Field guide to Nikolai Zabolotsky’s "The Triumph of Agriculture" by Chasing Cow Productions

In winter 2023, West Dorset arts collective Chasing Cow Productions produced the first English-language radio dramatisation of Nikolai Zabolotsky’s Soviet-era poem, The Triumph of Agriculture (1933), based on the abridged translation by Eugene Ostashevsky.  

Alongside this, Chasing Cow published this limited-edition field guide to the poem featuring original responses from academics and contemporary artists.

Zabolotsky was a member of the OBERIU group of avant-garde authors in the late 1920s. The Triumph of Agriculture – an epic, dramatic poem featuring speaking animals and non-human agents – generated controversy and ridicule in the Soviet Union when it was first published.

With contributions from Darra Goldstein, Irene Masing-Delic, Sarah Pratt and Eugene Ostashevksy, these essays show how Nikolai Zabolotsky’s cosmic vision of human and animal liberation continues to provoke and inspire in the 21st century. 

Paperback