Slavic and Eastern European Studies

Karen Rondestvedt, Curator; rondest@stanford.edu; (650) 725-1052

Andrei Voznesensky: Brief Background Information

Andrei Andreevich Voznesensky has been called by Stanford professor Gregory Freidin, “a central public figure of the above-ground Soviet literary establishment” and by literary scholar Michael Pushkin “one of the major poets of post-Stalinist Russia.” He is the author of approximately 40 volumes of poetry in Russian, two collections of fiction, at least three plays, and two operas. A six-volume set of his collected works appeared in 2000-2003. A number of his works have been translated into English, including Antimiry, translated by W. H. Auden and others as Antiworlds. He has also created many works of visual art, in graphic and sculptural form. His poems are sometimes in graphic form; he has written at least one illustrated essay on “visual poetry.” He was a disciple of Boris Pasternak during his early years, and his work continued to be profoundly influenced by him even after Pasternak’s death in 1960.

Voznesensky has won a number of prizes and honors, among them the International Poetry Forum’s International Award for distinguished achievement in poetry, in 1978. He has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and of the French Académie Mérimée.

Despite his many honors, Voznesensky is controversial, earning both criticism and praise—primarily for his artistry, although the Soviet authorities sometimes objected to his political stands and even accused him more than once of being a CIA spy. In more recent times he has written poetry against Russian involvement in Chechnia. He has been accused of “experimentation for its own sake, name-dropping and simplistic moral rhetoric,” (to quote Michael Pushkin) as well as superficiality because he enjoys puns. But there are other writers who appreciate his examination of universal issues like morality, evil, spirituality, freedom and the role of technology in society.

Additional information about Voznesensky, his works, his influence and the power of his readings can be found on the pages devoted to him on the Russian Pen Centre site: http://www.penrussia.org/n-z/an_voz.htm. Information, works, photos and more in Russian are featured on the site of his fan club “Avos!’”: http://www.voznesensky.spb.ru/. See also a 1971 picture of him in front of City Lights Publishing in San Francisco: http://www.jackmagazine.com/beatnews/ginsgallery/4.htm.

A Few Books By Voznesensky
With Stanford University Libraries Call Numbers

• An Arrow in the Wall: Selected Poetry and Prose. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1987. In Russian and English.
  PG3489.4.Z6 A2234 1987
  
• Antiworlds, and The Fifth Ace: Poetry. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1967. In Russian and English.
  PG3489.4.Z6 A6 1967A
  
• Dogalypse: San Francisco Poetry Reading. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1972.
  PG3489.4.Z6 A224
  
• IUnona i Avos’: sovremennaia opera. San Francisco: Russian Art Video, [19--]. Videorecording of opera based on play written by Voznesensky in 1981.
  ZVC 4499
  
• Nostalgia for the Present. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978. In English and Russian.
  PG3489.4.Z6.A223
  
• Shar-Pei: [novye stikhi i poemy]. Moskva: Terra-Knizhnyi klub, 2001.
  PG3489.4 .Z6 S46 2001
  
• Sobranie sochinenii v piati tomakh. Moskva: Vagrius, 2000-2003. 6 vols., despite title.
  PG3489.4 .Z6 A6 2000
  
• www.Devochka s pirsingom.ru: stikhi i chaty tret’ego tysiacheletiia. Moskva: Terra, 2000.
  PG3489.4 .Z6 W99 2000

A Few Articles About Voznesensky

• “Andrei Andreevich Voznesenskii.” In Russkie sovetskie pisateli, poety: biobibliograficheskii ukazatel’. Moskva: Kniga, 1982. Vol. 5, pp. 171-226.
  Z2504.P7L43 (Lane Room)
  
• “Voznesenskii, Andrei Andreevich.” In P.A. Nikolaev, ed., Russkie pisateli 20 veka: biograficheskii slovar’. Moskva: Nauchnoe izd-vo “Bol’shaia rossiiskaia entsiklopediia,” 2000. Pages 157-159.
  PG2993.R873 2000 (Lane Room)
  
• “Voznesensky, Andrey Andreyevich.” Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003. Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online. http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=77763.