The book and journal sources of the anthology Collection of Poems Relating to the Unforgettable 1812 by N.M. Kugushev (Article I)

The paper aims to analyze the forms of social and cultural communication typical of the early nation-building of the early nineteenth century, and their reflection in the sources of a poetic anthology by N.M. Kugushev dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812. The Napoleonic Invasion and the Patriotic War of 1812 significantly affected literary communication: new forms appeared and old ones were modernized. N.M. Kugushev's Collection of Poems Relating to the Unforgettable 1812 (1814), as the poetic picture of the era, reflected the consequences of these socio-cultural changes. The origin of the Collection is inextricably connected with the fate of a number of communicative forms, from the journal to the leaflet. The poetic texts N.M. Kugushev selected for the anthology were published in six journals: Vestnik Evropy (26 poems), Drug yunoshestva (12 poems), Chteniya v Besede lyubiteley russkogo slova (6 poems), Sankt-peterburgskiy vestnik (2 poems). The vast majority of the poems were originally published in the most popular editions of the time, Russkiy vestnik (55 poems) and Syn otechestva (48 poems). 27 poems of the anthology were published in 1812-1814 as separate booklets or parts of them. These editions offered original models of socio-cultural communication; model features were the background for the poetic interpretation of the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, and readers of the anthology perceived them. Publication sources show how the heightened attention to the contemporary events that become historically significant on the spot, transforms cultural communication, highlighting the efficiency, ability to fast and, possibly, comprehensive, universal interpretation of the material. This pronounced topicality made the poetry of Syn otechestva and Russkiy vestnik the most significant phenomenon of literature, and the carcase of the anthology. In the context of topicality, literary journals (Vestnik Evropy), circle editions (Drug yunosh-estva, Chteniya v Besede lyubiteley russkogo slova, Sankt-Peterburgskiy vestnik) altered their communicative orientations losing their semantic and artistic isolation. Reflection on modernity was connected with the desire to address a broad, nationwide audience, and expressed the changes in the collective consciousness formed by the totality of individual voices. The range of sources of the Collection, reflecting the diversity of ideologies, aesthetic positions and author styles, demonstrates the challenging way to unity supported by the ideal of national integrity, by the urgent need in a consistent nation-building.

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