Verpa

Verpa.

Dates: 1963/64 – early 70s

Place: Leningrad

Founders: Aleksei Khvostenko and Anri Volokhonskii

Associates: Iuri Galetskii, Leonid Entin, Kari Unskova, Ivan Steblin-Kamenskii, Leonid Chertkov and others

Publishing initiatives: works published with Polza publishing company, on Apollon-77 almanac (Paris, 1977) and on “Ėkho” magazine.

Description:
The name VERPA refers both to the literary production and musical works of Anri Volokhonskii and Aleksei Khvostenko, founders and only members of the group. VERPA was vital to underground Russian culture not only for its focus on oral and folklore traditions, but also for its affinities and relationships with unofficial groups and circles in Moscow, such as Lianozovo and SMOG (cf. Sabbatini 2008: 72). VERPA shared several goals with the group of young artists known as Malaia Sadovaia, which supported Volokhonskii and Khvostenko (also called Khvost, which means ‘tail’ in Russian) and helped them publish various works with Vladimir Erl’s Polza publishing house. VERPA’s provocative and goliardic style, with its colourful and wacky character, finds its roots in the avant-garde tradition of the Twenties and Thirties.
The group used techniques and procedures that are typical of Surrealism and Dadaism, such as collage, automatic writing, and emphasis on the oneiric dimension (cf. Savitskii 2002: 37; Savitskii: web). VERPA can also be considered a revival of OBERIU’s absurdism – Khvostenko believed Aleksandr Vvedenskii’s verse to be the peak of Twentieth-century poetry (cf. Sabbatini 2008: 70).. Further influences on the group included contemporary pop-art. After having circulated a typewritten anthology, VERPA reprinted the works of its members in the tamizdat magazine “Ėkho” (cf. Savitskii 2002: 138), founded in Paris by the Citizen Vladimir Maramzin and Khvostenko himself, who was forced to emigrate in 1976. VERPA made a significant contribution to contemporary music; Volokhonskii (lyricist) and Khvostenko (singer and guitar player) composed various songs that were very successful (cf. ibid. 2002: 59). Volokhonskii is the author of one of the most popular Russian rock songs of all time, Rai (Heaven), which was performed for the first time by Volokhonskii’s friend Khvost and became famous in an arrangement by Boris Grebenshchikov’s band Akvarium with the title Gorod zolotoi (Golden City).

Federico Iocca
[30th June 2021]

Translation by Alice Bucelli

Bibliography

• Sabbatini M., “Quel che si metteva in rima”: cultura e poesia underground a Leningrado, Collana di Europa Orientalis, Salerno 2008.
• Savitskii S., Andegraund. Istoriia i mify leningradskoi neoficial’noi literatury, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Mosca 2002.
• Savitskii S., Dadaism and Surrealism in Unofficial Culture of Late Socialism,
  http://obook.org/amr/library/unofficial_culture.pdf, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).