Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), the great German poet of the 20th century (“German Orpheus,” Marina Tsvetaeva called him), is known not only as an outstanding and extraordinarily subtle lyricist. A very special, in many ways unique episode in the history of Russian-German cultural “intersections” is Rilke’s passionate love for Russia—his trips to our country (1899 and 1990), his meetings and correspondence with figures of Russian culture (among them Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Leonid Pasternak, Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva), his study of the Russian language and Russian art, his translations of Russian authors—finally, the poet’s poems and prose that reflected his fascination with Russia.
Konstantin Azadovsky, historian of Russian and Western European culture, for several decades collected and studied materials devoted to the theme “Rilke in Russia.” The collection offered to readers brings together his selected works that, on one hand, reflect Rilke’s own Russophile searches, and on the other, show how Rilke and his poetry were perceived in the Russian cultural environment of the first quarter of the 20th century.