On the Reasons for the Deportation of Critic Yuly Aikhenwald on the ‘Philosophical Ship'

Abstract

The article describes in detail the reasons for the deportation of the critic Yuly Aikhenwald on the “philosophical ship”. These reasons include Aikhen-wald's publicistic speeches in the press in 1917-1918, participation in commissions related to the All-Russian Committee for Assistance to the Starving and the fight against Soviet censorship. From the review of publications, it becomes clear that the critic collaborated with the so-called “bourgeois” publications (mainly Constitutional Democratic Party newspapers), and his articles were clearly anti-Bolshevik in nature. A special place is given to the literary-critical speeches of Aikhenwald in 1919-1922, which also contained criticism of the Bolshevik system. The publication of critics concerning F. M. Dostoevsky, and it is concluded that Aikhenwald had to resort to hints and subtext in order to convey his thoughts to readers. The critic's book “Poets and Poetesses” is also mentioned, which caused the angry publication of Lev Trotsky in the newspaper “Pravda” because of the panegyric to Gumilyov. Trotsky's article contained a call for the expulsion of intellectuals who did not agree with the policy of the Bolsheviks. At the end of the article, a bibliography of Aikhenwald's newspaper journalism for 1917-1918 is given (Appendix 1), published for the first time: articles in newspapers “Early Morning”, “Word”, “Freedom” etc. Appendix 2 includes a letter from Aikhenwald to Ivan Novikov, one of the leaders of the Moscow branch of the All-Russian Union of Writers, clearly illustrating the state of mind of the critic before the deportation, as well as a letter from Nina Tomasheva-Aikhenwald, concerning an essay unknown today. Both letters have not been published before and are stored in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.