Ėkho

Iosif Brodskii (on the left) and the artist Oleg Tselkov at the Venice Biennale in November 1977. Source: “Ėkho” , 2, 1978. 

Title of the journal:
“Ėkho” [Echo]

Dates: 1978-1986

Place of publication: Paris

Editors: Vladimir Maramzin (1934-2021), Aleksei Khvostenko (1940-2004)

Number of editions: 14

Principal authors: Iosif Brodskii, Sergei Dovlatov, Aleksandr Kondratov, Ėduard Limonov, Genrikh Shef, Elena Shvarts, Boris Vakhtin and Vladimir Vysotskii

Description:
The writer Vladimir Maramzin, former member of the Leningrad group Gorozhane (Citizens), emigrated to France in 1975, a year after being arrested for having collected Iosif Brodskii’s works in five typewritten volumes intended for samizdat. In 1978, once in Paris, he founded the literary magazine “Ėkho“ together with the avant-garde poet and musician Aleksei Khvostenko.
Iosif Brodskii suggested the title, which, from 1979, was accompanied by the poem Ekho by A. S. Pushkin, written in stylized ligature.
Initially conceived as a quarterly magazine, after three years of regular publication, the periodical was forced to stop publishing mostly due to economic issues. There was a lack of external finance and the funds invested in the project by Maramzin himself proved insufficient to guarantee four issues a year. The first 12 issues were published regularly from 1978 to 1980, then there was a long pause until 1984, when the thirteenth issue came out. The fourteenth and last issue of the journal dates to 1986 (cf. Severiukhin 2003: 466).
“Ėkho” was intended to be a Parisian echo of all the processes that, starting from the mid-1950s, had characterized the phenomenon of unofficial literature or ‘Second Culture’ in the Soviet Union.
Aware of the enormous amount of unpublished literature in the USSR, Maramzin and Khvostenko wanted to give a voice to all the Soviet writers who had been prevented from publishing or who had refused to collaborate with the official press.
The editors outlined the aesthetic foundations of the new independent publication in their declaration of intent in the first issue in 1978. They decided not to place restrictions on language or content and welcomed contributions from writers with a wide range of aesthetic and literary tendencies (cf. Skarlygina 2004: 16). Most of the works published in “Ėkho” were by Leningrad writers who had emigrated to the West, making the periodical one of the main channels of the ‘third wave’ of Russian-Soviet emigration. Many typewritten texts, published by the periodical over the years, had been smuggled out of the USSR by the writer and journalist David Dar, who emigrated to Israel in 1977.
The editorial plan of “Ėkho” was based on three pillars: the publication of works of prose and poetry banned in the Soviet Union such as, for example, the writings of Andrei Platonov; works belonging to Russian émigré literature, such as those of Ėduard Limonov, Vladimir Maramzin, Iosif Brodskii and Sergei Dovlatov; and finally texts whose publication through official channels had been prevented, such as the writings of Andrei Bitov, Rid Grachev and Aleksandr Kondratov.
The importance of “Ėkho”’ is illustrated by its role in the publication of the three volume collection Kollektsiia: Peterburgskaia proza (Leningradskii period) (2002-2004) by the publishing house Ivan Limbakh, on the initiative of Boris Ivanov. Some of the short stories included in the volumes, chosen from among the most representative of the coexisting trends in the Leningrad prose of the 60s-80s, reached the public for the first time thanks to Maramzin and Khvostenko (cf. Skarlygina 2004: 16).
Many authors became more widely known or succeeded in publishing their works for the first time after they appeared in “Ėkho”. Such was the case for the stories Shkaf (The wardrobe) and Granitsa (The border) by Genrikh Shef, which appeared respectively in n. 9 and n. 13 of the journal; the stories by Rid Grachev Adamchik and Bessmertie Loginova (Loginov’s immortality) published in n. 10 and 12 and, finally, the stories Serzhant i frau (The sergeant and the lady) in n. 3 and U pivnogo lar’ka (At the beer kiosk) in n. 4, both written by Boris Vakhtin, a member of the literary group Gorozhane.
The Leningrad poets Aleksandr Mironov and Elena Shvarts whose verses circulated in the USSR in samizdat also found a wider readership through “Ėkho”. Issue n. 2 included three compositions by Shvarts, already published in n. 6 of the samizdat magazine “37“, while the collections Chernaia Paskha (Black Easter) from 1974 and Prostye stikhi dlia sebia i dlia Boga (Simple verses for oneself and for God) from 1976, appeared in the fifth issue.
Similarly, the verses of Aleksandr Mironov included in n. 4 of “Ėkho”, had previously only been published in the third issue of the samizdat journal “37”.
Among the Moscow personalities who took part in the project were the iconic Soviet-era songwriter Vladimir Vysotskii and the poet Genrikh Sapgir, one of the most prominent members of the Lianozovo Circle. Vysotskii’s Dve novye pesni (Two new songs) were published in “Ėkho” n. 3, namely Pesnya o frantsuzskikh besakch (A Song about French Demons) and Kupola (Cupola), both dedicated to his friend, the non-conformist artist Mikhail Shemiakin. In n. 10 there was an obituary for Vysotskii, who died on the 25th of July in 1980, which ended with a few verses by the poet Anri Volokhonskii, written in the days after the artist’s death. The obituary, introduced by a full-page photo of the singer-songwriter, was followed by his povest’ Zhizn bez sna (A life without sleep). The last issue of the journal included twenty-seven poems by Genrikh Sapgir written between 1959 and 1962, including Iasnost (Clarity) dedicated to the writer Andrei Bitov, Golosa (Voices) and Odinochestvo (Solitude).
The journal also published translations by foreign authors of international prestige, such as five poems by Konstantinos Kavafis, translated from English by Aleksei Losev and introduced by an essay written by Iosif Brodskii Na storone Kavafisa (On Kavafis’ side) and seven poems by Emily Dickinson preceded by a note by the translator Genrikh Khudiakov, included respectively in the second and fourth issues of the journal.
Despite its short life, “Ėkho” played a crucial role in promoting works by Soviet writers who were not well known abroad and published only in samizdat in the USSR. All the issues of the journal, kept in the Russian National Library (Rossiiskaia natsionalnaia biblioteka) in Saint Petersburg, are also available online and downloadable in their entirety from the website of the electronic library “ImWerden” (Nekommercheskaia ėlektronnaia biblioteka “ImWerden”: web), whose founders have been engaged since 2000 in scanning rare books or books for which exist a small number of copies.

Marta Capossela
[30th June 2021]

Translation by Marta Capossela

Bibliography

• Brodskii I., Na storone Kavafisa, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 2 (1978): 142-151.
• Dickinson E., Sem’ stikhotvorenii, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 4 (1978): 95-98.
• “Ėkho”, 1-14 (1978-1986) [complete collection], in Nekommercheskaia ėlektronnaia biblioteka “IMWERDEN”, A. Nikitin-Perenskii (ed.), Miunkhen, https://imwerden.de/razdel-2018-str-1.html, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Grachev R., Adamchik, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 10 (1980): 87-110.
• Grachev R., Bessmertie Loginova, in “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 12 (1980): 4-16.
• Ivanov B. (ed.), Peterburgskaia proza (leningradskii period). 3 voll., Izdatelstvo Ivana Limbakha, Sankt-Peterburg 2002 (1960-e), 2003 (1970-e), 2004 (1980-e).
• Kavafis K., Piat’ stikhotvorenii, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 2 (1978): 152-155.
• Mironov A., Stikhotvoreniia, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 4 (1978): 50-56.
• Nekommercheskaia ėlektronnaia biblioteka “IMWERDEN”, Miunkhen, https://imwerden.de/razdel-2018-str-1.html, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Osipova N., Rol’ literaturnykh zhurnalov “Ėkho” i “Stetoskop” v kulturnoi zhizni russkoi emigracii vo Francii, in Kastelbi Zh., Zainuldinov A., Garsiia I., Ruis-Sorrilia M. (eds.), Aktualnye problemy i perspektivy rusistiki. Materialy po itogam Mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii rusistov v Barselonskom universitete, Trialba Ediciones, Barcelona 2018: 149-157.
• Sapgir G., Iz sbornika 1959-1962 gg., “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 14 (1986): 126-160.
• Severiukhin D., Dolinin V., Ivanov B., Ostanin B. (eds.), Samizdat Leningrada. 1950-1980-e: Literaturnaia ėnciklopediia, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, Moskva 2003.
• Shef G., Granitsa, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 13 (1984): 101-110.
• Shef G., Shkaf, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 9 (1980): 49-69.
• Shvarts E., Iz dvukh sbornikov, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 5 (1979): 66-75.
• Shvarts E., Stikhi iz zhurnala “37”, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 2 (1978): 89-92.
• Skarlygina E., Literaturnyi zhurnal v emigratsii: parizhskoe “Ėkho”, “Vestnik MGU” Seriia 10. Zhurnalistika (2004), 6: 16-25.
• Vakhtin B., Serzhant i frau, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 3 (1978): 19-25.
• Vakhtin B., U pivnogo lar’ka, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 4 (1978): 4-7.
• Vysotskii V., Dve novye pesni, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 3 (1978): 4-7.
• Vysotskii V., Zhizn bez sna, “Ėkho”. Literaturnyi zhurnal, 10 (1980): 7-24.