DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_3_281

N. N. Smirnov. A New Plot in the History of the Culture of the Russian Diaspora. Book Review:
Tolstoy M. Lingering Song. St. Petersburg: Zvezda Journal, 2025. 608 p. + incl. (72 p.) // Petersburg Historical Journal, no 3, 2025, pp. 281–288

Abstract:

The book under review is a documentary investigation of the biography of an outstanding figure
of Russian and foreign culture, choirmaster Vasily Fedorovich Kibalchich, a student of the famous composer and choral conductor A. A. Arkhangelsky, a colleague of I. F. Stravinsky and S. P. Diaghilev. Based on the study of a wide range of archival and published sources, periodicals, diaries and memoirs of contemporaries, the author traces the life path of his hero, who was born and educated in Russia, a participant in the revolutionary movement, widely known in Europe and the United States as a propagandist of Russian music, the founder and leader of the famous Russian Symphony Choir, which became famous in America in the 1920s and 1930s as a notable figure of the Russian musical diaspora.

Key words: Russia, Europe, USA, figures of Russian culture, Russian emigration, choral and musical art, compatriots, political and state figures.

Author:

Smirnov, Nikolay Nikolaevich — Dr. of Sci. in History, Professor, Head of the Department of the History of Revolutions and Social Movement of Russia, St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia).
E-mail: nik_smirn@mail.ru

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