The Founder and Publisher of the journal Two centuries of the Russian classics is Federal State Budget Institution of Science, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IWL RAS) is a research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, carrying out a wide range of philological studies in Russian and foreign literature, literary theory, folklore studies, source study. The Institute was founded on September 17, 1932 under the name of Maxim Gorky Literary Institute.
The first years of its existence, the Institute develops its academic and material base: a library and collections containing manuscripts and materials on Russian and foreign literature. After Gorky’s death, Gorky Archive and Gorky Museum are established at the Institute; the Museum is opened to public in November 1937. In 1938, the Institute joins the USSR Academy of Sciences and receives its present name; since December 1991 it is the member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
IWL RAS has 15 departments.
Main directions of research of the Institute’s faculty are: literary theory; history of literature of the peoples of Russia and CIS countries; history of foreign literature; folklore studies; history of Russian literature from ancient times to our days including Russian literature abroad; the issue of academic collections of the works of Russian authors (Nikolay Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Leonid Andreev, Alexander Block, Sergey Esenin, Velimir Hlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ivan Bunin, and Andrey Platonov) and scholars (Mikhail Bakhtin); compiling of life records of Sergey Esenin and Anton Chekhov; archive work (Department “Literary Heritage,” Archives Department, Department of the Study and Issue of A. M. Gorky’s work).
The Institute issued a number of fundamental academic works including the 8 volume History of World’s Literature; the 6 volume History of Soviet Multinational Literature; histories of Ancient Greek and Latin literature; multi-volume literary histories of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Latin America, and United States; the histories of German and Italian literature are currently in progress. Another important direction of the Institute’s research is compiling of dictionaries and encyclopedias; among the published works are Literatures of the Peoples of Russia; Encyclopedic Dictionary of 20th Century English Literature; Encyclopedic Dictionary of Surrealism; and Encyclopedic Dictionary of Expressionism. 104 books have been published in the “Literary monuments” series; a number of books have been published in the series “Epos of the Peoples of Europe and Asia;” among other publications are a 2-volume collection Avant-garde in 20th Century Culture as well as dozens of other collections and books on a wide range of philological issues.
