The Circle of <i>Hermes</i>
The essay reconstructs history of a literary circle of authors united under the auspices of Hermes, a typewritten magazine edited in Moscow in the first half of the 1920s. These “poets-
philologists” published three full issues of the magazine, 12 copies each. The fourth issue was
prepared in just one copy and the authors considered it “unpublished.” Later they edited two
typewritten almanacs: Mnemosyne and Hyperborean. The first part of the essay describes how
the fourth and last issue of Hermes was collected and edited. Its preparation was accompanied
by dramatic encumbrances caused by both external and internal circumstances, the most tragic
of which was the death of Maksim Kenigsberg (1900–1924) one of the founders of the Hermes circle. Nina Wolkenau (1901‒1973?), who took his place as a chief editor was forced to
cease the publication. The second part of the essay discusses the composition of authors represented in the fourth issue of Hermes, in particular those who joined the magazine from other
Moscow literary associations, like Kifara and Green Lamp. Further, the table of contents of
that “unpublished” issue is presented here with necessary commentary. A separate supplement
is dedicated to a collection of poems by the authors of Hermes, either dedicated to members
of this association, or directly related to the magazine itself. The third part of the essay, Addenda ad volumen, complements previous scholarly incursions regarding the circle of Hermes
with the unpublished materials from the final issue of the magazine. These are Nina
Wolkenau’s review of Mikhail Kuzmin’s book Novyi Gul’ (Leningrad, 1924), and Maksim
Kenigsberg’s discussion of Pavel Muratov’s collection of novellas Moralí (Berlin, 1923),
where he also wrote about Kuzmin’s art of prose. Another publication is Lev Gornung’s review of the posthumous collection of Nikolai Gumiliov’s poems K Sinei Zvezde (Berlin,
1923) Gornung published another version of that review in a printed “almanac of poetry and
criticism” Even and Odd (Moscow, 1925) edited by the same circle of authors, as Hermes.
The final supplement includes two other reviews of the Gumiliov’s collection. The émigré
publication of K Sinei Zvezde was a significant event in the Soviet underground culture. The
poems included in this book became a “lovers’ code” for young Russian readers of the 1920s.
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The Circle of <i>Hermes</i> // Сюжетология и сюжетография. 2020. № 1. Pp. 291–372. DOI: 10.25205/2410-7883-2020-1-291-372.