How to prove that the period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the Silver Age?
The late 19th and early 20th centuries in Russian culture are called the “Silver Age” (the “Golden Age” of Russian culture is the first third of the 19th century, the Pushkin era). The beginning of the “Silver Age” is considered the 1890s, the emergence of a new literary trend – Russian symbolism.
The end of the Silver Age is more complicated: some researchers believe that it ended with the beginning of the Civil War (1918), others link the end of the Silver Age to 1921 (the year of the death of Alexander Blok and the execution of Nikolai Gumilyov, two leading Russian poets of that era ), the third stretch the “thread” even further – to 1930, the year of the suicide of Vladimir Mayakovsky.
The concept of “Silver Age” implies that this era, for all its high value, is less harmonious and perfect than Pushkin’s “golden age” (silver is a less noble metal than gold). Indeed, this era is also called the era of decadence (decline), since the Silver Age is characterized not only by undoubted cultural achievements and dignity (philosophicalism, sensitivity to the trends of the era, intellectuality, psychologism), but also so-called. decadent motives, a fashion for demonism, sophisticated but painful eroticism, and so on.
However, the “Silver Age” includes not only the Symbolists, who were characterized by pessimistic sentiments (Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Fyodor Sologub and others), but also the “Acmeists” who opposed themselves to the Symbolists, headed by Nikolai Gumilev. The artistic trends of the “Silver Age” also include futurists (this is primarily Mayakovsky …), new peasant poetry (Sergei Yesenin, Nikolai Klyuev, other famous poets).
And at the same time, not all famous writers, poets and artists are representatives of the “Silver Age”. This can be said, for example, about Alexander Kuprin or about Ivan Bunin, who gave a very caustic characterization to almost all prominent representatives of the “Silver Age”.
