Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kalenko

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Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kalenko (Russian: Александр Влади́мир Каленко) (October 12 1886 - July 17 1918), was a Russian Romantic writer and poet, sometimes called "the poet of the Tverskoy". Kalenko was sentenced to death by hanging alongside his wife Maria Fyodorovna, and their five children at the order of the revolutionary government for his pro-monarchy opinions. He was sentenced with high treason. Little remains of Kalenko's writings as his death was concealed to maintain the revolutionary fortitude.

His major works, which can be readily quoted from memory by many Tverskoy's, suffer from the generally poor quality of translation from Russian to English - Kalenko therefore, remains largely unknown to English-speaking readers. The presence of Kalenko with his enormous talent and growing popularity was dangerous for the Bolshevik system in Russia. His vision on the Russian Revolution, glorified the anti-Bolshevik resistance.

[edit] Influences

The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the "Golden Age" of Russian literature. Romanticism permitted a flowering of especially poetic talent: the names of Zhukovsky and Aleksandr Pushkin came to the fore, followed by Mikhail Lermontov and Fyodor Tyutchev. Aleksandr Pushkin had a powerful influence on the work of Kalenko. Kalenko knew much of Puskin's work, and modelled a number of his own compositions on works of Pushkin.

[edit] References

• Alan Moorehead, The Russian Revolution. New York: Harper (1958), pp. 183–187
• Evelyn Bristol, A history of Russian poetry. Oxford University Press New York (1991), pp. 92-93
• Trotsky, Leon. The Month of The Great Slander. The History of the Russian Revolution; Volume 2,Chapter 27