Memoir Prose of Vsevolod Ivanov

Abstract

The author of the article explores Vsevolod Ivanov’s memoir prose, both published texts and previously unknown materials from the family archive, regarding them in the context of a discussion about the genre nature of ego documents. The research materials also include the idea of the memoirs of 1942, conceived by Ivanov as a continuation of the autobiographical novel “The Adventures of the Fakir.” Ivanov’s reflections on the titles of the new edition of memoirs and chapters in 1956 show the peculiarities of its compositional structure: the center of each chapter (“bush” — term by K.A. Fedin) is a certain book, and historical events, facts of the literary process, portraits of contemporaries are grouped around the history of its creation. The article discusses in detail some of these “bushes” of the 1920s. On the basis of archival materials and a comparison of two published versions of “The History of My Books” the study shows why the portraits of the fraternity of “Serapion Brothers” and A.K. Voronsky drew negative critical responses. An analysis of the naively simple-minded narration manner allows us to conclude that the form of memoirs was deliberately chosen by Ivanov for the sake of publishing important facts of the literary history.