Codex manuscriptus

2949-0510 2949-0502

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2025-6-435-453

Research Article and Publication of Archival Materials

Articles

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)

Natalya Yu. Bakshaeva codeximli@yandex.ru

24 04 2025

6 435 453

Bozhnev émigré the unnoticed generation the first wave of emigration avant-gardism Russian émigré literature archive

2026

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.

Vasil’eva, M. “‘Beskonechnyi krug’ Borisa Bozhneva” [“‘The Endless Circle’ by Boris Bozhnev”]. Russkaia literatura, no. 2, 2021, pp. 184–194. https:// doi.org/10.31860/0131-6095-2021-2-184-194 (In Russ.)

Livak, L. “‘Geroicheskie vremena molodoi zarubezhnoi poezii’: Literaturnyi avangard russkogo Parizha (1920–1926)” [“‘Heroic Times of Young Foreign Poetry’: The Literary Avant-Garde of Russian Paris (1920–1926)”]. Diaspora. Novye materialy [Diaspora. New materials]. Paris, Athenaeum Publ.; St. Petersburg, Feniks Publ., 2005. Vol. VII, pp. 131–242. (In Russ.)

Livak, L., Ustinov, A. Literaturnyi avangard russkogo Parizha: Istoriia. Khronologiia. Antologiia. Dokumenty [Literary Avant-garde of Russian Paris: History. The Chronology. An Anthology. Documents]. Moscow, OGI Publ., 2014. 990 p. (In Russ.)

Mel’nikov, N. “Epokha Bozhneva” [“The Epoch of Bozhnev”]. Bozhnev B. Ellicheskie elegii. Izbrannye stikhotvoreniia, sost. i vstup. st. N. Mel’nikova [Hellenic Elegies. Selected Poems, comp. and the introduction by N. Melnikov]. Tomsk, Vodolei Publ., 2000, pp. 3–13. (In Russ.)

Ustinov, A. “Boris Bozhnev do ‘Bor’by za nesushchestvovanie’” [“Boris Bozhnev before the ‘Struggle for Non-existence’”]. Vademecum: K 65-letiiu Lazaria Fleishmana, sost. i red. A. Ustinova [Vademecum: On the 65th Anniversary of Lazar Fleishman, comp. and ed. by A. Ustinov]. Moscow, Vodolei Publ., 2010, pp. 273–290. (In Russ.)

Fleishman, L. “O Borise Bozhneve” [“About Boris Bozhnev”]. Bozhnev B. Sobr. stikhotvorenii: v 2 t., pod red. L. Fleishmana [Coll. poems: in 2 vols, ed. by L. Fleishman]. Berkeley, Berkeley Slavic Specialties Publ., 1987–1989. Vol. 1. 1987, pp. 7–19. (Series “Modern Russian Literature and Culture. Studies and Texts.” Vol. 23) (In Russ.)