СЕВЕР И ЕГО КОЛОНИЗАЦИЯ В РОМАНЕ В. А. КАВЕРИНА «ДВА КАПИТАНА»

Abstract

The article covers the topic of the Soviet Northern Development in the novel “The Two Captains” by V. A. Kaverin. Using the literary means of ‘sliding’, as the writer names it, V. A. Kaverin focuses on the fates of the characters, not on the historical events. The search for the expedition of Captain Tatarinov, having started with Sanya Grigoryev’s attempt to make out his case over the causes of the “St. Mary” shipwreck, leads to the comprehension that the Arctic is of great significance for the entire country. The indigenous inhabitants of the North and “the colonizers”, the new inhabitants, are depicted as one society. An ideal hero of the epoch is Volodya, the son of the doctor Ivan Ivanovich; Volodya is a Soviet citizen whose small homeland is a new northern town. The main values of the territories already colonised are not so much improved living conditions as education and culture. The representatives of the indigenous peoples, Nenets and Evenks, become friends and helpers to the main characters as together they search for the “St. Mary” expedition. The life of the North is conditionally divided into two stages (pre-Soviet and Soviet) and is subject to the system of oppositions “then–now”, “old–new”. Special attention to the North is paid in the novel’s Volume II, which narrates the events of the Great Patriotic War. The war theme is intrinsically linked to the one of the North, since the characters become fully aware of the strategic importance of the Arctic. Thus, the development of the North in the novel “The Two Captains” is shown as a positive process which contributes to increment of the territories, unification of peoples, and strengthening of the state. An important role is given to the ideology of enlightenment allowing to unite civilization and nature in a harmonious way.