Died co-founder of SMOG Vladimir Aleinikov: the poet was 80 years old

Russian poet, prose writer, translator and artist Vladimir Aleinikov died at the 81st year of life. About the death of one of the founders of the literary association SMOG reported the publishing house “Ripol classic”. According to a friend of the writer Jan Brunstein, the poet died at night in his home in Koktebel.

Aleynikov was born in 1946 in Perm. In 1964 he entered the Department of History and Art Theory of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.

In 1965, Aleynikov, together with the poet Leonid Gubanov, created the literary community of SMOG. The name of the association stands for “Courage, Thought, Image, Depth”.

Participants of SMOG conducted poetry readings on Mayakovsky Square, spoke in defense of the freedom of art and produced samizdat collections. The activity of the association was accompanied by pressure from the authorities. Its participants were expelled from educational institutions, expelled from Moscow and forcibly placed in psychiatric hospitals.

The publication of Aleynikov’s works at home began during the period of perestroika. The first collections of his poems were published in 1987. In the early 1990s, several major books by the poet were published.