Mitin zhurnal

Cover of “Mitin zhurnal”, n. 6, November/December 1986.

Title:
“Mitin zhurnal” [Mitja’s magazine]

Dates: January 1985 to present

Place of publication: Leningrad

Editor: Dmitrii Volchek

Main contributors: Ol’ga Abramovich (editorial secretary)

Total issues: 70 (from 1 to 48 samizdat, from 49 to 70 typographical)

Description:
The idea for the art and literature magazine “Mitin zhurnal” was conceived in December 1984 by Dmitrii Volchek (1964) and the first issue was released in Leningrad in January 1985. It represented a new departure for Volchek who had edited “Molchanie” (Silence), a literary periodical he had founded with the poets Iurii Galetskii, Aleksandr Snisarenko and Pavel Shemanin, of which nine issues had been published between September 1982 and the end of 1983 (cf. Severiukhin 2003: 430-431). Dmitrii Volchek became involved in Leningrad underground circles such as the Molekula café at a very young age and was part of the editorial staff of “Chasy” and Klub-81 (cf. ibid.: 140). His need to be independent from more established literary groups, many of which orbited around Klub-81, led him to found a new magazine with a focus different from that of “Chasy” or “Obvodnyi kanal“, to promote the works of unofficial authors from the emerging generation. “Mitin zhurnal”, which took its name from the diminutive form of its creator name, was supported by the poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko who played a major role in encouraging the young authors whose work was published in the magazine (cf. Dragomoshchenko 2000: web). Initially, six annual issues were published, with a print run of at least ten typewritten copies with more than 300 pages, while from 1990, with issue 35, there was a shift to photocopies, and from issue 49 of 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the magazine adopted a typographic format, although it was no longer published regularly (cf. Severiukhin 2003: 429). Volchek’s initial intention was to attract the attention of a restricted group of authors and readers, but the interest and resonance that the magazine generated went beyond his original expectations and by the late 1980s it had established itself as the main space for new unofficial literature. There was an obvious predilection for the avant-garde, the novelties of postmodernism and ‘left-wing’ literature, although the editorial was ‘non-committed’ politically and, if anything, inclined to ‘formalism’ (cf. Konstriktor 1991: web). Initially “Mitin zhurnal” published works by many writers of the older generation such as Igor’ Adamatskii, Ol’ga Beshenkovskaia, Arkadii Bartov, Iosif Brodskii, Leon Bogdanov, Viktor Krivulin, Mikhail Eremin, Lev Losev, Anri Volokhonskii, Vladimir Ufliand, Evgenii Venzel’, Vladlen Gavril’chik, Sergei Kulle, Fedor Chirskov and Elena Ignatova. Among the Muscovites, Viktor Erofeev, Vladimir Sorokin, Aleksei Parshchikov and Dmitrii Prigov stood out (cf. Sabbatini 2019: 195-199). From the new generation, alongside Dmitrii Volchek, were Aleksandr Skidan, Yurii Galetskii, Aleksandra Petrova, Dmitrii Golynko-Vol’fson, Gleb Morev, Aleksandr Sekatskii, Andrei Khlobystin and Jaroslav Mogutin, who came to the fore in the late 1980s (cf. Ševelev 2008: web). A particular merit of the magazine was its revival of early 20th-century poetry, with collections by Aleksei Kruchenykh, Sof’iia Parnok, Vladislav Khodasevich and, thanks to the curatorial work of Vladimir Ėrl’, Daniil Kharms. There was also a focus on Western literature and translations, which had a major influence on young writers (cf. Parisi 2013: 170-174). The publication of works by authors such as Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Boris Vian and Bruno Schulz represented new aesthetic frontiers inspiring imitation and experimentation. A further opportunity for comparison and enrichment was offered by reviews and interviews, which could spark lively debate as after the publication of a heated conversation between Dmitrii Volchek and Viktor Krivulin published in issue 6 of 1985 (cf. Volchek 1985: 173-191). The journal also distributed series of works in individual volumes in around twenty “literary appendices”, in which authors such as Mikhail Berg, Vladimir Ėrl’, the lesser-known Kari Unksova and Aleksei Shel’vakh stand out, as do the translations of Stanisław Lem, Eugène Ionesco, Sławomir Mrożek and Samuel Beckett.
In 1999, the journal received important recognition: Dmitrii Volchek and Ol’ga Abramovich were awarded the Andrei Belyi Prize for “merits in the development of Russian literature” (Premiia Andreia Belogo 1999). In 2002, after nearly twenty years of working almost alone as the magazine’s editor, Volchek found the backing of the Tver’ Kolonna publishing house for the publication of new issues. A large part of the journal’s samizdat collection is held at the University of Bremen’s Centre for Research on Eastern Europe (Forschungsstelle Osteuropa – FSO).

Marco Sabbatini
[30^th June 2021]

Translation by Cecilia Martino

Bibliography

• Dolinin V., Ivanov B., Ostanin B. Severiukhin D. (avt.-sost.), Samizdat Leningrada. 1950-e – 1980-e. Literaturnaia ėntsiklopediia, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moskva 2003.
• Dragomoshchenko A., (Interv’iu s Dmitriem Volchekom), Mitina versiia, “Russkij zhurnal. Krug chteniia”, 24/07/2000, http://old.russ.ru/krug/20000224_volch-pr.html, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Konstriktor B., Dyshala noch’ vostorgom samizdata, “Vremia i my”, 112 (1991): 197-216, https://rvb.ru/np/publication/03misc/konstriktor.htm, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Parisi V., Il lettore eccedente. Edizioni periodiche del “samizdat” sovietico (1956-1991), Il Mulino, Bologna 2013.
• Sabbatini M., A. Prigov i ‘vtoraia kul’tura’ 1980-kh godov. Opyt otrazheniia v samizdatskikh zhurnalakh, “Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie”, 156.2 (2019): 189-205.
• Sabbatini M., Leningrado underground. Testi, poetiche, samizdat, WriteUp, Roma 2020.
• Shevelev I., (Interv’iu s Dmitriem Volchekom), Mitia iz Mitinogo zhurnala. Samizdat i ‘vrazh’i golosa’ gotovy v Rossii k novomu rastsvetu, personal’nyi sajt – Novaia literaturnaia karta Rossii, 03.05.2008, http://www.litkarta.ru/dossier/shevelev-volchek-interview-2/view_print/, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Volchek D., Interv’iu s Viktorom Krivulinym, “Mitin zhurnal”, 6 (1985): 173-191.
• Premiia Andreia Belogo – 1999, http://belyprize.ru/index.php?id=39, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).