Russian Writers Research Articles

PUSHKIN’S JUBILEE OF 1937 IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The article is devoted to the characteristics of the celebrations dedicated to the hundredth anniversary of death of A.S. Pushkin, which took place not only in the USSR, but also in the Russian exile. According to the decree of the Soviet government in 1935, the All-Union Pushkin’s Committee was established under the chairmanship of A.M. Gorky. The Committee was allocated significant funds for various events, which made it possible to publish a scientific collection of Pushkin’s works. The Russian émigré organizations also took an active part in the preparation of the festive events, organized own committees and began implementing its own publishing program. The analysis suggests comparison of the activities of the committees in Paris and Prague, while emphasizing that they were not related to the work of the Soviet committees created both in the USSR and abroad under the auspices of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Documents are cited confirming that in Czechoslovakia, in the conditions of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR and the signing of a Mutual Assistance Agreement, local authorities, yielding to the insistence of the Soviet side, refused to support the émigré celebrations. As a result, the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists in Prague was forced to abandon its broad program of Pushkin’s celebrations. Thereby, in 1937 parallel celebrations were held in Prague, as in Paris, not comparable in scale, but nevertheless equally important for perpetuating the heritage of Pushkin and popularizing his work abroad.

"Dialectics of soul" and other psychological techniques in the novel "The Last Day" by Mikhail Naimy

The object of the study is the novel "The Last Day" by the Lebanese writer Mikhail Naimy. The subject of the study was the "dialectic of the soul" and "stream of consciousness", that is, techniques for describing the human condition borrowed from Leo Tolstoy masterpieces. For one day, the soul of Musa al-Askari overcomes severe suffering, it dies and is reborn in a new form. A small person turns into a strong personality. Psychological techniques for describing borderline human states, taken from Fyodor Dostoevsky, also helped the Lebanese writer to reveal the depths of the hero's personality. The scientific novelty of the article is that the Russian writers' techniques are found in the little-studied Arabic novel "The Last Day" that is an illustration of the Russian literature influence on Arab culture. For the first time in Russian literary study, this novel is analyzed from the "dialectic of the soul" perspective. The research was conducted on the basis of historical, literary, comparative methods, using scientific methods of observation and description, analysis and synthesis. As a result, it is noted that the novel narrative is organized according to the psychological realism, in which there is a psychological analysis passed through the stream of consciousness, an internal monologue and the dialectic of the soul. The authors conclude that Naimy took a humanistic approach and a special psychological manner of narration from Russian literature, including Tolstoy and Dostoevsky's works, to convincingly prove that a person is a fine–tuned mechanism, that kindness will save the world, and the secret of happiness lies in serving people. The practical significance of the research is that its results develop the topic of cultural ties between Lebanon and Russia. The article contributes to the development of Arabic literature, which remains poorly studied by Russian literary study.

Features of teaching Russian in educational institutions in Sri Lanka: the linguistic and cultural aspect

Introduction. Russian as a foreign language (RKI) is a basic element of the formation of linguistic and cultural competence of foreign language students and contributes to the improvement of their speech skills and the expansion of ideas about Russian culture, which determines the relevance of the undertaken research. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the importance of a linguocultural approach in the methodology of teaching Lankan students the Russian language by reading the works of Russian writers, in this case – on the example of the work of M.A. Bulgakov "Towel with a Rooster", as well as in the development of linguistic didactic material for teachers of the Russian Language in preparing students for the exam at the A2-B1 level of proficiency in Russian. Materials and methods. To achieve this goal, the authors use the following methods: the method of analyzing the collected data, the method of testing, the method of comparative analysis and systematization, the method of observation. The approbation of the developed linguistic didactic material based on artistic works was carried out on 150 Lankan students of the Gampaha Vikramarachchi University of Folk Medicine of the Republic of Sri Lanka, who took offline courses on learning the Russian language of the I.Ya. Yakovlev Chuvash State Pedagogical University (I.Ya. Yakovlev CHSPU). The effectiveness of taking courses using the developed linguodidactic material was proved by comparing the test results before and after the training courses. Results. The methodological development consists in the fact that on the basis of the adapted text of the work of art, exercises and test tasks have been compiled, focused both on analyzing the content of the work of art and on improving the skills of using linguistic units in speech. The exercises are accompanied by the necessary theoretical material (materials for reference) for both the student and the teacher. The system of exercises pays attention to the most common communicative situations in order to develop active Russian language skills in accordance with its norms. In addition to the linguistic material contained in the literary text, the exercises also use words and expressions related to the lexical and grammatical theme of the text, which contributes to an active increase in the lexical stock and understanding of the grammatical features of the Russian language. This method of writing assignments based on works of art allowed students to increase their interest in new vocabulary, develop their skills in using explanatory dictionaries, and also contributed to the development of studied grammatical rules not on artificially composed sentences, but through real text and communicative situations. The effectiveness of this technique is confirmed by the high results of passing the certification exam: out of 150 people who completed the training, 100 people successfully passed the exam and received state-issued certificates. Conclusion. The conducted research contributes to the teaching methodology of RKI. The developed didactic materials, taking into account the linguistic and cultural approach, have applied significance and can be used in teaching foreign language students the Russian language and in the system of their comprehensive preparation for the A2-B1 certification exam.

The Image of China in Russian Literature from the Early 20th Century to the 1950s

Abstract: In recent years, scholars from various countries have begun to focus on the theme of the East in their literary studies, and more attention has been paid to the image of China in Russian literature. However, most of the studies on Russian literature in the first half of the 20th century focus only on the Silver Age, and pay less attention to the image of China in Russian literature of other eras. This article focuses on the early 20th century to the 1950s, when Russia interacted with China most frequently, systematically combing it with the specific historical background and international situation of the times, and presents a complete image of China in the Russian literature. The study found that although Russian writers of each era had different experiences about China, and their own writing intentions were different, even the images of China written by Russian writers of the same era presented different characteristics, Russian literature from the early 20th century to the 1950s consistently reflected the social realities of both China and Russia. In fact, the process that Russian writers from the early 1900s to the 1950s constructed a more realistic and complete image of China was also a process that literary creation broke through national stereotypes. The evolution of the image of China in Russian literature from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1950s reflects the process of mutual interaction between the cultures of China and Russia, and also symbolizes the macro-trend of the world's national cultures to continuously eliminate the barriers between them and mingle with each other.

Temat mody w prozie emigracyjnej Nadieżdy Teffi

The author focuses on the topic of fashion in Nadezhda Teffi’s work, a Russian writer who spent over thirty years in exile in France. An attempt to determine the function of “fashionable things” and the importance of fashion in constructing the presented world was made based on the analysis of short stories, tales and columns collected in emigration collections published from 1920–1952. Teffi's “costume code” includes all categories of clothing, footwear, accessories and jewellery that give an idea of the typical children's, men's and women's fashion of the last century. Clothing details play an important role in the structure of the presented world, fulfilling numerous functions: characterological, psychological and symbolic. Based on Teffi's texts, we can conclude what was considered particularly fashionable at that time, and also study the canons of beauty. Fashionable accessories, as an important part of the objective world of the writer's emigrant prose, are an integral part of expressing the characters’ individuality, indicating their origin, gender, and age, as well as their internal experiences and emotional state. At the same time, it also describes the cultural and historical background.

Смысловые замены и субъективная зависимость в двуязычной текстовой коммуникации

The target text is considered a personal (translation) projection of the source text specially created by its translator for secondary readers belonging to the system of the target language. Thus, translators take into account secondary readers’ conceptual systems. At the same time, translators interpret the source text nearly in the same way primary readers from the system of the source language do it. Translators’ image of the really existing World and the text World determines both the choice of translation equivalents and substitutions and the implementation of situation components from the text World. N-multiplicity of translations is influenced not only by psychological, cognitive, and socio-cultural factors, but also by translators’ attitudes, because of which they begin to attribute actual (or currently actualised) meanings to the source text while performing semantic substitutions. All added meanings can transform and / or modify the text World created by its author. The purpose of the article is to show how the principle of semantic substitutions and the principle of subjective dependence (terms of A.A. Zalevskaya) influence the (re)construction of the text World done by translators. The study is based on the analysis of translations of works by Russian writers into English and translations of works by English writers into Russian.

The living memory of South Russian Slavophilism

Olga Leonidovna Fetisenko is a famous researcher of Russian conservative thought of the second half of the 19th century, publisher of the complete works of K.N. Leontiev and a number of epistolary complexes associated with him. Her new monograph is dedicated to the forgotten Russian writer N.S. Sokhanskaya (Kokhanovskaya). At first glance, this book is intended primarily for philologists and literary scholars. However, it will certainly be useful to historians studying the social life of Russia in the mid-19th century. After all, the main attention in it is paid to the study of Kokhanovskaya’s literary connections and her journalism. In the writer’s work, Fetisenko identifies “two main directions”: a kind of “archeology” of southern Russian “antiquity” and “a response to current events in their “small details”.”

On some cases of phrasemal derivation of nouns in language and speech of the second half of the 19<sup>th</sup> century (based on epistolary texts of russian writers)

The article explores the phenomenon of phrasal derivation in the second half of the 19th century based on the letters of A. I. Herzen, I. S. Turgenev, A. P. Chekhov, as well as other sources. We provide a definition of the phraseoderivational (multi-level) nest concept — an intersystem formation that includes a phraseological unit and its lexical derivatives, created in different ways and ordered by the relations of formal-semantic derivation at a certain period of time. The basis of the semantic unity of such a nest is a common meaning condensed in the original phraseological unit, while the basis of structural unity is the presence of at least one component (the basis of the component) of the generating phraseological unit in all derivatives. We consider 1) the phenomenon of lexical-phraseological condensation (implication of a component) in phraseological units with the reference word khoduli, Lazar’, and also trace the formation of derivatives in connection with the formation of a new meaning of the noun; 2) a method of agglutination of components of qualitative-adverbial phraseological units with suffixation (based on combinations bez pardona, ot sebya); 3) an occasional method of adding bases (components of phraseological units and affixoids).

The last novel of the last classic On the 125th anniversary of the birth of academician L.M. Leonov

In 2024, there are three important dates in the fate of the Russian writer academician Leonid Leonov: the 125th anniversary of his birth, the 30th anniversary of his death and the publication of his last novel “Pyramid”, work on which lasted for five decades. The Pyramid is rightly considered a novel-the testament of the writer. It examines such important issues as the existence of world evil, the future of the world and humanity, the role of the devil in world history, Russia’s place in world civilization, gnostic theories of the future of the world and man. Since The Pyramid was published in uncensored conditions, Leonov could write openly about the problems that tormented him. This property of the novel led researchers to attempts at so-called recursive reading (decoding hidden meanings) and earlier works by Leonov. In the “Pyramid” itself, there are a lot of riddles, sometimes deliberately left by the writer for future readers to think about. The article examines the main problems of the novel and by way of copost.

МЕСТО ОБРАЗНЫХ СРЕДСТВ В РЕАЛИЗAЦИИ ТЕМЫ ВОЙНЫ

The article analyzes the means of artistic imagery used by the authors to highlight the theme of war in the novels of the Uzbek writer Shukhrat “The Shinelli Years” and the Russian writer Yu. Bondarev “Hot Snow”. Their skills are shown through examples. Authors use them to not only describe external events, but also to reflect the inner world of the characters, their experiences, fears and hopes. This allows you to create a full-fledged and multifaceted image of the war, showing it not only as a historical event, but also as a deeply personal experience for everyone. Throughout our research, we will analyze how imagery contributes to the creation of images of death, courage, patriotism, and sacrifice, and how these images influence the reader’s perception and understanding of war.

Unveiling Tolstoy Through a Critical Race Theory Feminist Lens: A Social Constructivist Approach

This study re-examines the life and works of Leo Tolstoy, one of the most influential Russian writers, through the integrated lenses of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and feminist theory, employing a social constructivist approach. By analysing Tolstoy's significant works, including "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina," this research explores how his narratives address the intersectionality of race, gender, and class. By critically examining characters such as Natasha Rostov, Anna Karenina, and various marginalised figures, the study uncovers Tolstoy's critique of his time's social constructs and power dynamics. This Analysis highlights Tolstoy's progressive empathy for the oppressed and the complexity of his portrayal of women and ethnic minorities. Furthermore, it discusses the contemporary relevance of his work in understanding and addressing ongoing social injustices. By situating Tolstoy's literary contributions within the frameworks of CRT and feminist theory, this research offers new insights into the enduring significance of his critique of systemic inequalities, emphasising the importance of intersectional perspectives in literary studies.

Research on the Translation and Influence of LiaoZhai ZhiYi in 20th Century Russia

With the accelerated exchange of different civilizations in the context of globalization, the overseas dissemination of Chinese classic literature is also playing an increasingly important role in shaping national cultural confidence. Since the beginning of the 21st century, cultural exchanges between China and Russia have become increasingly close, and the two countries have also invested key attention in the relationship between Russian literature and Chinese literature. In the past, research on the Russian translation of Chinese literature was mostly limited to the field of translation and cultural customs, while there was a lack of attention to the phenomenon of Chinese literature entering the creation of Russian writers. This leads to a lack of concrete and clear experience and theory in exploring the overseas dissemination of Chinese classic literature and promoting mutual learning and learning among different civilizations in the new situation of cultural exchange. Liaozhai Zhiyi represents the highest achievement of ancient Chinese classical short stories and is also an outstanding representative of Chinese supernatural and legendary novels. This article intends to provide an overview of the dissemination process of Pu Songling's " LiaoZhai ZhiYi " in 20th century Russia from a historical perspective, using a literature review method; On this basis, comprehensively accepting theories, comparative literary principles, etc., this study analyzes the influence of "LiaoZhai ZhiYi" on contemporary Russian literature in the 20th century, as well as the reasons and motivations behind this phenomenon. Research has found that since the beginning of the 20th century, the motivation to seek a national way out and reshape national values has driven Russia to turn its attention to China, and the characteristics of legendary supernatural novels have garnered a lot of attention; As a result, "LiaoZhai ZhiYi" formed a continuous and tumultuous process of dissemination in Russia, with Alexeyev's translation having the greatest impact; On this basis, 20th century Russian literature has formed a phenomenon of displacement or displacement in terms of characters, cultural symbols, philosophical ideas, etc., providing specific references for mutual learning and mutual learning between different cultures.

The last illness of I.S. Turgenev

The article discusses the causes and course of the last illness of I.S. Turgenev. The writer was consulted by many famous French and Russian doctors who made various diagnoses and used various methods of treatment. The primary disease that caused Turgenev's death is myxosarcoma (one of the sarcoma variants), involving soft tissues and thoracic vertebrae. The article presents data and discusses alternative diagnostic versions about the nature of the disease and the causes of death of the great Russian writer.

Есениноведение в Китае с 1980-х годов: проблемы перевода и вопросы исследования

The purpose of this work is to find out the state and trends in the development of translations and research of S. Yesenin's work in China from the 1980s to the present. The article examines the reasons and conditions for rethinking the work of S. Yesenin in the 1980s: the politics of reform and openness in China. In this regard, the translation and study of S. Yesenin's works is given special attention among Chinese scientists. Since the 1990s, Yesenin studies in China have entered a new stage of in-depth development: scientists, freed from the pressure of ideology, began to understand the poetry of the Russian writer in a new way. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the fact that for the first time the article systematically classifies and summarizes the translations and studies of Yesenin's work in China in chronological order from the 1980s to the present day, and analyzes the view of Chinese literary critics and translators on Yesenin studies of this period. As a result of the work, it was found that with the disappearance of ideological pressure, Chinese scientists are becoming more objective and fair in their assessment of S. Yesenin and his work. The author notes that currently translations and research of the creative heritage of S. Yesenin's works in China are insufficiently covered and studied and have broad prospects for development.

Study on the Changes in Dostoevsky’s “Thoughts of Loving Others”

As one of the most important Russian writers in the 19th century, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky often praised pure and selfless love in his early works. In his later works, he focused on describing the complex relationship between human nature and religion, as well as advocating fraternity in religion. Such changes stem from his personal experience and the changing Russian society, which reflects Dostoevsky’s spiritual growth and in-depth thoughts on social reality. This paper probes into the change of Dostoevsky’s thoughts of “loving others” in his early and late periods and the corresponding reasons.

Dostoevsky in the Plain Language: The Problems of Modern Literary Translation

The article is devoted to the functional analysis of one of the modern adaptive models of the national literary language — the plain language. This concept is actively discussed and implemented in modern translation practice today, including in numerous literary translations of the works of Dostoevsky, the most widely read Russian writer in the world. From a historical and typological point of view, the new translation strategy correlates with the principles of the Russian translation of the first book from Dostoevsky’s reading circle — “One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories of the Old and New Testaments,” as well as the New Testament published in 1823, which includes the writer’s hard labor Gospel that became a key precedent text in his post-reformation work. The article analyzes the work performed in the early 2000s. Japanese scientist Ikuo Kameyama translated the novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” which was a representative experience of modern artistic interpretation and adaptation of Dostoevsky’s work. Thanks to the translator’s orientation to the plain language, the novel of the Russian writer found its foreignspeaking readers and became an understandable and familiar text for them.

CHILDHOOD IMAGE IN THE NOVEL “DAWN” BY B. K. ZAITSEV

The purpose of the article is to consider the specifics of depicting the theme of childhood in the novel “Dawn” by B. K. Zaitsev. In modern literary studies, the theme of childhood in the works of Russian writers who found themselves in exile after the revolutionary events is actively being developed and studied. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that it explores one of the important topics in the literature of the Russian diaspora. The novelty of the research consists in comparing the novel by B. K. Zaitsev with 19th century Russian classical prose about childhood, in clarifying the question of traditions and innovation in solving the theme of childhood by the writer of the Russian diaspora. The paper considers theoretical issues related to the spatial and temporal structure of the novel “Dawn,” the disclosure of the figurative and motivational series, artistic means and techniques. All this is necessary not only to understand the peculiarities of the embodiment of the childhood image in B. K. Zaitsev’s prose, but also to determine the national identity of Russian literature about childhood. In the center of Zaitsev’s novelis the image of a child living in a manor, which is depicted according to Russian literary traditions of the 18th — 19th centuries. Describing the ancestral “nest” with its material content, special semantics, autobiographical basis, recreating the world of a child, B. K. Zaitsev relies on the novel “Childhood” by L. N. Tolstoy. Idyllic time dominates the structure of the novel “Dawn.” Its important components include the motifs of light, aromas, smells, sounds of nature, the synesthesia characteristic of a child’s worldview. The child experiences the fullness of the joy of being akin to being in Eden. The world of childhood, permeated with Divine grace, apart from biographical and historical time, is addressed to the category of Eternity. Childhood is spiritualized and sacralized. Mother and father are organically included in the world of the novel, associated with the idea of the orderliness and stability of being. Family meals together and rituals become events that create an atmosphere of happiness. Children’s worldview is presented through a system of oppositions of “their own”/“someone else’s”space. Childhood is associated with thanatological events. The description of the reading circle becomes mandatory in revealing the inner world of the child hero. The writer’s novel is an example of an image of childhood conditioned by a new era, modernist innovations consisting in changing the relationship between the author and the child.

Pyotr Verkhovensky in the Character System in F. M. Dostoevsky’s Novel “Demons”

The purpose of the article is to reveal the artistic and philosophical significance of the image of Pyotr Verkhovensky, who is the main character in the novel “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky. This implies an expansion and deepening of ideas about his personal development. In Verkhovensky’s spiritual experience, concepts about the primordial Christian landmarks are misperceived and the hierarchy of Law and Grace is violated. Pyotr Verkhovensky is endowed with the ability to influence others for the sake of his own selfish motives in the name of self-affirmation, building an imaginary reality, and commanding his trusted associates with threats and blackmail. Legalism imperceptibly turns into lawlessness, on the one hand, endowing Verkhovensky with the power to influence others, clearly by nature or by perverted human nature. On the other hand, it condemns the hero, who succumbs to the temptations of self-affirmation, to loneliness and spiritual impoverishment. The article also shows the influence of Pyotr Verkhovensky on the creative explorations of Russian writers, revealing the tragic consequences of violating the value hierarchy of Law and Grace, which allows us to consider this artistic image in the moral paradigms of modernity.

Andreï Makine – From Anonymity to Literary Fame

Andreï Makine – From Anonymity to Literary Fame. The aim of this article is to analyse the strategies that enabled Andreï Makine to go from being a penniless Russian immigrant living in a Parisian cemetery to becoming a celebrity in the French literary world. The first aspect to be considered is the use of pseudo-translation. Unlike another Russian writer in exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who always believed that his works would be read by his compatriots and have an impact on the Russian cultural space, Makine, who settled in France in 1987, decided to write in French, mainly for a French readership. However, his first two novels were rejected by the Parisian publishers who did not believe that a Russian could write so well in French, so Makine had to create fictitious translators in order to get his texts published. Another significant factor is the way in which he exploited his biographical aspects to create a personal mythology. The third, and perhaps most important, factor that has contributed to Makine’s consecration in the French cultural space is the way he describes his country of origin (he has been accused of creating an image of Russia that would be pleasing to Western eyes) and his host country, praising both the French language and, as the title of one of his books puts it, “this France that we forget to love". Keywords: pseudo-translation, hybrid identity, personal mythology, slavophilia, francité

Sergei Aksakov in England (on the problem of national identity)

The article presents the assessment of S. Aksakov’s artistic heritage by English critics and writers. We prove that the Russian writer unites European cultures by using universal content. Along with the classics of Russian literature – I. Turgenev, L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky, S. Aksakov’s prose has worldwide significance. The year 1991 was declared by UNESCO the Year of Sergei Aksakov. Aksakov’s “The Family Chronicle” was translated into German by Sergei Rachinsky and was highly praised by A. Herzen. After James Duff translated Aksakov’s trilogy into English, the writer, along with Turgenev, Tolstoy, Gogol and Chekhov, entered the “golden fund of world literature”. The special interest to Aksakov in England was noticeable both in the early 20th century and in the 1980, when his works became bestsellers along with the works of famous Victorians. The article reveals the role of Dmitry Mirsky in popularizing Russian classics, as well as Virginia Woolf, according to whose testimony books by Russian authors Aksakov, Chekhov Turgenev and Dostoevsky found the most enthusiastic response among English readers. The article also touches upon the translation specifics of Aksakov’s works into English.