SMOG (literary group)

SMOG (Russian: СМОГ) was one of the earliest informal literary groups independent of the Soviet state in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. Among several interpretations of the acronym are Smelost', Mysl', Obraz i Glubina (Courage, Thought, Image and Depth), and, humorously, Samoe Molodoe Obshchestvo Geniev (Society of Youngest Geniuses).^[1][2] It is also a pun: the Russian word "смог" means "<he> was able (to do something)".

It was organized in January/February 1965 by a group of young poets and writers: Poet Leonid Gubanov (initiator, membership card #1); writer and editor Vladimir Batshev [ru] (membership card #2); poet and publicist Yuri Kublanovsky; Vladimir Aleynikov [ru], a poet who received the Andrei Bely Prize; and poets Nikolai Bokov and Arkady Pakhomov [ru], later joined by several dozens of others.^{[3][4][5][6]: 15}

The group held public poetry readings and issued several samizdat collections and a magazine, Sfinksy ("Sphynxes"). In 1965, they revived their literary meetings at Mayakovsky Square (Mayakovsky Square poetry readings).^[7]

Some members also helped organize the unsanctioned 1965 glasnost rally calling for a legal trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel.^{[8]: 13–14}

The group was under pressure from the state. Its last poetry reading took place on April 14, 1966.