“I took Russia with me”: “Sovremennye Zapiski” (“Modern notes”) as a platform for Russian emigration in the 1920s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of the journal «Modern Notes», which was published in several centers of Russian emigration. Attention is paid to the peculiarities of appearance, structural parts and socio-cultural characteristics of the magazine, which became a unique platform for creativity, work and communication within the first wave of Russian emigration. The author makes an attempt to determine the degree of inclusion of the journal in European culture and to identify features of the Russian cultural code in the journal «Modern Notes». In recent decades, the issue of Russian emigration has become a key aspect of humanitarian research. This is reflected in numerous publications by historians, philosophers, cultural scholars, and philologists. Nevertheless, a sufficient number of research gaps remain out of sight. Therefore, drawing attention to some stories becomes an impetus to search and publish Russian and foreign sources on the topic, revealing new aspects of the phenomenon of Russian emigration. The phenomenon of the magazine is also that it was created by emigrants, in the past, former political activists, who were far from publishing activity and publishing. Therefore, the degree of success of the journal was in direct dependence on what copyrights will be placed on its pages, who can attract authors for «promotion» of the journal. «Modern notes» for twenty years (1920–1940) labor-intensive and difficult work produces seventy books. The editorial staff moved to the European capitals: Paris, Berlin, Prague. Forming a certain axis of cultural influence, the magazine becomes a kind of collective place of creativity, a kind of literary monument that is formed in interwar time.