Aleksei Kruchenykh

Aleksei Eliseevich Kruchenykh (also Kruchonykh, Kruchyonykh; Алексей Елисеевич Крученых; 1886-1968) was a well-known poet of the Russian "Silver Age", perhaps the most radical poet of Russian Futurism, a movement that included Vladimir Mayakovsky, David Burliuk and others. Together with Velimir Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh is considered the inventor of zaum.

Kruchenykh was born to a peasant family in the Kherson province of Ukraine. After graduating from the Odessa School of Art in 1906, he studied painting independently and taught graphic art in secondary schools. When he moved to Moscow, Kruchenykh shifted from painting to poetry. In 1912, David Burliuk introduced him to Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov, and his subsequent collaborations with poets and visual artists achieved a revolution in book art. The same year he married Olga Rozanova, an avant-garde artist. He wrote the libretto for the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun (1913), with sets provided by Kazimir Malevich. During the Civil War, Kruchenykh worked in railway construction in the Caucasus and founded the Futurist society 41° in Tiflis (now Tbilisi). He joined Mayakovsky's LEF in Moscow in 1923. After the Communist Party denounced Futurism in Soviet literature, Kruchenykh ceased writing zaum’ and became an archivist. He died in Moscow. [1]

Works

Books

• with V., N. and D. Burliuk, Kamensky, Guro, Khlebnikov, et al., Sadok sudey [Садок Судей; Trap for Judges], St. Petersburg, 1910.

• with Velimir Khlebnikov, Igra v adu [Игра в аду; A Game in Hell], illustr. Natalia Goncharova, Moscow: [Kuzmin & Dolinsky], Aug 1912; new ed., illustr. Olga Rozanova and Kazimir Malevich, late 1913.
• Starinnaya lyubov [Старинная любовь; Old-Time Love], illustr. Mikhail Larionov, [Moscow]: [Kuzmin & Dolinsky], cAug 1912; new ed., illustr. Kruchenykh, Olga Rozanova and Nikolai Kulbin, 1913.
• with Velimir Khlebnikov, Mirskontsa [Мирсконца; Worldbackwards], illustr. Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Vladimir Tatlin, and I. Rogovin, [Moscow]: [Kuzmin & Dolinsky], 1912, 43 pp.

• with David Burliuk, Nikolai Burliuk, Wassily Kandinsky, Benedikt Livshits, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Victor Khlebnikov, Poshchechina obshchestvennomu vkusu. V zashchitu svobodnogo iskusstva. Stikhi, proza, stat’i [Пощёчина общественному вкусу. В защиту свободного искусства: Стихи, проза, статьи; A Slap in the Face of Public Taste: In Defense of Free Art: Poems, Prose, Essays], Moscow: Georgy L. Kuzmin, Dec 1912, 114 pp.

• Pobeda nad solntsem [Победа над Cолнцем], Moscow, Dec 1912, 28 pp, IA.
  • "Victory Over the Sun", trans. Ewa Bartos and Victoria Nes Kirby, The Drama Review 15:4 (Fall 1971), pp 106-124.
  • Pobeda nad solncem, ein futuristisches Drama von A. Krucenych. Übersetzung und Kommentar (mit einem Nachdruck der Originalausgabe), trans. & comm. Gisela Erbslöh, Munich: Sagner, 1976, 112 pp. (German)

• Poluzhivoi [Half Alive], illustr. Mikhail Larionov, [Moscow]: [Kuzmin & Dolinsky], early 1913.
• Pustynniki [Hermits], [Moscow]: [Kuzmin & Dolinsky], early 1913.
• Pomada [Pomade], [Moscow]: [Kuzmin & Dolinsky], Jan 1913.

• Vozropshchem, 1913.
• Utinoe gniezdyshko durnykh slov [Утиное гнездышко... дурных слов... ], St. Petersburg, 1913. [2]
• Slovo kak takovoe, 1913.
• with Velimir Khlebnikov, Bukh liesinnyi [Бух лесинный], 1913. [3]
• Vzorvalʹ, 1913. [4]
• Te li le, illustr. Olga Rozanova and Nikolai Kulbin, 1914. Poems.
• with Roman Jakobson (as Aliagrov), Zaumnaya gniga [Transrational Boog], illustr. Olga Rozanova, Moscow, 1916, IA. A collection of zaum poetry.
• Sdvigologiya russkogo stikha [Сдвигология русского стиха], Moscow, 1922, 46 pp. [5]
• Faktura slova [Фактура слова], Moscow, 1923, 21 pp.
• Apokalipsis v russkoy literature [Апокалипсис в русской литературе], Moscow, 1923, 46 pp. [6]
• Fonetika teatra [Фонетика театра], Moscow, 1923.
• LEF agitki Mayakovskogo, Aseeva, Tretyakova [ЛЕФ агитки Маяковского, Асеева, Третьякова], Moscow, 1925, 61 pp.
• Na borbu s chuliganstvom v literature [На борьбу с хулиганством в литературе], Moscow, 1926, 32 pp.
• Chetyre foneticheskikh romana [Четыре фонетических романа], Moscow, 1927.
• 15 let russkogo futurizma [15 лет русского футуризма], Moscow, 1928.

More

• 38 books by Kruchenykh
• 15+ books by Kruchenykh
• 6+ books by Kruchenykh
• 15 books by Kruchenykh, in HTML

Collected writings

• Kukish proshliakam: Faktura slova, Sdvigologiia russkogo stikha, Apokalipsis v russkoi literature [Кукиш прошлякам], Moscow and Tallinn: Hylaea, 1992. (in Russian)
• Our Arrival: From the History of Russian Futurism, ed. Vasily Rakitin and Andrei Sarabianov, trans. Alan Myers, Moscow: RA, 1995, 191 pp.
• Stikhotvorenya, poemy, romany, opera [Стихотворения. Поэмы. Романы. Опера], St. Petersburg, 2001, 480 pp. (in Russian) [7]
• with Igor Terentyev, Sergei Tretyakov, K istorii russkogo futurizma: vospominaniia i dokumenty, Moscow: Hylaea, 2006. (in Russian)

Literature

• http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/3507-zhiv-kruchenyh-sb-st-m-izd-vserossiyskogo-soyuza-poetov-1925
• Vladimir Markov, Russian Futurism: A History, University of California Press, 1968, pp 41-48 (part of Hylaea), 126-132 (as cubo-futurist), 200-206, 334-350, 365-374, 428-429 (selected bibliography).
• Rosmarie Ziegler (Розмари Циглер), "Поэтика А.Е. Кручёных поры «41°». Уровень звука", 'L’avanguardia a Tiflis' — Quaderni del Seminario di Iranistica, Uralo-Altaistica e Caucasologia dell’Università degli Studi di Venezia 13, Venice, 1982, pp 231-258. (in Russian)
• Rosmarie Ziegler (Розмари Циглер), "Группа «41°»", Russian Literature 8 (1985), pp 71-86. (in Russian)
• Gerald Janecek (Джералд Янечек), "«Мирскóнца» у Хлебникова и у Кручёных". (in Russian)
• Gerald Janecek (Джералд Янечек), "Stikhotvorny triptikh A. Kruchenykh Dyr bul shchyl" [Стихотворный триптих А. Кручёных Дыр бул щыл], in Problemy vechnykh tsennostey v russkoy kulture i literature XX veka [Проблемы вечных ценностей в русской культуре и литературе ХХ века], ed. V. Khazan. Grozny: Checheno-ingushsky gos. universitet im. L. N. Tolstogo, 1991, pp 35-42. (in Russian)
• Gerald Janecek, "Aleksej Kručenych's Literary Theories" Russian Literature 39:1 (1996), Amsterdam, pp 1-12.
• Gerald Janecek, Zaum: The Transrational Poetry of Russian Futurism, San Diego State University Press, 1996, 428 pp.
• Tatyana Nikolskaya (Татьяна Никольская), Fantasticheskiy gorod. Russkaya kulturnaya zhizn' v Tbilisi (1917-1921) [Фантастический город. Русская культурная жизнь в Тбилиси (1917-1921)], Moscow: Pyataya strana, 2000. (in Russian)
• Gerald Janecek, "Kruchenykh contra Gutenberg", in The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002, pp 41-49.
• Craig Dworkin, "To Destroy Language", Textual Practice 18:2 (2004), pp 185-197.
• Корнелия Ичин, "Вопрос фактуры: Взорваль Крученых", Russian Literature 65:1-3 (January-April 2009), pp 281-229. (in Russian) [8]
• Nancy Perloff, "Mirskontsa (Worldbackwards): Collaborative Book Art and Transnational Sounds", Getty Research Journal 5 (2013), pp 101-118. (English)
• Sara Pankenier Weld, "Infant Word: Aleksei Kruchenykh, Children’s Language, and Cubo-Futurist Poetics", ch 2 in Weld, Voiceless Vanguard: The Infantilist Aesthetic of the Russian Avant-Garde, Northwestern University Press, 2014, pp 62-102. [9] (English)
• http://avantgarde.narod.ru/beitraege/ff/fk_visu.htm

See also

• Olga Rozanova
• Velimir Khlebnikov
• Russia#Avant-garde

Links

• http://www.ubu.com/sound/krucenych.html
• http://www.ubu.com/sound/russian_futurists.html
• http://imwerden.de/cat/modules.php?name=books&pa=last_update&cid=268
• http://flickr.com/photos/tags/kruchenykh
• http://www.raruss.ru/avant-garde/page-rag2/935-kruchenykh-catalogue.html