Journal archive

Abstract: The article covers the Urals part of the big Russian tour of K. D. Balmont in 1915–1916. The poet loved to travel, and tours were a unique opportunity to open new geographical and cultural horizons, to cross the country from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. K. D. Balmont returned to Russia from emigration and began to actively explore the regional space attracting different associations and generating texts which often modeled the image of the place. The research and the reconstruction of the most reliable picture of the tours are based on the correspondence of the poet with his wife E. A. Andreeva-Balmont, on some memoirs and also unexplored regional newspapers. The study of the sources does not only clarify the poet's routes in 1915–1916 but also allows the author to see and evaluate his everyday and artistic reactions to perceived realities. In addition, the study contains the feedback: the province’s response to the public performances of the visiting celebrity. It makes possible to identify the influence of both the poet and the aesthetic position and practice of modernism in general on the artistic experience of the Russian province. The article has a historical, literary and biographical significance.