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[FAR EASTERN FUTURISM] Tvorchestvo : Zhurnal kommunisticheskoi kul’tury [i.e. Creativity : Magazine of Communist Culture] #7 for 1921

Chita: Izd. Dal’biuro Ts.K.R.K.P., 1921. Item #1857

159 pp. 26,5x19,5 cm. In original printed wrappers. Restored, some soiling, pale water stains occasionally, ink spots on t.p. and rear side of front cover, otherwise very good.

Issue of the organ of Far East futurist art group considering this movement the only art for the communist culture. Among its members were N. Chuzhak, S. Tretiakov, N. Aseev and others. Contributors lived in various Siberian and Far East cities.
The periodical was edited by the leader of Far Eastern Futurists, Nikolai Chuzhak (real name Nasimovich; 1876-1937). For a long time Chuzhak was a journalist and editor of underground media. He threw himself into the revolutionary movement in the late 19th century. In 1904, he joined the Communist Party, edited the party periodicals and was arrested several times. In 1908, Chuzhak was exiled to the Irkutsk province. He headed editorial boards of newspapers “Rabochaia Sibir’” [Working Siberia; 1917], “Krasnoe znamia” [Red Flag; Vladivostok, 1918-1922], “Dal’nevostochnyi put’” [Far Eastern Way; Chita], “Vlast’ truda” [Power of Labor; Irkutsk], etc. He also kept the Bolshevik position during the period of Kolchak’s power in Siberia.
Apart from political activity, he led the group of Far Eastern futurists ‘Creativity’ that issued the magazine “Tvorchestvo” [Creativity; Vladivostok-Chita, 1920-1921]. The group was close to principles that the LEF would promote a little later. They held lectures, literary disputes and evenings dedicated to the new art: Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov and futurism in general. After the Far Eastern Republic had been dissolved in 1922, almost the whole ‘Creativity’ moved to Moscow and joined the LEF. There they represented the so-called “production wing”. In particular, they advocated Chuzhak’s theory “art is life-building” that reduced the function of an artist to the production of things. Thus, he wrote in the article ‘Under Sign of Life-Building’ (1923): “Art – since we still conceived it as a temporary, until it completely dissolved in life, kind of activity built on the use of emotions – is the production of values ​​needed by the class and humanity (things)”.
The issue contains articles on contemporary topics, prose and poetry works. In particular, Chuzhak published a critical essay “Earthy Mystery” on the play ‘Mystery-Bouffe’ by V. Mayakovsky. Praising it as “revival of the phenomenon of ‘Woe from Wit’”, Chuzhak stated that the work had no equal among Mayakovsky’s works. After the essay itself, he writes “The article was written on the basis of an initial version of the play. The second version [of 1921], that the author amiably sent to us, changed nothing principally”. From Beijing, Sergei Tretiakov sent to the magazine the text “Poet on the Tribune” where he analyzed 1919 poems by Mayakovsky. He writes, “The whole poetry by Mayakovsky is tribune, Golgotha or panopticon. Its nature is the same as revolution, it is a direct action”.
Another interesting work “Futurism and Opportunities in Sculpture” was published by Innokentii Zhukov (1875-1948) who is known as a self-educated sculptor and a proponent of scouting in Russia. In 1917-1921, Zhukov taught at the Chita gymnasium and served as an instructor in the unified school department in the Ministry of Education of the Far Eastern Republic. This work reads: “Is it really impossible to imagine that a collective creative sculptor will transform the shapeless, gloomy Baikal rocks and mountains into an artistic sculptural chronicle of revolutionary achievements, as the Assyrian kings once did?”. Besides, Zhukov proposed futurist experiments of mixed materials as illuminated sculpture and musical sculpture.

No paper copies found in Worldcat.

Status: On Hold