An anthology of selected works about Donbass published in Donetsk

In Donetsk, despite the hourly “arrivals”, the lack of water and the elementary benefits of civilization, the deaths of artists, journalists and writers at the front, Russian culture is preserved and multiplied. So, these days, a publishing house that survived the shelling in 2014 published an anthology of selected works by Russian writers about the Donbass. Chekhov, Veresaev, Kuprin, Serafimovich, Sergeev-Tsensky, Paustovsky, Bunin, Blok – these are just some of the classics who created works about the Donetsk land. The head of the Donetsk publishing project, Natalya Chernetskaya, told MK about what fate awaits the book, scorched by hostilities.

The book that came to our attention today is a remake of the anthologies “Discovery of the Land of Fire”, which went through several editions during the Soviet era, received the old-new name “The Great Discovery of the Land of Fire”. It is clear that the fire here is a reference to the image of the region, which since the end of the 19th century has become the center of coal mining and metallurgy. But only to the word “fire” in the meaning of the fire of open-hearth furnaces or the radiance of a red star on a mine headframe in recent history, other, tragic connotations have been added.

“Our printing house is located in the shelled Kirovsky district of Donetsk. Every day, my employees and I go to work after praying – this is our reality, because now there are no safe places in the city. And where he will fly next time is unknown, ”said Natalya Anatolyevna.

According to her, additional difficulties in work are created by the constant expectation of a power outage, which is detrimental to technology. And also – understandable, purely logistical difficulties with the delivery of spare parts and consumables.

– From the point of view of “arrivals”, has the situation in the area where your office is located significantly worsened?

– Everything is like in 2014, only they fire more often and with a larger caliber. Then our building was damaged – several fragments, through which I stepped, walking along the corridor of the second floor, pierced the wall, windows and roof. But the equipment was not damaged.

– How much has the list of authors of the anthology changed?

– This book is included in the plan conceived by Oleg Izmailov (Donetsk publicist and local historian, – I.V.) series “Library of Donbass”. Yes, the composition of the authors has been significantly expanded – that’s why the name “GREAT OPENING …”.

The collection includes stories, essays, excerpts from novels, letters from writers whose life and work are in one way or another connected with the Donetsk land. We also tell how and under what circumstances each of the presented authors ended up in the “land of fire” and how this was reflected in his work. Frankly, at first we intended only to reproduce one of the previous editions. But then another decision came – to update it. In fact, only the core of that book remained.

– Whom did you decide to add to the canonical circle of classics?

– Alexander Blok, Ilya Gonimov, Sharif Kamal, Arkady Averchenko, Alman Zaran (Israeli teacher, born in Donetsk, – I.V.), Alexander Beck, Alexander Kataev-Venger (Soviet and Israeli psychologist and publicist), Kondrat Pochenkov (the first Minister of the Coal Industry of the USSR), Alexei Ionov. Many of them were unknown to the compilers of the Soviet book or could not be mentioned for ideological reasons. Also, now, in addition to Russian and Ukrainian themes, the book has Jewish, Tatar, Greek, Welsh, German and English themes and notes. In the new format, the story about the “New America” (Blok gave such a definition to the Donbass – I.V.) has become more voluminous, richer, more interesting. And our work is illustrated with engravings by the Donetsk graphic artist Vladimir Shendel, provided to our publishing house by the Donetsk Art Museum.

– What is the fate of the anthology? It is clear that now is not the time for presentations.

– It is difficult to talk about the fate of the book, given the current situation. Of course, it will go to the libraries of the republic and, possibly, to the bookselling network, but these are dreams. (In March 2022, the territory of the Mayak market in Donetsk, a Mecca for second-hand booksellers and book lovers for decades, suffered fires caused by shelling). And the nearest prospect is the presentation of the book in Ryazan at the Reading World festival.

– It is believed that when the cannons speak, the muses are silent. But in moments when you need to think about survival, your countrymen are drawn to literature.

– We, Donetsk residents, being in extreme conditions for the ninth year already, got used to just working, doing our job, by the way, doing it at a high level (remember our theatrical premieres, unique projects of the Donetsk Philharmonic named after Sergei Prokofiev, designer collections of our fashion designers, high achievements of athletes This list is endless!

Instead of an afterword: at the moment when Natalya Chernetskaya was corresponding with our correspondent, shelling continued in Donetsk, which began at 5 am, including the area where our interlocutor lives.