SOURCE: Akhmadulina, Bella, and Inger Thorup. The Beat Generation and the Russian New Wave, pp. 91-8. Ann Arbor, Mich: Ardis Publishers, 1990.

In the following interview, Akhmadulina recalls the New Wave movement in Russia and discusses some differences between Russian poets and their American Beat counterparts.

[Thorup]: Bella Akhatovna, why did the poetry renaissance happen in the late fifties, that is, a little earlier than the rest of the New Wave?

[Akhmadulina]: Well, you know, such a phenomenon in the arts always takes place as a certain period is drawing to a close. They are tied together, and so, at that time, after Stalin's death, such events took place. There was such an upheaval in society that, of course, it was reflected in literature. And, then, if we chose to call this a “renaissance”—which is a matter of convention—we must never forget that our classics, our holy...