Anna Barkova’s ‘Zhideleviade’

Abstract

Critic and scholar of 20th-century Russian poetry E. Pogorelaya talks about little-known events in the life of poet Anna Barkova: namely, her relationship with N. Zhidelyov, a Bolshevik who chaired the Ivanovo-Vosnesenk Revolutionary Tribunal and a dedicatee of her first collection of poetry A Woman [Zhenshchina] (1922). Staff journalist and chronicler of the newspaper Rabochiy Kray under A. Voronsky’s editorship in 1918–1921, Barkova produced several poetic cycles, where the motifs of parting with the past are intertwined with the themes of first love and self-identification as a poet. The article describes the transformation of Barkova’s poetics and subjects following her acquaintance with Zhidelyov and explains which facts of his biography and details of her and Zhidelyov’s personal relationship particularly resonate with the young lyric poet. Biographical information is supplemented with an analysis of Barkova’s early poetic work and a summary of the response A Woman received from Proletkult-affiliated poets and other readers.