Citizens, Literary Group

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Salons, Circles, Creative Associations and Unions
CITIZENS, a literary group which appeared at the end of 1964 with the intention of preparing a collection of prose under the same name. The participants were: V. V. Vakhtin, V. A. Gubin, I. M. Efimov, V. R. Maramzin. The collection was sent to Leningrad Department of the publishing house of Soviet Writers by the authors, but it was declined because the prose included a work by Maramzin The Story of the Marriage of Ivan Petrovich and stories by Vakhtin which did not correspond to the accepted ideological and aesthetic canons - they dealt with negative sides of the Soviet life, were penetrated with social irony, contained open descriptions of sensual passions. The authors spread the collection in the underground press having supplied it with an introduction by D. Y. Dar and with the article Citizens about Themselves which became a manifesto of the group, declaring the necessity for the rebirth of the literary language, for releasing it from official stock phrases and settings. It announced the right of writers for uniting in creative groups and for publishing group editions. Citizens took an independent public position and struck a blow for the condemned I. A. Brodsky. Their works were published abroad from 1975.

References: Самиздат Ленинграда, 1950-е - 1980-е: Лит. энцикл. М., 2003.

D. Y. Severyukhin. Brodsky Iosif Alexandrovich
Dar (real name Ryvkin) David Yakovlevich
Efimov Igor Markovich
Gubin Vladimir Andreevich
Maramzin (Katsnelson) Vladimir Rafailovich
Vakhtin Boris Borisovich
Самиздат Ленинграда, 1950-е - 1980-е: Лит. энцикл. М., 2003 Soviet Writer, the Leningrad Department of the Publishing House