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The article examines the foolishness as one of the ways of a new representation of reality in art on the example of the director’s concept of Lev Ehrenburg. The author analyzes the performances of the Nebolshoy Drama Theater in St. Petersburg in the 1990-2010s, tracing the influence of the aesthetic paradigm of foolishness on the director’s method. On the basis of the analysis, the author examines the reflection of the typological features of foolishness in the work of Lev Ehrenburg: belonging to the purl world, the marginality of heroes, the search for a lost paradise, the desire to overcome the boundaries of one’s own “I”. The author indicates the possibilities for further in-depth study of the issue, in which the aesthetic paradigm of foolishness can be considered in connection with the concept of total theatricality of Nikolai Evreinov, the performative turn in modern theater, as well as in other director’s concepts (N. Kolyada, A. Artemov, K. Bogomolov, A. Adasinsky)., В статье юродствование рассмотрено как один из способов новой репрезентации реальности в искусстве на примере режиссерской концепции Льва Эренбурга. Проанализированы спектакли Небольшого драматического театра в Санкт­Петербурге 1990–2010­х гг., прослежено влияние эстетической парадигмы юродства на метод режиссера. На основе проведенного анализа показано отражение типологических черт юродства в творчестве Льва Эренбурга: принадлежность к изнаночному миру, маргинальность героев, поиск потерянного рая, стремление преодолеть границы собственного «я». Обозначены возможности дальнейшего углубленного изучения вопроса, в котором эстетическая парадигма юродства может рассматриваться в связи с концепцией тотальной театральности Николая Евреинова, с перформативным поворотом в современном театре, а также в других режиссерских концепциях (Н. Коляда, А. Артемов, К. Богомолов, А. Адасинский).

The reason that prompted the authors to write this article was an archaeological artifact (found in 2009 during excavations of the Mangazeya settlement) in the form of a pine tablet with Cyrillic letters carved on it. The analysis of the inscription demonstrates that it was neither an educational text nor a meaningless set of letters. This was a completely coherent document, called “a debt bondage” (Rus. кабала) in the seventeenth century and earlier and “a promissory note” later. The document refers to private legal acts, but due to the absence of surnames and the names of witnesses confirming its contents, it is difficult to consider this promissory note a completed legal act. The appearance and content of the tablet refer to similar private legal acts from the northwest of Russia (Veliky Novgorod and Pskov) and demonstrate certain archaic features. This proves the survivability of northern Russian culture in colonised northern Siberia (where for obvious reasons there was a deficit of paper, an already common material in the seventeenth century). The promissory note from Mangazeya is a sample of everyday writing, a rather archaic form of private legal act that existed in the Novgorodian north long before the start of the Russian colonisation of Siberia.

The article deals with the problems of the influence of Russian-language content of print media on the life of foreign compatriots. The authors use Russian-language Newspapers published in Texas, USA as an empirical basis. They prove that this type of media is under the conditions of widespread digitization of content. It is not only one of the forms of reflection of communicative and cultural memory of the audience, but it appears to be a factor that affects directly the socio-cultural identity of society’s representatives. The Russian-language press, as evidenced by the content analysis conducted by the authors, becomes at the same time a platform for the integration of American and Russian culture, mentality and traditions.

The article is devoted to the transformations of the etiquette rules and communicative practices of using greeting cards in a visual age. The authors propose a hypothesis that the practice of written congratulations experiences a shift from the writing of congratulatory text to the choice of an image. This hypothesis is tested by a pilot sociological survey using distributed questionnaire and based on a multistage sampling. The results show that in contemporary Russian culture greeting cards the parity between image and text remains, while the main idea is transmitted via the latter. The greeting card is still regarded as an important element of greeting accompanying a gift. Greeting cards are used mainly for maintaining informal relations. However, the emotional intention of the greeting card is maintained throughout shorter period than before being realized only in the situation of gift­giving and congratulation.

The main goal of the current study is to come up with a complete and universal definition of the “Russian World” concept. The object of the study is the history and culture of Russia and its earlier predecessors. The object of the study is the concept “Russian World”. The scientific novelty is due to the fact that the Russian World concept is being considered referring to its various aspects and meanings, that are formed by the particular historic and cultural context. The analysis and generalization of the data provided by the Russian scholars on history, philosophy, culture studies, and sociology in the last quarter of the XX-beginning of the XXI century allowed us to: trace the development of the “Russian world” concept. In addition to this we were able to define the key factors, dominating in the concrete historical and cultural context and elaborate a more complete definition of the concept.

The paper discusses the place of patronymic in the Russian anthroponymicon and the evolution of its functions in modern society. The functional aspect is studied using examples from fiction and journalism, a significant part of the factual material being retrieved from the National Corpus of the Russian language and (for comparative purposes) from the Czech National Corpus. Apparently, the use or avoidance of patronymic in Russian language communication has important sociolinguistic and pragmatic implications. Using a patronymic, the speaker can manage group relationships and regulate the development of conversation. The article considers specific communicative situations such as wishing to hide an unpleasant or “dangerous” patronymic, omission of patronymic in creative circles (musicians, artists, actors, etc.), addressing “only by patronymic,” etc. A particular focus is made on the perception of the Russian patronymic name in a foreign language context (cases of adaptation, omission, transformation of a patronymic, etc). On the functional side, patronymics may denote nationality (seen as a particularly “Russian” trait) and patronymic relation per se (by referring to the father and patriarchal culture). They can be a sign of maturity (as a designation of a grown-up person), status (position in society), and respect. Likewise, they can be used for differentiation (distinguishing namesake people) or concealing (disguising the true family background). The authors also analyze the use of the patronymic-based word-formation pattern for creating nicknames, brand and product names (pragmatonyms), and company names (ergonyms). The latter cases (the Erofeich liqueur, Sam Samych dumplings, Semyonovna seeds, Petrovich building materials store, etc.) may attest to a positive connotation the patronymic has in the Russian worldview.

This article considers the change in artistic means in the digital globalised world and the development of art actionism as a new inter-genre. The author provides an overview and comparison of the key actions of protest events in Russia, also focusing on some South Slavic practices. Additionally, the article analyses incentive impulses, ways of realisation, and the social response to the most impressive art actions. The correlation of the aesthetic and utilitarian component of events is the main goal of the research, as well as the assessment of their political potential. The paper uses cultural, semiotic, and interdisciplinary methods trying to clarify the phenomenon of protest culture, the role of urban space in it, and the development of protest techniques. The author mainly refers to electronic resources containing materials of the most prominent art activists. The methodological basis of the study is research on the culture of protest by А. Epstein, A. Etkind, A. Rosenholm, Irina Savkina, and others. The programmes of art group leaders help shed light on the topic. There are two basic directions of subversive actions of art actionism within Slavic cultures: emancipatory and traditional. The author concludes that their character correlates with the official ideological policy of the state and focuses on the promotion of the artist’s opinion. The dynamism of protest practices is characterised by intermediality and liminality, and their reliance on popular culture makes the path from the sender to a wide audience the shortest. As a result of the analysis of the connection with traditional left revolutionary and artistic practices, it is concluded that art activism intensively uses the memory of the greatest revolutionary events as an artistic decoration and an ideological means of encouraging subversion. The indissolubility of the life and art of art activists gives rise to a new type of artistic creation of one’s own life in the history of Russian culture. The ideological goals of the analysed direction contribute to democratic changes and the conquest of human freedoms.

This conversation with Vitaly Volovich (3 August 1928 – 20 August 2018), a famous Ural artist, took place on 18 May 2018, and turned out to be the last extended interview given by the artist. The interview was aimed at discussing the newly published Women and Monsters album of Volovich’s works, as the editorial board of Quaestio Rossica was planning to collect and publish more materials on this topic in Russian culture (Quaestio Rossica, Vol. 7, 2019, Issue 2). The interview, however, became much more expansive and interesting as Vitaly Volovich, with his phenomenal memory and unprecedented skill as a narrator, recalled many pages of his difficult life navigating Soviet bureaucratic censorship, which was only braved by those who truly understood and loved art. An epic picture of the dramatic ups and downs in the artist’s life unfolds in this interview; the reader finds the artist’s personal search for meaning and his opinions on art, the freedom of creativity, life in Sverdlovsk, his friends and adversaries, and his achievements and failures. Volovich was attracted by the theatrical: he loved the circus, the spirit of acting and the carnival. Knights and monsters, selfless heroes and criminals, beautiful women, clowns and beasts reign in his books and graphic works. These images, initially associated with literary fantasies, manifested the artist’s thoughts on modernity, on the difficult path of the country and national culture. The interview was conducted by Professor Larisa Soboleva, editor-in-chief of Quaestio Rossica, and art critic Yevgeny Alekseev.

This article considers the evolution of ideas about otherness between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the imperial civilizational paradigm was replaced by the revolutionary proclamation of the New Man. The emphasis in this case is on the tradition of description of excessively hairy people in Russian culture and its scientific, anthropological, and literary illustrations. Referring to examples from cultural life and from the works of Anton Chekhov, Evgeny Zamyatin, Alexander Belyaev, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Andrei Platonov, the author demonstrates that in the context of the debate about the disappearance of old civilizations and the construction of new ones, “hairy people” served as an impetus for discussions about personal, collective, social, or even national identity. The work considers various exhibitions of such “monsters” or “freaks”, such as Julia Pastrana, Adrian Evtikhiev, Fyodor Petrov or Vasilisa Fyodorova, who were shown to the public in the second half of the nineteenth century because of their excessive hairiness during travelling shows and at anthropological exhibitions. The second part of the work analyses memoirs and reminiscences about hairy and furry people in both the utopian and dystopian literature of the early twentieth century. Addressing the topic of “hairy people”, literature questions the uniqueness and radicality of the project meant to create a new man in Soviet Russia. Although the Soviet civilizational model was built in declarative opposition to the previous imperial model, the motif of the “hairy man” shows that it was still based on the previously formed image of the Other., Рассматривается эволюция представлений об инаковости в конце XIX – начале XX в., когда на смену имперской цивилизационной парадигме был провозглашен «новый человек». Акцент в данном случае делается на традиции описания и демонстрации чрезмерно волосатых людей в русской культуре, на ее научно-антропологических, а также литературных иллюстрациях. На основе примеров из культурной жизни того времени, а также из творчества А. Чехова, Е. Замятина, А. Беляева, М. Булгакова и А. Платонова показано, что в контексте дебатов об исчезновении старых цивилизаций и построении новых «волосатые люди» служили толчком для размышлений об идентичности – как личной, так и коллективной, социальной, иногда национальной. Приводятся различные формы демонстрации таких «монстров» или «уродов» (Юлии Пастрана, Адриана Евтихиева, Федора Петрова, Василисы Федоровой), которых во второй половине XIX в. показывали из-за их чрезмерной волосатости как в балаганах, так и на антропологических выставках. Анализируются воспоминания и реминисценции о волосатых и мохнатых людях как в утопической, так и в антиутопической литературе начала XX в. Обращаясь к теме «волосатого человека», литература ставит под вопрос уникальность и радикальность проекта создания «нового человека» в недавно возникшей cоветской России. Хотя советская цивилизационная модель и строилась на декларативном противопоставлении предшествовавшей ей имперской модели, мотив «волосатого человека» показывает, что она по-прежнему опиралась на уже сформировавшийся образ Другого.

This article considers heart-to-heart talk (Rus. разговор по душам), a genre of harmonious communication belonging to the informal sphere of immediate oral spontaneous communication mostly aimed at establishing or strengthening interpersonal intimacy, moral support, and the exchange of important personal information. The author provides linguo-communicative (speech genre), linguocultural, linguo-cognitive (value), and linguo-statistical (corpus) analysis of the genre, which is regarded as a genre of communication and speech with no equivalents in other cultures, a scenario and value of Russian speech communication and Russian culture as a whole. Analysis of the genre reveals its significant complexity and inconsistency, including value inconsistency: heart-to-heart talk can be “simple” – and beyond someone’s capacity to understand; with an “simple” interlocutor – and a highly educated specialist; with “one’s own” – and with a stranger; it can be short – and long; relaxed, “light” – and tense, “hard”; it can be pleasant, “partial”, and include elements of flattery – and harsh criticism; it can lead to reconciliation – and to a quarrel; it can be calm – and include elements of a dispute (razgovor po dusham between men) or hysterics (between women); usually a heart-to-heart talk cannot take place “on demand”. Razgovor po dusham is regarded positively when conducted (successfully) by psychologists with mentally ill or unstable people. In the majority of cases, the evaluative characteristics of the razgovor po dusham reflected in the examples are positive and highly positive; at the same time, there are negative characteristics. The article takes into account studies of cultural concepts in the Russian national and linguistic worldview (“душа” soul, “правда” truth, “дружба” friendship, “искренность” sincerity, “тоска” longing, etc.) and complements the picture with a number of important concepts, associated with the communicative-pragmatic and genrerole nature of the phenomenon, and with the peculiarities of paradigmatics and syntagmatics in the contexts of modern Russian speech., Статья посвящена речевому жанру «разговор по душам» – жанру гармоничного общения, принадлежащему неофициальной сфере непосредственной устной спонтанной коммуникации, основная коммуникативная цель которого состоит в установлении или укреплении межличностной близости, моральной поддержке, обмене важной личностной информацией. Дается лингвокоммуникативный (речежанровый), лингвкультурологический, лингвокогнитивный (ценностный) и лингвостатистический (корпусный) анализ жанра, понимаемого соответственно как безэквивалентный коммуникативный/речевой жанр, сценарий и ценность русской речевой коммуникации и русской культуры в целом. Обнаруживаются его значительная сложность и противоречивость, в том числе ценностная: разговор по душам может быть «простой» ~ и кому-то не по силам; с «простым» собеседником ~ и высокообразованным специалистом; со «своими», избранными ~ и с незнакомцем; может быть коротким ~ и длинным; расслабленным (релаксирующим), «легким» ~ и напряженным, «тяжелым»; может быть приятным, «лицеприятным», включать элементы лести ~ и жесткую критику; может привести к примирению ~ и к ссоре; может быть спокойным ~ и включать элементы спора (мужской разговор) или истерики (женский); обычно разговор не может состояться «по заказу» ~ и положительно оценивается разговор по душам, проводимый (успешно) специалистами-психологами с психически больными или неуравновешенными людьми. Абсолютное большинство оценочных характеристик разговора по душам, фиксируемых в примерах, положительные и ярко-положительные; в то же время встречаются и отрицательные. Материал, будучи соотнесенным с исследованиями культурных концептов русской национально-языковой картины мира (душа, правда, дружба, искренность, тоска и т. п.), дополняет ее рядом представлений, связанных с коммуникативно-прагматической и жанрово-ролевой природой данного явления, с особенностями парадигматики и синтагматики в контекстах из современной русской речи.

In 19 th century Russia, literary critical and sociopolitical discussions were often an instrument of regulating public opinion, and one of such discussions is the subject of this article. The theoretical basis of the study is Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept, according to which a text can be regarded as a territory of struggle and an area of ideology. This concept continues in the contemporary understanding of text and its interpretation as a social event, being involved in which the sides of the reading dialogue struggle for the possession of meaning (B. Ashcroft). The situation of debate with reference to texts reveals personal and other identities of the subjects of such debates and being exteriorised, the reader’s critical perception of someone else’s statement or language, becomes a text of its own where the subject describes themselves and, quite frequently, the community he or she belongs to or represents. In the mid-19 th century, Russian culture faced the development of inner spaces of the country, accompanied by the formation of the ethnographic sphere in scholarship and literature. During the 1850s, a few journalists from the capital visited Orenburg Province and became acquainted with the everyday life of the Ural Cossack Host, publishing materials about it. The article describes the debate between one of the visitors, P. Nebolsin, and a local Ural Cossack, I. Zheleznov who wrote several objections to Nebolsin’s cycle of articles. Soon enough, the debate changed its focus and concentrated on Russia’s relations with the Kyrgyz (Kazakhs), Ural Cossacks’ closest neighbours, and was joined by another author, L. Plotnikov, an Orenburg official. The article singles out the positions of the three actors of the situation, representing different versions of imperial and colonial consciousness which was heterogeneous even in those times.

Social contract theory is one of the basic socio-political doctrines of the European and Russian Enlightenments. Various models of relationships between the authorities and society are reflected in the treatises of European and Russian enlighteners. However, the concept of the social contract is a constantly changing ideological construct, ‘a tacit agreement’ created, sought for, and pronounced in different cultural texts. The authors of the article mainly focus on the odic poetry of the 18th century, the sphere of Russian culture where the idea of a mutually beneficial agreement between a monarch and their subjects was most vividly, clearly, and comprehensively expressed. The article aims to identify the main stages in the history of development of the relationship between a monarch and their subjects as reflected in poetry. The ‘social contract’ paradigm was mostly formed during the reign of Peter the Great, when the ‘functions’ of a sovereign and his subjects were determined: a monarch took care of the commonweal and his subjects obeyed and served him. Some poets of the Petrine epoch (Karion Istomin, I. V. Paus, V. K. Trediakovsky) endorsed ideas of enlightening the Russ, the monarch’s duty to protect the faith and fatherland from foes, and subjects’ faithful service to their monarch. After Peter the Great’s death, the situation changed. The figure of the empress as an ideal ruler and an enlightened monarch who did everything possible to attain the ‘bliss’ of the Russ came to the fore in odes and verse inscriptions for fireworks and illuminations. The emotional motives of the ‘social contract’ were also modified: love was declared the driving force of the monarch and her subjects. Subjects should be willing to sacrifice themselves for the empress’s kindness and generosity. The paternal-filial model of the relationship between the authorities and citizens did not change into a maternal-filial one during Elizabeth’s reign. The names used to refer to the empress’s in odes names remained ‘Peter’s blood’ and ‘Peter’s daughter’. In the literary culture of the 1770s–1990s, subjects’ bliss was declared a necessary condition of the ruler’s bliss. That it was impossible to criticise the monarch provoked criticism from the nobles, who were unfamiliar with the common people’s needs and aspirations. By the end of the century, the genre of the solemn ode was in decline: it only returned to popularity during Paul I’s and Alexander I’s accessions to the throne. The beginning of the 1800s can be considered a borderline, after which illusions about the possibility of an ‘amicable agreement’ between a monarch and their subjects were destroyed., Теория общественного договора является одним из базовых социально-политических учений эпохи Просвещения в Европе и в России. Различные модели взаимоотношений власти и общества суть постоянно меняющийся идейный конструкт, негласное соглашение, создаваемое и проговариваемое в различных текстах культуры. Основное внимание в статье уделяется одической поэзии XVIII в., то есть той области литературной и политической культуры, где идеи взаимовыгодного соглашения сторон – монарха и подданных – получили образное общедоступное воплощение. Задача – выявить основные этапы и художественную специфику взаимоотношений между монархом и подданными, образно представленные в одической поэзии. Парадигма «общественного договора» в основных чертах сложилась уже в петровское время, когда были определены «должности» государя и подданных: монарх радеет о добре общем, а подданные повинуются и служат. Поэты Петровской эпохи (Карион Истомин, И. В. Паус, В. К. Тредиаковский) утверждают идеи просвещения «россов», вменяя в обязанности монарха защищать веру и отечество от врагов и долг верной службы народа царю. После смерти Петра ситуация меняется. На первый план в одах и надписях к иллюминациям и фейерверкам выдвигается фигура императрицы, идеальной правительницы и просвещенной государыни, деятельность которой направлена на достижение «блаженства» россов. Изменяются и эмоциональные мотивы «договора»: любовь объявляется движущей силой действий и монархини, и подданных; «за доброты и щедроты» императрицы подданные готовы жертвовать собой. Отечески-сыновняя модель отношений власти и граждан во время правления Елизаветы Петровны не превратилась в материнско-сыновнюю, и главными одическими «именами» императрицы остались «кровь Петрова» и «дщерь Петрова». В литературе конца 1770-х – 1790-х гг. блаженство подданных объявляется необходимым условиям блаженства правителя, а невозможность критики монарха инициирует критику вельмож, далеких от народных нужд и чаяний. К концу века торжественная ода становится нисходящим жанром, востребованным лишь в моменты восшествия на престол Павла I и Александра I. Начало 1800-х гг. можно считать условной границей, после которой в русском образованном обществе происходит крушение иллюзий в отношении «полюбовного соглашения» между монархом и подданными, что отразилось в литературных текстах.

The article studies the activity of American diplomats in the USSR during World War II, the protagonist being Llewellyn Thompson (1904–1972), who worked for the US Embassy between February 1941 and October 1944. The period was marked by the activity of three American ambassadors, with several diplomats acting as Chargé d’Affaires. Referring to a number of previously unknown documents in the Central Archive of the Security Service of the Russian Federation, it has become possible to consider some of the peculiarities of American diplomats’ service in the Soviet Union during World War II. The historical sources create an image of this diplomat that reflects his sincere love for Russian culture, a deep sympathy for the suffering of the Russian people, and intensive activity to establish connections between the two countries. The first part of the article (Quaestio Rossica. 2016. Iss. 1) discusses Thompson’s career prior to the Great Patriotic War (his arrival in the USSR and work for the Embassy). The second part of the article focuses on Thompson’s work after the US Embassy’s return from evacuation. The diplomat took part in a number of major meetings with Soviet leaders, representatives of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, and the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Trade, as well as the preparation of materials for international conferences. Archival materials describe events around the opening of the second front. At that time, American diplomats’ actions and statements attracted special interest., Статья посвящена деятельности американских дипломатов в Советском Союзе в годы Второй мировой войны. Ее главным героем является Льюэллин Томпсон (1904–1972), работавший в посольстве США с февраля 1941 до октября 1944 г. На основе ранее не известных документов Центрального архива ФСБ России представляется возможным рассмотреть особенности работы американских дипломатов в Советском Союзе в годы Второй мировой войны. Исторические источники раскрывают интересный облик дипломата, его искреннюю любовь к русской культуре, глубокое сочувствие к страданиям русских людей и энергичную деятельность по налаживанию контактов между странами. В первой части статьи (Quaestio Rossica. 2016. № 1) рассказывается о прибытии Томпсона в СССР накануне Великой Отечественной войны и его работе в посольстве. Вторая часть статьи посвящена периоду работы Томпсона после возвращения посольства США в 1942 г. из эвакуации. Дипломат принимал участие в проведении целого ряда ответственных встреч с советскими руководителями, представителями НКИД, наркомата внешней торговли, в подготовке материалов к международным конференциям. Архивные документы свидетельствуют о событиях, связанных с вопросом открытия второго фронта. В тот момент действия и высказывания американских дипломатов вызывали особый интерес.

The article is a review of the proceedings of two international symposiums in Tokyo (2014) and Seoul (2015), organised in the framework of a large project dedicated to the study of Russian culture. The book gives a very clear understanding of the range of interests of Japanese and South Korean Slavicists. The authors of the collection focus both on the theoretical experience of the Russian humanities (Yu. Tynyanov, M. Bakhtin, and Yu. Lotman) and on the creative oeuvre of particular authors, especially prose writers and political essayists (I. Aksakov, V. Rozanov, A. Bely, V. Mayakovsky, Yu. Kazakov, F. Gorenstein, A. Kim, S. Alexievich, and M. Paley). According to the reviewer, the articles in the collection prove that, in their choice of topics and personalities, as well as in their methodological approaches, East Asian scholars largely identify themselves with their Russian colleagues working at home and abroad., Публикация представляет собой рецензию на сборник материалов двух международных симпозиумов в Токио (2014) и Сеуле (2015), организованных в рамках масштабного гуманитарного проекта, посвященного изучению русской культуры. Книга дает весьма отчетливое представление о круге интересов славистов Японии и Южной Кореи. Авторы представленных исследований сосредотачиваются как на освоении теоретического опыта российской гуманитарной мысли (Ю. Тынянов, М. Бахтин, Ю. Лотман), так и на рассмотрении творчества конкретных авторов, преимущественно прозаиков и публицистов (от И. Аксакова, В. Розанова, А. Белого, В. Маяковского, Ю. Казакова и др. до Ф. Горенштейна, А. Кима, С. Алексиевич, М. Палей). Вошедшие в сборник статьи, по мысли автора, свидетельствуют о том, что в выборе проблем и персоналий, равно как и в методологии анализа, восточноазиатские гуманитарии во многом солидаризируются с российскими коллегами, работающими на родине и за рубежом.

This paper offers an overview of the perception of work and the evaluation of the personality of 19th century German poet Georg Herwegh. The research demonstrates that the character of perception is determined by the cultural and historical context in the receiving culture, and it is even more so with political poetry that is based on the rhetoric of spiritual edification. The analysis is made with reference to previously unstudied materials, namely, marks and notes from the archive of V. A. Zhukovsky made on the pages of Herwegh’s most popular book. On the basis of this material the authors conclude that this period was characterised by the initial attempt to represent Herwegh and his poetry within the framework of the history of German literature from its emergence to the mid-19th century. The second period of Russian authors’ reference to his poetry was dominated by the appearance in Russia of the ideological tonality typical of the political poems that won the German poet his fame. The beginning of this period was the post-revolutionary decade of the 1820s. Russian literature specially turned to Herwegh’s legacy, thus marking a new stage of perception by publishing Selected Poems, a new voluminous anthology of translations of his works, as well as a number of literary studies. A new burst of attention began between 2009 and 2013 when numerous articles on the relationship between the Herzens and Herwegh were published. Post-Soviet Russian scholars have examined the controversial personality of the German author through a lens which has brought new traits to the fore: the love triangle between Herwegh and the Herzens which was the main prototype of the conflict in Herzen’s My Past and Thoughts. The paradigmatic shift in the perception of the German poet connected with the change from the textual to the biographic discourse is directly reflected in Russian mass literary culture., Рассматривается динамика восприятия и трактовки личности и наследия немецкого поэта XIX в. Георга Гервега в России. Исследование вопроса показывает, что характер рецепции определялся культурно-исторической ситуацией в принимающей культуре, особенно в политической поэзии, которая основана на риторике духовного назидания. В научный оборот впервые вводится материал помет и автографов из архива Василия Андреевича Жуковского на страницах издания самой популярной книги Гервега. На основании данного материала выдвигается положение о том, что в начальный период восприятия поэзия Гервега осмыслялась только в контексте немецкой литературы от ее начала до середины XIX в., и ее рассмотрение давало материал для истории немецкой литературы. Второй этап активного обращения отечественной словесности к его наследию связан с приходом и воцарением в России того идейного пафоса, который был характерен для политических стихов, определивших скандальную популярность немецкого поэта. Начало этого периода связано с послереволюционным десятилетием 1820-х гг. Русская литература обратилась к наследию Гервега специально, обозначив новый этап рецепции крупной антологией свежих переводов его стихов «Избранное» и рядом литературоведческих трудов. Новый всплеск внимания к Гервегу в истории русской литературы и гуманитарной мысли ознаменовался выходом в 2009–2013 гг. сразу нескольких работ, посвященных отношениям немецкого поэта с А. И. Герценом и его супругой Натали. В постсоветской русистике неоднозначная и неординарная личность немецкого поэта приобрела новые черты, внимание сосредоточилось на любовном треугольнике Герцены – Гервег, послужившем главным прототипом конфликта для «Былого и дум». Парадигматический слом в осмыслении фигуры немецкого поэта, связанный со сменой текстуального дискурса на биографический, напрямую отразился и в русской массовой словесной культуре.