Pushkin’s autograph as a bribe. A few brush strokes towards a portrait of N. Lerner

Abstract

The publication is concerned with little known facts of the life and literary research of Nikolay Lerner (1877–1934), a renowned Pushkin scholar, critic, literary historian and translator, who authored Pushkin’s Labours and Days [Trudy i dni Pushkina] (1910), Tales about Pushkin [Rasskazy o Pushkine] (1929), and Essays of a Pushkin Scholar [Pushkinologicheskie etyudy] (1935). The paper also details his plans to compile, comment and publish reminiscences of the prominent sociologist and journalist S. Yuzhakov (1849– 1910), entitled Notes of an Old Writer [Zapiski starogo pisatelya]. Intended for publication by Kolos, a private publishing house managed by F. Vityazev, the book never saw the light of day. On 19 March 1931, Lerner was arrested on the charges of counterrevolutionary propaganda among the literary community as well as purchasing of valuable museum items and their smuggling across the border. The charges were dropped on 29 March and his case was closed; the scholar was released from custody on 13 May of the same year. The incident was described by the historian R. Ivanov-Razumnik in a dedicated chapter of his memoir and by the philologist and commentator of Pushkin’s oeuvre Y. Oksman.