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Krest Beskonechnyi

V. Astaf`ev - V. Kurbatov: Pis`ma iz Glubiny

The Russian writer Viktor Astaf`ev (1924-2002) corresponded with the literary critic Valentin Kurbatov for twenty-seven years. The subtitle is: Letters from the Depth of Russia. One of them lived in Krasnoiarsk Krai, the other in Pskov Oblast. This book includes 238 letters by both writers compiled by their mutual friend Gennadii Sapronov(d. 2009). Most of the correspondence is about Russian literature and the current literary situation: military and agrarian prose, "new realism", attack of mass culture, Solzhenitsyn and city literature. For those who appreciate Astaf`ev, his letters are a valuable source on his plans of books, their fate, and his biography. One leitmotif of the correspondence is the disintegration of the Russian soul and country, the loss of cultural roots. Afterword by Lev Anninskii.