Moths and Bludgers. How Poets of the Silver Age Lived, Loved, and Died

Alexander Blok wanders the outskirts of Petersburg and drinks wine. Andrei Bely tries to lure Blok's wife away. Mikhail Kuzmin suffers from infatuations and poverty. Nikolai Gumilev travels to Africa to search for the golden door to other worlds. Marina Tsvetaeva studies in a gymnasium and shaves her head. Decadents, mystics, and philosophers write poems, quarrel, fall in love, and hold seances, while the storm clouds gather and the world gradually goes mad.

This is the Silver Age, a time of great poetry and incredible stories: sometimes completely ridiculous, sometimes tragic, and often both. “Moths and Bludgers” by Maxim Zhegalin is a documentary novel and a detailed portrait of an entire era: from 1905 to 1921. A portrait, congenial to it, full of joy, sorrow, and admiration for life.