  Skorokhodov-vestnik-2026-3-ru.pdf |
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- The role of Konstantin Paustovsky’s ego-documents in detailing the literary life of the 1950s and 1960s
- Skorokhodov M.V. The role of Konstantin Paustovsky’s ego-documents in detailing the literary life of the 1950s and 1960s. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2026, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 122–129. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34216/1998- 0817-2026-32-3-122-129
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2026-32-3-122-129
- УДК: 821.161.1.09 «20»
- EDN: ICRAXC
- Publish date: 2026-09-10
- Annotation: This article, drawing on published and museum-held ego-documents, reveals little-studied aspects of Konstantin Paustovsky’s relationships with his contemporaries: a publisher, Polish and Soviet writers, and a literary critic. Characterisation of Paustovsky’s relationship with Samuil Alyanskiy demonstrates the significance of Alexander Blok for the novelist. Just as well as Samuil Alyanskiy, Paustovsky befriended Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz in the 1950s, despite the two had been high school students in Kyiv at the same form. The trusting personal relationships between the Soviet and the Polish writers were marked by a profound interest in each other’s work. Obituaries for Emmanuil Kazakevich and Abram Gurvich demonstrate Paustovsky’s integrity, his ability to discern and succinctly characterise a person’s fundamental qualities, and to emphasise their individuality and the uniqueness of lives and creative journeys. The publication of such obituaries, which in content are close to essays and memoirs, became an important event in literary life.
- Keywords: Konstantin Paustovsky, Samuil Alyanskiy, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Emmanuil Kazakevich, Abram Gurvich, Aleksandr Tvardovsky, New World magazine, Soviet Writer publishing house, Literary Gazette.
- Funding and acknowledgments: I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Director of the Konstantin Paustovsky Museum, Angelika I. Dormidontova, and the Chief Curator of the Museum’s Collections, Irina S. Pakhomova, for their assistance in my familiarising with the museum’s collection.
- Literature list: Belov S.V. Konsul'tant po khudozhestvennomu oformleniyu – S. Alyanskij: k 85-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya [Artistic Design Consultant: S. Alyansky: On the 85th Anniversary of His Birth. Detskaya literatura [Children's Literature], 1976, no. 5, pp. 71–72 (In Russ.) Belov S.V. Master knigi. Ocherk zhizni i deiatel'nosti S.M. Alianskogo [The Book Master. An Essay on S.M. Alyansky’s Life and Work]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1979, 112 p. (In Russ.). Korzhova I.N. Zaglaviya prinyatye i otvergnutye v “Povesti o zhizni” K.G. Paustovskogo (k rekonstruktsii tvorcheskoj istorii) [“Accepted and Rejected Titles in The Story of a Life by K.G. Paustovsky (Towards the Reconstruction of Creative History)”]. Literaturnyi fakt [Literary Fact], no. 3 (33), 2024, pp. 243–260. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2024-33-243-260 (In Russ.) Svichenskaya M.К. S.M. Alyanskiy posle “Alkonosta”: po materialam otdela rukopisey Rossiyskoy natsionalnoy biblioteki [S.M. Aliansky after The “Alkonost”: (On the materials of the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia)]. Trudy Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo instituta kultury [Proceedings of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture], 2018, vol. 217, pp. 186–199.