Konnitsa bur’ : stikhi (Cavalry of Storms : Verse)

The book is in Very Good condition; spine and cover along the spine repaired with leafcasting machine, minor creases across cover corners, cover shows some small light water stains and slight soiling; internally repaired small piece of the first folio sheet on the bottom end of the fold, otherwise fine.

Imaginism was a short lived literary movement founded in 1918 in Moscow by a group of poets including Anatoly Marienhof, Vadim Shershenevich, and Sergei Yesenin. Other members of the group included poets Rurik Ivnev, Alexander Kusikov, Ivan Gruzinov, Matvey Royzman, and Nikolay Erdman. The movement was based on the criticism of the futurism and the insistence on imagery in poetic speech. It flourished between 1919 and 1924, when the group organized four publishing houses, published some 60 books of poetry, theoretical tracts and issued a magazine "Gostinitsa dlya puteshestvuyuschih v prekrasnom" (Guesthouse for travellers in the beautiful). The group broke up in 1925, when Esenin announced about his leaving.

Current Imaginist's join verse collection issued in 1920 contains works by the leading representatives of the movement - Mikhail Gerasimov, Sergei Esenin, Rurik Ivnev, Nikolai Klyuev, Anatoli Mariengof, and Petr Oreshin. The publication, as well as other ones, drew public attention for the atmosphere of literary scandal they created and evoked harsh criticism. In a review of the collection published in the magazine “Khudozhestvennoe slovo” (Moscow, 1921, No. 2)  Sergey Budantsev emphasized about its core member, that at the current stage “Esenin is a strong lyrical talent”, but "only very naive critics can take seriously his simulated pathos escalating into screaming of his poems (“Nebesnyi barabanshik” (Heavenly Drummer)).” Book’s amazing cubo-futurist cover design by artist Vasili Komardenkov (1897-1978). One of the founders of the Society of Young Artists (OBMOKhU) in 1919. A prominent representative of the modernism of the 1920s, he was influenced by symbolism and constructivism. In his later years worked as an easel painter and stage designer.