The Last Trip Abroad of a Soviet Russian Globetrotter: Boris Pilʼnjakʼs Northern Journey in 1934

The article explores the Soviet Russian writer Boris Pilʼniakʼs journey through Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Poland in the summer of 1934. In the Nordic countries he gave interviews, talking about modern Soviet literature and his own writings. Meetings were arranged with local writers and publishers. Afterwards, Pilʼnjak summarized his impressions in the essay ‘Kamen’, neboʼ (‘Stone, Heaven’), published in Novyi mir. In this article attention is paid to the possible political implications of the journey, which was to be Pilʼniakʼs last trip abroad before his execution in 1938.