Mayakovsky Square poetry readings

During the 1950s and 1960s, Mayakovsky Square in Moscow played an important role as a gathering place for unofficial poetry readings, and subsequently for expressing cultural and political dissent in the post-Stalin era.

On July 29, 1958, a monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky was unveiled in Moscow's Mayakovsky Square. At the official opening ceremony, a number of official Soviet poets read their poems. When the ceremony was over, volunteers from the crowd started reading poetry as well. The atmosphere of relatively free speech attracted many, and public readings at the monument soon became regular. Young people, mainly students, assembled almost every evening to read the poems of forgotten or repressed writers. Some also read their own work, and discussed art and literature. Among the young poets who read their own work to huge crowds in Mayakovsky Square were Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky, who walked a thin line between being able to publish in the Soviet Union and representing a spirit of youthful protest. They were alternately reproached and disciplined, but tolerated. The spontaneous gatherings, however, were soon stopped by the authorities.

Выйду на площадь и городу в ухо
Втисну отчаянья крик!
...
Это - я,
призывающий к правде и бунту,
не желающий больше служить,
рву ваши черные путы,
сотканные из лжи!

I'll go out on the Square
and into the city's ear
I'll hammer a cry of despair!
...
This is me
calling to truth and revolt
willing no more to serve
I break your black tethers
woven of lies!

The gatherings at Mayakovsky's statue were revived in September 1960, again as poetry readings, but this time with a more openly political character. They were organized by biology student Vladimir Bukovsky with a small circle of university friends, but gathered momentum quickly and were soon taking place regularly. The Square and statue became known to some as "Mayak" (lighthouse).

Usually several hundred people gathered each occasion in the square. The participants in the 1960-61 readings included the "veterans" of two years before, as well as a new layer of young people. Poetry by Nikolay Gumilev, Boris Pasternak and Osip Mandelstam was read. Soviet Nonconformist Art and works by formalists were also circulated.

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Wikipedia