Iambic Tetrameter in the Service of Revolution

Abstract

Writing in his book „The Mind and Face of Bolshevism“ about the revolutionary poetry in the Soviet Russia at the early 1920ies a famous Austrian sociologist Rene Fueloep-Miller has mentioned one educational institution of that time called The Highest Institute for Literature and Arts organised by prominent Russian poet Valerii Bryusov. According to Fueloep-Miller diverse experiments “in the manufacture of new words, rhytms, and forms“ and explorations of „word chemistry of the scientifically enlightened proletariat“ have been taking place at this Institute. What were these poetical experimentations in the context of the general literary process of that time and whether they should be understood as mere metaphors – those are the major subjects of this article.