M. Voloshin and the “Russkaya molva” daily

The daily newspaper “Russkaya Molva” (1912-1913) is a greatly under-researched example of a high-quality, independent and politically uncommitted liberal journalism, aimed at the widest intellectual audience. Of even greater interest is the role of the Russkaya Molva in the literature process of the 1910s, as it published works of A. Blok, A. Remizova, B. Sadovsky, Sasha Chorny, Y. Verkhovsky, articles and reviews by B. Eikhenbaum, V. Zhirmunsky and others. While some of these publications are used as authoritative textual sources, many of them are just being introduced into scientific use, and some have even not been introduced yet. We now regard Voloshin’s only article published in the Russkaya Molva as a milestone in his literature and critical work and as evidence of a high quality of the newspaper itself. Apart from that, studying this subject helps us understand what Voloshin expected from a daily newspaper in 1913, and whether it corresponded to the way the editors of the “Russkaya Molva” imagined cooperation with the writer. This can help draw some general conclusions about the general role of the newspaper in the literature process at the time and the nature of the relationship between the writer and the newspaper, and in addition, it will allow us to speak of the newspaper as a real “collective” participant in the literature process. Voloshin’s articles on Dostoevsky published in Russian periodicals belonging to different genres (articles, critical reviews, reviews), were published in various types of print media, however, literary, theatre and art criticism turned out to be natural for Voloshin and preceded creation of his books of criticism “Faces of Creativity”.