Lazar Karmen in the Odessa press. Early publications, essays on tramps of the Odessa port
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-10-24-41
Abstract
The article deals with the early publications of Lazar Karmen in the Odessa press. It analyzes the essays from the early 1900s, reflecting the social issues of the city (the collections such as ”Dikari” / “The Savages”. Life in the Odessa port” and “The Children – glukhari/capercaillies”: Life of the Children in the Odessa port”). The influence of Vlas Doroshevich and Populist literature on his work is noted. In addition to depicting the lifestyle and mentality of the outcasts, the narratives prominently featured scenes of the harborand information about the activities of the different port services played a significant role in his stories. The work of the Portovoye sanitarnoye popechitel’stvo (The Port Sanitary Guardianship) whose work is directly reflected in the essays published in the newspapers Odessky Listok / Odessa Leaf and Odesskiye Novosti / Odessa News, which are being studied for the first time in the article. Soviet literary criticism associated Кarmen with Gorky’s trend in literature, but A. Izgoev, A. Markevich and Vl. Zhabotinsky emphasized the difference between his descriptions and Gorky’s methods of romanticizing the “bosyak” (a tramp). The writer’s contribution to the formation of “Odessa literature” is illustrated through essays from the 1900s, highlighting its characteristic themes and imagery, including the sea and the port as iconic elements of the “Odessa text”. The memoirs of Vl. Zhabotinsky, K. Chukovsky, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, I. Orsher and V. Kataev are the important sources for studying Karmen’s oeuvre.
About the Author
G. A. Eliasberg
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Galina A. Eliasberg, Cand. of Sci. (Philology), associate professor
6-6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
References
1. Bushkanets, L.E. (2021), “[Maxim Gorky and the ‘Bosyak’ (Tramp) as a social fashion at the early 20th century”, Journal of Russian Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 51–70.
2. Ivanova, E. (2008), “The three”, Lekhaim, vol. 195, no. 7, availabl at: https://www.chukfamily.ru/kornei/bibliografiya/articles-bibliografiya/troe (Accessed 14 July 2025).
3. Katsis, L. (2019), “Russkaya vesna” Vladimira Zhabotinskogo [“Russian Spring” of Vladimir Zhabotinsky], RGGU, Moscow, Russia.
4. Ladokhin, Yu.D.and Ladokhina, O.F. (2017), “Odesskii tekst”: solnechnaya literatura vol’nogo goroda [“Odessa text”. Sunny literature of a free city. Izdatel’skie resheniya, Ekaterinburg, Russia. (Filologiya dlya eruditov)
5. Lekke, M. (2016), “Odessa. Southern city in the work of I. Babel, E. Bagritsky and Yu. Olesha”, in Isaak Babel’ v istoricheskom i literaturnom kontekste: XXI vek [Isaac Babel in the historical and literary context. 21st century], Knizhniki, izdatel’stvo “Literaturnyi muzei”, Moscow, Russia, pp. 643–660. (Cheisovskaya kollektsiya)
6. Lecke, M. and Sicher, E. (2018), “Odessa in Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, and Yiddish literature”, in Tambling, J., ed. The Palgrave encyclopedia of urban literary studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_25-1 (Accessed 14 July 2025),
7. Lvov-Rogachevskii, V. (1927), “Preface”, in Karmen, L., Nakanune: Rasskazy [On the eve. Stories], Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, Moscow, Leningrad, USSR, pp. V–IX.
8. Lvov-Rogachevskii, V. (1927), Noveishaya russkaya literatura [The latest Russian literature], Mir, Moscow, USSR.
9. Panasenko, N.N. (2016), “Protector of port tramps”, Deribasovskaya-Rishel’evskaya: Al’manakh, no. 66, pp. 72–85, available at: https://www.chukfamily.ru/kornei/bibliografiya/articles-bibliografiya/natalya-panasenko-odesskoe-okruzhenie-kchukovskogo-lazar-karmen (Accessed 14 July 2025).
10. Semenovskii, O.V. (1979), “He saw the sky in diamonds”, in Semenovskii, O.V., Moldavskaya tetrad’: literaturno-kriticheskie stat’i i ocherki [Moldavian notebook. Literary-critical articles and essays], Literatura artistike, Chisinau, USSR, pp. 234–262.
11. Stepanov, E.M. (2004), Rociis’ke movlennya Odesi [Russian speech of Odessa], Odes’kii natsional’nii universitet imeni I.I. Mechnikova, Odessa, Ukraine.
12. Zverev, V.V. (1997), Reformatorskoe narodnichestvo i problema modernizatsii Rossii, ot sorokovykh godov k devyanostym godam XIX v. [Reformist populism and the issue of modernization of Russia, from the forties to the nineties of the 19th century], Unikum-tsentr, Moscow, Russia.
13.
Review
For citations:
Eliasberg G.A. Lazar Karmen in the Odessa press. Early publications, essays on tramps of the Odessa port. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2025;(10):24-41. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-10-24-41
Views:
131
JATS XML
Email this article 
