THE QUESTIONS OF DISTORTION OF FACTS IN DESCRIPTION OF REALITY IN A HISTORICAL NOVEL

Abstract

Summary. The article explores the problems of describing artistic reality with historical reality in Russian historical novels of the 1930‒50s. One of the main reasons for this was the approach to events schematically, from an ideological point of view. It is shown that in some historical novels of this period this principle was observed; but in many works distortions of historical events and personalities took place. The historical novels «Egyptian», «Stars over Samarkand», «Dmitry Donskoy» by one of the prominent representatives of Russian literature ‒ Sergei Borodin, attract attention as the first best examples of this genre in Soviet times. If the novels of the writer «Egyptian», «Dmitry Donskoy» took into account the spirit of the era, trends, historical chronological principle, then in some places of the historical novel «Stars over Samarkand» this principle was not observed. In a work of art, historical and artistic truth must be combined in such a way that the writer should not distort the essence of the event. S. Borodin’s «Stars over Samarkand» is a trilogy. The first book is Lame Timur , the second novel – Campfire Bonfires, and the third one was Lightning Bayazet. It is clear that the novel was devoted to historical figures and events that were not covered properly in the Soviet era as historical figures and events. Here, both historical events and historical figures must be evaluated in such a way that there is no distortion of the truth. In the trilogy of S. Borodin, this was observed to a certain extent; here, in addition to historical facts, artistic imagination is also present. This is completely natural, because the writer is not a historian to describe him as he was. The writer must first describe the spirit of the era with all its liveliness. This aspect in one sense or another has been observed in the trilogy. For example, there is information in various historical sources about Timur’s attention to traders, the continuation of trade even during the war, and the openness of roads for its development. In the novel «Stars over Samarkand» there are pages, even chapters on Timur’s support for trade. When writing these pages, the writer relied on historical realities. For example, after Timur’s campaign in India, learning about what trophies market traders return to, he writes that they will earn money here: «India! In the market ranks they talked anxiously about goods brought from there. To find out what to bring from or send there, they sent a detective to the experts». Therefore, the writer should not only study the historical events of this period well but also be objective about them.