The collected works of M. M. Bakhtin, which opens with this volume, should be scientific. This means, firstly, a different quality of text preparation: all texts, both published for the first time and those already published earlier, are prepared anew from the manuscripts preserved in the author’s archive (and for most of his works there are archival sources; cases when published works are the only source of text in his legacy are few: such, for example, is the book “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Creativity” of 1929); Thus, the reader should in all cases receive new texts by Bakhtin, including already known works. Secondly, the collection undertakes an extensive publication of handwritten materials, including those accompanying the author’s work on famous works (in this regard, this the volume is the most “archival” - which became one of the main motives for starting publication of the publication from the fifth volume; For more on this, see the general preamble to the comments below.) And finally, thirdly, all texts are commented in detail, and this commentary is of a research nature. According to the plan of the team of authors working on the collection, a consistent textual and research commentary on all published works should form a holistic picture of Bakhtin’s ideas. In the general plan of this collected works, chronological and problematic principles are combined: 1 volume. Philosophical aesthetics of the 1920s. Volume 2. “Problems of Dostoevsky’s creativity” (1929). Articles about Tolstoy (1929). Appendix: Records of a course of lectures on the history of Russian literature (20s; notes by R.M. Mirkina).3 volume. Theory of the Novel (1930s).4 volume. Book about Rabelais and materials for it (1940-1970).5 volume. Works of the 1940s - early 60s. 6 volume. “Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics” (1963). Works of the 60-70s. Volume 7. Works of the “Bakhtin circle” The first volume of the Collected Works of M.M. Bakhtin is the beginning of the thinker’s path. The volume publishes his early philosophical works, which were not published during the author’s lifetime. The first posthumous publications of these works (in 1975, 1979 and 1986) were textually deficient; For this edition, their texts were re-prepared from manuscripts, clarified and supplemented with new fragments that could not be read. Three major early works of M. M. Bakhtin appear in restored, essentially new texts. As in the previously published volumes (5, 2 and 6) of the Collected Works, texts works are commented on in detail. The texts are accompanied by facsimile reproductions of sheets of manuscripts by M.M. Bakhtin. Contents Art and responsibility author: Mikhail Bakhtin pp. 5-6 To the philosophy of action author: Mikhail Bakhtin pp. 7-68 Author and hero in aesthetic activity author: Mikhail Bakhtin pp. 69-264 To questions methodology of aesthetics of verbal creativity. I. The problem of form, content and material in verbal artistic creativity author: Mikhail Bakhtin pp. 265-325 Appendix Lectures and speeches by M. M. Bakhtin 1924-1925 in the notes of L. V. Pumpyansky author: Mikhail Bakhtin pp. 326-342 Comments authors: Sergey Averintsev, Lyudmila Gogotishvili, V. Lyapunov, Vitaly Makhlin, N. Nikolaev Comments, pp. 343-955