Реальность и вымысел в автобиографических книгах К. Паустовского «Начало Неведомого Века» и «Время больших ожиданий»

Abstract

The so-called „Odessa literary myth” had been shaped by representatives of different strata since the foundation of the city. The Odessa fragment from the Eugeny Onegin’s Adventure (Puteshestvie Evgeniya Onegina), the XIX century’s most prominent piece of writing, was claimed by V. Tumanovsky to be „the deed for our city's immortality”. Paustovsky’s book – his own deed for immortality of Odessa literature of the 1920s – came into light after many years of Odessa literary school being consigned to oblivion (Babel's execution, posthumous condemnation of Ilf and Petrov’s works, the campaign against cosmopolitism). The publishing procedure was not easy either: A. Tvardovsky, „Noviy Mir’s” editor-in-chief, demanded that the fragments on Babel and Bagritsky be shortened and the labour, struggle and politics motives be added. Paustovsky refused to obey and so the story was only published in the 3 - 5 issues of the journal „Okt’abr’” in 1959. Many readers and even scholars take the book for an autobiography which is wrong due to the 3 discrepancies. 1. Paustovsky and Yakov Livshiz didn't live in one and the same house on Chernomorskaya but in different ones. Livshiz taken previously for a fictional character has happened to be a real person: we present the data from his personal form testifying that he was an employee of Oprodkomgub in 1920. Paustovsky lived at that time in Odessa with his wife Ekaterina Zagorskaya not mentioned in the story. 2. The establishment of the information department of the Oprodkomgub – as shown in the story – was fictional as well. In accordance with the archival documents Paustovsky got employed by the institution 16-th Feb. 1920 while Golovchiner claimed to be the head of the department entered the Oprodkomgub on the 2-nd of March. The staff timetable is included. 3. The events related to the so-called „day of the peaceful uprising” were shifted from May of 1919 to the spring of 1920. The documents representing the procedure of requisitioning among the population and cancellation of „the peaceful uprising” are included either. Some fragments were omitted in the following publications. They were restored, however, in the jubilee edition printed by the Literary Museum of Odessa for Paustovsky's 120-th anniversary. Examples are given. The most considerable discrepancy was caused by that the daugheter of the artist Kiriak Kostandi insisted that all mentions of her father in „The Mor’ak” newspaper be left out. In the conclusion of the article you can find some extracts from Paustovsky's diaries of 1920–1921 in which some people later to be mentioned in the story are described. It’s also noteworthy that author's spirit there is contrast to that optimistic of The Time of Great Expectations.