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SMOG (literary group)

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SMOG (Russian: СМОГ) was one of the earliest informal literary groups independent of the Soviet state in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. Among several interpretations of the acronym are Smelost', Mysl', Obraz i Glubina (Courage, Thought, Image and Depth), and, humorously, Samoe Molodoe Obshchestvo Geniev (Society of Youngest Geniuses).[1][2] It is also a pun: the Russian word "смог" means "<he> was able (to do something)".

It was organized in January/February 1965 by a group of young poets and writers: Poet Leonid Gubanov (initiator, membership card #1); writer and editor Vladimir Batshev [ru] (membership card #2); poet and publicist Yuri Kublanovsky; Vladimir Aleynikov [ru], a poet who received the Andrei Bely Prize; and poets Nikolai Bokov and Arkady Pakhomov [ru], later joined by several dozens of others.[3][4][5][6]: 15 

The group held public poetry readings and issued several samizdat collections and a magazine, Sfinksy ("Sphynxes"). In 1965, they revived their literary meetings at Mayakovsky Square (Mayakovsky Square poetry readings).[7]

Some members also helped organize the unsanctioned 1965 glasnost rally calling for a legal trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel.[8]: 13–14 

The group was under pressure from the state. Its last poetry reading took place on April 14, 1966.

References

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  1. ^ Or: Szhatyj Mig Otrazhennoi Giperboly (Condensed Moment of Reflected Hyperbole). 'Smog' is also a past tense of the verb 'to be able to', yielding 'I was able to', or 'I did it'. Kravchenko, E. I. (2013). The Prose of Sasha Sokolov: Reflections on/of the Real. MHRA texts and dissertations. London: Modern Humanities Research Association. ISBN 978-1-907322-52-5., p. 15
  2. ^ An interview with Kublanovsky
  3. ^ Диссиденты о диссидентстве. «Знамя». — М., 1997, № 9
  4. ^ Виктория Андреева, SMOG
  5. ^ Сенкевич А. Показания свидетелей защиты: Из истории русского поэтического подполья 1960-х. М., 1992г.; Алейников В. Смелость, Мысль, Образ, Глубина // Другое искусство (as cite in [1])
  6. ^ Kravchenko, E. I. (2013). The Prose of Sasha Sokolov: Reflections on/of the Real. MHRA texts and dissertations. London: Modern Humanities Research Association. ISBN 978-1-907322-52-5.
  7. ^ Sundaram, Chantal (2006). ""The stone skin of the monument": Mayakovsky, Dissent and Popular Culture in the Soviet Union". Toronto Slavic Quarterly (16).
  8. ^ A. Roginskii, A. Danielʹ; et al., eds. (2005). 5 dekabria 1965 goda: v vospominaniiakh uchastnikov sobytii, materialakh samizdata, publikatsiiakh zarubezhnoii pressy i v dokumentakh partiinykh i komsomolʹskikh organizatsii i v zapiskakh Komiteta gosudarstvannoi beznopasnosti v TsK KPSS (in Russian). Moscow: Memorial: Zvenʹia. ISBN 5787000862.

Bibliography

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