Reflection of the events of the First World War in Georgy Vyatkin’s publications of 1914–1916

The aim of this research is to identify the peculiarities of perception and comprehension of events of the First World War by Georgy Vyatkin, a famous Si- berian poet and opinion journalsit, as reflected in his publications in newspapers Sibirskaya zhizn' [Siberian Life] (Tomsk) and Utro [Morning] (Kharkiv). Well-known Russian writers took part in the First World War: Nikolai Gumilev, Valentin Kataev, Mikhail Prishvin, Valery Brusov, Alexey Tolstoy, Ilya Ehrenburg, and others. The range of opinions and judgments on the military events presented in the works of major Russian writers and opinion journalists are complemented with the impressions of provincial authors. However, regional writers were studied not enough. One of them, Georgy Vyatkin (1885-1938) is a famous Siberian poet, writer and journalist. The texts which I annalyzed are “Rasskazy ranenykh” [Stories of the Wounded], “Zhenshchiny v traure” [Women in Mourning], “Po polyam bitv” [Across the Battlefields], “Po krovavym polyam” [Aceoss the Bloody Fields], “Na krovavykh polyakh” [On the Bloody Fields], “Sestra miloserdiya” [Sister of Mercy], and “Pomoshchi! pomoshchi!” [Help! Help!], published in 1914 in Utro, and “Bozh'i kolokol'chiki” [God's bells] and “Deti na voyne. Pis'mo iz deystvuyush-chey armii” [Children at War. A Letter from the Active Army], published in 1915 and 1916 in Sibirskaya zhizn'. The research methods are biographical and cultural-historical. Vyatkin's publications on war reflect the author's desire to understand and convey the condition of people involved in it. The heroes of his texts are wounded soldiers, civilians under occupation, widows, nurses, children, and many others. Vyatkin's texts show that he was not a “chronicler of victories”: it was important for him to show how a person lives in war, how s/he retains the capacity for compassion and love, where s/he draws strength for survival. Vyatkin turned to eyewitnesses' testimonies: the introduction of direct speeches gave the publications greater credibility, allowed readers to compare the author's impressions with the way other participants perceived the war. He used journalistic methods of collecting information: observation, experiment, and interview. He wrote in the reportage genre during this period; his works display the participation effect and the dynamics of the author's narrative, documentary, emotional and active role. Vyatkin's humanist message, his attention to the individual, his belief that the destructive force of war is powerless against the strength of the human spirit, make it possible to consider Vyatkin's works as a valuable contribution of a provincial author to the materials of Russian writers, reflecting the First World War in their journalistic works. In his perception and evaluation of the military events, Vyatkin was close to such famous contemporaries as Prishvin, Zoshchenko, and some others, but his works reflected an original view of the war of a provincial author who was sharing his impressions with readers of regional editions.

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