А. М. Ремизов и его ответы на анкеты газеты «Биржевые ведомости

A. M. Remizov and His Answers to the Questionnaires of the Newspaper “Birzhevye Vedomosti”

The article analyzes the genre of the questionnaire and the answers to them in the press system of the early 20th century on a broad source study material. The questionnaire was considered as a method of sociological research, followed by the appearance of surveys on various topics. The author of the article considers examples of polls, the recipients of which were politicians, the diplomatic corps, military, members of the State Council and State Duma, philosophers, scientists, lawyers, industrialists and financiers. These answers are compared with the autobiographies of writers from F. F. Fidler’s book “The First Literary Steps: Autobiographies of Contemporary Russian Writers” (M., 1911. 268 pp.), which is written in the form of answers to questions from the compiler of the book. The article gives an analysis of the multifaceted nature of the answers to the questionnaires of Russian writers of the early 20th century. The questionnaires of the leading St. Petersburg mass publication, the newspaper “Birzhevye Vedomosti”, are listed on the pages of which, and in the appendices to this edition (“Novaya illyustratsiya”, “Ogonek”, “Novoe slovo”), this phenomenon was given an important place. In the questionnaires of these newspapers participated all the famous literary men of the era: A. Blok, Vyach. Ivanov, V. Y. Bryusov, L. Andreev, Z. N. Gippius, as well as numerous poets and novelists of the second and third series. It is established in the work that figurative answers of writers in the periodicals of the beginning of the 20th century cease to be an instrument of sociological research. The answers to the polls of mass editions in a number of cases are small stories, polemical and analytical articles, anecdotes, travel agents, etc. The article reviews the responses of A. M. Remizov to the questionnaires of the “Birzhevye Vedomosti” and “Ogonyok”. Such capacious answers are today the most important sources of information that allow them to draw specific biographical facts from them, and also to compare them with certain artistic facts plans. The author of the work, analyzing the nature of Remizov s answers to the questionnaires in the “Birzhevye Vedomosti” and “Ogonek” comes to the conclusion about the artistic nature of the writer s answers. In fact, answering the template questions, in a number of cases the writer creates miniatures similar to those that Remizov called «curls». Some of these texts later became part of his collage novels, some were included in the book “Krashenyye rylá. Teatr i kniga”.