Boris Ryzhy (1974-2001)
A poet whose death is often discussed more than his life or work. Just shy of joining the Club of 27, but only by a little. In September 2001, Boris Ryzhy would have turned 27, but in March, he took his own life. From his Завещание (Testament): Договоримся так: когда умру, ты крест поставишь над моей могилой: let’s agree on this: when I die, you will place a cross over my grave.
Documentary and Portrait
More about Ryzhy’s life (and the reasons behind his early death) in the documentary by Aliona van der Horst (2009, 59 m). Introduction (2 m) below (with music by Beirut); see also this one (1 m).
Full version available at vpro.nl, on the director’s website, or (for just 5 euros) at idfa.nl. Aliona van der Horst also made Love is Potatoes (2017); see trailer (2 m), watch on 2doc.nl, and there’s also DocTalks (22 m).
For more about and by Борис Рыжий, see Поэт Борис Рыжий, Сентиментальное путешествие на Вторчермет (19 m), Борис Рыжий (2006) (18 m), and this album from Фотоальбом (2013, 3 m).
Works and Performances
Ryzhy’s poetry can be read at стихи.ру and поэтика.рф.
On YouTube, many poems can be listened to; sometimes there’s even something to watch.
- Померкли очи голубые (1999)
- Приобретут всеевропейский лоск (1998)
- Пока я спал, повсюду выпал снег (1997)
- Я в эту зиму как-то странно жил (1996)
- Прогулка с мальчиком (1995)
Recently (June 2020), Irina Gorbacheva (Ирина Горбачёва) recited Море from a balcony, and also see this Джойс (Проект Кинопоэзия, 2019). For musical adaptation, the choice fell on rapper Хаски ( Husky).
Хаски feat. Борис Рыжий
(GQ Russia, 2017, 1 m)
Music
Other musicians have also worked with Ryzhy’s words. Listen and watch, among others, Vladimir Kirkin (Пока я спал, повсюду выпал снег), Sergey Nikitin (Качели), and the band Molchat Doma. The lyrics of Sudno / Судно (2019) are drawn from Эмалированное судно (1997). Finally, here is (made with) Настоящая любовь (by Гόголем, 2020).
Read
- A look back at the Soviet Union through the eyes of poet Boris Ryzhy (Diggit Magazine, 2018)
- Boris Ryzhy, poet and boxer from the scrap district (Rusland in woord en beeld, 2008, 2013)
- Boris Ryzji, a doomed poet and a good hooligan (Volkskrant, 2008, for subscribers)
- Between poets and bandits (De Groene Amsterdammer, 2008)
last edited 17-11-2020
More
Country
The Netherlands holds a unique place in the Russian imagination. This is how our country, and we, are viewed through Russian eyes.
An interview becomes legendary when it gets its own page on
Wikipedia. On February 6, 2024, Tucker Carlson spoke with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. The report (127 minutes) offers a good, or at least broad, opportunity to hear the Russian perspective on the war against Ukraine.
What we would call ’tokkies’ or ‘gabbers’, and what elsewhere might be referred to as white trash or hooligans – in Russia, these are called gopniki. Folk culture in a tracksuit.
Since the age of sixteen, Игорь Мухин (1961) has been taking photographs. Armed with a
Смена-8М camera, he started his journey. So, when he found himself among artists and musicians in the 1980s, he already had a trained eye – and a better camera. Mukhin (sometimes Moukhin) witnessed major changes and began documenting them.
Freedom of speech is decreasing everywhere, though the reasons vary by region. Meanwhile, Big Tech’s power is growing, along with its interference. In this new era, a nearly forgotten Soviet answer is reemerging: samizdat, the underground DIY press and distribution network.
Every country has a flag and a coat of arms. The Netherlands has a lion, France has a rooster, New Zealand has a kiwi, and the United States has a bald eagle. In Russia, it’s an eagle with two heads and three crowns, and a man on a horse who has just killed a dragon with a spear.
