Contenu du sommaire

Leonid Heller, The way of craftsmen of our time. Filonov, Platonov, Khlebnikov and some others... This article is centered around the detection of analogies in the creative processes of the great painter Pavel Filonov and of the great writer Andrei Platonov. These analogies appear gradually in the course of a series of comparisons with "intermediary" artists, in particular with V. Khlebnikov and the poets of Oberiu group. The discovery of the relationship in the approach, transcending the boundaries of their respective artistic domains, leads us to inquire into the reasons of such spiritual kinship, and the eventuality of common aims. The article suggests a new standpoint with regard to Platonov' s work which would include him - as well as Khlebnikov and Filonov - within the framework of the great artistic wave of the 1910' s-1930' s, combining the neo-f iodorovist conception of the universe with the neo-primitivist approach and "artisanal" attitude towards the artistic material resulting in pictural or literary execution based on the concepts of sdvig and distantiation. It is also an endeavour to find an adequate method to render the artistic-cultural atmosphere of Russia during the first three decades of our century.

Jean-Claude Lanne, Mitsuko Lanne, Russian Futurism and Japanese avant-garde art. The exchange of letters between the Russian futurian poet V. Khlebnikov and the representatives of Japanese youth presents in an anecdotic guise the very serious problem of relations between Russian futurist art and the contemporary Japanese avant-garde. However, the Japanese intellectual elite discovered first the Italian Futurism, mainly through the translations and commentaries of Marinetti's manifestos. Hence the public discerned but slowly the specificity of the homonymous Russian movement in spite of the fact that already in November 1916 the particular character of Russian avant-garde art had been noted by a Japanese painter who happened to be in Moscow at the time of the Knave of Diamonds exhibition. As a matter of fact, it is only upon the arrival in Japan of D. Burliuk - "the father of Russian Futurism" - and of his companion V. Pal'mov (October 1920) that the Japanese public and artists became aware of the existence of Russian Futurism after Burliuk had organized art exhibitions throughout the country. His visit stimulated the futurist Japanese painting. The book that he published in collaboration with Kinosita What is Futurism? Here is our answer became the "bible" of the early Japanese Futurism. However, the activities of Burliuk were limited to painting. It does not seem that this great Russian artist (who was also a poet) did much for his comrades in arms, the poets of the Moscow cubo-futurist group. Nevertheless, in November 1922, an article appeared in a vanguard review Eppoku presenting for the first time a systematic picture of modern Russian poetry, mentioning futurist Russian poets and stressing the quality of their new poetic language. But interest for Russian Futurism was easily superseded by the fascination of the Soviet proletarian literature, all the more so as the glamour of Russian social revolution overshadowed in the Japan of the 1920' s the specifically artistic set of problems of the futurist school, which henceforward intermingled with the symbol of political commitment embodied by V. Maiakovskii. Nevertheless and however short-lived its influence, Russian Futurism contributed in a large measure to the modification of the Japanese artistic landscape and gave a new impact to the research for new ways in the construction and expression of painting and poetry.

Régis Gayraud, An unpublished compilation attributed to Il'ia Zdanevich. One of the numerous unpublished pieces in the archives of Il'ia Zdanevich and one of the rare specimens of the zaum' period of the poet is the lay-out of an anonymous compilation of 16 poems that we are presenting herewith. The page-setting is the customary one of the author and appropriate to the rich and diversified poetical language, made of deformations, shaping and crasis of words borrowed from Russian as well as from Oriental languages, such as Turkish, Georgian or Arab, but also of sounds deprived of meaning. The Oriental character of the poems, the theme of which might be a mock-heroic voyage in a desert with oases of blood and wine is reflected also in the graphism. In order to convey certain sonorities, Zdanevich intermingles Cyrillic and Arabic scripts without hesitation or shapes Cyrillic Letters into Arabic ones. In these poems, the zaum' is more descriptive than the one employed by the author in his "dra", and seems less directed towards the reader-listener's subcon-sciousness. This compilation might be ascribed to the end of the "rayonnist" period of the poet and would precede his first zaum' plays.

Dominic Lieven, The Russian ruling elite under Nicholas II. Career patterns. The article studies the route taken to high governmental office by members of the Russian ruling elite under Nicholas II. Specifically, it looks at the career patterns of the 215 men appointed to the State Council in the first twenty years of Nicholas II's reign. The article is based on the service records of these 215 men in the Central State Historical Archive in Leningrad. It shows that by 1894-1914 those holding top governmental positions were almost always career civil servants. The only major exception to this was the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where senior posts were sometimes filled by members of the landowning gentry who had formerly served as marshals of the nobility, or by generals. Officials of the domestic departments very seldom transferred into the "organs of national security" (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, War and Marine). The domestic government and senior civil service was dominated in particular by jurists (i.e. by men with a legal education who had served in the judicial department), who very often held the top posts not only in the Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs, but also in the State Chancellery and Chancellery of the Committee/Council of Ministers. The departments of education, control, agriculture and state properties, communications, Synod, and Emperor's Own Personal Chancellery were of very little importance as breeding grounds for the bureaucratic elite. The article shows that each department had its own typical career patterns and that these differed greatly from ministry to ministry. It also contrasts the careers of "generalists" and "specialists", and illustrates how differing social origins and educations can be closely linked to different types and patterns of careers.

Christine Ruane Hinshaw, A source for the social history of late Imperial Russia: The 1895 primary school survey conducted by the Free Economic Society. A description of that survey is now stored in the Central Historical Archive in Leningrad. The survey sought to determine the conditions which prevailed in the Russian primary school system, and is an excellent source from which scholars can determine the nature of the school system at the end of the nineteenth century.

Ivan Myhul, Historiography and politics in the light of the "national revival" in the Soviet Ukraine. The Soviet Ukraine experienced a "national revival" during the 1960' s as a result of a nationalities policy conducive towards Ukrainian cultural development. A new historiography took root within the context of the "national revival". It was simultaneously an academic discipline, a political thought and a political socialisation agent. The chief significance of this historiography was its political message which provided the Ukrainian political elite with a rationalisation of its nationalities policy. The "revival", the nationalities policy and the new historiography came to an end towards 1972-1973, being condemned as manifestations of a so-called "nationalist deviation".