The Writers on One Wave. L.D. Rzhevsky about the Creative Works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn

Abstract

The article considers attitude of the representatives of different “waves” of Russian emigration to the personality and works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The author the reasons of special analysed interest of the representatives of the “second wave” to the early period of the writer’s creative works, as well as described specific features of perception of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works by the literary critic L.D. Rzhevsky, belonging to that wave. For the first time the works of L.D. Rzhevsky devoted to the creative works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn are introduced into scientific circulation. Philologist by education and the writer, L.D. Rzhevsky considered mainly the features of individual style and literary language of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. He paid much attention to the writer’s innovations in this field, in particular to his word creativity, and noted his commitment to the people’s language and good command of it. The critic also demonstrates the specific features of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s narrative style, which manifested itself differently in his works. He notes that the narrator either “self-dissolves” in the character(s) or speaks on his own behalf. In the first case, polyphonic structure or monophonic sound is possible. The features of the artistic form of the creative works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, however, interested L.D. Rzhevsky as a way of expressing the civil position of the author. The most important characteristic feature of the writer’s work, he believed the inextricable unity of aesthetic and ethical principles. Emphasizing the importance in his creative works of the categories “conscience”, “truth”, “intransigence”, L.D. Rzhevsky stated that A.I. Solzhenitsyn revived the humanistic pathos of Russian classical literature, suppressed in the USSR for ideological reasons. Based on numerous examples and quotations, the critic called the writer the heir to the traditions laid down by A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky. Highly artistic reflection of the life truth in the works of the author, who lived in the USSR, L.D. Rzhevsky considered as selfless devotion and evaluated as a feat committed by the creator. The article uses little-known and hard-to-reach sources to domestic readers: materials published abroad in the mid-twentieth century in small batches and since out of print.