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‘…To be published by YMCA’ Towards the history of the publication of Nina Berberova’s The Relief of Fate [Oblegchenie uchasti]
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2025-6-134-147
Abstract
The article considers problems that plagued the book publishing industry of Russian émigrés in the late 1940s, following the destructive Nazi occupation of France during World War II. The study examines the personal experience of Nina Berberova, a ‘first wave’ émigré poet and writer, to identify the strategies used by authors to represent their output in the markets for Russian and translated literature amid the publishing crisis. A. Martynov also describes the helpful interventions in favour of the publication of Berberova’s collected novellas The Relief of Fate [Oblegchenie uchasti] (1949) by YMCA-Press. The writer Boris Zaytsev, the poet and art historian Vladimir Veidle, and the philosopher and head of YMCA-Press Nikolay Berdyaev lent a hand. The article details their acquaintance with Berberova and mutual support (in the case of Veidle and Zaytsev) dating back to before the publication. Appended to the article are Berberova’s hitherto unpublished letter to Boris Krutikov, one of the executives of the Russian section of YMCA-Press, which offers a generous insight into the decision-making process at the press, and Zaytsev’s internal review of Berberova’s book.
Supporting agencies: The study was prepared within the framework of the HSE University Basic Research Programme.
About the Author
A. V. Martynov
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Andrey V. Martynov Candidate of Philosophy
21/4 Staraya Basmannaya St., Moscow, 105066
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Review
For citations:
Martynov A.V. ‘…To be published by YMCA’ Towards the history of the publication of Nina Berberova’s The Relief of Fate [Oblegchenie uchasti]. Voprosy literatury. 2025;(6):134-147. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2025-6-134-147
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