Society and Culture: The exhibition, dedicated to the history of the publication of A. N. Tolstoy’s novella “Nikita’s Childhood”, opened in the Russian State Library in Moscow

The exhibition The publication of A. N. Tolstoy’s novella “Nikita’s Childhood” in the Book Museum of RSL: Marking the 100th anniversary of the first edition has opened in the Russian State Library (Moscow). The exposition features books from the collections of the research department of rare books.

The exhibition consists of three sections. Each one showcases the work of Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy in historical, literary and creative contexts in their own unique way.

Nikita’s Childhood is one of the most perfect works of Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, evident in the unanimous critical acclaim. This is an autobiographical novella of the writer that describes the childhood of a boy named Nikita, a son of a landowner in the Volga region. The original title was The novella about many wonderful things.

The novella was written in 1920 and was first published in separate chapters in periodicals. It was published as a separate book in 1922 in Berlin, where the author has emigrated. The book is dedicated to the writer’s son – Nikita, born in 1917.

Alexey Nikolayevich’s novella is deeply unique in its content and style, while in some aspects, it is also a characteristic of its time. In many ways, the author follows literary traditions of Russian symbolism. Genre-wise, the novella continues the tradition of the XIX century works: Childhood, Boyhood, Youth by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Childhood Years of Bagrov-grandson by Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov, Tyoma’s Childhood by Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky. Genre continuity and historical-literary context of the novella’s creation is reflected in the first section of the exhibition that presents works of these authors.

The second section of the exposition features publications of works, created by Tolstoy approximately in the same time, as Nikita’s Childhood. They reveal similar plots. These are his novella-tale The Golden Key, fantastical novella Aelita and a novel The Road to Calvary. They are complemented by the poetry collection of Natalia Vasilyevna Krandrievskaya, the author’s wife. Aleksey Nikolayevich has often referenced her poems in his work.

The third section continues in the permanent exposition of the Book Museum and is dedicated to the history of publishing and designing the book. It features the first edition of the novella of 1922, as well as editions of the Soviet period, designed by famous artists in 1930-1960s – Vasily Nikolayevich Masyutin, Alexey Fyodorovich Pakhomov, Konstantin Ivanovich Rudakov, Anatoly Andreyevich Suvorov.

The exhibition will be interesting for a wide audience, particularly historians, collectors-bibliophiles, painters.