Yesenin admired the “revolt of the slaves,” which swept the whole country during the years of the revolution. He also considered it a phenomenon of a truly cosmic scale, in which all the old could collapse and the new appear. The poet himself dreamed of becoming a prophet of a new world. But then his worldview radically changed.
Transformation of views
At first, Yesenin’s attitude to the revolution was naive, and it was determined rather by passions that were seething in his soul, and not by any system of views on future reforms.
It will be very difficult to believe every admirer of Yesenin as a hymn of nature and the village that the following lines belong to his pen.
The sky is like a bell
A month is a language
My mother is the motherland
I am a Bolshevik.
("Jordanian Pigeon")
This is the theme of the revolution in Yesenin’s work at first, when the poet had not yet experienced disappointment from the innovations of the Soviet regime. However, with the onset of 1920, the poet's enthusiasm was replaced by bitter disappointment. And this tragedy is reflected in the poet’s small works: from the enthusiastic “Jordanian Pigeon” to the caustic “Country of Rascals”.
Changing the face of the country
Gradually, urban Russia began to come to replace peasant Russia. New time replaced the old way of life, which was so familiar to the poet. How did Yesenin's attitude to the revolution change? At first, the poet welcomed these changes, tried to adjust himself to them - because his worldview was formed precisely in peasant Russia.
Socialism completely did not live up to the poet's hopes. In it, all living things turned out to be "cramped." Yesenin plunged into deadly longing for the destroyed village, its built-up streets. This seriously affected the mental state of the poet, which was not so stable anyway.
How did events affect the life of the poet?
Yesenin almost always disappeared in the heaviest binges. He began to suffer from a mania of persecution. He constantly had outbreaks of aggression, during which the poet arranged debauchery, broke furniture and beat his famous wife. Many times Isadora Duncan talked about his craziness and made attempts to treat Yesenin with professional American psychiatrists. But it was useless.
Yesenin's attitude to the revolution is reflected in his lines:
That hurricane passed. We have survived a little.
And then disappointment follows:
What is the homeland? Can it be dreams?
Comparison of the views of Mayakovsky and Yesenin
If we talk about Mayakovsky, then his work is turned to the future, and to some extent - to the present. Even if this future and present are somewhat idealized, however, they are real. The attitude towards the revolution of Mayakovsky and Yesenin differs in the orientation of the prospects of their work. Socialism then was based on the expectation of a bright “tomorrow”: today we do not live well, but our children and grandchildren will be happy. Therefore, Mayakovsky lived in the future, all of his work is saturated with faith in the success of the Soviet system. Even Mayakovsky’s love lyrics are connected with the Soviet future. Not only passion connects the poet with a loving person, but also a common cause.
What was Yesenin's attitude towards the revolution, unlike Mayakovsky? Yesenin is all in the past. In it, he was not abandoned, did not suffer from bitter loneliness. He is outside the new generation, but does not relate to the old:
With whom should I share that sad joy that I survived?
The phrase “sad joy” typical of the poet takes on a slightly different meaning. Now Yesenin does not sincerely talk about his broken youth, but sadly states the fact of his loneliness.
After all, for almost everyone here I am a gloomy pilgrim <...> And it's me! I, a citizen of the village, who will be famous only for the fact that here once a woman gave birth to a Russian scandalous pita ...
Wandering and Alienation
The poet writes about complete alienation from society. In his works there are no longer any claims to socialist sentiments. And in the end, Yesenin himself answers any questions about his work:
My poetry is no longer needed here, and perhaps I myself am not needed here either.
In the first place for Yesenin was always a love of nature, for all living things. The nature of the poet is endowed with a soul; she feels herself humanly. Everything in the world is filled with a living spirit.
And Yesenin himself recognizes his own bankruptcy in the new Soviet system. He turns out to be rejected:
I sang when my region was sick.
The poet realizes that the world that was infinitely dear to his heart is now irretrievably lost. And in his work motives of pilgrimage arise:
Yes! Now decided. No refund
I left my native fields ...
Everything that happens begins to cause deep protest and a feeling of disgust in him. Yesenin is trying to find fortifications in the bright memories of childhood, his native home and that Russia that he lost. But even here, anxiety haunts the poet. Yesenin concludes that the reason for the changes that were unacceptable to him is in the revolution.
Village devastation and emotional drama of the poet
Yesenin's attitude to the revolution is filled with criticism, rejection. The poet himself sincerely repents that he was of the opinion that her ideas were correct.
The dramas of the poet in the final years of his life are associated with the onset of political change. And if Yesenin's early poetry is filled with the adoption of new orders and the slogan “Earth to the peasants!” Is supported in it, then the late Yesenin sees all the devastation. The poet begins to reject the new order by all means. Yesenin’s attitude to the revolution is expressed in such works as “Homecoming,” “Mother’s Letter” and others.
For example, in the work “Return to Homeland”, one can observe how the revolution had an impact on the life of rural residents. The lyrical hero, having returned to his native land, cannot recognize his own people, his own home. He sadly understands that his native land has now become a stranger to him. The poetic world is faced with suffocating reality:
I look sadly at the neighborhood:
What a strange place for me!
This is the cause of emotional drama. The same discord can be observed in the work “Uncomfortable Liquid Moon”, in the lines of which the poet expresses complete indifference to the world around him. This indifference horrifies the lyrical hero:
I became indifferent to the rays
And the man-fire is not nice to me.
But the poet does not put an end to Russia completely. It is painful for him to observe that his country is suffering poverty and humiliation. He calls her:
Field Russia! Pretty
Dragging plow through the fields.
The mood of the collection "Transfiguration"
Yesenin's first poetic collection, which was released after the revolution, is called Transfiguration. The name reflects the mood of the poet at that time: the poet himself and the world around him are changing. In the first work entitled "Inonia" it is written about the joy of the coming of the Savior. Soon new times are coming in the fate of the peoples. Yesenin looks at himself as a prophet, his impudent words are addressed to the biblical prophet Jeremiah. The lyrical hero enters into a polemic with the canons of Christian morality.
I saw the coming differently -
Where death does not dance over the truth.
A new religion should come to the people without torment and the "cross." Now everything should be different. Therefore, the country of the future is called "Inonia." The paradise that the poet dreams of is a completely rural, rustic paradise. It has a place for cornfields and fields, deep rivers and the gold of ripening wheat. Other works of this collection were also filled with this expectation.
What did the revolution turn into?
It would seem that the poet's dreams come true. In the life of the country there is a profound revolution. And here one can expect enthusiasm from the poet, but everything turns out to be much more painful and difficult for him. Instead of the “peasant's paradise” that Sergey Alexandrovich was waiting for, the eyes of the poet appear to be a state torn by wars, devastated by devastation. All this becomes unbearable for the singer of a peaceful, idyllic village life.
What is Yesenin observing now? Cold and cold, the sky is in clouds. Now “evil October" reigns, which will soon swallow green groves. That is how the poet conveys the atmosphere of the current era. Social conflict is becoming universal. Man falls away from nature. And the hero himself refuses to join the madness reigning around.
I won’t go anywhere with people
Better die together with you
How to raise land with your beloved
In the crazy dipped stone.
Yesenin’s attitude to the revolution can be briefly described as follows: the poet does not seek to reject the current government - he simply cannot understand the Soviet way, he feels himself to be completely superfluous. And she does not forgive such an appeal: after the tragic death of Yesenin, his name and poetry were forbidden. For the first time they began to remember him with kind words only at the beginning of World War II, when it was foolish to deny Yesenin's contribution to Russian poetry.