Поэтическое убежище

"Poėticheskoe ubezhishche" - sbornik stikhotvoreniĭ Vadima Zhuka, napisannykh v poslednie tri goda ego zhizni, s i͡anvari͡a 2022-go po mart 2025 goda. Bolʹshinstvo voshedshikh v knigu proizvedeniĭ prezhde nigde ne publikovalosʹ.

V ėtikh stikhakh - vremi͡a, v kotorom dovelosʹ zhitʹ avtoru, ego bolʹ i trevoga, li͡ubovʹ i pami͡atʹ, ironii͡a i nezhnostʹ, otchai͡anie i neizmennai͡a vera v silu chelovecheskogo slova. Zdesʹ tragicheskoe sosedstvuet so smeshnym, chastnoe - s istoricheskim, a tochnostʹ nabli͡udenii͡a i lëgkostʹ poėticheskoĭ rechi delai͡ut osobenno pronzitelʹnymi samye ti͡azhëlye stroki.

Rabotu nad ėtim sbornikom redakt͡sii͡a BAbook nachala vmeste s Vadimom Zhukom eshchë pri ego zhizni. My obsuzhdali knigu neposredstvenno s avtorom i nadei͡alisʹ vypustitʹ eë vmeste s nim, odnako ne uspeli zavershitʹ rabotu do ego smerti 20 marta 2025 goda.

Segodni͡a my predstavli͡aem "Poėticheskoe ubezhishche" chitateli͡am, zakonchiv nachatui͡u vmeste s Vadimom Semënovichem rabotu. Dli͡a nas ėta kniga - ne tolʹko sobranie ego poslednikh stikhotvoreniĭ, no i ispolnennoe obeshchanie, pami͡atʹ o sovmestnom trude i eshchë odna vozmozhnostʹ uslyshatʹ zhivoĭ, uznavaemyĭ i nepovtorimyĭ golos Vadima Zhuka.

My nadeemsi͡a, chto ėtot sbornik naĭdët svoego chitateli͡a, stanet dli͡a nego vazhnoĭ vstrecheĭ s poėtom i sokhranit to prostranstvo svobody, chestnosti i li͡ubvi, kotoroe Vadim Zhuk sozdaval svoimi stikhami.

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Stikhotvorenie Vadima Zhuka "Kogda zadvigalosʹ i zagremelo" - luchshee, chto napisano ob ėtoĭ voĭne, i samoe strashnoe. Stikhi Zhuka poslednikh trekh let ego zhizni sposobny obespechitʹ emu bessmertie, dazhe esli by on nikogda bolʹshe nichego ne delal. A on sdelal mnogoe - i vse ėto sluzhilo odnomu: dokazyvalo vozmozhnostʹ i neobkhodimostʹ zhizni. Ėto i estʹ edinstvennai͡a zadacha poėzii.

Dmitriĭ Bykov

'Kniga estʹ kubicheskiĭ kusok gori͡acheĭ, dymi͡ashcheĭsi͡a sovesti - i bolʹshe nichego" - navsegda sformuliroval kogda-to Boris Pasternak.
Stikhi Vadima Zhuka - ego lichnyĭ voennyĭ dnevnik, kotoryĭ on vel v tri poslednikh goda svoeĭ zhizni (nachinai͡a s 'prokli͡atogo 2022-go', kak datirovano odno iz stikhotvoreniĭ) - pronizany stydom i otchai͡aniem. Takim ostrym stydom i takim nepoddelʹnym chernym otchai͡aniem, kakikh, mne kazhetsi͡a, davno ne bylo v russkoĭ poėzii.
Esli by stydom odnogo cheloveka mozhno bylo iskupitʹ besstyzhestʹ millionov drugikh, Vadim Semenovich Zhuk iskupil by ogromnui͡u doli͡u nasheĭ viny.

Viktor Shenderovich

"Poetic Refuge" is a collection of poems by Vadim Zhuk, written in the last three years of his life, from January 2022 to March 2025. Most of the works included in the book have never been published before.

These poems reflect the time in which the author lived, his pain and anxiety, love and memory, irony and tenderness, despair and unwavering faith in the power of the human word. Here the tragic is juxtaposed with the ridiculous, the private with the historical, and the precision of observation and the lightness of poetic speech make the heaviest lines especially poignant.

The editorial staff of BAbook began work on this collection together with Vadim Zhuk during his lifetime. We discussed the book directly with the author and hoped to release it with him, but we did not have time to complete the work before his death on March 20, 2025.

Today we present the "Poetic Refuge" to the readers, having finished the work started with Vadim Semenovich. For us, this book is not only a collection of his latest poems, but also a fulfilled promise, a memory of joint work and another opportunity to hear Vadim Zhuk's lively, recognizable and unique voice.

We hope that this collection will find its readers, become an important meeting with the poet and preserve the space of freedom, honesty and love that Vadim Zhuk created with his poems.

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Vadim Zhuk's poem "When it started and Rattled" is the best that has been written about this war, and the scariest. Beetle's poems of the last three years of his life are able to ensure his immortality, even if he never did anything else. But he did a lot, and it all served one purpose: it proved the possibility and necessity of life. This is the only task of poetry.

Dmitry Bykov

"A book is a cubic piece of a hot, steaming conscience — and nothing else,“ Boris Pasternak once formulated forever. 
Vadim Zhuk's poems, his personal war diary, which he kept in the last three years of his life (starting with the "cursed 2022," as one of the poems is dated), are riddled with shame and despair. With such acute shame and such genuine black despair, which, it seems to me, has not been seen in Russian poetry for a long time.
If the shame of one person could atone for the shamelessness of millions of others, Vadim Semenovich Zhuk would atone for a huge share of our guilt. 

Victor Shenderovich