First Soviet Contacts of Angelo Maria Ripellino (Documents from Russian State Archive of Literature and Art)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2025-35-286-313
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/XZGRYV
УДК / UDK: 821.131.1
Publication Type: Research Article and Publication of Archival Documents
Issue:

no. 1 (35), 2025
Author: Anastasia V. Golubtsova
About the author:

Anastasia V. Golubtsova, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1286-7707

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Funding Sources:

The research was carried out at A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 23-18-00393, “Russia and the West Viewing Each Other: Literature at the Intersection of Culture and Politics, 20th Century” (https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-18-00393/).
Abstract:

The article is dedicated to the first Soviet contacts of Italian philologist Angelo Maria Ripellino, researcher and translator of Russian and Soviet literature. The article studies the beginning of his long correspondence and friendship with translator Georgij Breitburd and poet Alexey Surkov and his first visit to the USSR in 1957. Documents from Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) help us understand how the Soviet part supported Ripellino’s research and edition projects: they provided illustrations for his study on Mayakovsky, sent him poetry books and information about the authors for an Italian edition of contemporary Soviet poets, and helped to organize his trip to Moscow. In 1957, Ripellino also took part in a meeting of Soviet and Italian poets in Rome, organized by the Italy-USSR Association. The article pays special attention to Ripellino’s contacts with Boris Pasternak and to his work on the anthology New Soviet Poets (1961), and examines the role of the Soviet part in it. As a supplement to the article we publish some of the documents from RGALI providing important information about Ripellino’s Soviet contacts. It is correspondence with Soviet writers and a transcript of an interview given to Georgij Brejtburd in Moscow, in which Ripellino discusses his future book Mayakovsky and Russian Avant-Garde Theatre, the popularity of Soviet poetry in Italy, and the meeting of Soviet and Italian poets in Rome planned for October 1957. We provide the documents with a comprehensive commentary using information from Soviet and Italian press (Pravda, Literaturnaya Gazeta, L’Unità).
Keywords: Angelo Maria Ripellino, Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), Georgij Breitburd, Alexey Surkov, Boris Pasternak, Evgenij Evtušenko, Italy-USSR Association, Soviet poetry, Soviet-Italian literary contacts, correspondence.
For citation:

Golubtsova, A.V. “First Soviet Contacts of Angelo Maria Ripellino (Documents from Russian State Archive of Literature and Art).” Literaturnyi fakt, no. 1 (35), 2025, pp. 286–313. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2025-35-286-313

 

 
References:
  1. Arias-Vikhil', A. Ital'ianskie pisateli v gostiakh u Pasternaka [Italian Writers Visiting Pasternak]. Puteshestvie v Italiiu — puteshestvie v Rossiiu [Travel to Italy – Travel to Russia]. Moscow, VP-Print Publ., 2014, pp. 203-212. (In Russ.)
  2. Gladkov, K. Vstrechi s Pasternakom [Meeting with Pasternak]. Moscow, Art- Fleks Publ., 2002. 288 p. (In Russ.).
  3. Golubtsova, V. “Antologiia A.M. Ripellino ʽNovye sovetskie poety’ v izdatel’stve ʽEinaudi’: k istorii sozdaniia” [“A.M Ripellino’s Anthology ʽNew Soviet Poets’ in the Publishing House ʽEinaudi’: The History of Publication”]. Rossiia / SSSR i Zapad: vstrechnyi vzgliad. Literatura v kontekste kul’tury i politiki v XX veke [Russia and the West Viewing Each Other: Literature at the Intersection of Culture and Politics in 20th Century]. Available at: http://www.litcontact.ru/izdateli-i-chitateli/a-v-golubtsova-antologiya-am-ripellino-novye-sovetskie-poety-v-izdatelstve-ejnaudi-k-istorii-sozdaniya (Accessed 04 December 2024). (In Russ.)
  4. “Doktor Zhivago”: Pasternak, 1958, Italiia: antologiia [“Doktor Zhivago”: Pasternak, 1958, Italy: An Anthology]. Moscow, Reka vremen , 2012. 420 р. (In Russ.)
  5. Iz ital’ianskikh poetov [From Italian Poets]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Inostrannoi literatury Publ., 1958. 117 р. (In Russ.)
  6. Gravina, Giovanni. “Per una storia dell’Associazione Italia-URSS. Parte prima.” Slavia, no. 3, 1993, pp. 70–108; “Parte seconda.” Slavia, no. 1, 1995, pp. 48–100; “Parte terza.” Slavia, no. 3–4, 1995, pp. 103–141; “Parte quarta.” Slavia, no. 3, 1997, pp. 135–159. (In Italian)
  7. Nuovi poeti sovietici [New Soviet Poets]. Ripellino, Angelo Maria, editore. Torino, Einaudi Publ., 1961. 250 p. (In Italian)
  8. Sabbatini, Marco, e Evgeniya “La Comunità europea degli scrittori e l’URSS dal disgelo agli anni Settanta.” Mondo contemporaneo, no. 2–3, 2020, pp. 45–63. (In Italian)
  9. Solonovič, “Angelo Maria Ripellino poeta e traduttore.” Diacritica, fasc. 50, 31 dicembre 2023. Available at: https://diacritica.it/inediti-e-traduzione/angelo-maria-ripellino-poeta-e-traduttore.html (Accessed 04 January 2025). (In Italian)