Onto the ‘black bulletin board’ of shame, or Yury Dombrovsky in the archives of the Higher State Literary Courses (VGLK) (1925–1929)

Abstract

Founded in Moscow almost a century ago, the Higher Literary-Artistic Institute was nicknamed Bryusov Institute. However, following the poet’s death and the dissolution of his school, it was the Higher State Literary Courses (VGLK) that carried on Bryusov’s project. Very little is known about VGLK, much less about Y. Dombrovsky’s life as a student there. Working on the writer’s biography, the author turned to archives and discovered facts and documents related to Dombrovsky, which also shed light on the history of the university and student and literary life in Moscow in the mid to late 1920s. Among the findings were VGLK records of the scandal involving Dombrovsky and his statement submitted to the Presidium, as well as other documents, this time in relation to a different court case, a trial that shocked Moscow public in 1928: it concerned an alleged gang rape of a female VGLK student, who later committed suicide. These incidents are described in the novel The Faculty of Useless Knowledge [Fakultet nenuzhnykh veshchey]. All materials are published and commented for the first time.