Lighthouse

50 years ago, young poets were afraid to continue street readings of bold poetry. Today their followers are not going to retreat

Triumph Square. Mayakovsky, surrounded by a mesh fence, looked around slightly bewildered. The people standing on the spot near the monument were also surrounded by a gray net. Two young men sealed their mouths with tape and passionately...

Triumph Square. Mayakovsky, surrounded by a mesh fence, looked around slightly bewildered. The people standing on the spot near the monument were also surrounded by a gray net. Two young men covered their mouths with tape and mumbled passionately to the crowd, expressively waving their arms. Then they pulled off the stickers and shouted in chorus: “No! Don't forbid! Let's read!" This is how the 9th anniversary Mayakovsky Readings opened.

For a year now, on the last Sunday of every month (with a break for the winter), underground poets and those who want to listen to them have been gathering at Triumfalnaya. This time, despite the cold, about 70 people gathered near the monument, not counting journalists. “We hope that the tradition of reading dissident poetry “at Mayak”, forgotten for 50 years, will be revived,” says poet and regular participant in the readings, Daniil Poltoratsky.

Most of the poems that sound "at the Lighthouse" are sharply social, political. But nevertheless, as the young poet and regular participant in the readings, Mikhail Kedrenovsky, said, these readings are an event "which was created entirely for the sake of poetry and revolves around poetry."

“The poems resounding on Triumfalnaya are a mirror of our society, and nothing can be thrown out of them - not obscene language, not a word about the president, about the“ seaside partisans ”, about Moscow fires,” says poetess Anastasia Aksenova. “The fact that they are trying to prevent us from speaking is another attempt at censorship by the state.”

Yes, the organizers are afraid that the readings may be closed, as happened 50 years ago.

At the first poetry evening, in August 2009, there were no police at all, although there were a lot of people - about 70 people. And already at the September ones, those who gathered noticed a bus with riot police on the square. “Policemen approached us and asked what we were reading poetry about,” Andrey Gorin says. We answered that it was about love. They asked: "And whose?" “Own,” we replied. After that they left." At the October readings, people in civilian clothes, similar to operatives, were noticed. According to Andrei, they tried to provoke the poets into a political dispute. On April 25, at the opening of the new season, police officers were outraged by a line from Yury Galanskov's "Human Manifesto": "Go and break the rotten prison of the state." “They wanted to detain us, but the correspondents of the Kultura channel explained that they were filming a poetry evening,” Andrei continues, “and the claims immediately ended.”

However, the police never left the readings. In May, at the next evening, bookcrossing was arranged - people brought books and exchanged them. This also caused dissatisfaction with the law enforcement officers, they even tried to rewrite the authors of the books for some reason. And in July, a few minutes before the beginning of the evening, policemen approached Matvey Krylov and threatened with arrest for 15 days (it is not known under which article) if the authorities were mentioned in the poems or opposition calls were made. However, Matvey still opened the readings.

Last Sunday, during the last readings, law enforcement officers also came and looked for Matvey, but he simply did not respond. And the police once again departed, leaving the poets alone.

“If the approach to the monument is also blocked, like the rest of the square, we will not accept, we will continue to read, we will climb over the fence, if necessary,” said Matvey Krylov. - In 1961, the readings stopped precisely because people were afraid. Our task as the younger generation is to prevent this.”