Evolution of S.A. Esenin’s attitude to the First World War

The article comprehensively analyzes S.A. Esenin’s poetic responses of 1914-1915 on the events of the First World War (1914-1918) and comprehension of its results in the poem ‘Anna Snegina” (1925), created in the mature period of Esenin’s creativity. This made it possible to reveal the poet’s attitude to the events that he personally witnessed. Different aspects of the war are indicated in the early works: specific historical events in Europe (“Galki”, “Belgium”, “Greece”, “Poland”), the prowess of Russian soldiers (“Bogatyrsky Posvist”, “The Udalets”), the grief of mothers and brides (“The Mother’s Prayer”, “The Patterns”), seeing off recruits (“Through the Village by the Crooked Path...”), the life and fate of the village (“Rus”, “You are My Abandoned Land...”, “Flied Like a Stray Bird...”, “Wake”). The first poetic responses are connected with military events that were actively discussed in society and covered in periodicals, as well as with the belief in the success of the Russian army. Soon the main result of Russia’s participation in the First World War for Esenin became the death of soldiers, which is emphasized by the motives of mourning the dead, funerals and wakes. Seven years after the end of the war in “Anna Snegina” Esenin noted its senselessness, which was expressed mainly in the mass killings of ordinary people. Another result of the war is the appearance of “freaks and cripples”. It is associated with the personal impressions of Esenin, who served in the military as part of the orderlies team of the Field Tsarskoye Selo Military Sanitary Train No. 143. The humanistic position of the poet was manifested in the perception of war as a phenomenon unnatural to human nature.