Zsuzsa HETÉNYI (ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary)

From „Russian obligatory” to „Russian unnecessary” – The rise and fall of an athology initiative
There was no modern history of Russian literature in Hungary after the WWII until the fall of the communist regime. Some outstanding scholars took up the task of writing and editing it in two volumes, (1999, literature until 1940) and (2002, literature after 1940) at the Universitas branch of Hungary’s largest state-owned publishing house for text- and coursebooks Tankönyvkiadó. The 1st volume was accompanied by a 700-page anthology of texts, while the 2nd volume’s anthology – a result of the 10-year work of many, also on 700 pages, with 100 mostly non-translated (because prohibited in the USSR) texts of authors, victims of censorship – was not published. A series of circumstances, social, legal, financial as well as professional, emerged as obstacles, and finally only a 240-page book appeared in 100 copies in the private publication of the editor (myself), who tells the adventurous story of this „failure”.