Publication of Bulgakov's "Kak prozhita zhizn'"

[slavicre at UOTTAWA.CA]

A new and unique publication is about to be released by the Slavic
Research Group at the University of Ottawa, in conjunction with the
Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) in Moscow: V. F.
Bulgakov. Kak prozhita zhizn’. Vospominanija poslednego sekretarja L. N.
Tolstogo [V. F. Bulgakov. How life is lived. Reminiscences of Tolstoy’s
last secretary].  This volume was compiled by Ljudmila Gladkova, John
Woodsworth and Arkadi Klioutchanski under the editorship of Dr Andrew
Donskov, F.R.S.C.

These reminiscences were written between 1946 and 1961 by Valentin
Fëdorovich Bulgakov, personal secretary to the writer Leo Tolstoy during
the last year of the great writer’s life (1910).  This voluminous work,
consisting of more than 3,000 typewritten pages, has never been published
before.  It traces the whole life and career of Bulgakov as a prominent
Russian literator, including a description of his childhood in Siberia,
his studies at Moscow University, his secretarial duties at Yasnaya
Polyana, his subsequent activity as curator of the Tolstoy Museum, his
contacts with the great writer’s family and followers, his exile to
Czechoslovakia aboard the so-called ‘philosophical ship’ in 1922, his life
in emigration, the Russian Museum which he founded in Prague, and (upon
his return from exile in 1948) his work at the Tolstoy Museum at Yasnaya
Polyana until his death in 1966.
The whole work is divided into eleven parts, five of which are featured in
the present volume as directly bearing on Tolstoy, covering the events of
1910 and the years immediately following, up to the time of Bulgakov’s
exile to Prague.  It also includes a critical introduction, a plethora of
annotations, a detailed chronology, an extensive bibliography and an index
of names.

The materials for this book were exclusively provided to us by RGALI in
Moscow, headed by Director Tat’jana Mikhajlovna Gorjaeva, as well as by
Bulgakov’s granddaughter N. N. Artëmova in Moscow.  Financial support for
this publication (and the underlying research) was provided the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as the Managing
Director of the Moscow printing firm Kuchkovo pole, Georgij Kuchkov.
Lucidly and skilfully written, this book will be of priceless value not
only to Tolstoy specialists the world over, but to the public at large. 
It is due to be published in December 2012.

In addition, the Slavic Research Group intends to publish in 2013 a
companion volume by Bulgakov: V spore s Tolstym. Na vesakh zhizni
[Arguments with Tolstoy: On the scales of life], along with correspondence
addressed to him by the Canadian Doukhobors.  Also planned is an English
translation of all these works, to which the Slavic Research Group has
been granted exclusive rights.

For further information, please contact Dr Andrew Donskov, F.R.S.C.,
Distinguished University Professor and Director, Slavic Research Group at
the University of Ottawa, at slavicre at uottawa.ca or 613-562-5800 X1007.

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