PUSHKIN AND THE MUZHIKS REVISITED: Towards the sociology of the Pushkin’s Narodnost and the History of the Mass Reading of Classics in the 1920s

Abstract

This article focuses on the problem of appropriating classical literary heritage within socialist (“proletarian”) culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Over the years, this problem was characterized by varying degrees of theoretical and methodological pluralism in approaches to its resolution. However, by the late 1920s, political and ideological dynamics led to the initial diversity of strategies for appropriating the classics being suppressed by the industrialist orientation of Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP) theorists. A. V. Lunacharsky’s conception of the classics as a source of technical mastery for proletarian authors also made a significant contribution to the formation of official doctrine. At the same time, extensive efforts were underway to introduce classical texts — especially Pushkin’s — into cultural circulation through a system of public libraries and literary circles operating within large industrial enterprises. The article’s analysis of the activities of the “Motor” circle at the Podolsk Mechanical Plant demonstrates the hybrid nature of this work — the appendix includes two records of lessons entirely devoted to Pushkin’s texts. Particular attention is paid to the notion of the popular nature of Pushkin’s work, the origins of which are found in the highly ideological and completely party-controlled sphere of “mass” reading, including in organizational work with aspiring writers in literary circles.