A review of the editorial archive of the Literary Heritage [Literaturnoe nasledstvo] book series at the Manuscripts Department of the Russian Academy’s Gorky Institute of World Literature. The emergence of the new archaeographical publication, Literary Heritage, was at odds with the political context of the early 1930s. I. Zilbershtein’s personality and extensive connections in the publishing world, as well as the favourable disposition of the RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) and Stalin himself, helped to launch the series and made sure that it endured despite the RAPP’s downfall and to meet the program’s goals to ‘explore the archived riches’ and ‘bring out the hitherto unpublished’. It was thanks to the utmost erudition of LH’s authors and reviewers that their editorial office remained a platform that accumulated both archival discoveries and contemporary challenges and ideas. LH’s survival amid constant scrutiny from the party and official censorship was the result of often obscure forces and political schemes put to work. It was driven by personal interests and scholarly collaborations and rivalries, something that broadly defined the trends in literary studies of the 21st century.
FROM THE HISTORY OF 20TH-CENTURY LITERARY POLITICS. ‘LITERARY HERITAGE’ [LITERATURNOE NASLEDSTVO] AS AN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION
