Sosnora, Victor Alexandrovich

Sosnora was born in a family of Leningrad circus artists Alexander Ivanovich Sosnora (1908-1959) and Eva (Hava) Vulfovna Gorovatskaya (1914-1990) who toured the Crimea; his grandfather Wolf Gorovatsky was a rabbi in Vitebsk ^{[3] [4] [5]} . Parents divorced when he was a child, and later he was raised by his mother.

During the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1942 he was in Leningrad , then “ Dear Life ” was taken out of the city, was in occupation in Ukraine.

He survived the siege winter of Leningrad 1941/42 at the age of six, he was taken out of Leningrad along the Road of Life under machine-gun fire from aircraft. He found himself in the Kuban and was captured by the Germans with his grandmother who saved him. At the age of seven, he visited the Gestapo three times, and then lived in the partisan detachment commanded by his uncle. This detachment and its commander were shot by the Nazis in front of the boy. He was saved only because a quarter of an hour before the shot he himself was wounded in the head with a mine fragment. He saw the shooting of a detachment through the blood that covered his face ^[6] .

The surviving boy was found by his father, who had by then become the commander of the Polish Army corps. Becoming the " son of a regiment ", Victor reached Frankfurt an der Oder . In an interview given in the spring of 2006 , Sosnora told how at that time - at the age of 8-9 - he learned to shoot accurately, as he was identified as snipers and with pleasure shot at the Germans, who, when they took off their helmets, unintentionally protruded their heads from the trenches.

He graduated from high school number 14 in Lviv . Returning to Leningrad, he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of Leningrad State University. A.A. Zhdanova , where he left a year before graduation. In 1955-1958 he served in the army in the Novaya Zemlya region , where he participated in tests related to "atomic experiments", during which he received radiation . In 1958-1963 he worked as a fitter and electrician at the Nevsky Machine-Building Plant ^[7] and studied in absentia at the philological faculty of Leningrad State University .

He published his first book in 1962 (January Rainfall). Along with censored publications in Soviet official publishing houses, Sosnora’s texts diverged in samizdat , they were also published in “Tamizdat”. He was the only representative of the “official sixties ” in Leningrad and traveled abroad a lot. He lectured in Paris and the USA . He was friends with Lily Brik , Nikolai Aseev . He was supported by Boris Slutsky and Konstantin Simonov . In the author's edition of the poetic books of Sosnora began to be published since 1989.

For many years he led a literary association in Leningrad. Many authors began their career in this association - in particular, Alexander Ilyanen , Evgeny Antipov , Dmitry Chernyshev , politician Sergey Mironov . He lectured at the New Paris University ( Vincennes ), taught in Wroclaw .

He lived in St. Petersburg. Member of the Union of Writers of St. Petersburg.

In recent years, due to health reasons, he almost did not participate in literary events.

In 2011, director Vladimir Nepevny created the documentary Victor Sosnora. Alien ", shown on the channel" Culture ".

He died on July 13, 2019 in St. Petersburg at the 84th year of his life. A student of the poet, writer and religious leader Vadim Lurie said on his Facebook page:

The memorial service was held in the Church of St. Stanislav on July 18 . By the will of the poet, no events were organized with farewell speeches. Condolences to the poet’s family, friends and relatives were expressed by the Acting Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov ^[8] .

Family

• The first wife is Marina Yakovlevna Veldina (1938-1978).
• The second wife is Nina Evgenievna Alekseeva (1954-2009).

In 1958, the first poem of Sosnora was published, and in 1962 a collection of poems “January Rain” was published with a preface by N. Aseev (Sosnora dedicated his next collection to him “Triptych”, 1965).

You cannot immediately feel a sosnor as a poet - like any poet who does not have the usual standard of poetry. But then, hearing those intonations that he finds for his lines, you will become interested in their dissimilarity to what they have read and heard before.

- Nikolay Aseev

At the Nevsky Zavod, Sosnor met a girl Marina, who had become one of the prototypes of the Boyan’s Song series. At this time, in his work, Old Russian, semi-pagan, acutely social motives that glorified him appeared, which would find a place in the collection of Horsemen. The most famous works of this collection are: “The Word about Igor’s Regiment”, “Songs of Boyan”, (ending with the execution of the legendary poet and storyteller Boyan for his “cocky songs”), “Kaliki”, “Rogneda”, “The Legend of the City of Kitezh”, “For Izyumsky hill ”, etc. These creations Sosnora are harsh, mocking (even mocking) and full of literary provocations, which gives some critics the right to classify them as postmodernism ^[9] . For example, Vladimir the Red Sun seems to be overwhelmed by lust, a rapist of women, as most historians know him ^[10] . The flaws of that time are discovered by the author in modern times:

Hear: whistle from underground sparks
And to the sky-highs ...
No matter how sick, but a whistle
Over Russia - For centuries!

The text of the “Words about Igor’s Regiment” is mistakenly considered to be the arrangement of an ancient composition: in this case, it is a separate work of an individual author, created only based on those events. D. S. Likhachev believed that "Sosnora poetically conceived of annalistic legends" ^[11] .

Later, Sosnora departs from the theme of "Ancient Russia", trying to consciously continue futurism and avant-garde in literature. His moods are tragic and dystopian.

In later works, Sosnora turns to white verse and verlibre , verses become less ironic and caustic, more sensual and tragic.

I'm windy. I’m a naive operator with a whistle of pathos - Idiot,
in my life, I shot not many, and even those from boredom,
they say that now 6,000,000,000 citizen countries
we delete zeros from the machine gun and leave 6.
Time is just a tick, so on,
and this “time” has nothing but fiction - an udder of words.

- “Doors are Closing”, 2001

Sosnor owns free arrangements of poems:

Books of poetry and prose have been translated to the USA, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, France and others. Schedule and designer of their books.

Poems

• January rain: Poems. Foreword N. Aseev - L .: Soviet writer, 1962. - 100 p. - 10,000 copies.
• Triptych. - L .: Lenizdat , 1965 .-- 154 p. Hood. M.A. Kulakov. - 10,000 copies.
• Riders. - L. , 1969. Foreword by D. S. Likhachev.
• Stork: Poems. - L .: Soviet writer, 1972.
• Crystal: Poems. - L .: Soviet writer, 1977.
• Poems. - L .: Lenizdat, 1977 .-- 176 p., Portr. - 25,000 copies.
• The song is moonlight. - L .: Soviet writer, 1982. - 176 p.
• Favorites. - Ardis , 1987.
• Return to the sea. - L .: Soviet writer, 1989 .-- 304 p. Foreword I. Gordin.
• 37. - St. Petersburg. , 1993. - 48 p.
• Repair of the sea: Scenes. - SPb. : Almanac Library “Petropol” with the participation of the Russian Poetry Foundation, 1996. - 88 p. ISBN 5-89108-007-9
• High hour. - Petersburg writer, 1998 .-- 208 p.
• Where did you go? and where is the window? - SPb. : Pushkin Foundation, 1999; 2006.
• Flute and Proseism: Book of Poems. - SPb. : Pushkin Fund, 2000 .-- 56 p. ISBN 5-89803-061-1
• Nine books. - M .: UFO, 2001 .-- 432 p.
• Doors close: Book of poems. - SPb. : Pushkin Fund, 2001 .-- 48 p.
• Poems and rhythmic stories. - M .: The library of the journal "Futurum ART" [Publisher - Evgeny Stepanov ], 2005. - 115 p. - 250 copies. - ISBN 5-239-01107-7
• Poems. - SPb. : Amphora, 2006 .-- 870 p. Comp. S. Stepanov.
• There will be no more verses. - M .: ARGO-RISK ; Book Review, 2007 .-- 72 p. - Shooting range. 300 copies
• The last bullet. - SPb. : Alphabet — Classic, 2010 .-- 224 p. Shooting gallery 5000 copies
• Poems. - SPb. : Amphora. TID Amphora, 2011 .-- 864 p. - 2000 copies. ISBN 978-5-367-02009-0
• My life: Selected poems. - SPb. : Publishing group "Lenizdat", "Team A", 2013. - 176 p. Shooting gallery 1500 copies
• Book for mice and for kids of any age: Poems / Ill. D.V. Basner. - St. Petersburg .: DETGIZ, 2014 .-- 56 p., Ill. Shooting gallery 5000 copies
• Flute and prosaism: Poems / Ill. A. Bodrova. - St. Petersburg: LIMBUS PRESS, 2016 .-- 96 p., Ill. - 500 copies. ISBN 978-5-8370-0724-8
• Poems. - [Compilation S.A. Stepanov; foreword A. Aryev ] - St. Petersburg. : Union of Writers of St. Petersburg; M .: RIPOL classic , Palmira Publishing House, 2018. - 910 p. ISBN 978-5-386-12177-8

Prose

• Flying Dutchman / Art. I. Zakharov-Ross // Frankfurt / Main Printed in Germsny: Sowing, 1979.- 248 p.
• Rulers and destinies. - L., 1986.
• Apology of suicide. Synopsis of the book // Man. - 1992. - No. 6
• Nikolai: a story. - SPb., 1992. - 44 p. - (Series “Petersburg Solo”, appendix to alm. “Petropol”).
• Tower. - SPb., 1993.
• Day of the beast. - Lviv: Galician contracts, 1996. - 232 p.
• House of days. - St. Petersburg: Pushkin Fund, 1997.
• Book of voids. - St. Petersburg: Pushkin Fund, 1998 .-- 144 p. (The Star, No. 4, 1992).
• NEGEREP stones. - St. Petersburg: Pushkin Fund, 1999 .-- 144 p.
• Prose. - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2001 .-- 767 p.
• 15. - St. Petersburg: Pushkin Fund, 2004. - 80 p. - 500 copies. ISBN 5-89803-123-5
• House of days. - St. Petersburg: Yuolukka , 2014 .-- 266 p.
• Tower. - St. Petersburg: Yuolukka, 2015 .-- 356 p.
• Prose. - M .; St. Petersburg: RIPOL classic, Palmira Publishing House, 2018. - 887 p. ISBN 978-5-386-12179-2
• The second prose. - M .; St. Petersburg: RIPOL Classic, Publisher Palmira, 2018. - 711 p. ISBN 978-5-386-12180-8

Literary Prizes

• Laureate of the Northern Palmyra Prize (2002).
• Laureate of the Andrei Bely Prize in the nomination For Special Merits to Russian Literature (2004).
• Winner of the Zinziver magazine award in the poetry category (2010).
• Prize winner Apollo Grigoriev for the book of poems “Where did you go?” and where is the window? ”
• Laureate of the Russian national award "Poet" (2011) ^[12] .
• International mark named after the father of Russian futurism David Burliuk ^[13] .

• Aryev, A. Metaphor Space // Star. - L., 1990. - No. 6. - S. 7-8.
• Aryev, A. Arthography: On Victor Sosnora's prose, published and unpublished // Consent. - M., 1993. - No. 3. - S. 112-117.
• Aryev, A. Nobody's contemporary: (Victor Sosnora: a case of self-resurrection) // Vopr. lit. - M., 2001. - Vol. 3. - P. 14-30.
• Gordin, Y. Literary versions of historical events - what is it? // Sosnora V. Rulers and Fates: Lit. options ist. events. - L., 1986.P. 3-7.
• Ermolin, E. Multivers. Literary diary. Experiments and tests of actual literature. Moscow: Coincidence, 2017 .-- ISBN 978-5-9909157-0-1 pp. 144-147.
• Zubova, L.V. Old Russian language in poetic reflection: Victor Sosnora // Theoretical problems of linguistics: Sat. Art. to the 140th anniversary of the cafe. total Linguistics Filol. Fak. St. Petersburg state un-that. - SPb., 2004 .-- S. 596-606.
• Kuritsyn, V. Seventh or thirteenth? // Banner. - M., 1990. - No. 7. - S. 224—226. Retz. on the book: Sosnor V. Favorites. - Michigan: Ardis, 1988; Sosnora V. Return to the sea. Lyrics. - L .: Owls. writer, 1989.
• Levchenko M. A. Archetypal triad Poet - Death - The Word in the poetry of Victor Sosnora (Mythopoetic analysis of the text: sphere of interpretation) // Russian text. Russian-American Journal of Russian Philology. No. 4. St. Petersburg, 1996. S. 145-163.
• Novikov Vl. Upstream // Lit. review. - M., 1979. - No. 1. P. 41—44.
• Novikov Vl. Labor words // New World. - M., 1984, No. 4. - S. 254—257.
• Novikov Vl. Monologue of the tragedy // Literary Review. - M., 1988. - No. 10. - S. 37-40.
• Novikov Vl. Victor Sosnora: portrait without a background. // Spark. - M., 1996. - No. 19. May.
• Novikov, Vl. Brodsky - Sosnora - Kushner: Academic Essays // Joseph Brodsky and the World: Metaphysics, Antiquity, Modernity. - SPb., 2000 .-- S. 125-130.
• Novikov Vl. School of Solitude (To the 70th anniversary of V. Sosnora) // Star. - SPb., 2006. - No. 4.
• Novikov Vl. Personality and technique: Dovlatov, Brodsky, Sosnora: Academic essay // Sergey Dovlatov: face, literature, era. Sat articles. SPb .: LLC Zvezda Magazine, 2012. - S. 162-175.
• Novikov Vl. Book of books: “The High Hour” in the fate of the poet Victor Sosnora // Star. - SPb., 2015. - No. 2.
• Novikova O. Peter and the poet // New World. - M., 2003. - No. 6. - S. 158-163.
• Parshikova-Hugli, M. Poetics of dynamic statics: Victor Sosnora // Baroque in the forefront - the forefront in Baroque. - M., 1993. - S. 48-52.
• Pikach, A. Visions inside the wind, or the Outlandish Geo architecture of Victor Sosnora // Neva. - SPb., 1992. - No. 10. - S. 239—252.
• Edelstein, M. Rewarding Paronymy // Rus. thought = La pensee russe. - Paris, 2000. - No. 4309. - S. 14.
• Eclair, A. Plots of Mary Magdalene and their motives, as well as their interpretation in poems by Istvan Bak, Victor Sosnora and Boris Pasternak // Slavica. - Debrecen, 1999. - No. 29. - S. 207—226.
• Aryev, Andrey. Don Sosnora de Saavedra (Poetic World of Victor Sosnora) // Petersburg poetry in persons: essays / Ivanov, Boris, comp. - Moscow: New Literary Review, 2011. - S. 96-113. - 392 p. - ISBN 9785867937980 .

• Personal site
• Texts, interviews and criticism
• Victor Sosnora in the " Journal Hall "
• Victor Sosnora on the site " A New Map of Russian Literature "
• Victor Sosnora on the site "Unofficial Poetry"
• Victor Sosnora on Babylon
• Alexander Skidan about Sosnora’s book “Poems” (Amphora, 2006)
• About Victor Sosnor in the "Encyclopedia" Words on Igor's Regiment ""
• Victor Sosnora in the author’s TV program “Books and People” by Alexander Karpenko . Dialog TV, issue number 15
• Victor Sosnora - graphics, photos, books. Official site.
• About Victor Sosnor on Ruthenium
• Documentary film "Alien" (director Vladimir Nepevny)