Fearlessness in search of the truth and nonparticipation in the "Great Madness"

MOSCOW. Anthologia Poetry Prize awarded to Polina Barskova.

Established by New World Magazine, the Anthologia Prize has been awarded to poets and literary critics since 2004. In different years, Oleg Chukhontsev, Bakhyt Kenzheev, Dmitry Bykov, Lev Losev, Vladimir Gandelman became its laureates. In 2017, Polina Barskova was named the winner for the collection of poems "Air Alert" published in Latvia. The goal of the Literature Without Borders project, which specializes in publishing Russian poetry, is to collaborate with poets and translators, help in publishing books, maintain a cultural dialogue, and provide a comfortable environment for creativity. In the village of Ozolnieki, 3 km from Jelgava, in the spring of 2016, a residence was opened for authors who decided to cooperate with Literature Without Borders.

In the new collection of Barskova, which was highly praised by the jury, the key theme of her work, the tragedy of besieged Leningrad, was not addressed. But this is still the same study of human destinies, grinded by the cataclysms of the last century. Such heroes include Zinaida Gippius, who categorically did not accept the revolution and emigrated from Russia. The role of the go-to girl in the “strict school of darkness” seemed a lesser evil than participation in the “Great Madness”. Despite the cold of loneliness and the ostracism of society after the famous performance of Merezhkovsky.

Barskova is fearless in search of the truth, which does not coincide with the generally accepted interpretation, and answers to uncomfortable questions. She teaches the same to her students at Hampshire College in Amherst. Barskova’s lectures, which always have a full house, include acquaintance with Russian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, an analysis of the most complex texts without discounts on age and ignorance, and an inspiring atmosphere of creativity. Enthusiastic reviews from students who created the Hampshire Poetry Group.

Her native city, which she left 20 years ago, remains in her soul, books, studies of the fate of the intelligentsia during the years of the blockade, in attempts to reconstruct the tragedy that claimed hundreds of thousands of human lives. Tuning fork in search of truth - the memoirs of Lydia Ginzburg, Pavel Zaltsman, Olga Bergholz, Elena Schwartz, George Knyazev and archival documents - piercing evidence of the trauma.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru