Volume 24, 2026 year

The history of Russian epitaphs starts on rather late. The people in Rus’ were not accustomed to place any inscriptions on the tombstones for several centuries after the Conversion. The first inscriptions are found on the burial monuments dating back to the late 15th century. However, for a long time, until the second half of the 17th century, the inscriptions on the stones were extremely laconic. Their austere formular was usually limited to the date of death of the deceased and his name. A rhetorically decorated epitaph for a certain Theodore Tveritin stands out against the background of the typical inscriptions of the epoch. The epitaph lacks the name of its author. It is copied among additional texts in two manuscripts containing the works of Maxim the Greek. The article proves that he is the real author of the epitaph. The surviving text is a translation from a lost Greek original. This original was written in elegiac distichs, but it was translated into Church Slavonic as prose. The article suggests that the epitaph, like several other texts by Maxim the Greek, was written on occasion of the renovation of the Tver cathedral. This cathedral was completely distroyed by the fire in 1537. The author of the article assumes that Theodore Tveritin, to whom the text is dedicated, is Theodore the Good, the bishop of Tver of the 14th century. His burial was located in one of the cathedral’s aisles. The epitaph by Maxim the Greek is written according to the Byzantine traditions, and it can be added to a series of the writer’s experiments in different rhetorical genres (etopoeia, prosopopoeia). The epitaph for Theodore Tveritin is published in the Appendix of the article. The work by Maxim the Greek is important for the reconstruction of the author’s Greek-language legacy as well as for the history of the epitaph as a literary genre.

Keywords: epigraphic text, genre, translation, elegiac distich, ethopoeia, prosopopoeia, homerism, paradise, archive

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This article examines the multifaceted influence of William Shakespeare’s legacy on the works of the German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann. This influence is analyzed on several levels. On the level of character, Hoffmann reinterprets Shakespearean archetypes, as seen in figures such as Prosper Alpanus (Prospero), Zaches-Zinnober (Caliban), and Kapellmeister Kreisler (Jacques the Melancholic). On the plot level, the transformation of specific elements from Shakespeare’s plays is noted. For instance, the scene of metamorphosis involving Prosper Alpanus and the fairy Rosenschön in “Little Zaches Called Zinnober,” which employs insect imagery and the rhetorical device of litotes, correlates with Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech in “Romeo and Juliet.” Similarly, the episode with the three caskets in the novella “The Bride’s Choice” constitutes an intertextual play with the plot of “The Merchant of Venice.” An important aspect of this literary inheritance is Hoffmann’s assimilation and innovative transformation of stylistic devices characteristic of Shakespeare, such as irony, grotesque, and phantasmagoria (e. g., “Little Zaches,” “The Golden Pot,” “Lord of the Fleas”), as well as the principle of “theatricalization of narrative.” The latter is realized both through the inclusion of staged spectacles and the “play-within-a-play” technique (e. g., in “Don Juan,” “The Extraordinary Sufferings of the theater Director”), and through the frequent motif of characters acting under a false guise (e. g., in “The Devil’s Elixirs,” “Ignaz Denner,” “The Devil Signor Formica”). Hoffmann’s reception of the Shakespearean tradition bears the imprint of ideas from his predecessors and contemporaries, such as J. W. von Goethe, F. Schlegel, and L. Tieck. However, their interpretations did not become dogma for him. Hoffmann’s own reading of Shakespeare is original, free from the conventions of classicism, and paves the way for subsequent modernist interpretations of the English playwright.

Keywords: Hoffmann, Shakespeare, Shakespearean reception, German Romanticism, intertextuality, Hoffmann’s poetics, literary influence, theatricalization of narrative, phantasmagoria, the grotesque, creative irony

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This article offers a comprehensive study of the sources and semantics of the enigmatic bird “Strophilus” featured in a draft of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish.” In a scene omitted from the final version, the old woman expresses a desire to become the Pope. The study engages in a polemic with the hypothesis put forward by the renowned Pushkin scholar and Germanist Mikhail Muryanov. Relying on Medieval Latin lexicography, Muryanov identified the bird “Strophilus” with the “trochilus” (the wren), a bird considered a parodic “king of birds” in Western European folklore. The author of this article proposes an alternative interpretation. To substantiate it, a broad range of sources is examined — from Russian folk vocabulary and spiritual verses (“The Verse about the Book of the Dove,” “The Verse about St. George the Brave”) to the works of Orthodox scholars, including Maximus the Greek. The article argues that “Strophilus” represents one of the numerous graphic and phonetic variations of the name for the ostrich, which derives from the Greco-Latin “struthio” (cf. strufokamil, stratim, strafil, etc.). Within the context of literary and folklore traditions, the ostrich (“Strafil”) was conceived as the mighty “mother of birds” or the true “king of birds.” This symbolic status makes its appearance in the description of the absurd papal tiara crowning the ambitious old woman as a female pope symbolically justified. The scene can thus also be interpreted as a satire on Catholicism. The research not only clarifies the specific source of Pushkin’s image but also demonstrates the impressive depth with which the poet integrated heterogeneous folkloric and literary motifs into a unified artistic system.

Keywords: Pushkin studies, M. F. Muryanov, David Samoilov, “The Verse about the Book of the Dove”, “king of birds”, ostrich, birds in mythology and folklore, literature and folklore, folklore and mythology, historical poetics, literary source studies, intertextuality

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This article examines dated (chronometric) titles in Mikhail Lermontov’s lyric poetry of 1830–1831. It aims to identify the typological features and semantic content of these titles within the poet’s early work. The significance of dating is revealed through the interplay of the poetic texts, the biographical context, and the literary style trends contemporary to the poet. The article argues that Lermontov’s creative search and the dramatic events of his personal life during this period led to the emergence of new realistic elements within his romantic poetics, linked to his reflection on his poetic vocation. The years in question mark the formation of the poet’s worldview; thus, recording the specific moment in time gains particular importance. Chronometric titles not only mark the time of creation but also serve as a sign of the poet’s personal involvement in the unfolding events, framing the moment as a juncture of the inner and outer worlds. They reflect a sense of unity between physical and spiritual experience, and in poems with historical themes, they underscore the awareness of being part of the historical process.

Keywords: Mikhail Lermontov, early work, Romanticism, poetics of the title, personal involvement, historical theme, dated poem, literary tradition, textual criticism

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The article examines the aesthetic and ideological features of N. S. Leskov’s essay “Holy Saturday in Prison,” as well as the articles “Outside the Prison Gates” and “From M. Stebnitsky,” published in the newspaper “Severnaya Pchela” (“The Northern Bee”) in the spring of 1862, and forming a one whole, “prison” publicistiс cycle. The idea of the cycle included a fundamental polemic against the entire genre tradition, a radical rethinking of genre clichés and the protection of the creative autonomy of the writer, his right to write without regard for established conventions. This is evidenced by the original descriptive techniques that continuously disrupt readers’ expectations. The narrator focuses on personal associations and small details that are not directly related to the prison theme. Leskov deliberately avoids a moral assessment of prisoners, omitting their background and not separating them from the people on the other side of the prison walls. He generously resorts to literary quotations and irony in the spirit of Heine, emphasizing the subjective nature of his observations. This technique sharply juxtaposes Leskov’s works with two of the most striking examples of the genre — the “Provincial Sketches” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and “Notes from the House of the Dead” by F. M. Dostoevsky. A comparative analysis of these texts has shown Leskov’s clear rejection of both objectification of his material and broad social, psychological, or philosophical generalizations. In this, the writer is unlike not only his great predecessors, but also numerous Dostoevsky imitators, including N. S. Kurochkin, who visited the same places of detention as Leskov, very shortly before the publication of his essay.

Keywords: Nikolay Leskov, “prison cycle”, genre, essay, notes, Michael Saltykov-Shchedrin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Provincial Sketches”, “In the Ostrog”, “Notes from the House of the Dead”

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The article examines the religious-philosophical views and intellectual intersections of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Vladimir Solovyov during the 1870s–1880s, a pivotal decade for their creative and ideological quests. Drawing on the novels “The Adolescent,” “Anna Karenina,” and “The Brothers Karamazov,” as well as publicistic writings and philosophical treatises, the study identifies parallels and divergences in the thinkers’ understanding of central issues: the crisis of contemporary Christianity, the search for a positive moral ideal, the ontology of active love, and personal immortality as the foundation of universal human unity. Special attention is given to the role of personal contacts and mutual influences (Dostoevsky and Solovyov’s pilgrimage to the Optina Pustyn monastery, Tolstoy’s reading of Solovyov’s works), as well as to the significance of Nikolai Fyodorov’s ideas concerning the “common task” of resurrection. The author concludes that, despite differences in their perception of Christ’s figure and the form of resurrection, all three thinkers agreed that Christian faith must be imbued with new content capable of uniting people through active love. Dostoevsky, Solovyov, and Tolstoy considered the aspiration for collective resurrection and faith in the immortality of the human soul to be the paramount needs of the modern individual.

Keywords: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Vladimir Solovyov, principle of all-unity, Transfiguration, immortality, resurrection, salvation, active love, true Christianity, the ideal of Christ

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The myth of the people is one of the main axiological myths in Russian literature. In the works of D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, and narodnik writers, the Russian peasants are portrayed as the best part of the nation. In Leo Tolstoy’s play, the plot creates the illusion of this myth’s destruction (the power of money, adultery, and child murder). But Tolstoy is not interested in the crime itself, rather, he is concerned with the reasons that led to it. Nikita is cut off from the peasant world. Life outside the family, life in the cooperative contributed to the hero’s initial moral decline. This is the socio-economic truth. However, further on the author leads the reader and viewer from this socio-economic truth, the truth of gender, to the truth of God’s judgment. Akim, who exhibits traits of Russian sanctity (asceticism and foolishness for Christ), becomes the bearer of this truth. Both Nikita’s repentance and the peasants’ silence is also presented in the context of the myth of the people. Repentance is the first step toward the renewal and purification of the sinner. Thus, in his drama “The Power of Darkness,” Tolstoy does not destroy the myth of the people; he integrates it into the new socio-economic reality of the Russian Empire.

Keywords: Leo Tolstoy, “The Power of Darkness”, axiology, myth, people, truth, holiness

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The article examines the specifics of A. P. Chekhov’s artistic understanding of the heroines of Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin.” Chekhov’s special attitude to Pushkin’s novel is expressed in naming the heroines of his works after Pushkin’s characters — Olga and Tatyana, in “quoting” plot situations and motives. Pushkin’s principles of female character modeling are ingeniously transformed by Chekhov. In Chekhov’s early prose (“The Shooting Party”), the complexity of the female image is constructed by the narrator’s point of view, and the plot about the transformation of the “red flower of the green forest” into a “snake” is characterized by a certain straightforwardness. In his later prose, the plots about female metamorphoses, built on the interplay of text and subtext, are more natural. The vegetative and animalistic motifs, which performed a characterological function in Pushkin’s novel, are conceptualized. In theshort story “The Grasshopper,” the floral motif, realized in elegiac imagery (from a white cherry tree to a discarded flower), develops into an associative animalistic metaphor, whose flickering meanings contain both the heroine’s self-presentation and the author’s assessment. In developing female characters, Chekhov relies on Pushkin’s principle of mirroring, revealing the character’s opposite vertex in an associative metaphor based on the indirect correlation of man and fauna. In the short story “Dushechka,” the hidden meanings of the heroine’s “reincarnations” are actualized in an associative metaphor, and the ideal mistress of the pastoral world finds a materialized embodiment in a black cat — a double, a bearer of infernal meanings. Tatyana Pesotskaya’s fidelity to duty (“The Black Monk”) turns into a collapse of her life: having taken on an unbearable burden, she elicits associations with a “driven horse;” flickering meanings of the associative metaphor are scattered throughout the text. In the story “At the Acquaintances’ Place,” two incarnations of Pushkin’s Tatyana (the blooming Tatyana Loseva and the romantic Nadezhda), who are incompatible in Podgorin’s mind, converge through the semantics of corporeality (the flesh-colored stockings are the only thing that remains in the memory of Podgorin, the runaway fiancé) and the meanings of associative metaphors, predetermining the ending. In this play with Pushkin’s literary model, Chekhov’s concept of the female character and the artistic principles of its modeling are formed.

Keywords: Anton Chekhov, Alexander Pushkin, archetype, literary model, motif, poetics, polysemanticism, associative metaphor, metamorphosis, mythologem

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This article substantiates the hypothesis that, either due to censorship considerations or inertia, scholars of prose of the crisis of consciousness era have inadequately understood Gorky’s “law of beauty” and, consequently, have interpreted the writer’s works either independently or on the periphery of their “axis of meaning.” A complex worldview is at the heart of the content of his works, starting with his debut publications, and the view of Gorky is an entirely “proletarian writer” is questionable. According to the author, Gorky’s appreciation of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, which had developed even before the beginning of his writing career, is clearly visible in his works, which are atheistic and devoid of metaphysical dimensions. An unbiased analysis of Gorky’s artistic world reveals the fact that the author has no empathy for either the “masses” or their individual representatives. This extremely cruel world of “lead abominations” is precisely what the people who inhabit it are: “neighbors” — in Nietzsche’s ironic definition, and “failed people” — in Gorky’s understanding. The author agrees with the opinion that Gorky developed his worldview and understanding of man through suffering, which explains his equally understanding (aesthetic), if not sympathetic, narrator’s attitude to the characters he creates — the vile, the pathetic, and the faceless, united by contempt for the norms of Christian morality and ethics. The author finds that the Nietzschean paradigm underlies the writer’s attitude toward revolution and, later, toward the “reforging” of the masses. Examining Gorky’s works in connection with “modernist” philosophy leads to the conclusion that his humanism, noted by the authors of many publications, is neither Christian nor class-based, but specifically Nietzschean.

Keywords: Silver Age, Maxim Gorky, poem “The Man”, Nietzsche, humanism, morality, ideal, poetics, interpretation, reception

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The article is devoted to the analysis of S. A. Yesenin’s poem “The Black Man” and its central figure — the mysterious and infernal visitor. The author examines the diversity of interpretations proposed by scholars, ranging from perceiving the Black Man as an accuser, a double of the poet, or a representative of dark forces, to reading him as a projection of Yesenin’s inner world and a reflection of his psychological crisis. At the same time, the connection between the poem and the poet’s biography and his religious and folkloric worldview is emphasized. The compositional and artistic techniques used by the poet include lexical and ring repetition, ascending and descending gradation, the color spectrum of the work, and expressive means containing folklore and mythological constants of death. Thanatological symbolism, ethnopoetic constants, and infernal imagery together create the poem’s sensus mortis and enhance the perception of the landscape as an omen of impending disaster. The central figure of the Black Man is interpreted not only as a mystical or infernal character but also as a participant in a kind of “black mass” aimed at seizing the hero’s soul, which is emphasized through his behavioral and speech traits. The final symbol of a broken mirror and the folkloric formula of “bluish morning” are interpreted within the framework of folk beliefs about the boundary between worlds, a foreboding of misfortune and an attempt to expel an evil spirit. As a result, the poem is presented as a mythopoetic embodiment of Yesenin’s dark premonitions and a prophetic foreshadowing of the tragic outcome of his life.

Keywords: The Black Man, Yesenin, foreboding, foreshadowing landscape, chtonic symbol, thanatological symbolism, broken mirror, folklore.

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Based on the shortstories “Christ‘s All-Night Vigil” and “The Light of Reason,” this article examines the ethno-poetic aspects of the “parish prose” of Ivan Sergeyevich Shmelev, a writer of the first wave of Russian emigration whose work is deeply connected to the Orthodox Christian worldview. It reflects the specifics of the spiritual life of the individual and society within the context of the historical changes in early 20th-century Russia. The study focuses on identifying and analyzing the features of parish prose. Currently regarded as a phenomenon of the contemporary literary process, the genesis of this genre is nonetheless inextricably linked to the philosophical and artistic quests of precursor writers such as F. M. Dostoevsky, N. S. Leskov, B. K. Zaitsev, and I. S. Shmelev himself. Shmelev’s late work is marked by an evolution from critical to spiritual realism: the significance of liturgical and non-liturgical parish motifs increases, becoming sacred symbols of the loss and eventual return of Russia as a spiritual ideal for the writer. The article analyzes key motifs and artistic devices (categories of sacred time, symbolic imagery, themes of repentance and sanctity) that convey the depth of inner spiritual experience and the importance of Orthodox world perception amidst changing historical and cultural realities. It is concluded that an analysis of selected shortstories by Shmelev through the prism of ethno-poetics and axiology helps to reveal not only the literary and stylistic specifics of the writer’s works but also new ways of perceiving Russian spirituality and Orthodox values in émigré literature. This approach creates a perspective for further research into the genre of parish prose and spiritual literature within Russian culture.

Keywords: Ivan Shmelev, literature of the Russian emigration, spiritual realism, parish prose, Orthodox worldview, ethnopoetics, axiology, sacred space

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The purpose of this article is to examine the features of the artistic embodiment of the childhood theme in the novel by I. A. Bunin “The Life of Arseniev.” In modern literary criticism, the work of Russian abroad writers of the first wave of emigration is in the center of attention. The work examines one of the important topics of Russian abroad literature, which determines its relevance. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, when studying the novel “The Life of Arseniev,” attention is drawn to the changes in the artistic image of the world of a Russian abroad writer in comparison with that in the 19th-century classical tradition, and the special world-modeling position of the protagonist and the author is determined. The leading structural component of the artistic realm of childhood, recreated in the novel, is the absence of a cause-and-effect and temporal sequence of events. The main world-modeling images are the estate, the field, the city, the gymnasium. The child is the main character of the work. Alexey Arseniev builds and models his life in childhood. A child’s world is perceived as limited and closed, and as the child grows, it gradually opens up. The family and the surrounding reality are shown through the prism of the child’s consciousness, and are revealed to the extent that they are engaged in his personal experiences, feelings and thoughts. The author takes a special position in relation to the depicted character and the world. This position is determined by the influence of modernism, some of whose techniques I. A. Bunin adopted in his work that predates the October 1917 revolution. Arseniev is given the opportunity to recreate his world and at the same time participate in the depicted events. The emergence of memory, an important artistic category in the novel, is associated with the image of an adult narrator. It is characterized by the understanding of the flow of life as a spontaneous accumulation of impressions, representations and images. The flow of feelings, thoughts, memories of the past, and a nostalgic tonality determines the specifics of the discourse of the mature narrator. The category of memory disrupts the linear order of events, as a temporary inversion, a heterogeneous flow of artistic time, a change in its rhythm arises.

Keywords: Ivan Bunin, poetics of the Russian abroad, childhood memory, image of a child, image of Russia, theme of childhood, model of the world, “The Life of Arseniev”

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The category of the path in O. F. Bergholz’s autobiographical novel “Daytime Stars” is examined as the author’s worldview principle. In the plot and compositional structure of the work, the idea of the path is expressed through lexical means, such as the direct naming of chapters (“A Trip to the City of Childhood,” “A Journey Beyond the Neva Gate”). The category of movement as a spiritual ascent is specified in the chapters with the recurring title “Day of the Peaks.” In the novel, the journey motif, which is explored in conjunction with the motifs of the meeting on the way and death, is enriched with lyrical sketches in chapters with commentary, reflections, and reminiscences, which express the idea of a journey of development. This allows for the creation of a comprehensive narrative of transformation (acquisition of new knowledge) and ascent (spiritual vertical) of the lyrical heroine. The composition is characterized by parallelism: the heroine makes several journeys to the same places that she perceives as sacred: to Uglich, both in her dreams and in reality, and beyond the Neva Gate (her place of birth). Another sacred place is “that very clearing,” a national spatial image (“the Russian expanse”). Direct and concealed biblical quotations are the key to understanding the author’s intention. The mortal motif accompanies the motif of the journey when meeting a dying grandmother (“there is simply no death”), as well as in the form of a reference to the Revelation of John the Evangelist (“there will be no more time”) and in the description of the lyrical heroine’s state (“dead indifference”). The chapter “The Journey Beyond the Neva Gate” contains elements of a pilgrimage text: a description of the route with an emphasis on the difficulties of the journey (the journey as a test), the sinful state of the traveler (“the freezing” of her feelings), a metaphorical image of a narrow path, a vertical ascent (“steps in the ice”), and a ritualistic act of washing her feet. The personal (generational) journey of the lyrical heroine is inseparable from Russia’s historical path, which the author fully embraces, “up to the point of loss.”

Keywords: O. F. Bergholz, “Daytime Stars”, journey motif, subtext, pilgrimage text, biblical quotation

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The article uses theoretical developments by I. A. Yesaulov, allowing to identify and examine the Easter theme in A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s novel “The First Circle.” Agreeing that the Easter archetype is a key factor in genre generation in Russian literature of the 19th‒20th centuries, the author of the article came to the conclusion that this religious and philosophical novel is by its genre nature an Easter novel, while the Christmas theme in its text is noticeably set off by Easter. This statement is supported by the results of a post-Semiotic analysis of the Easter motif and figurative complex of the novel, as well as the entire system of Christian and medieval images and motifs in this work. In addition, the article examines the specifically shaped embodiment of the image of the Easter sacrifice and the realization of Christocentrism: Solzhenitsyn openly quotes the first verses of the Gospel of John about the Logos/Word. The article confirms O. S. Shurupova and A. S. Shurupova’s statement about the significant role of the archetype of the Russian Orthodox Christmas and its special influence on the meaning of the novel. In it, Orthodox Christmas turns out to be inextricably linked not only with the Protestant Christmas, but also with the Orthodox Easter. The novel’s paschal nature puts it on a par with another classic work of Russian literature, “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak. These two Russian novels share an ideological and thematic affinity with the general idea of Resurrection, literary immortality, and the preservation of Russian cultural traditions.

Keywords: Easter tradition, Easter archetype, Easter story, Easter novel, Easter sacrifice, Easter motif and figurative complex, Christocentrism, Christian realism, conciliarity, Moscow text, local supertext

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