SMOG (russian: СМОГ) was one of the earliest informal literary groups independent of the
Soviet state in post-Stalin
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. Among several interpretations of the acronym are ''Smelsot', Mysl', Obraz i Glubina'' (Courage, Thought, Image and Depth), and, humorously, ''Samoe Molodoe Obshchestvo Geniev'' (Society of Youngest Geniuses).
[An interview with Kublanovsky]
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It was organized in January/February 1965 by a group of young poets and writers: Poet Leonid Gubanov
Leonid Ivanovich Gubanov (russian: Леонид Иванович Губанов; 2 August 1928 – 24 February 2004) was a Soviet Russian actor, theater director, master of the artistic word (reader).
Born in village of Rybatskoye in Leningrad ...
(initiator, membership card #1); writer and editor Vladimir Batshev (membership card #2); poet and publicist Yuri Kublanovsky
Yury Mikhaylovich Kublanovsky (russian: Ю́рий Миха́йлович Кублано́вский; 30 April 1947 in Rybinsk) is a Russian poet, essayist, critic and art historian, known for his dissident past, started in the informal literary un ...
; Vladimir Aleynikov, a poet who received the Andrei Belyi prize; and poets Nikolai Bokov and Arkady Pakhomov, later joined by several dozens of others.
The group held public poetry readings and issued several ''samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) 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 document ...
'' collections and a magazine, ''Sfinksy'' ("Sphynxes"). In 1965, they revived their literary meetings at Mayakovsky Square (Mayakovsky Square poetry readings During the 1950s and 1960s, Mayakovsky Square in Moscow played an important role as a gathering place for unofficial poetry readings, and subsequently for expressing cultural and political dissent in the post-Stalin era.
Precursor
On July 29, 195 ...
).
Some members also helped organize the unsanctioned 1965 glasnost rally calling for a legal trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel.
The group was under pressure from the state. Its last poetry reading took place on April 14, 1966.
References
Bibliography
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External links
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Arts organizations established in 1965
1965 establishments in the Soviet Union
1965 establishments in Russia
Organizations disestablished in 1966
1966 disestablishments in the Soviet Union
1966 disestablishments in Russia
Non-profit organizations based in the Soviet Union
Russian writers' organizations
Soviet culture
Soviet opposition groups
Russian literary societies
Underground culture
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