The literature of the Kalmyks abroad (Gary Mushaev's collection of poems “Steppe wind”)

The article considers the collection of poems “Teegin salkn” (“Steppe wind”, 1995) by Gary Mushaev (1925-1966), a representative of the literature of the Kalmyks abroad. The peculiarity of this publication is that it is both debut and posthumous, prepared by the compiler himself, the Kalmyk poet Yegor Budzhalov. In the author’s lifetime, his works were neither published nor translated. His return to his homeland took place in 1993: the magazine “Teegin girl” (“Light in the Steppe”) printed a small selection of his poems in the Kalmyk language with a Preface by E. Budzhalov. The collection “Teegin salkn”, published with the sponsorship of fellow countrymen, was not the object and subject of research, as well as the work by G. Mushaev. On the one hand, this was predetermined by the silencing of the domestic literature abroad, and later, apparently, by the very fact of the collection’s existence as a small artistic legacy of an emigrant poet stolen by a young man into Germany during the Great Patriotic War. Budzhalov’s short “Preface”, known in the magazine version, in the book edition does not give an idea of the volume of Mushaev’s works in the family archive, does not explain the principle of structuring the collection by the compiler, only explains the lack of editorial intervention in the author’s selected texts. The collection includes poems, songs and well-wishing, and is divided into three parts. The total number of 41, including the author’s translation of the poem “Teegin salkn” into the Russian language. The title-final complex differs, firstly, by naming the publication as a poem that became the initial part of the collection, and secondly, by dating most of the poems, the absence of epigraphs, dedications, subheadings (a single indication of the genre of the song), and the place of creation (a single case of indication). The chronological range of works is from 1945 to 1952. The historical, literary and comparative method helps to achieve the goal of studying the poetics of Mushaev’s collection of poems in the aspect of the literature of the Kalmyks abroad. A characteristic feature of this publication is that it has no political or ideological perspective, historical realities, and a minimum of autobiographical details (the Great Patriotic War, emigration, Germany, a camp for displaced persons, family, acting parts in films). The main motif of the collection is nostalgia. The connection of Mushaev the poet with the folklore and tradition of the Kalmyk versification is evident.