“In the depths of Russia”: A survey of provincial life in the literary and artistic context of Petrograd weekly “Our Days” (1915)

Abstract

For the first time, the article specifically analyzes the Petrograd weekly “Our Days” (1915), which belongs to the “forgotten” publications of World War I. Based on emigre periodicals and archival materials, the life and career of G. Polonsky, the editor of this socio-political, literary, artistic and economic journal, is reconstructed. The characteristics of the publication are given: the place among other weeklies of the early 20th century is determined, the editorial program and the position taken on a number of acute social topics are considered. Despite the fact that the journal aspired to the status of a publication that stands above the well-known literary movements, the materials it publishes reveal a consistent view of humanistic values as common to Russian and Western cultures. Metatext links between the materials of the weekly are illustrated by the example of the column “In the depths of Russia”. The socio-psychological content and aesthetic originality of the essays that compiled the column allow us to explore them as one of the forms of interaction between Russian literature and journalism characteristic of the Silver Age. The range of assessments in the depiction of the province on the pages of “Our Days” turned out to be no less wide than the coverage of the phenomena and events of modern life undertaken by the magazine. The authors of the article demonstrate this by the scale of the literary and artistic agenda of the weekly, which, despite the transience of its existence (four March issues), managed to touch upon the topics of higher education, philosophy, literature, music, art, theater. As an appendix, a list of the contents of “Our Days” is given.