эго-документы

K. A. Fedin’s diaries related to the time of the intense activity of the literary community “Serapion brothers” (1921–1924) have not been preserved. Therefore, the material for the studies of the life of the group as well as of its separate members is obtained by the researchers in the epistolary legacy of the writer. The researchers hardly ever refer to the diaries of the later period, apparently believing that Serapion brothers entirely disappeared from the literary life after 1929.

The article focuses on the notebooks of M. M. Zoshchenko. The materials from the museums of St. Petersburg, IRLI (the Institute of Russian Literature), and, first of all, of the funds of the State Literary Museum «XXth century». M. M. Zoshchenko’s working notebooks, pocket-books are undoubtedly the most important source for the scientific biography of the writer. They represent the test-bench or the testing ground for the development, masks, plots, a range of techniques in the course of M. M. Zoshchenko’s oeuvre.

This article reviews the materials of a multi-author monograph dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the literary association “Serapion brothers”. This project has united researchers from Saratov, Moscow, St Petersburg, considered to be renowned experts in the history of Russian literature of the 1920–1930s. The research is based on the unique documents from the Serapion brothers’ legacy being introduced into the scientifi c circulation (K. Fedin, Vs. Ivanov, N. Tikhonov, V. Kaverin, I. Gruzdev).