Kusikov A. Al-Barrak.

Kusikov A. Al-Barrak.
Second edition, updated. Cover of the artist's work Arnshtama.

Berlin-Moscow. The day before, 1923, 80 p. Soft cover, size 12.5 x 19 cm. Very good condition, stamp before the title, a small tear on the spine of several pages. 

Alexander Borisovich Kusikov (Kusikyan) (17 [29] September 1896 Armavir — 20 July 1977, Paris) was a Russian imagist poet, author of romances.

Alexander Borisovich Kusikov was born on September 17 (29), 1896 in Armavir in a large Armenian family. The kusikovs lived in Armavir since 1830, engaged in trade and were a well-known family in the city. His father Boris Karpovich Kusikov (? -1931) ran a clothing store.

He graduated from high school in the village of Batalpashinsky Kuban region. After graduating from high school, he entered the law faculty of Moscow University, but studied for only six months and in 1915 was called up for additional recruitment in the army. At the same time, his contemporary, the future Marshal Georgy Zhukov, was also called up for the same recruitment, and both young men were selected for the light cavalry.

Member of the First world war, served in the Seversky Dragoon regiment. Was injured.

After the February revolution, he was appointed military Commissar of Anapa. After the October revolution, he left for Moscow.

In 1919, he was appointed commander of a separate cavalry division. At the beginning of 1921, he left the military service.

Arriving in Moscow, he begins to visit the "Cafe of poets", while meeting Valery Bryusov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vasily Kamensky, Konstantin Balmont. He created the publishing house "Chihi-Pihi", where in 1919, together with Balmont, under whose influence at that time he was, he published the collection " Pearl carpet "and there his own collection of poems"Twilight".

In the spring of 1919, he joined the "Order of imagists" and became its most active participant. Together with Sergey Yesenin and Vadim Shershenevich opens a bookstore "Shop of poets". Elected Deputy Chairman of the all-Russian Union of poets. 

On the night of October 19, 1920, he was arrested by the Cheka at his apartment in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky pereulok (30, sq. 5) along with his brother Ruben and Sergei Yesenin, but released three weeks later.

The author of the lyrics to some songs, written by the brothers Nikolai and Mikhail Bakaleinikov.

In January 1922, with the help of Lunacharsky, he went on a foreign trip (together with Pilnyak). On the way to Berlin, they spend about a month in Estonia, organizing creative evenings in Tallinn and Tartu.

In the German capital, Kusikov, who called himself a Circassian, won the heart of Anna Turgeneva, who became his companion. Abroad, Kusikov shows his loyalty to the revolution ("You are my Mecca, Moscow, and your Kremlin is the sweetness of the black Kaaba"), which generates indignation in the emigrant press. In emigrant circles, Kusikov is given the nickname "chekist". As a result, in 1924, he moved to Paris, where he created The "society of friends of Russia".

From 1924 to 1930, Alexander Kusikov was widely published abroad (including in the Soviet Embassy-funded newspaper "Paris Bulletin"), while at home his name appears in print less often. By the beginning of the 1930s, Kusikov finally stopped working.