Avant-garde co-founder of OBERIU who emerged from the Gulag as a master of classical lyricism
In the desert of the ages, where not one stone remains upon another after wars, fires, and fierce destruction, stands this lonely, incomparable cathedral of our ancient glory.
Nikolai Zabolotsky was a Soviet poet and translator who co-founded the avant-garde literary group OBERIU (the Association for Real Art) in 1928 with Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky. His first collection, Columns (Столбцы, 1929), rendered the grotesque everyday life of the NEP era in absurdist imagery and sharp satire, becoming a landmark of post-revolutionary Russian poetry. Arrested in 1938 during the Great Purge on charges of forming an anti-Soviet writers' organization, he served five years in the camps, where he produced his masterful translation of the medieval epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign. After returning to Moscow, his poetry turned toward a classical lyricism that contemplated the metaphysical relationship between nature and humanity, earning comparison with Tyutchev.
Career Timeline
- 1928Co-founded OBERIU avant-garde group
- 1929Published first collection Columns
- 1933Poem "The Triumph of Agriculture" provoked critical attacks
- 1937Published second book of poetry
- 1938–1943Arrested in Great Purge; translated The Tale of Igor's Campaign in exile
- 1946Reinstated in Union of Soviet Writers, returned to Moscow
- 1948Published third poetry collection
- 1957Published final lifetime collection and cycle "Last Love"