A Generation Gone “Odvukon”: Literary Heritage of G. Andreev (Khomyakov) in the Context of the Creative Fate of the “Young” Writers of the First Wave of Russian Emigration

Abstract

The article makes an attempt to expand the boundaries of the long-established idea of the “unnoticed generation” of Russian emigre writers by comparing the fates and literary works of emigre “sons” and their contemporaries from Soviet Russia, and in this case — the ones who came to the West during World War II. The author focuses on the creative work of G. A. Andreev (Khomyakov), who consistently reproduced the life of his generation in its Soviet manifestation in his documentary and autobiographical prose: prisons and camps; the participation in the Soviet construction and production; the fate of a soldier during the war. The three thematic layers (camp — production — military) almost completely overlap with the overriding blocks of the auto-documentary plot that is recurrent in the works of “young” writers of white emigration: the Russian Civil War; declassed existence in a foreign country; participation in the Resistance. Referring to the content and thematic levels, the author points out the traits of generational unity in the works of G. Andreev (Khomyakov) and many representatives of the “young” literature of the first wave of emigration.