THE THEME OF THE CIVIL WAR IN CRIMEAN TEXT

Abstract

The article analyzes the theme of the Civil War in Crimea in 1920 by the example of such works as the novel The Fall of Dair by A.G. Malyshkin, the novel The Sun of the Dead by I.S. Shmelev, the poem Perekop by M.I. Tsvetaeva and the novel The Beast from the Abyss by E.I. Chirikov. The purpose of the study is to identify the motives that reveal the mutually exclusive views of Soviet and emigre writers on what was happening in the 1920s in Crimea. In Malyshkin’s The Fall of Dair and Shmelev’s The Sun of the Dead, a contradictory image of the ‘new man’ of history is created, Malyshkin presents him as the creator of a new and wonderful life, while Shmelev views him as the destroyer of culture and civilization; in Tsvetaeva’s poem, a “Volunteer legend” is created, the poet’s sympathy for the Volunteer Army is expressed; and Chirikov in his novel reflects on the existential meaning of a person at a social turning point and objectively shows the destructive power of the Reds and the Whites. Therefore, in the prose of the metropolis and emigration of the 1920s, alternative approaches to understanding the truth - about the Civil War, about the revolution as the destruction of an established existence or hope for a brighter future -developed. The listed works reflect opposing attitudes of the authors to the “man of the masses”, “the new man of history”, “the coming Huns” and “the volunteers”. As a result of the analysis of the texts, it is concluded that the mutually exclusive views reflected in Crimean text are considered as complementary in the artistic development of the Crimean cataclysm of the early 1920s, in understanding the fullness of the truth about the Civil War. At the same time, the works address similar existential, ontological, and social issues.