Третья муза Ивана Шмелева

Abstract

The article aims to find out how the story of Dasha, described by Shmelev in the letters to O.A. Bredius-Subbotina in 1941–1942, was reflected in the writer’s work. The letters, the memoirs, and the historical materials allow us to reconstruct the biography of D.V. Zamotina. D.V. Zamotina’s letter to I.S. Shmelev dated May 1, 1937, from the archive of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russian Abroad Archive is introduced into scientific circulation. The article proves that the Zamotin family significantly contributed to the preservation and transfer to the national archives of the writer’s prerevolutionary heritage. The story of Dasha is comparable with his stories “The Grapes” (1913), “In the Manor” (1914), novels The Story of a Love (1927), and The Heavenly Paths (1937, 1948). The article notes the similarity of the portraits of the heroines, their social status, the individual details, the scenes, the images, and the motifs. The article takes into account modern literary works, which analyze the considered images and the motifs. The results show that Dasha Zamotina is the embodiment of the “Shmelev’s girl.” In conclusion, the article considers the work of the writer as a whole, highlights his favorite characters, and notes the similarity of pre-revolutionary and emigrant pathos — “organic democracy”; for this reason, Dasha can be called the Muse of Shmelev with a capital letter.