The Creative Personality of Sergei Yesenin in Perception of the Russian Philosopher Aleksandr Konstantinovich Gorskiy

The article offers the first experience of studying the reception of the creative personality of Sergei Yesenin by one of the prominent representatives of Russian religious cosmism, philosopher, poet, publicist Aleksandr Konstantinovich Gorskiy (1886–1943), whose legacy only recently became publicly available to researchers. The main milestones of Aleksandr Gorskiy’s creative biography, the formation and key aspects of his philosophical teaching are traced; the reasons for Aleksandr Gorskiy’s interest in Yesenin’s poetry are explained, despite the lack of personal contacts between them, the philosopher’s appeals, recorded in his works and letters, to selected pages of the poet’s life are explicated and commented on. It is indicated that in Aleksandr Gorskiy’s philosophical constructions, a significant place is occupied by criticism of the death-worshipping attitude both in literature and in religion. The authors of the article pay special attention to the analysis of Aleksandr Gorskiy’s memorial poem “Yesenin”, where this attitude is clearly manifested. It is shown that in this work the philosopher creates an ambiguous image of the late poet, who not only thoughtlessly squandered his God-given talent, but also subordinated all his power to the idea of self-destruction. The author’s dating of the memorial text – 1925 – is disputed due to the presence in the content of the lyrical epitaph of reminiscences from the poem “The Black Man”, published only in January 1926. It is established that in Gorskiy’s later works, references to Yesenin’s work could potentially indicate a revaluation of the philosopher’s previous judgments about the poet. The materials of this article will be in demand with preparing the section “Yesenin and His Contemporaries” in “Yesenin Encyclopedia”.