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The purpose of the paper is to compare Nikolai Leskov's debut short story ‘A Case That Was Dropped’ (1862) and its second redaction, published in 1869 and titled ‘The Drought’. Comparative analysis covers major text elements, such as the title, motto, composition, time and place of the action, characters, etc. Special attention is paid to the central figure of the story, i.e. the rural priest, and the changes to his image introduced in the second version of the text in which Leskov emphasized his significance and elaborated his psychological profile. As the paper suggests, the writer also examined the most acute ecclesiastical problems of the 1860s, including peasant superstitions and the attempts to eradicate them, as well as the low social status of the clergymen, and the disdainful attitude of the Russian nobility towards Church ministers. The paper concludes with the assessment that the second redaction of the story exposes the evolution of Leskov's talent and his journey towards making a priest the lead character of the novel The Cathedral Clergy . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paradox as a method of contrasting alternative ideas is one of the crucial principles of the avant-garde. The article proposes to call such a way of organization of artistic reality, which is somewhat similar to Gilles Deleuze's “disjunctive synthesis”, the “irremovable contradiction” principle. The paper analyses the systems of art of two neo-avant-garde poets: Gennadii Aigi and Viktor Sosnora. Their works stand for the two poles of contemporary avant-garde. The various antinomic structural and grammatical categories are present in their art, ranging from bigger bodies of texts (books, strophoids, ultra-long lines) to the smaller language units (discursive interjections, sounds, punctuation marks). The paper argues that the poets' simultaneous immersion into the wholeness of a book and the fragmentarity of a draft raises the issue of “processual” localization of the subject. The subject bridges the gap between word and reality, as well as between body and text. The article sets out the different principles and traditions of creating ultra-long lines in the works of both Aigi and Sosnora. Sosnora was interested in the ancient aesthetics and metrics, whereas Aigi's inclination was towards prosaization. Experiments with ultra-short lines as another pole of non-standard line format constitute a distinctive feature of Aigi's poetics. Sosnora seldom used single lines and preferred to combine them according to the principle of contrast with large text fragments within the borders of poetic cycles. Finally, the article shows the development of this tendency to minimalization, which is expressed in the division of words into verbal atoms. It is common for Sosnora to use minimal discursive words that undergo optional reduction and “indexical and symbolical interjection”, whereas Aigi aims at maximum atomization of the word that revitalizes the primal sound and the process of its creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses Pasternak's negative attitude towards libertinism by pointing out the significant role assigned to the caricaturesque libertin Viktor Komarovskii in the novel Doktor Zhivago . Since it is Komarovskii who triggers a good deal of the plot, he is all but a secondary character. His libertinism, then, consists not so much in excess as in taking control over others' lives. On the other hand, there are unmistakably libertinist traits in the conduct of Iurii Zhivago, Pasternak's anti-libertinist protagonist. Moreover, Zhivago criticizes the asceticism of the revolutionary Pavel Antipov-Strel'nikov as rationalist and heartless. While using Hans Jonas' typology of libertinism and asceticism as just two ways of “contempt for the world”, the paper aims to conceptualize Zhivago's third position of openness and gratitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the life and oeuvre of Pushkin and his closest milieu from the point of view of two important dispositifs , or artistic and behavourial strategies, namely libertinage and dandyism. The author points out that in the Russian context they intermingle and influence each other. The paper consists of four parts: 1. Pushkin the libertine and the “Green Lamp” debate; 2. Pushkin the dandy; 3. Dandyism and libertinage in Eugene Onegin ; 4. Aleksei Vul'f as Pushkin's “disciple and follower”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present paper reconstructs and examines a plot of friendship and split between two famous Russian philologists, Boris Eikhenbaum and Viktor Zhirmunskii. The starting point is that a quarrel itself is under implicit taboo within academic profession and has to be substituted by alternative forms, i.e. public and intimate text production (articles, reviews, letters, diaries). This multi-genre textual array could generate an independent story which demonstrates complicated reference to reality. The paper is devoted to the case of academic quarrel as a specific kind of narrative encoding psychological and worldview drama between closest friends. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper presents a survey of stable compositional models and basic components of Maiakovskiiʼs imagery system found by the poet as early as in his cycle book I! (Ia!). A new viewpoint is proposed on the problem of the subject of utterance in the notorious verse “I like to watch children die” (“Ia liubliu smotretʼ, kak umiraiut deti”); the original way of treating the “father and son” conflict in the culmination point of the cycle (‘Some words about myself’ – ‘Neskolʼko slov obo mne samom’) is accounted for. It is demonstrated that the search for an idealistic incarnation of “paternity” obtains a further development in the poem ‘Listen!’ (‘Poslushaite!’), inspired by Francis Jammeʼs lyric poetry, and further in the poems for children ‘What is good and what is bad?’ (‘Chto takoe khorosho i chto takoe plokho?’). The genre and stylistic conventionality of poetry for children makes it possible for the author to interpret the situation from the position of a wise father and solve all the contradictions in a space dominated by the artistʼs rational and humane will. ‘What is good and what is bad?’ is a rendering of the eternal problem of good and evil in childrenʼs language, the problem from which Maiakovskiiʼs development as a poet started. The authors of the paper arrive at the conclusion that the cycle I! is not a mere precursor of Maiakovskiiʼs further development but it appears to be the prototype of his artistic world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Literature and magic: how did these two entities coexist with each other during various periods of human history? What is magic? How was it ritually perceived in Europe? Which theoretical and scholarly approaches might assist us in devising its historical scope and literary ambiance? The introductory essay helps positioning a number of major conceptual issues regarding magic and its role in cultural and literary studies with special attention paid to Russian literature, spells, the supernatural and folklore. The essay offers a detailed historical overview of the main hermeneutical trends regarding magic, proceeding to Russian literature with special attention to Russian Symbolism (Aleksandr Blok and Valerii Briusov) and Russian Avant-Garde (Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh). The introduction also positions the special volume’s papers within the broader context of magic and supernatural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconstructs the biography of poet, publisher and political activist Sergei A. Sokolov, also known as Sergei Krechetov (1878–1936). Special attention is paid to Sokolov's relations with Ivan Bunin. The publication includes material from numerous letters written by Sokolov to Bunin. A substantial part of this contribution focuses on Sokolov's activities in the Russian White Movement and its military arm, the White Guardsmen of the Volunteer Army. Sokolov worked in the propaganda unit of the Army, which was known as OSVAG (Osvedomitelnoe Agentstvo). The publication touches upon a number of further aspects of the cultural life of the Russian environment in Berlin during the twenties and discusses the mysterious “Fraternity of Russian Truth”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the theatrical and performative poetry project Citizen Poet created by Dmitrii Bykov, Andrei Vasil’ev and Mikhail Efremov. This project satirically reflects Russia as it was in the turbulent years 2011–2012. In particular, it deals with the Russian protest movements known as the “Snow revolution”. The essay analyses the reasons for the project’s popularity against the background of the relevant history of the genre of Russian parody. Bykov’s mocking poetical satire is analysed with a view to existing scholarship focusing on parody and irony, including Russian stiob . The Russian literary canon emerges as an important issue in this respect. The complex views expressed in the various performed texts of Citizen Poet lead us into a debate of Dmitrii Bykov’s poetical attitudes and opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers sex and gender issues underlying Mikhail Kuzmin’s longer poem ‘The Trout Breaks the Ice’. In the Russian literary canon, Kuzmin has not obtained the high status he deserves because his openly gay writings are not acceptable either under homophobic Soviet law or by today’s official anti-LGBT Russian mindset. Interestingly, despite the poet’s notorious reputation, the homosexual core of ‘The Trout’ has been consistently ignored in most critical analyses. Nor has the other side of Kuzmin’s homosexuality, his misogynism – also an important part of ‘The Trout’ – been discussed so far. Dissolved in rich intertextuality, symbols and rhetoric, it is responsible for the ambivalent portrayal of the heroine. She is a Psyche who patronizes the love between the two male protagonists but also a femme fatale who drives one of them, who becomes her lover, to death. Women were avenged later, in Anna Akhmatova’s ‘Poem without a Hero’, a tribute to her 1920s romance with Ol’ga Glebova-Sudeikina, which was inspired literarily by a rivalry with Kuzmin, especially his ‘Trout’. The poetess’ inherent Lesbian agenda led to a covert reworking of Kuzmin’s gay poetics, which was programmatically open about homosexual love being more rewarding and less tragic than heterosexual love. As the ‘Poem’s hidden real message has been ignored even by scholars for fear of diminishing Akhmatova’s reputation, ‘The Poem’ succeeded in eclipsing Kuzmin’s more genuine and artistically daring portrayal of bisexual triangular love that flourished in the Silver Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the poetics of the everyday as a common thread between Derzhavin and Pasternak. It shows how Pasternak revives Derzhavin's tradition of poeticizing everyday life and the material world. I discuss the everyday in three aspects: visibility of the everyday, feasting and everyday as a refuge. Contemplation, feasting, household form the semantic field of the primitive, based on the instincts of existence. These instincts protect and lead the individual in everyday experience. Pleasure from the everyday, an abundance of household objects and feasting are transformed into an aesthetic pleasure and spiritual food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the influence that the experience of emigration had on the poetics of Khodasevich's book European Night ( Evropeiskaia noch' ). Till the spring of 1925 Khodasevich thought that he had the possibility to return to the Soviet Union. This state of mind determined the pragmatic meaning of the poems that Khodasevich wrote in the period between 1922 and 1925, i.e. the time in which he emigrated to Europe and yet did not feel himself a “real” emigrant. These poems are characterized by a satirical orientation as well as by a radical rejection of emigration. On the other hand, the texts that were written between 1925 and 1927 (when Khodasevich formed his self-identification as an emigrant) radically changed the pragmatics of European Night : In this way it becomes a book expressing a deep existential despair. This inner crisis includes the Russian space as well as the space of emigration. In our study we also analyse the way in which Khodasevich mitigates the satirical orientation of the first version of the book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the philosophical aspects of repetition in Gennadii Aigi's poetic texts. The author concludes that repetition in Aigi's works is of a non-numerical nature. Unlike the quantitative parameters of repetition, their non-numerical ability to correspond to the entire poetic text is of major importance. In this regard, repetition manifests itself as a structure that reminds a fractal. The cornerstone of Aigi's repetitions is a cyclic model of time that is impossible to describe in terms of evolution and memory. Repetitions accumulate nothing: topics and ideas do not grow from each other, but rather grow into each other forming the general poetic unity. Repetitions in Aigi's poetry constitute a non-communicative phenomenon that is not associated with imitation and mimesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes an inquiry into the work of Aigi as a religious poet and mystic of the metaphysical mould, manifesting in his poetic experience an attitude of attaining the essence of being. In his works, Aigi advocates for Poetry in its original sense – as a sacrament. He understands the poetic word as the Word the Creator (St. John's Logos ), adhering to the logos principle and believing that silence can only be created by the Word. The paper discusses some issues of poetology, semiotics and linguistics, relevant for the interpretation of Aigi's poetry and its place in linguistic poetics and philosophy of creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the tight relation between “art” and “immortality” in Boris Pasternak's author's ideology on the basis of a newly found letter to his second wife Zinaida Nikolaevna Neigauz, written in the beginning of 1931. This letter, preserved only in a copy, sheds new light upon one of the most important points of the author's ideology. In this document, Pasternak explains his views on the unacceptability of suicide. The letter is closely related to his autobiographical work Safe Conduct , the final part of which was written soon after the suicide of Vladimir Maiakovskii. It is possible to draw a line from the letter to the novel Doctor Zhivago . The ends of two protagonists' lives, Iurii Zhivago and his antipode Pavel Antipov-Strelnikov, are compared. The main protagonist dies, leaving behind his poetry. For Pasternak, it is the way of continuation, “life after death”, and the symbol of creative immortality of a poet. On the contrary, Antipov committed suicide, an end consistent with his life position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emil Medtner is important to Russian culture not only as a theorist of Symbolism, but also as a patient and friend of Carl Gustav Jung and one of the first Russian supporters of psychoanalysis. Here Medtner as a person is of particular interest. Complex and morbid, even in its most extreme expressions his personality reflects the spirit of the Silver Age. The first part of the present paper traces patterns in Medtner's private life as manifested in a series of love triangles. The second part briefly analyzes a dream about two sisters which Medtner discussed with both Freud and Jung and which demonstrates the specific features of his split psyche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present paper discusses M.M. Kheraskov's little known didactic poem ‘The Poet’ of 1805. It argues that the poetic form and theoretical content of this work are determined by the tradition of the didactic poem (Horace, Boileau, Sumarokov); Kheraskov's thoughts on literary aesthetics, as reflected in his earlier works, offer another relevant context. In general terms, his poem can be characterized as a syncretistic amalgam of classicist, sentimentalist and preromantic elements, based on a rich substratum of masonic motifs. The appendix contains a reprint of the original text. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, I attempt to analyze the idea of law as a concept of paramount importance in eighteenth-century Russia. This approach is meant to shed light not only on the mechanism and effects of social control exercised by the throne, but also on the self-identification of the authorities and the priorities governing the values and the daily life of the privileged classes. This project entails clear definitions of both the word law as it is used in official sources, and the social practices associated with it. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper is about Derzhavin's ode ‘Khristos’, which he wrote in 1814, two years before his death and thirty years after his ode ‘Bog’. These two odes represent two stages of Derzhavin's religious thought. ‘Bog’ represents a time in his life when he was striving to reconcile Western European Enlightenment with the traditional Russian faith. An analysis of the later poem ‘Khristos’ indicates clearly that in his old age, Derzhavin renounced his version of the religious Enlightenment. He now put faith above reason and the Scripture above modern science, thus returning to his religious roots. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present paper concerns Natal'ia Borisovna Dolgorukaia's Own Notes – the first female autobiography in the history of Russian literature. Contrary to a received notion of scholarship, the generic character of these Notes is not determined by the hagiographic tradition, but by the interaction of two secular genres – the memoir on one hand, and the novel on the other. With their generically complex structure, Dolgorukaia's Notes give a fascinating insight into how a female aristocrat viewed her own life in early eighteenth-century Russia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Until recently, literary scholars paid very little attention to Vasilii Petrov, Catherine's II “pocket poet”, librarian and reader. For his contemporaries he was a poet of little merit, an adherent of obsolete poetics who owed his literary career exclusively to the empress's favour. One specific point of criticism was that Petrov addressed his panegyric works not only to Catherine II, but also to her dignitaries and to various noblemen. Among these dignitaries the most important was Catherine's lover, Prince Grigorii A. Potemkin, field marshal general of Russia. Potemkin remained Petrov's patron until Potemkin's death in 1791. The present paper analyses Petrov's odes and epistles in praise of Potemkin. What is the place of these works in the general framework of his poetic œuvre? How does Petrov use the actual facts of Potemkin's career in his panegyrics? Special attention is paid to the metapoetical passages of his poems and the light they shed on his poetic practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the present paper those of Sumarokov's psalm paraphrases are analyzed which he published in 1774, three years before his death. Special attention is devoted to a group of ten texts which he marked as “exactly as in Hebrew” and which he wrote in free non-rhymed verse. In these ten texts he shows an unexpected philological concern with closeness to the Hebrew original. Not knowing Hebrew himself, he mentions using a German translation of the Hebrew original. But which one did he use? The answer: he used the translation of the theologian Johann Michaelis (1612–1674). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author discusses the occurrence and the (actual and potential) meanings of the non-prepositional instrumental in Pavel Filonovʼs poema ‘Propeven’ o prorosli mirovoiʼ. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper is devoted to one of the semantic elements of “Finnish discourse” in Russian literature, so-called “Northern love”. This notion includes the paradoxical love for austere Northern nature and for the unfriendly but attractive Northern (Finnish) girl as well. Both components were prepared and well elaborated within the poetry of Russian Romanticism but kept their actuality during the Modernist era. After Vladimir Solovʼevʼs linking of the love for Lake Saimaa with his permanent seeking for the Eternal Feminine, Russian Symbolists of different sorts and generations made the “Northern love” an essential part of the image of Finland. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: S. Sokolovʼs Shkola dlia durakov takes us on a journey through the chaotic mind of a deranged adolescent. The mental condition of the narrator allows the author to undertake the most daring narrative and linguistic experiments. This paper explores the textual level of the novel: its language and various narrative strategies and techniques. The distinction is made between narrative (substantive) and binding (instrumental) elements. The resulting classified inventory enables me to outline the complex structure of the novel and describe the role of different types of elements within the stream of consciousness in their relation to the main subjects of the novel. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper takes a thematic approach to Belyiʼs Istoriia stanovleniia samosoznaiushchei dushi (ISSD) by focusing on selected fragments in order to uncover some fundamental motifs characteristic of the Silver Age, and thus shared by thinkers of very different orientations. More specifically, a parallel is drawn between Andrei Belyi and Lev Shestov in their concern with the concepts of idealism, love and reason as viewed through the prism of Nietzsche and Dostoevskii – the writers who were of utmost significance for both. In identifying these motifs, several continuities and breaks in Belyiʼs outlook, as well as the prophetic character of the philosophical premonitions of both Shestov and Belyi, come to light. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author describes (with some illustrations) a number of instances of the often erotic nature of various acts performed in the circus in early Soviet times. It is pointed out that in a sense the circus had remained one of the least ideologized sectors of Soviet culture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author discusses two recent novels, Viktor Pelevinʼs T and Boris Akuninʼs F.M. These are concerned with the life and works of Tolstoi and Dostoevskii respectively. It is demonstrated in terms of “cultural transfer” and “mutation” how the nineteenth-century writers are reflected in these present-day novels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author discusses Boris Akuninʼs novel Altyn-tolobas. The two plot lines in the novel (the seventeenth-century journey of Kornelius von Dorn and the journey to the “new Russia” by his descendant) are shown to run parallel, as they both appear to involve the transfer from “civilized” European cultural space to “uncivilized” Russia. However, it is demonstrated that this simple opposition of “Russia” and “The West” is much more ambiguous and complicated than it might seem at first glance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper deals with the question how three dramatists of the late 19th and early 20th century, the Russian author Liudmila Petrushevskaia, the Polish author Janusz Głowacki, and the German author Rebekka von Kricheldorf, transformed Three Sisters by Chekhov and thus transferred certain elements of his drama to their present. Each of them chose traits of Chekhovʼs drama which transferred to a new historical and social context to demonstrate to which extent Chekhov is still actual. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author discusses L.V. Nikulin''s travelogue The Seven Seas, published in 1936 and describing his journey through Europe in 1933. In the article Nikulin''s manner of writing is analysed, the use of digressions, of actual and fictitious meetings with several characters in different countries, the use of newspapers and periodicals. Ultimately Nikulin''s goal is to demonstrate the decay and rise of fascism in the European countries, set against the superiority of the young Soviet Union. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The article deals with the Russian Symbolist author and translator Liudmila Vil''kina (1873–1920). The paper discusses the theme of authority and subjectivity in her collection of sonnets Moi Sad (My Garden, 1906) in the context of West European women''s writing. Vil''kina''s poetry contains topics current in the feminist thought of the beginning of the 20th century. One of them is the question about the language which both enables and hinders the construction of subjectivity. Vil''kina''s poetry can be read as a part of the path-breaking fictional work which preceded the emergence of the postmodern (feminist) philosophy of (female) subjectivity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author draws a systematic comparison between Italian and Russian Futurism in order to answer the question if, and to which extent, the aesthetic categories are connected with the ideological orientation of either movement, and whether they differ or concur in this respect. The author juxtaposes the key concepts of both Italian and Russian Futurism and concludes that there exist correspondences but also significant differences between the two movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper the author gives a detailed analysis and interpretation of the Futurist Il''ia Zdanevich''s play “ianko krul'' albanskai”. This piece is actually a “double text” or a “text within text”, the second text consisting of single isolated syllables that provide clues for the interpretation of Zdanevich''s essentially multilingual play. It is largely based on real historical events: the invitation to the throne of Albania of the German Prince zu Wied (1914–1916). The play abounds in further historical and literary references. In an appendix the author provides a detailed interpretation of a number of word forms occurring in the play. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper Zdanevich''s “dra” Ianko krul'' albanskii, an Avant-Garde text par excellence, is examined with respect to its historical, ideological and political context. The Albanian question is connected with the problematic of the whole Balkans and the “Slavic question”, which led up to World War I. Special attention is paid to the attitude of the main Futurists with regard to these matters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper is devoted to two poets of the 1920s, Aleksandr Chachikov and Sergei Tret''iakov. An important theme in the work of both is the East, and especially anti-colonialism and liberation. This theme ranges from Egypt, via India, to China. In Chachikov''s poems the emphasis is on the exotic element, whereas Tret''iakov, perhaps not surprisingly, is straightforwardly political in his work about China. A remarkable aspect of both is that the abundant use of foreign words and names recalls the sound experiments of the Avant-Garde. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author sketches some basic principles of Transfurism, the later Avant-Garde movement led by Ry Nikonova and Sergei Sigei, the main platform of which became the samizdat journal Transponans. An important difference from the historical Avant-Garde, especially Futurism, is the absence in Transfurism of any orientation on the future and utopianism. To illustrate his argument the author provides some examples of both negative criticism of Transfurism and a defence, notably by the late Dmitrii Prigov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper the role of “ideology” in the Russian Avant-Garde is examined in its historical development. Within this period two phases can be distinguished, running parallel to socio-political events. The author demonstrates the difference between the two by contrasting two key texts, Shklovskii''s ‘Art as Device’ and its central concept of “ostranenie”, and Eisenstein''s discussion of the principle of “montage of attractions”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper the author reminisces about his personal experiences with the Soviet attitude towards the historical Avant-Garde in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition he discusses aspects of samizdat, in particular some problems that arise in establishing the correct versions of samizdat literature, such as some poems by Galich and Okudzhava. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores metaphorical and metonymical textual parallels between Tat''iana Tolstaia''s short story ‘A Poet and a Muse’ and Fedor Dostoevskii''s novella ‘Notes from Underground’. Tolstaia''s characters, events, and tropes reuse and reassemble Dostoevskii''s images. Psychoanalytic textual analysis explains these connections as censored text encoded in metaphors and metonymies. The idea of censorship, taken broadly as censorship of life on the basis of literary standards, is presented as the unifying theme of the two texts. The spiritual “underground” of Dostoevskii''s character and the “underground” artistic world of Tolstaia''s story are shown to be the reverse sides of the same phenomenon of literary censorship. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author examines Ryzhii''s connections with a variety of poets-predecessors, primarily Blok and Georgii Ivanov, but also Nikolai Rubtsov and Sergei Esenin. Traces from these poets can be observed in much of Ryzhii''s poetry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author discusses the role of music in Ryzhii''s poetry in various respects: as a motif that occurs frequently in his poems, in the form of songs, musical instruments, musicians, but also at the level of Ryzhii''s “philosophy of music” and as an equivalent of poetry itself. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the authors focus on connections of Ryzhii''s poetry with earlier poets (Pushkin, Lermontov, Pasternak, Samojlov) especially with respect to metapoetic statements within their poetry. A special role here is played by music, both as theme and as constructive principle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author comments on a number of poems by Ryzhii, in particular on the “reality value” (and its irrelevance) of three poems on a single theme. The author, a friend of Ryzhii''s, can judge this aspect of Ryzhii''s poetry well and concludes that in some cases Ryzhii “distorted” reality for his poetic purposes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We analyze two Tiutchev poems of the same title ‘Bessonnitsa’ (‘Insomnia’) (further B1 and B2) written in 1829 and 1873, in comparison with each other, as well as in connection with their poetic prototype found by L.V. Pumpianskii in Derzhavin''s ode ‘On the Death of Prince Meshcherskii’. The main goal of this paper is to reevaluate Tiutchev''s poem (B2) entitled ‘Insomnia: The Night''s Passing Moment’. B2 is shown to be a variation on the most famous early poem B1, whose main theme, lexicon, rhyme vowel structure and a system of vowel sound repetition (assonance) are explored in B2. Many features of B2 prove the novelty of its genre and composition. Tiutchev''s poem B2 turns out to belong to so-called “suggestive” poetry. Within the synaesthetic composition of B2, there are four parallel lines of images (temporal, spacial, auditory, and visual). The three-part composition of B2 is built similarly to a musical form; its focus on the vowel repetition in the sound texture indicates the “musicality” of Tiutchev''s late poem (the most characteristic feature of suggestive lyrics). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author investigates Tiutchev''s ‘Pominki’, a translation of Schiller''s ‘Das Siegesfest’. The date of writing is uncertain and factors are considered that could narrow it down. The literary and political contexts of Tiutchev''s ‘Pominki’ are outlined. They comprise Zhukovskii''s earlier translation of Schiller''s poem, which, perhaps, Tiutchev sought to emulate, and also Zhukovskii''s translation of the Odyssey. All of this is considered against the background of the events in Europe in 1848–1849 and their repercussions in Russia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper explores two almost paradoxical aspects of Tiutchev''s work, which characterize Tiutchev on the one hand as a poet, on the other hand as a thinker. As a poet Tiutchev is interested in daily life: from events of great political importance to small, insignificant incidents. Hence his predilection for fragmentariness and improvisation, epigrams and bon mots. Tiutchev the thinker seems to be far removed from the present and proves himself to be a disciple of Greek philosophers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Latin epigraph to F.I. Tiutchev''s poem “Pеvuchеst'' еst'' v mоrskikh volnakh…” (1865) is known as a version of a poetic line which belongs to the Roman poet Decimus Magnus Ausonius (310–394). This paper proposes a hypothesis which explains why the name of Ausonius does not appear under the epigraph. It shows how certain words within the epigraph, and some poetic techniques associated with the name of its author, as well as his name as such, strongly influence the text of Tiutchev''s poem on various levels. Ausonius''s experiments, and the exploration of such compositional devices as anagram, acrostic, telestic, and mesostic happen to affect Tiutchev''s poetic technique, especially in the rhymes and in the final stanza. In the light of this study it becomes clear that the tradition of publishing just three out of the four stanzas may be harmful to both the poem''s composition and its meaning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper discusses the cult of Pushkin, which was officially developed in Stalin''s Russia. If many publications of that time are pure propaganda, some of them, due mainly to the “academical Pushkinists” (Tomashevskii, Bondi, Tsiavlovskii, Vinokur etc.), are worth reading. However, even the most serious works could not escape a touch of Marxism. As an example, ‘Pushkin''s Historicism’, which appeared precisely in the mid-1930s and supposed a sense of history as a result of laws and social antagonism (in the way of the new romantic historicism), could appear as the product of some ideological distortion, as Aleksandr Dolinin truly pointed it. Nevertheless, Pushkin as an historian was before largely misestimated, so the Stalin cult of Pushkin is not merely a comeback to the imperial past. In that sense, the article deals with the debate arising from David Hoffmann''s book, Stalinist values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity 1917–1941 (2003), about Nicholas Timasheff''s work, The Great Retreat: The Growth and Decline of Communism in Russia (1946). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Soviet epoch was the period of academician Viktor M. Zhirmunskii''s (1891–1971) most prolific creative activity. European literature (mostly German and English literature) became the main subject of his scholarly interests. The most prominent works by Zhirmunskii dealt with two great figures of those literatures: J.W. Goethe and Lord Byron. In 1922 a collection of Byron''s dramatic works was edited and prepared by the publishing house “Vsemirnaia Literatura” (“World Literature”) with an introductory article written by Zhirmunskii. (V.M. Zhirmunskii, Zhizn'' i tvorchestvo Bairona [Life and Works of G.G. Byron]). The same year Goethe''s Faust was also published, translated by N.A. Kholodkovskii, with an introductory article by Zhirmunskii. A distinctive peculiarity of these papers was a deep philosophical understanding of the works by Goethe and Byron. The main problem of Faust, as stressed in the article by Zhirmunskii, was an idea of “the perpetual urge of the human soul which reveals the divine nature of a human being”. In his article about Byron, Zhirmunskii deals with the problem of so-called “Byronism”, as well as the rebelliousness and individualism of Byron''s passionate characters. Zhirmunskii deals with the same problems in his later works on Goethe and Byron written in 1940 for two volumes: History of German Literature and History of English Literature. However, in the full swing of Stalin''s epoch a scholar had to censor his writings, to change definitions, and to somewhat soften certain descriptive statements remaining, altogether, faithful to his overall uncompromising scholarly credo. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]