The Problem of Publishing the Works of the Russian Slavists in the 1920s: “Printing in Our Department is in Decline”

Abstract

The article examines, for the first time in scholarship, the situation with the publication of works on the Slavic studies in the 1920s. The study is based on archival documents and, above all, the correspondence of members of the Department of the Russian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences. The revolutionary events and the Civil War affected the publishing activities of the Department; its periodicals, the journal Izvestia ORYAS and Sbornik ORYAS, ceased to be published. The printing of works by the prominent Slavists of the past, prepared before the revolution, was suspended. The correspondence of scientists demonstrates the difficulties or practical impossibility of publishing on the Slavic studies. The end of the Civil War and the transition of the state policy to the NEP led to some improvement in publishing, and the Department was able to publish several issues of the Izvestia and Sbornik. However, the assessment of the situation in the 1922–1923 remained unfavorable, which was reflected in the report of the Department’s activities for this period. The report noted the large volumes of works approved for publication that could not be published, often due to funding issues, and also noted the “resistance on the part of the authorities to everything Slavic.” The overall conclusion of the report was pessimistic – “the humanities are dying in Russia.” New European Slavic journals that began to appear in the mid-1920s provided significant assistance in the publishing of the Russian Slavists works: “Slavia,” “Revue des ètudes slaves,” “Juzhnoslovenski filolog,” and “Zeitschrift für slavische Philologie.”

Received: 10.02.2025.
Revised: 25.02.2025.
Accepted: 18.03.2025.

Citation
Robinson M. A. The Problem of Publishing the Works of the Russian Slavists in the 1920s: “Printing in Our Department is in Decline” // Slavic Almanac. 2025. No. 1–2. P. 181–210 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2025.1-2.08