Seventh annual Tolstoy and World Literature conference, August 11-15, 2010
The seventh annual “Tolstoy and World Literature” conference, organized by Vladimir Tolstoy and Galina Alekseeva, both of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate, in conjunction with Donna Orwin (University of Toronto), will take place August 11-15, 2010. For more information, contact Donna Orwin.

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Participate in Compiling the new Complete Collected Works of Tolstoy in One-Hundred Volumes
The Gorky Institute of World Literature, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ИМЛИ-РАН), invites scholars from around the world to participate in compiling the academic edition of Tolstoy’s Complete Collected Works in 100 Volumes. In particular, the Institute welcomes research manuscripts that explore Tolstoy’s personal and literary influence abroad. Tolstoy entered into correspondence with an extraordinarily broad circle of foreign contemporaries. Until now, this material has been published in fragments. For the present Complete Collected Works, a more careful preparation and full inventory is necessary: We need to know, for instance, pertinent information about his foreign correspondents, their fates and creative paths.
Along with research on literary and philosophical connections between Tolstoy’s creative heritage and world culture, attention ought be paid to the reactions abroad to Tolstoy and his creative works during his life; for instance, first publications of his works in foreign languages and information about his translators.
The sheer breadth of this program allows us to invite not only established scholars in the field, but also young specialists, graduate students, and university students. If necessary, IMLI-RAN can support these researchers with special lecture courses and individualized tutorials.

We hope that the proposed program will interest our colleagues abroad and that the cooperation with become a substantial addition to the academic project of the Complete Collected Works of L. N. Tolstoy, a unique cultural project of the twenty-first century. More detailed information can be obtained from Marina Ivanovna Shcherbakova, director of the Department of Classical Russian Literature at the Institute of World Literature:

m-shcherbakova@mail.ru.

Marina Shcherbakova
Gorky Institute of World Literature
Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa

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Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa

his year marks the tenth anniversary of the founding, in 1998, of the Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa (SRG). Its achievements in the area of Tolstoy studies are remarkable.

After the fall of the Soviet regime, founder and director Professor Andrew Donskov saw an opportunity to work with Russian colleagues. His chief Russian collaborator, L. D. Gromova-Opul’skaia, at the Institute of World Literature at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow—among her other accomplishments, the world's foremost Tolstoy textologist—agreed, and the two began a collaboration truly in the spirit of Tolstoyan universal brotherhood. Over a period of fifteen years, until Gromova-Opul’kaia’s untimely death in 2003, they headed a team of Russian scholars who prepared one volume after another of unpublished Tolstoy materials. These were almost all published through the SRG (jointly with either the Russian Academy of Sciences or the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow), some of them with parallel English translations by John Woodsworth and critical introductions in English by Professor Donskov—and all this apart from Donskov's own monographs on Tolstoy.

Donskov and his Russian partners have continued their work. My own personal favorite among these publications is the correspondence between Tolstoy and his most important intellectual friend, N. N. Strakhov, but this only reflects my particular interests. Currently the SRG is working on a unique project to which it has been granted exclusive rights: the translation and publication in English of Sofia Andreevna Tolstaya's autobiographical My Life. (See the “News of the Profession” section of Volume XIX of the Tolstoy Studies Journal for a detailed announcement of this forthcoming volume.)

Every one of the Group's publications is valuable, all are prepared with high standards of scholarship, and not one would exist without the vision and hard work of Professor Donskov and his team. I list them below in reverse-chronological order.

Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa Publications on L. N. Tolstoy and of interest to Tolstoy studies:

Donskov, Andrew. L. N. Tolstoy i Nikolai Strakhov: A Personal and Literary Dialog / Л. Н. Толстой и Николай Страхов: Епистолярнуй диалог о жизни и литературе. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 2008.

Donskov, Andrew. Ed. and Introduction. Leo Tolstoy and Russian Peasant Sectarian Writers: Selected Correspondence. Ed. Andew Donskov. Trans. John Woodsworth. Tolstoy Ser. 8. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa , 2008.

Shcherbakova, Marina. Ed. and Introduction. Ivan Aksakov – Nikolai Strakhov: Correspondence / И. С. Аксаков – Н. Н. Страхов: Переписка. Ottawa: Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and Gorky Institute of World Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 2007.

Alekseeva, Galina. Ed. Лев Толстой и мировая литература: Выпуск 3: Материалы IV Междсународной научной конференции, Ясная Поляна, август 2005 г. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Leo Tolstoy and World Literature, held at Yasnaya Polyana, 22-25 August 2005. Yasnaya Polyana, Tula , Russia : Yasnaya Polyana Publishing House and Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa , Ottawa , 2007.

Donskov, Andrew. Л. Н. Толстой и Николай Страхов: Епистолярнуй диалог о жизни и литературе. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 2006.

Donskov, A. A. Ed. and Introduction. Л. Н. Толстой и Николай Страхов: Полное собрание переписки. Compilers L. D. Gromova and T. G. Nikoforova. Tolstoy Ser. 6, 7. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 2003.

Donskov, Andrew and G. Ja. Galagan, L. D. Gromova. The Unity of People in Leo Tolstoy’s Works/ Единeние людей в творчестве Л. Н. Толстого. Tolstoy Ser. 5. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and Institute of Russian literature (IRLI, Pushkinskii dom), St. Petersburg and Gorky Institute of World Literature (IMLI), Moscow , 2002.

Donskov, Andrew. Ed. and Introduction. Новые материалы о Л. Н. Толстом: Из архива Н. Н. Гусева. New Materials on Leo Tolstoy: From the N.N. Gusev Archive. Tolstoy Ser. 4. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 2002.

Dunn, Ethel. Еd. & Prefаce. A Molokan's Search for Truth: The Correspondence of Leo Tolstoy and Fedor Zheltov. Andrew Donskov, Original ed. and Introduction. Compiler L. V. Gladkova. Trans. John Woodsworth. Berkeley , CA : Highgate Road Social Science Research Station, and Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa , Ottawa , 1999.

Donskov, Andrew. Ed. and Introduction. The Tolstoys’ Correspondence with N. N. Strakhov/ Толстой и С. А. Толстая: Переписка с Н. Н. Страховым. Compilers L. D. Gromova, T. G. Nikoforova. Tolstoy Ser. 3. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 2000.

Donskov, Andrew and John Woodsworth , Chad Gaffield, eds. The Doukhobor Centenary in Canada : A Multi-disciplinary Perspective on Their Unity and Diversity. Proc. of an Intl. Conf. at the U of Ottawa , 22-24 Oct. 1999. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa , 2000.

 Donskov, Andrew. Ed. and Introduction. Л. Н. Толстой и Ф. А. Желтов: Переписка. Compiler L. V. Gladkova. Tolstoy Ser. 2. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 1999.

Donskov, Andrew. Ed. and Introduction. Sergej Tolstoy and the Doukhobors: A Journey to Canada . Compiler Tat’jana Nikiforova. Trans. John Woodsworth. Tolstoy Ser. 1. Ottawa : Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa and the State L. N. Tolstoy Museum , Moscow , 1998.

Donna Tussing Orwin

University of Toronto

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In Memoriam: Lidia Dimitrievna (click here to read the obituary)