This book explores lesser-known aspects of the life and creative work of the Russian poet and dramatist Alexander Vvedensky, whose influence on unofficial and avant-garde art during and after the Soviet era can hardly be overstated.
Vvedensky and the World or Shoulder Must be Tied to Four
Copyright © 2025 by Boris Viktorov and Gugo Veles
All rights reserved. Asteroid Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-926720-74-6
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means; graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any infor-mation storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher/author.
Technical editor: Andrew Andersen
Cover design: Katie Alberts
About the authors
CONTENTS I’d better tell you…
Appearance in Kharkiv
The wife… As she is…
Tickets to the racetrack
You killers are fools Lenin: We will imprison the Communist scum without mercy
Writers' House on Barachnaya Street
Joseph Brodsky’s favorite
You will answer for Herostratus…
You can tell by his legs that he is German
I will not survive another great love
1936—1941
Rome generally looks like Kharkiv, and Naples is filthy Stalin is a cock
Scriabin’s Étude No. 12, Patetico
Papa, kill the German!
Madame Maslyanskaya
Arrest
C’est à l’aube
Criminal Case
Vvedensky took Sokolovskaya for a Ukrainian, though she was actually Jewish
Other documents
The cleanliness of order
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Alone
Jewish habits
Children of Bach
Old woman
Letters, telegrams, autographs
You did a great thing preserving Shura’s belongings…
We probably won’t see each other again
1907–1975
Photographs
Related works by artists
Documents
Selected Poems by Alexander Vvedensky
Translated from Russian by Gugo Veles
Index