Word: yevtushenko
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Dates: during 1963-1963
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Inevitably, Yevtushenko has come to his role as social critic through a desire to purify the Revolution, and hark back to the principles of Lenin and Marx. This was not always his mission, but there were portents of it in his early youth. The Autobiography as a chronical of Yevtushenko's political development--a side of the man which transcends his poetry--is a valuable work...
...discussing the genesis of his life as a poet, Yevtushenko manifests a strong sense of tradition and loyalty. He writes of the love of learning handed down to him by his father, and of two poets who first encouraged his endeavor. "Once, they had both wanted to become writers but so far neither had succeeded. And now they saw in me their own youth, and wanted me to fulfill its frustrated promise...
...first book was a monumental failure, and of it Yevtushenko writes: "Who could care about my pretty rhymes and striking images if they were nothing but curlicues decorating a vacuum?" So he turned outward, and began to become aware of "the beautiful ... world of real people." At the same time, the young Yevtushenko was deeply imbued with "the romantic ideals of the workers and soldiers who stormed the Winter Palace in 1917," and looked upon the world "with a revolutionary's scornful gaze...
Thus a conflict appeared between Yevtushenko's poetic concerns and his political ones. He believed in the Revolution, but devoted his poetry to other topics. The conflict was finally resolved by the most important event in the young man's life--the death of Stalin in 1953. He writes: "After Stalin's death, when Russia was going through a very difficult moment of her inner life. I became convinced that I had no right to cultivate my Japanese garden of poetry...
...political man Yevtushenko remains true to, indeed ardently pursues the professed ideals of Soviet society. But he has his own ideas about how these ideals can best be realized, and these do not always jibe with official inclinations...