Severnaia Pochta

“Severnaia pochta”, n. 1 1979. Samizdat Collections, University of Toronto.

Title of the magazine:
“Severnaia Pochta” [The Northern Mail]

Dates: [December] 1979-[February] 1981

Place of publication: Leningrad

Editors: Sergei Dediulin, Viktor Krivulin

Main contributors: Oleg Okhapkin, Sergei Stratanovskii, Elena Shvarts, Tamara Bukovskaia, Dmitrii Bobyshev

Total number of issues: 8 (the first was a double issue)

Description:
Inspired by the title of the collection Zimniaia pochta (The Winter Mail) by Iosif Brodskii rejected by the Sovetskii pisatel’ publishing house, “Severnaia pochta” came out in Leningrad from 1979 to 1981 on an almost quarterly basis. Sergei Dediulin, who had been part of the editorial staff of LOB, was the leading figure behind it, while Viktor Krivulin, founder of “37” together with his wife Tat’iana Goricheva, became its supervisor (he often appeared as its main editor). Among the most frequent contributors were Oleg Okhapkin, Sergei Stratanovskii, Elena Shvarts and Tamara Bukovskaia (pseudonym of Tamara Kozlova [Mishina]).
From the very first issue, copyright was asserted and possible differences of opinion between the magazine’s editorial staff and its authors were highlighted. The magazine had a circulation of 21-24 copies and its pages ranged from 40 to 80.
The periodical featured many of the authors present in “37”, publishing poetry from the 1910s and 1920s (especially Anna Akhmatova, 1-2, 1979, Osip Mandel’shtam and Nikolai Zabolotskii (4, 1979) and contemporary poetry, such as verses by Leningrad poets like Krivulin himself (1-2, 1979, present under the pseudonym of Aleksandr Kalomirov in issues 1-2, 1979 and 5, 1980), Stratanovskii (1-2, 1979), Shvarts (5, 1980), Zinaida Mirkina (5, 1980), Vladimir Erl’ (7, 1980), Aleksandr Mironov (3, 1979) and Muscovites such as Evgenii Kropivnitskii (3, 1979), Iurii Kublanovskii (4, 1979; 7, 1980) and Genrikh Sapgir (7, 1980). Significant were the critical articles by Krivulin (1-2, 1979), Grigorii Pomerants (5, 1980), Okhapkin (7, 1980) and B. Saitanov (7, 1980).
“Severnaia pochta” was elegantly designed with the subtitle “Zhurnal stikhov i kritiki” (Journal of Verse and Criticism) and had four sections: Teksty (Texts), Kritika (Criticism), Publikatsii (Publications) and Knizhnye novinki (New Publications). The Teskty column often included translations of foreign intellectuals such as Friedrich Dürrenmatt (nos. 1-2, 1979), Carl Gustav Jung (nos. 5, 1980), Czesław Miłosz and Emily Dickinson (nos. 8, 1981), as well as critical essays (such as the essay by the Polish literary critic Ryszard Matuszewski on Miłosz’s poetry published in nos. 8, 1981). The column Bez kommentariev (Without Comments), which did not appear in all issues, contained the texts of short poems by authors such as Andrei Voznesenskii (1-2, 1979), Valentin Kataev (3, 1979) and Aleksandr Ivanov (5, 1980).
Issues 4 (1979) and 6 (1980) were dedicated to two writers – Vladimir Nabokov and Iosif Brodskii, respectively. Issue 4 contained materials commemorating the author of Lolita: a short story by Krivulin, verses by Pëtr Cheigin and Gennadii Bezzubov, a review by A.D. of the 1979 collection Stichi (Verse), eight selected poems written between 1923 and 1967, and a translation of an interview with Nabokov given to journalist George Feifer (originally published in the “Saturday Review” in November 1976). The issue also included verses by Bukovskaia, Bobyshev, Kublanovskii, and Aleksei Semënov, as well as essays on contemporary poetry and prose such as Tret’ia kniga Sergeia Stratanovskogo (The Third Volume of Sergei Stratanovskii) by Krivulin (here under the pseudonym Aleksandr Kalomirov) on the poet’s latest collection of verse V strakhe i trepete (In Fear and Trembling).
On the occasion of Brodskii’s fortieth birthday, issue 6 included poems by and for Brodskii by Bobyshev, Okhapkin, Leonid Aronzon and Evgenii Evtushenko, critical essays by Brodskii himself, various documents related to the officially unpublished above-mentioned collection Zimniaia pochta (reviews, private letters, protocols), as well as a translation of the article Ostanovka v sumasshedshem dome: poema Brodskogo “Gorbunov i Gorkhakov” (Stop at the Asylum. Brodskii’s poem “Gorbunov and Gorkhakov”), by Carl Proffer, a well-known Slavist and friend of the poet.
Issue No. 8 (1981) contained a tribute to the 100th anniversary of Alexander Blok’s birth with three poems by Bukovskaia, Krivulin and Stratanovskii, dated 1980, and with the republication of answers to a questionnaire (originally used in issue No. 3 of “Dialog” in 1981) consisting of nine questions on the relevance of Blok and the meaning of his work, by Leningrad and Moscow poets (Bukovskaia, Tat’iana Vol’tskaia, Elena Ignatova, Krivulin, Kublanovskii, Okhapkin, Elena Pudovkina, Stratanovskii and Vladimir Shenkman).
The magazine lasted until February 1981, when, under heavy pressure from the authorities, Dediulin was forced to emigrate to Paris. For his part, Krivulin, who was under surveillance by the KGB, decided to interrupt his editorial activities and shortly afterwards also stopped his work on “37” (cf. Sabbatini 2008; Parisi 2013: 185).

Notes: The journal can be consulted online at the Samizdat Collection of the University of Toronto. Original copies are kept at the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen.

Giuseppina Larocca
[30th June 2021]

Translation by Iris Karafillidis

Bibliography

• Dediulin S., “Tebia zdes’ net…”: o “Severnoi pochte” iz dali dnei, in E. Liamina, O. Legmanov (eds.), Russko-frantsuzsky razgovornik ili ou Les Causeries du 7 septembre. Sbornik statej v chest’ Very Arkad’evnii Mil’chinoi, NLO, Moskva 2005: 217-229.
• Dolinin V., Ivanov B., Ostanin B. Severjuchin D. (eds.), Samizdat Leningrada. 1950-e – 1980-e. Literaturnaia entsiklopediia, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moskva 2003.
• Krivulin V., 37, Severnaia pochta, in V. Dolinin, B. Ivanov (eds.), Samizdat (Po materialam konferentsii 30 let nezavisimoi pechati. 1950-80 gody. S. Peterburg, 25-27 aprelia 1992 g.), NIC Memorial, Sankt Peterburg 1993: 74-75.
• Parisi V., Il lettore eccedente. Edizioni periodiche del samizdat sovietico, 1956-1991, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013: 184-186.
• Sabbatini M., “Quel che si metteva in rima”: cultura e poesia underground a Leningrado, Collana di Europa Orientalis, Salerno 2008: 220-226.