The Rulers of Early Soviet Literature: How 'Krokodil' Promoted and Discredited Maxim Gorky and Demyan Bedny

• In Event: Soviet Culture in the Making: Literature, Film, and Institutions in the 1920s

Abstract

The paper explores how “Krokodil” magazine, founded in 1922, actively engaged in literary debates and contributed to shaping the Soviet literary hierarchy. Based on textual and visual materials from the magazine’s inception to the First Congress of Soviet Writers, the study examines the evolving portrayal of Demyan Bedny and Maxim Gorky, the two most frequently featured literary figures in “Krokodil”. According to Kornei Chukovsky, Elena Usievich quipped that Soviet literature had first been “Bedny-ized” (impoverished) and then “Gorky-ized” (embittered). In its early years, “Krokodil” operated with relative independence and actively promoted Bedny as the leading literary figure. However, by the end of the 1920s, the magazine began to depict Gorky as the true ruler of Soviet literature, relegating Bedny to the periphery. As the main Soviet satirical periodical, “Krokodil” played a crucial role in shaping collective memory, elevating or diminishing literary reputations according to the shifting ideological landscape. Analyzing “Krokodil”’s engagement with the figures of Bedny and Gorky, the paper demonstrates how the magazine functioned as a mediator of literary legitimacy and helped construct the official Soviet literary system.

Author

• Kate Terrasson