Creative biography of B.A. Lazarevsky: the specifics of forming a lifetime collection of works

INTRODUCTION. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that B.A. Lazarevsky’s lists of works have not previously been subjected to comparative analysis; the work was carried out within the framework of such a direction in Russian literary studies as Russian émigré literature. The aim of the study was to identify the specific features of the formation of B.A. Lazarevsky’s lifetime collected works.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The lifetime lists of works reflecting the order and content of the volumes of B.A. Lazarevsky’s collected works were analyzed, the lists were compared with each other, as well as directly with the volumes of the collection that could be found in the holdings of the Russian State Library. Descriptive and comparative methods were used for the study.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The analysis of the material made it possible to present the cause-and-effect relationships between the beginning and termination of the publication of B.A. Lazarevsky’s collected works. The dating and the number of volumes have been determined. It has been revealed that the publishing house’s lifetime lists of works very loosely and unreasonably included collections of short stories and other works by B.A. Lazarevsky as volumes of collected works. The information varies both between the lists and when compared to the actual books.

CONCLUSION. The conducted research shows that it is possible to talk about B.A. Lazarevsky’s collected works 1) in the classical sense only about those books published by the “Prosveshchenie” publishing house, 2) with reservations and clarifications of bibliographic references about all eight books (if based on the writer’s idea). Lists of works are a means of systematizing creativity, which does not give correct ideas about the collection.