SOVIET MEMOIR FRANKIANA OF THE 1940S–1980S: PRACTICIES OF DOCUMANTATION AND PUBLICATION

Abstract

The article, drawing on a diverse source base, traces the practices of documenting and publishing memoirs about I. Franko under Soviet totalitarianism from the 1940s to the late 1980s. Particular attention is paid to detailing an unrealized publishing project–the preparation for print of a 1941 collection of memoir Frankiana, initiated by the research staff of the Ivan Franko Museum in Lviv for the 85th anniversary of the writer’s birth. The study also examines the prerequisites and circumstances surrounding the appearance of the 1956 collection of memoirs about I. Franko, edited by O. Dei and N. Korniienko. The impact of Soviet censorship pressure and ideological discourse on the content and the nature of the selection of memoir materials for the said volume is elucidated. The findings show that the memoir Frankiana was enriched in various ways throughout the 1940s–1980s. Primarily, this occurred through the documentation of testimonies by the writer’s contemporaries, a task undertaken by numerous scholars as well as amateur local historians. At the same time, a significant contribution was made by the memoirists themselves, who wrote recollections and sent them to the editorial offices of periodicals or found ways to publish them separately. Based on an analysis of sources, four stages in the development of the memoir Frankiana from the 1940s to the late 1980s are identified. In the first stage (1939–1941), activity in collecting and publishing memoirs about I. Franko–especially in the press–intensified. During the second stage (1944–1956), the development of the memoir Frankiana slowed considerably. However, in the third stage, which began in 1956 and lasted until the early 1970s, the collection and publication of memoirs about I. Franko reached its peak. The fourth stage (the 1970s–1980s) marked a shift from the active phase of producing memoirs about the writer’s life to the further popularization of the already accumulated body of testimonies.