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Abstract:

This article examines the instrumentalization of literature in Soviet ideology during the Stalin era. It considers the (im)possibility for humanities scholars in the 1930-s to maintain the balance between poetics and ideology while working with classical material, in particular, to interpret Goethe’s works on the edge between Marxism and bourgeois literary studies, between Engels and Gundolf. The Anniversary Edition of Goethe’s Works, scheduled for the 100th anniversary of the author’s death, illustrates the structure and composition of commentaries in academic publications of foreign classical writer’s collected works, developed by the curator of the project, A.G. Gabritchevsky. His main idea was based on three components: a conceptual commenting introduction, “factographic” notes, and commentaries explaining the principles of translation.