I.S. Shmelev, B.K. Zaitsev: Artistic Interpretation of the Events of the First Russian Revolution in the Aspect of Orthodox Axiology

Abstract

The events of the First Russian Revolution had a huge impact on Russian society at the beginning of the twentieth century and found multidimensional refl ection in the literature of those years. The range of their perception was large and had its own complex dynamics during the pre-October decade. The purpose of this small study is to refer to the works of writers who comprehended this social experience in those years when a signifi cant part of the Russian democratic intelligentsia was very indifferent to faith, from the standpoint of the Orthodox worldview – the works of I.S. Shmelev and B.K. Zaitsev. It is established that in the works of various genres: in short stories, novellas and novels – in the individual authors’ original interpretation, the process of gradual disillusionment of the Russian democratic intelligentsia in what was happening appeared. The traditional thought about the people’s welfare remained, but the unjustifi ably ruthless price of revolutionary upheavals, crushing the very foundations of national spiritual existence, was rejected by the heroes of those works. It was rejected in the name of the belief in the enduring power and eternal signifi cance of the ideals of the Christian doctrine.