East in the Creative Mind of B. Volkov

The article is devoted to the images and motives of the East in the poetry of the author of the Eastern emigration Boris Volkov (1894, Ekaterinburg – 1954, San Francisco). The work of this poet, writer, publicist is still unknown to the domestic reader, although during his lifetime he had a fairly wide publication geography: from Harbin to San Francisco. However, his works were never reprinted, and the manuscript of the novel “The Kingdom of the Golden Buddhas” is considered lost. The analysis involved Volkov’s book of poems “In the dust of foreign roads”, published in Berlin in 1934. Of its four parts, the oriental flavor is especially distinct in the first. Individual works of this part constituted the object of study of this article. The autobiographical substrate of Volkov’s poetry is revealed, the intersection of motives and imagery with the poetic world of Gumilyov is shown. The influence of the Eastern world, its philosophical teachings on the creative worldview of Volkov is investigated. In his poetic thinking, traces of Sufism, Islam, and the philosophy of Lao Tzu are palpable. Exotic images of China and Mongolia weave an intricate pattern in the first cycles of the book, integrating into the depicted biographical circumstances and expanding their semantic palette. “Alien” is trying hard to become “ours” at the level of a philosophical attitude to the world and the fate of the poet himself. He is close to the poetic attitude of the inhabitants of the East to life and death, based on ancient traditions and customs. The poems reflect the confusion of the experiences of the lyrical hero, warrior and wanderer, who has found a place in life as a result of an action-packed duel with fate.

Unknown Siberian Poems by Vasily Yan

The first publication of poems by the Soviet writer-historian, 1st degree Stalin Prize laureate Vasily Yan (Yanchevetsky), composed in 1920–1923, when he lived and worked in Siberia. Source – handwritten miscellany “Poems of Wanderings”, recently discovered in the Yanchevetskys’ family archive. The publication is accompanied by detailed biographical comments. In the civil war, V. Yanchevetsky took part on the side of the whites as one of the main propagandists of the Kolchak army – the head of the Informative Department of the Special Chancellery of the Supreme Commander’s Staff, editor of the front newspaper “Vperyod”. After the collapse of the white movement, V. Yanchevetsky had to hide his past, changing occupations and places of residence (Achinsk, Uyuk, Minusinsk). The Siberian po- etic cycle, created at this time, makes it possible to understand not only the mood of the author in the last years of the turning point in Russian history, but also literary searches, and the atmosphere of the time in general. The main themes are homeland, revolution, freedom, atheism, building a new life, preserving the personality in the face of political upheavals. Obviously, the influence on the poetic style of the author of such trends as symbolism and futurism, which he was interested in. In Omsk V. Yanchevetsky closely communicated with the writer, poet and avant-garde artist Anton Sorokin, attended his literary evenings at home. Probably, as a result, some of the Siberian poems were written in free verse, to which V. Yanchevetsky had never used before.

Plot-Forming Motives in the Books of K. Sergienko

The stories of K. Sergienko’s books make up the wanderings of heroes, as a rule, storytellers and participants in the events of personal and national history. In stories for teenagers, the ad-ventures of the heroes have the character of their initiation: “Kees Admiral Tulipovˮ (“Кеес Адмирал Тюльпановˮ), “Take us away, Pegasus!ˮ (“Увези нас, Пегас!ˮ), “Notebook bound in moroccoˮ (“Тетрадь в сафьяновом перплётеˮ). Or they correspond to the genetically related story about the prodigal son (“House on the Hillˮ – “Дом на гореˮ). In both cases, the characters' freedom of movement is largely motivated by their orphanhood. Most often, the main characters, young and old, travel incognito. This motive is introduced in the first sto-ry and becomes one of the plot-forming ones. An obligatory component of almost all books is the mystery of the female character. There are several secrets in “Borodino Awakeningˮ (“Бородинское пробуждениеˮ): for the main character – the secret of Berestov; he himself, who became Berestov in the events on the eve and during Borodin and does not call himself in the present tense; Natasha's secret; hoax Leppich. The unnamed hero of “The White Rondelˮ (“Белый рондельˮ) wanders incognito. In the same row, and the secret of the origin of Nastya, and remained a secret for her (“Notebook...ˮ). “Mysteriousˮ heroines in “House on the Hillˮ. The prehistory of the appearance of the Proud in the ravine (“Good-bye, ravineˮ) remains unknown to the reader. In some stories, the secret of the place is associated with the secret of the hero. Heroes travel with companions – Kees and Red Fox, Pochivalov and Osorgin, Berestov and Listov, Mike and Morris, Mr. Writer and Mr. Kitten, etc. The complex of obligatory motives in the historical prose of Sergienko, indicated in “Kees...ˮ, includes the motive of the hero's responsibility for the fate of the country (“Borodino Awakeningˮ, “Xeniaˮ (“Ксенияˮ), etc). This motive is associated with the motive of the he-roes’ dreams of the promised land, the ideal city and the motive of sacrifice. The tulip in the first story, not yet known to the Dutch, will turn into a flower with its miracu-lous properties in a number of works. The flower-bouquet motif is especially significant in the “House on the Hillˮ. In the same story, another motive of Sergienko’s prose comes to the fore – the star motive. Some of the peripheral motives become leading in individual books (the motives of the crimson beret, Holland, Mozart and Salieri, etc.). Homelessness, the instability of the heroes existence gives them the opportunity for self-realization, the chronicle of events – grows into a biography, and then into autobiography. Most of Sergienko’s works are based on the plots of a roguish, chivalrous novel and a novel of education, complicated by other plots. The story “Porcelain Headˮ (“Фарфоровая го- ловаˮ) testifies to the writer’s search for new ways in plot construction, caused by the rethinking of the romantic position of fighting against chaotic reality and rising above it.

Reporting Collection of Poems by the Group of Irkutsk Poets for 1921

The typewritten “Reporting Collection of Poems by the Group of Irkutsk Poets for 1921” is published for the first time in its entirety. This example of early Soviet literary “samizdat” represents the works of twelve members of the local literary association “The Barque of Poets” (Barka poetov): Sergei Arkadievich Alyakrinsky (1889–1938), Artur Ancharov (whose real name and fate remain unknown), Viktor Mikhailovich Blumenfeld (1897–1978), Alexander Ivanovich Venediktov (1896–1970), Mikhail Nikolaevich Gorin-Volkov, who wrote under the pseudonym “Imray” (1894–1942), Alexander Davidovich Meiselman (1900–1938), Nina Mikhailovna Podgorichany-Petrovich (1889–1964), Igor Kronidovich Slavnin (1898– 1925), Elpidifor Innokentyevich Titov (1896–1938), Leonid Dmitrievich Tyazhelov (1887–1936), Nina Pavlovna Shastina (1898–1980) and Nina Petrovna Komarova (1892 – after 1943), who wrote under the pseudonyms “Nibu” and “Khabias”. In addition to the “Reporting Collection...” itself, some accompanying materials are also published (a questionnaire for members of “The Barque...” and several poems on separate sheets). All these materials of the early Soviet “samizdat” were kept in private archive of Irkutsk professor Boleslav Sergeevich Shostakovich (1945–2015), and after his death they were transferred to the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region. The publication is provided with bio-bibliographic references about the authors of the “Reporting Collection...”, both brief (in the cases of such well-known poets as Igor Slavnin, Elpidifor Titov or Nina Khabias) and, if necessary, expanded.

Characters of Legends about a Demon Harming Potential in Armenian, South Slavian Traditions and in the Author’s Text of A. Remizov

In the South Slavic Sisinia legend (SL) and in the author’s adaptation of the legend by A. Remizov, Veshtitsa (Veshitsa) acts as a Demon harming women in labor, in Armenian folklore this function is assigned mainly to the demons Al and Tpkha. Gog and Magoga, trying to save the last, seventh, surviving child from the Devil, built ‘a tower of marble, bound it with an iron nail and filled it with tin’. They decided to hide the Qeen in the tower until the child grows up. In connection with this episode, of interest is a belief widespread among many peoples, according to which, in order to protect a woman in labor from the Als, she was surrounded by iron objects during childbirth. For example, the ancient Armenians pinned a pin to the clothes or bed of a woman in labor or a child, hung a sword over the cradle, etc. The texts note the weather conditions – storm, winter, downpour, blizzard, which contribute to letting Sisinia into the house. The connection between bad weather, in particular, storms with demons can be clearly traced in both Armenian and Slavic traditions. The sea is the abode of the devil both in the Armenian and Aramaic and in the Greek traditions: only in Ethiopian texts, instead of the sea, does the garden appear as the habitat and refuge of Verzilla. In East Slavic prayers, shakers come out of the sea, while it rises. Instead of the traditional for the Slavic versions of catching a demon from the sea with the help of a fish-ing rod / net, A. Remizov presented a meeting of a saint and a demoness in the desert, which is more typical of Armenian legends. We have established the similarity of the Thing with the demons Als from the Armenian folklore, which are described as anthropozoomorphic creatures with burning or glass eyes. For a comparative and comparative analysis of the lists of the names of demons, we examined the mythonyms identified in the Slavic (more precisely, in the South Slavic branch of interest to us), Armenian and Remizov’s versions of the texts of the Sisinia legend. The first group – demon mythonyms, consists of the names of demons, witches and sorcerers. The second group is mythonyms derived from words indicating the wrecking of demons (formed mainly from verbs). A special place is given to mythonyms with the meaning of “harming children”. The third group of names indicates the connection between Veshtitsa and atmospheric phenomena. The fourth group – mythonyms, indicating werewolf and the ability of demons to transform. The fifth group is the names of diseases and their symptoms. The sixth group is evaluative names. The list of demon names in the text of A. Remizov consists of thirteen mythonyms, which are more reminiscent of the names of shakers or sinners / sins, and all of them are exclusively feminine.

Her Life through Their Eyes. Reflections on A. Korevanova’s Book “My Life” (1936), which Arose under the Influence of the Revised Edition “Her Life” (2020)

The article provides an experience of reflexive reading of the autobiographical book of the Ural “peasant – worker” Agrippina Korevanova “My Life”, published in 1936 by the Moscow publishing house “History of Plants”, using the method of analyzing the narrative through ‘four readings’, focusing attention step by step on the plot and the reader’s reaction, the narrator’s I and the voices of Others, on cultural contexts and social structures. Press responses, Korevanova’s correspondence with publishers and other archival materials are used as context. A special place in this large hypertext is occupied by the revised work within the educational student project of the Ural Federal University, published in 2020 under the title “Her Life”. It focuses on the relevance of trauma talk and Agrippina’s purely personal life story, which gives a basis for polemical discussion. The peculiarity of the narrative, which at one time “did not give in” to such venerable editors as A. Tikhonov and M. Gorky, and which modern publishers are trying to eliminate, is the lack of coherence and consistency. According to the author of the article, this characteristic incoherence highlights the desire inherent in the construction of the text to combine the passive role of the heroine with her inexhaustible activity. The main and most interesting topic seems to be writing and, more broadly, mastery of the word. Korevanova struggled to enter the world of literature and it is in this field that the rejection of her auto heroine and her own are most dramatic: unrequited requests for help in “writing” (preserved in her archival fund), and difficult relations with the local writing community, and, finally, the multiple edits and shortenings that haunt the work today as well as in 1930s.

Towards the Cultural History of Leningrad in the 1930s: Lydia Averianova’s Poetic Dedications

This publication presents poems by Lydia Averianova dedicated to Vsevolod Petrov, art critic, art historian and the author of “memoirs and reflections” about notable participants of the Leningrad culture in the 1930s. Some of these poems were included in Averianova’s “Collected Verse,” others were saved by Petrov. Currently these autographs are preserved in the collection of Galeev-Gallery (Moscow). The publication includes Petrov’s poems written in response to Averianova’s dedications, as well as her other poems, which do not have a specific romantic prototype, but were created during the years of her infatuation with Petrov.

Listener as Narrative Category in “The Orphan’s Tales” by Catherynne M. Valente

Created in the form of “1001 Nights” “The Orphan’s Tales” by Catherynne M. Valente is filled with intertwined stories and plots. The article is devoted to the origin of a “story within a story” and its manifestation in the novel. The need of transferring the sacred knowledge of myth was the reason of emergence of coherent narratives, which aimed to support and approve the human beings in the unknown world around them. By his storytelling the narrator asserts the right to exist, in the verbal way he reflects the cycle of natural phenomena. He states the threefold semantic equivalence: his divine embodiment as the protagonist, the related to this his actions and gestures (acts) and his story about himself and his deeds. As a verbal sacrifice the story is offered to the god – the only listener who is able to understand and to accept it. This kind of tale keeps the signs of sacral. The intention to verbal concealing of the sacred was implemented in the structure of “story within a story”, or embedded stories. When we highlight the listener as the separate category in storytelling, we can describe it in the following way. Listener is an equal participant of sacral narrating. Like the storyteller the listener carries out the function of co-creating – he duplicates the storyteller on the semantic level. As for “The Orphan’s Tales”, the unique discourse of telling-listening as stated trough the numerous characters who tell and listen to each other. They carry out some particular functions: active listener; listener-transmitter; listener-composer.

“The Wright Brothers” by Mikhail Zenkevich: Correspondence with Orville Wright and Other Contributors (1932–1933): New Archival Findings

As a result of the latest findings in the archives of Russia and the United States, the correspondence between Mikhail Zenkevich and Orville Wright is published for the first time (the originals in English are supplemented with the Russian translations). This correspondence was conducted between 1932–1933, which correlates to the time period Zenkevich was working on the first biography of the pioneer aviators in Russian, Brat’ia Rait (The Wright Brothers, 1933). Also included are excerpts from the letters of foreign literati and colleagues, such as Michael Gold, Harold Heslop, Maurice Becker, Helen Black, as well as domestic correspondents, K. K. Kuraev among them. The article deliberates upon the direct influence of the materials provided by O. Wright on the book. A review of the holdings on the theme of aviation in Zenkevich’s fund (IRLI Pushkinskii Dom) is provided. The examination of the little- known biographical details, as well as the parts of the poet’s epistolary legacy and his prosaic works, adds to the analysis. Taken together, this all has allowed for substantiation of certain presumptions about other possible sources of the book. The article interprets some literary features of Brat’ia Rait by tracing the development of the theme of aviation in the earlier poems by this former Acmeist, and by drawing parallels with some of his later short and long poems, such as “Al’timetr. Tragorel’ef” (Altimeter. Tragic Relief) and “Torzhestvo aviatsii” (The Triumph of Aviation), and a short novel “Na strezhen’” (On the River Bend) and fictional memoirs Muzhitskii Sfinks (The Peasant Sphinx). Finally, some intertextual parallels between “The Triumph of Aviation” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” translated by Zenkevich, are revealed. The conclusion is made that the materials received from O. Wright have subsequently influenced the long poem “The Triumph of Aviation” and other works by Zenkevich. The publication is equipped with detailed notes, commentaries and illustrations.

Yuri Sopov’s Poem “Arthur Rimbaud” (1919): Text and Contexts

The article introduces publication of the full text of the narrative poem “Arthur Rimbaud” by the Omsk poet Yuri (Pyotr Ivanovich) Sopov (1897–1919), written shortly before his tragic death in the explosion at A.V. Kolchak’s residence on August 25 (or 26), 1919. The text previously had been known by fragments only, by virtue of quotations included in the newspaper obituary by the poet Georgy Maslov, who briefly survived Sopov. A number of details allow us to conclude that Sopov is fairly accurate when rendering facts of Rimbaud’s life and must have been familiar with the French poet’s biography, not just with echoes of the legend. Therefore, the numerous occasions in the poem, where he prefers fiction over fact, should be considered as the result of a deliberate choice. In the perception of contemporaries, the image of the author of the poem partially merged with the mythologized image of its hero. First of all, this concerns poets of the circle of the Omsk literary and artistic association “Chervonnaya Troika” and writers close to the group “Pamir” (“Siberian brigade”). The poet Leonid Martynov (1905–1980) repeatedly turned to the image of Rimbaud, translated his poems, compared his image, biography and character to his own, in poetry and in prose. The article shows that the perception of the French poet in Martynov’s creative laboratory during his long career was mediated by the memory of Yuri Sopov’s poem.