Bookvica

[GOSPOLIT PORN] Luka Mudishchev

Barkov, I.

Item #2424

[London: Flegon Press, 1968]. 80 pp.: ills. 10,5x6,6 cm. In original publisher’s illustrated wrappers.

Fine condition.
Scarce. 1 of 5,000 copies. Second edition. Text in Russian. Edited by V. Nesterov, with illustrations by N. Ioganson. No surviving copy or bibliographic trace of a first edition has been located, leading us to believe this is in fact the first printed edition of the poem. It was apparently produced in the West in the 1960s as a clandestine satire aimed at discrediting the Soviet leadership. The cover shows the photomontage of Sergey Mikhalkov (1913-2009), a Soviet and Russian author of children’s books, and a heart and a riffle. While the colophon reads Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1969 —the official publishing house of the Central Committee of the CPSU—this attribution is understood as part of a calculated parody.
The preface—which claims the poem was published “by decision of the Politburo” and intended for Party activists researching literary heritage—is part of the elaborate satire. The edition is done as a photo-book: it includes five black-and-white caricature-style photo-cut-outs of Soviet leaders, placed subtly across the poem’s pages, linking the grotesque eroticism to
contemporary political figures. Among those identifiable are Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) and Pavel Rotmistrov (1901-1982), a Soviet military commander of armoured troops in the Red Army during and following World War II.
The poem tells the story of a lustful young Moscow widow whose insatiable desires drive her to seek a man with an enormous endowment—no less than eight vershoks (about 36 cm). She finds Luka Mudishchev, a penniless nobleman from a long line of men famed for their prodigious attributes. Their night of passion quickly turns violent and grotesque: Luka kills the matchmaker with his organ, only to be castrated and killed himself, while the widow dies soon after from her injuries.
Ivan Semyonovich Barkov (1732–1768) was a Russian poet, translator, and editor, best known for his notorious contribution to erotic literature. A student of Mikhail Lomonosov, Barkov received a classical education and worked at the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he translated and edited scholarly texts. Despite his scholarly background, Barkov gained infamy for his irreverent and obscene verse, particularly the so-called «Shameful Odes.» These poems parodied the lofty style of classical genres—odes, mythological allegories, and epics—by fusing them with coarse language and themes drawn from taverns, brothels, and street life.

At the end of the book a hint at the real publishers are given, disguised as a speech of the party official: “The heads of the Western publishing house «Flegon Press», sworn enemies of
humanity, wanted to steal this treasure from the Soviet people, print the poem in the West and use it for the purposes of the Cold War. (Loud applause). But this time too, the greedy capitalist
sharks miscalculated. The Party decided to prepare this poem for publication in mass circulation and arm with it every propagandist working manually with members of the Party and Komsomol.» (Loud and prolonged applause, everyone stands up)”

Overall, a rare and cleverly disguised piece of Cold War-era political satire.

Worldcat shows copies of the edition at National Library of Scotland, University of North Carolina, University of Utah, Stanford University, University of Essex, University College London,
University of Oxford, University of Glasgow, Dartmouth Library, Amherst College Library, Yale University Library, Columbia University, and University of Pittsburgh.

Price: $500.00