Slovo iskusstvu (i ne tol'ko). Russkie korrispondenty Ardengo Soffici

Based on unpublished archival documents from Ardengo Soffici’s collection (1879–1964) held by the State Archive in Florence, this paper examines the cultural relationships between the Italian artist Soffici and some of the most prominent figures of the first Russian emigration wave from 1903 to 1962. Besides unpublished papers, the present contribution looks at some important aspects of the previously published correspondence between Soffici and the Russian painter Sergei Yastrebtsov (1881-1958), and argues that it was this fruitful tandem which prompted the first translations of Chekhov's works in Italy. Moreover, the letters which Soffici received from artists and writers such as Edita Broglio and Ilya Zdanevich during 1950s and 1960s demonstrate that the avant-garde experience was still very much alive among the earliest Russian émigrés.