Faksimilʹnoe vosproizvedenie samodelʹnoĭ knigi Dmitrii︠a︡ Aleksandrovicha Prigova "Evgeniĭ Onegin Pushkina"

This 1998 facsimile, published by the Saint Petersburg-based collective Krasny matros, reproduces a unique handmade artist book by Dmitri Prigov, a central figure of the Moscow Conceptualist movement. Prigov, who was known for his vast output of poetry and his performance art, created the original manuscript as a subversive intervention into Russia's most sacred literary text, Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. By reinterpreting the classic through the lens of Soviet-era conceptualism, the work challenges the cultural authority of the literary canon and reflects the playful, deconstructive spirit that defined the underground arts scene of the late twentieth century.

The publication was part of Krasny matros’s efforts to document and distribute avant-garde and experimental literature that had previously been relegated to private samizdat circles. The design of the facsimile preserves the raw, idiosyncratic quality of Prigov’s original handmade draft, retaining his distinct handwriting and structural improvisations. Upon its release, the project was received as a significant contribution to the study of post-Soviet postmodernism, serving both as a scholarly reference for those interested in Prigov’s performance-based approach to the page and as a tribute to the resilience of experimental book culture during a period of transition.