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дущей демократии». Четвёртое исправленное
и дополненное издание (Издание Петроград-
ского Совета Рабочих и Красн. Депутатов
1919).
Велимир высоко ценил американского
гения. Уитменовский пантеизм, его слияние
с живой природой перекликаются с образом
«Единой книги» Хлебникова. Уитмен был ему
близок и своими поэтическими новациями,
в частности верлибром. На странице 102 сохра-
нилась запись поэта, сделанная простым каран-
дашом во время его пребывания на Кавказе.
КАТАЛОГ. Фамильная библиотека Хлебниковых
35
T
he family library was of a paramount and fun-
damental importance to the formation of the
future poet’s knowledge and outlooks on life.
Since he was a child, he had always been sur-
rounded by the books in ornithology, forestry, his-
tory, mathematics, geography, anatomy, botany,
astronomy… By the time of leaving the Kazan High
School (1903), he was passionate about mathema-
tics, crystallography, ornithology and philology.
The family library contains a personal copy of such
article by Viktor (Velimir) and Aleksandr Khleb-
nikovs as “The Ornithological Observations at the
Pavdinskiy Plant” (the “Nature and Hunting” ma-
gazine, December 1911). The text was amended
by one of the authors, so it provides an opportu-
nity for the unmistakable publications of this work
in the future.
There are some books of the Decembrists
(K. Levin; “The Decembrists”; Moscow, 1918),
the ‘narodovoljtsy’ (the members of the Russian
left-wing terrorist organization named “Narod-
naya Volya” (A. Tun; “The History of Revolution-
ary Movements in Russia; 1903) and other histor-
ical literature in the family library. The poet’s
mother Yekaterina Verbitskaya had the direct
relationship with the “narodovoljtsy”, especially,
with one of the leaders of this movement – Alek-
sandr Mikhaylov, who was her cousin.
Velimir derived the material for his works from
the books and collections with the Astrakhan
themes. In particular, some borrowings from
“The Collection of the Peter’s Society Members’
Works” of 1892 and such book by Schure as
“Sakyamuni, The Ancient Wiseman (The Legend
of Buddha)” (Moscow, 1886) can be found in his
“Yesir” story. A future detailed study of the family
library may lead the researchers to some new dis-
coveries.
Some books revealed the unknown autographs
of the poet. They all are connected with his idea of
“the law of time”. In 1905, young Khlebnikov, hav-
ing got known of the Russian Pacific squadron
defeat of Tsushima, took the sacrament to “justify
all deaths”, open “the law of time”, which would
allow for estimating the course of the future histor-
ical events in order to save Russia from any future
catastrophes. His fundamental work he had been
working on for fifteen years was titled “The Boards
of Fate”. The Khlebnikov scholars, studying them
not only by publications, but also by the numerous
drafts (RSALA (the Russian State Archive of Liter-
ature and Art), F. 527), can hardly arrive at a con-
sensus whether Velimir had managed to discover
“the law of time”, or not. The numerous marks of
the poet left by him on the pages of the family
library books can offer a key to this problem solu-
tion. Especially many numeric computations were
left by him on the pages of such book as “Our
Neighbors” (Moscow, 1913) simply made-up with
his notes within the period short of World War I.
The Khlebnikov family library, still so far from
being studied, is of great interest to the Khleb-
nikov scholars and all literature-lovers. In particu-
lar, such Khlebnikov scholars as H. Baran (USA),
A. Parnis (Moscow, Russia), Doctor of Philology
N. Pertsov (Moscow, Russia), Slavonic scholar
Mario Ramos (University of Sao-Paulo, Brazil),
Philologist Helga Kuharski (University of Vienna)
and some others had or have already worked with
it. The Khlebnikov Museum library can provide
some rich material for the further research.
The family library includes such books of
poems as: N. Aseyev “Oy konin dan okeyn!”,
Fourth Book of Poems (Moscow: Lirenj, 1916);
S. Bobrov “The Diamond Woods”, Second Book
of Poems (Moscow, MDCCCCXVII); G. Petnikov
“The Sun Shoots”, Second Edition (Petersburg,
1922) and some other rare editions.
Let us make pointed reference to a book the
poet had never parted with in his multiple travels,
the one read by him to tatters, in the truest sense
of the word: K. Chukovskiy “Walt Whitman, The
Poetry of the Forthcoming Democracy”, Fourth
Revised and Supplemented Edition (Petrograd