This book examines the Russian biography series, The Lives of Remarkable People, and its role in Russian culture. The contributors examine the interplay of research and imagination in biographical narratives, the changing perceptions of what constitutes literary greatness, and the subversive possibilities of biography during eras of censorship.

The legendary Russian biography series, The Lives of Remarkable People, has played a significant role in Russian culture from its inception in 1890 until today. The longest running biography series in world literature, it spans three centuries and widely divergent political and cultural epochs: Imperial, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Russia. The authors argue that the treatment of biographical figures in the series is a case study for continuities and changes in Russian national identity over time. Biography in Russia and elsewhere remains a most influential literary genre and the distinctive approach and branding of the series has made it the economic engine of its publisher, Molodaia gvardiia. The centrality of biographies of major literary figures in the series reflects their heightened importance in Russian culture. The contributors examine the ways that biographies of Russia's foremost writers shaped the literary canon while mirroring the political and social realities of both the subjects’ and their biographers' times. Starting with Alexander Pushkin and ending with Joseph Brodsky, the authors analyze the interplay of research and imagination in biographical narrative, the changing perceptions of what constitutes literary greatness, and the subversive possibilities of biography during eras of political censorship.

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration

Introduction: Writing and Re-Writing the Literary Canon: A History of Russian Biography in the Lives of Remarkable People Series—Ludmilla A. Trigos and Carol Ueland

Chapter 1: The Remarkable Pushkin —Angela Brintlinger

Chapter 2: Larger than Life: The Meaning of Griboedov in Russian National Biography—Catherine O’Neil

Chapter 3: N.V. Gogol, Biographer’s Conundrum– Ludmilla A. Trigos

Chapter 4: Remarkable Tolstoy, from the Age of the Tsars to the Putin Era— Caryl Emerson

Chapter 5: Per Aspera Ad Astra: The Remarkable Lives of Fyodor Dostoevsky – Alexander Spektor

Chapter 6: Searching for the “Real” Chekhov: Approaches and Appropriations—Radislav Lapushin

Chapter 7: From Idol to Villain and (Almost) Back: Gorky as Editor and Subject of Lives of Remarkable People)– Irene Masing-Delic

Chapter 8: Alexander Blok as the Model Modernist– Jonathan Stone

Chapter 9: Narrating Eccentricity: The ZhZL Biographies of Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva—Alexandra Smith

Chapter 10: Mikhail Bulgakov: Refractions of a Writer’s Life – J.A.E. Curtis

Chapter 11: Between Biography and Mythology: The Russian and American Lives of Joseph Brodsky—Carol Ueland

Bibliography

Index

About the Contributors