Revolution’s literary movements

This 1924 book, called Futurizm i revoliutsiia : poeziia futuristov (Futurism and revolution : the poetry of the Futurists). In his first chapter, N. Gorlov explains that Futurism is “the art of revolutionary perelom [change or break] … an uprising against old content and old form, the destruction of old aesthetics … Futurism is the red flag raised on one of the citadels of the bourgeoisie”.

Futurism was one of many of the avant-garde literary and artistic movements which flourished in the early years of the Soviet Union. While Gorlov acknowledges the Italian roots of Futurism, he considers three strands to have developed: Filippo Marinetti’s imperialist Futurism, a populist Futurism pursued by Sergei Esenin and Nikolai Kliuev, and the “almost proletarian” Futurism of Vladimir Mayakovsky.

The inside back cover advertises the second issue of Lef, the hugely influential journal of the Left Front of Art, edited by Mayakovsky with others. Gorlov would go on to contribute to Lef more than once.

Futurizm i revoliutsiia : poeziia futuristov / N. Gorlov (Moskva : Gosudarstvennoe izdatelʹstvo, 1924). CCD.54.243