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Russian Futurism: A History
"Forty years after its original publication, Vladimir Markov's Russian A History remains the classic in its field. Its learned account of Russian avant-garde poetics with respect to various forms and genres-poems, plays, artist's books, manifestos-is still the first I turn to when I want to review the critical information about Futurist manifestos or Khlebnikov's long poems and stories, or the collaborations of Goncharova and Kruchenykh. Meticulous and thorough, Markov's book, in this new edition, will be indispensable for students of the avant-garde." - Marjorie Perloff, Sadie D. Patek Professor Emerita of Humanities, Stanford University, Scholar-in-Residence, University of Southern California, author of The Futurist Moment. "It is wonderful to have this classic study of Russian Futurism and related movements back in print. Everyone who studies Russian modernism and the avant-garde has used and benefited from it. If any single book can be called 'indispensable' for the study of a period, it is Markov's, and now further generations can have it at hand. It is a book to give the lie to the Futurist épatage 'read this book and destroy!' Keep forever!" - John Malmstad, Samuel Hazzard Cross Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. "The publication of Russian A History almost forty years ago was a major cultural event. That the book is still the most accurate and comprehensive English-language directory to the literature of the Russian avant-garde testifies to the richness and prescience of Vladimir Markov's scholarship." - John Bowlt, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Southern California; Director, Institute of Modern Russian Culture, Los Angeles.
- GenresRussiaArt HistoryArt
524 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1968
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About the author
Vladimir Markov
16 books3 followersVladimir Fedorovich Markov, a UCLA professor emeritus of Slavic languages and literatures, died Jan. 1 at his home in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 92.
A preeminent scholar who pioneered the study of Russian avant-garde literature, Markov was responsible for such classics of the field as "The Longer Poems of Velimir Khlebnikov" (1962), "Russian Futurism: A History" (1968), "Russian Imagism, 1919–1924" (1980) and "A Commentary on the Poems of K.D. Bal'mont" (2 vols., 1998–1992).
He also published numerous anthologies of Russian verse and prose, both in Russian and in English translation, and together with Harvard University professor John Malmstad wrote the first comprehensive monograph on the poet Mikhail Kuzmin, a prominent figure in Russia's "Silver Age" of poetry in the early 20th century.
"He was one of the best-known scholars in our field," said Ronald Vroon, chair of UCLA's Department of Slavic Language and Literatures. "Many people were introduced to modernist Russian poetry through his works, especially through an influential 600-page anthology that he co-edited with American poet Merrill Sparks."
Markov is also remembered as a poet in his own right. "His verse occupies a permanent place in the canon of 20th-century Russian literature," Vroon said.
Born in 1920, Markov spent the first two decades of his life in Leningrad (today's St. Petersburg) and belonged to the generation that bore the fullest brunt of Stalinist terror, Vroon said. He lost both his father and his grandfather to the Great Purge of 1937. His mother was arrested and sent to a labor camp, from which she was released only after World War II.
In the midst of these horrors, Markov attended Leningrad State University, where he studied Germanic languages under some of the most illustrious figures in the Russian academy.
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Markov volunteered for military service and was assigned to an infantry artillery battalion in the Leningrad home guard, Vroon said. Only three months into the war, while serving as a courier between infantry units positioned around the Leningrad suburb of Novyi Peterhof, Markov was severely wounded by enemy fire and taken prisoner. He survived, thanks largely to the conscientiousness of a Russian doctor who cared for him at the German prisoner-of-war hospital to which he was taken in Russia. Eventually, he was removed to Germany, where he remained a POW until 1945.
Following the end of the war, Markov settled in the German city of Regensburg, in Bavaria, where he married Lydia Ivanovna Yakovleva, who had been a well-known actress at Leningrad's celebrated Aleksandrinsky Theatre. While serving as a supply officer in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, he launched a career as a poet and critic. During his four years in Regensburg, he published his first book of poems ("Verses," in 1948), an anthology of American novellas translated into Russian, and an article on Emily Dickinson, which was particularly remarkable for its translation of selections of her verse — the first time her poems had appeared in Russian.
The unsettled situation in postwar Europe — in particular the tensions associated with the Soviet Union's blockade of Berlin — prompted Markov to explore the possibilities of emigration. An unlikely opportunity arose in the form of sponsorship by the Lutheran Church, whose relief efforts in the postwar period included settling displaced persons in the United States. Under their aegis, Markov and Yakovleva sailed to America in 1949.
Lutheran Relief Services found employment for them in the citrus groves of Ventura County, picking lemons alongside migrant workers from Mexico. The job lasted approximately eight months. A letter from Markov to the editor-in-chief of a New York–based literary journal for Russian émigrés explaining that he did not have sufficient funds to continue his subscription initiated a
A preeminent scholar who pioneered the study of Russian avant-garde literature, Markov was responsible for such classics of the field as "The Longer Poems of Velimir Khlebnikov" (1962), "Russian Futurism: A History" (1968), "Russian Imagism, 1919–1924" (1980) and "A Commentary on the Poems of K.D. Bal'mont" (2 vols., 1998–1992).
He also published numerous anthologies of Russian verse and prose, both in Russian and in English translation, and together with Harvard University professor John Malmstad wrote the first comprehensive monograph on the poet Mikhail Kuzmin, a prominent figure in Russia's "Silver Age" of poetry in the early 20th century.
"He was one of the best-known scholars in our field," said Ronald Vroon, chair of UCLA's Department of Slavic Language and Literatures. "Many people were introduced to modernist Russian poetry through his works, especially through an influential 600-page anthology that he co-edited with American poet Merrill Sparks."
Markov is also remembered as a poet in his own right. "His verse occupies a permanent place in the canon of 20th-century Russian literature," Vroon said.
Born in 1920, Markov spent the first two decades of his life in Leningrad (today's St. Petersburg) and belonged to the generation that bore the fullest brunt of Stalinist terror, Vroon said. He lost both his father and his grandfather to the Great Purge of 1937. His mother was arrested and sent to a labor camp, from which she was released only after World War II.
In the midst of these horrors, Markov attended Leningrad State University, where he studied Germanic languages under some of the most illustrious figures in the Russian academy.
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Markov volunteered for military service and was assigned to an infantry artillery battalion in the Leningrad home guard, Vroon said. Only three months into the war, while serving as a courier between infantry units positioned around the Leningrad suburb of Novyi Peterhof, Markov was severely wounded by enemy fire and taken prisoner. He survived, thanks largely to the conscientiousness of a Russian doctor who cared for him at the German prisoner-of-war hospital to which he was taken in Russia. Eventually, he was removed to Germany, where he remained a POW until 1945.
Following the end of the war, Markov settled in the German city of Regensburg, in Bavaria, where he married Lydia Ivanovna Yakovleva, who had been a well-known actress at Leningrad's celebrated Aleksandrinsky Theatre. While serving as a supply officer in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, he launched a career as a poet and critic. During his four years in Regensburg, he published his first book of poems ("Verses," in 1948), an anthology of American novellas translated into Russian, and an article on Emily Dickinson, which was particularly remarkable for its translation of selections of her verse — the first time her poems had appeared in Russian.
The unsettled situation in postwar Europe — in particular the tensions associated with the Soviet Union's blockade of Berlin — prompted Markov to explore the possibilities of emigration. An unlikely opportunity arose in the form of sponsorship by the Lutheran Church, whose relief efforts in the postwar period included settling displaced persons in the United States. Under their aegis, Markov and Yakovleva sailed to America in 1949.
Lutheran Relief Services found employment for them in the citrus groves of Ventura County, picking lemons alongside migrant workers from Mexico. The job lasted approximately eight months. A letter from Markov to the editor-in-chief of a New York–based literary journal for Russian émigrés explaining that he did not have sufficient funds to continue his subscription initiated a
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 30, 2016
Ah, the Russian Futurists! One of my most favorite ridiculous art movements! Mayakovsky's balls-in-your-face poetry! Khlebnikov's just out-there weirdness! What isn't there to love?
This isn't a bad book about the Russian Futurists. It's value lies in its being one of the first great repositories and reference sources for Futurist publications featuring a lot of artists that the lay Russian Futurist fan such as myself had never even been aware of.
Where the book fails is in actually giving you the nitty-gritty. Sure, there's a reasonably informative paint-by-the-numbers chronology, mostly centered on the publication of manifestoes and what-not and a decent amount of exploring what these zany guys and gals were up to, but the book is woefully thin on examples which sucks, since it's mostly focused on literature, especially poetry.
A lot of weight is given to Mayakovsky and Khlebby, but there's some good bits on the Burliuks, Kruchenykh, Aksenov, Pasternak, and others. There's little on the visual arts and next to nothing about futuristic music, which is a shame, because that's where the Russians really shone.
Long on detail, thin on digging vomit fingers into the mouth of futurism, pulling its teeth back like pregnant sharks and aerovaulting into the maw of what-the-hell.
This isn't a bad book about the Russian Futurists. It's value lies in its being one of the first great repositories and reference sources for Futurist publications featuring a lot of artists that the lay Russian Futurist fan such as myself had never even been aware of.
Where the book fails is in actually giving you the nitty-gritty. Sure, there's a reasonably informative paint-by-the-numbers chronology, mostly centered on the publication of manifestoes and what-not and a decent amount of exploring what these zany guys and gals were up to, but the book is woefully thin on examples which sucks, since it's mostly focused on literature, especially poetry.
A lot of weight is given to Mayakovsky and Khlebby, but there's some good bits on the Burliuks, Kruchenykh, Aksenov, Pasternak, and others. There's little on the visual arts and next to nothing about futuristic music, which is a shame, because that's where the Russians really shone.
Long on detail, thin on digging vomit fingers into the mouth of futurism, pulling its teeth back like pregnant sharks and aerovaulting into the maw of what-the-hell.
May 29, 2025
Yksi selkeimmistä venäläisen futurismin historiaa käsittelevistä teoksista. Teos etenee loogisesti, ja se on jaoteltu selkeisiin kappaleisiin, jotka pysyttelevät aiheessa. Tekstissä on aina maininta siitä, kun käsiteltävä vuosiluku tai ajanjakso vaihtuu. Tämä on lukijan kannalta todella ratkaisevaa, sillä venäläinen futurismi Venäjän historian 1910- ja 1920-lukujen kontekstissa on kaikkea muuta kuin selkeä ja johdonmukainen. Hienoa, että viimeisessä kappaleessa Markov on analysoinut laajasti niitä venäläisen futurismin hahmoja, jotka ovat jääneet vähemmälle huomiolle (ainakin teoksen ilmestymisaikana); tosin Majakovskistakin olisi ollut mielenkiintoista lukea pidempi analyysi, vaikka häntä onkin tutkittu paljon.
"But let us not forget the existence of another kind of life - those formations, both elusive and cumbersome, which we denote with words ending with "ism". These group/trend/school movements are the despair of the scholar and a nuisance to an honest reader; but they do exist, they have a heart (not always easy to locate), they are born and die, and after death they often leave strong and formative memories."
"But let us not forget the existence of another kind of life - those formations, both elusive and cumbersome, which we denote with words ending with "ism". These group/trend/school movements are the despair of the scholar and a nuisance to an honest reader; but they do exist, they have a heart (not always easy to locate), they are born and die, and after death they often leave strong and formative memories."
December 13, 2007
One of my favorite all time critical works...the most inspired criticism and the most gorgeous reproductions of Futurist art works and poetry to be found. This book will never go out of style.
March 24, 2016
L'ho letto molti anni fa per preparare l'esame di letteratura russa 1, che dire, rileggendolo ora probabilmente mi si aprirebbe un universo che all'epoca non ero in grado di apprezzare.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews