The Category of Conscience in the Works of V.A. Mamchenko (By Foreign Publications)

The article is devoted to the work of the Russian poet of the first wave of emigration Viktor Andreyevich Mamchenko (1901—1982), reflected in his foreign publications in Russian. Returning the name of this author, now half-forgotten in his homeland, to culture and introducing him into literary circulation, the article is the first attempt to reveal the originality of V.A. Mamchenko’s creative thought, based on the poet’s religious, philosophical and moral searches. The object of the research is the foreign publications of V.A. Mamchenko’s artistic works in individual books and almanacs published in France and identified from the catalogs of leading Russian libraries (the Russian State Library, the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russia Abroad). The memoires and reviews of V.A. Mamchenko’s contemporaries served as auxiliary material for the study. The article reveals the key milestones in the poet’s biography, which contributed to the formation of his creative style. There is traced the evolution of V.A. Mamchenko from the futuristic tendencies of the early period to the “high tongue-tie” and dissolution in the landscape of the middle and late periods of his creativity. There are identified the main moral-philosophical, God-seeking, religious and mystical categories, which were incorporated in the works of V.A. Mamchenko, who had been developing them for half a century. One of the key categories is conscience, which, according to V.A. Mamchenko, unites moral, philosophical and religious principles, permeating all the milestones of his work. Particular attention is paid to the individual works of V.A. Mamchenko — articles, poems, poetry cycles — as the most structured by the poet. Their chronological examination and comparison in the context of the main categories highlighted by the poet (hero, God, fear, death, conscience, awakening) allow to observe the vector nature of V.A. Mamchenko’s creativity, presented as an illustration of the soul’s path (the movement of the hero’s love) to God, where conscience acts as an accompanying inner core and compass.

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2. Pomerantsev K.D. Viktor Andreyevich Mamchenko, Skvoz’ smert’: vospominaniya [Literary and Political Reminiscences]. London, Overseas Publications Interchange, 1986, 192 p. (in Russ.).

3. Sofiev Yu.B. Sinii dym [Blue Smoke]. Almaty, 2013, 244 p. Available at: https://biography.wikireading.ru/41216 (accessed 31.10.2021).

4. Adamovich G.V., Kantor M.L. (comps.) Yakor’: antologiya zarubezhnoi poezii [Anchor: Anthology of Foreign Poetry]. Berlin, Petropolis Publ., 1936, X, 242 p.

5. Yassen I., Andreev V., Terapiano Yu. (eds.) Estafeta: sbornik stikhov russkikh zarubezhnykh poetov [Relay: A Collection of Poems by Russian Foreign Poets]. Paris, New York, 1948, 183 p.

6. Ivask Yu.P. (comp.) Na Zapade: antologiya russkoi zarubezhnoi poezii [In the West: An Anthology of Russian Foreign Poetry]. New York, Imeni Chekhova Publ., 1953, 398 p.

7. Terapiano Yu.K. (ed.) Muza diaspory: izbrannye stikhi zarubezhnykh poetov, 1920—1960 [The Muse of the Diaspora: Selected Poems of Foreign Poets, 1920—1960]. Posev Publ., 1960, 360 p.

8. Fesenko T.P. (comp.) Sodruzhestvo: iz sovremennoi poezii Russkogo Zarubezh’ya [Commonwealth: From the Modern Poetry of the Russian Emmigration]. Washington, Russkogo Knizhnogo Dela v SShA Publ., Victor Kamkin Publ., 1966, 559 p.

9. Mamchenko V.A. Poeziya [Poetry]. New York, 2006, 236 p.

10. Terapiano Yu.K. Literaturnaya zhizn’ russkogo Parizha za polveka (1924—1974): esse, vospominaniya, stat’i [Half-a-Century of the Literary Life of Russian Paris (1294—1974)]. Paris, Al’batros Publ., New York, Tret’ya Volna Publ., 1987, 352 p.

11. Mamchenko V.A. The Movement of Love, Literaturnyi smotr: svobodnyi sbornik [Literary Review: free collection]. New England, Holyoke Publ., 1983, 127 p. (in Russ.).

12. Terapiano Yu.K. “Review”: (From my Literary Archive), Grani: zhurnal literatury, iskusstva, nauki i obshchestvenno-politicheskoi mysli [Facets: magazine of literature, art, science and socio-political thought]. Frankfurt am Main, Posev Publ., 1958, 39, 235, XVI p. (in Russ.).

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14. Otsup N.A. In the Stream of Light, Novosel’e: literaturno-khudozhestvennyi zhurnal [Housewarming: literary and artistic magazine]. Paris, 1950, no. 42—44, pp. 222—223 (in Russ.).

15. Alferov A.V. The Birth of a Hero: (A Fragment from the Novel), Krug: al’manakh [Circle: almanac]. Berlin, Parabola Publ., book 2, 176 p. (in Russ.).

16. Eckhart M. About Estrangement, Dukhovnye propovedi i rassuzhdeniya [Spiritual Sermons and Thoughts]. Moscow, Musaget Publ., 1912, pp. 53—67 (in Russ.).

17. Mochulsky K.V. Victor Mamchenko. “Heavy Birds”, Krug: al’manakh [Circle: almanac]. Berlin, Parabola Publ., book 1, pp. 179—180 (in Russ.).

18. Yanovsky V.S. Polya Eliseiskie: kniga pamyati [Elysian Fields: The Book of Memory]. St. Petersburg, Pushkinskii Fond Publ., 1993, 276 p.

19. Mamchenko V.A. Tyazhelye ptitsy: stikhi [Heavy Birds: poems]. Paris, Ob’’edineniya Poetov i Pisatelei Publ., 1936, 61 p.

20. Mamchenko V.A. Zvezdy v adu [Stars in Hell]. Paris, 60 p.

21. Mamchenko V.A. V potoke sveta [In the Stream of Light]. Paris, 1949, 58 p.

22. Mamchenko V.A. Zemlya i lira [Earth and Lyra]. Paris, 1951, 61 p.

23. Mamchenko V.A. Pevchii chas [Singing Hour]. Paris, Rifma Publ., 1957, 46 p.

24. Mamchenko V.A. Vospitanie serdtsa [Educating the Heart]. Paris, G. Gerell Publ., 1964, 51 p.

25. Mamchenko V.A. Son v kholodnom dome [Dreaming in a Cold House]. Paris, G. Gerell, 41 p.

26. Otsup N.A. (ed.) Chisla: sbornik [Numbers: collection]. Paris, 1931, book 5, 301 p.

27. Otsup N.A. (ed.) Chisla: sbornik [Numbers: collection]. Paris, 1933, book 7—8, 294 p.

28. Otsup N.A. (ed.) Chisla: sbornik [Numbers: collection]. Paris, 1934, book 10, 302 p.

29. Krug: al’manakh [Circle: almanac]. Paris, Dom Knigi Publ., 1938, book 3, 186 p.

30. Markov V.F. Viktor Mamchenko. Singing Hour, Opyty: literaturnyi zhurnal [Experiments: literary magazine]. New York, 1958, book 9, 134 p. (in Russ.).

31. Gippius Z.N. V. Mamchenko. Heavy Birds. — L. Savinkov. Outpost, Sovremennye zapiski: obshchestvenno-politicheskii i literaturnyi zhurnal [Modern Notes: socio-political and literary journal]. Paris, 1936, no. 61, 478 p. (in Russ.).

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