Alexander Strakhov is a Russian poet and scientist, linguist and specialist in Slavic ethnography. At the end of the 80s of the last century he left for the USA, where he currently lives. The father of the famous actor in Russia Daniil Strakhov.
Biography
Alexander Strakhov was born in Moscow in 1948. Here he studied, and received higher education at Moscow State University. After graduating from this university in 1972, he became a philologist.
Alexander began to write poetry as a child, about ten years old. He usually spent the summer holidays in Uglich, where nature is very disposed to observation and reflection. But, by his own admission, versification was an irregular process for him, rather long breaks occurred.
Work began for Alexander at the age of 17. He served in the army, was discharged with the rank of junior sergeant.
After that, Alexander Strakhov felt that he was interested in Slavic ethnography, and indeed everything connected with it. He was so deeply immersed in the topic that at the Institute of Slavic Studies and Balkan Studies in 1986 he successfully defended his candidate. The theme for her was chosen by Slavic ethnography, linguistics and history.
A. Strakhov in his youth.
In Soviet times, Strakhov's poems were distributed mainly through samizdat. In the late 60s, he was in the literary association "Spectrum", which was curated by E. Drutz. This time is considered to be the start of his poetic career. Then there was another creative downtime. For 10 years Strakhov did not turn to poetry, he was engaged in scientific activities. New works came out of his pen only in 1979.
Contemporaries characterized the work of Alexander as "full-bodied, mythological and symbolic verses." Strakhov's first book was published in Moscow, although its author had already lived abroad. It includes texts written in the years 1979-1983.
Scientific activity
In the mid 80-ies of the last century Strakhov again forgets about poetry and completely goes into science. In 1989, he decided to leave Russia and left for the USA. After choosing the city of Boston for living, after a while he becomes editor of the magazine Palaeoslavica. This publication specializes in the history of the Slavs in the broadest sense. There are articles about antiquities, Slavic folklore, ethnology, etc.
According to the eldest son of Alexander Borisovich, Strakhov managed to achieve such a state in his life when he is independent of anyone. He does not care about financial or scientific-organizational issues. Therefore, in the journal Palaeoslavica, he can afford to publish his works and the works of those whose work is responsive to him and similar in subject.
Strakhov has an impressive amount of scientific work. The most famous and significant in Russia are considered to be works on the attitude of the Slavs to bread and traditions on this topic ("The cult of bread among the Eastern Slavs"). There is an article about the differences in the Christmas rites of the Slavs of the East and the West - "The Night Before Christmas: Popular Christianity and Christmas Rituals in the West and among the Slavs." A. Strakhov studied a lot of the principles of text construction in antiquity, its design, sound features and transitions that distinguished residents of different provinces.
Works and books of A. Strakhov
At the moment, eight poetry collections of Alexander Strakhov have seen the light. The latter was published by N. Filimonov in 2015.
In a letter to the publisher that accompanied the manuscript of the first book (Awakening), Strakhov described his literary predilections as “Soviet-avant-garde”. And even gives the names of those who had the greatest influence on him: Mayakovsky, Blok and Bely, A.K. Tolstoy, Sluchevsky and others. At Mayakovsky, he once analyzed the style and language, and set out his findings in a thesis.
All eight books of Strakhov were published by N. Filimonov.
At first glance, Strakhov's texts seem simple and heavy. They are very serious and dedicated to a person’s awareness of himself. At the same time, the author conveys his thoughts through analogies and images directly related to his scientific activity. There are many philological and historical quotes that are not always found from the first reading. The poet’s texts always contain words that are rare for the everyday Russian language (ritual, gag, etc.). However, they are completely understandable to the reader and make the work filled.
