Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-613-632 Research Article Articles RAISED “TAMBOURINE”: OLD RUSSIA AND THE AVANT-GARDE IN THE V. SOSNORA’S POEM FEAST OF VLADIMIR (1959) Kovaleva Tatiana I. old-rus@imli.ru Loshchilov Igor E. old-rus@imli.ru 2024 23 613 632 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article analyzes two important aspects for understanding Victor Sosnora’s poem Feast of Vladimir (1959). The aspects, misunderstood by the first critics, are the role of a minus-reception (answer of Prince Vladimir at the feast to the squad hidden by default) and a refrain (a call to beat the tambourine accompanying the feast). Sosnora uses allusions and associations and refers the reader, if he accepts the rules of poe’s game, to the works in the traditions of Old Russia and the avant-garde. The role of the minus-reception is explained in the context of the story about Vladimir’s feast from The Russian Primary Chronicle taken as the basis for the poem. The password “buben” (“tambourine”) repeated nine times refers to the name of Bozhidar’s poetry collection “Byben” (“Tambourine”) and, in general, to the elements of the Russian avant-garde of the 1910s, when the futurists experienced the death of Bozhidar, who committed suicide at the age of twenty. Sosnora demonstrates in the poems of the Horsemen the idea of poetry as resurrection magic dating back to the early avant-garde. The poet “revives” dead writings and heroes of early history, bringing them closer to modernity. Along the way, however, poetics and avant-garde poets of the “first call” are resurrected: only with their “assistance” the resurrection of Old Russia is possible.