Reflexions of World War I on second generation Russian symbolist poetry

The World War I is one of the most important events that inevitably changed the history of mankind in terms of cultural, social, political and artistic aspects. Before and during this conflict such terms as imperial order and colonialism faced a drastic change that some of existing empires collapsed as defeated states and other empires fell into an economic and political crisis even if they won. The World War I, which became a total war by mobilizing worldwide manpower and resources also by extending the term "war" wider than previous centuries, was undoubtedly reflected by art and especially literature. Modern literature which improved at the end of XIXth century and at the beginning of the XXth century,dealt with political, social and cultural atmosphere both during an before the warin various literary genres. The focus of our work is poetic art of Alexander Blok and Andrei Belywho are among the representatives of Symbolism that is one of important movements in modern Russian poetry, before and during the war and during Russian Revolution in 1917. Our work inherently includes the parts of various disciplines like European and Russian History in XXth century, Philosophy and literature and contains quotations from mentioned poets' works related to the First World War and Revolution. Keywords:World War I, 1917 Revolution, Symbolism, Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely. Introduction:Some events in world history change humanity irrevocably. These events reflect on cultural activities such as literature, philosophy, creative arts etc. undoubtedly.The World War I is one of such events that changed humanity's fate politically and culturally. The focus of this work is to discuss reflection of the World War I on Russian poetry, especially on Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely's –representatives of second generation Russian symbolist poetry- poetries. The reason, whythe focus of the work is these second generation Russian symbolist poets, is that they saw world and Russia in a mystical way which was inherited from Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Soloviev. Both poets reflected XXth century's atmosphere and the World War I by combining their art movement with fate of Russia and religious mysticism. In spite of their perspective differences, they also reflected 1917 Revolution in that way. Methods: The study contains chapters about European and Russian history in XXth century (Chapter I), Philosophy and Philology (Chapter II) and History of Russian Literature (Chapter III). Variety of subjects in the study requires an interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinary method, which enables us to mention history, philosophy and philology at the same time and detailed literature review on mentioned disciplines method are used in this study. Findings and argument: In the first chapter the World War I in Europe and Russia are mentioned. In this chapter, the fact that chain of the event, which took place in Europe (from alliance to assassination of Franz Ferdinand) affected world is clearly seen. It is also obvious that plans of Axis and Allies couldn't foresee the scale of upcoming conflict. For that reason actions of both sides brought about new turning points. For instance, actions of Germany gave way to USA's military intervention in Europe. Whatsmore, turning points took place in Russia are more dramatic because of its unique characteristics, its monarchy and social movements. In the chapter, these factors are mentioned related to the World War I and the 1917 Revolution, which is one of the most important consequences of this war. For Russia, social movements played an important role during the war, as they caused drastic changes affecting not only the country, but also entire world. In the second chapter, European and Russian symbolism are dealt with. Both European and Russian symbolism are based on some philosophical and literary foundations. Firstly, Plato's idealism andart theory "mimesis" shaped symbolism's idealistic character. Secondly, Romanticism that appeared in the beginning of XIXth century contributed symbolism's creativity and freedom of imagination. Finally, Immanuel Kant's ideas strengthened the movement's idealism and objection against strict rationalism. In other parts of the chapter, founding representatives of symbolist poetry such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and symbolism's inspirational authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Fiodor Mihailovich Dostoyevsky are mentioned. In the chapter's last part, characteristics of Russian symbolism, its religious and mystical basis are mentioned. In this part both similarities and differences between two generations of Russian symbolist poets are clearly seen. In the third chapter, Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely's short biographies, their early literary works and their poems that reflect the World War Iand the 1917 Revolution are mentioned. In Alexander Blok's poetry, fate of Russia during the war and revolution, mystical ideas of Soloviev and symbolist elements are seen together. Although Andrei Bely shared the same mystical ideas in his early works, he reflected the war and revolution in a different mystical way. German mystical philosopher Rudolf Steiner has a strong influence on poet, so in Bely's poetry, elements of Steiner's ideas, chaos of war and revolution and symbolism are seen together. Conclusion: From the work it can be concluded that such drastic events as war and revolution can be reflected on both proseand on poetry. Especially in second generation Russian symbolist poetry reflections of these events are clearly seen with elements of art, philosophy and history. This work can affect future interdisciplinary works on Russian literature, philosophy and history.