About the book: 2008 / The number of great poets in Russia of the twentieth century is hundreds, and the great ones are no less than tens. Once again we have to recall the words of A. A. Steinberg that “Russian poetry is an army in which the platoons are commanded by generals.” Sergei Vladimirovich Petrov (1911–1988), a poet of enormous scale, is known to the general reader only as a translator. Three years in prison and seventeen years of exile (1933–1954) reliably protected him from the printing press. The creative heritage created in that time is stunning both in volume and in artistic significance. This edition, which begins the Collected Works of S. V. Petrov, is a fairly complete collection of lyrical works and fugues (a genre created by the poet himself). In the near future, separate volumes of poems and mysteries, as well as a volume of poetic translations.