No 1 (2025)

The article outlines the history of populating Kolyma (beginning with the 17thcentury) and of its historical settlements, Nizhnekolymsk and Pokhodsk. The history of epic songs (bylinys) collecting in the region is described (D. I. Melikov, V. G. Bogoraz, S. I. Bolo). The localbylinysare analyzed. Archaic versions of certain story lines are highlighted, as well as the influence of the manuscript tradition (The Wars of the Jewsby Josephus Flavius) on one of the epic songs,Mikhail Danilovich,anUnderage Warrior. Direct links between Kolyma and Indigirka (Russkoye Ustye) are established.

The article analyzes the religious poetry of the Khlysty sect, focusing on spiritual verses from the heritage of Ivan Krupennikov, a prominent member of the Moscow congregation in the 1730s — 1740s. It examines the themes and motifs of these verses and their connections to the secular song culture of the period.

The article deals with the influence of the Antiquity reminiscences on the Russian literary demonology of the late 18th — early 19thcentury, using theleshystories as the case study. Because of the general cultural orientation towards the mythological system of the Antiquity, the Slavicleshywas associated with the antique satyr and looked like one in the works of art. The late 18thcentury interest in the national mythology gave rise to ethnographic research, as well as to the composition of the lexicons of Slavic superstitions, describing the characters of the Russian folklore. Still, in these lexicons the Slavic demons tended to retain the features of their ancient prototypes: theleshyshad strong resemblance to satyrs, the mermaids to nymphs. Such reminiscences introduced tensions to the representations of the demonological characters, that were later reflected in the Russian literature.

The article deals with K. N. Batiushkov’s obscure correspondent P. I. Beletsky, a history teacher in the First and Second Military Cadet Schools, falsely accused of taking part in the Petrashevsky Coup and exiled to Vologda in 1849–1853. The exiled teacher met the poet after 1852. The personality of Beletsky, a vivid representative of the 1840s generation, and the previously unknown facts of his life are revealed through the data from the Manuscript Department, Institute of Russian Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences; Manuscript Departments of the National Library of Russia, Russian State Historical Archive, State Archive of Vladimir Region.

The article examines and publishesThe Tale of the Rich and the Poor,a work by I. S. Myandin, a Pechora Old Believer scribe of the 19thcentury, preserved in two lifetime editions (IRLI, Ust-Tsilemsky Collection, Nos. 67, 70).The Tale…uses the fable plotMarco the Rich, popular in Europe and in the East. A comparative analysis of Myandin’s novella and of the ancient Russian stories and folk tales is offered, specifying its sources and the features of both editions.

The article traces the history of the first publication of the playThe Drama of St. George the Brave, drawing on the writer’s correspondence with V. Ya. Bryusov, R. V. Ivanov-Razumnik and E. A. Znosko-Borovsky, analyzes its sources and outlines the efforts of the composer V. A. Senilov to compose the opera of the same name.The Drama of St. George the Braveis based on the apocryphal tales of the torment of St. George and of St. George and the Dragon (Serpent), that were also reflected in the Russian spiritual poems. Specific examples show that the sources were not limited to the works cited by the writer in his notes to the play. In his work, Remizov used the following sources:Arkhangelsk Epics and Historical Songs Collected by A. D. Grigoriev, N. E. Onchukov’s bookPechora Epics, various editions of theSongs Collected by P. V. Kireevsky, etc. The visual source forThe Drama of St. George the Bravewas the icon with the stampsThe Life of St. George, mentioned by Remizov in a letter to I. A. Ryazanovsky.

Based on newly found and partly unpublished archival data, the article offers an in-depth insight into the studies of the prominent Russian poet and writer A. A. Blok’s duty activities as a staff member of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission (EIC) set up by the Russian Provisional Government in early March 1917 to check the eventual illegal actions of the ex officio Ministers.The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the duty specifics and key features of A. Blok’s responsibilities as a member of a special task group of professional editors within the EIC, to check and stylistically improve the verbal interrogation texts originally written in shorthand.Enormous amounts of work and time invested into this job resulted in a comprehensive historiographic essayLast Days of the Russian Empire(Poslednie Dni Imperatorskoj Vlasti. Petrograd, 1921) supported by extensive documentary source data, accumulated by EIC, and in an unprecedented volume of checked and stylistically improved read back shorthand records of interrogations held by the EIC Board — the poet’s valuable contribution to its later publication (The Fall of the Tsar’s Regimen = Padenie Tsarskogo Rezhima, in 7 volumes, 1924–1927) edited by the historian P. E. Tschjogolev.

The interest in the Russian literature that emerged as a part of the May Fourth Movement introduced the Chinese intellectuals to the art of Andrey Bely. The article examines the history of translating and interpreting Andrey Bely’s works in China, assesses the degree of the academia’s awareness of his legacy, traces the limitations of Chinese Bely studies from the standpoint of the number of translations and the depth, architecture and originality of these studies versus those in Russia and Europe. Various approaches to researching the writer’s legacy are outlined, goals for filling up the gaps in translation are set.

The article presents an obscure friend of A. A. Akhmatova, the addressee of her 1928 poem «If the Moon’s Horror is Splashing...» M. M. Zimmerman, Assistant Administration Director at the former Mariinsky Theatre. A study of his personal file at the Directorate of Academic Theatres (Central State Archive of Literature and Art, St. Petersburg) reveals a number of facts about his life. This article also introduces his note to Akhmatova.

The article examines the discussion between the RAPP leadership and the «left» opposition about in-depth psychologism and «a live human»: positions of the opponents are compared, common grounds are identified, the disputants’ agreement in assessing the function of ideological impact as the basic issue for a work of literature is stated. The opposition offered a variety of approaches. It disagreed with all the leadership’s slogans concerning creativity, but supported some of them, while defining the psychologism necessary for the proletarian literature as its opposite. Subsequently, both positions were recognized as erroneous, with psychologism being proclaimed a rejected path of literary development.

The article focuses on the specifics of perception and creative understanding of the OBERIU poetics by the members of the literary Neo-Avant-Garde of the 1950s and 1960s and on the phenomenon of the cult of N. Zabolotsky’s poetry in the circle of the Philological School in Leningrad. Alexander Kondratov’s poetry cycleOBERIU (Roots)is published for the first time. The cycle is analyzed in the context of Kondratov’s scholarly writings on information theory and literary studies, withreferences to his correspondence with R. Jacobson and the publishing history of the heritage of D. Kharms, A. Vvedensky. The study is based on archival sources.

[Review:]Rannii P. P.Pertsov: literaturno-kriticheskie publikatsii v Volzhskom vestnike/ Vstup.stat’ia V. N. Krylova; sost., podg. tekstov i prim. V. N. Krylova, S. A. Podriadnova. Kazan: Redaktsionno-izdatelskii tsentrShkola, 2024.324s.

[Review:] World Literature in the Soviet Union / Ed. by G. Tihanov, A. Lounsbery and R. Djagalov. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2023. 292 p. (Studies in Comparative Literature and Intellectual History).