Free Aesthetics Society (1906–1917). Chronicle materials

The history of the Moscow Free Aesthetics Society (1906–1917),based on insufficiently and unevenly studied sources, remains on the periphery ofresearch interest. The main purpose of the present publication is to fill this gap. Theintroduction to the chronicle of the Free Aesthetics Society briefly presents the natureof its activities and its members, including I.I. Troyanovsky, V.Ya. Bryusov, B.N.Bugaev (Andrei Bely), N.R. Kochetov, V.V. Perepletchikov, V.I. Girschan, A.P. Botkinet al. The classification of used sources is made: the society's own reports (handwrittenand printed), including financial; agendas and minutes of the Committee proceedingsand general meetings; a register of guests at meetings in 1910–1912, preserved inthe Manuscript department of the RSL; correspondence of participants; “Literary andArtistic Circle Proceedings”, published since 1913, as well as newspaper reports. Thechronicle takes into account all dated official events of the Free Aesthetics Society:first of all, literary and musical evenings, but also the organizational meetings ofthe Society and its Committee, excluding particular meetings of society members.For the identified meetings, the date, status (general, closed, etc.), venue, topic, starttime, conditions of guests admission, other information, including the number ofparticipants and financial results, are given. These are followed with an outline ofthe main sources: the agenda (if known), a report, etc. After that, documents relatedto the preparation of the event, its implementation and consequences are listed. Thus,the chronicle describes the main aspects of the Free Aesthetics Society activities, andvarious sources, many of which have not been published before, are introduced intoscientific circulation.