The ideological and artistic features of the travelogues about Turkey in the Russian parent state literature of the 1920s (based on Summer in Angora by E. Lanceray and Istanbul and Turkey by P. Pavlenko)

Romanova Kseniya Sergeevna PhD in Philology Teacher, Financial University Under the Government of the Russian Federation, Department of the English Language and Professional Communication 127083 Russia, Moscow, 15 Verhniaya Maslovka str. ksuromanova@inbox.ru

Ovcharenko Aleksei Yur'evich Doctor of Philology Russian Language and Linguoculturology Department of the Institute of the Russian Language, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Associate Professor, Department of the Russian Language and Linguoculturology 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6 ovcharenko_ayu@pfur.ru

The 1920s and 1930s, when Soviet art was searching for canons corresponding to the official ideology of the socialist government, were marked in the literature by a significant expansion of geographical coordinates, intellectual development of the territory of the USSR and, as a result, the formation of ideas about the Soviet socio-cultural space.

If in pre–revolutionary texts Russian writers traditionally concentrated the plot in the European part of Russia or in the Caucasus, now literature actively mastered a little-known "slice of being" for it - the taiga and Far Eastern territories and Turkestan (Central Asia), previously known mainly or from the scientific works of P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shan, N.. M. Przhevalsky, G. E. Grum-Grzhimailo and N. N. Karazin's colonial prose ^[29].

On the one hand, the main line in the emerging canon of the Soviet Asian text was the struggle of the Bolsheviks with the "dark" past of the Asian hinterland (and, in fact, this civilizing project to "conquer the desert" ^{[13, p. 125]} was a continuation already at a new historical stage of the "internal colonization" ^[33] of the Russian Empire). In this sense, "Bolsheviks of the Desert and Spring" by V. A. Lugovsky, "Afghanistan" by L. M. Reisner and the journalism of A. P. Platonov are expressive. On the other hand, the opposite trend was also significant – the desire of the authors to recognize "their own" in the East, to understand its traditions and culture – which was embodied in ethnographically accurate "Travel Essays" about Uzbekistan by A. E. Adalis, the philosophical book "Uzbek Impressionists" "Salyr–Gul" by S. D. Krzhizhanovsky and the novels "Jan" and "Takyr" by A. P. Platonov ^[32] translating the image of Turkmenistan into a metaphysical plane. At the same time, such optics of the image of the East turned out to be no less ideologically justified, since it secretly prepared the ground for the development of the theme of "friendship of peoples", promising from the point of view of internationalism.

A special place in the Soviet prose of this period is occupied by texts about Turkey that have not yet been practically studied, without the study of which it is impossible to form a holistic view of the literary process of the 1920s.

 If before 1917 Turkey was mainly described from ethnographic and geographical points of view ^[6] or became part of the modernist concept of the world, as in I. A. Bunin ^[5], now writers turn mainly to those political, social and cultural changes that took place in Turkey in the 1920s years . Analyzing domestic texts about Turkey of this period, it should first of all be taken into account that the post-revolutionary period in both countries was naturally marked by similar political and socio-cultural processes: the formation of the state and the nation in the post-imperial period ^[28], language reforms (reform of Russian spelling in 1918 and the "language revolution" ^{[8, p. 72]}, during which a new Turkish language was created based on the Latin alphabet in 1928), the emergence of new literary canons (literature of critical realism in Turkey, dialogue and struggle of creative methods that eventually contributed to the formation of socialist realism in the USSR), the emergence of new national myths ^[14]. Therefore, a distinctive feature of the "Turkish" prose of this period is that Turkey turns from a historical enemy in the past into an "attractive" ally ^[15]. In the 1920s, the focus of attention of Russian writers turned out to be precisely those changes that were taking place in the country as a result of the revolution and the reforms of Ataturk. In this sense, the names "In the New Turkey" by D. A. Lebedev ^[12] or "In the New Turkey" by Tishansky Yu. (Astakhova G. A.) ^[23] are indicative, focusing on the contrast that the Turkish Republic represents with its revolutionary transformations in relation to the Ottoman Empire, the "country of outgoing Islam" (the wording from the book by L. N. Seifullina, who came to the country as a correspondent for the newspaper "Dawn of the East" and discovered the Turkish theme in Soviet literature ^[21]).

Russian Russian literature of the 1920s, as well as to identify the specifics of the Russian literary process of this period, let us turn to the work of such diverse authors, representatives of two different generations, two different artistic worlds, as E. E. Lancere and P. A. Pavlenko, who capture, however, in different artistic ways. embodying the same trends.

In 1922, at the invitation of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey S. I. Aralov and on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Soviet mission in Ankara N. D. Romanov, Academician of painting of the Imperial Academy of Arts E. E. Lancere arrived in Turkey.  While traveling around the country, he wrote a book of essays "Summer in Angora" (1925), which is a fusion of fragments of text and illustrations and became one of the last publications of the World of Art association. Two years later, as a representative of the USSR trade mission, the future classic of Soviet literature P. A. Pavlenko arrived in the Turkish capital, who created "Asian Stories" (1929) and a collection of essays and short stories "Istanbul and Turkey" (1930) based on Turkish impressions.

By the time of Lancere's trip to Turkey, she had been a source of inspiration for Russian artists for a long time. As is known, in the XIX century Karl Bryullov, Grigory Gagarin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Mikhail Scotti, Nikanor Chernetsov, Yakov Kornilov made trips to the capital of the Ottoman Empire, recreating exotic Istanbul views and characteristic everyday episodes in the spirit of orientalism in their paintings and graphics ^[25]. Anyway, taking into account the experience of his predecessors, Lancere in his graphics moves away from stylization a la "turkeri" in the general oriental style and prefers realism. Since he worked at the Museum of Ethnography in the 1920s, in his travelogue he strives for a scientifically reliable recreation of local landscapes, customs and traditions, architectural buildings, household items, national costumes, while adhering to the aesthetics of world art. The artist carefully looks into the natural landscape, and recreates the features of Turkish architecture: These are the "fragments of the ancient world <...> Roman and Byzantine" scattered on the streets of Ankara, and the "capricious ease" of the buildings of the Trapezond, and the ornament on their facades ^{[11, pp. 15, 24]}. In his lithographs, he copies Arabic script, the ornament found on the cornices of Turkish houses, saddles, graves, depicts his route on the map of Asia Minor, decorated with the motif of a clay jug from Kutakhia, known since Antiquity for its ceramics.

However, since the main purpose of Lancere's trip was to prepare paintings and lithographs for an exhibition in the Kremlin ^[10], his travelogue, in addition to ethnological details, recreates plots that somehow ideologically and culturally bring Russia and Turkey closer together. Among them are martial folk dances, folk festivals, torchlight, threshing. In addition, the very choice of characters, whose portraits Lancere creates, is symptomatic: Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Ataturk), Russian Old Believers, Cossacks, Nekrasovites, figures of the Anatolian movement, emancipated women – all that characterizes the "new" Turkey.

Like other worldly artists who drew inspiration from theater and plastic arts, Lancer in his essay sketches refers to Turkish dances and pantomime: the dances of Lazov and Asker (Turkish warriors), comic dances and acting performances convey all the nuances of the movements and gestures of the performers. For example, one of the lithographs records "the manner of holding a dagger in a dance with daggers" ^{[11, p. 55]}. These plastic sketches are preceded by a theatrical scene of a policeman's struggle with a crowd "piling on" foreigners, characteristic of the aesthetics of the world of art: "Grabbing a large pole, he began to beat furiously with it against a solid wall of people, so thick that it seemed there was nowhere for it to condense. Wild horror was written on the faces of the crowd <...> It was like Samson beating the Philistines with a horse's jaw" ^{[11, p. 56]} and the story of how, during an impromptu performance, a long bench was brought out for "Russian friends". Lancere repeatedly approaches this idea of the prospect of developing friendly Russian-Turkish relations in his travelogue: for example, when he makes a complimentary remark to the Turkish people – "the perseverance and hard work of these people are surprising" ^{[11, p. 18]} – and an ideologically verified remark about the nature of social relations in Turkey: "the peasant and the pasha they are sitting next to me" ^{[11, p. 30]}.

Arriving together with the plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR at Mustafa Kemal Pasha's dacha and drawing his portrait by order of Aralov, Lancere notices that he "may indeed <...> have Slavic blood: he is blond, his facial features are rather vague; his eyes are gray, they look sternly and stubbornly" ^{[11, p. 30]}. Such acceptance, recognition of "one's own" in an oriental man clearly echoes the scene of Poltoratsky's meeting with Hadji Murad from the novel of the same name by L. N. Tolstoy, when instead of a "gloomy, dry, alien person" the Russian hero meets "the simplest person who smiled with such a kind smile that he seemed not a stranger, but a long-familiar friend" ^{[24, p. 541]}. The typological similarity of these episodes, indirectly bringing the figure of Ataturk closer to the image of the valiant highlander recreated by Leo Tolstoy, sets a heroic modality to the narrative of the Turkish rebels in the travelogue.

Clearly wanting to show the Eastern revolutionaries in a favorable light, Lancere creates a colorful collective portrait of the Laz warriors who make up Mustafa Kemal's personal convoy: "The manholes are the favorites and pride of the Angorans: all in black, with a black hood around their heads, hung with cartridges, they like their belligerence" ^{[11, p. 30]}. At the same time, the comparative brevity of the speech characteristics of the "rebels" and their leader is compensated in "Summer in Angora" by lithographs emphasizing their heroism and, thereby, giving expressiveness to verbal images.

The collection of essays and short stories "Istanbul and Turkey", along with other "Turkish" texts, became the literary debut of P. A. Pavlenko. As you know, one of his first stories, "Lord Byron", was written by him in collaboration with B. A. Pilnyak – an experience that greatly affected the stylistic appearance of his early works, in which the writer experiments with the techniques of ornamental prose.

Pavlenko defiantly declares a break with the Orientalist tradition in the depiction of Turkey, but in spite of this he creates natural sketches in the spirit of the French Romantics who cultivated the oriental myth. For example, "the white palm trees of minarets and the curly delicate greenery of cemeteries <...> give Eyyub <...> a purely Turkish old-worldness <...> captivating with twilight-tender features" ^{[19, p. 21]}, and "the voiceless women of the last Scutari harems come to the beautiful solitude of poplar alleys on Fridays" ^{[19, p. 21]}. 224]. At the same time, the accumulation of different sensory characteristics and synesthetic images contributes to the impression of deliberate exoticism of natural space: Expressive are the "turquoise varnish" of the Istanbul sky, "the music of muezzin sobs" coming from the minarets of mosques, "a flock of hawk-nosed Prince Islands breathing sweaty needles", the smell of "the sun has not yet cooled down, spilled into the earth and water during the day" ^{[19, pp. 153, 152, 153,136]}.

Such a clear discrepancy between the writer's theoretical attitude towards objectivity and the narrative strategies he implements in "Turkish" texts is mainly explained by his search for adequate forms of artistic imagery during his creative formation, in particular his desire to bring poetic intonation into prose after Pilnyak.

To create a relief impression of Turkish life, Pavlenko makes excursions into the historical past of the Ottoman Empire, explaining the essence of native culture, describes customs, art and folklore, religious beliefs and crafts of the aborigines. Separate essays are devoted to the Turkish "antiquity", Istanbul amusements, the Karagez theater, carpet weaving, and Oriental dervish monks. But unlike "Summer in Angora", which emphasizes the aesthetic self-worth of manifestations of national life, Pavlenko's all these cultural information serve rather as a background decoration for the social changes he states.

The main idea linking the narrative of "Istanbul and Turkey" is precisely the idea of a revolutionary reworking of reality. From the writer's point of view, now "life is boiled in boiling water to wash away the ancient dust" ^{[19, p. 91]}, during the celebration of Republic Day, he notes with satisfaction the feeling he has of being "at home, in the Union" ^{[19, p.151]}. And emphasizing the favorable nature of the ongoing transformations concludes: "Today's Turkey has teeth falling out, but not from old age, but from youth" ^{[19, p. 257]}.

In this regard, the manner of portrayal of Russian refugees in the essays "Istanbul and Turkey" is also indicative. Unlike the discouraged, "weak-willed" intellectuals, "white seagulls who have only one wing behind their backs" ^{[31, p. 20]}, as they appear in the white emigrant memoirs, Pavlenko shows them as businesslike, resourceful people who "penetrated into all the cracks of Turkish life", "hungry for a sharp-witted a human being" ^{[19, p. 234]}. The writer's critical view of white Russians is mainly due to the negative role that "emigrant propaganda of Russian greatness and Russian wisdom" could play in the relations between Kemalist Turkey and Soviet Russia ^{[19, p. 236]}.

Pavlenko, who has not personally met with the Turkish president, creates in the essays of "Istanbul and Turkey" much more pathetic and abstract descriptions of Mustafa Kemal than in Lancer, whose portrait is built both from direct author's observations and from the statements and reactions of the characters to him. By virtue of the radical restructuring of society carried out by him, Ataturk draws the author closer to Peter I. In the retelling of the soldier Fevzi, he appears as a warrior with the honorary title of Gazi, who is "cruel, as befits a Turk, and simple, as befits a descendant of the prophet" ^{[19, p. 130]}. The writer records the enthusiastic reactions of the aborigines to "a man with a beautiful steppenwolf face, looking wildly and calmly at people" ^{[19, p. 170]} during the screening of the films "The Entry of Kemalist detachments into Constantinople" and "Mustafa Kemal Pasha's Trip across Anatolia".

The specifics of the interpretation of the figure of Mustafa Kemal Pavlenko could not but be influenced by the fact that by the time he arrived in Istanbul, an aura of glory of a national hero had already been created around the leader of the struggle for independence. Therefore, reflecting on the role that Ataturk played in the "liberation" of his country, the writer brings his image to a symbolic generalization that "this dry, tall man with terrible unblinking eyes contains thousands of victories and defeats, virtues and vices of today's Turkey" ^{[19, p. 170]}

In terms of displaying social transformations in Turkey in the travel essays by Lancere and Pavlenko, the theme of the emancipation of Oriental women turns out to be conceptually significant. The writers create a series of expressive portraits of local writers, participants in the political struggle and leaders of detachments. The image of the outstanding novelist and activist of the nationalist movement Khalida Khanum, who served as a "chaoush", or non-commissioned officer, at the headquarters, imprinted on the pages of "Summer in Angora", belongs to Lancer's brush. The artist's view has a significant effect on her literary appearance. Thus, the picturesque "fluidity" of her outfit attracts attention: "a meshla is thrown over the dress – a wide white silk garment, like a negligee, of Arabic cut, enveloping the entire figure and giving magnificent folds" ^{[11, p. 36]}.

From the point of view of the artist's sympathy for the feminism of Turkish women, Khalide-khanum's remark about the God-ordained mission of a woman in the liberation war is indicative: "A woman came to the army from remote places in Anatolia and announced that Ali, the uncle of the Prophet, appeared to her in a dream and told her to preach the war against the infidels, and the expulsion of the "rums" (Greeks)" [11 p. 34, 35].

Another typical example of an oriental heroine, equalized in her rights with a man and in no way inferior to him, is Fatma Khanum "chaoush", who heads the Kurdish detachment. As if wishing to emphasize the well-being of a woman in such an unconventional and atypical role for her, especially in the East, the author mentions the widespread idea that among Kurds "it generally happens that women lead the tribe in the absence of a more worthy man in the family of the leader" ^{[11, p. 39]}. The impression of a pronounced personal beginning in the Kurdinka is enhanced by the expressive colors of her handkerchief and clothes, noticed by the painter, and exotic jewelry.

Pavlenko's reflections on Asian art lead him to the female theme. To show the closeness of the cultures of the two states, he builds all possible parallels between Russian and Turkish writers and, like Lancere, speaks with reverence about the gifted writer Khalida Edib Khanum, who simultaneously became the "apostle of the nationalist movement" ^{[19, p. 85]}. He pays tribute to the socialist-minded novelist Souad-Dervish, a "nihilist" and "atheist" ^{[19, pp. 94, 86]}, who resembles Leonid Andreev in his writing style, but, from his point of view, develops social issues more deeply. He "rejoices at her success" and "is interested in her lectures on the radio about the women's movement" ^{[19, p. 89]}. Emphasizing the productivity of the cultural dialogue between Turks and Russians, the writer notes the "learned conversations about literature" between Suad-dervish and Pilnyak and states that the Turkish woman "to the detriment of all tuxedos, firmly focused on Soviet jackets" ^{[19, p. 89]}.

So, on the one hand, travelogues about Turkey by future Stalin Prize laureates E. E. Lancer and P. A. Pavlenko are indicative of the period of the 1920s with its variety of artistic searches due to its experimentation. If Lancere experiments with the genre of travelogue, combining two types of art, painting and literature, then Pavlenko – with style, using the techniques of ornamental and orientalist prose. But, mainly, it is symptomatic that such dissimilar authors as Lancere and Pavlenko, who make different accents in their works – on ethnography and on the formation of a new statehood, respectively – tend to optimistically interpret the revolutionary changes taking place in Turkey. Therefore, the Turkish motive-thematic vector should be considered as an important stage in the formation of the ideology and aesthetics of new art, which later became entrenched under the name of socialist realism.