Literary department of the newspaper Zhizn': Persons, ideas, controversy

The author of the article, noting the insufficient study of the newspaperworld of Russia and the USSR in the 20th century, makes an attempt to partially fillthis gap with the characteristics of authors and activities of the literary department andthe literary part of the critical and bibliographic department of the Moscow newspaperZhizn' (“Life”, published from April 22 (10) until July 6, 1918). In contrast to recentpublications on this subject, a comprehensive review is given, which, however, leavesroom for further research. The value of the material presented for the study of the topicis determined, among other things, by the fact that, first of all, it provides informationabout unknown or little-known authors and their contributions to the newspaper.Two relatively stable groups that have developed around the Grif publishing houseand the art periodical “Bez muz” (the only issue was published in 1918 in NizhnyNovgorod) are distinguished among the newspaper staff. Several episodes connectedwith the 1918 literary and pseudo-literary controversy and related to I.G. Ehrenburg,S.A. Auslender, V.G. Shershenevich and S.P. Bobrov are considered. As a result of thestudy, it is concluded that activities of the newspaper Zhizn' literary department andsome of its authors showed indicative trends both in the historical period as a wholeand in individual circumstances related to the authors and the newspaper’s editorialstaff.