The final days of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva

February 28, 2015 6:51 PM

On Tsvetaeva, tragedy and the end of the tsarist era. There's a whole series of these articles about Russian poets told through their last days. A bit morbid, but quite appropriate tributes to the artists, as well as a good starting-point for those interested in Russian poetry.
posted by averysmallcat (3 comments total)

These are fascinating portraits--thank you.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:09 AM on March 1, 2015

An interesting series, but grim -- there can be few countries so many of whose great poets have had such terrible final days as Russia.
posted by languagehat at 6:44 AM on March 1, 2015

I read Russian novelists of the eighteeth century, last summer. I learned the novel was not a preferred literary form in that era, that Russians preferred to write poetry, across the board. Where there are relatively few novels, there has to be an enormous cache of poetry. I think the twentieth centiry was difficult in Russia, unimaginably so, the nineteeth could have only been better by virtue of fewer people using the resources at hand. It would take more than a couple of generations to recover from feudalism, revolution, and then WW2.
posted by Oyéah at 9:47 AM on March 1, 2015