Introduction: V. F. Pereverzev, 1882-1968

Valer'ian Fedorovich Pereverzev founded the Pereverzev School of Marxist poetics in the 1920s, one of the most turbulent periods in Russian letters. The decade immediately following the 1917 Revolution was a period of enormous social, political, and cultural upheaval. The breakdown of the old regime affected all areas of human endeavor as attempts were made to redefine and reevaluate traditional concepts and values in the new Marxist-Leninist society. In the sphere of literary criticism and theory an enormous variety of critical theories and styles based on them grew out of the search for new forms and possibilities in art. Experimentation and free competition among the many literary groups were encouraged by the Party's moderate position in the early and midtwenties. Party neutrality made it possible for both Marxist and non-Marxist critics to engage in serious literary work on poetics in an effort to solve complex problems in the theory of art.