Prishvin and Bukharin: Drama of Soviet Leader as Seen by Writer

Abstract

The ideological and political context of M. Prishvin’s views on the life of Soviet society and his assessment of the activities of N. I. Bukharin after the October Revolution are studied. The study of Prishvin’s diary works will contribute to an unbiased and objective idea of the writer’s ideological position and of his artistic heritage as a whole. It is shown how, in the course of applying the artistic images and ideas of F. M. Dostoevsky to the analysis of the leaders of Bolshevism activities and destinies, Prishvin comes to the conclusion that the organizers and inspirers of social violence against people will inevitably die, becoming victims of their own destructive ideas. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the 18-volume “Diary” of the writer, previously unpublished due to censorship restrictions, which became available to readers only in the post-Soviet period. It is shown that the fanaticism of serving the idea of the class struggle gives rise to the moral inferiority of the party-state elite, from whose midst come Stalin’s rivals — “pretenders for power”. For the first time in Prishvin studies, an attempt was made to show how, using the example of the fate of Bukharin, a typical representative of the BolshevikLeninists, the writer reveals not only the tragic inconsistency of his beliefs, but also draws historiosophical conclusions about the internal flaws of the revolutionary ideology.