Ilya Selvinsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ilya Selvinsky (Russian: Илья Сельвинский, 1899-1968) was a Russian poet, known leader of the Constructivist movement; as such, implemented "a scientific approach into the realm of poetry."
In fact, many poems of Selvinsky are very far from constructivism, showing fine lyric approach sometimes of ecstatic-gloomy character ("Call me, call me" and some other verses of World War II- and post-War periods, for instance.) As many Soviet poets, he first became enthusiastic about Communism ideology, and as some Soviet poets, he later became disillusioned with it. This "transfer" has reflected in his poetry contents and vocabulary, which, in its turn, was enriched by his multifarious professions: he was an actor, circus fighter, dock worker, fur processing instructor; he graduated from the department of Social Sciences of Moscow State University.
