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Acknowledgements:

The research was carried out at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 22-18-00347 “Ivan Bunin’s Early Work: Poetry, Prose, Criticism, Journalism, Translations (1883–1902)”).

Abstract:

The article describes the history of the text of Ivan Bunin’s early short story “On the Donets [River]”, retitled “Holy Mountains” in emigration. As a result of the analysis of the text of the story, it was possible to identify Bunin’s fifth journey through Ukraine, which was previously unknown: in April 1894, the novice writer visited the old Svyatogorsk monastery. The travelogue story contains a detailed description of this trip. This work has been published by the author nine times. In emigration, a new version of the story appeared in connection with the major author’s edits (the reduction of the text by almost half). The choice of the main text of the story is justified: it will be published based on the Complete works of Bunin (Pg., 1915). The article pays special attention to commenting on the story “On the Donets”, which contains many historical realities. The considered story once again confirmed the correctness of the developed textual principle: the choice of the main text of a particular work should be carried out according to the latest author’s edition of the period in which it was written.