Bouquet of Violets, or Being a Bit Nervous: Finishing Touches to the 1933 Nobel Days

Abstract

In 1933, Ivan Bunin was the first Russian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. This article bears on the materials held in Moscow archives that contribute to the Bunin “Nobeliade” that researchers have reconstructed relying on foreign collections. The ego-documents of direct participants and first-hand witnesses of the events that took place between November 9 (the announcement of the Swedish Academy) and December 3 (Bunin’s departure from Paris to Stockholm) add touching details to this historical moment and also demonstrate different attempts to manipulate the laureate. Dozens of telegrams and some letters to the laureate are stored in the Russian archive of art and literature. They overlap with the letters of the abovementioned Bunin’s correspondents to other persons held in the House of Russia Abroad. They latter archive also includes a handwritten note of Bunin. This is the first publication of the mentioned archive materials.

Keywords

• russian émigré
• nobel prize for literature
• ivan bunin
• newspaper vozrozhdenije (renaissance)
• a.v. kartashev
• i.s. shmelev
• p.e. kovalevskij
• ego-documents
• archives.