On the problem of the definitive text of Moscow - Petushki by Venedikt Erofeev: A review of existing editions

The problem of the definitive text of Moscow - Petushki by Venedikt Erofeev has been postulated rather than reflected. A certain variant of the text was declared the only correct one, but without any explanation; moreover, the differences between the texts in different editions did not seem to be fully conceived. The aim of this article is to give a systematic review of existing editions of the book, to show their continuity, and thus answer the question: Which text(s) of Moscow - Petushki have we read so far and do we continue to read now? The realization of this aim is only the first, yet necessary stage in establishing the definitive text of Erofeev’s book. Eight of the most significant editions of Moscow - Petushki were compared with each other and with the text of the manuscript (since the original manuscript is now considered lost, we used a photocopy from the personal archive of Vladimir Muravyov). In addition, to make sure there were no discrepancies, we also examined various reeditions (more than 30), as well as less significant publications, which are in fact reprints. The first editions of Moscow - Petushki - in the Ami magazine (Jerusalem, 1973) and by YMCA-Press publishers (Paris, 1977; 1981) - were published abroad and without the author’s participation, the source of the text for the 1973 edition being a typewritten copy. All this led to many errors in the text. The author was first given a chance to check the text when its publication in the Vest almanac (1989) was being prepared. However, in absence of the manuscript, Erofeev left uncorrected most of the errors of the foreign editions (edits were made to the text of the 1981 edition, which is clearly visible in its unique errors left in Vest). A particular difficulty is that it is usually impossible to determine the exact aim of the author’s alternations - whether he simply wanted to restore the original text (but, having no manuscript, could not implement this intention fully) or whether he deliberately changed it. Later came the opportunity to check the text against the manuscript. The seriously ill writer entrusted this work to his friend Vladimir Muravyov, whose aim was probably to restore the original text, but at the same time to incorporate some of new author’s alternations. Nevertheless, Muravyov did not notice all the errors in the foreign editions, so in both Prometei and Interbuk editions about a quarter of the errors were left uncorrected. After the writer’s death in 1990, Moscow - Petushki was most often published in the Vest variant. In 2000, the Vagrius publishing house decided to print the Prometei version; however, as comparison shows, the text prepared by the HGS publishers (succeeding the Vest variant) was used to be edited according to the Prometei version. The result was a hybrid text combining two - the Prometei and the Vest - versions. In 2005, the Zakharov publishing house printed a new variant of the text, using a copy of the Ami magazine with author’s alternations as the source. However, it was the text published by Vagrius, which was edited according to this source, so the result was another hybrid text combining the Vagrius and the Ami variants. Attempts to prepare an authentic text of Moscow - Petushki, which dates back to the late 1980s, have failed. Moreover, for the last twenty years, Erofeev’s book has been printed in either of the two hybrid variants, which are extremely far from the author’s text. Establishing the definitive text of Moscow - Petushki is a complex work that has yet to be done, but its first stage seems to be completed. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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