1917. OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND LENIN IN THE VERSES OF HIS DUTCH COMRADES

Abstract

There are numerous facts that demonstrate the interest of Dutch writers in the social and political ideas of the Russian intelligentsia at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The focus of this article is the poetic work of the two communist poets: Herman Gorter (1864–1927) and Henriette Roland Holst (1869–1952). Both poets occupy an important place in the history of Dutch literature, both came to Marxism as a result of overcoming the personal crisis, in search of a way out of the impasse of individualism. Both poets were Lenin’s comrades in the international social-democratic movement before 1917, then in the Communist International. Lenin corresponded with both poets and communicated with them personally: Lenin’s letters of 1915 and 1916, addressed to Gorter and Roland Holst, show their ideological unity and close cooperation. Both Dutch communist poets continued to write lyrical verses also during the period of political activity. Reading these lyrics allows us to look into their inner world and to understand exactly how these two representatives of the European socialists and communists saw the revolution, to what ideals they aspired. It turns out that their ideals were completely abstract: the poets admire the harmony between the liberated working class and the music of nature, both often depict the proletariat, who won the revolution, as dancing a round dance. The lives of real people were in no way their starting point.