Ivan Bunin was always fascinated with the mystery of love, and after emigrating he wrote truly outstanding stories on this subject. Among them is the short novel “Mitya”s love”, which was published in 1924.
Many writers highly praised the book. Zinaida Gippius compared “Mitya”s Love” to Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’; while Pyotr Bitsilli in his article ‘Notes on Tolstoy. Bunin and Tolstoy’ pointed out a connection between Bunin’s novel and Leo Tolstoy’s unfinished story ‘The Devil’.
Researchers of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art conducted an extensive study of the novel. They examined archival documents, which included initial versions of the story, dated from June to September 1924. Experts concluded that the writer came up with the title — ‘Mitya”s love’ — right away and never changed it. It is likely that the title was inspired by the main prototype of the protagonist, 21-year-old poet Dmitry Shakhovskoy, who visited the writer in Grasse in 1923.
At the same time, the manuscripts revealed that Bunin hesitated as to where exactly he wanted the story to take place: at first, he chose Moscow, then he switched to the Shakhovskoye estate. In addition, in the first manuscript from June 3, the story opened with a dialogue between Mitya and the village’s starosta (headman), whereas the subsequent ones started with a meeting between Mitya and Katya on Tverskoy Boulevard.
In 1925, the story was published in Paris by the publishing house “Rodnik”. It was difficult to publish “Mitya”s Love” in the USSR: publishing houses were reluctant due to Bunin’s status of an émigré. Although, it was allowed in the 1920s to print his books which were written before 1917, in the 1930s censorship dramatically increased.
Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs (abbreviated as Glavlit) officially forbade publishers to print Bunin’s books. A secret order was issued to the Leningrad department of Glavlit dated from October 25, 1926:
Many writers highly praised the book. Zinaida Gippius compared “Mitya”s Love” to Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’; while Pyotr Bitsilli in his article ‘Notes on Tolstoy. Bunin and Tolstoy’ pointed out a connection between Bunin’s novel and Leo Tolstoy’s unfinished story ‘The Devil’.
Researchers of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art conducted an extensive study of the novel. They examined archival documents, which included initial versions of the story, dated from June to September 1924. Experts concluded that the writer came up with the title — ‘Mitya”s love’ — right away and never changed it. It is likely that the title was inspired by the main prototype of the protagonist, 21-year-old poet Dmitry Shakhovskoy, who visited the writer in Grasse in 1923.
At the same time, the manuscripts revealed that Bunin hesitated as to where exactly he wanted the story to take place: at first, he chose Moscow, then he switched to the Shakhovskoye estate. In addition, in the first manuscript from June 3, the story opened with a dialogue between Mitya and the village’s starosta (headman), whereas the subsequent ones started with a meeting between Mitya and Katya on Tverskoy Boulevard.
In 1925, the story was published in Paris by the publishing house “Rodnik”. It was difficult to publish “Mitya”s Love” in the USSR: publishing houses were reluctant due to Bunin’s status of an émigré. Although, it was allowed in the 1920s to print his books which were written before 1917, in the 1930s censorship dramatically increased.
Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs (abbreviated as Glavlit) officially forbade publishers to print Bunin’s books. A secret order was issued to the Leningrad department of Glavlit dated from October 25, 1926:
