From “Ardent Boy” to “A Man with Honour and Intellect”: David Samoilov’s Pre-War and Wartime Diaries
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Keywords

David Samoilov
diary of poet
spiritual search
dialogue
counterpoint
revolutionary idea
romantic illusions

Abstract

This article is devoted to Podennie zapisi [Daily Notes], the diaries by Russian poet David Samoilov (1920–1990), which depict the main events in his life and the historical period in which he lived. The article focuses on the years 1934 to 1945, a crucial period for the foundation and evolution of the poet’s moral and creative principles, which shaped the poet’s personal artistic world, his political ideology and his philosophical worldview. Samoilov’s diaries provide a “mirror” of the historical fate of his generation, whom he calls “the generation of 1940”. Ultimately, I argue that Samoilov’s diaries are not simply an autobiographical document, but a “personal history”, which is developed more fully in Samoilov’s poetry.
https://doi.org/10.25430/2281-6992/v8-063-084
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References

Nemzer 2006: A. Nemzer, Lirika Davida Samoilova // D. Samoilov, Stikhotvoreniia, Akademicheskii proekt, Sankt-Peterburg 2006, s. 5–53.

Podstrochnik 2010: Podstrochnik. Zhizn' Lilianny Lunginoi, rasskazannaia eiu v fil'me Olega Dormana, Astrel': CORPUS, Moskva, 2010.

Samoilov 1995: D. Samoilov, Pamiatnye zapiski, Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, Moskva, 1995.

Samoilov 2002, I: D. Samoilov, Podennye zapisi: v 2 t., Vremia, Moskva, 2002, t. 1.

Samoilov 2005: D. Samoilov, Kniga o russkoi rifme, Vremia, Moskva, 2005.

Samoilov 2006: D. Samoilov, Stikhotvoreniia, Akademicheskii proekt, Sankt-Peterburg, 2006

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