To the question of the social existence’s primacy

Abstract

Based on the material of the folk tale “Geese-Swans” and the work of L.N. Tolstoy, the article raises the question of the relationship between social existence and literary creativity. The views of some Marxist critics on this issue are updated: G.V. Plekhanov, A.A. Bogdanov, V.I. Lenin. The question of the relationship between the social position of the writer, his class consciousness and the reflection of his ideological position in the work, as well as the reader's perception of it, depending on his own class consciousness, is raised.