A.V. Zhigulin’s writer diary in historical and literary context

Abstract

The natural connection of space-time coordinates in the diary of the eminent poet and writer, former prisoner of Stalinist camps, the native of the Voronezh region A.V. Zhigulin (1930–2000) are examined. Periodization of writer’s creative path is specified, the features of the chronotope in his diary, the books that he started in 1954, while still being in prison as an “enemy of the people” are identified. The main themes of the narrative (his own work, a literary process as a whole, the events in the country and the world, personal and family life) are identified. The unique nature, cultural and historical value of famous writer’s works are emphasized. Notebooks and workbooks of A.V. Zhigulin, received in 2011–2013 for permanent storage together with other materials from writer’s archive in the Voronezh literary Museum of I.S. Nikitin, and open up new, previously unknown pages of his life and work, extra touches to the history of Russian journalism and literature are made. A.V. Zhigulin’s writer diary objectively and naturally reflects the attitude of the democratic part of the Soviet intelligentsia to the socio-political and socio-cultural processes that occurred in our country in the second half of XX century. The conclusion is made on preparation expediency of literary and historic document with commentaries of specialists.