Acknowledgments:
The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project number 20-112-00095/20, Not for Sale
About ex. editors:
Oleg A. Korostelev (1959–2020), PhD in Philology, А.М. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1588-717X
Monika L. Spivak, DSc in Philology, Head of the Department of Literary Heritage, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia
Abstract:
Volume 112 of Literary Heritage contains Andrey Bely’s fundamental two-volume treatise History of the Formation of a Self-Conscious Soul (1926–1931), the main, summary work of his life, published in its entirety on the basis of the author’s autographs for the first time. It presents the symbolist writer as an original philosopher, an outstanding historian and cultural critic. In it Bely explores the laws of human development, starting with the appearance of Christianity and ending with the XX century, the era of symbolism and anthroposophy. The unique set of related materials is published for the first time: the draft of the treatise, fragments of the first edition, explanatory notes by Andrey Bely himself and his widow K.N. Bugayeva. For the first time, drawings, diagrams and accompanying posters are reproduced that clarify the author’s idea of History of the Formation of a Self-Conscious Soul. The publication is provided with essential detailed scholarly commentary, an introduction and afterword, indexes of names and illustrations. The book is intended for philologists, historians, philosophers; for researchers, postgraduates, students and a wide range of readers interested in the history of world culture and civilization.