About magistral and marginal ways of Russian poetry: Nikolay
Gumilev and Pavel Bulygin’s «alien stars»

One of the magistral themes of The Silver age is considered in the
article, it is the theme of travels and exotic countries in the creative work of
Nicolay Gumilev and Pavel Bulygin, who is a poet and a prose writer, he left
Russia after revolution and investigated emperor family’s murder case which his
book «The murder of the Romanovs. Reliable report» is dedicated to.
Gumilev creates the original image of East and Africa influenced by French
revolution and his own travel impressions, he forms new concepts of Russian
historical self-conscience, combining West as well as East features. According
to researchers, Gumilev’s African poems revealed him as a poet, this theme became
an original theme, which he took place with in literature.
In the work it is noticed Gumilev’s appeal to fauvists (H. Matisse, A. Derain),
whose «wild» expressiveness of colours appealed to the «wild» beginning
in human, turned him to the world of primordial nature. Describing Abyssinian
existence, Gumilev introduces the distinctive strokes of another world where
other people live, emphasizes their consciousness distinct from a civilized person.
Bulygin caught this sense of verbal fauvism and reflected in his feature
articles.
In the article the particular attention is paid to how Gumilev «composes» African
existence. He searches it as a traveller and a poet. He sees the exotic space
as different – in a documentary diary and in fantastical stories, and in ballads,
and in lyrical texts. Gumilev’s subtext is important for Bulygin, it is almost
mystical canvas of images, plot twists and turns. Bulygin lived in Abyssinia in
1924-1933, he wrote about this country inspired by Gumilev’s Africa.
Bulygin was an infantry instructor in the army of Negus in Addis Ababa,
worked as a manager of the coffee plantation in Dubon and in the French railway
company, wrote poems and the book «The murder of the Romanovs». He
prepared some feature articles in Abyssinia – «Modern Abyssinia», «Russians in
Abyssinia», «The life of Russians in Abyssinia». Bulygin’s fate and creative
work are shown the «marginal way» of emigrant Russian literature, sent into
exile.
Depicting Abyssinia, Bulygin introduces a dreamy space, the "marginal" poet\s
lines are born under the Abyssinian sky and the time becomes one-step for
Bulygin and Gumilev. And in the poem "Just go down the rocky spurs" emphasis
is being made no longer on the narrator\s dreams but on the dream of the
country itself. The article analyzes early novels («Black Dik») and lyrics («Hyena», «Horror
», a poetic book «Marquee») by Gumilev, and also his African diary and
Bulygin’s feature articles «Sou Djin» («Hyenaman». The feature article of
Abissinian Life), «Monkey tsarina», «Zandu and Shanko» and the poems of the
collection «Alien Stars».