Коллективная автобиография: “поколение 1880-х” в воспоминаниях и переписке А.В. Амфитеатрова.

Abstract

This article deals with the question of conflicts and continuity among the intellectual generations in Late Imperial Russia and in the period of post-revolutionary emigration through the works and private letters by Alexander Amfiteatrov, a journalist, writer and editor. The article focuses on the generation identity of the Russian intelligentsia as a reflection of the prominent social and political changes, a way to strengthen social solidarity and to declare new values of modernity. The generational discourse was formed by Russian literature and public thought, which created the ‘Generation of the Sixties’ as a pattern for the next generations of the Russian intelligentsia. Amfiteatrov identified himself with the ‘Generation of the Eighties’, describing this generation in different ways. The typical juxtaposition between the generation of the Sixties and the generation of the Eighties in the Russian society can be considered as a form of ‘generation gap’, a constant component of the generational consciousness, although the self-description of generations confirms the continuity rather than conflict between generations of the Russian intelligentsia. The idea of generation became one of the key elements to construct a social, political, and even national identity in the epoch of reforms and revolutions in Russia.