Revolution is creativity: Some aspects of Moscow anarchist periodicals in the context of avant-garde aesthetics (1917-1918)

Interconnections between art, politics, aesthetics and ethics are a long-standing feature of Russian civil society, and this is particularly true during the tumultuous era of Russian revolution (1917-18). In this article I am examining the social and cultural politics of the two Moscow anarchist publications, the unique issue of a journal Revolutsionnoe Tvorchestvo (Revolutionary Creativity), and newspaper Anarkhiia (Anarchy) published by Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups, and the role of the avant-garde artists in the paper. The cultural and political symbolism of creative activity was integral to the political philosophy of Anarkhiia. Contributions from avant-garde artists and poets in the "Creativity" section of Anarkhiia are very significant: these artists had never participated in such a controversial forum before. Their involvement indicates they not only perceived the Russian Revolution through the prism of anarchist aesthetics as a path "to the new limit" (Malevich' s formulation), they openly associated these aesthetics with the movement's political agenda.