{{short description|Russian musician and poet (1940-2004)}}
{{Infobox musical artist | name = Alexei Khvostenko ({{langx|ru|link=no|Алексей Хвостенко}}) | image = Khvost.jpg | caption = Alexei Khvostenko at a concert in Moscow, in April 2004 | birth_name = Alexei L'vovich Khvostenko | alias = Khvost ({{langx|ru|link=no|Хвост}}) | birth_date = {{birth date|1940|11|14|df=y}} | origin = Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Soviet Union | death_date = {{death date and age|2004|11|30|1940|11|14|df=y}} | death_place = Moscow, Russia | genre = Bard | occupation = Singer, poet, artist, singer-songwriter, songwriter | instrument = Vocals, guitar | years_active = 1970–2004 | label = | website = }}
'''Alexei Khvostenko''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Алексей Львович Хвостенко}}; 14 November 1940 – 30 November 2004) was a Russian avant-garde poet, singer-songwriter, artist and sculptor. Khvostenko is also frequently referred to by the nickname '''Khvost''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Хвост}}), meaning "tail".
==Biography== Alexei Khvostenko was born on 14 November 1940 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). He soon moved to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), where he grew up. He studied at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography. In 1963 he published through samizdat his first book, "Podozritel'" (translates, roughly, as "He, who suspects"). While in Leningrad, together with Anri Volokhonsky, Khvostenko founded an avant-garde literary group, "Verpa".<ref>K. K. Kuzminsky and G. L. Kovalev (editors), ''The Blue Lagoon Anthology of Modern Russian Poetry'', Blue Lagoon, TX, vol. 2A, 1983, pp. 226–390 and vol. 2B, 1986, pp. 679–735.</ref><ref>Maxim D. Shrayer (editor). [https://books.google.com/books?id=8a392rarhCsC&pg=PA942&dq=VERPA+Khvostenko&ei=46Z2SLzYMIXUjgHPo73qDg&sig=ACfU3U3R0y1AxtQhT_ghYtolXU73pfzv_g An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature.] M. E. Sharpe, Inc. January 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-7656-0521-4}}; page 942. </ref>
In 1968 Khvostenko moved to Moscow and became an active figure in Russian underground literary circles, publishing his poetry and songs through samizdat.<ref>by Dmitrij Severjuchin; Vjačeslav Dolinin. ''Samizdat Leningrada: 1950-e – 1980-e: literaturnaja ėnciklopedija'' (in Russian). Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, Moscow, 2003. {{ISBN|5-86793-216-8}}.</ref> Khvostenko became a prominent figure in the revival of the avant-garde movement in Soviet literature and art that became possible during Nikita Khrushchev's "thaw" after the death of Joseph Stalin. He is sometimes referred to as the "grandfather of Russian rock".<ref>[http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/01/22/51987.html Singer Alexei Khvostenko receives Russian passport in Paris.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050217093332/http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/01/22/51987.html |date=February 17, 2005 }} Pravda.ru. January 22, 2004.Quote:''Khvostenko, 63, is often referred to as "grandfather of Russian rock."''</ref> Khvostenko co-wrote (with Volokhonsky) the song "The Golden City" ("Город золотой") that later achieved iconic status in Russia when it was sung by Boris Grebenshchikov in the 1987 film "Assa".<ref>Mikhail Epstein, Aleksandr Genis and Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5qjzj3JwaoIC&pg=PA482&vq=Khvostenko&dq=%22Alexei+Khvostenko%22&source=gbs_search_s&cad=5&sig=ACfU3U1qUSEOeNQOmYFk8fkwm5r-btGS4A Russian postmodernism: new perspectives on Post-Soviet Culture.] Berghahn Books, New York, 1999. {{ISBN|1-57181-028-5}}; page 482.</ref> Apart from literary works, Khvostenko was also an accomplished painter and sculptor (although his work was not officially exhibited), known for his innovative collages.<ref>Hilton Kramer.[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0712F93D59137A93C1A8178BD95F438685F9 1917—The Russian Revolution—1967; Small Avant-Garde in Soviet Art Departs From Official Socialist Realist Style.] ''The New York Times''. October 13, 1967; page 24. Quote:"Though he has produced some respectable abstract paintings, his forte is collage, and he has been much influenced by Robert Rauschenberg and the earlier Dadaists. In his collages, images from magazines, newspapers, and other printed materials, either pasted or transferred to the page by the technique known as frottage, generate a sense of speed and disaster."</ref>
Although he did not consider himself to be a political dissident, Khvostenko was regularly harassed and persecuted by the Soviet authorities, accused of social parasitism (тунея́дство), and at one point was put into a psychiatric hospital<ref name="underground">[http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/28/101.html Underground Man.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070409162156/http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/28/101.html |date=April 9, 2007 }} Moscow Times. October 28, 2005.</ref> (a tactic commonly employed by the Soviet authorities for punishing political dissidents). At the time Khvostenko was good friends with a prominent Russian poet Joseph Brodsky,<ref>[http://www.echo.msk.ru/news/219308.html Obituary.] (in Russian) Ekho Moskvy, December 12, 2004. Retrieved December 21, 2008</ref> who was also persecuted by the Soviet authorities.
In 1977 Khvostenko was forced by the Soviet authorities to emigrate. He ended up settling in Paris. There Khvostenko, together with Vladimir Maramzin, launched a literary journal, "Echo" ({{langx|ru|link=no|"Эхо"}}).<ref>Mikhail Epstein, Aleksandr Genis and Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5qjzj3JwaoIC&pg=PA488&vq=Khvostenko&dq=%22Alexei+Khvostenko%22&source=gbs_search_s&cad=5&sig=ACfU3U1N1pm89Vx938LpRLJYhZcfRIsjfw Russian postmodernism: new perspectives on Post-Soviet Culture.] Berghahn Books, New York, 1999. {{ISBN|1-57181-028-5}}; page 488.</ref><ref>Arnold McMillin. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3731572 ''Exiled Russian Writers of the Third Wave and the Emigre Press''.] The Modern Language Review, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr. 1989), pp. 406–413.</ref> Khvostenko became a leading figure in the Russian literary community in France. His Paris studio space—an art squat on the corner of 14 rue Juliette Dodu and rue Sambre et Meuse, in the 10th Arrondissement of Paris—became "a kind of club, where many famous groups and singers performed".<ref name="newsfromrussia.com">[http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/01/22/51987.html Singer Alexei Khvostenko receives Russian passport in Paris.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050217093332/http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/01/22/51987.html |date=February 17, 2005 }} Pravda.ru. January 22, 2004.</ref> While living in France, Khvostenko recorded a number of song albums, including several albums in the 1990s with the Russian rock group Auktyon (АукцЫон).<ref>Birgit Beumers. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hix8AyteLN8C&pg=RA1-PA224&dq=%22Alexei+Khvostenko%22&ei=o4x2SL7MO4ecjgHdk8WNBA&sig=ACfU3U2lLuHTEf05EuYhoL4idxqvjE4vJg Pop Culture Russia!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle.] ABC-CLIO, Inc. June 2005. {{ISBN|978-1-85109-459-2}}; page 224. </ref><ref>[http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/850/49/215674.htm Death of Russian Rock Postponed.] Moscow Times. January 22, 1994.</ref> His songs became widely popular in Russia, particularly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
In 2004, after a personal appeal to President Vladimir Putin, Khvostenko regained his Russian citizenship.<ref name="newsfromrussia.com"/><ref>[http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/beseda/25276/ Interview with Alexei Khvostenko.](in Russian). Echo of Moscow, April 4, 2004.</ref> Subsequently, he divided his time between Paris and Moscow. Alexei Khvostenko died of heart failure on 30 November 2004 in a Moscow hospital.<ref>[http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=2230&highlight=Alexei%20Khvostenko Chernov's Choice.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605050109/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=2230&highlight=Alexei%20Khvostenko |date=June 5, 2011 }} The St. Petersburg Times. December 3, 2004.</ref>
A year after his death Alexei Khvostenko's friends published his collected literary works in an anthology called "Verpa" – a word "invented by Khvostenko to describe his literary credo".<ref name="underground" />
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2005/72/hv18.html ''"Никакое трагическое мироощущение мне не присуще..."''] The last interview with Alexei Khvostenko (in Russian). "Русский журнал. Рабочие тетради". November 22, 2004. *[http://www.pbase.com/perfil/alexei_khvostenko_live_in_moscow Alexei Khvostenko live in Moscow], a photo gallery from a Moscow concert *[http://gkatsov.com/PO.htm Видео-интервью с Алексеем Хвоcтенко (Нью-Йорк, 1996 г.) на сайте Геннадия Кацова ] *{{in lang|en}} [http://intranslation.brooklynrail.org/russian/the-suspector English translation of ПОДОЗРИТЕЛЬ, The Suspector, a seminal minimalist serial poem in 50 parts published in samizdat in 1965] *{{in lang|en}} [http://drupal.stpetersburgreview.com/drupal/?q=issue4/5 English translation of Дурное дерево, a seminal prose poem] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130214023046/http://drupal.stpetersburgreview.com/drupal/?q=issue4/5 |date=2013-02-14 }} *{{in lang|en}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20131212103645/http://www.em-review.com/issues/2012/(em)_issue_1_F2012.pdf Includes translation of long poem "Verpa/Portraits of Friends," (1965–67,) 146–149]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Khvostenko, Alexei}} Category:1940 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Russian bards Category:Russian male poets Category:Seven-string guitarists Category:Soviet poets Category:Soviet male writers Category:20th-century Russian male writers Category:20th-century Russian male singers Category:20th-century Russian guitarists