Vadim Nikolaevich Delaunay ( rus, Вади́м Никола́евич Делоне́, p=vɐˈdʲim nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ dʲɪlɐˈnʲɛ, a=Vadim Nikolayevich Dyelonye.ru.vorb.oga; December 22, 1947, Moscow – June 13, 1983, Paris) was a Soviet poet and

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...

, who participated in the

1968 Red Square demonstration The 1968 Red Square demonstration (russian: Демонстра́ция 25 а́вгуста 1968 го́да) took place in Moscow on 25 August 1968. It was a protest by eight demonstrators against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968), ...

of protest against military suppression of the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

Biography

Delaunay was born to a Russian-

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

family of

Soviet 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, ...

Intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

. He was the son of

Nikolai Borisovich Delone Nikolai Delaunay, Jr. (aka Delone, Nikolai Borisovich; 22 May 1926 – 11 September 2008) was a Soviet physicist born in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). Life Delone was born in Leningrad on 22 May 1926. He was the son of Boris D ...

, a Soviet

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. His grandfather,

Boris Delaunay Boris Nikolayevich Delaunay or Delone (russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Делоне́; 15 March 1890 – 17 July 1980) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, mountain climber, and the father of physicist, Nikolai Borisovich Delone. ...

, was a prominent Soviet mathematician and creator of the

Delaunay triangulation In mathematics and computational geometry, a Delaunay triangulation (also known as a Delone triangulation) for a given set P of discrete points in a general position is a triangulation DT(P) such that no point in P is inside the circumcircle o ...

. Among his ancestors was

marquis A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

Bernard-René de Launay, the last governor of the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was sto ...

, murdered by the attackers on that castle. Delaunay studied at

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

matshkola ("Mathematical School") No. 2, one of the best in the country at that time, then at the Department of

Philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. As a student, he also worked as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

author for the ''

Literaturnaya Gazeta ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (russian: «Литературная Газета», ''Literary Gazette'') is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and the Soviet Union. It was published for two periods in the 19th century, and ...

''. Delaunay started to write poetry at the age of 13. His poetry was distributed by

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 ...

and some of it was published abroad.

:''Пуcкай грехи мне'' :''не простят -'' :''К тому предлогов слишком много,'' :''Но если я просил'' :''у Бога,'' :''То - за других,'' :''не за себя.'' :''Let my sins'' :''not be forgiven'' :''the reasons for this are many'' :''but if I ever prayed'' :''to God for something'' :''it was for others'' :''never for myself'' Vadim Delaunay

Political activism

On January 22, 1967, Delaunay took part in a demonstration on

Pushkin Square Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square () is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District in central Moscow. Historically, it was known as ''Strastnaya Square'' before being renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937. It is located at the juncti ...

protesting the arrest

Yuri Galanskov Yuri Timofeyevich Galanskov (russian: Ю́рий Тимофе́евич Галанско́в, 19 June 1939, Moscow - 4 November 1972, Mordovia) was a Russian poet, historian, human rights activist and dissident. For his political activities, suc ...

and others (leading to the

Trial of the Four The Trial of the Four, also Galanskov–Ginzburg trial, was the 1968 trial of Yuri Galanskov, Alexander Ginzburg, Alexey Dobrovolsky and Vera Lahkova for their involvement in samizdat publications. The trial took place in Moscow City Court on Janu ...

) as well as articles 70 and 190 of the Soviet

Penal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

—"Anti-Soviet agitation" and "Libel against the Soviet Government". He was arrested and given a one-year suspended sentence (incidentally in accordance with article 190 of the Penal Code). His sentence was much lighter than that of another organizer of the same meeting,

Vladimir Bukovsky Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 1950 ...

, who got three years in a

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

. On September 1, 1967, together with Bukovsky and Kushev, he was sentenced to 1 year (conditionally) as a participant in a demonstration on Pushkin Square in defense of Galanskov,

Dobrovolsky Dobrovolsky, sometimes spelled Dobrovolskiy or Dobrovolski (russian: Добровольский), or Dobrovolskaya (feminine; Добровольская), is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Anatoly Dobrovolsky (1910� ...

, and Lashkova.

Dissidence

Delaunay's sentence required him to move away from Moscow, so he went to

Novosibirsk State University Novosibirsk State University is a public research university located in Novosibirsk, Russia. The university was founded in 1958, on the principles of integration of education and science, early involvement of students with research activities an ...

to a friend and pupil of his grandfather, Aleksandr Aleksandrov. In

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

, he continued his philology studies and wrote poetry. At that time, his first official foreign publications appeared in the

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

magazine ''Grani'' N66. Delaunay was an organizer of a concert by the

Bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

Alexander Galich, who was semi-legal at that time. At the beginning of 1968, after the court hearing for Galanskov and Ginzburg, Delaunay wrote an open letter to ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' in which he praised their bravery. The letter was published in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

newspaper ''Novoe Russkoe Slovo'' (''The New Russian Word'').

1968 Red Square demonstration

In June 1968, Delaunay returned to Moscow. On August 25, 1968, he and seven other dissidents organized the now-famous demonstration in support of the

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...

near the

Moscow Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (R ...

. Delaunay and

Pavel Litvinov Pavel Mikhailovich Litvinov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Литви́нов; born 6 July 1940) is a Russian-born U.S. physicist, writer, teacher, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident. Biography The grandson of ...

held the famous banner with the words "ЗА ВАШУ И НАШУ СВОБОДУ" ("

For your freedom and ours For our freedom and yours ( pl, Za naszą i waszą wolność) is one of the unofficial mottos of Poland. It is commonly associated with the times when Polish soldiers, exiled from the partitioned Poland (1795-1914), partitioned Poland, fought in ...

"). Seven people were arrested, and in court, Delaunay stated that the five minutes of freedom on the square were worth the awaiting years in prison. The sentence by the court was prepared in advance, just as for other defendants. Delaunay was sentenced to two years and 10 months in a labor camp that he served in

Tyumen Oblast Tyumen Oblast (russian: Тюме́нская о́бласть, ''Tyumenskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Western Siberia region of Siberia, and is administratively part of the Urals ...

in western

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

.Andropov to the Central Committee. The Demonstration in Red Square Against the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia. September 20, 1968

Emigration

In June 1971, Delaunay finished serving his sentence and returned to Moscow. In 1973, his wife Irina Belogorodskaya was arrested for her involvement with an underground journal, ''

Chronicle of Current Events ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (russian: Хро́ника теку́щих собы́тий, ''Khronika tekushchikh sobytiy'') was one of the longest-running ''samizdat'' periodicals of the post-Stalin USSR. This unofficial newsletter reported v ...

''. In 1975, she was freed, and they both emigrated to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Death

On 13 June 1983, Delaunay died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in Paris at the age of 35. In 1984, his book of poetry ''Verses: 1963–1983'' was published. In that same year, he was posthumously awarded the

Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal ( rus, Влади́мир Ива́нович Даль, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈdalʲ; November 22, 1801 – October 4, 1872) was a noted Russian-language lexicographer, polyglot, Turkologist, and founding me ...

prize. His poetry has been published in Russia since 1989.

References

External links

Biography

Biography and works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delaunay, Vadim 1947 births 1983 deaths Writers from Moscow Russian people of French descent Soviet songwriters Soviet emigrants to France Soviet poets Russian male poets Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Soviet dissidents Prague Spring Soviet male singers Novosibirsk State University alumni