Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2023-22-581-599 Research Article Articles Victor Sosnora’s Poem 1111: from Old Russian Tradition to Avant-garde Kovaleva Tatiana I. old-rus@imli.ru Loshchilov Igor E. old-rus@imli.ru 2023 22 581 599 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article examines the poem 1111 (1959) by Victor Sosnora. The poem is an illustrative example in the rethinking of Old Russian tradition in the work of Modern Times. Based on the story of The Russian Primary Chronicle, the poet includes the events of the past in a modern historical context. He does this using allusions and anachronisms, associative echoes with other Old Russian works (The Sermon by Vladimir Monomakh, The Tale of Igor’s Campaign) and with authors of the 19th–20th centuries (L. Trefolev, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, N. Zabolotsky). Turning to the old source becomes an avant-garde gesture for the “initiates” (“futurists” of the first call) and, at the same time, a “pass” to the thaw press (military history has always been under the auspices of Soviet officialdom). The chronicle plot is told to the reader so sophisticatedly that different levels of text organization from its graphic design (“ladder”), and lexical approximations to compound, exquisitely inaccurate or defiantly accurate rhymes force the reader to recall the textbook works Hilea by futurists Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov.