Photography as a Peculiar Archival Source for Studying the Biography of the Writer D. A. Granin

УДК 94(47).084.9

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-4-1046-1058

Anastasia V. Zotova

St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Sergey N. Poltorak

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Photography as a Peculiar Archival Source for Studying the Biography of the Writer D. A. Granin

Abstract

The article analyses archival documents and photographs that bear testimony to varied activities of Daniil Alexandrovich Granin in 1960-2010s. The past year 2019 was marked by the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Daniil Aleksandrovich, who was not only a writer, publicist, and playwright, but also an outstanding public figure. His public work and creativity is not yet fully understood. Paradoxical as it may seem, biographer knows next to nothing about the well-known writer and humanist. Consequently, the authors aim to study the unknown facts of his biography, as they affected his writing and public work. Photo documents tell of long-term cooperation of D.A. Granin with outstanding literary figures, including B.N. Polevoy, V.F. Panova, A.A. Prokofiev, M.A. Dudin. Photographs bear witness to his rare periods of leisure, his vacationing with his wife R.M. Mayorova in Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia), in particular, and to his meeting with activists of the relief society “Leningrad,” as well as his numerous meetings with readers. What is important, the published photos represent a half-century period of his active creative and public work. Most photographs depict the writer at work in his hometown, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), of which he became an honorary citizen in 2005. The article concludes that the work of D.A. Granin was close and understandable not only to the technical intelligentsia, but to a much wider circle of Soviet (Russian) readers as well. Numerous archival photographs of Daniil Aleksandrovich’s meetings with fans from various strata of society prove this.

Keywords

Historical sources, D. A. Granin, Central State Archive of Cinema-Photo-Phono Documents of St. Petersburg, TsGA KFFD SPb, historical source, history of literature.

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References

GRANIN, D. Blockadebuch: Leningrad 1941–1944 / Ales Adamowitsch, Daniil Granin. Berlin, Aufbau, 2018, 703 S.

GRANYIN, D. Korsz?kov m?rn?k gy?zelme. Budapest, ?j M. K?nyvkiad?, 1951, 95 p.

SKOPKAREVA, S.L. V poiskakh ideala: Kontseptsiya lichnosti v proze D. Granina 60–80-kh gg. [In Search of the Ideal: The Concept of Personality in D. Granin’s Prose of the 60–80s. In Russ.]. Moscow, Prometey Publ., 1988, 147 p.

Te?tris un dz?ve, 30. R?ga: Liema, 1986, 216 lpp.

About authors

Poltorak Sergey Nikolaevich, PhD in History, professor, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Professor, Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, +7-906-268-87-14; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Zotova Anastasia Valerievna, PhD in History, associate professor, St. Petersburg State University, assistant professor, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, +7-931-333-20-09, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 27.05.2019, published (for citation):

ZOTOVA, A. V., POLTORAK, S. N. Fotografii kak spetsificheskii arkhivnyi istochnik v izuchenii biografii pisatelya D. A. Granina [Photography as a Peculiar Archival Source for Studying the Biography of the Writer D. A. Granin. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2019, no. 4, pp. 1046-1058. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-4-1046-1058