Liricheskii krug I : Stranitsy poezii i kritiki (Lyrical Circle: Pages of Poetry and Criticism) [Literary almanac; All published]

The book is in Good condition; cover shows some color fading and slight soiling, frayed bottom- and fore-edge of the cover with some minor tears, creases across cover corners, repaired small missing piece of the bottom outer corner of front cover, darkened right edge of the back cover, bookstore stamp on the back cover, damaged bottom end of the spine; internally pages show yellowing to the outer edges, otherwise almost fine.

In 1921 in Moscow was formed a new literary group known as “Lyrical Circle”, whose members included Sophia Parnok, Vladislav Khodasevich, Sergei Solovjov, Konstantin Lipskerov, Sergei Shervinsky, Abram Efros, Yuri Verkhovsky, Vladimir Lidin, Andriy Hloba, Leonid Grossman, shortly joined Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam. This strong composition of participants, who belonged to the different poetic movements, came together with the common aim to revive classical literature and withstand talentless proletarian culture of the day; they opposed leftist forms of art such as cubism, futurism and expressionism and emphasized literary clarity and harmony. The group tasks were set out in the programmic article “The Spirit of the Classics” by A. Efros and in the manifesto “Declaration of the Neo-Сlassics”, where stated, inter alia, that: “The classical art is the art of the revolution, therefore, our struggle for the classics is a struggle for the poetry of the revolution, [...]for the vitality of our art and for the modernity of our mastery. That is what our circle outlines!” However, by the end of 1922 the "lyric circle" was destroyed by the adherents of the proletarian culture.

In spring 1922 was published the only issue of the group’s almanac, which included poetry, prose and critical articles by the above listed authors. 

Publisher’s cover and logo woodcut design created by graphic artist Nikolai Kupreyanov (1894-1933). Member of the Society of Easel Artists OST and the Society of Four Arts. Kupreyanov began as a master of wood engraving. In early creative works he was under the influence of cubism and futurism (1915–1922). Since mid 1920s he left cubism and worked in graphic art preferring india ink and watercolor drawings. He was considered one of the virtuosic and significant graphic artists of 1920s–1930s.