کلاسیستی چپ و محافظه کاری پنهان او: ردیابی دیدگاه های ایدئولوژیک و سیاسی دانیل خرم

It has been a longstanding tendency in contemporary cultural analysis to associate reputedly avant-garde authors and artists with left-wing political leanings. In the particular case of Russian post-revolutionary Modernism there is generally little doubt today that its protagonists were en masse pro-Communist or at least sympathized with the dominant state ideology to some degree. It appears possible, however, to offset the ideological affiliation of the last generation of Russian Modernists, namely those associated with the OBERIU circle, from the mainstream beliefs of their colleagues. With due analytical diligence, the contradictory self-referential terminology of titles like “The Academy of Left Classicists” or “Three Left Hours” can be ascertained to evince aesthetical rather than political radicalism. In public opinion, the true political views of Daniil Kharms still remain a matter of controversy. It may prove a futile endeavour to find out whether Kharms divulged any kind of truth to his NKVD interrogators. However, his own textual legacy contains paramount evidence to his clerical, monarchist, and in other ways conservative, if not at times reactionary, personal and ideological agenda. In a way, the same was true for most of his OBERIU peers, whether Vvedenskii, Zabolotskii or Vaginov. The proposed article aims to analyse this textual evidence and reconstruct the ideological mindset of Daniil Kharms in an attempt to conclude the discussion that has been going on for years without clear resolution.