Although he began his poetic career as a wunderkind in pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg, plunging headlong into the city’s vibrant literary life in the last decade of the fabled Silver Age of Russian culture, Georgii Ivanov’s (1894-1958) major contributions to Russian literature were made in emigration. Indeed, many of his fellow émigrés considered him the finest poet of their milieu. His intimate, formally elegant yet emotionally complex lyrics – which are full of contradictions and unexpected reversals – capture the plight of the exile, who can neither return to the home for which he longs, nor reconcile himself to his new surroundings. Ivanov’s poems intersperse keen observation with whimsical surrealism, a mood of bitter despair with a naïve hope in the power of verse, at…
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Citation: Dralyuk, Boris. "Georgii Ivanov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 July 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13323, accessed 23 November 2024.]
