Gorozhane

Cover of “Kto razvozit gorozhan” by V. Maramzin, 1969.

Dates: 1965–1975

Place: Leningrad

Founder: Boris Vakhtin

Members: Vladimir Gubin, Igor Efimov, Vladimir Maramzin

Publishing initiatives: samizdat anthology Gorozhane (two editions: 1964, 1965); foundation of the Parisian tamizdat journal “Ėkho”

Description:
The origins of the Gorozhane (Citizens) group are in Boris Vakhtin’s project to publish an anthology of the prose works of four friends: Vakhtin himself, Vladimir Gubin, Igor Efimov and Vladimir Maramzin. The authors, unlike the members of other underground groups, had all had works published officially but they wanted to create a volume that was free from the dictates of official Soviet literature (cf. Dolinin 2003: 19). The works of the four writers are aesthetically similar (cf. Sabbatini 2008: 66) and share an interest in prostorechie (daily speech) (cf. Savitskii 2002: 71). The typewritten version of the collection, with an introduction by David Dar, was presented in 1965 to the publishing company Sovetskii pisatel’, which emphatically rejected it. This first attempt was followed by others: in the second version of the anthology an article entitled Gorozhane o sebe (Citizens about themselves) was added, a sort of manifesto for the group, together with a selection of the negative comments expressed by various official critics. Having been rejected by official channels, Vakhtin and his colleagues started circulating their anthology through the samizdat, although they did set aside a copy for the Publichka, the Leningrad State Library, formerly a reference point for the young artists of the Malaia Sadovaia. From this time, the Citizens sought to publish their work through underground channels, both at home and abroad, although some short stories from the anthology did find their way into official publications, evidence that the group’s works are less overtly subversive than those by other non-conformist authors and that the authorities were reluctant to fuel further scandals (cf. Dolinin 2003: 19). In his introduction, Dar highlights the innovative language used in the short stories, which deconstructs the canons of traditional literary speech. Despite their contact with official publishing, the Citizens maintained complete independence of thought. This independence emerged during Brodskii’s trial and the Siniavskii-Daniėl’ case, when the writers spoke out in favour of their colleagues who had been condemned. Influenced by authors such as Gogol’, Zoshchenko, Olesha, Babel’ and Platonov (of whom they collected texts), and close to groups like the Filologicheskaia shkola and Akhmatova’s Orphans (cf. ibid.: 400; Savitskii 2002: 140), Vakhtin, Gubin, Efimov and Maramzin, the Gorozhane compensated for the limited distribution of their most important works with public readings performed at the Dom Kultury and Molekula cafès. The group was active until 1975, when Maranzim was arrested and forced to emigrate to Paris (cf. Sabbatini 2008: 67): here, in 1978, together with the poet and singer Aleksei Khvostenko, he founded the journal “Ėkho”, which published works by authors banned from official channels (including, Gubin, Brodskii, Dovlatov and several members of the Filologicheskaia shkola). As Savitskii highlighted, even in their name, the Citizens represented an opposition to the contemporary school of the Derevenshchiki, the village prose writers (cf. Savitskii 2002: 37, 139; Dovlatov: web), who focused on a nostalgic and idealized reinterpretation of the past, in which the countryside played a key role in Russian society.

Federico Iocca
[30th June 2021]

Translation by Alice Bucelli

Bibliography

• Dolinin V., Ivanov, B., Ostanin B., Severiukhin, D. (eds.), Samizdat Leningrada. Literaturnaia ėntsiklopediia, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moskva 2003.
• Dovlatov S., Remeslo [1976], http://www.sergeydovlatov.ru/index.php?cnt=8&sub=3&page=4, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Sabbatini M., “Quel che si metteva in rima”: cultura e poesia underground a Leningrado, Collana di Europa Orientalis, Salerno 2008: 66-7.
• Savitskii S., Andegraund. Istoriia i mify leningradskoi neofitsial’noi literatury, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moskva 2002.