CHERNY, SASHA

CHERNY, SASHA (pen name of Alexander Mikhailovich Glueckberg; 1880–1932), Russian poet. One of the foremost Russian humorists of the early 20th century, Cherny was the chief contributor of verse to the weekly Satirikon and to its successor, Novy Satirikon. A bitter enemy of symbolism, then the dominant movement in Russian literature, Cherny ridiculed the affected mysticism, studied eroticism, and general pomposity of its adherents. The great Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovski insisted that Cherny was the only writer who had influenced his verse. A noted wit, Cherny was fond of attacking sacred cows. He produced a good deal of charming verse for children and a volume of stories of army life. In 1920 Cherny left the U.S.S.R. and continued to write abroad, mostly in Germany and France. Much of his later work was militantly anti-Soviet. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: D.S. Mirsky, History of Russian Literature (1949). (Maurice Friedberg)