For the period of the 2019-2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, Ilya Vinitsky will work on his new research project on the cultural biography and political imagination of Ivan Narodny, a Russian-Estonian-American “revolutionist,” arms dealer, journalist, writer, art critic and promoter. The “founder” of the “United States of Russia” and the author of its Declaration of Independence, he was also the creator of numerous heretofore unidentified literary frauds and mystifications, including the legend of Shamballa (source of the celebrated novel and film “Lost Horizon”), which spread all over the world via the Hearst newspaper agency that employed him. The project aims to develop a new interdisciplinary methodology for analyzing the phenomenon exemplified by this conman and, eventually, to lay the foundation for a new historical (sub)discipline dealing with the formation and cultural values of liars, forgers, and mystifiers.

Click this link to see the full story from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

Congratulations Ilya!