Reporting Collection of Poems by the Group of Irkutsk Poets for 1921

Abstract

The typewritten “Reporting Collection of Poems by the Group of Irkutsk Poets for 1921” is published for the first time in its entirety. This example of early Soviet literary “samizdat” represents the works of twelve members of the local literary association “The Barque of Poets” (Barka poetov): Sergei Arkadievich Alyakrinsky (1889–1938), Artur Ancharov (whose real name and fate remain unknown), Viktor Mikhailovich Blumenfeld (1897–1978), Alexander Ivanovich Venediktov (1896–1970), Mikhail Nikolaevich Gorin-Volkov, who wrote under the pseudonym “Imray” (1894–1942), Alexander Davidovich Meiselman (1900–1938), Nina Mikhailovna Podgorichany-Petrovich (1889–1964), Igor Kronidovich Slavnin (1898– 1925), Elpidifor Innokentyevich Titov (1896–1938), Leonid Dmitrievich Tyazhelov (1887–1936), Nina Pavlovna Shastina (1898–1980) and Nina Petrovna Komarova (1892 – after 1943), who wrote under the pseudonyms “Nibu” and “Khabias”. In addition to the “Reporting Collection...” itself, some accompanying materials are also published (a questionnaire for members of “The Barque...” and several poems on separate sheets). All these materials of the early Soviet “samizdat” were kept in private archive of Irkutsk professor Boleslav Sergeevich Shostakovich (1945–2015), and after his death they were transferred to the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region. The publication is provided with bio-bibliographic references about the authors of the “Reporting Collection...”, both brief (in the cases of such well-known poets as Igor Slavnin, Elpidifor Titov or Nina Khabias) and, if necessary, expanded.