Antologia Escritores Futu

Oleh S.
Ilnytzkyj
Ukrainian Futurism: A New Anthology
of Writings by Mykhail’ Semenko
Mikhail’ Semenko i ukrainskii panfuturizm: Manifesty. Mistifikatsii.
Stat’i. Lirika. Viziopoeziia [Mykhail’ Semenko & Ukrainian PanFuturism:
Manifestos, Mystifications, Essays, Lyric Poetry, Visiopoetry] Sost., per. s
ukrain., stat’i, komment. i bibliografiia A. V. Beloy i A. A. Rossomakhina
[Selected, edited, translated, commented, bibliography and essays by
Anna Belaya and Andrey Rossomakhin]. Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatel’stvo
Evropeiskogo universiteta v Sankt-Peterburge, 2016. (AVANT-GARDE;
vyp. 9). 400 + [16] pp., 8pp. facsimile inserts, 100 B/W illustrations and
45 in colour. ISBN 978-5-94380-203-4. RUB 360,00; US$ 21,00; € 19,10 EUR;
£ 14,00.
This anthology provides a compelling and comprehensive overview of the Ukrain-

ian Futurist movement, centering on its founder and enduring leader, Mykhail’
Semenko, while also embracing other significant figures, who either supported or
resisted Futurism in Ukraine. A variety of seminal literary, critical and polemical
texts (all amply annotated), introductory and explanatory essays, illustrations,
bibliographies, and facsimile reproductions stretch the boundaries of the anthol-
ogy as a genre, but the result is a very useful, revealing and engaging publication
that borders on a mini encyclopedia of the movement and Ukrainian culture of
the 1920s. Directed squarely at the “Russian (rossiiskogo) reader”, this is the first
attempt ever to present Ukrainian literary Futurism within this market as an inde-
pendent national phenomenon.
Aesthetically, the book makes an excellent first impression. The design and
layout by Alexandr Iurii Khodot is a worthy tribute to the care and experimenta-
tion that characterized not only Ukrainian Futurist publications, but the Euro-
pean avant-garde as a whole. With the exception of eight pages, which show book
and magazine covers in colour (this is an “illustrated bibliography”), the whole
volume is lavishly illuminated with high quality, black-and-white reproductions
that complement and amplify the content. Paintings, photos, caricatures, docu-
ments and Futurist promotional materials are just some of the items reproduced.
Pagination is playfully restricted to odd-numbered pages and realized through
large digits placed outside the margins. Perusing the book is a pleasure, indeed.
The anthology is the product of a binational effort by Ukrainian and Russian
scholars Anna Belaia (Anna Bila) and Andrei Rossomakhin, both of whom have
DOI 10.1515/9783110527834-031
420 Oleh S. IlnytzkyJ
previous accomplishments in the field of the avant-garde in their respective coun-

tries. The two co-editors and co-translators divided their book into ten sections, a
preface and an introduction by Belaia. She presents a succinct but enlightening
account of Ukrainian Futurism from 1914 to 1930, which is intertwined with bio-
graphical information on Semenko. His life is further explored in Belaia’s second
essay that appears in a section devoted to biographical materials. Rossomakhin
offers his Russian readers a lucid appreciation and summary of Semenko’s qual-
ities and directions as a poet, a task he performs well, having translated all the
poems that appear in the volume. As Rossomakhin explains, his translations are,
in effect, the first translations of Semenko into Russian, barring a handful that
appeared over the last century. Semenko makes his debut before the Russian
audience with a selection of eighty poems, most of them examples of his diverse
and eccentric love lyrics, but some other poems are included as well. Overall, this
is but a tiny fraction of Semenko’s large œuvre. While the translated selection
gives a somewhat one-sided picture of the poet, it is balanced out by a series of
facsimile reproductions of his visual poems, which, of course, are not translated.
Furnished with these translations, originals and the explanatory essays, readers
will walk away with a good awareness of Semenko-the-Poet.
Semenko’s poetry occupies the very middle of the anthology. Flanking both
sides are several other sections. Arguably, the most important – for purposes of
understanding Ukrainian Futurism – are the first two sections: “Manifestos and
Articles by Mykhail’ Semenko” and “Manifestos and Articles by [Semenko’s] Col-
leagues.” Together, they showcase twenty-two programmatic/theoretical declara-
tions, heavily favouring documents from the early 1920s. In addition to Semenko,
authors included are Geo Shkurupii, Marko Tereshchenko, Mykola Bazhan and
Volodymyr Hadzins’kyi. Regrettably, there are no texts by Oleksii Poltorats’kyi
or Leonid Skrypnyk. Missing also is one Semenko’s key articles, “Art as a Cult”
(Mystetstvo iak kul’t, 1924).
A section titled “Mystifications” shows the mischievous side of Ukrainian
Futurism, its penchant for satire and irony. Here we find several rare references
to Russian Futurists (Maiakovskii and others), which raises a question: Why did
the editors provide relatively little information on the relationship and polemics
between Ukrainian and Russian Futurism (for example, between Nova generatsiia
and Novyi Lef)? This is strange for a work like this. An interesting and wise deci-
sion, however, was to include a series of articles about Semenko and Ukrainian
Futurism in a section aptly titled “Responses by Contemporaries”. These include
views, both negative and positive, about Semenko and Futurism by literary critics
and historians. As such, the section not only fleshes out the essays by Belaia and
Rossomakhin, but also sheds light on the cultural and social ferment in Ukraine
during the 1920s, helping to contextualize the Futurist movement.
Ukrainian Futurism: A New Anthology of Writings by Mykhail’ Semenko 421
As mentioned above, one of the unexpected and very welcome aspects of

this anthology is the great number of facsimile reproductions, of which Semen-
ko’s visual poems are the most important. They have been republished before
in Ukraine, but never in Russia. Even without translation, they make an impact
visually. A particularly useful reprint (in the form of a free-standing insert) is
Semenko’s very first publication “Derzannia” (Bravado, 1914), which opened with
the manifesto “Alone” (Sam, 1914), inaugurating Ukrainian Futurism with what
contemporaries took as an attack on Taras Shevchenko, the father of the nation.
The manifesto appears in a Russian translation as the first item of the anthology,
but the facsimile insert contains the entire eight pages of this scandalous pam-
phlet in its outdated orthography. Until now, it has been quite rare and virtually
inaccessible even to Ukrainian specialists.
In a word, this is a first-rate anthology, quite original in its conception and
realization, and, actually, without equal in any other language, including Ukrain-
ian. The European University in Saint-Petersburg and the editors should consider
issuing a Ukrainian version. In the meantime, Russians and Russian readers will
find it an excellent introduction to Ukrainian Futurism. It is a shame though that
the publisher released only 1000 copies.

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Oleh S.

This anthology provides a compelling and comprehensive overview of the Ukrain-

previous accomplishments in the field of the avant-garde in their respective coun-

As mentioned above, one of the unexpected and very welcome aspects of

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