“Andrei Bely in 2020-2021”
Under this title, on the birthday of the Russian Symbolist poet, the brightest representative of the "Russian spiritual renaissance," the Andrei Bely’s Memorial Apartment in Moscow hosted a presentation of new books and introduced valuable things to the museum.
Everyone had an opportunity to join an online presentation of new books about Andrei Bely, to listen to leading experts and to dive into the semi-mystical atmosphere that always follows this writer, who managed to recreate an idea of the city, whether it is Saint Petersburg (Petersburg novel, 1912) or the sounds, smells, special atmosphere of Moscow (Moscow novel, 1925 - 1932).
At the celebration of Andrei Bely's birthday, the museum employee Elena Nasedkina introduced the audience to the unique gifts made by Alexander Sobolev, the Bogoslovsky family, that the Museum had received (the writer's bag, his personal belongings, photographs and other exhibits).
The publication of the book Andrei Bely and Natasha Turgeneva: A Novel in Letters (Moscow: Ruthenia, 2020) became a great scientific publishing achievement. The history of its preparing process is already worthy of a separate discussion. Thanks to the efforts of one of the most prominent Andrei Bely’s researchers Thomas Bayer (USA) and the director of the Memorial Apartment, Monika Spivak (the author of the most extensive comments on the publication), it became possible to study the letters of Andrei Bely to his wife's sister, who was also a member of the Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, and reveal another secret in the science of Andrei Bely.
Teachers from the Department of German Philology and Scandinavian Studies of the Institute of Philology (including Natalia Sharapenkova, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Tamara Ivanova, a member of the Veteran’s Council of PetrSU, Irina Chepurina, a senior teacher, and Iolanta Suhotskaya, a 4th year student) also participated in the online seminar.
Natalia Sharapenkova, Doctor of Philological Sciences noted:
“By now, a whole scientific community has emerged (not just on paper, but as soulmate community!), and the Andrei Bely Memorial Apartment has truly became its center. The publication of the letters to and from Natasha Turgeneva, immersion in their thoughts and spiritual passions will add another important color to the Andrei Bely’s image; it will also open another door to the understanding of this unusually complex, contradictory and incredibly intriguing artist and person. “
Tamara Ivanova, Candidate of Philological Sciences, a member of Veteran’s Council of PetrSU:
“For me, this is a very interesting story about the relationship between Andrei Bely and Natasha Turgeneva, especially when such a rich material was presented during the video presentation. Thanks to Monika Spivak, Natalia Sharapenkova and other participants, more comes to light about Andrei Bely, an idiosyncratic artist and original thinker.”
