The Presidential Library’s video lecture marking the 130th anniversary of Boris Pasternak’s birth

On February 26, 2020 at 11:00, the Presidential Library will host the video lecture “I want to come to the point of everything”, dedicated to the 130th birthday of one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century, writer and translator Boris Pasternak. The event will be broadcasted live on the library’s portal in Live broadcasts section, in the official group on the VKontakte social network and on the institution’s YouTube channel.

Two lecturers will deliver their speeches from Tambov via video-conferencing mode: candidate of philological sciences Maria Znobishcheva with the report “My Sister, Life: Boris Pasternak and Tambov province” and the director of the Central Library of the Muchkap district Svetlana Kabargina with the report “Love moves his whole life, love brought him to the Muchkap”.

What does the small village of Muchkap near Tambov mean in the career of the great poet and Nobel Prize laureate?

In the summer of 1917, Pasternak, trying to get to his beloved Elena Vinograd, who was engaged in campaigning in the city of Balashov (on the border of the Tambov and Saratov Regions), was delayed in the small town of Muchkap due to a malfunction in the railway. Here he wrote a series of poems "An attempt to separate the soul" which was included in the collection "My Sister, Life". It was the third book by Boris Pasternak and the first to make him famous.

Mandelstam delightedly wrote about that work: “To read Pasternak's poems - to clear the throat, to strengthen the breath, to renew the lungs: such verses should be healing from tuberculosis. We have no better poetry now”.

The Muchkap has since gained literary fame: a memorial plaque about the poet’s stay here appeared on the facade of his station, and a monument to Pasternak by Zurab Tsereteli was unveiled in one of the squares of the city. Literary scholars honor Muchkap because it was here that Boris Pasternak moved from among good poets to great ones.

Irina Gribova, an honorary worker of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, a veteran of pedagogical work, will join the discussion on the topic of reports; Yekaterina Nizhegorodova, librarian of the Centralized Library System of the Krasnoselsky district; Yekaterina Smirnova, librarian of the National Library of Russia, as well as guests invited to the event: students of St. Petersburg schools, methodologists, and library workers.

In addition, Presidential Library’s portal provides access digitized abstracts: “The Evolution of Prose Textuality in the Creative Biography of Boris Pasternak”, “Roman B. L. Pasternak's “Doctor Zhivago” and the Problem of the Moscow Text”, “Archetypes of Culture in the novel by B. L. Parsnip "Doctor Zhivago" and others.

The electronic reading room of the Presidential Library provides opportunity to order a digital copy of B. Pasternak’s novel “Airways”, written about the poet of the Silver Age, Mikhail Kuzmin.

Accreditation of media representatives is until 11:00, February 25, 2020

Please forward applications for accreditation following the attached form with a note "Media accreditation" to the email addresses: media@prlib.ru, hudjakova@prlib.ru Alexandra Khudyakova, tel.: (812) 305-16-21, ext. 167; mob. +7 (981) 788-28-08.

The letter should include the name, date and place of birth, passport data (series, number, place of registration), a list of carry-on equipment, contact numbers, name of the media.

We draw the attention of media representatives that it is necessary to forward applications for accreditation and arrive at the event in advance.

Admission to the Presidential Library is possible only by prior registration and upon showing a passport: media representatives go through the entrance № 2; participants and guests of the event go through the entrance № 1.