On the History of Unofficial Culture and the Contemporary Russian Diaspora: 1950s-1990s. Autobiographies. Authors’ readings. / [Compiled, edited, annotated by Y. M. Valieva]. St. Petersburg: OOO “Contrast,” 2015. 600 p. + 3 CDs.

ISBN 978-5-4380-0099-0

The book includes new materials on the history of unofficial culture and the contemporary Russian diaspora: autobiographies, manuscript facsimiles, photographs. Among texts published here for the first time are autobiographies of samizdat leaders Boris Ivanov and Vyacheslav Dolinin, transfuturist poets Sergei Sigei and Ry Nikonova, Malaya Sadovaya Circle writer Alexander Churilin, and poet and artist Tatiana Apraksina.

The section “Materials on the History of Unofficial Culture” features interviews, memoirs, documents on the history of samizdat.

This edition includes three audio CDs containing recordings of readings by all writers represented in the book, including: Naum Korzhavin, Yevgeny Rein, Ludmila Shtern, human rights movement participants Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Natalia Gorbanevskaya, former political prisoners Nikolai Brown and Anatoly Berger, modern Russian emigre authors Vladimir Lazarev, Vladimir Gandelsman, Bakhyt Kenjeev, Vladimir Druk, Katya Kapovich, Yevgeny Slivkin, Irina Mashinskaya.

The “Audio Archives” include 1970s-1980s by authors including OBERIU writer Igor Bakhterev. The book draws on materials from Russian and foreign archives, as well as from private collections. Most of the material is previously unpublished.

The book and audio set is addressed to specialists — linguists, historians of culture, teachers of Russian language and literature, as well as a wide range of readers.

Participants in the evening presentation include: Vyacheslav Dolinin, Nikolai Brown, Anatoly Berger, Mikhail Eremin, Irina Tsymbal, Sergey Stratanovsky, Petr Cheigin, Tatyana Tsarkova, Tatyana Apraksina

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