Reading Sasha Chorny

A legend of Russian satire and subtle humor, an employee of the famous “Satirikon,” a man with impeccable taste—Sasha Cherny lived not very long, but an incredibly full life, in which a great deal fit. And unheard-of fame and popularity (as contemporaries testified, “there was no such course girl, no such student, no such doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer who wouldn’t know his poems by heart”), the First World War, where he went as a volunteer and took part in battles (he also died like a real soldier and poet—saving people during a fire), and the revolution that he categorically refused, and many years of wandering along the roads of emigration. But in any circumstances, Sasha Cherny always remained a real poet—sharp-eyed, ironic, sincere. That is why his works have survived to this day and are read now as if written by our contemporary. Vladimir Nabokov put it perfectly: “Only a few books and a quiet, lovely shadow remained of him.”