Kusikov A. Al-Barrak.

Kusikov A. Al-Barrak.
Second edition, expanded. Cover art by artist Arnshtam.

Berlin - Moscow. The day before. 1923. 80 p. Softcover, size 12.5 x 19 cm. Excellent condition, minor dirt and minor tears of the covers, a few curved corners, pencil inscriptions inside the cover.

Alexander Borisovich Kusikov (Kusikyan) (17 [29] September 1896 Armavir — 20 July 1977, Paris) was a Russian imagist poet, author of romances.

Alexander Borisovich Kusikov was born on September 17 (29), 1896 in Armavir in a large Armenian family. The Kusikovs lived in Armavir since 1830, were engaged in trade and were a well-known family name in the city. His father Boris Karpovich Kusikov (? -1931) ran a clothing store.

He graduated from the gymnasium in the village of Batalpashinskaya, Kuban region. After graduating from high school, he entered the law Faculty of Moscow University, but studied for only six months and in 1915 was called up for additional recruitment in the army. According to the same set, at the same time, his peer, the future marshal Georgy Zhukov, was called up, and both young men were selected for the light cavalry.

A member of the First World War, he served in the Seversky Dragoon Regiment. He was wounded.

After the February Revolution, he was appointed military commissar of Anapa. After the October Revolution, he left for Moscow.

In 1919, he was appointed commander of a separate cavalry division. At the beginning of 1921, he left the military service.

Arriving in Moscow, he begins to visit the "Cafe of Poets", at the same time he meets Valery Bryusov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vasily Kamensky, Konstantin Balmont. He created the publishing house "Chihi-Pihi", where in 1919, together with Balmont, under whose influence at that time he was, he published the collection "Pearl Rug" and there his own collection of poems "Twilight".

In the spring of 1919, he joined the "Order of Imagists" and became its most active participant. Together with Sergey Yesenin and Vadim Shershenevich, he opens the bookstore "Shop of Poets". He is elected Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian Union of Poets.

On the night of October 19, 1920, he was arrested by the Cheka in his apartment in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane (building 30, sq. No. 5) together with his brother Ruben and Sergei Yesenin, but was released after three weeks.

The author of poems for some romances written by the brothers Nikolai and Mikhail Bakaleinikov.

In January 1922, with the help of Lunacharsky, he went on a foreign business trip (together with Pilnyak). On the way to Berlin, they spend about a month in Estonia, organizing creative evenings in Tallinn and Tartu.

In the German capital, Kusikov, who called himself a Circassian, won the heart of Anna Turgeneva, who became his companion. Abroad, Kusikov shows his loyalty to the revolution ("You are my Mecca, Moscow, and your Kremlin is the sweetness of the black Kaaba"), which generates indignation in the emigrant press. In emigrant circles, Kusikov is given the nickname "chekist". As a result, in 1924, he moved to Paris, where he created the "Society of Friends of Russia".

From 1924 to 1930, Alexander Kusikov was widely published abroad (including in the newspaper "Paris Herald" funded by the Soviet embassy), while at home his name appears in print less and less often. By the beginning of the 1930s, Kusikov finally stopped doing creative work.