Benedikt Konstantinovich Livshits (Russian:Бенеди́кт Константи́нович Ли́вшиц, 24 December 1886 (Old Style)/6 January 1887 (New Style) – 21 September 1938) was a poet and writer of theSilver Age of Russian Poetry, a French–Russian poetry translator.
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Livshits was born to an assimilatedJewish family inOdessa. He studied law atNovorossia University and then moved toKiev University, where he graduated in 1912. He was conscripted to theRussian army and served in the88th Infantry Regiment. In 1914, he was conscripted again and served in the infantry duringWorld War I, being awarded theCross of St. George.
In 1908, "The Exhibition of Modern Art" was staged in Kublin.[1] This exhibition, which included the works ofGeorges Braque,Henri Matisse, and other European postimpressionist painters, made a profound impression on the young Livshits.[1] His first poetry was published in theAnthology of Modern Poetry (Kiev) a year later. In 1910 he worked forSergei Makovsky'ssymbolist art magazineApollon.
Together withWladimir Burliuk,David Burliuk,Vladimir Mayakovsky, andVasily Kamensky he was a member and co-founder of the majorRussian Futurist groupHylaea (RussianGilea). It is said to have been established after Livshits and the Burliuk brothers vacationed at the estate of Count Mordvinov inChernianka.[2] David Burliuk, Kamensky, and Livshits would form the nucleus ofCubo-Futurism, which became the most influential subdivision of Futurism.[3]
In 1933 he published a book of memoirs,The One and a Half-Eyed Archer, which is considered one of the best histories of Russian Futurism.[citation needed] This work also detailed the cultural discomfort of a fully assimilated Jewish artist in Russia.[4] In 1934, he published a large book of translations from French poetry,From Romantics to Surrealism. An analysis of his translation works noted his tendency to uphold the structure of the material being translated as a whole and to maintain close proximity to the original.[5]
In 1937, Livshits also became a victim ofJoseph Stalin'sGreat Purge.[6] He was arrested and summarily executed on 21 September 1938 as an "enemy of the people". His dossier was falsified to state that he died of heart failure on 15 May 1939.[7]
