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[FORGOTTEN AVANTE-GARDE EROTICISM] Bezumija: tret'ja kniga stihov [i.e. Follies: Third Book of Poems]

Belenson, Aleksandr

Item #2572

Moscow:
Tipo-litografija Iskra Revoljucii for Gublit, 1924. 19,5 x 13,5 cm (7,7 x 5,3 in). 61, [3] pp.

Original publisher’s paper cover with a pasted sticker providing the author's name and title. In Russian. One of 150
copies. Overall very good condition. Untrimmed. Minor defects of the spine.
With an expanded author’s dedication on the title: Milomu M. S. Korolickomu — avtora. 1925 Maj Peterburg.
Cenzurnye sokrashhenija na str 8 i 32; na str 62 celikom iz"jato stihotvorenie Pejzazh vo vserossijskom masshtabe
AB [To Dear M. S. Korolitsky — author. 1925, May Petersburg. Censored verses on pages 8 and 32. On page 62
the entire poem has been withdrawn by censor: A Landscape on an all-Russian scale AB]. P. 2 provides a Bez prava
vtorogo izdanija AB [i.e. Second edition not allowed AB] note from the author, in the same ink as one used for the
inscription across the title page.

Aleksandr Belenson (1890 — 1949), a Minsk-born,
was destined for a traditional within his Jewish
family attorney career but at 20 switched to art.
Belonson’s life is a trickster’s journey. His first books
are stylish avante-garde poetry full of playfulness,
and irony. The initial influence was Mikhail Kuzmin
but Belenson’s poetry evolved to more sophisticated
paradoxal metaphors, experiment and a constant
search for surprising rhymes. Bezumija is his 3rd
book of poetry, of totally 4 known.
Present collection actually consists of 4 cycles:
Bezumija (1922 — 1923), Strelec (1914 — 1921),
Pis'ma k zhene (5th November 1923), Dvoe
(1923). These cycles reference either their previous
publication or the circumstances of their creation.
While Strelec clearly refers to poems published in
iconic avante-garde almanac Strelec, that Belenson
edited in 1915, 1916 and 1922, other cycles are
yet to be researched. Exploring themes of polygamy,
adultery and extra-marital affair, defloration and
sensual love, the verses manage to evade platitude
and stay on the edge of playful, innocent, sublime
and momentary eroticism.

According to modern editions, the omitted poem
Pejzazh vo vserossijskom masshtabe was a sensual
story on a chekist seducing a girl into a forced lovemaking:
a possible allegory providing the author's
view on the way Bolshevik government used Russia.
Later with advancement of government-led
literature and pan-Soviet militarisation Beleson’s
work was disfavoured. So somewhere in 1928 he jumped into the persona of Aleksandr Lugin
and created energetic marches, military songs and
official poetry going all the way up to personalist
glorification and bolstering the Bolshevik cult of
power. Rumor has it, NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria
secretly loved Belonson’s early erotic poetry and
was lenient if not pleasant to see the author's
hymns on the figures in power, including himself.
Overall a rare glimpse into yet allowed sensual
poetry of 1920’s late Silver Age.

WorldCat locates 2 copies: at Stanford University and
University of Wisconsin. KVK additionally finds a copy
in the National Library of Latvia.

Rare.

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