Boris Bozhnev in the 1920s: Newly Found Poems in the Context of the Biography of the “Elusive” Poet (Based on the Materials of the Manuscript Department of the IWL RAS)

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Abstract:
The Manuscript Department of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences contains autographs of the poet Boris Bozhnev (1898– 1969), a representative of the “unnoticed generation” of the first wave of emigration, the “damned poet” of Russian Paris. Bozhnev’s first published collection is considered to be “The Struggle for Non-Existence”, published in 1925. The autographs found in the archive — 26 poems from the books “Grievances”, “Diary”, “Consolations” — are dated 1922–1923 and written in Paris. Some of the poems found in the archive were included in it, while no information could be found about the publication of the rest, as well as about the history of the creation of the three books mentioned. It is known for certain that the documents published in the Manuscript Department of the IWL RAS were donated by the Union of Soviet Writers in 1938. The poems, unknown to researchers, are valuable material for studying Bozhnev’s early work and the literary life of young émigrés in Paris in the 1920s.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2025-6-435-453
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/RASWKD
Author: Natalya Yu. Bakshaeva
About the author: Natalya Yu. Bakshaeva, Research Fellow, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1234-7784 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: February 23, 2025
Date of Publication: April 24, 2025
Approved after reviewing : November 11, 2025
Publication Type: Research Article and Publication of Archival Materials
For citation: Bakshaeva, N.Yu. “Boris Bozhnev in the 1920s: Newly Found Poems in the Context of the Biography of the ‘Elusive’ Poet (Based on the Materials of the Manuscript Department of the IWL RAS).” Codex manuscriptus, issue 6. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 435–453. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2025-6-435-453
Keywords: Bozhnev, émigré, the unnoticed generation, the first wave of emigration, avant-gardism, Russian émigré literature, archive.

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