‘Hallberd of Balderdash’ or an attempt at decoding Alexei Chicherin’s construemes (dedicated to the 100th anniversary of their publi­cation)

This paper is the first attempt to interpret the visual 'construemes' by the constructivist poet Alexei N. Chicherin, published in the anthology Mena vsekh (Moscow, 1924). 'Const­rue­mes' can be considered the most enigmatic artefacts of the Russian avant-garde. Although 'construemes' can be easily confused with meaningless visual zaum ('the transra­tio­nal'), Chicherin's actions and the very nature of his personality prevent one from inter­preting 'con­struemes' as actionist endeavours to scandalise or a 'play on nonsense'. Analysis of the poet's treatise Kan-Fun (Moscow, 1926), which required finding the key to deciphering the 'const­ruemes', reveals the positivist nature of Chicherin's visual-phonological exercises. In the trea­tise, the poet argues for the primacy of the eye and vision. He illustrates synthetic 'signs' or 'pictograms' with the quotidian example of propaganda posters, capable of influen­cing mil­lions more effectively than words alone. The study emphasises the enigmatic nature of the titles of Chicherin's books, the Nie­tzschean subtexts of his self-presentation, encrypted allusions to the esoteric and magical tra­dition of the Tarot, and religious symbolism. Sixteen illustrations help understand Chi­che­rin's logic behind the creation of his four 'construemes', including the most mysterious com­position called 'Raman' ('the shortest Kan-Fun Novel in the world'). The structure of this text synthesises the verbal, visual-graphic, acoustic (phonological symbols) and musical (notes) levels. The article also examines Chicherin's proven techniques: the appropriation of the sacred dimension and self-presentation as an actor possessing genuine knowledge and ca­pable of competing alone with the entire literary environment.