Journal «Филология и культура. Philology and Culture»

The article concerns the relationship between textual and factual reality. The process of shaping the image of the «universal poet» in Marina Tsvetaeva’s «A Living Word about a Living Man» is explored. Tsve-taeva’s quasiacademical critical methods – factual commentary (which she uses to model a fictitious en-counter between «the teacher» and «the disciple»), partial delegation of the actual «reading circle» from Tsvetaeva of the 1910s to Voloshin etc. – may help clarify the author-interpretative dominant of «A Liv-ing Word about a Living Man», based on Tsvetaeva’s idea of identifying herself as a «second Pushkin».