In search of a useful past: biography as a genre in 1917-1937

The book is based on the eternal connection between literature and history. The time boundaries of the study cover the period from 1917 to 1937 - the moment of the crisis of Russian culture as a whole and literary culture in particular. The author’s focus is the work of Vladislav Khodasevich, Yuri Tynyanov and Mikhail Bulgakov, who turned to the biography genre in the search for “Hero of their time”, creating works of art, literary biographies and plays. Their heroes were A. S. Pushkin, A. S. Griboedov, G. R. Derzhavin and J.-B. Moliere. A. Brintlinger considers in an appeal to the biography genre, characteristic of the entire European, and not just Russian literature of this period, an attempt to comprehend his past and through it the present, to understand their literary predecessors and themselves as writers, as well as the need of the reader of that time for samples to build your own life. The split in Russian culture between those who remained in Soviet Russia, and those who have become part of an extensive diaspora, creates an exciting opportunity to study the role of biography in this difficult era