Vyacheslav Ivanov and C.M. Bowra: a ... - UCL Discovery

the way in which his generation of religious Symbolists might be (mis)represented by Bowra
in the light of his own views. In his letters he used flattery as a means of persuasion: by
addressing Bowra as a member of an élite community of inspired poet-scholars, he evidently
hoped to bring him more closely into the orbit of his own understanding of the Christian
significance of humanism.
The dialogue between Ivanov and Bowra about the Christian significance of the ‘good
humanistic tradition’ continued well after Ivanov’s death. Traces of their differences of opinion
can be found in Bowra’s introduction to Svet Vechernii. The following passage, for example,
reflects their disagreement over the meaning of ‘Nomads of Beauty’ and the essence of true
Symbolism:
As a comparatively young man, he had in his poem Kochevniki krasoty proclaimed that
artists are anarchists free to do what they will and are almost destined to destroy. In later
life he did not disown this poem but he was careful to explain that he no longer believed
all that it said – a conclusion which he could hardly avoid after Bryusov had used it as a
text for his Gryadushchie Gunny, in which he proclaimed the thrill of destruction as an
end in itself. 77
This passage contains clear echoes of Ivanov’s comments in his letter to Bowra of 20 December
1947, and yet the echoes are not entirely faithful to the original voice. Ivanov did not state that
he no longer believed all that the poem said; he simply tried to correct what he felt was Bowra’s
misunderstanding of the poem.
Although Bowra took most of the biographical material used in his introduction from
the article on Ivanov by Ol’ga Deschartes, published in 1954 alongside examples of Ivanov’s
76 Connolly, ‘Hedonist and Stoic’, 47.
77 Bowra, ‘Introduction’, in Ivanov, Svet Vechernii, xxi.
87