Poet-Fronliners (
Russian: Поэты-фронтовики,
lit: Poet-Frontliners, also known as the War Generation and Front Poets) is a name applied to the young
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 ...
n poets whose youth was spent fighting in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and whose best poems reflect upon wartime experiences.
Frontliners also included painters and cinematographers.
The year 1924 is regarded as the beginning of the "Poet-Frontliners" generation, as many of the poets within this movement were students and young adults at the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. However, others regard the "Front-Line poets" as being those around in their early 20s at the beginning of the
Great Patriotic War
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...
.
History
Following the return of the artists who had been sent to the front in the 1940s, they were keen on sharing their experiences with their respective artforms. Because of the horror of what they witnessed, there was a desire to showcase how their worldviews had been drastically altered thanks to the war. According to Dr. Alexander Gribkov, "Even during the war, these poets expressed both the strength of the human spirit and the strength of national consciousness, which would become the key to our victory, in a simple, poetic language understandable to every reader, without using ideological clichés."
As Soviet poetry scholar Vera Sandomirsky notes, one of the most acclaimed "Front Poets" was
Konstantin Simonov
Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, born Kirill Mikhailovich Simonov (russian: link= no, Константин Михайлович Симонов, – 28 August 1979), was a Soviet author, war poet, playwright and wartime correspondent, arguabl ...
. In his poetry, he notes how the Russian peasants were mistreated by German forces and thus were forced to protect their homeland despite their inadequate political expertise (''politgramotnost'').
Themes
A hallmark of the works created by those sent to the war was the realistic depiction of war and the toll it takes on the idea of post-war optimism.
Another tenant of Front-line poetry is a religion and the liberation of one's fear over death.
The poetry, while lacking in organizational complexity and sophistication, was directly connected with the experiences of fighting and the resulting psychological impact.
In Vera Sandomirsky's words:
Venue
Front-line poetry was written in the spaces of war, meaning factories,
trenches
A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).
In geology, trenches result from eros ...
, and other venues close to the battle area. Because of its cathartic element, it was often spoken in the same spaces it was written.
Notable Poets
Among the most well-known of the "Poet-Frontliners"
include:
#
Vasily Semenovich Grossman
#
Yulia Vladimirovna Drunina
#
Alexander Petrovich Mezhirov
# Sergei Sergeevich Orlov
# Nikolai Mayorov
#
Musa Cälil
Musa Cälil ( tt-Cyrl, Муса Җәлил, translit=Musa Çəlil, ; russian: Муса Джалиль; 25 August 1944) was a Soviet–Tatar poet and resistance fighter. He is the only poet of the Soviet Union awarded simultaneously the Hero of t ...
#
Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (russian: link=no, Булат Шалвович Окуджава; ka, ბულატ ოკუჯავა; hy, Բուլատ Օկուջավա; May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musici ...
#
Pavel Kogan Pavel Kogan is the name of:
*Pavel Kogan (poet) (1918–1942), Soviet poet
*Pavel Kogan (conductor)
Pavel Leonidovich Kogan (Russian: Павел Леонидович Коган; born 6 June 1952 in Moscow) is a Russian violinist and conductor wh ...
#
Elena Shirman
#
Yuri Bondarev
Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev (russian: link=no, Юрий Васильевич Бондарев, 15 March 1924 — 29 March 2020) was a Soviet and Russian writer and screenwriter. He was best known for co-authoring the script for the serial film fran ...
# Joseph Utkin
# Boris Kostrov
# Boris Smolensky
List of Other Poets
* Alexander Artyomov (1912-1942)
*
Eduard Asadov (1923-2004)
* Vsevolod Bagritsky (1922-1942)
* Bronislav Kezhun (1914 - 1984)
* Yuri Belash (1920-1988)
* Evgeny Vinokurov (1925-1993)
* Pavel Vintman (1918-1942)
* Semyon Gudzenko (1922-1953)
* Ion Degen (1925-2017)
* Mustai Karim (1919-2005)
* Fatih Karim (1909-1945)
* Pavel Kogan (1918-1942)
* Mikhail Kulchitsky (1919-1943)
* Konstantin Levin (1924-1984)
* Yuri Levitansky (1922-1996)
* Semyon Lipkin (1911-2003)
* Mark Lisyansky (1913-1993)
* Mikhail Lvov (1918-1988)
* Nikolai Mayorov (1919-1942)
* Alexander Mezhirov (1923-2009)
* Sergei Ostrovoy (1911-2005)
* Nikolai Panchenko (1924-2005)
* Alexander Revich (1921-2012)
* Nikolai Rylenkov (1909-1969)
* David Samoilov (1920-1990)
* Yan Satunovsky (1913-1982)
* Mikhail Svetlov (1903-1964)
* Ilya Selvinsky (1899-1968)
* Konstantin Simonov (1915-1979)
* Boris Slutsky (1919-1986)
* Yaroslav Smelyakov (1913-1972)
* Nikolai Starshinov (1924-1998)
* Vadim Strelchenko (1912-194?)
* Georgy Suvorov (1919-1944)
* Alexey Surkov (1899-1983)
* Fedor Sukhov (1922-1992)
* Arseny Tarkovsky (1907-1989)
* Alexander Tvardovsky (1910-1971)
*
Nikolai Tikhonov
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov (russian: Николай Александрович Тихонов; ukr, Микола Олександрович Тихонов; – 1 June 1997) was a Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War. H ...
(1896-1979)
* Joseph Utkin (1903-1944)
* Alexey Fatyanov (1919-1959)
* Pavel Shubin (1914-1951)
* Habib Yusufi (1916-1945)
Gallery
File:Ваншенкин 2003.jpg, Konstantin Yakovlevich Vanshenkin (1925-2012)
File:Elena Shirman.jpg, Elena Mihailovna Shirman (1908–1942)
File:A P Mezhirov 1980.jpg, Alexander Mezhirov (1923-2009)
File:Писатель Николай Семёнович Тихонов.jpg, Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov (1896-1979)
File:Ilya Ehrenburg 1960s.jpg, Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (1891-1967)
File:Yury Bondarev 2014.jpg, Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev (1924-2020)
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F1019-0039-001, Berlin, Konstantin Simonow.jpg, Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov (1915-1979)
20th-century Russian poets
Soviet poets
References
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