In 1956, Nikita Krushchev openly and explicitly criticised the record of Josef Stalin and initiated a thaw in Soviet society. Begziin Yavuuhulan (1929-1982) who, at that time, was beginning his career as a poet and translator, saw the opportunity to wrench Mongolian literature from its almost two decades languishing among the repetitive grimness of paeans to Stalin and Lenin, encomia to noble peasantry and opprobria against capitalism and the non-communist world. His idea was to revive the literary traditions of pre-revolutionary Mongolia - respect for the land, the changing seasons, the celebration of the history and lineage of the Mongolian people, and even (occasionally, clandestinely) an acknowledgement of shamanic and Buddhist spirituality - and to clothe them in the stylistic and thematic language of the modern world. The movement which resulted from his efforts was the "New Tendency" (in Mongolian Shine handlaga) and this can be seen as preparing the ground for much of the poetry which was composed in Mongolia during the latter half of the twentieth century.
Yavuuhulan wrote a great deal, and he gathered around himself students who would become the most influential poets of the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a prolific translator, and is well-known for his work on Sergey Yesenin. Here are some examples of Yavuuhulan's poetry, which illustrate I think what he was trying to do with the tradition, together with an essay written by his student G Mend-Ooyo, one of the subjects of tomorrow's post and the director of the Mongolian Academy of Culture and Poetry in Ulaanbaatar.
Tomorrow: Nyamsüren and Mend-Ooyo
