Acmeism in S.M. Gorodetsky’s assessment (newspaper and journal publications of 1916-1921). Article 2

The paper continues to examine the evolution of S.M. Gorodetsky’s attitude to Acmeism, the work of its representatives and participants of the “Guild of Poets” during the First World War, as well as the first post-revolutionary years. Based on the material of Gorodetsky’s critical and literary texts published in 1916-1921, it is shown that at that time he gradually changed his views on Acmeism and its artistic and worldview principles, finally revising them by the early 1920s. At the same time, Gorodetsky was convinced of the positive impact of joint club work on the texts of the members of the “Guild of Poets”, speaking in print from the position of the master of the literary school, which, as he believed, did not cease to exist and continued to occupy an important place in the literary process, opposing symbolism. The “Guild” remained for Gorodetsky an exemplary form of poetic organization, the acmeistic traditions of which he followed during his cultural and educational activities in Transcaucasia, creating the Tiflis “Guild of Poets” and emphasizing its continuity with the St. Petersburg association of the same name, which is also confirmed by the memories of the participants of the Tiflis circle. A sharp change in attitude towards Acmeism and its representatives (first of all, another of its theorists, N.S. Gumilev), which originated with Gorodetsky in 1920-1921, had ideological reasons, but the attitude towards the legacy of the literary school was not unambiguously negative. A number of its aesthetic principles and worldview positions remained valuable for the poet in the soviet period.