SMOG

Leonid Gubanov, Vladimir Batshev, Iurii Kublanovskii, Vladimir Aleinikov, Arkadii Pakhomov in 1965.

Dates: 1965-1966

Place: Moscow

Founders: Leonid Gubanov, Vladimir Batshev, Iurii Kublanovskii, Vladimir Aleinikov, Arkadii Pakhomov

Components: Iuliia Vishnevskaia, Sergei Morozov, Aleksandr Veligosh, Aleksandr Urusov, Lena Basilova, Vadim Delone and others

Editorial initiatives: Almanacs Chu! and Avangard, magazine “Sfinksy” (1 issue, July 1965) and several publications in the tamizdat magazine “Grani” (59, 1965; 60, 1966; 61, 1966)

Description:
Unlike the name chosen by the Leningrad Khelenukty, which remains enigmatic, the acronym SMOG invites various interpretations. The most common is Samoe Molodoe Obshchestvo Geniev (Youngest Society of Geniuses), but the acronym is also the masculine past tense of the Russian verb smoch’ (power) and could also stand for terms with literary nuances, such as Smelost’, Mysl’, Obraz, Glubina (Audacity, Thought, Image, Depth); or Szhatyi Mig Otrazhёnnyi Giperboloi (Dense Instant Reflected by Hyperbole) (cf. “SMOG” 1966: 15).
SMOG played a key role in the evolution of literary and political life in Moscow and beyond, forging links, for example, with the already mentioned Khelenukty (cf. Dolinin 2003: 22). The young poets who self-proclaimed their ‘genius’ in the halls of a Moscow library in February 1965, a gesture that reclaimed the city’s public spaces, were in open opposition not only to the realist-socialist school, but also to the poets and writers they believed were profiting from the Thaw, including Evtushenko and Voznesenskii (cf. Urussov 2015: 141).
Genius (especially if self-proclaimed) is a trait that is profoundly alien to the image of the writer shaped by institutions, which rewards not individual talent, but faithfulness to precise artistic dictates in favour of the common good (cf. Parisi 2013: 267).
Paradoxically, under strict censorship, every writer perceives himself as a potential genius whose talent may be channelled in graphomania, as in Terts-Siniavskii’s short story Grafomany (The Graphomaniacs). However, one should not forget the often self-parodying irony inherent in SMOG’s vision, evident in the declaration My SMOG! (We are SMOG!), written by Gubanov in February 1966.
The most sensational event organised by SMOGists took place on 14^th April, 1965,  the anniversary of Maiakovskii’s death. After an intense campaign to promote their cause, using posters placed in various institutes and universities and cards based on the model of those used by the Union of Writers (cf. ibid: 266), the young geniuses met in Maiakovskii Square, determined to start a march that would end at the headquarters of the Union of Writers.
The demands put forward by the twelve SMOGists present, accompanied by a hundred or so sympathisers, were so bold that it is hard to believe there was any real hope of seeing them realised: recognition of SMOG as an autonomous youth literary association, the granting of a venue where they could meet and the establishment of their own press (cf. Piretto 2001: 283).
This first self-convened demonstration in the USSR in the post-war period (cf. Parisi 2013: 272) ended with the intervention of the KGB, who sequestered placards, including the famous ‘DEFLOWER SOCIALIST REALISM’ (cf. Batshev: web), and immediately arrested some of the participants.
The protest was conceived along the lines of the actions of the avant-gardists of the 1910s and 1920s, with direct reference to the imaginism of Esenin and Mariengov, from whose General Mobilization in Defence of Active Art of 1921 the SMOGists took their cue (cf. Parisi 2013: 273-274). SMOG’s attention to social and political issues (the figure of Batshev was more politically oriented than other members such as Gubanov, the most gifted poet of the group, or Sokolov, the real surname of Veligosh, in the future a famous and refined novelist) can be seen as attempt to reunite art and life, which was expressed forcefully on the occasion of the demonstration on 5^th December 1965r in Pushkin Square to protest against the Siniavskii-Daniėl’ trial.
A few days before the demonstration Gubanov, Vishnevskaia and Batshev were arrested and committed to psychiatric hospitals for distributing leaflets inviting people to participate in the event (cf. ibid.: 283). The coexistence of aesthetic and political components within SMOG became a source of friction between its various members and distinguishes the group from other artistic circles of these years, whose positions were largely apolitical.  Significantly, Aleksandr Urusov recalled that he and other SMOG members had been vaguely attracted by the memories of populist and decabrist secret societies active in the nineteenth century (cf. Urussov 2015: 137-8).
Many of the publications prepared by SMOG reached the West thanks to the efforts of the narrator and translator Valerii Tarsis, with whom Batshev had direct contact (cf. Parisi 2013: 282). Expelled from the Union of Writers and in 1966 deprived of his Soviet citizenship, Tarsis played a fundamental intermediary role: thanks to him a copy of the magazine “Sfinksy” (July 1965) reached Germany, where it would be reprinted in “Grani” (59, December 1965). In that first and only issue of the periodical, the greatest space was devoted to poetic works, among which numerous compositions by members of SMOG.

Federico Iocca
[30th June 2021]

Translation by Marta Capossela

Bibliography  

• Batshev V., Smog: pokolenie s perebitymi nogami, http://www.belmamont.ru/index.php?action=call_page&page=product&product_id=220, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Dolinin V., Severiukhin D., Preodolen’e nemoty, in V. Dolinin, B. Ivanov, B. Ostanin, Severiukhin D. (eds.), Samizdat Leningrada. Literaturnaia ėnciklopediia, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moskva 2003: 7-51.
• Parisi V., Il lettore eccedente. Edizioni periodiche del samizdat sovietico. 1956-1990, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013.
• Piretto G. P., Il radioso avvenire: mitologie culturali sovietiche, Einaudi, Torino 2001.
• SMOG, “Grani”, 61 (1966): 14-17.
• Urussov A., Essere o non essere SMOG. Diventare la più giovane società di geni e deflorare il realismo socialista? Annotazioni di un testimone su eventi di cinquant’anni fa, “Enthymema”, 12 (2015): 135-154.