The civil war in the poetic work of M.M. Shkapskaya: the evolution of the theme of “devilry” in the context of imagist poetry

The article is devoted to the topic of “devilry” in the poetic work of M.M. Shkapskaya during the Civil War. The author compares her poem “Yav” with a selection of poems by A.B. Marienhoff in the imagist collection “Yav” of 1919. Both poets turn to the mythologeme of the epiphany. In the case of Marienhof, we are talking about the false coming of the Messiah. In a selection of 14 poems, the poet depicts a picture of demonic revelry during the Civil War. Evil spirits, hiding behind a collective lyrical subject, declare the creation of a world without a Christian God. In this coordinate system, the new Sabaoth and other «saints» (for example, Barabbas) are born in Moscow as the capital of the Bolshevik state. The finale of the poet’s cosmogony remains open. In Shkapskaya’s work, written in 1919, but published separately in 1923, the plot of the execution during the Civil War turns into a mystery action about an unrecognized epiphany. If the reality in Marienhof’s poetry is that the demonic element openly seeks to create a new world order centered in Moscow, then Shkapskaya has these “demons” in the person of the Bryansk echelon passing through a provincial town (the author does not specify where the action takes place, in a city, village or village), arise for a short time, and then they disappear. But they become the cause of the tragedy happening to this area - the exodus of heavenly patrons and the loss of holiness by the church. The townsfolk, whose replicas are given significant parts of the poem, find themselves in the position of God-forsaken, without the patronage of higher powers.