[2] His early life was spent in the towns of Sernur (now in the Republic of Mari El) and Urzhum (now in the Kirov Oblast).

His formative period showed the influences of the Futurist works of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov, the lyrical poems of Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin, and the art of Pavel Filonov and Marc Chagall.

The group's acronym stood for "The Association of Real Art" (in Russian, Объединение реального искусства).

His first book of poetry, Columns (Столбцы, 1929), was a series of grotesque vignettes on the life that Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) had created.

It included the poem "The Signs of the Zodiac Fade" (Меркнут знаки зодиака), an absurdist lullaby that, 67 years later, in 1996, provided the words for a Russian pop hit.

This collection showed the subject matter of Zabolotsky's work moving from social concerns to elegies and nature poetry.

[4] By the 1930s, Zabolotsky modified his poetic style towards "socialist realism" in a move to produce acceptable ideological content.

[5] Amidst Joseph Stalin's increased censorship of the arts, Zabolotsky fell victim to the Great Purge.

She won’t excel in the enchantment lessons, But she is blessed with innocence and grace, Soft radiance imbues her very essence.