Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev ( rus, Николай Алексеевич Клюев, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈklʲʉjɪf; 22 October 1884 – 23/25 October 1937), was a notable Russian
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
. He was influenced by the
symbolist movement, intense
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
, and a love of Russian
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
.
Born in the village of
Koshtugi in
Olonets Governorate
The Olonets Governorate or Government of Olonets was a '' guberniya'' (governorate) of north-western Imperial Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded west by Finland, north and east by Arkhangelsk and Vologda, and sou ...
(now
Vologda Oblast
Vologda Oblast ( rus, Вологодская область, p=vəlɐˈɡotskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, r=Vologodskaya oblast, ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is Vologda. The Oblast has a population of 1,202,444 ...
) near the town of
Vytegra
Vytegra ( rus, Вы́тегра, p=ˈvɨtʲɪɡrə) is a town and the administrative center of Vytegorsky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located along the shores of the Vytegra River on Volga–Baltic Waterway, northwest of Vologda, the ...
, Kluyev rose to prominence in the early twentieth century as the leader of the so-called "peasant poets". Kluyev was a close friend and mentor of
Sergei Yesenin. Arrested in 1933 for contradicting Soviet ideology, he was shot in 1937 and rehabilitated posthumously in 1957.
Homosexuality
Klyuev was
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
and had love affairs in
Vytegra
Vytegra ( rus, Вы́тегра, p=ˈvɨtʲɪɡrə) is a town and the administrative center of Vytegorsky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located along the shores of the Vytegra River on Volga–Baltic Waterway, northwest of Vologda, the ...
in the immediate post-revolutionary years, and before settling in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in the 1920s. Nevertheless, by the 1920s the evidence of active homosexual relationships become more evident in the account of his life, as well as his poetry. In 1928 he met his great love, Anatoly Kravchenko, a young artist. The two lived as companions in Leningrad until Kravchenko's marriage in 1933, which came as a blow to Klyuev.
Homo-eroticism can be found in Klyuev's poetry from as early as the late 1910s. By the 1930s a more romanticized form of homosexual love is found addressed in the poems to Kravchenko.
However, documentary evidence remains scarce; as some suggest, one of the reasons is that scholars in Russia working on archival material have tended to treat issues of sexuality with some caution ; and homosexuality remains a taboo subject for Russian readers and students.
Religious views
Kluyev, whose work is thoroughly inspired with the spirit of the
Old Believers
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
, was the first in Russian literature who began to praise the innocence of the body. In his view, Christ had been homosexual. And his own homosexuality Kluyev explained (referring to
Paul the Apostle
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
) was that "love justifies a multitude of sins, and love is mighty". Kluyev was also close to the sect of
khlysts
The Khlysts or Khlysty ( rus, Хлысты, p=xlɨˈstɨ, "whips") were an underground Spiritual Christian sect, which split from the Russian Orthodox Church and existed from the 1600s until the late 20th century.
The New Israel sect that des ...
proclaiming the
Dionysian
The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fr ...
approach to knowledge of Christ, specifically: knowledge not through spirit, but through the flesh.
Notes
References
*
Bibliography
* John MacKay, ''Inscription and Modernity: From Wordsworth to Mandelstam'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006)
1884 births
1937 deaths
People from Vologda Oblast
People from Vytegorsky Uyezd
20th-century Russian poets
Russian male poets
LGBT Christians
Gay writers
Russian LGBT poets
Soviet dissidents
Great Purge victims from Russia
Russian people executed by the Soviet Union
Soviet rehabilitations
{{Russia-poet-stub