Land of Scoundrels (poem)

Land Of Scoundrels (poem)

Land of Scoundrels or Strana Negodyayev (Russian: Страна негодяев) is a poem by Russian poet Sergei Yesenin completed in 1923. It depicts a conflict between freedom-loving anarchist rebel named Nomakh (anagram alluding to Nestor Makhno) and Bolshevik commissar Rassvetov who dreams of forcefully modernized Russia. Yesenin moved to writing the poem after bitter contemplations on Russian rebellion in drama Pugachev. Other motifs include his reflections on nature of business-driven modern United States visited by Yesenin around the time of the poem composition.

After the publication the poem was seen as a critics of Soviet rule. Its contents could be interpreted as an apology of peasant (or "anarchist") rebellion or casting of Bolshevik order as an artificial one, imposed on the people by non-Russian commissars. Following the Land of Scoundrels Yesenin went on to bitter Moscow of Taverns finished next year and even tried to provide repentance of sorts by publication of Russia of Soviets compilation in 1925.

Contemporary commentators agree that questions posed by Yesenin in the poem more than eighty years ago still have immediate bearing for today's Russia: to what extent the Russian people is responsible for current state of affairs, whether the end of old regime was brought by peasants' love for freedom or was imposed by foreign influences; and to whom belongs the country's future.