World War II and the Sword-like Poetry of Russian Poets

The present paper is concerned with the structural characteristics and contents of the Russian resistance poets from the outset up to the end of the World War II, 1941-1945. Regarding the linguistic and literary structures of the resistance poetry of this period, such features as changes in the lexical structure of poems, outspokenness, proximity of poetry to slogans can be easily observed. Semantically and content-wise, keeping away from leading to the right or the left amongst the poets, patriotism, attention to composing epics, and change of the foundations are noticed. The devastating war brought about changes in poets’ viewpoints to the two factors of time and place. All these abrupt and gradual changes in poems took place for reviving the history and culture, reinforcing the national character and liberation, all that were at risk at the aggression of the fascist and Nazi enemies. The present paper deals specifically with the main traits of the Russian resistance poetry in the first half of the fourth decade of the twentieth century and its development in the poems of Olga Bergults, Rzhadestvensky, V. Sayanov, Anna Akhmatova, and others. However, as Akhmatova’s poems are regarded as best representatives of the brightest manifestation of resistance poetry, the study heavily relies on his work The Wind of the War, the best known example of his patriotic poems. In it, literary and linguistic structures, main themes and the newly-encountered subjects, the pivotal factors of place and time, manifestations of patriotism, and championship are analyzed in the Russian resistance poetry.