On the History of the Literary-Artistic Digests Zemlya (1908-1917)

The article is devoted to the sources for the study of the literary-artistic digest Zemlya [Ground] (Moscow: Moscow Publishing House, 1908-1917): archival materials, bibliographic references, memoirs, epistolary collections, literary reviews, research works. The aim of identifying the reasons behind the negative attitude developed towards this digest is set. Soviet historiography (O.D. Golubeva's, A.A. Tarasova's works) looked upon the publishing of the digest Zemlya as a purely commercial venture of "literary shopkeepers". This kind of researchers' attitude was mostly promoted due to the memoirs of N.S. Klyostov (Angarsky) who had been in charge of Moscow Publishing House in 1907-1909. But epistolary evidence of the editor of the first two issues of Zemlya I.A. Bunin and the staff (B.K. Zaitsev, L.N. Andreev, F. Sologub and others) should be taken into consideration as well. In references and histories of literature, there is practically no factual information on G.A. Blumenberg and G.G. Blumenberg, the owners of Moscow Publishing House, as well as on D.M. Rebrik, the procurist (authorized representative) of the Blumenberg Trading House, who was personally engaged in the composition of Zemlya issues. In separate works (A.B. Dubovikov, I. Gazer, E.A. Dyakova, L.R. Berdysheva) there are some discrepancies concerning the digest's content, publishing dates, etc. With the purpose of historical reconstruction of the relationships within the editorial board, the archival materials from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI), Moscow, have been studied. The digest's main authors (M.P. Artsybashev, A.I. Kuprin, F. Sologub, V.K. Vinnichenko, E.N. Chirikov, N.A. Krasheninnikov) were criticized, too. The writers were perceived as bourgeois representatives of the "literary collapse" propagating depravity and godlessness. However, journal and newspaper reviewers at the beginning of the 20th century (Z.N. Gippius, M.O. Gershenzon, M. Kuzmin, E. Koltonovskaya, D.V. Filosofov and others) thought that the digest Zemlya managed to gather the most popular names of modern Russian literature. Artsybashev's image can be called central in the digest Zemlya. The writer's notoriety was projected to the image of the whole digest and reflected in Soviet literature scholars' critical works. However, although starting from the 1990s the attitude of the researchers (T.F. Prokopov, M.N. Nikolaev, L.R. Berdysheva, O.Yu. Malkina, I.V. Suvorova, A.N. Dolgenko, A.I. Garaev) towards Artsybashev's personality and works underwent a 180-degree turn, the unjustified representation of Moscow Publishing House's digests as a second-class manifestation of popular literature was not overcome yet. The digest Zemlya occupied a leading position in the literary marketplace for nine years. They are still of undeniable historical and literary interest and of high artistic value, and they deserve greater attention of researchers.

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