And Everywhere Is Space

Viktor Alexandrovich Sosnora (1936–2019) — poet, playwright, prose writer, translator. A direct continuation of the traditions of Russian literary avant-garde and an undisputed classic, the creative legacy of which is yet to be understood. For many years, he headed a... literary association in Leningrad. He started writing poetry at the age of sixteen, but very few of his early poems have been preserved — the author, by his own admission, experienced a "passion for self-destruction" and simply destroyed much of his work. His poems inspired by "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" brought him well-deserved fame: "In four months, I became famous, published in the most high-ranking party publications and entered the top four poets of the country." But his creativity did not obey any incentives or restrictions; he was an artist with some primordial, cosmic inner freedom. "I never wrote for the reader, nor for... nor for anyone! Worse yet, I'll tell you: I never wrote for myself either. It just finds some kind of state, you see... and... is written. And then it is no longer written." avant-garde, domestic poetry, poetry, Russian poetry, collection, poems.