L. N. Tolstoy and N. N. Strakhov: Complete Correspondence by A. A. s> Donskov (review)

I26 SEER, 83, I, 2005 that Gogol"slife acquired 'the "valueof narrativity"'as a simplifiedpersonal historywith a moral and didacticmessage (p. 105). Chapterfourof thebook offersan enlighteninghistoryof Gogol"streatment by the publishingindustryin the late Imperialera. Moeller-Sallyis especially interestedin the interactionof the commercially-mindedmass-publishers(e.g. Vladimir Dumnov, Adol'fMarksand Ivan Sytin)and the zemstvo-based civicminded enlighteners of the common folk, the two acting as both rivals and accomplices in the enterprise of bringing Gogol' to the people via Imperial Russia's'popularcommunication circuits'(p. 94). One of the most importantstrategiesfor generatingthe symbolicvalue of a 'classic' in this period was the organization of large-scale national literary jubilees. Moeller-Sally'sdetailed account of the centenaryof Gogol"sbirthin I909 is not only a valuable complement to existing studiesof similarcultural events (e.g. Marcus Levitt'swork on the Pushkinjubilees of i88o and i899), but also contains an original methodological perspective on the specific culturalformsthroughwhich Gogol"sclassicalstatuswas createdin thisera. The book hasonly one (thefinal)chapteron the Sovietperiod. This presents a highly suggestive but hardly definitive account of what happened to the classics under Lenin and Stalin. Moeller-Sally shows that the Proletkul't's decision to assimilate the classics into proletarian culture as a vital form of 'culturalcapital' found a ratherdifferentexpressionin the late I920S and the mid I930s. Whereasduringthe firstFive-YearPlan Gogol' acquiredthe image of a literarylabourerwhose techniqueproletarianwriterswere incitedto learn from and be cultivatedby, duringthe second Five-YearPlan Gogol' became a charismatic,semi-divine literarygenius and a true 'General-Classic'(p. 146). The latter image culminated in the Gogol' monument sculpted by Nikolai Tomskii for the I952 jubilee. Gogol"s eerie resemblance to Stalin and the unusual inscription on the pedestal 'from the government of the Soviet Union' are seen as emblematic of the identityof the Russianliteraryclassic in high Stalinism(p. I55). Moeller-Sally's book offers a convincing, systematic and much needed historicalaccount of a Russianliteraryclassic'speculiarexistence 'beyond the book'. Its principal strengthlies in the fact that it is not simply about Gogol', but about the broad institutionalcontext that generated and made possible the literaryclassicas a 'socio-culturalstatus'(p. I62). WolfsonCollege, Oxford ANDY BYFORD Donskov, A. A. (ed.). L. N Tolstoy andN N Strakhov. Complete Correspondence. Tolstoy Series, 6-7. Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa, and State L. N. Tolstoy Museum, Moscow, 2003. lxii + I079 PP. (2 vols). Illustrations.Bibliography.Appendix. Index. $45.00 (2 vols, paperback). THISimpressivepair of volumes is the fruitof the sixth collaborationbetween the SlavicResearch Group at the Universityof Ottawa, the StateL. N. Tolstoi Museum in Moscow and the Institute of World Literature at the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMLI).(Previoustitles in the seriesalso concentrate on archivalwork and have included Tolstoi's correspondencewith the Molokan REVIEWS I27 writerF. A. Zheltov, and correspondencewith and reminiscencesby Tolstoi's secretaryN. N. Gusev.) A total of 467 letters are presented here, several of which arepublishedfor the firsttime afterbeing unearthedfollowingrigorous archivalresearchby the compilers;all have been verifiedagainstthe original manuscripts, and where necessary, corrections to text and chronology have been made in respect of previous publications. The work includes an introductory essay in English, a biographical sketch of Strakhov by Boris Nikol'skii, in English translation, extensive annotations by L. D. Gromova and T. G. Nikiforova, and indexes of names, letter chronology and titles of Tolstoi'sworks. The preparation of such a meticulous piece of work must have been a labourof love, and as suchit is a fittingmemorialto the late LidiiaDmitrievna Gromova-Opul'skaia, Head of Russian Classical Literature at IMLI, who passed away late in 2003. In a career spanning more than half a century as a Tolstoi scholar, she took a leading role in editing both the go-volume Jubilee Edition of his complete works,and also the new i oo-volume edition currently being issued. I was privileged to hear her speak,not long before her death, at the linked conferences in honour of the I 75th anniversaryof Tolstoi's birth, held in August and September 2003 in Iasnaia Poliana, Tula and Moscow. It was clear at this meeting that love for Tolstoi permeated her work, and the importance for Tolstoi of love as the sole path to unity was what she chose to stressto the assemblyof scholarsfrom as far...

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.