Poets and the City: Locating the Political in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Poetry. Introduction

Abstract

This introductory essay summarizes the political and theoretical backgrounds of poetry of the twentieth century and provides an overview of the contributions to this special triple issue on Poetry and Politics. Taking the Platonic idiosyncrasy towards poetry and the State (‘Republic’) as its dialectical departure point, the substance and matter of the volume encompasses several characteristic case studies which appear to be highly relevant in this context. This special issue deals with the oeuvre of such iconic Russian poets as Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Maiakovskii, Daniil Kharms, Dmitrii Prigov, Arkadii Dragomoschenko and many others. Special attention is paid to the general issue of ideology and the Russian Avant-Garde pragmatics of shocking action related to Futurism and early Soviet culture.