Alexander M. Fyodorov in the Works of Bulgarian Writer Stilian Chilingirov

On 26^th December, 1919, the renowned Russian writer A.M. Fyodorov (1868–1949) fleeing the Bolshevik pogroms in Odessa, landed at the port of Varna. He stayed in Bulgaria for almost thirty years until the end of his life. It is only recently that his «Bulgarian years» began to be systematically studied. The memoirs of his Bulgarian friend, the writer Stilian Chilingirov, which were written in 1950 and specially dedicated to Fyodorov, have been the primary source of information for that studies. For the first time in science Chilingirov’s novel «Shinel bez pagoni» («A Greatcoat Without Epaulettes») (1928) is studied in connection with the biography of the Russian writer. The aim of the article is to reveal how two different genre works, a memoir and a novel, complementing each other, picture A.M. Fyodorov as a man and a writer. The thesis is that although rich in information, the works reveal Fyodorov only in the light of the Bulgarian experiences of his emigrant life, without drawing a detailed picture of his presence in Bulgaria. 

A. M. Fyodorov, first wave Russian emigration, «Russian Sofia».