Vasilisk Gnedov

The poem has been compared to Kazimir Malevich's painting Black Square (1915), John Cage’s silent composition 4'33" (1952), and to Minimalism in general. Although part of the Ego-Futurist group, Gnedov’s poetry was much closer in style to the better-known Hylaea or Cubo-Futurist group, which included Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Aleksei Kruchenykh. His other works were characterised by experimental language (including zaum-like neologisms), the use of colloquial, dialect, and Ukrainian words, and a defiant and strident lyric subject. Numerous incidents reported in the Russian press in 1913–14 earned Gnedov the reputation of being a scandal-monger. However, his stated intent at the time was “to invert and renew literature, to show new paths”. Illness, military service in World War I, shellshock from fighting in the Revolution, and political repression in the 1930s, virtually silenced him. Contemporary avant-garde poets such as Serge Segay (who has written about Gnedov and published his work) and Rea Nikonova regard him as an important forerunner of and contributor to Russian Modernism.