Russian writer of Buryatia Isai Kalashnikov: problems of literary biography

The article is devoted to the issues of literary biography of Isai K. Kalashnikov, the famous Russian writer of the second half of the 20th century, who has linked his fate with Buryatia. Based on the study of newspaper, magazine publications, the archive fund of I. Kalashnikov, we have determined the problems of the writer’s literary biography. The first one is the problem of reliability, accuracy of the collected facts, including the issues of textual analysis and publications. Another problem is ununiformity of knowledge about Kalashnikov’s creative activity with greater attention to the novel "The Cruel Age" and lack coverage of other works, especially small prose. One more problem concerns his manuscripts, which in a new way presents the non-traditional for the writer topics, including the image of modernity. We have described the variants of the unpublished story "On the Threshold". A brief description of the writer's artistic principles reflects the connection of biographical facts, artistic creativity and the first representation of Kalashnikov’s literary position and views.