The Metropol' Almanac is a collection of uncensored texts by famous writers, self published in

Samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

in Moscow in December 1978. The collection was organized by Vasily Aksyonov, and counted with contributions from a number of Soviet writers, such as

Fazil Iskander Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian"There's no doubt I'm a Russian writer who praised Abkhazia a lot. Unfortunately, I haven't written anything in the Abkhaz language. The choice of Russian culture ...

Andrei Bitov Andrei Georgiyevich Bitov (, 27 May 1937 – 3 December 2018) was a prominent Russian writer of Circassian ancestry. Biography Bitov was born in Leningrad. His father was an architect and his mother was a lawyer. He completed his secondary edu ...

, Andrei Voznesensky,

Bella Akhmadulina Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina (, ; 10 April 1937 – 29 November 2010) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator, known for her apolitical writing stance. She was part of the Russian New Wave literary movem ...

and

Vladimir Vysotsky Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (25 January 193825 July 1980) was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor who had an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which ...

, and one contribution from abroad, made by

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

. Copies of the almanac was smuggled to the US, and a facsimile edition was published in 1979 by Ardis Publishing. A translation to English was published by Random House, while one in French was prepared by Gallimard.

History of the Almanac

Creation of the Metropol' Almanac

The essence of the project was to place in a collection of works rejected by Soviet publishers. Not all poets and prose writers approached by the compilers of "Metropol" agreed to transfer their poems and prose to the almanac; for example, Yuri Trifonov and

Bulat Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (; ka, ბულატ ოკუჯავა; ; May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter of Georgian-Armenian ancestry. He was one of the founders o ...

refused to participate for various reasons. Vysotsky, according to the memoirs of Vasily Aksyonov, treated the proposal "with enthusiasm" and transferred a large selection of poems for publication.

sent a chapter of his new novel. The direct work on compiling the almanac took place in the apartment that previously belonged to Aksyonov's mother, Evgenia Ginzburg, who died shortly before the publication of "Metropol". Enthusiasts and volunteer assistants worked there, retyping texts, gluing together typewritten sheets, and proofreading. The layout was designed by the theater artist David Borovsky, and the frontispiece was designed by Boris Messerer. Vysotsky did not take direct part in the work on the almanac, but sometimes he came to the “editorial office” with a guitar, asking a humorous question upon entering the apartment: “Do they make counterfeit money here?”. The authors of the Metropol' planned a small vernissage to mark the release of the work. They also openly discussed publishing the work abroad, sending a letter asking for permission from VAAP, the Soviet agency in charge of negotiating copyright for authors publishing abroad.

Prohibition of the Almanac and persecution of the authors

Five of the Metropol' authors were invited to the Writers' Union in an attempt to dissuade from organizing the Vernissage. When that did not work, the Rhythm Cafe, where it would take place, was closed for a sanitary inspection on the say of the Vernissage. After the almanac was made public, its authors were subjected to various forms of persecution in the USSR. A media campaign called the works "vulgar", "low quality" and "pornographic", and was led in magazines by 1st Secretary of the Moscow organization of the Union of Writers of the USSR Felix Kuznetsov. Evgeny Popov and Viktor Yerofeyev, who had applied to the Writers Union of the U.S.S.R., were denied membership. After this, Inna Lisnyanskaya, Vasily Aksyonov and Semyon Lipkin all renounced their memberships. At the time, this meant "literary death", as the authors put, threatening their ability to publish, but also housing, since they lived in apartments provided by the Union. Vassili Aksyonov emigrating from the USSR in result. A fictionalized history of the almanac "Metropol" is contained in the novels of Vasily Aksenov "Say Raisin" and "Mysterious Passion".

Publication abroad

The Metropol' manuscript was smuggled abroad by several acquaintances of the writers. Kevin Klose, an american journalist then in the USSR, sent a copy to Carl Proffer, publisher of Ardis Publishing in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, who made a fac-simile edition. After the Metropol' publication, the Proffers had their visas denied for the USSR, which they had been visiting once a year since the sixties. They attributed that to two publications,

Lev Kopelev Lev Zalmanovich (Zinovyevich) Kopelev (, German: Lew Sinowjewitsch Kopelew, 9 April 1912 – 18 June 1997) was a Soviet author and dissident. Early life Kopelev was born in Kyiv, then Russian Empire, to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1926, ...

's ''To Preserve Forever'', and ''Metropol'.''

List of contributors

* Vasily Aksyonov *

Yuz Aleshkovsky Iosif Efimovich Aleshkovsky (), known as Yuz Aleshkovsky () (September 21, 1929 – March 21, 2022) was a modern Russian writer, poet, screenwriter, and bard, namely performer of his own songs. Biography Yuz Aleshkovsky was born in Krasnoyarsk, ...

* Arkady Arkanov * Leonid Baktin *

* Boris Bakhtin * Friedrich Gorenstein *

* Yuri Karabchievsky * Piotr Kozhevnikov * Semyon Lipkin * Inna Lisianskaya * Evgeny Popov * Vassily Rakitin * Evgeny Rein * Mark Rozovsky * Genrih Saprig * Viktor Trostnikov *

* Andrei Voznessensky *

* Viktor Yerofeyev {{div col end

References

External links

Metropol madness
Documents related to the journal Metropol, edited by Aksyonov.

Documents related to Party meetings about the Metropol' (in Russian)

Recollections by Viktor Yerofeev (in Russian)

Recollections by Evgeny Popov (in Russian) 1978 books 1978 in the Soviet Union Samizdat publications Works by Russian writers