To Pushkin, Freedom, and Revolution in Asia: Velimir Khlebnikov in Baku

Abstract

The collection of Velimir Khlebnikov's manuscripts in Moscow's Russian State Archive for Literature and Art contains a series of drafts which Khlebnikov wrote in Baku in 1920. These drafts hold verses on freedom, on the spread of the revolution into Asia, and on Aleksandr Pushkin. While the former two topics are not particularly surprising to find in Khlebnikov's writings, the latter seems rather unusual. The fact that in these manuscripts Khlebnikov seems to set Pushkin in a positive light heightens the surprise, because Khlebnikov's attitude toward Pushkin is generally assumed to be in keeping with that of his erstwhile Futurist colleagues, namely dismissive. Why then would Khlebnikov compose several pages of verse that seem so diametrically opposed to what he is known for? By presenting an edition, a translation, and a thorough discussion of the manuscripts in question, this article hopes to elucidate Khlebnikov's attitude toward Pushkin in 1920 and to illuminate the complex position the latter occupied in Khlebnikov's worldview by then. Should this complexity be successfully argued and, as a result, the notions widely held of Khlebnikov's attitude toward Pushkin be sufficiently dispersed, the article might achieve its wider and more ambitious goal: to revive discussion about the notions we hold on Futurism and its influences overall.