The Fate of V. Sosnora’s Stork: Between Approval and Rejection by a Soviet Publishing House

For an extended period, Victor Sosnora’s poetry collections were published under censorship. His Stork collection from 1972 is no exception. This article analyses the publication history of the book in question within the broader context of the poet’s earlier works. The authors present archival materials from the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St Petersburg on the Stork publication process, which lasted over 5 years, which has never been done previously. The study of archival materials is important because there is a lack of literary reflection on the creative heritage of one of the most notable Russian poets of the second half of the twentieth century. Their study demonstrates that, despite the recognition of Sosnora’s established authority, reviewers repeatedly expressed the need to publish poems “without verbal husks” and images difficult for future readers to decipher, as well as “formalistic extravagances” of poetics, which the Soviet censorship fought against. The first review of the manuscript named Two Septembers and One February was received on February 28, 1967. The last editorial opinion on the manuscript entitled Stork was issued in 1971. During this period, the composition of the book and its title underwent multiple revisions. The article also examines reviews, demonstrating that the poet and his critics were communicating and thinking “in different languages”.