Russian Literature in Exile: Experience of the 20th Century

After the October Revolution (1917) and the Civil War (1918-1921), a large number of Russian writers found themselves in exile. The emigration years were also the time when many writers of the younger generation had to develop. Thus was born the largely unique phenomenon of "Russian literature in exile" (or "Russian foreign literature"), a project in many ways alternative to the project of "Soviet literature." For a long time the achievements of Russian foreign literature were consciously ignored in the Soviet Union and underestimated by Western (particularly American) critics. Meanwhile, emigration gave the world the first Russian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (Ivan Bunin), one of the most important Russian poets (Marina Tsvetaeva), and one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, who enriched both Russian and American literature with his work (Vladimir Nabokov). Russian literature in exile was in some respects more productive and more interesting than the literature of the metropolis. Now, after the strengthening of Putin's authoritarian regime and especially after the beginning of Putin's war with Ukraine, a considerable part of Russian writers have found themselves in exile, and the experience of "Russian literature in exile" gained in the first half of the 20th century takes on a new importance. Counts as a course in literature or culture and civilization.