Siberian steppe in modern aesthetic practices (Konstantin Balmont - Marina Tsvetaeva)

Statement of the problem. The problems of the article are addressed to the methods of cultural development of the vast Siberian steppes in Russian modernism, to the methods of overcoming cultural entropy. The purpose of the article is to describe the parameters of the “steppe” texts by M. Tsvetaeva and K. Balmont, to identify their cultural genealogy. Review of scientific literature on the problem is associated with solving specific problems: identifying ways of authorizing the Siberian text in the poetics of a particular author (works by A. Smith, E. Korkina, and V. Marosha). Research results. The article is devoted to the Siberian texts by K. Balmont and M. Tsvetaeva. In the collection of works by Balmont entitled “Blue Horseshoe. Poems about Siberia”, the perception of the Siberian steppes is built around the concepts of “distance”, “width”, and “freedom”, characteristic of Balmont’s poetry, in principle. In Tsvetaeva’s poem “Siberia”, the steppe theme appears twice: in the exposition of the poem, and also in the second part (the image of the Barabinsk steppe). The sources of Tsvetaeva’s steppe imagery can be considered her individual perception Blok’s “Scythianism”, her direct empirical experience of experiencing the Crimean steppes, as well as her keen interest in the Eurasian theory at the time of writing the poem. Conclusions. Spatial entropy does not become an obstacle for an artist of the modernist formation in the cultural development of space. Each poet creates his own image of the Siberian steppes, based on the available poetic tools, synthesizing creative methods.