CROSSING CENTURIES writes a new chapter in literary history — the course of Russian poetry at pethaps its most crucial moment since the early nineteenth century. Russia has provided one of the world's major literatures for nearly two hundred years — a literature that, as this anthology makes plain, has by no means exhausted itself. CROSSING CENTURIES includes works by approximately fifty translators and ninety poets. The book focuses on transformations in Russian poetry from the 1970s to the present with particular attention to the Brezhnev years and the profound changes in language and values that followed the collapse of the Soviet regime. The new poetry provides important insights into the interlocking worlds of poetry and politics as well as insights into the effect that postmodern sensibilities have had outside western Europe and the United States. The anthology gives particular attention to poetry by women, by gay men, and by ethnic minorities in a culture that at its core remains deeply tranditional and is still strongly dominated by men and conventional male values.