Daniil Kharms in His Father’s Diaries: Selected Passages

This publication presents selected passages from the diaries of Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev (1860‒1940), which are directly related to his son, Daniil Kharms. These selections are presented in accordance with Vol. 9 of Yuvachev’s “Collected Diaries,” published by the “Galeev-Gallery” in 2020. They cover the diary entries made from October 7, 1922 through March 29, 1931. That volume of “Collected Diaries” reflects the beginning of Kharms’ literary activities and their gradual increase until his arrest in the “Case of the Children’s Literature Sector of the Gosizdat” on December 10, 1931. Yuvachev’s diaries depict Kharms at home in an everyday environment and demonstrate uneasy relationship with his father and the rest of the family. Yuvachev does not approve of his son’s creative pursuits, but sincerely worries about him and is constantly looking for the common ground. Therefore, his diary entries at least partially touch upon Kharms’ literary work, including the performances of the Collective of Real Art (OBERIU). Also, they mention his creative collaborators – Alexander Vvedensky, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Boris (Doyvber) Levin, Leonid Lipavsky, Samuil Marshak. The publication is accompanied by an introductory article and a necessary commentary, intended to reconstruct episodes of Kharms’ literary biography against the background of the Leningrad culture of the 1920s and early 1930s.