Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev (, ; 22 October 1884 – 23/25 October 1937), was a notable Russian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He was influenced by the symbolist movement, intense

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

, and a love of Russian

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. Born in the village of Koshtugi in

Olonets Governorate Olonets Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded west by Finland, north and east by Arkhangelsk and Vologda, and south by Novgorod and ...

(now

Vologda Oblast Vologda Oblast (, ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is Vologda. The oblast has a population of 1,202,444 (Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census). The largest city is Cherepovets, t ...

) near the town of

Vytegra Vytegra ( rus, Вы́тегра, p=ˈvɨtʲɪɡrə) is a town and the administrative center of Vytegorsky District in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located along the shores of the Vytegra River on Volga–Baltic Waterway, northwest of Vologda, the a ...

, Kluyev rose to prominence in the early twentieth century as the leader of the so-called "peasant poets". Kluyev was a close friend and mentor of

Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (, ; 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations ...

. Arrested in 1933 for contradicting Soviet ideology, he was shot in 1937 and rehabilitated posthumously in 1957.

Homosexuality

Klyuev was

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

and had love affairs in

in the immediate post-revolutionary years, before he settled in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in the 1920s. Nevertheless, by the 1920s the evidence of active homosexual relationships become more evident in the account of his life, as well as his poetry. In 1928, he met his great love, Anatoly Kravchenko, a young artist. The two lived as companions in Leningrad until Kravchenko's marriage in 1933, which came as a blow to Klyuev. Homo-eroticism can be found in Klyuev's poetry from as early as the late 1910s. By the 1930s a more romanticized form of homosexual love is found addressed in the poems to Kravchenko. However, documentary evidence remains scarce; as some suggest, one of the reasons is that scholars in Russia working on archival material have tended to treat issues of sexuality with some caution; and homosexuality remains a taboo subject for Russian readers and students.

Religious views

Kluyev, whose work is thoroughly inspired by the spirit of the

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

, was the first in Russian literature who began to praise the innocence of the body. In his view, Christ had been homosexual. And his own homosexuality Kluyev explained (referring to

Paul the Apostle Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

) was that "love justifies a multitude of sins, and love is mighty". Kluyev was also close to the sect of

khlysts The Khlysts or Khlysty ( rus, Хлысты, p=xlɨˈstɨ, "whips") were an underground Spiritual Christian sect which emerged in Russia in the 17th century. The sect is traditionally said to have been founded in 1645 by Danilo Filippovich, a ...

proclaiming the

Dionysian The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fri ...

approach to knowledge of Christ, specifically: knowledge not through spirit, but through the flesh.

Homosexuality

Religious views

Notes

References

Further reading