Acknowledgements: The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 23-18-00393 “Russia and the West viewing each other: Literature at the intersection of culture and politics, 20 century”) in IWL RAS.

Abstract:

Rolland’s greeting to the Congress of Siberian Writers and letters to Siberian writers written by Rolland in 1928 are a little-known but significant episode in R. Rolland’s relations with the USSR. They were written at Gorky’s request in a letter to Rolland dated March 23, 1928. Gorky’s request was connected with a scandal that broke out in the émigré press in Paris in 1927–1928 in connection with the publication of an anonymous appeal to “Writers of the World” on the situation of writers in the USSR. Rolland’s greeting was supposed to draw the attention of the West to the literature of Siberia, which was known to Rolland only from German geographical atlases. In response, Rolland received several letters from Siberian writers who were grouped around the “Siberian Lights” magazine. In particular, Georgy Vyatkin (1885–1938, repressed), a Siberian poet, writer, playwright, publicist, an active participant in the literary processes in Siberia, one of the founders of modern Siberian literature, entered into correspondence with Rolland. The Department of Manuscripts has preserved two letters from Rolland to Vyatkin, written six years apart. In them, Rolland touches on important topics that were at the center of attention of the world community at that time, related to the discussion of the results of the October Revolution and what is happening in the USSR, in particular, Panait Istrati’s trip to the USSR, and also shares his understanding of the main principles of literary creativity.