Smirnensky's Laughter

Laughter is usually the weapon of a person placed in an unequal position, it is the revenge of the defenseless. In the social hierarchy and the official table of ranks and ranks, it rushes in uninvited and unwanted, to turn everything upside down, to turn the figures of despotism and power into wax figures, puppets in a comedy theater. Laughter does not recognize respect, does not tolerate authoritarian restrictions, it is the antithesis of everything inflated, pompous, majestic. Its expansiveness acts revolutionaryly, as it equalizes magnitudes, utters hidden and suppressed truths, declares with the ease of a child that the king is naked. Laughter demolishes idols, crowns and halos, because, in the words of Herzen, "to make a person laugh at the god Apis means that he - the god - is dethroned from his sacred rank and made into a simple bull." Smirnensky's red laughter flows freely and infectiously, directed in many directions and at various addresses. In his feuilletons and zlobodnevy, the poet has created a rich gallery of comic images. His observant gaze, the rapier of his wit penetrates everywhere: in parliament and behind the scenes of political deals, in the office of the big merchant and in the boudoir of the bourgeois lady. From there he drags out the distinguished gentlemen and ladies undressed, shows them to us without makeup and disguise.