On history of V.M. Shukshin's correspondence with editors of Znamya magazine

The article deals with an episode of V.M. Shukshin's biography: correspondence withthe editors of Znamya magazine. In 2009 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of V.M. Shukshin a group of scientists of thePhilological Faculty of Altai State University prepared to print eight-volume, most comprehensive up-to-date collected works of thewriter. The material contained in the eighth volume of collected works (many of them were published for the first time) allowedconducting a comprehensive philological analysis of the epistolary works of Shukshin, his first experiences in journalism, beginning thestudy of autobiography and the autographs of the famous writer. The author draws attention to one of Shukshin's letters to the editors ofZnamya, which refers to the nowadays unknown stories of the writer, sent for publication in the magazine. Reconstruction of thecircumstances of writing the letter leads the author to describe the socio-cultural situation in the literary process of the 1960s in theUSSR. The author claims that Shukshin's choice of Znamya was not accidental. In the 1960s the magazine was a respectable edition,which published not only eminent writers and poets, but also representatives of military and political leadership of the USSR. Thechances to be published for the beginning author here were small, and Shukshin's desire to publish his stories in Znamya can only beregarded as a daring of the young writer trying to enter the circle of the Soviet literary establishment. Obviously, at this time Shukshindid not realize that to be the author of a certain "thick" magazine means to adhere to certain ideological, artistic and aesthetic concepts.The literary process of the 1960s in the USSR was marked with confrontation of the two "thick" journals: conservative and protectiveOctyabr, chaired by V.A. Kochetov, and the more liberal Noviy Mir under the direction of A.T. Tvardovskiy. These magazines were akind of poles of the Soviet literature in 1960s, each of them formed its own ideological and aesthetic values, their circle of literarymagazines-satellites. Znamya certainly belonged to the camp of Octyabr, and, as a consequence, it was an apologist for orthodoxsocialist realism. But the fact is that the early stories of V.M. Shukshin were fully in line with the ideological and aesthetic principles ofOctyabr and Znamya, i.e. within the norms of socialist realism. The author gradually recovers the history of contacts of V.M. Shukshinwith the editors of Znamya. In particular, based on the materials of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), the authoranalyses in detail the reviewers' reports on Shukshin's stories, trying to restore some scenes of Shukshin's early works, unknown today.In the conclusion the author comes to a thesis, stating the importance of the role, played by correspondence of Shukshin with the editorsof Znamya. The young writer acquired the necessary experience in dealing with editors and critics, felt the specifics of literarymagazines. This experience proved to be extremely valuable for V. Shukshin: he published most of his literary works in periodicals.

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