Integration into the digital environment of the book collection of the Gorky publishing house “World literature”: methodological approaches

The article highlights the methodological approaches used to integrate into the digital environment the books published by the first Soviet specialized publishing house of translated fiction “World Literature”, opened on the initiative of A.M. Gorky. At the beginning, an overview of the currently existing digital archives is given: writers’, literary organizations, literary circles, groups, societies and associations. Special attention is paid to the creation of an archive of literary publishing houses. On the example of the World Literature portal created by scientists from IWL RAS, the productivity of an interdisciplinary approach is outlined, through which it becomes possible to comprehensively approach the problem of restructuring the literary process in transitional epochs, such as military communism and the early NEP, when the Gorky publishing house functioned. The publication of fiction in this period depended entirely on the political will and people on the ground who tried to act in their own interests, as I.I. Ionov, the head of Petrogosizdat, did. The article identifies three methodological prerequisites: compilation of the list of editions on the basis of different sources and databases, assessment of the preservation of the copy, bibliographic description of the book as a result of the scholar’s scientific research. Each of them is disclosed through a nuanced analysis of the history of the establishment and functioning of the Gorky publishing house under the conditions of the destruction of the country’s printing base and the monopolization of the book market by the new state.