Russian Literature Research Articles

Налоговые льготы научным и образовательным организациям как косвенные бюджетные субсидии

The article attempts to compare the mechanisms of state financial support for scientific and educational organizations through direct budget subsidies and indirectly through the provision of tax benefits. The author tries to evaluate these measures in terms of their economic efficiency, relevance, transparency and the possibility of state financial control and seeks to opt the most appropriate ones. The work uses Russian scientific literature, law enforcement practice and budget and tax statistics.

Introduction to the Ideological History of Russian Emigration (1917–1991)

The history of Russian emigration of the period of 1917 – 1991 has extensive y historiography primarily due to the fact that the period is characterized by numerous achievements in Russian literature, art, science and culture. The political and media history of Russian emigration is well known and thoroughly studied. There exist also certain reviews of the history of Russian philosophy of this emigration period. However, the summary information on the moral, ideological and socio-political history of Russian emigration is insuffi cient and requires elementary introduction which is very often ignored because of numerous biographical and individual details.

Exploring Russian Literature's Spiritual Labor: A Review of Wonder Confronts Certainty

Review of the book Wonder Confronts Certainty by Gary Saul Morson, eminent literary critic and Slavist. The book is a recent (2023) release, and uses Russian literature from the mid-19th century as a means of reading Russian society and politics. It delves into the profound intersection of Russian literature and philosophy, addressing the 'accursed questions' on life's meaning, morality, and truth. Morson stages a Dialogue of the Dead with eminent Russian thinkers, navigating the great realist novelists and the unique intelligentsia. Divided into three sections, the book explores the intricacies of Russian intellectual life, categorizing the intelligentsia into distinct sub-types. While the final section engages timeless questions, the book's strength lies in Morson's nuanced understanding of opposing perspectives. Interwoven with intertextuality, it skillfully examines Russian history and politics, though at times leaning towards anti-Soviet sentiments and displaying a slight masculine bias. Overall, it offers a lucid primer on Russian literature and politics.

Genesis and evolution of parallel economies during the Syrian crisis: A political economy view

A highly internationalized domestic armed conflict in Syria, active since 2011, has caused deep territorial fragmentation, accompanied by the genesis of numerous parallel economies. Those include the economy of the self-proclaimed “Kurdish autonomy” encompassing the northeast, partially the north and the east of the country, as well as the historical transboundary criminal-terrorist economy of the “Islamic State of Syria and the Levant” (ISIL or ISIS) (this organization is banned in the Russian Federation), which existed during 2014–2019 in Iraq and Syria, the economy of “the Turkish occupation zone” in the north, and finally the economy of the part of the north-western Idlib province, remaining under control of the radical Syrian opposition. Unlike the previous materials on the Syrian conflict published in Russia and abroad, the author analyzes parallel economies from the angle of political economy, i.e., the “state-economy-individual” trichotomy, using current and retrospective lenses. In addition to a scope of Russian, English, and Arabic resources and literature, he uses the data obtained empirically during his previous stint as a senior diplomat at the Russian Embassy in Damascus. In certain cases the reviews are illustrated by the statistics. The article covers the genesis and evolution of parallel economies, including the phenomena of divided cities and siege economies, highlighting the restrictions on the access of the central authorities to the state borders and the dissolution of transport and communications. Besides, it analyses the external orientations of parallel economies, in many cases being tied more to the neighbor states (Türkiye, Iraq) than the rest of Syria. In conclusion, the author compares the levels of sustainability of the parallel economies in Syria in the light of perspectives for national economic reintegration. Which could be important not in scientific terms only but as a practical imperative for seeking the modalities of a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis as well.

Концептуальные стратегии пост(соц)реализма (роман А. Тургенева «Чтобы Бог тебя разорвал изнутри на куски!»)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the text of Andrei Turgenev’s fiction novel “So that God tears you to pieces from the inside!”, published as a separate book by the Moscow publishing house “Eksmo” in 2008. The research was undertaken in order to identify and comprehend the imitation strategies of the critic Vyacheslav Kuritsyn, who acted as a novelist under the pseudonym Andrey Turgenev. The authors of the work prove that the “precedent” pseudonym of the author, allusively associated with the name of the Russian classic Ivan Turgenev, gives rise to the idea of a literary game started by the critic-writer to create an imitation text, the so-called “secondary” text. However, the authors emphasize that the classical Turgenev traditions were ignored by the modern writer. On the one hand he tried to combine the visual techniques of Fellini cinema in the novel text, and on the other hand, to reproduce the techniques and practices of the Moscow conceptualists D. Prigov, L. Rubinstein, V. Sorokin, etc. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the various aspects of the Kuritsyn-Turgenev novel are analytically examined, the axiological angles of the author’s playing position are revealed, and the dialogical connections of the novel are explicated. As a result, it is proved that (along with stylistic blunders) the dignity of the Kuritsyn-Turgenev genre experiment consists of an appeal to fundamental issues of literature and creativity, a semantically significant wealth of intertextual references to modern Russian and world literature.

How a significant increase in survival in pancreatic cancer is achieved. The role of nutritional status and supportive care: A review

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a serious public health problem. The mortality rate of patients with PC remains one of the highest among cancers. Early diagnosis of PC is challenging, so it is often diagnosed in the later stages. Current treatment approaches, including surgery, neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy, chemoradiotherapy, and supportive care, have demonstrated improved outcomes. A significant problem remains exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) in patients with PC, which requires enzyme replacement therapy. However, this is not given due attention in the Russian literature. This review addresses the survival trends of patients with PC, current therapies, and enzyme replacement therapy as an integral part of supportive care and improvement of nutritional status; also, the issues of routing patients with PC are addressed. It is emphasized that the diagnosis and treatment of EPI are mandatory to improve and maintain the nutritional status and quality of life; failure to treat EPI renders antitumor treatment ineffective.

О влиянии романа «Что делать?» Н. Г. Чернышевского на творчество С. А. Есенина

The article discusses the origins of Sergei Yesenin’s acquaintance with the novel What Is to Be Done? by N. G. Chernyshevsky: this happened in Spas-Klepikovskaya second-class teacher’s school in 1909-1912. The work was read among the intellectuals, and students outside of school hours argued about it and embraced the ideals of the “new people”. Later Yesenin encountered Chernyshevsky’s novel at the lectures on Russian literature by P. N. Sakulin at Moscow City People’s University named after A. L. Shanyavsky. As a result, a number of elements of Chernyshevsky’s poetics were associatively reflected in Yesenin’s long and short poems as well as in his story Yar. In the works of Yesenin figurative echoes with Chernyshevsky are noticeable. The main ideological moments that worried both writers include: the wonderful future of the Fatherland, the conscious creative arrangement of the earthly paradise in the country. Among artistic means, the writers used the epithet “new”, applied it to the re-interpretation of the biblical laws of human society in terms of freedom, e quality and brotherhood. Both writers considered this epithet to be the main element in describing both the process of building a just state system, and in characterizing the creators of a better life. Understanding the importance of the nuances of psychology for each person, Chernyshevsky and Yesenin developed the concept of mystery. Chernyshevsky used the successfully found philosophical solution to create reliable everyday pictures, and Yesenin endowed it with further biblical and mythological meanings, asserting the “mystery” as a comprehensive postulate of sophianis m. In his personal life, Yesenin in his youth followed the example of the everyday habits of Rakhmetov, but without repeating the entire line of behavior of Chernyshevsky’s literary character. Yesenin gave his main characters in the story At the White Water (<1915>) unusual names that appear in minor characters and characters mentioned in passing in Chernyshevsky’s novel. However, in order not to assert the comprehensive nature of Yesenin’s borrowings of Chernyshevsky’s creative findings, the article presents other possi ble sources of na mes and biographical foundations for some of the poet’s behavioral lines.

RUSSIAN ROMANTICISM FROM LERMONTOV TO NABOKOV. WEISSKOPF M.M. AGONY AND THE REVIVAL OF ROMANTICISM. MOSCOW, NOVOE LITERATURNOE OBOZRENIE PUBL., 2022. 600 P.

The analysis of the romantic tradition in Russian literature is a crosscutting plot of the collection Agony and the Revival of Romanticism. The main objects of research are the style (plot motifs, images, verbal formulas) of famous romantic writers against the background of their contemporary literature of the second and third rows and reminiscences from romantic writings in the works of authors of later eras. Mikhail Weisskopf’s book is an important scientific study. The revealed echoes of the works of M. Lermontov and N. Gogol with contemporary romantic works are an extremely valuable result: against this background, it is more obvious what belongs to the era, being a common property, and what belongs to the artistic discoveries of this or that writer. An interesting and convincing interpretation of The Pied Piper by A. Grin, in which symbolism is found, goes back to Judeophobic mythology. Of great importance for commenting and researching the works of V. Nabokov of the Russian period are numerous reminiscences, mainly from romantic and neo-romantic works, indicated by the scholar. The book is clearly lacking in theoretical reflection on the found textual overlaps. Non-functional inclusions of ‘alien text’ - borrowings (this is the case of Lermontov and Gogol) and significant references to other texts - reminiscences (the case of Nabokov) are not distinguished. This flaw is explained by the fact that The Agony and Revival of Romanticism, despite the presence of several main plots in the book, is not a monograph, but a collection of articles written at different times.

AN ESSAY IN COMPARATIVE LITERARY ONOMASTICS BASED ON POLISH AND RUSSIAN BIBLIONYMS

The article deals with some Polish biblionyms which are translations of the titles of works of Russian and world fiction. The article also examines the Polish nominations of some characters of Russian and Western European literature. Polish biblionyms are compared with Russian originals and with equivalent Russian titles of works of foreign literature. The types of transformation that Russian original titles undergo when translating them into Polish, as well as the differences between Polish and Russian biblionyms, which are translations of the titles of the same works of foreign literature, are analyzed. Among the transformations extensions, transpositions, reductions, grammatical, derivational and syntactic transformations are distinguished. Several types of transformations can be represented in one Polish biblionym (for example, transposition and extension of the abbreviation into the phrase in the Polish translation of the title of I. Babel’s Конармия as Armia konna. Transformation may be due to the differences between the compared languages (for example, the usual, with some exeptions, postpositive place of the adjective attribute in Polish, in contrast to the Russian language, requires a transposition in Polish translations of such titles of A.S. Pushkin’s works as Медный всадник - Polish Jeździec miedziany, Каменный гость - Polish Gość kamienny, Пиковая дама - Polish Dama pikowa. The transformation may also depend on the intentions and preferences of the translator (in particular, the choice of one of the synonyms existing in the Polish language - cf. variants Dom z facjatą and Dom z attyką for the title of a story by A.P. Chekhov Дом с мезонином, or options Dół and Wykop for the title of A. Platonov’s work Котлован. In some cases, the Polish biblionyms reflect the translator’s desire to bring them closer to the title of the original (cf. the translation of A.P. Chekhov’s story title Мальчики as Malcy in the presence of a synonym chłopcy or the use of the Polish word identical to the Czech lexeme wojak and not żołnierz in the title of J. Hašek’s novel about the adventures of Schweik. The replacement of the title of the original or its transformation may be associated with the desire to reveal the content of the work (cf. the translation of the title of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky Доходное место as Łapownicy specifying the source of income for a number of characters - bribes) or give the biblionym a more generalized, symbolic character (cf. replacing the prepositional-case construction with the nominative case form in the title of A.P. Chekhov’s В овраге - Polish Wąwóz). Comparison of Polish biblionyms with Russian original and translated titles of literary works shows the need to compile a dictionary of similar biblionyms, focused on Russianspeaking students studying the Polish language.

Teaching international relations students intercultural commentary

Importance. The problem of mastering the skills of conducting intercultural commentary for international relations students is important and relevant. The purpose of the work is to show how, based on the study of fables from Russian and French literature, it is possible to develop the skills of intercultural analysis and intercultural commentary on the sociocultural characteristics of the country and peoples of their native and foreign languages.Research Methods. Based on a theoretical analysis of scientific literature, a refined concept of “intercultural commentary” is presented as a necessary skill for the professional activities of international relations students. The study proved that a prerequisite for the formation of intercultural communicative competence of future political scientists is familiarity with the national specifics of the culture, traditions and mentality of the people of the country of the language being studied.Comparative analysis of fables by I.A. Krylov and Lafontaine, questioning, and diagnostics made it possible to develop a step-by-step algorithm for training future political scientists and international law specialists in intercultural commentary.Results and Discussion. It is revealed and substantiated that through folklore and fables one can learn to recognize the typical characteristics and features of the Russian and French peoples, which arouses great interest in the didactic possibilities of its use in the system of intercultural teaching of the French language.Conclusion. The application of the research results can contribute to the development of new directions in linguodidactics and the design of an effective linguistic educational intercultural environment.

East Germans in the political elites of reunited Germany: the problem of underrepresentation

The underrepresentation of East Germans (“ossis”) in German elites is studied. After more than 30 years since the reunification of Germany, the share of former GDR citizens in high government positions in the political system of the state at large is far smaller than their percentage in the population. Historical preconditions for the predominance of West Germans in leadership positions are explored, the share of East Germans in different elite groups is analyzed, and the factors that could facilitate East Germans’ entry to elite positions are suggested. Based on a large amount of data, it is concluded that East Germans are unevenly represented even among political elites. But the territorial principle and the democratic form of recruitment (elections) could facilitate East Germans’ entry into an elite. The research based on statistical data published by German scholars as well as data on the German political elite collected by the author and her colleagues is introduced in Russian and foreign academic literature for the first time. The database consists of information about 736 members of the Bundestag, 17 members of the federal government, 173 members of the federal state governments, and 59 state secretaries for the period up to November 16, 2023.

The School of Plastic Surgery in Tomsk. From XIX – to XXI century

There is no information in the modern Russian literature concerning the history of the formation of plastic surgery in Russia and in particular in Tomsk. The aim of the research was to analyze the contribution of Tomsk surgeons to plastic surgery, from the time of the opening of the Medical Faculty of the Imperial Tomsk University (1888) to the present days. The authors analyzed the current trends in the development of plastic surgery in Tomsk, its achievements and impact on the development of plastic surgery in Russia.

Historical Transformations of the Russian Literary Canon in Russia and the United Kingdom

The article aims to reveal the changes in studies of Russian literature in Russia and the United Kingdom in the last three decades. The authors use the concept of the Russian literary canon to highlight the differences in the content and focus of the study of Russian literature. The empirical base of the research is Russian official documents, school textbooks, syllabi of university courses in Russian literature, and the collections of university libraries in the UK. Russian literary canon has changed to bridge the ideological break in Russian literature of the twentieth century. In Russia, the main channel for transmitting the canon is school education. The study of literature is supposed to ensure the formation of national identity, patriotism, humanistic values, and understanding of the exclusivity of Russian literature. The national canon understood as “compulsory reading”, performs socializing, educational, and stabilizing functions. The study of Russian literature in the UK began in the late 19th century at universities, where course content reflected the changing political context. Library collections and university curricula demonstrate the wide range of authors and research topics studied. The study of Russian literature in the UK could not be defined through the Russian literature canon as there is no mandatory reading, and it is studied mainly in translation. Thus, there is no connection between language and literature. The stable interest in the UK towards Russian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries confirms that it belongs to the world’s cultural heritage beyond national borders.

The aftertext phenomenon

A new collective monograph (this is an important generic definition for the authors), brought out by the Ural State University in cooperation with a St. Petersburg press Aleteya, is their fourth publication devoted to the ‘marginal issues.’ The first three dealt with the ‘author’s crisis,’ ‘author’s failure,’ and ‘the unfinished.’ In the present book a collective effort is aimed at the analysis of the generic forms considered as ‘aftertexts.’ They range from the author’s inscription on the book to various personal documents, critical reaction, and in the broadest sense up to the whole cultural tradition dependent on the text. Most of the papers are devoted to Russian literature in the 20th c. and include a random selection of Bunin’s inscriptions, his marginalia on the book of Blok’s verse among them, Zoshchenko’s letters to his readers, the brothers Strugatsky’s reputation as a myth, etc. The collective theoretical effort does not help much to clarify the term, or to locate it with any precision in the contemporary scholarly discourse, but it wittily chooses it as an umbrella to cover the papers collected in book and considered as variations of the ‘aftertext.’

A.S Pushkin Influence in Russian Literary Literature

This paper discusses the influence of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in the development of Russian Classical Literature. A.S. Pushkin, a great Russian writer in the 1800s. His contribution to the development of Russian literature cannot be seen as an eye. A.S. Pushkin was not only a poet, but also the greatest Russian writer. Alexander Pushkin's work is not only favored by literary activists, but his works are able to make changes to Russian literature. The development of Russian language literature until now has never fallen away from a Pushkin. Great Russian writer who has been recognized all over the world until now.

Analysis of foreign and Russian approaches to the study of personal patriotism

The subject of the study is patriotism. The author conducted a theoretical analysis of domestic and foreign scientific literature on the problem of patriotism. The features of approaches to the study of this phenomenon in the framework of philosophical, sociological, historical, psychological, pedagogical and psychological disciplines are considered in detail. A comparative analysis of the theoretical views of foreign and domestic authors on the content and nature of patriotism is carried out. An analysis of the literature allows us to conclude that Western and Russian studies of patriotism have many connotations, especially in the sociological and political sciences. Western and domestic scientists have identified similar essential signs of patriotism: patriotism as one of the highest feelings, as a creative feeling; patriotism as selfless work for the benefit of one's country, as a manifestation of higher feelings in action, as a duty to the country; patriotism as a deeply social phenomenon, as a civic virtue. The author conducts a comparative theoretical analysis of foreign and domestic approaches to the study of the problem of patriotism, understanding the psychological nature of this phenomenon. The main conclusions of the study are: in the studies of foreign scientists, patriotism is analyzed in the context of national and social issues and is practically not studied as a personal education, property or quality; at the heart of patriotism, most foreign authors note identification with their country based on feelings of love, pride and shame. In the West, patriotism is seen as a phenomenon of political awareness, quite closely related to nationalism. In Russian literature, such essential signs of patriotism as statehood and personality, which is the main subject of patriotism, are noted. The differences in the interpretation of the concept of "patriotism" and in approaches to its research can be explained by fundamental differences in culture and state and political traditions. In turn, the intersections in the definition of patriotism indicate that this phenomenon has certain interethnic and interstate features. The question of studying remains open and quite relevant.

On the reasons for the removal of A.T. Tvardovsky from the position of head of the editorial office of the magazine “New World”

The subject of the article is the activities of the “New World” journal in the 1950-1960s. The author examines the role of the magazine at the beginning of the reform of Russian literature; the position of the editor-in-chief of “New World” regarding the function of literature designed to reflect reality; the reasons why A. Tvardovsky was removed from the post of editorial director. The work indicates that A. Tvardovsky served as editor-in-chief of the “New World” for 16 years, but during his career he faced dismissal twice. The article reflects the direction and main ideas of liberal thought of the New World magazine, which in the 1950s and 1960s was under the leadership of the editor-in-chief A. Tvardovsky. When studying the problems associated with the magazine’s position on the need to provide literary creativity with a certain freedom. When considering the activities of the magazine and its editor in certain historical and sociocultural conditions, a comparative historical method was used. The main conclusion of the study is that A. Tvardovsky, through his activities as editor-in-chief of the publication “New World” and his principled position on the freedom of literary creativity, made it possible to outline the beginning of the Thaw period in the Soviet literary process. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the article systematizes information about the reasons for the removal of A. Tvardovsky from the post of editorial director and proves the role of the periodical in question in the process of making a turn in Russian literature towards the realistic tradition. A. Tvardovsky even published those works that were rejected by other leading journals due to the discrepancy between the author’s ideas and the ideas of the ruling party.

Genre Features of G.D. Grebenshchikov Journalism (based on Minutes of Silence correspondence)

The article is devoted to the identification of genre-forming features of G.D. Grebenshchikov's journalistic creativity on the material of his work Minutes of Silence. The genre analysis of the text based on the description of its themes, composition and style allows one to assume that the genre nature of the writer’s journalistic work can be defined as multi-genre, with a clear inclination to the genres of fiction. Thus, the themes identified in the process of analysis (war, parting and loneliness) are relevant to the historical period of the creation of the work and, in general, to the journalism of the early twentieth century, but the theme of love (devotion, fidelity) as one of the key themes of Russian literature, is traditionally revealed through the genres of the story, novella, novel. In terms of composition, G.D. Grebenshchikov's text is closest to the genres of portrait sketch and reportage, but the author present in the text is interested not so much in the external background of the event, as in the dynamics of internal states and experience of the characters. In non-fiction works of the writer there is a peculiar author's style, which allows one to actualize the author's understanding of the observed event through a variety of stylistic means.

The Russian historical and literary context of the novels by Guillaume Musso and prose by Marina Tsvetaeva

The purpose of this study is to identify the Russian historical and literary context in Marina Tsvetaeva's prose of the emigrant period and in the novels of Guillaume Musso. The modern French writer Guillaume Musso is the author of two dozen novels, which (except for "Skidamarink", 2001) were translated into Russian and published in Russia. In almost every one of these novels, one can "discover" the Russian historical and literary context. This will be the main object of our research in the framework of the article (the analysis of the entire multicultural contextual complex of G. Musso's novels requires a more extensive consideration). The main subject of the article is a trilogy of novels about writers: "The Girl and the Night", "The Secret Life of writers" and "Life as a Novel", as well as the adjacent novel "Paper Girl", the main character of which Tom Boyd is a famous writer. Since in the novels Musso refers to meta-narrative, the creation of a meta-text, which involves commenting on the novel by the author, inviting the reader to his creative laboratory, and also requires identifying the historical and cultural context. The novel "The Girl and the Night" by G. Musso is considered in comparison with the "Tale of Sonechka" by M. Tsvetaeva and requires an appeal to the vital biographical context. Russian historical and literary context of the "writer's" cycle of novels by Guillaume Musso and prose by Marina Tsvetaeva" for the first time revealed intertextual connections of novels by the most popular French writer Guillaume Musso with works of Russian literature: emigrant prose by Marina Tsvetaeva, works by F.M. Dostoevsky, I.S. Turgenev and other writers. The authors of the article pay special attention not only to the intertextual connections of Russian and French prose of the XX-XXI century, but also to the peculiarities of the plot structure of modern literature. This study attempts to identify the main trends in modern literature and trace their reflection in the works of G. Musso. The main conclusion that the authors of the article make is that in Musso's prose, the Russian text can be identified at all contextual levels: vital-biographical, literary, historical, cross-cultural.

War in the Works of the National Literary Award “Big Book”: Historical Facts and Fiction

The article deals with the main aspects, ways of understanding and features of the artistic representation of war as a socio-historical phenomenon in contemporary Russian literature. As an example some books received the National Literary Award “Big Book” were chosen. Each work is analyzed as one of the options existing in Russian literature for revealing the war theme. The combination of these options clearly shows the variety of possible approaches of the writers to this topic.