Premonition of the Civil War in the journalism of L. Andreev

The comprehension of the lessons and consequences of the Civil War in Russia is under the close attention of historians and philosophers; numerous works of fiction by writers of different ideological and aesthetic ideas are devoted to the national catastrophe in the fate of the country. Despite the fact that the journalism of the Civil War is huge, a special and less researched layer in it consists of articles and egodocuments of writers. The subject of this research is L. Andreev’s comprehension of the most important events – the revolutions of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia. The writer’s journalistic articles published in the Socialist-Revolutionary newspaper “Russian Will” (1917–1919) make it possible to trace the evolution of his perception of key events in the history of Russia of the twentieth century. In the articles of the first half of 1917, L. Andreev is inspired by the events of the February Revolution and seeks to convey this state to readers. With the change in the political situation in Russia by the middle of 1917, the tone of the writer’s articles also changed. Andreev fears the possible death of Russia due to a change in the vector of development of the revolution, so he resorts in his articles to the struggle of the word – beliefs, appeals and slogans to encourage his readers to continue the struggle for the freedom of the country. The death of the writer in 1919, when the Civil War was already underway on the territory of Russia, but was of a local nature, and the main events of 1919–1920 were still ahead, allows us to speak only about the writer’s foresight of the future tragedy in the history of the country. However, the evolution of the views of Leonid Andreev, an authoritative writer who became a symbol of the 1905 revolution, will be close to many representatives of the creative and scientific intelligentsia in Russia. As the study showed, in their articles of 1917–1919 Andreev foresaw and emotionally and passionately sought to prevent the onset of fratricidal war.

L. Andreev, journalism, newspaper “Russian will”, First World War, revolution, Civil War