Multifaceted portrait of the literary classic. Response to the book: I. S. Shmelev: pro et contra: Anthology. Vol. 2. Comp., intro. article, comment. A. M. Lyubomudrov. St. Petersburg: RKhGA Publ., 2024. 670 p.

The Review is devoted to the second volume of the anthology “I. S. Shmelev: pro et contra”. The volume is the completion of a project initiated by the RKhGA. The book includes more than fifty memoir- biographical materials such as reports on various meetings with Ivan Shmelev, interviews, reports on his trips and talks, memoir essays by Shmelev’s contemporaries. All of them were published in the Russian abroad. It is noted that these materials form a multifaceted portrait of the writer’s creative personality, reveal some unknown details of his biography. The scientific significance of the second section of the book is also appreciated. This section presents literary and critical works about Shmelev which were published abroad as well as at the writer’s homeland in the second half of the XX — early XXI centuries. Among the undoubted advantages of the publication is the fact that it introduces into scientific circulation many materials that have not been published in Russia before. The logical conclusion of the work is the source study section which contains the autobiographies of the writer and a large bibliography. It is concluded that this volume as well as the Anthology as a whole is a contribution to the study of the literary heritage of Ivan Shmelev and allows us to understand the phenomenon of his creative personality more deeply.