medvedev, P.N. Neopublikovannye retsenzii [Unpublished reviews], in Sbornik materialov «Pamyati Bloka» [Collection of materials “In memory of Blok”]. Peterburg: Polyarnaya zvezda, 1923, pp. 63–72.

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(Monographs)

35. Igosheva, T.V. Rannyaya lirika A.A. Bloka (1898–1904): poetika religioznogo simvolizma [Early Lyrics by Alexander Blok (1898–1904): The Poetics of Religious Symbolism]. Moscow: GlobalKom, 2013. 397 p.

36. Maksimov, D.E. Poeziya i proza Al. Bloka [Poetry and Prose by Alexander Blok]. Leningrad: Sovetskiy pisatel', 1981. 552 p.

37. Takho-Godi, E.A. Konstantin Sluchevskiy: Portret na pushkinskom fone [Konstantin Sluchevsky: Portrait on Pushkin's background]. Saint-Petersburg: Aleteyya, 2000. 389 p.

 

Key words: 
symbolism, cryptonym, attribution, reminiscences, allusions, reminiscence, K.K. Sluchevsky’s “Fridays”, Petrograd branch of the All–Russian Union of Poets
2025. Issue 4 (88)
The DOI index: 
10.17588/2076-9210.2025.4.150-165
Publication file: