Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) grant No. 20-012-00261 А.
Abstract
This article is a survey of the experience and the results of the research on the life and work of Sergey A. Esenin (1895– 1925) at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Within the framework of this research program, from the 1990s to the present, two fundamental works have been published: the Complete Works in 7 volumes (9 books) (1995–2002; edited by Yu. L. Prokushev) and the Chronicle of Esenin’s Life and Work in 5 volumes (7 books) (2003–2018). The Esenin Encyclopedia is currently a work in progress. The article discusses specific cases that demonstrate how complex textological, historical, and literary issues related to Esenin have been addressed in the course of the research. These issues include: publication of the original texts exempt from various types of distortions and censorship exemptions, developing the structure and the content of the volumes of Esenin’s Complete Works, the issue of dating, and the problems of commenting. The article examines methodological and methodical principles of the Chronicle of Esenin’s Life and Work. It shows, for example, how the hitherto understudied facts and episodes of Esenin’s biography have got coverage in the volume: his military service in Tsarskoye Selo, initiation into the world literature (translations and reception), the history of the publication of Collected poems (1926) prepared by the poet himself in the second half of 1925. The article emphasizes the continuity of this work with Esenin’s Complete Collection of Works. The author comes to the conclusion that the Complete Works of Esenin and the Chronicle of Esenin’s Life and Work form the basis for a holistic and systematic study of the entire complex of his life and work in the Esenin encyclopedia.
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