MARIA LVOVNA TOLMACHEVA: UNKNOWN PAGES

Abstract

The memoirs of Maria L. Tolmacheva (1867–1942) proposed for publication have been preserved in the archive of the Indicative Library for Children’s Reading and have not appeared in the field of view of the scientific community until this moment. The manuscript is a valuable historical and biographical material, containing interesting facts from the childhood of the writer herself, describing her childhood reading circle and her first experience of writing, revealing unknown characteristics of some representatives of the literary life of St. Petersburg in the 1910s. The introduction of such materials into scientific circulation allows, on the one hand, to replenish the bibliography of popular writers in the past, on the other — to immerse oneself in the author’s self-reflection on creativity, to learn about his perception of critical remarks, to find out the position of critics of children’s literature, to get an idea of the writer’s responsibility, to immerse oneself in the atmosphere of “editorial Wednesdays” of the popular children’s magazine “Tropinka” at that time. In the memoirs of Maria Tolmacheva, there are living portraits of Blok’s mother, Polyxena Solovyova-Allegro, Natalia Manaseina.

Keywords: Maria Tolmacheva, Olga Kapitsa, Polyxena Solovyova-Allegro, Natalia Manaseina, Alexandra Kublitskaya-Piottukh, children’s literature, children’s reading, children’s writer, children’s periodicals, Tropinka magazine, criticism of children’s literature