PERIPETIA OF POETICS BY V. ZAZUBRIN
IN THE MIRROR OF LITERARY DESTINY
(ON THE NOVEL “TWO WORLDS” AND THE STORY “SLIVER”)

The article examines the poetics of two most distinguished works by V. Zazubrin (1895–
1937): the novel “Two Worlds” (1921) and the story “Sliver” (1922). These works belong to the
author’ early period when both his artistic personality and the peculiarities of his artistic language
were under development. This process was tightly linked with the adventurous turns of
Zazubrin’s biography. Having started his military career as a cadet of Irkutsk Military Academy,
Zazubrin got enlisted in Kolchak’s Volunteer Army, and after its defeat went across to the Red
Army. The personal experience of being both “white” and “red” during the Civil War made the
basis for the “Two Worlds”. The novel’s initial chapters are written in a clear-cut contrast style:
while peaceful scenes are characterized by a quiet flow of the narrative, in the war chapters
the plasticity of the poetic language gives place to sharp, terse sentences. The expressive style
which thus becomes dominant is appropriate to the novel’s main theme: the duel of the two
worlds. The novel plot also undergoes change. Initially the plot corresponded to the confession of the autobiographical pacifist-like character bearing arms under Kolchak. However, in progress
the author changes his humanistic message into propaganda which also makes difference to the
novel’s poetics becoming focused on naturalistic details of numerous murders, deaths. In accordance
with the propaganda task the Kolchakians are the main horror bearers in “Two Worlds”.
This position was significantly influenced by the author’s desire to present himself as a strong
revolutionary done with his White Guard background. The lack of plasticity in the narration and
flexibility in characters, the focus on hero-mass, the undisguised propaganda impulse indicate that
“Two Worlds” belong to the avant-garde type of artistry. In the story “Sliver” Zazubrin changes
his manner in picturing the Revolution, choosing the revolutionary terror as the main topic.
Zazubrin examines the topic from within the introspecting mind of the main character who shoots
his victims in Cheka basements, demonstrating his moral tortures, the process of his gradual running
mad. The bloody routine of Cheka is painted in colors of both physical and moral decomposition.
The description of the hero’s madness incorporates a great number of allusions to Dostoyevsky’s
works and his hallucinating characters (Golyadkin, Raskolnikov, Ivan Karamazov). This
author’s willful deviation from the canonical description of the Revolution appeared inadmissible:
“Sliver” was never published in any Soviet edition. In general the analysis of the novel and the
story showed that Zazubrin’s creative thinking turned out to be more extensional than the ideological
frame by which he attempted to limit his artistic word. The poetic structure of both texts reveals
the complexity of the author’s artistic language where his preceding literary experience was
creatively mingled with contemporary tendencies, first of all with the practice of avant-garde
writing extended to the poetics of absurdity.