Biographies of Events, or On a New Publishing Project of the Paradigm Editions
As part of a new publishing project, the St. Petersburg almanac Paradigm started the production of a series of books on the history of the Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses told through biographies of female students. In 2018, two books of the series were published: The Diary of a Living Being: From the Life of a Bestuzhevka (by N.Kh. Orlova), devoted to Evlalia P. Kazanovich, and Ksenia Miloradovich: Destiny, Letters, Creativity (by A.V. Vostrikov and N.Kh. Orlova), the third book of the series is being prepared for publication. The author of the review highly appreciates the project and its prospects, and the quality of archival and bibliographic work performed by the authors of the first two books of the series. The presented books and the whole idea of the publishing project developed by Paradigm make a serious contribution to the study of the history of St. Petersburg University and the history of higher education in Russia. In the diaries and correspondence of Miloradovich and Kazanovich, which are published for the first time, a significant place is occupied by teachers of the Bestuzhev Courses, well-known scientists such as A.I. Vvedensky, E.L. Radlov, I.A. Shlyapkin. The biography of the heroines of the books reflects the era - not only the joy of gaining opportunities for women to get a university education, to freely choose their own profession, but also revolutionary whirlwinds, political repression and personal losses. Their lives were intimately intertwined not only with the history of the Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses, but also with the entire cultural life of Saint Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad. Much is said about the content of philosophical lectures in the pre-revolutionary years, about the anxieties and hopes of their listeners. For the authors of the books who are closely associated with the university (Aleksey Vostrikov is incharge of the “Bestuzhev” library, Nadezhda Orlova studied in the building of the former Bestuzhev Courses, and later became a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy), this is also a fulfillment of a duty of memory. At the same time, the nature of the presentation of the material and the language of the books, lively and fascinating, allows recommending them not only to researchers specializing in this topic, but also to a wide circle of readers interested in the history of university education, women scientists and, in general, the history of Russia.