540:, which can broadly be defined as the idea that the power of a work of art depends on how effectively it defies norms and subverts audiences’ expectations, is one of the most important and long-standing ideas in Formalist theory. It emerges as early as 1916, in Viktor Shklovsky's manifesto “Art as Device.” It is therefore unsurprising that several of the articles explain Lenin's ability to communicate ideas effectively, an end he achieved through successfully “defamiliarizing,” or disrupting, stale, established revolutionary language. As Shklovsky writes, “His style consists in downplaying the revolutionary phrase, in replacing its traditional words with workaday synonyms.” Tynyanov also pays attention to this aspect of Lenin's style, arguing that Lenin was always intently focused on whether or not the words that he was using at a given moment were “in sync” with the material realities that they were meant to describe, and that this attention to specificity was more important for Lenin than pretty-sounding turns of phrase.
571:
Lenin supplies all the typical traits of his own lexicon.” Lenin not only avoided “flowery,” cliché phrases in his work, but also actively strove to introduce “rude,” everyday words and ideas into his writing. This was extremely uncommon at the time, and therefore made him more memorable as a rhetorician: “They appeal to everyday life, and link up with everyone’s daily, ubiquitous speech. Consequently, they extend the most solid, quantitatively and qualitatively mundane associative ties between speaker and listener.” Tynyanov is especially interested in this aspect of Lenin's style: it is connected with his own interest in parody, which he believed to be the artistic device that spurred literary evolution and the development of new forms of art.
580:
admits: “the realm of so-called practical language is extremely broad and varied… As for such forms as oration, despite its seemingly practical character, it is quite like poetic speech. Poetic speech is typified only by a particular attitude to discrete discursive elements and their specific use, especially in poetry.” In this sense, the Lenin issue represents a turning point in
Formalist thought. They are applying concepts originally devised for poetic analysis to “prosaic” work, which furthers their project by demonstrating that Formalism's theoretical concepts, like defamiliarization and parodic evolution, need not be restricted to the study of art.
584:
questions of maintaining
Bolshevik power than in any larger ideal. Moreover, by presenting Lenin as an ironic, flexible thinker, the Formalists subtly appropriated the Soviet leader for themselves. For as Ilya Kalinin writes, “their engagement with the figure of Lenin, which was only beginning to be canonized but already possessed an exceedingly powerful symbolic significance and social charge, for the sake of providing themselves with additional, political legitimation for their conceptions about the nature of poetic language, led to far-reaching theoretical consequences.”
529:, or were associated with them. Accordingly, their contributions to this issue of LEF focus on Lenin's specific rhetorical techniques, and not on his broader historical or social importance, which is only alluded to in passing in the articles. Since these authors share certain theoretical assumptions about language and rhetoric, moreover, the articles often overlap in the specific topics of their investigations, and produce a stable group of core conclusions about Lenin's style.
603:, conversely, stridently criticized the issue, claiming that it proved Shklovsky and his compatriots to be sycophants for the Communist government. However, although he found the critics’ language to be evasive, he admitted that their theoretical observations were justified. The issue has received relatively little mention in the West: Victor Erlich refers to Lenin's rhetoric as an “essentially bleak” topic that did not merit the attention lavished upon it. More recently,
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significance for future generations. In
Mayakovsky's words, “Don’t take away his living gait and human traits, which he was able to preserve as he guided history. Lenin is still our contemporary. He is among the living. We need him alive, not dead.” The other articles do not explicitly develop this point, although they do focus on certain unusual, “human” particularities of Lenin's style.
474:’s death on January 21, 1924, LEF’s first issue of the year dedicated its critical section to the Soviet leader (though the publication’s artistic prose and poetry were not Lenin-themed). These critical articles mainly focused on an analysis of Lenin’s writing and his oratory: this is because the Formalist critic
579:
Although the
Formalists were sometimes accused by their opponents of being pure aesthetes, who were attempting entirely to separate art from reality, their work on Lenin reveals that this charge was not entirely accurate. After all, Lenin's journalism and speeches were not art, as Eikhenbaum readily
570:
helped him develop a unique, striking rhetorical voice, since he was careful to oppose his opponents both ideologically and stylistically: “Lenin’s polemic itself was a significant shift in the tradition and realm of
Russian oratory and Russian journalism. In his analysis of his opponent’s lexicon,
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As a result of Lenin's defamiliarization, his speeches and writing begin to seem “artless” in their straightforwardness. Kazansky, along with others, acknowledges this explicitly: “Lenin’s discourse always comes across as direct, artless, even colorless and indifferent… but this is not so.” The
583:
Shklovsky's original interest in analyzing Lenin may have been prompted by the ongoing polemic between the
Formalists and more orthodox Marxist critics, like Leon Trotsky. The overall effect of LEF's Lenin issue is that Lenin is presented as deeply pragmatic, more interested in the day-to-day
482:
did, however, contribute an unsigned editorial to the issue, in which he criticized the newly-forming habit of Soviet authorities to “canonize” Lenin by mass-producing commercial objects with his portrait or likeness on them. The editorial argued that this practice would undermine Lenin's
565:
Another essential element of Lenin's success was his willingness to openly mock his enemies, both in print and in his speeches. Eikhenbaum and
Tynyanov suggest that Lenin's constant criticism of writings from tsarists and those socialist parties that were opposed to the
553:) and convinced his audience of his sincerity: “Nobody suspects Lenin’s discourse of artificiality and pretentiousness: it is utterly pragmatic.” Eikhenbaum and Shklovsky suggest that Lenin shares this quality with established writers, such as
549:
Formalists do not intend this to be a criticism of Lenin's rhetoric: they instead argue that his atypical style was a pragmatic and effective rhetorical device itself, one that both set Lenin apart from his contemporaries and rivals (e.g.,
224:('New LEF'). The journal's objective, as set out in one of its first issues, was to "re-examine the ideology and practices of so-called leftist art, and to abandon individualism to increase art's value for developing communism."
331:': the idea that new technologies such as photography and film should be utilised by the working class for the production of 'factographic' works. In this it had a great deal of influence on theorists in the West, especially
611:, claiming that it served as an example of how the Soviet avant-garde inadvertently helped canonize Lenin after his death. He does not, however, discuss the actual content of the articles.
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643:"Soviet Film 1920s: Translations from LEF, Novy LEF, Brik, Kuleshov, Shklovsky, Vertov. Mayakovsky Film Scenarios. Politics and Production: The work of Godard. Marinetti and Mayakovsky"
1135:
1120:
994:
Eisen, Samuel (1996). "Whose Lenin Is It Anyway? Viktor
Shklovsky, Boris Eikhenbaum and the Formalist-Marxist Debate in Soviet Cultural Politics (A View from the Twenties)".
675:
Eisen, Samuel (1996). "Whose Lenin Is It Anyway? Viktor
Shklovsky, Boris Eikhenbaum and the Formalist-Marxist Debate in Soviet Cultural Politics (A View from the Twenties)".
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599:, who went on to write and publish his own analysis of Lenin's language in the following year, heavily citing the LEF critics in his work. The emigre poet
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closed in 1929 over a dispute over its direction between
Mayakovsky and Tretyakov, and under pressure for its 'Formalism', which jarred with the incipient
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and Mayakovsky. In his article, Yakubinsky uses the word “deflation” to describe Lenin's antipathy to the traditional high style of Russian oratory.
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In total, six writers contributed articles to the critical section of the issue. Their names and the titles of their works follow:
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5. Boris Kazansky - "Lenin's Speech - An Attempt at Rhetorical Analysis" («Речь Ленина: Опыт риторического анализа»)
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was catholic in its choices of writers, it broadly reflected the concerns of the Productivist left-wing of
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297:. The journal had funding from the state, and was discussed critically, but not unsympathetically by
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3. Lev Yakubinsky - "On Lenin's Deflation of the High Style" («О снижении высокого стиля у Ленина»)
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323:), which was edited by Mayakovsky along with the playwright, screenplay writer and photographer
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497:- "Basic Stylistic Tendencies in Lenin's Speech" («Основные стилевые тенденции в речи Ленина»)
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Kalinin, Ilya (2018). "Kak sdelan yazyk Lenina: material istorii i priem ideologii".
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339:. Linked journals also appeared such as the Constructivist architectural journal
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218:. It had two runs, one from 1923 to 1925 as LEF, and later from 1927 to 1929 as
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entitled, "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste". The covers were designed by
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critic and one a poet and designer who helped compose the 1912 manifesto of
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All of these men either belonged to one of two Formalist collectives,
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1007:
951:
Permanent Evolution: Selected Essays on Literature, Theory and Film
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587:
Reactions to LEF's interpretation of Lenin have varied. Within the
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1. Shklovsky - "Lenin as Decanonizer" («Ленин, как деканонизатор»)
1100:, Department of Literature and Languages, 1954, Volume 8, Issue 4
1065:
Modernism and Revolution : Russian Literature in Transition
507:- "Lenin's Lexicon as a Polemicist" («Словарь Ленина-полемиста»)
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independently organized the project and presented it to LEF.
15:
1031:
Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universiteta. Yazyk I Literatura
517:- "The Construction of the Theses" («Конструкция тезисов»)
287:, as well as more political and journalistic works like
1096:
Victor Osipovich Pertsov (1954), 'Mayakovsky and LEF',
525:(The Society For the Study of Poetic Language) and the
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writers, photographers, critics and designers in the
1082:. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 68.
1067:. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 220.
710:Mayakovsky, Vladimir (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
181:
173:
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137:
46:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
660:Yablonskaya, M. N. (1971). Parton, Anthony (ed.).
981:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
936:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
921:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
906:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
891:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
877:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
862:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
847:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
817:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
815:Tomashevsky, Boris (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
712:Coiled Verbal Spring: Devices of Lenin's Language
1171:Literary magazines published in the Soviet Union
979:Eikhenbaum, Boris (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
904:Eikhenbaum, Boris (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
845:Shklovsky, Viktor (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
275:for the first time were Mayakovsky's long poem
1136:Defunct literary magazines published in Europe
875:Kazansky, Boris (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
1050:Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v 8 tomakh, vol. 2
934:Tynyanov, Yuri (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
860:Tynyanov, Yuri (2018). Boynik, Sezgin (ed.).
8:
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1098:News of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
953:. Academic Studies Press. pp. 294–328.
742:"Основные стилевые тенденции в речи Ленина"
662:Women Artists of Russias New Age: 1900-1935
1121:1929 disestablishments in the Soviet Union
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117:
893:. Rab-Rab Press. 2018. pp. 156, 227.
787:"Речь Ленина: Опыт риторического анализа"
206:("Левый фронт искусств" –
106:Learn how and when to remove this message
1141:Magazines published in the Soviet Union
1116:1923 establishments in the Soviet Union
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1052:. Moscow: Russkii put. pp. 306–9.
834:. Dalkey Archive Press. pp. 1–15.
1126:Russian artist groups and collectives
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757:"О снижении высокого стиля у Ленина"
591:, it was received positively by the
132:The first two issues of the journal.
44:adding citations to reliable sources
923:. Rab-Rab Press. pp. 157, 215.
576:Poetic devices in “prosaic” speech:
327:, tried to popularise the idea of '
210:), a widely ranging association of
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664:. New York: Rizzoli. p. 153.
1151:Magazines disestablished in 1929
908:. Rab-Rab Press. pp. 170–1.
607:mentioned the issue in his book
271:Among the writings published in
20:
1048:Khodasevich, Vladislav (2010).
31:needs additional citations for
319:("Новый ЛЕФ" –
1:
1146:Magazines established in 1923
983:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 155.
938:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 216.
879:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 226.
864:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 212.
849:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 152.
819:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 264.
714:. Rab-Rab Press. p. 148.
919:Boynik, Sezgin, ed. (2018).
143:; 101 years ago
649:. Vol. 12, no. 4.
161:; 95 years ago
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1166:Russian-language magazines
1080:The Total Art of Stalinism
830:Shklovsky, Viktor (1990).
772:"Словарь Ленина-полемиста"
727:"Ленин, как деканонизатор"
609:The Total Art of Stalinism
285:The Montage of Attractions
202:") was the journal of the
966:Literature and Revolution
304:Literature and Revolution
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527:Moscow Linguistic Circle
1063:Erlich, Victor (1994).
949:Tynyanov, Yuri (2019).
964:Trotsky, Leon (2005).
355:, on photography. The
268:also designed covers.
204:Left Front of the Arts
1078:Groys, Boris (1992).
802:"Конструкция тезисов"
601:Vladislav Khodasevich
367:Some Contributors to
208:"Levy Front Iskusstv"
1131:Constructivism (art)
800:Tomashevsky, Boris.
562:Polemics and parody:
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1156:Russian avant-garde
740:Eikhenbaum, Boris.
725:Shklovsky, Viktor.
480:Vladimir Mayakovsky
440:Alexander Rodchenko
425:Vladimir Mayakovsky
415:Aleksei Kruchyonykh
258:Alexander Rodchenko
248:: fittingly, one a
246:Vladimir Mayakovsky
240:. The editors were
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996:The Russian Review
968:. Haymarket Books.
677:The Russian Review
597:Aleksei Kruchenykh
545:Lowering language:
534:Defamiliarization:
55:"LEF" journal
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785:Kazansky, Boris.
755:Yakubinsky, Lev.
622:Iskusstvo kommuny
538:Defamiliarization
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466:The "Lenin issue"
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400:Sergei Eisenstein
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216:Soviet Union
207:
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197:
192:
191:
190:
177:Soviet Union
119:
102:
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38:Please help
33:verification
30:
1037:(4): 607–8.
605:Boris Groys
405:Aleksei Gan
385:Isaac Babel
343:(edited by
329:factography
311:Factography
294:Red Cavalry
289:Isaac Babel
212:avant-garde
156:Final issue
138:First issue
1110:Categories
629:References
568:Bolsheviks
321:"Novy Lef"
315:The later
277:About This
66:newspapers
1002:(1): 68.
683:(1): 68.
390:Osip Brik
242:Osip Brik
232:Although
615:See also
593:Futurist
373:Novy LEF
307:(1924).
221:Novy LEF
182:Language
96:May 2018
1091:Sources
555:Tolstoy
357:New LEF
317:New LEF
262:New LEF
185:Russian
174:Country
164: (
146: (
80:scholar
1016:131910
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523:OPOJAZ
470:After
351:) and
279:, and
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693:JSTOR
595:poet
87:JSTOR
73:books
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371:and
347:and
335:and
244:and
166:1929
159:1929
148:1923
141:1923
59:news
1004:doi
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369:LEF
301:in
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234:LEF
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