2 x 2 = 5: Protests and Experiments in Revolution-Era Russian Poetry

Dr Makarchev talks about books from his collection. The talk is based on Nikita's prize-winning submission to Cambridge University's Rose Book Collecting Prize. The UL has put this online at: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/about-library/prizes-and-fellowships/rose-book-collecting-prize.

"In hurried steps a new 'red aestheticization' is being created... An ominous sign, this. Manufacturers of cliche they are" - Imaginists, Eight Points (1924)

This talk aims to rediscover the suppressed, avant-garde poetic voices that informed and underpinned the Russian revolution's preliminary years, 1917-1925. Through a collection of contemporaneous dissident poetry, the speaker aims to underscore the richness of radical enquiry and experimentation that Bolshevik censors saw as a 'malignant outrage... on mankind, and over modern Russia (Lunacharsky 1921). Further questions to consider include: What is the role of poetry in society? What new insights can these works teach us about the early 20th century avant-garde? How do these works transcend their time-period and remain relevant today?