Sirena

Cover, n. 2 1962. Samizdat Collections, University of Toronto.

Title of the magazine:
“Sirena” [Mermaid]

Dates: April 1962-July 1962

Place of publication: Moscow

Editors: Vitalii Skuratovskii, Mikhail Kaplan, Vitalii Komar (illustrations)

Total number of issues: 2

Description:
Issued in Moscow in two issues in April and July 1962, the periodical had a trans-urban and trans-national slant (cf. Parisi 2013: 148); the title page featured the cities of Moscow, Riga, Odessa and Petersburg. The journal was founded by Vitalii Skuratovskii and Mikhail Kaplan, who were joined by participants of the – by now discontinued – meetings in the Maiakosvkii Square or Triumfal’naia ploshchad’ (Triumphal Square; cf. Igrunov – Barbakadze 2005; Parisi 2013: 199, 202, 261), where the monument dedicated to Vladimir Maiakovskii still stands today.
On the first pages of both issues, it was specified that all works were printed without the consent of the authors. Among the maiakovtsy published were Kaplan himself and Skuratovskii, the author of many verses published under the pseudonym Mikh. Verbin and L. Roė/A. Garmin. Other authors published included V. Kovshin (pseudonym of V. Vinshniakov, numbers 1 and 2), Iasha Siny (pseudonym of Grigorii Iakobson), Apollon Shukht (numbers 1 and 2), Kanna Leshchinskaia (number 2), Anatoly Schukin (number 2) and G. Nedgar (pseudonym of Iulii Vilenskii, numbers 1 and 2), editor and writer of Literaturnyi Al’manakh, author of a prose sketch (number 1) and a fable (number 2). They were later joined by V. Nard (number 1). A. Garshin (number 2) and Gleb Gorbovskii (number 2). Aleksandr Kushner (issue 2) and Leonid Aronzon (issue 2) also published texts.
In both issues, collages and autographed black-and-white and colour pictures by Vitalii Komar accompanied the texts. Very few copies were printed. Of the five original copies: one remained in Kaplan, a second was sent to Leningrad, a third to Riga via Grigorii Iakobson, a fourth reached Odessa and the last was distributed in Moscow in the hope that it might be recopied.

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

• Igrunov V., Barbakadze M. (eds.), Antologiia samizdata: nepodtsenzurnaia literatura v SSSR. 1950-1980-e. V trëkh tomakh, Mezhdunarodnyi institut gumanitarno-politicheskikh issledovanii, 1.2, Moskva 2005: 351.
• Parisi V., Il lettore eccedente. Edizioni periodiche del samizdat sovietico. 1956-1990, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013: 199, 202-203, 261.