От Москвы к Океану: художественно-философское осмысление образца столицы в трудах Л.М. Леонова

Abstract

The article undertakes an attempt to show transformation of Moscow image as the capital of the USSR in the works written by the Russian and Soviet writer L.M. Leonov. Sources of this work are based on the writer’s journalist articles as well as on his philosophical novel – “The Road to the Ocean” (1935). The author displays that L.M. Leonov was focused not really on development of the “capital mythology”, transforming with his word a city geographic space by his right of the prominent author, but he also tried to conceptualize and to present the idea of renovated Moscow itself, as a centre of actual and perspec­tive communist world in artistic and philosophical mode. The writer attempted to develop generally convincing optimistic eschatology of communism, which was expressed in the super-city idea, the global capital named Ocean with its headstream originated in Moscow, the capital of the USSR. This optimistic es­chato­logy was considered, among other, as a didactic message for the writer’s contemporaries; the new future required the new brand of Soviet people, who should be trained using distinctly formulated aim (despite it was an utopic one). It is concluded that urban educational practices should not be focused only on “external” city space, but also take into account its complicated “internal” ideological background which has direct or indirect influence on education of the new generations.