No 3 (2023)

The article explores the underresearched period of the existence of the Pushkin Manuscript Collection at the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The authors focus on the analysis of the situation the Institute had to face while preparing for the 1937 National Pushkin Exhibition honoring the 100^th anniversary of the poet’s death, and on the subsequent decree of the USSR Council of People’s Commissars of March 4, 1938, On the Organization of the State Pushkin Museum. In strict accordance with this document, Pushkin House was obliged to transfer all Pushkin-related data to the newly organized museum in Moscow. After their withdrawal, the history of the Pushkin House as it was conceived by its founders would de facto come to an end, and the «generic» name of the Institute of Russian Literature would be lost forever. The authors introduce the academic community to unpublished documents that recreate — via significant and fundamental episodes — the process of saving the main manuscript collection of the Pushkin House through the efforts of its managers and archive curators in the pre-War years. A later decree of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences dated June 2, 1948 assigned to the Pushkin House the archival and museum funds of the State Pushkin Museum, which was under the jurisdiction of the Gorky Institute of World Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since that time, Pushkin’s manuscripts (with a few exceptions) were concentrated in the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

New sources relevant to the study of the history of Russian archeography are published, i. e. the diaries of L. A. Dmitriev and E. A. Maimin that cover the period of their trip to Zaonezhye with the purpose of purchasing old books in the summer of 1948. The diaries contain valuable information on the material and spiritual culture of the post-war Zaonezhye, on local residents, Old Believers, book owners, performers of folk texts. The handwritten and printed books acquired during the expedition are kept today in the V. I. Malyshev Ancient Sources Repository at the IRLI RAS. The published texts are carefully annotated.

Pedagogical and philosophical treatises by Western European scholars made their way to Russia in the 1760s via Russian translations and drew the attention of the Russian society to childhood as an important formative stage of the human self. According to the Russian writers, the fable, as a genre targeting people of all ages, acquired a major educational potential at the time. Re-working the fables by the Ancient and Western European authors who used children for their characters, Sumarokov replanted the events into the domestic soil, modified the images of children, added emotional interpretation. In the fables based on his own stories, Sumarokov described the behavior, feelings and emotions of children in various situations, their search for self-affirmation and attempts to stand up for themselves in critical situations. The stories are permeated by the author’s spirit and empathy. Sumarokov’s literary work contributed to the awareness of the specific nature of childhood, its inherent value, and to the emergence of child-oriented and child-depicting fiction in Russia.

The article describes literary mores in the context of the relationships of specific personalities, with their own mentalities, preferences and expectations, rather than as the polemics between various communities. The literary and personal contacts of A. S. Griboyedov and M. N. Zagoskin are traced in detail, and this throws new light on the balance of forces in the literary life of the early 19^th century.

The article describes A. N. Maykov’s voyage on the corvette Bayan to the Mediterranean Sea in 1858-1859, that was undertaken as a part of the «literary expedition» organized by Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich. The goal was to write a series of sketches, to be published in the Marine Collection; I. A. Goncharov’s description of his trip on the frigate Pallada was used as a pattern the writers were expected to follow.

The article details the history of the publication, in 1899, of the «second» edition of the collection of articles Philosophical Currents of Russian Poetry prepared by P. P. Pertsov (the first edition was published in 1896), which emerged as the result of the attempts to draw the attention of the readers to the book and sell out the printed copies. The article analyzes the history of the two unpublished reviews by V. V. Rozanov, written at the request of the compiler.

The article describes the meeting at the Vsemirnaya Literatura publishing house commemorating A. A. Blok. It took place on August 26, 1921. The transcript of the meeting is attached. It includes speeches by the members of the editorial board (E. M. Braudo, A. L. Volynsky, N. O. Lerner, M. L. Lozinsky), poets associated with the publishing house and with Blok (Vl. Piast, V. A. Sorgenfrei, V. A. Rozhdestvensky) and a book publisher S. M. Alyansky. The document allows to restore the content of speeches, previously known only in the rendition of the contemporaries.

The article analyzes the history and poetics of the first work created by the writer after the death of his wife, S. P. Remizova-Dovgello. In his experimental vanguard text, Remizov merges the poetics of the ancient Russian literature and Russian Romanticism of the early 19^th century. The article reveals the sources of the titles In Pink Glow and Through the Fire of Sorrows.

The purpose of this article is to introduce into the academic discourse two letters of V. T. Shalamov (1907-1982) to the archeographer and Old Russian literature scholar V. I. Malyshev (19101976). Shalamov’s comments to his poem «Avvakum in Pustozersk» form the bulk of the letters; he provides detailed answers to Malyshev’s questions. The article reconstructs the background of this correspondence, using it, as well as the other sources, to specify Shalamov’s perception of the protagonist of his poem.

[Review:] Stepanian-Rumiantseva E. V. Glazami teksta. M.; SPb.: Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ, 2022. 312 s.

[Review:] Russkaia literatura i zhurnalistika v predrevoliutsionnuiu epokhu: formy vzaimodeistviia i metodologiia analiza: kollektivnaia monografiia / Otv. red. i sost. A. A. Kholikov, pri uchastii E. I. Orlovoi. M.: IMLI RAN, 2021. 768 s.

Meeting Abstract

Meeting Abstract

Meeting Abstract