Information about the author:
Vera N.Terekhina, Director of Research,DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8708-9914
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Abstract: The confrontation between I.A. Bunin and V.V. Mayakovsky became a fact not only of their biography, but a significant phenomenon of the history of Russian literature of the 20th century. In the post-revolutionary years the political intransigence of writers increased. Later Bunin transferred ideological rejection from personality to the work of the poet, and discredited not only works used by Stalin’s propaganda, but also pre-revolutionary. The analysis of poetics undertaken by him served to confirm the initially negative concept: “Mayakovsky is the greatest bully of Russian literature”. Mayakovsky’s slogan is also known: “Enough with Buninshchina!” The article focuses on new aspects of the topic and reveals the peculiarities of the long confrontation of writers, the ambiguous nature of their mutual interest and assessments. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of episodes from Bunin’s books “Cursed Days”, “Memories,” as well as publications in the émigré periodicals. For the first time, the article examines cases of convergence of their judgments, gives examples of similar motives and common sources of creativity. Thus, the view on the personality and creativity of writers is complicated, the idea of the literary process in emigration and the metropolis is enriched with new facts.