A Glance at the Past of “Ricerche slavistiche”

Abstract

The article analyses the various phases of the development of “Ricerche slavistiche” and stresses the importance the journal had for the evolution of Slavic Studies in Italy. The author has actively participated in its editorial activities since the end of the 1960s. Her first contact with the journal comes back to the period of her studies, when she began reading articles published between 1952 and 1967 by leading scholars of Slavic Studies from Italy and other European countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, the author started publishing her own articles in “Ricerche slavistiche”. From 1988 to 1996 she was also a member of the editorial board of the journal and contributed to resuming its regular publication after three years of interruption. The article focuses on the author’s personal experiences of collaboration with “Ricerche slavistiche”, but also presents some of the leading personalities of Italian and international Slavic Studies who collaborated with, directed or published in the journal (Maver, Damiani, Picchio, Graciotti, Cronia, Meriggi, Gasparini, Colucci, Danti, Ulewicz, Kot, Dujčev, Pogačnik, Jakobson, Weintraub, Goldblatt, to mention just a few). The various phases of the journal’s life have examined the cultural, political and social life of Italy, Western and Eastern Europe, and the USA. Due relevance is given to the events connected with the International Congresses of Slavists and with the political changes after 1989. The author stresses the cultural and scientific relevance of the journal but does not refrain from recalling some personal anecdotes which testify to the changes in the management and organization of the journal’s activity.