THE ARCHITECTONICS OF V.F. ODOEVSKY’S “RUSSIAN NIGHTS”

Abstract

V.F. Odoevsky’s philosophical novel comprises a collection of manuscripts of short stories presented by young people led by Faust, whose name began to denote the author of the novel as the “Russian Faust”. Odoevsky joined Freemasonry at the Noble University Boarding School, the head of which was A.A. Prokopovich-Antonsky, a friend of N.I. Novikov. Odoevsky’s youth, the period of the love of wisdom, passed under the influence of Schelling’s philosophy and the ideas of Freemasonry, the teachings of de Saint-Martin and F. Baader. Th e architectonics of “Russian Nights” as a philosophical novel is determined by conversations and disputes about the issues of modern life among the young characters of the story. “Russian Nights” is a complex combination of mystical Freemasonry and the teachings of Schelling. It is a large philosophical and ethical treatise, representing a motley collection of ideas and opinions on almost all issues of the life and thinking of Russian people in the fi rst half of the 19th century.