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The author elaborates the idea of Tolstoy in his late literary writings as of a “non-Christian writer,” examines the functioning of Evangelic verses in the novel “Resurrection”. Evangelic verses in “Resurrection” fulfi lling the functions of a parable and a plot modeler create a Christian hypertext with the universal enclosing and internal rhymes, and predetermine the parabolic composition of the novel, whose outline of events serves as an illustration to the Holy Scripture. An old believer appealing to the Gospel, suff ers a defeat because he was preaching the Word of God only in words, the same happened to an English missionary who didn’t know the Russian language and didn’t cite the Gospel. The number of chapters in each part of “Resurrection” is not random mere coincidence. Evangelic verses in the last chapter of Tolstoy’s novel are aimed at a retrospective understanding of the novel’s plot and predict the resurrection of mankind. “Resurrection” is a parable-novel, where the features of the Christian realism are manifested.

The article analyzes Dostoevsky’s novel “The Insulted and Humiliated” in terms of functioning of the prodigal daughter motif in its narrative structure, dating back to the Gospel text and Pushkin’s pretext. The author fi nds several interpretative variants of the prodigal daughter motif, each one represented by diff erent narrators in various genre models: from a sentimental melodrama (Ivan Petrovich) and a romantic story with a tragic ending (Nelly) to “a charming anecdote” (duke Valkovsky) and an adventure story, stylized of “skomoroshina” (Masloboev). In addition, the text of the novel contains a lyrical story “Bell” by Ya. P. Polonsky, which presents a poetic (romance) version of the traditional motif. In the novel, opening a new period of his works, Dostoevsky appraises the possibilities of a polyphonic art system, using the “eternal story” of the prodigal daughter for that purpose. Analysis of the narrative structure of the novel makes it possible to observe how the author matches diff erent narrative strategies, making the text of the work a kind of “a test area” for creating a new novelistic form.

The article studies the function of Russian folk speech and its evangelical implication in Nikolai Gogol's poetics. Folk proverbs and parables is the key source of national identity in Gogol’s aesthetics, which should inspire all Russian poets. The paper asserts that the proverbial method of generalization is one of the most significant principles of typification in Gogol's novel Dead Souls. The author expresses the essence of this or that phenomenon, a situation or a human type using imaginative pictures and traits of characters. The more generalized form they take, the more they resemble the traditional folk and poetic formulas. The article also reveals the hidden message of a Russian proverb Russians are good at thinking in hindsight (“Russkiy chelovek zadnim umom krepok”). This characteristic of the Russian mind is the one with which Gogol connects the great destiny of Russia. At the end of his first volume the author resorts to the allegorical form of a parable that plays a key role in the perception of the novel. Transforming into the generalized symbol, its characters accumulate the most significant generic features and qualities of Dead Souls’ characters. The grotesque images of Kifa Mokiyevich and Mokiy Kifovich help to look at the characters of the novel from every possible side, not from one side only that shows them as small-minded and worthles people. Gogol’s characters do not possess definitely disgusting and ugly qualities, which should be eliminated for the sake of people's improvement. Sobakevich's powerful physique and pragmatism, Plushkin's thrift, Manilov's meditativeness and cordiality, as well as Nozdryov's valor and energy are not bad qualities at all and do not deserve condemnation. However, all of them as Gogol used to say are carried to extremes and take perverse and exaggerated forms.

The article looks at the parallels with the Gospel text that arise in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel Netochka Nezvanova. We analyse and compare the parables of the New Testament that implicitly appear in the text of the novel, as well as their artistic transformation. The main focus of our comparative analysis is on God's judgement of the fallen man and human judgement (that of the Pharisee). Among the parables woven into the fabric of the novel we find that of the Pharisee and Publican, of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, the called and the chosen, of the talents and the narrow gate. The comparative analysis is run on both lexical and semantic levels. Biblical allusions are important signals which allow us to reach the deep layer of the text's original meaning. Both the characters and their possessions have an allusive level of meaning. The article also deals with the issue of sacralization of the female protagonist.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the poetic novelette by V. A. Zhukovsky The Choice of the Cross (1845). The novelette is a translation of Die Kreuzschau by the German author Albert von Chamisso. The artistic image of a wanderer walking in the mountains and his devotional address to the Creator to relieve the burden of mortal sufferings is comprehended in the novel in terms of Christianity. The reference to the Gospel and to the guidance of the reverend fathers of the Church helps to understand the plot as the way to belief, determination for God, path of endeavors and sufferings. The article also focuses on the inner world of V. A. Zhukovsky who was very close to the spiritual contents of the novel.