![Gerasimov MP](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Gerasimov_MP.jpg)
Mikhail Prokofyevich Gerasimov ( rus, Михаи́л Проко́фьевич Гера́симов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil prɐˈkofʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ɡʲɪˈrasʲɪməf, a=Mihail Prokof'yevich Gyerasimov.ru.vorb.oga; 12 October 1889,
Buguruslan
Buguruslan (russian: Бугурусла́н) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Orenburg Oblast, Russia. Population:
History
It was founded in 1748.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the subdivisions of Russia#Admin ...
– 26 June 1939,
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
) was one of the most widely read working-class poets in early-twentieth-century
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. Initially embracing the
Bolshevik Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was ...
as a liberating event and participating in the effort to create a new
proletarian culture
Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture (the counterpart of high ...
, following the
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...
he became disillusioned and was imprisoned during the
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
era.
Early life
Mikhail Gerasimov was born on 30 September (12 October O.S.) 1889 in the village of Petrovka, near the town of
Buguruslan
Buguruslan (russian: Бугурусла́н) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Orenburg Oblast, Russia. Population:
History
It was founded in 1748.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the subdivisions of Russia#Admin ...
, in
Samara
Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with ...
province in the
Volga
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
region of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. His father was a railway worker and crossing guard. His mother was of peasant origin. Starting at the age of nine, Gerasimov began helping out around the railroad, pulling weeds near the tracks. In the winter months he attended a two-class school in the town of Kinel'. After finishing school (in four or five years) he attended, while working in a variety of railroad jobs, the Samara railway technical school, allowing him to become a railway technician after graduation.
Revolution and exile
During the
1905 Revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
, when Gerasimov was sixteen and working on the railroad, he got involved in an armed revolutionary detachment (druzhina) of railway workers, and became increasingly involved with the socialist underground. In 1906, he was arrested and imprisoned, but after six months escaped through a tunnel leading to a secret
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...
apartment. From there he was smuggled out of the country in the fall of 1907 by way of Finland (where he briefly met Lenin and other leading Social Democratic émigrés). For the next eight years, he lived mainly in France and Belgium, where he worked variously as a loader for blast furnaces in an arms factory in
Nancy, France
Nancy ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Nanzisch'' is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the northeastern Departments of France, French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was Lorraine and Barrois, an ...
, as a hauler and coal-hewer in mines in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, as a metal fitter and electrical fitter in French locomotive and car factories (including
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
), as a stoker and coalman on ocean liners, and in a variety of jobs in a number of other factories. In these years in exile and labor, Gerasimov managed to explore much of Western Europe (especially France, Belgium, Italy and the Alps), often working in winter and wandering by foot in summer—for which he was several times arrested for vagrancy.
Literary career
He began to write sometime before 1913. That was the year he joined
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...
's
Circle of Proletarian Culture in Paris, where he met other Russian émigré worker writers including
Fedor Kalinin
Fedor Ivanovich Kalinin (Russian: Фёдор Иванович Калинин; 14 February 1882 – 5 February 1920) was a Russian revolutionary, literary critic and writer. Fedor was the younger brother of Mikhail Kalinin.
Kalinin was born on Fe ...
,
Alexei Gastev, and
Pavel Bessalko.
He also began a correspondence with
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
at this time, sending Gorky poems for comments. Gerasimov's first poems were published in 1913 in the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
magazine ''Prosveshchenie'' (Enlightenment). Other poems appeared in print in 1914 in the party newspaper ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...
'', in
Ilya Ehrenburg
Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian.
Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...
's émigré magazine ''Vechera'' (Evenings), and in other publications.
Military experiences
When the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out in 1914, Gerasimov volunteered to fight against the Germans in the
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...
. He saw combat at the Marne, Champagne, and the Argonne, and was wounded several times but returned to battle. In the fall of 1915, for participating in anti-war agitation and for insubordination (he joined an uprising of Russian soldiers against harsh treatment by French officers), Gerasimov was deported to Russia. Returning to Samara he was placed under the surveillance of the military authorities and the following spring was arrested and assigned under guard to a reserve military engineering battalion. Amnestied as a result of the February revolution, Gerasimov became a member of the Samara
Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies, and was elected chair. In June 1917, he was a delegate at the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets and chosen a member of the new national
Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) (see
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
). In July, he joined the
Bolshevik Party
" Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
, and in October 1917 was a delegate to the Second Congress of Soviets (which endorsed Soviet power). Returning to Samara, he became assistant chair of the Executive Committee of the Samara Provincial Soviet (Gubispolkom) and was named a military commissar. During the civil war he organized
Red Guard
Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard le ...
detachments and commanded a unit on the Orenburg front.
From Proletkult to Kuznitsa
While continuing to write and publish a large number of poems (in a wide-variety of newspapers, magazines, and collections) during the years from 1918 to the mid-1930s, Gerasimov also became one of the leaders of the proletarian culture movement (
Proletkult
Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolut ...
). In 1918, he organized and was chair of the Samara Proletkult and in 1919 edited the Samara Proletkult magazine ''Zarevo zavodov'' (Glow of the factories). Later that year he moved to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, where he was named head of the literary department of the Moscow Proletkult and joined the staff of the literary department of the
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...
's
People's Commissariat of Enlightenment (LITO Narkomprosa). In February 1920, he formed a group of worker writers discontented with the Proletcult, feeling it inhibited their creative growth due to lack of attention to formal training and the special demands of the talented. Whilst still linked to Narkompros, he played a central role in organizing and then leading the
Kuznitsa (Smithy) group. Many talented authors, such as Kirillov and Samobytnik-Mashirov, joined the Smithy. However they did not break their ties to the Proletkult. Eventually the new organisation agreed not to attempt to rival or eclipse the Proletkult; instead they devoted themselves principally to professional issues, such as payment scales. Gerasimov helped plan the First Congress of Proletarian Writers, and was elected (along with Il'ia Sadof'ev) assistant chair of the congress and of the resulting All-Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (VAPP). In 1921, in response to the
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...
(NEP), which he viewed as signaling the end of the revolution, Gerasimov quit the Bolshevik party.
Later life and death
In the mid-1920s, he became less involved in cultural organizations as well, but continued to publish—though these writings, according to Soviet critics, "diverged from the path of proletarian poetry." In 1937, he was arrested and according to some sources he was among
Stalin's shooting lists and was executed by firing squad on 16 July 1937, however the official certificate of his death after his rehabilitation claims that Gerasimov passed in 1939 while being held in custody.
References
Sources
*RGALI (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, Moscow), f. 1374, op. 7, d. 13, l. 1-22
*''Kratkaia Literaturnaia Entsiklopediia'', 2:129-30
*V. L’vov-Rogachevskii, ''Noveishaia russkaia literatura'', 350-66
*''Literaturnaia Entsiklopediia'', 2:468-71
*''Russkie pisateli, 1800-1917'', 1:540-41
*''Russkie pisateli: Poety'', 5:388-419
*Mark D. Steinberg, ''Proletarian Imagination: Self Modernity and the Sacred in Russia, 1910-1925'' (Cornell University Press, 2002)
External links
MARCELLE fiction by "Smithy" writer Mikhail Gerasimov (1920)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerasimov, Mikhail
Russian male poets
1889 births
1939 deaths
Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion
People from Buguruslansky District
20th-century Russian poets
20th-century Russian male writers