Positive Hero Research Articles

THE IMAGE OF A POSITIVE HERO IN THE UKRAINIAN MAGICAL TALE

The article examines the features of the image of a positive hero of a magical fairy tale, its content, context, and educational potential. The purpose of this article is to study of the characteristic features of the image of the positive hero of the Ukrainian fairy tale and the identification of his educational potential. The study of the image of the positive hero in Ukrainian magical fairy tales employs a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating folklore studies, literary criticism, and cultural anthropology. This method allows for an in-depth examination of the narrative structures, thematic elements, and cultural significance of the tales. The primary sources for this study include a comprehensive collection of Ukrainian magical tales, scholarly articles, and historical texts that provide insights into the evolution of these stories and their roles within Ukrainian culture. The types of heroes of magical tales are highlighted, their national and universal virtues are analyzed. Mythologemes and archaisms of the fairy tale "Kotygoroshko" were studied. It was concluded that the images of positive heroes of fairy tales in their own actions, activities, exploits, communication with other characters appear as integral human characters, exponents of the best virtues of the Ukrainian people. Heroes are consistent in their actions, value honor, justice, loyalty to family, people, and Motherland above all else. They wage an implacable struggle against evil in all its forms and always win. These are strong, courageous, honest, reliable knights, devoted to the end of the fight for the truth.

ҚАЗАҚ ТІЛІНІҢ ПОЭТИКАЛЫҚ КОРПУСЫ МӘСЕЛЕСІ БОЙЫНША БІРЕР СӨЗ

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of the poetic language of the constituent poetic corpus of the Kazakh language. The poetic features of the variants of the song "Kozy Korpesh – Bayan Sulu", taken as the main version, are analyzed. Examples from the poem "Kyz Zhibek" are partially given. The purpose, main direction and idea of the research is to reveal the poetic value of the variants of the poem "Kozy Korpesh – Bayan Sulu". The article uses methods of selection, systematization, division into lexico-semantic and thematic groups, structural, descriptive, semantic grouping, synchronous analysis, and construction. The article examines from a historical and poetic point of view selected versions of one of the oldest cultural relics of the Kazakh people, "Kozy Korpesh-Bayan Sulu", with a comparison among themselves. It is known that this epic is a common heritage for all Turkic peoples. For example, the Altaians, Bashkirs, and Tatars have preserved several versions of this lyric epic. As for the Kazakh versions of the poem, this poem was first published in the third volume of V.Radlov's work in 1870 "Samples of folk literature of Turkic tribes" and in 1876 by I.Berezin as part of the "Turkish Anthology". Many intellectuals, led by Sh. Ualikhanov, G.N.Potanin participated in publication and research of the epic. The results obtained during the study: 1) comparing the poetic language of the main versions of the epic, we find, as the most basic, ancient and artistic version, the version sung by Zhanak akyn; 2) issues related to the life and fate of the main characters of lyric-epic poems, such as "Kozy Korpesh-Bayan Sulu", "Kyz Zhibek" are identified; 3) it is proved who is actually a positive hero, since in different versions of the epic Sarybai and Karabai are perceived differently as positive and negative characters.

Revisiting «women’s poetry» in Dagestan literature in 1950s

In the modern world with an ever-increasing interest in the development of artistic culture, many new works of literature and art appear. In this context the study of the history of certain aspects of the Dagestan culture (literature and art, etc.) is relevant today and its studying should be carried out in close connection with the development of the Dagestan multinational culture as a whole. In this regard, the problem of women’s literature and the «female image» in literature is also relevant.The article considers some aspects of women’s literary creativity, the place of female literature and an «image of a woman» in Dagestan literature in 1950s, and gender difference in covering female issues. For this purpose, special monographic studies and media materials have been used.In conclusion, the image of a positive hero has been noted as one of the main themes in Dagestan literature in the post-war period and 1950s. The issue of the Great Patriotic War was too close and heavy; it was also reflected in the works of women poets. Dagestan poets and writers paid special attention to highlighting the heavy fate of mountain women who actively fought for their free future and the desire to actively participate in the social, political and cultural life of the Republic.

The Secret Meaning of the Long Poem “Pyrotechnic”: Poetic Autoexorcism of Georgy Shengeli

The long poem by Georgy Shengeli “Pyrotechnic” (1931–1933), which is his most signifi cant poetical work of the fi rst half of the 1930s, has not yet been analyzed in the context of the author’s biography. Why did Shengeli turn specifi cally to the history of France at the end of the 19th century and made a “lone anarchist” (the author’s defi nition) committing a terrorist act against ordinary citizens the main positive hero? The author of the article suggests that the writing of this long poem became an act of autoexorcism for Shengeli – an attempt to sublimate personal experiences and gloomy thoughts caused by diffi cult conditions and circumstances of his life, and to give them the form of a literary work, outwardly devoid of connection with the reality surrounding it.

Blacksmith and Blacksmithing Attributes in Folklore of Tungus-Manchurian Peoples of Russian Far East

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the perception of blacksmiths and blacksmithing by the folklore consciousness of the indigenous ethnic groups of the southern part of the Russian Far East — the Nanais, Orochs, Ulchis, Negidals, Udeges, Oroks (Uilta) of Sakhalin, who are considered to be distant descendants of the Mohe and Jurchens. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time from the general array of the narrative folklore of the Tungus-speaking peoples, texts were singled out, where the central character is an anthropomorphic character, in the guise of which the main tools of blacksmithing are presented: a head-hammer, a chest — blacksmith furs, legs-skewers, hands ticks. The study showed that in the oral work of the Far Eastern aborigines, iron and craft attributes often received a negative assessment; the magical properties attributed to the blacksmith were transferred to iron products and tools of his labor, represented by images of cannibalistic monsters. At the same time, the masters themselves could remain positive heroes, endowed with the features of a demiurge. At the same time, the masters themselves could remain positive heroes, endowed with the features of a demiurge. It is concluded that the anthropomorphization of blacksmith tools is a representative element of the plot, widespread among the Far Eastern Tungus-Manchus, but unknown to the Nivkhs.

Буддийские аспекты образа барона Р. Ф. Унгерна фон Штернберга в повести "Песчаные всадники" Л. А. Юзефовича

The article explores the Buddhist components of the image of Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg in the works of Leonid Yuzefovich. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the concept of the “Buddhist text” in modern Russian literature. The author of the article discovers and comprehends Buddhist ideas and motifs present in the story Horsemen of the Sands and the documentary novel The Autocrat of the Desert. Indirectly, the article also uses the essay “The Six-Armed God and His ‘Sons’ ” from Yuzefovich’s The Most Famous Impostors. The story and the novel were reprinted several times, and each time the writer made significant edits to them, which fixed significant changes in the image of the main character and reflected the writer’s deepening knowledge about Buddhism. The image of Baron Ungern in the story and in the novel is a complex and synthetic image, it combines the signs of a positive hero and of an infernal being, each of which is rooted in Buddhist metaphysics. The image of the baron as a character in Yuzefovich’s fiction correlates with the image of the real Roman Ungern von Sternberg. The real Baron Ungern looks no less exotic than his literary reflection. He is a participant in the White Movement, a religiously motivated warrior for the Buddhist faith, who comes into conflict with the West. He realizes himself inspired by Buddhist hierarchies and exists in the space of the approaching apocalypse. At the same time, in connection with the image of Baron Ungern in the story Horsemen of the Sands, the writer turns to the problems rooted in Buddhist philosophy, in particular, he raises questions of the illusory nature of being, karma and nonviolence. The image of horsemen of the sands fixed in the title of the story is a metaphor of time absorbing people and events, of the illusory space, of the unreliable human ontology, and of the unseemly vanity. Another idea of the story is the impossibility of avoiding the consequences of what has been done both at the level of the history of nations and of the fate of an individual due to karma, that is, the Buddhist law of created causes and matured consequences. The writer interprets both the appearance of Ungern in Mongolia and his passing away as a manifestation of bad karma. Finally, another important idea of the story is the idea of the essential discrepancy between the ethics of Buddhism and the idea of its violent, military propagation. The convergence of Buddhism and war in Horsemen of the Sands looks wrong and inappropriate, and leads people who have embarked on such a road to collapse at the level of their own destiny and to a historical defeat.

Strong Female Characters in the Contemporary Anglophone Kenyan Novels: Socialist Realism Perspective

This paper entitled Highlighting Strong Female Characters in the Contemporary Anglophone Kenyan Novels: Socialist Realism Perspective tried to explore the creation of Strong Female in Anglophone Kenyan novels. In Socialist Realism portraying a positive hero is a crucial aspect in their writing. However, many writers used males as their positive heroes, those Kenyan novels focused on creating strong female characters/ positive heroines/ in their famous works. The research used Socialist Realism Literary theory as a theory and a method to employ this paper. In doing so, the paper aims to show the re-emergence of Socialist Realism literary theory and Socialist Realist authors. After it was considered an outdated literary theory, and how different novelists from Kenya have applied the feature that Socialist Realism is known for. Three novels have been chosen for this study namely; Dust, A Journey Within, and Was Nyakeeru My Father?. All the novels were published after 2000 G.C. To read these novels, a theoretical framework is formed using Socialist Realism’s feature theorized by different critics. The study concludes that different novelists in Kenya used the Socialist Realism feature Strong Female Characters associating it with their contexts, connecting it with their respective historical background, shared current statues, commenting on existing economic, social, and political situations. Besides Female Empowerment, Socialist Feminism, and Contemporary Kenyan Females were the approaches to discuss those Strong Characters.

ÜMUMTƏHSİL MƏKTƏBLƏRİNDƏ NİZAMİ GƏNCƏVİNİN HƏYATI VƏ YARADICILIQ YOLUNUN ÖYRƏDİLMƏSİ

Nizami Ganjavi's life and creative activity are taught in the 8th and 10th grades of secondary schools. A teacher of literature should not only give information about the works of the great artist on the basis of program requirements, but also use the power of educational influence in his powerful poetry to accustom students to take example of the positive heroes of the poet. To do this, the teacher must arrange interesting lessons using modern learning technologies and interactive methods and create interest and love for the artistic heritage of our great poet. Key words: Nizami, creative way, literature, school, lesson

Contemporary Albanian Literature in Kosovo (Now and Here)

Albanian literature written from the 1940s to the present day can be called contempo-rary Albanian literature, or in other words, World Literature after the Second World War. The allowed literature was the only method of socialist realism, which was ideol-ogized and politicized, i.e. subject to communist ideology and politics. It was not free literature, but entirely engaged in the service of socialism and communism. The meth-od of socialist realism had some very narrow and binding criteria for all those who thought of publishing their works. Such were the communist members, the positive hero and the struggle against foreign middle-class influences. In such a situation, we can say that it was purely subject to ideology and communist politics. Due to its very narrow scheme, most of the literary work written during this period had its own value and function during the period of the communist system. This type of literature form some writers was accepted with conviction, while others were used to compromise to publish their works. Although under very strict censure, many important works were published which could have been contrary to socialist realism. Such works were with an indirect expression or with a subtext, often in symbolic and allegorical forms. These works consist of some of the greatest values of contemporary Albanian literature, the first and the foremost authors of this kind of literature, their best works, publishers, and their echoes in the language of translation.

Analysis of <i>Yvonne Owuor’s</i> Dust from the Perspective of Socialist Realism Literary Theory

This study entitled Analysis of Yvonne Owuor’s Dust from the Perspective of Socialist Realism Literary Theory attempts to read a Contemporary Anglophone Kenyan novel through the lens of Socialist Realism. Socialist Realism appeared for the first time in a speech of 17th May 1932 by Ivan Gronsky, and gaining worldwide recognition with postcolonial literary works, has been a focal point of different scholarly studies. In Kenya, the author such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o wrote literary works which can be seen in Socialist Realist eyes. The motivations behind taking up this topic are to fill the research gap in reading a novel from Kenya and to observe the trend in the practice of Socialist Realism. The paper aims to show the re-emergence of Socialist Realism literary theory and the presence of Socialist Realist authors; after it was considered an outdated literary theory. And how the novelist from Kenya has applied the features that Socialist Realism is known. One novel has been chosen for this study, Dust. The novel was published after 2000 G.C. To read the novel, the theoretical framework forms at using Socialist Realism different features theorized by critics. The study concludes by finding major features of Socialist realism in the novel. These are optimism, socialist Humanism, class-ness, people-ness, Romanticism and positive hero. And the novelist in Kenya used Socialist Realism associating it with their contexts, connecting it with their respective historical background, shared current statues, commenting on existing economic, social, and political situations.

A Positive Hero in the Early Literary Works of F. M. Dostoevsky: Specific Formation of Image in the Traditions of the Holy Patristic Literature

A Positive Hero in the Early Literary Works of F. M. Dostoevsky: Specific Formation of Image in the Traditions of the Holy Patristic Literature

Вечная ревизия. Экранизации гоголевских текстов в ХХI в.

Post-Soviet era directors have been searching for the new aesthetic footholds in the images of Gogol’s works. Starting from pure satire denouncing the pre-revolutionary system, they have moved on to the absurdist grotesque. This was significantly influenced by the discoveries of Gogol scholars in the 1990s–2000s and the actualization of the interpretations of Gogol’s works created at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, which were inconceivable for Soviet literary criticism Screen adaptations have been affected both directly—by theatrical productions of Gogol’s oeuvre, and indirectly—by a long tradition of stage appeals and directors’ decisions on his stories. The transfer of Gogol’s dramaturgy into the 21st century gave film directors and screenwriters the opportunity to maximize the relevance and social sensitivity of the plots. In the 21st century, the theme of an inspection as an image of the Last Judgment has been transformed into a semblance of a police detective. Most of the characters are related to the police or special services, to investigations, to real retribution. While for Gogol the idea of judgement lies in the moral plane, in post-Soviet interpretations it is usually associated with earthly requital, and an extremely explicit one, tailored to a crime TV series audience. Against such a background, Grigory Konstantinopolsky’s film adaptation of Dead Souls summarizes a decade of Gogol film interpretations. The story of Chichikov blatantly accumulates and travesties the previous tradition of presenting Gogol’s detective plots. The film actualizes the issue of a positive hero, the problem of memory transformation, and cinema’s responsibility to the society in the period of losing its literature-centeredness. The transformation of the spiritual and intimate life of Gogol’s contemporaries, which was the most important theme for the writer, was also updated in a number of motifs: the lack of foundations for understanding between loving people (Marriage, 2009), the displacement of traditional gender roles (Happy Ending, 2010), the privatization of national memory, and summing up the unformed aesthetics of the new Russian cinema by the “lost generation” of the ‘90s (Dead Souls, 2020).

Jewish Emigration and Soviet Propaganda in Films of the 1920s and 1930s

The article attempts to consider the appeals of the Soviet screen of the 20-30s to the topic of emigration in general and Jewish emigration in particular. The latter appeared most often in connection with the possibility of re-emigration. Unlike the plot about the professional or political immigration of foreigners to the USSR, the plot with the reemigration of Jews had a number of important advantages. It allowed to demonstrate the progress of the Soviet country in time. It exposed at the same time the horrors of the discriminatory policy of tsarist Russia and the illusion of equality, financial well-being and personal freedom of Western countries. Jewish emigration turned out to be justified by external factors for the Soviet authorities, unless, of course, we were talking about leaving for Palestine for Zionist beliefs. The Soviet screen of the 20s and 30s was critical of Zionism, but even this sometimes became insufficient. Some films had not been released like “Against the Will of the Fathers” by Yevgeny Ivanov-Barkov. One of the film’s characters – student Boris despite his Zionist preferences still remained a positive hero. Other films, for example, Mikhail Dubson’s “Border”, were subjected to numerous alterations, reducing the dangerous topic of Zionism to a minimum. The renewed Russia, now oriented towards internationalism and having discarded capitalist habits, appeared in the Soviet cinema of the 30s not only as an ideal old new homeland for Jews, but also as a universal proletarian paradise (“Horizon”, “The Return of Nathan Becker”, “Seekers of Happiness”, etc.). But not all Jewish characters got access to the Soviet “Promised Land”, but only those who were ready to give up their national, cultural, linguistic isolation in the end. After all, the revolution destroyed the main Jewish trait in Russia – the pale of settlement. And now it was time to return and find a share not in the future, but in the present, accomplished Soviet world without borders and hierarchies. The pragmatics of Soviet propaganda becomes more obvious when referring to censorship prohibitions and restrictions (“Against the will of the Fathers”, “Dream”), rejected versions of the script (“Border”), accompanying advertising texts (“Jewish Happiness”), as well as to the analysis of the plots of films based on Jewish material.

Positive heroes of Russian and Chinese fairy tales (contrastive aspect)

Positive heroes of Russian and Chinese fairy tales (contrastive aspect)

«The Life of Varlaam Khutynsky» As A Source on the History of Childhood

It is proved that the Life of Varlaam Khutynsky had a significant educational potential and was aimed at the younger generation with the aim of not only spreading the veneration of the saint, but also instilling an image of a positive hero corresponding to the ideals of that time.

ОПЫТ ВОЗРОЖДЕНИЯ ДЕТСКОГО И ЮНОШЕСКОГО КИНО НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ДЕТСКИХ КИНОФЕСТИВАЛЕЙ И КИНОСТУДИЙ г. ТОМСКА

Regional film festivals are part of the film process and play a special role in the formation and preservation of national and cultural identity. The author of the article refers to the regional children's cinema festival. This topic is relevant because children's filmmaking is given very little attention in the space of contemporary culture (These are films made by the children themselves). We characterize this cinema as the artistic practice of “small cinema with great meaning”. The purpose of research – to identify the specific features of the cinema, as a product of children's creativity. In the course of the work, the following tasks were solved. Firstly, the features of the organization of children's film festivals and educational film studios (in Tomsk region) were studied. Secondly, an analysis of the artistic and imaginative specificity of children's cinema is given. The study was conducted on the material Children's Film Festival "Bronze Knight", the children's film studio "On a cloud" (Tomsk). Our research has shown that the experience of the regions demonstrates the success of the institutionalization of the practices of children's film-making in the format of film festivals, as well as in the form of organizing film schools. At the same time, an important organizational feature is the set guidelines for children's creativity. There are content priority setting; the need to determine value-semantic guidelines, attention to professional training; emphasis on the development of creativity, etc. Analysis of children's films, presented at the International Film Festival "Bronze Knight", enabled us to identify the characteristics of their artistic-figurative system. On the one hand, there is an orientation toward the Soviet film tradition with its distinct guidelines for the transmission of cultural value-semantic attitudes and special aesthetics. This is manifested, firstly, in themes, plots and heroes (humanistic values are glorified, respect for each other and love for their homeland, people and culture are instilled; a positive hero striving for good deeds; the presence of creative and instructive elements, a craving for intellectuality); secondly, in artistic aesthetics (close-ups, landscape photography; foreshortening; even rhythm, experiments with color: sepia, aged shots). On the other hand, there is an appeal to the modern cinema language, with its priority attention to visual effects, dynamics of frames and rhythm, including youth discourse (slang, neologisms). On the other hand, there is an appeal to the modern cinema language, with its priority attention to visual effects, dynamics and rhythm, including youth discourse (slang, neologisms). Thus, it should be noted that the ideological core of the artistic and imaginative system of children's films is based on the traditions of Russian cinema aesthetics, while maintaining a craving for intellectuality and spiritual and moral themes, while the visual embodiment combines the traditions of Soviet cinema and the means of modern cinema language.

СЮЖЕТ О КНИГЕ И ЧТЕНИИ В САТИРИЧЕСКИХ ЖУРНАЛАХ 1769–1774 гг.

The interest that modern human science shows in the Enlightenment as time still continues and has become one of the reasons to examine the periodicals of the 1760s and 1770s as part of its complex social and cultural process. Separating a specific cul-tural practice for analysis allowed concentrating on identifying some anthropological senses in cultural changes and some ways of coping with current conflicts. The author of the article observes how the magazines that are identified as satirical (Truten’, Zhivopisets, Vsyakaya Vsyachina, Adskaya Pochta, Smes’, and others) make a dialogue between the book and reading. The significance of this topic is the early discussion on the problem of educating the nobility that was held in the society. In the 1760s and 1770s, the topic became popular in a new way because of the ideas of Catherine the Great to educate people “of a new brand”. To solve the problem, the government started to reor-ganize educational institutions whose programs began to include secular science, books and art. However, home schooling remained closed for changes. There, medieval spiritual books still dominated because “aunties”-tutors (so-called “starushki”) were afraid of any cultural innovations. The well-known thesis that, in the second part of the century, the authority of medieval texts became weaker is proved by different magazine articles that were based on the daily experience and examinations of contemporaries who were the witnesses of the cultural changes and who had to choose what to read, where and how to teach their children. In publications of different genres, we can notice that the press con-tinued to value the book and reading as a good way to learn and educate. Besides, medie-val texts appeared to be something that favored superstitious views on the Universe. In the then contemporary satirical ideas, medieval books marked the changing generation of readers. Some examples of parents’ sanctimonious views on religious beliefs, disrespect towards governmental rules, cruel treatment of serfs degraded the value of reading medie-val books. On the contrary, positive heroes showed interest in the new secular knowledge and books, tried to become well-read and study foreign languages, to be capable of making a free choice. To bring up such a noble person was only possible if their parents were thoughtful to their children’s natural proclivity and to the choice of their tutors, and were sensitive to governmental changes. Generations that could stop reading Old Russian books were changing their reading habits. They became free in choosing books and in reading them critically. The trend to be well-read made reading more dynamic.

Pomnit' po-nashemu: Sotsrealisticheskii istorizm i blokada Leningrada by Voronina Tat'iana (review)

SEER, 98, 4, OCTOBER 2020 784 Alexander Vatlin’s Agents of Terror, ably translated by Seth Bernstein, shows howNKVDofficersintheMoscowsuburbofKuntsevoimplementedthedeadly massacre. Working under the pressure of daily quotas for interrogations and ‘socialist competitions’ between branches for the highest number of arrests, confessions, etc., agents resorted to extraordinary shortcuts. They wrote up ‘confessions’ even before meeting arrestees, then beat the latter until they signed. In the ‘family method’, officers saved time and effort by arresting entire families at once. Another device was ‘staff witnesses’, who regularly provided ‘evidence’ for multiple cases. Vatlin finds that the Kuntsevo NKVD cycled through three types of charges. From the summer of 1937 until early 1938 agents tended to charge arrestees with ‘counterrevolutionary agitation’. In the spring of 1938 NKVD chief Ezhov mandated ‘the spy turn’, as officers investigated suspects for links with foreign intelligence services. The spy turn overlapped with a final phase, the arrests of elderly citizens who had belonged to non-Bolshevik political parties during the revolutionary years. This came about simply because the NKVD ran out of other criteria for arrests. Vatlin’s book complements Harris’s in its emphasis on widening circles of fear. NKVD officers worked frantically in dread that they themselves might be arrested if they did not meet quotas; neighbours denounced neighbours out of terror that they might themselves be denounced. AgentsofTerrordoesnotquitedeliveronthepromiseofitssubtitle—‘Ordinary Men and Extraordinary Violence in Stalin’s Secret Police’. The investigation files on which it is based do not allow a detailed psychological portrait of perpetrators, of the sort that Hannah Arendt undertook of Adolf Eichmann. It is, however, the most detailed account of NKVD investigation procedures we are likely to see coming out of Russian archives for decades to come. Since its writing the Russian Federation has re-classified NKVD operational files. The only pre-war operational files now accessible are in Ukrainian archives. Department of History Matthew Lenoe University of Rochester Voronina, Tat´iana. Pomnit´ po-nashemu: Sotsrealisticheskii istorizm i blokada Leningrada. Biblioteka-zhurnala ‘neprikosnovennyi zapas’. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moscow, 2018. 273 pp. Notes. R312.00. Tat´iana Voronina’s Pomnit´ po-nashemu brings new evidence and a fresh perspective to bear on how and why the master-narrative of the Leningrad Blockade has endured to shape public attitudes and political discourse in both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. Voronina has long been a scholar REVIEWS 785 of the Blockade and an authority on historical memory. She began recording oral histories with siege survivors in the early 2000s. Pomnit´ po-nashemu showcases her expertise in using such sources. She masterfully demonstrates how individual stories become enveloped in collectively-formulated concepts while remaining personally meaningful. Spanning the years 1941 to 2006, this remarkably succinct book uses a combination of historical, anthropological and literary methods to argue that the master-narrative or myth of the siege has its roots in Socialist Realism. This phenomenon began during the war years, when professional writers wellversed in Socialist-Realist aesthetics deliberately incorporated them into their novels, poems and articles. The post-war repression of Leningrad’s wartime leadership silenced discussions of the siege during the late 1940s and early 1950s, but when this moratorium lifted under Khrushchev’s Thaw, historians, politicians and survivors continued to recount the blockade by drawing — deliberately or unwittingly — on structural features and textual devices from Socialist Realism, which now seemed self-evident (p. 199). At the same time, the myth of the Blockade has not been static. Voronina demonstrates how it evolved, especially during the Thaw, perestroika and Soviet collapse. However, even as the political landscape shifted and censorship was lifted, the masternarrative endured. Voronina’sconceptualizationofSocialistRealismisbasedonthemorphology outlined by Katerina Clark in The Soviet Novel (Chicago, IL, 1981). Among the mode’s defining traits is the positive hero, who overcomes formidable obstacles to achieve a socially significant feat. The hero struggles, but his struggle is always meaningful and it proves his steadfast commitment to his mission. In Socialist-Realist accounts of the Blockade, the hero might be a soldier, party official, or civilian who willingly and ‘wholeheartedly’ sacrifices himself to defeat the besiegers (p. 160). Heroism — not trauma or victimization — comprises the core of historical memory about the siege. This explains why, Voronina...

Трансформация фольклорных героев и мотивов в драматургический сюжет в пьесах Галимзяна Гильманова

The paper tries to answer the question: what purpose the writer tries to achieve reinterpreting folkloric images and motives in their plays. Scientific originality of the study is conditioned by the fact that the researchers for the first time provide a comprehensive analysis of the basic development tendencies of the Tatar children’s dramaturgy of the second half of the XX century by the example of Galimzyan Gilmanov’s works. The findings indicate that the folkloric, mythological personages are described as typical representatives of the mythological world, but their evil, demonic side is nothing but a mask. In fact, demonic features of Diyu and Shural are associated with grievance; it’s just a reaction to being hurt by people. With the help of the positive heroes, the mythological personages return to their natural kind-heartedness.

First/Last Teacher: Recasting Soviet Legacies in Contemporary Kyrgyz Cinema

Renowned Soviet‐Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Atimatov's 1962 novella The First Teacher has staying power in contemporary Kyrgyzstan figuring prominently–and positively–in Kyrgyz culture and cinema of the last decade. This seems to be a postcolonial paradox as Aitmatov's classic has traditionally been read as a socialist‐realist narrative welcoming the arrival of the forcefully imposed Soviet power to Kyrgyzstan in 1924. My fresh reading of Aitmatov's Soviet‐era classic as more ambiguous than originally thought and its subsequent reinterpretations in recent Kyrgyz cinema corroborates David Chione Moore's seminal argument about the reality of post‐colonialism in the post‐Soviet space while also revealing the productive tension between the two conflicting views of the Soviet experiment as non‐colonial or “simply differently configured” colonial. Even though Aitmatov privileges Soviet culture over “backward” Kyrgyz ways and wages a socialist realist struggle between the old and the new in The First Teacher, this early narrative crafted during the Thaw builds in a lot of ambiguity about the Soviet project in Kyrgyzstan. I argue that the novella's pronounced Thaw idealism and its revision of the Stalinist myth of the ideologically driven positive hero, combined with the young writer's subtly articulated Kyrgyz values that exist alongside and often in tension with his distinct Soviet persona, all allow for a more flexible interpretation and negotiation of a hybrid, ambivalent, and multivalent post‐Soviet Kyrgyz culture and nationhood in contemporary Kyrgyz cinema.