S. M. Gorodetsky was born in St. Petersburg into a family with strong cultural traditions and democratic principles. His father served in the Zemstvo Department of the Ministry of internal Affairs, but was known as a writer, author of articles on history, archaeology, Ethnography, folklore. In V. Gorodetsky, generously gifted by nature, early showed inclination to drawing and poetry. After graduating from the 6th St. Petersburg gymnasium, and in 1902 he entered the historical-philological faculty of St. Petersburg University, where he met and became friendly with A. A. Unit. The imagery and style of the first poetic experiments Gorodetsky has determined, on the one hand, the influence coming from the youngest poetry of the symbolists — Block, Andrei Bely, on the other — impressions made by him from trip to Pskov province, where the young poet had participated in the peasant games, recorded songs, beliefs, live in a spirit of national myth-making. Poems by Gorodetsky, impregnated with a pantheistic sense of completeness and unity of the world, was enthusiastically taken on the "tower" is real life. Ivanova and made him "famous in a single night": "...at the end of 1905, I read your "orilskyi" poems in the presence of only symbolic of Olympus, that is, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Balmont, Bryusov, Sologub, Blok, Bely, Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Berdyaev, professors Zelinsky and Rostovtseva, became "famous" poet and, briefly, in time, highlight "media"".
The first collection of Gorodetsky "Yar" (1907) reflected common for poets of the symbolist aspiration through folklore to sink to the "dark keys national symbols". The collection responded to V. Ya. Bryusov, Vyacheslav. Ivanov, A. A. Blok. Attracted a sense of freshness, cheerfulness, weasie from the pages of the book the young poet, his ability to Express in a word the experience of the soul close to nature elements. Gorodetsky resurrect the world of pagan Rus', the expressiveness of the poetic language, which is achieved by the use of ancient grammatical forms, epithets, repetitions, alliteration drawn from the Treasury of folk poetry, creating a sense of novelty even in the background typical of the era of the revival of interest in folklore. M. A. Voloshin, appreciating poetry Gorodetsky and revealing their deep poetic sense, wrote: "This book is really a Jar of Russian poetry, is a new and violent forces that broke from the depths of the ancient creative consciousness..." In the artistic circles of St. Petersburg was created the literary image mask Gorodetsky — aunt, Faun, singer primitive pagan antiquity.
The following collection Gorodetsky Perun (1907) "sciencespo" coexisted with social motives, and cosmic unity was destroyed by a topic of public controversy and rebellion. In the field of poetics new poetry largely repeated the discovery and acquisition of the first book. The risk of excessive stylization felt Andrew White, who emphasized that the inner substance of the poet, "preserving the beauty of rhythmic experiences, alien custom-made myth," but "Slavic flavour" it is often "borrowed": "before us imps Block, the paintings of Roerich, a fellow hooligan with a whistle and, perhaps, when the clock".
The lust for "big, strong poetry" and "the search for world harmony", from his early years inspired the poet and throws him from one extreme to another (from the "mystical anarchism" to "realistic symbolism" and Acmeism), lead him to interpret a kind of "Russian idea", to the search for a unifying principle in the Christian religion and its bearers — the poor, the pilgrims ("Rus", 1910).
However, the "religious quest" Gorodetsky did not enjoy the support from his entourage, and merciless verdict Vyach. Ivanov made the collection "Russia", ended the relationship Gorodetsky and the leader of the Petersburg symbolists.
On 20 October 1911 at the apartment Gorodetskogo held an organizational meeting of the "Guild of poets", where he, along with N. S. Gumilev was elected "Sindika" "Shop". So began a new phase of his literary career — acoustically. Gorodetsky becomes one of ideological inspirers of a new poetic school. Speaking as a critic, he vigorously supports fellow "Workshop of poets" (A. A. Akhmatova, O. E. Mandelstam and others), and he receives support from the "master" — ENU. So, reviewing the book "Willow" (1913), Gumilev sees in it the logical end of the symbolist period in the work of Gorodetsky and discovers that "the flourishing of all natural and spiritual forces, which in recent time begin to identify with the word "Acmeism"".
Released in 1914 the book "Flowering rod", bringing together poems 1912? he was presented by the author as software acmeists. This was highlighted in the preceding collection "Dedication", and in the elaborate architecture of the collection, constructed as a kind of diary, and in the choice of poetic form — octets, giving, according to Gumilev, "the ability to capture the fleeting thoughts and feelings". "The active contemplation of the world" in his "great difficulty" and the clarity of poetic thought — that is the goal pursued by the poet in the ways akoestische improvement.
At the beginning of the first world war Gorodetsky was quick to respond to the official patriotism of the collection of poems "the Fourteenth year" (1915), which led him to "fight with the best Russian literature". In 1915, after the actual collapse of the first "Guild of poets", Gorodetsky actively popularized the works of N. A. Klyuev, S. A. Klychkov, S. Yesenin, B. A. Verhotinskogo, at his initiative was established the group "Beauty" and "Strada", which unites the peasant poets.
In 1916, Gorodetsky went from Petrograd to the Caucasus front as correspondent of the newspaper "Russian word". There and found it the October revolution. In the first years after the revolution, working in Tiflis and Baku, Gorodetsky becomes a prominent figure in the literary life of the Caucasus. In 1919 in Tiflis it tries to create the Association of young poets, the same acmeists "Workshop of poets". In the book under the characteristic title "Akme", published in Tiflis "Workshop of poets" Gorodetsky made a few poems in a new stylistic manner (two "Nocturne", "Immortality", "Skull"). In them the poet develops the previous acmeists thesis perception of the world "in the totality of the beauty and ugliness", bound up with the wing of Acmeism, which was represented by the names V. I. Narbut and M. A. Zenkevich. Phobia, the images of the unconscious, "makarna" poetics cultivated in these verses Gorodetsky, as well as in works of other authors.
After returning to Moscow, Gorodetsky attempted revival of the "new" Acmeism. In 1925 came the book "the Junction" — on the Moscow "Workshop of poets". The search for a poetic language that is equivalent to the experiences of the revolution, United in the collection of such different poets as P. G. Antokolsky and M. A. Zenkevich, V. M. Inber and I. L. Selvinsky, G. A. Shengeli, and A. shiryaevets. In the 1920-ies Gorodetsky has published collections of his poems "Hammer" (1921), "Mirol" (1923), "From darkness to light" (1926), "the outer limits" (1929). However, all aesthetically meaningful Gorodetsky was established before the revolution. In the 1930 — 1950s years he acted also as interpreter, the author of Opera libretto, memoirist.
