scholarly journals “I’m Doing Well in the Center of Siberian World under Strict Police Supervision…”: F.I. Knauer’ Letters from His Tomsk Exile in 1915–1917

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Elena N. Gruzdeva

The article introduces the letters of the Professor of Kiev University, Sanskrit scholar Fyodor Ivanovich (Friedrich) Knauer (18491917) sent by him to his colleague, philologist Vladimir Nikolaevich Peretz. They are now housed at the Personal Fund of V.N. Peretz in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI. Fond 1277. Inv. 1. F. 35). This set of letters is undoubtedly of great importance because, among other things, we have no other surviving epistolary heritage of the scholar. Revealing the authors personality, the letters (there are only 21 of them) acquaint us to some extent with his inner world. Until recently, F.I. Knauers biography, especially the years of his exile, was full of blank spots which we can finally fill. The entire sequence of events relating to Knauers arrest, up to his arrival in Tomsk and life in Siberia, is presented by him as an uninterrupted narrative. The letters give us an idea of relations between the scholar, when he was out of favor, and his colleagues, friends, common people, local and higher authorities. They provide reliable documentary evidence of the terrible misfortune of a sincere person, who fell a victim to a complicated political period. The letters may also be regarded as sketches of Siberians everyday life. The present article includes 7 letters out of 21, the others are to be published in the next issue of the Journal.

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 94-111
Author(s):  
Elena N. Gruzdeva

The article introduces the letters of the Professor of the Kiev University, Sanskrit scholar Fyodor Ivanovich (Friedrich) Knauer (18491917) sent by him to his colleague, philologist Vladimir Nikolaevich Peretz. They are now housed at the Personal Fund of V.N.Peretz in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI. Fond 1277. Inv.1. F.35). This set of letters is undoubtedly of great importance because, among other things, we have no other surviving epistolary heritage of the scholar. Revealing the authors personality, the letters (there are only 21 of them) acquaint us to some extent with his inner world. Until recently, F.I.Knauers biography, especially the years of his exile, was full of blank spots which we can finally fill. The entire sequence of events relating to Knauers arrest, up to his arrival in Tomsk and life in Siberia, is presented by him as an uninterrupted narrative. The letters give us an idea of relations between the scholar, when he was out of favor, and his colleagues, friends, common people, local and higher authorities. They provide reliable documentary evidence of the terrible misfortune of a sincere person, who fell victim to a complicated political period.


Author(s):  
Yuliya V. Kim ◽  

The article presents two letters from V.A. Musin-Pushkin which he wrote to his bride shortly before the wedding in 1828 (the letters are kept in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts). The text of the letters reflects the context of the time and everyday life, the system of views and the peculiarities of the worldview of a young aristocrat, the specific features of intra-family interaction in the field of feelings, marriage, human relations which inevitably turn out to be associated with the concepts of the family honor, family duty, the need to preserve the status of a noble family. The author traces how the power hierarchy is manifested at the level of relations within a close circle of relatives, as well as how traditional patterns are combined with new elements. Vladimir Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin, the youngest son of the archaeographer Count A.I. Musin-Pushkin, was arrested in connection with the case of the Decembrists, transferred from the Guards to the army and exiled to serve in Finland, where he met his future wife, Emilia Karlovna Shernval von Wallen. The article provides details of the family life of this married couple, as well as private facts from the biography of some other members of the Musin-Pushkin family.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Anna S. Stoletova

Based on the sources of the Russian State Archive of Modern History, the article describes the establishment and operation of customs in the socio-economic life of the second half of the 20th century, which influence the everyday life, attitude and worldview of the production (industrial) part of Russian societas. The question is raised about the consolidation of new features in consciousness, individualistic tendencies as the basis of the worldview. Attention is focused on the fact that the dissonance in the levels of social differentiation, material wealth and social status formed the basis of the mental separation of the production elite, representatives of management and the working class. The author draws attention to the fact that the phenomena of nepotism, clannishness, favours and thuggery that penetrate into everyday life and the labour sphere of life were especially negatively perceived by the workers. The negative reactions of the workers were reinforced by the realities of life – the deficit, the housing issue as a problem of social arrangement, the outdated wage system. It is noted that the public niches in which customs and traditions were firmly rooted, were to a greater extent connected with topical and acute social processes, including the institutions of power, property and trade. The researcher comes to the conclusion that by the 1980s, due to the passage of the stages of further ideological, social and economic differentiation, the separation of the individual from the working collective, the isolation of the elite and a certain isolation of its ordinary members in the production environment, bourgeois aspirations and ideals of hoarding were growing stronger.


2018 ◽  
pp. 76-102
Author(s):  
T P. Lonngren

After a short summary of the story behind K. Hamsun’s play In the Grip of Life [Livet i Vold], its plot and stage history in Russia, the article proceeds to tell about an unknown film script. Cinematic adaptations of Hamsun’s books have always dominated Norwegian literature, while none of his dramatic pieces have made it to the screen. However, a film script was uncovered, an adaptation of In the Grip of Life: a play specially written for a Russian theatre. The script was found in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, among the documents of Evgeny Sergeevich Khokhlov. Based on the history of filmmaking and relevant filmography, Khokhlov’s film script is not just the only attempt at film adaptation of a Hamsun play, but the first ever project based on a theatrical play in Russian cinematic history. Written almost 100 years ago, the script is far from perfect in the modern understanding of filmmaking; nonetheless, it has certain merits in the eyes of contemporaries. The very attempt to interpret the play by means of a nascent artistic genre may be considered a proof of its relevance to Russian audiences at the time.


2018 ◽  
pp. 298-377
Author(s):  
P. M. Nerle

At the core of this publication are letters written by E. Livshits (1902–1987), the widow of B. Livshits, to her close friends: literary critic A. Deich (1893–1972), whom she knew ever since her Kiev days, and his wife E. Deich-Malkina (1919–2014). Kept at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, this epistolary collection spans over 20 years, starting from 1967. Along with accounts of private circumstances, each letter contains accounts related to B. Livshits, Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam, I. Nappelbaum, A. Shadrin, and others. At the same time, E. Livshits’ comments and descriptions of people and literary works are very lifelike and fascinating. On the whole, the reader gets a picture of the period and certain literary process, viewed by a sophisticated connoisseur rather than squinted at by an aging disenfranchised widow of an executed writer. The publication is prefaced by P. Nerler, who collected and prepared the book of letters and reminiscences of E. Livshits, to be printed by Elena Shubina Publishers (AST).


Author(s):  
Anastasiya Тikhonova

In the article the author mentions some modern publications on this issue in the era of Alexander I and Nicholas I in connection with the description of the travelling theme in the context of everyday life history. As an example of the Russian Province, the article considers Smolensk Governorate which was located at the crossroads of routes from Europe to the center of Russia through Baltic, Belarusian and Ukrainian Provinces. On the basis of the materials of the State Archive of the Smolensk region (GASO) from the funds of the Chancellery of Smolensk Governor, the Smolensk Oblast Duma, metric books of Roman Catholic Church in Smolensk and published memoirs (Eugene Hess’ diary and E. Montulé’s notes) the author of the article reconstructs foreign hotel owners’ biographies (S.I. Chapa, D.K. Nolchini, V.I. Gaber), masters of carriage business (D.I. Graf, K.B. Weber), a city coachman, the owner of a coffee house (H. Podrut). All these people were united by their origin (they came from European countries) and their involvement (due to their professional activities) in servicing travelers who found themselves in the Russian Province. Life circumstances and development of their own business forced them to settle far away from their homeland; most of them became citizens of the empire, having connected themselves with Russia forever. In the article it is underlined that foreigners’ involvement in «tourist business» of the considered epoch testifies not only to the benefit of their business activity, but also to the importance of the psychological factor – the very possibility of meeting with compatriots and representatives of other European countries.


2021 ◽  
pp. 011719682098159
Author(s):  
Yali Chen

To understand the agency of Chinese marriage migrant women in Switzerland in their everyday life, the present article examines the reasons why Chinese women marry European men and their post-migratory life in Switzerland. Based on interviews with Chinese marriage migrant women, the article discusses their gendered representations before migration (as “leftover women” or “divorced women”) to being “foreign wives” after migration to Switzerland. Their migration from China to Switzerland also resulted to a change in their roles from “professional women” to “homemakers.” The gender-related discrimination the women encountered from China to their post-migration life in Switzerland demonstrates a continuum of gender discrimination in which they highly exert their agency that has also been enhanced by acts of resistance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
E. V. Golovenkina ◽  

This paper focuses on the role of the poetics of mystery in the formation of the romantic trag-edy genre. “The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov is considered as a characteristic example of this genre, manifesting “melodramatization” of tragedy and tendency towards genre-generic synthesis. The action of “The Spaniards” is based on events related to the sphere of the mysterious, which are exceptional in life and common in melodrama. Central to the plot is the motif of the loss of a child. The secret of Fernando’s birth and “ignobility” form the con-flict and organize two storylines (love and family) and two (everyday life – melodramatic, and existential – tragic) levels of conflict. Mystery also plays an important role in revealing the inner world and expressing the romantic ideal of the hero. The ability to comprehend the mysterious, to pass beyond human experience and logic is not only the motivation of his ac-tions, but it also connects the hero with the ideal sphere. The study examines how the charac-ters’ anticipation of the “terrible” motivates their moral choices. Analyzing the interaction of lyrical motifs, the author suggests the motif of mystery as important for implementing the main (tragic) conflict, unlike melodrama, where the functions of mystery are plot-forming, stimulating the spectator’s interest and maximizing the dramatic tension. Mystery in the plot and the lyrical concept of the tragedy contributes to the understanding of the essence of the romantic conflict, has a suggestive impact on the audience, and deepens the psychologism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Constantin Ivanov

"Representations of Evil in the Novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade. The present article analyzes some representations of evil in the novels Miss Christina, The Snake and Isabel and the Devil’s Waters by Mircea Eliade. In particular, we draw attention to the evil that directly refers to the mysterious dimension and, therefore, outlines a perception that exceeds the mundane experience of everyday life. In this sense, the emergence of unfathomable aspects and phenomena can only be explained in an imaginary approach. This type of representation of evil is perceived within the limits of a manifestation of the supernatural, in an unveiling of the evil through ill-fated, Mephistophelean characters or in the potentiation of “heresies” in the folkloric imaginary. The paper aims to examine how this evil, most often related to some almost occult experiences and fueled by local folklore, is capitalized in the fantastic prose of Mircea Eliade. Keywords: mysterious, fantastic, magical, imaginary, representation, evil, devil "


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