Metadata: M. A. Voloshin
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Институт русской литературы (Пушкинский Дом) Российской Академии наук
- Postal address:
- 199034, St. Petersburg, nab. Makarova, d. 4
- Phone number:
- (812) 328-19-01
- Web address:
- http://www.pushkinskijdom.ru
- Email:
- irliran@mail.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 562
- Title:
- M. A. Voloshin
- Title (official language):
- Волошин М. А.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Voloshin, Maksimilian Aleksandrovich
- Date(s):
- 1864/1978
- Language:
- Russian
- French
- Extent:
- 2,763 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The fonds contains manuscripts of works by M. A. Voloshin (poems, studies in literary criticism, translations, 1883-1932); his drawings (1897-1929); correspondence, including with A. Belyi, V. Briusov, I. G. Al’tshuler M. S. Al’tman, M. L. Vinaver, L. S. Gintsburg and Ilya Ehrenburg; dedicatory inscriptions and poems by various authors (1892-1932); documentary materials pertaining to M. A. Voloshin’s biography, including reminiscences by A. Belyi and M. Tsvetaeva (1887-1978); materials of M. A. Voloshin’s relatives (1882-1977); and manuscripts of works, letters, and documentary materials of various persons (1864-1939).
Material pertaining to Jewish history and culture (ops. 1, 3, 5, and 6) may be provisionally divided into three thematic groups:
1) Works of M. A. Voloshin that contain imagery of Jews or depict aspects of Jewish history and culture, including the poems “Ezekiel’s Vision” (1917-19), “The Speculator”, “I am the Wandering Jew. To me, people are brothers...” (1920), “Solomon” (1924), etc.; the play The Gospel according to Judas (1908); an article titled “The Fate of Jewry” (undated); “On The White Stone”, a response to the publication of the novel of that title by Anatole France (1906); “The Paths of Russia” (1919); a piece titled “Responsibility for the Government” (1917); journal entries of M. A. Voloshin regarding his travels in Europe in 1900-02, etc.
2) Correspondence of M. A. Voloshin that touches on the “Jewish question”, including with Iu. L. Obolenskaia (1913-19), A. M. Petrova (1915-18), Ilya Ehrenburg (1915-21), M. S. and M. O. Tsetlin (1919), T. Tsemakh (1923), and others.
3) A collection of documents and works by contemporaries of M. A. Voloshin that deal with Jewish themes, in particular, journal entries by his wife M. V. Sabashnikova (1903); notes made by A. M. Petrova on religious and philosophical books (1910s-20s); A. M. Remizov’s The Tragedy of Judas, Prince of Iscariot (1909); V. Rozanov’s composition The Apocalypse of Our Time, which discusses Judaism (in the section “Shoes”) (1917-18), etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Maksimilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin (real name: Kirienko-Voloshin, 1877-1932) was a poet, translator, art and literary critic, essayist and artist. From 1897 to 1899, he studied at Moscow University law school, but was expelled for his involvement in student unrest. In 1901 he attended lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris, took drawing and engraving lessons from the artist E. S. Kruglikova, and travelled in Europe. Upon his return to Russia in 1903, he made the acquaintance of V. Briusov, A. Blok, A. Belyi and other figures of Russian culture. His poems were printed in various publications. In this same period, he bought land and built a house in the village of Koktebel’, not far from Feodosiia; this became a kind of “summer club” for gatherings of poets, artists and scholars. His first poetry collection (Poems. 1900-1910) was published in Moscow in 1910. During the February Revolution he was in Moscow and performed at literary evenings and concerts. He was interested in Jewish culture and the status of Jews in Russia. Voloshin’s verses feature biblical motifs and the Bible was one of his main sources of poetic inspiration. During the October Revolution and the Civil War, he strived for an “above the fray” position, calling on people “to be people, not citizens”. Living in Koktebel’, which in this period frequently changed rulers, Voloshin saved both “reds” and “whites” from death on the grounds that they were human beings and thus worth saving. After the revolution, he composed the series of philosophical poems In the Paths of Cain (1921-23), the long narrative poem Russia (1924) and the poems “A Poet’s House” (1927) and “The Vladimir Mother of God” (1929). He also worked as an artist, taking part in exhibitions in Feodosiia, Odessa, Khar’kov, Moscow and Leningrad. He turned his house in Koktebel’ into a free shelter for writers and artists, and in 1931 bequeathed it to the Writers’ Union.
The Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) (IRLI RAN) is a research institution within the Russian Academy of Sciences system. It was established in December 1905 on the initiative of several Russian cultural figures. In 1899, the Academy of Sciences had organised a commission to prepare celebrations of the centenary of Alexander Pushkin’s birth. The commission originally planned to erect a monument to the poet, but eventually it was decided to establish a museum and library. In April 1906, government funding was allocated for the acquisition of Pushkin’s library, which, upon its transfer to Pushkin House, became the initial basis for an enormous collection of books, manuscripts, and items related to the great Russian poet. The main fonds of the Pushkin House was assembled by B L Modzalevskii. He also drafted the “Pushkin House statute”, ratified by Emperor Nicholas II in 1907. Since 1930, the Pushkin House has been the academic Institute of Russian Literature while also preserving its original name of Pushkin House. In 1955, the Pushkin House was added to the State Codex of Particularly Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage. The Pushkin House is currently one of the leading centres for research on Russian literature.
The manuscripts department constitutes a complex for source studies; along with the literary museum and library, it served as the basis for the establishment of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) (IRLI RAN) in 1930. It was organised in 1906, when the Pushkin House received the library of A. S. Pushkin, numbering over 3,500 volumes. In 1908, the first manuscript materials were received: A. N. Pleshcheev’s letters to V. D. Dandevil’ and autograph manuscripts of A. S. Pushkin; subsequently received (1928) was a collection of Pushkin-era manuscripts and memorabilia that had belonged to A. F. Onegin. By resolution of the government (1938) and Academy (1948), all Pushkin autograph manuscripts formerly held in the country’s various archives were concentrated at Pushkin House. In 1917, the manuscript heritage of M. Iu. Lermontov was transferred to Pushkin House, and in 1919, the Dashkov collection and the collection of M. I. Semevskii, consisting especially of the extensive archive of the journal Russkaia starina [Russian Antiquities]. Upon the incorporation of Pushkin House into the Academy of Sciences structure in 1930, the manuscripts department was established and tasked with the special functions of collecting, housing, systematising and studying the manuscript heritage of Russian writers, and fonds of their personal papers were organised. The manuscripts department also includes collections of literary organisations, publishing houses and periodicals. In all, the manuscripts department houses over 900 fonds and collections. There are also numerous reference and biblioGraphic materials, first and foremost the card catalogue of S. A. Vengerov. This is joined by the card catalogues of B. L. and L. B. Modzalevskii, as well as of V. I. Saitov; these contain bibliographic, biographical and genealogical information, not only about writers but also about the entire cultural stratum of 19th-century Russian society. The manuscripts department is constantly updated with new materials. The department’s research activities are reflected in its publications and editions, its primary serial being the Yearbook of the Manuscripts Department of Pushkin House. The web site of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) features an electronic version of the publication Personal Fonds of the Manuscripts Department of Pushkin House. An Annotated Index (St. Petersburg, 1999).
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises six series arranged according to the structural-thematic principle.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary