Poletaeva, T. (2020). A group portrait against the environs. Moscow: OGI. (In Russ.)

Abstract

The reviewer describes T. Poletaeva’s book, which consists of three novellas of reminiscences, as a crucial source of facts about the daily literary activities of the ‘Moscow Time’ [‘Moskovskoe vremya’] poets as well as the late Soviet era in general. Written at different points in time and published as a collection, these texts are interpreted as narrative ‘takes’ depicting the same biographical matter. The author seeks to prove that the novellas’ unique characteristics stem from a particular narrative organization, namely, the emphasis on the figure or the background against which it is portrayed. The figure in question (a recurrent character in all three novellas) is the ideologist of the ‘Moscow Time’ group and Poletaeva’s first husband A. Soprovsky, whose character is presented in much detail. The background for the narration is made up of the memoirist’s numerous ‘fellow travellers’ (the book contains their group portrait) and the locations and spaces that accommodated the events of the author’s life (so-called ‘environs’).