ABOUT THE MIDDLE VOLGA PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF AN OUTSTANDING BIBLIOGRAPHER AND WRITER A.S. POLYAKOV

Abstract

In August 2021, the cultural community of St. Petersburg celebrated the 265th anniversary of St. Petersburg State Theater Library, which is known worldwide as the richest repository of materials about the theater and for the theater. It has been collecting its unique fund, including a number of rare and valuable collections, since the XVIII century. The author’s research attention is focused on the facts of the Middle Volga period in A.S. Polyakov’s biography – the legend of one of the country’s oldest libraries. After the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in 1918–1923, Alexander Sergeevich Polyakov, working as the head of this book depository, largely determined its modern multifunctional appearance. During this difficult period in the life of the state and the society, with great enthusiasm the talented writer edited several different print media, the most famous of which was one of the first theatrical magazines of the Soviet Russia, “The Biryuch of Petrograd State Theaters”. Alexander Polyakov was not a native of St. Petersburg. His small homeland is the Middle Volga region. The author explores the childhood and youth years of the future bibliophile and writer, which he spent in Simbirsk and Kazan governorates. The researcher tells that Alexander was not only born and brought up in the Volga region, but also studied at Simbirsk Classical Gymnasium and the Imperial Kazan University. The article gives some facts about an active participation of this native of Simbirsk in the socio-political life of the Middle Volga region which deserve special attention. For example, in 1901–1904 A.S. Polyakov played a major role in the creation of Kazan and Simbirsk organizations of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs). In 1905, he was one of the most famous participants of the First Russian Revolution in the region. So, being under the tacit supervision of the police, Polyakov at that time constantly spoke at meetings and rallies in the town of Simbirsk and some uyezds of Simbirsk province, actively participated in agitation events of social revolutionaries of various kinds. In 1906, a young native of the Volga region moved to an illegal position, and then secretly left the Volga region. In 1907, the future outstanding bibliographer was detained by the police in St. Petersburg and sent into administrative exile. The article also provides previously little-known facts of his personal life. At this, the author tells about Polyakov’s parents and other family members. The specialist paid special attention to his wife, Elizaveta Polyakova (Dubova), a native of the Middle Volga region, who was a St. Petersburg student and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The young revolutionary was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility and after the defeat of the revolution of 1905–1907 was exiled to the Eastern Siberia.