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Edvard Strikha: the History of a Literary Mystification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

George Shevelov
George Shevelov*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

Literary mystification is not a new phenomenon. The very use of a pseudonym is, to a certain degree, equivalent to perpetrating a literary hoax. But if an invented biography is added to an imaginary name, a mythical person is created with a life of his own and with a style associated with it. Often, but not necessarily, this style and consequently the whole character of the newly created mythical author acquires a more or less pronounced touch of parody. The preromantic and romantic periods saw a particularly large number of such mystifications.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 1955 , pp. 93 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1955

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References

1 On Koz'ma Prutkov, cf. especially Berkov, P., Koz'ma Prutkov, direktor Probiroj palatki i poèt. K istorii russkoj parodii (Leningrad, 1933).Google Scholar Toward the end of Edvard Strikha's literary activity, there appeared a book exclusively devoted to the problems of literary mystification: Lann, E., Literaturnaia unietifikacija (Moscow-Leningrad, 1930 Google Scholar.

2 Cf. a contemporary collection of parodies by Atamanjuk, V., Literaturni parodij (Kiev, 1930 Google Scholar).

3 The original of this letter, as well as the originals of many other writings by Edvard Strikha from which the present article was drawn, is preserved in the collection of Oksana Burevij's papers (New York). I take this opportunity to thank Miss Burevij for permission to put her materials to use. Adja seems to be a diminutive of Adolph rather than of Edvard. The choice of this form may have been determined by the fact that in Russian slang this name form is sometimes used in the sense of “stupid person” (possibly, by association with idiot).

4 Nova generacija, No. 3 (1927).

5 Ibid.

6 Geo. Škurupij (born in 1903, arrested in the early thirties) was a Ukrainian poet and prose writer near to the futurists. Among his novels are Dveri v den’ and Žanna batal'jonerka.

7 Letter from November 17, 1927. Original preserved among O. Burevij's papers.

8 First printed in the almanac Avangard, No. 3 (Kharkov, 1929). Excerpts reprinted in Arka, No. 6 (Munich, 1947).

9 Nova generacija, No. 3 (1927). Here and in other passages, the italics are minute.

10 One of Kharkov's principal squares. At that time, Kharkov was the capital of the Soviet Ukraine.

11 Nova generacija, ibid.

12 Ibid. This parody aims at Majakovskij rather than at Semenko who was considered, so to speak, as Majakovskij's representative in the Ukraine. Cf. Oblako v štanax, chapter 3.

13 Nova generacija, ibid.

14 Letter dated January 25, 1928. Original preserved among O. Burevij's papers.

15 Semenko's Zozendropija appeared in Nova generacija, No. 4 (1928). In later numbers of the journal, Semenko (using Strikha's name) published Nezrozumika, kryvdno, ale fakt; Rehabilitacija T. H. Ševčenka, and My kydajem pyf ne voda.

16 Poliščvčuk's novel appeared in Avangard (1924-1926).

17 B. Kovalenko, “Na literaturnij birži,” Literaturna hazeta, No. 23 (1929). H. Ovčarov, “Proty miščans'kykh vykhvatok u literaturi,” Krytyka, No. 11 (1930).

18 Manning, Clarence A., Ukraine Under the Soviets (New York, 1953), p. 83 Google Scholar; Naukove Tovarystvo im. Ševčenka, Encyklopedija ukrajinoznavstva (Munich-New York, 1949), I, 779 f. (Article by M. Hlobenko.) These questions are discussed in more detail by G. Luckyj in his Columbia University Dissertation Soviet Ukrainian Literature. A Study in Literary Politics (1953).

19 Nova generacija, No. 3 (1928).

20 First printed in Arka, No. 6 (1947).

21 The poem has never been printed in its entirety. The passage quoted appeared in Arka, No. 6 (1947).

22 Zvenyhora was the title of O. Dovženko's first important film. It depicted the Ukraine across the ages and touched upon the construction of the Dnieper hydroelectric station (Dniprel'stan). The film was never shown outside of the Soviet Union. About Dovženko see e.g., Jacobs, Lewis, The Rise of the American Film (New York, 1939), p. 322 Google Scholar f., and Bardeche, Maurice and Brasillach, Robert, The History of Motion Pictures (New York, 1938), p. 282.Google Scholar

23 On Semenko's Kobzar, cf. p. 106.

24 Cf. Encyklopedija ukrajinoznavstva (1949), I, 992.

25 H. Kvitka-Osnovjanenko's (1778-1843) humorous story Saldats'kyj patret (1833) has of course nothing in common with Wilde's novel, except for the motif of the relationship between the portrait and reality.

26 Letter of Litkontrol' to the publishing house Literatura i mystectvo. Date: November 27, 1930. Original among O. Burevij's papers.

27 Krytyka, No. 5 (1930). It is conceivable that in the opening passages of “Avtoekzekucija” Strikha may have used the data of Lann's book which had recently appeared. Cf. note 1.

28 Only an excerpt of the novel appeared in Červonyj Šljakh, No. 5 (1925).

29 Burevij, Kost', Polubotok. Istoryšna trahedija (Munich, 1948), p. 97 Google Scholar.

30 Burevij, Kost', Evropa čy Rosija? (Moscow, 1926), p. 37 Google Scholar.

31 In Prolitfront, No. 3 (1930), pp. 205-28, Burevij (using the pseudonym of Varvara Žukova) published the article “Fašyzm i futuryzm.” On Prolitfront, cf. Encyklopedija ukrajinoznavstva, I, 780.

32 Mykhajl’ Semenko, Kobzar (Kiev, 1924), p. 627.

33 Except for VUSPP (V seukrajins'ka spilka proletars'kykh pys'mennykiv). But this organization was not considered as a literary body, but rather as a political mouthpiece of the Communist Party in literature.