The book Neopalimaia Kupina: stikhi o voine i revoliutsii (The Burning Bush: Poems about War and Revolution) by Maximilian Voloshin (1877–1932) depicts the revolutionary period in Russia. This dissertation analyzes the work’s composition, showing how it was shaped and reshaped in response to the dramatic events of the first two and a half decades of the twentieth century, and how it remains open and mirrors the ongoing development of history. The revolutionary events are presented against the background of earlier turning points in Russia’s past. In addition to documenting contemporary events in poetry, Voloshin, who was closely affiliated with the Russian Symbolists and had a profound interest in anthroposophy and occultism, expressed a belief in theurgic art that could initiate a national revival. 

The analysis demonstrates that the poems in Neopalimaia Kupina are interconnected through a conglomeration of myths centering on transformation through death and resurrection. The poems also evoke a sense of recurrence connecting different layers of Russian history. By depicting episodes from a mythical as well as a historical perspective, the poems reflect correspondences which can be elucidated through Boris Uspensky’s semiotic model of a dual perception of time (linear and cyclical) as well as Zara Mints’ concept of neomythological texts. The analysis also considers performativity as a tool for life-creation in Voloshin’s work and connects it to his exploration of apotropaic genres: magic spells, incantations, prayers, and anthroposophical mantras. 

Against the backdrop of the Bolshevik takeover and the remolding of Russian society which was marked by war, terror and famine, these poems express a disbelief in the Communist utopia of the early Soviet period.

In this article I analyze the biblical intertextual connections of two poems by M. A. Vološin from the war and revolutionary period, both titled “Posev.” The poems are intertextually connected through the parable of the wheat and the weeds from the Gospel of Matthew. When read side by side, the interplay of their structures is discernible, and this, I argue, exposes a hidden signification in the poems. The poems’ symbolical meanings are interconnected also on a deeper level. I show how the poems render Russia’s destiny and future through some of the philosophical ideas and movements that impacted on the Russian Symbolist movement, such as myth-creation, theurgy, the Russian idea and anthroposophy. In particular I focus on the ‘seed metaphor’ that is central in both poems. In this metaphor Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical predictions are merged with the messianism of the Russian idea as expressed in its perspective on Russia’s destiny. I argue that the poems, written within the context of the Symbolists’ myth-creating program, can be interpreted as attempts at theurgic art with the aim of inciting a national spiritual revival shaped by the Russian idea and by Steiner’s predictions about the Russians as the “people of Christ,” leading humanity’s spiritual evolution.

The worldview of the Russian Symbolists, centered on the concepts of life-creation and mythcreation, ascribed mystical power to the poetic word. It gave rise to a broad variety of “theurgic art” since every poet interpreted the practice of the creative process in his or her own way. Because of its theurgic nature, art was believed to create, control and even transform both the artist’s life and all of reality. The allembracing upheavals brought on by war and revolution made some poets go silent, while it triggered an intense creative outpouring from others. This paper explores how Maximilian Voloshin intertwined religious practices, anthroposophical theory and folkloric rituals in his quest for the divine word that would be able to impact the fate of Russia after the Bolshevik takeover in 1917.

A poet never quite at home in his contemporary environment, Max Vološin found an artistic purpose and a large audience during the Russian civil war. His poems on war and revolution were widely read, spread, and even used as propaganda by both the Bolsheviks and their opponents in the White armies. Sharing the Symbolist worldview of life-creationthat ascribed power to the poetic word, Vološin merged his status as a poet-theurge with his personal political neutrality. This paper discusses how Vološin utilized the image of the Self for artistic creativity as well as for physical survival.

During the years from the outburst of World War I to the aftermath of the Civil War, the poetry of Maximilian Voloshin underwent a stark metamorphosis, shifting from topographical and love poetry to poetry written as a response to important social and political events, simultaneously going from Hellenistic and Theosophical themes to themes of Russian history and biblical prophecies. In the poetry collection Anno mundi ardentis (1916) Voloshin tackled the upheaval of war by introducing the apocalypse as a model of interpretation, leading him to redefine the idea of the poet. This paper illustrates how this critical juncture set the tone for the further development of Voloshin's poetic approach.