Volume 20, 2022 year

The articles included in the second issue of "The Problems of Historical Poetics" for 2022 are dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the deputy editor-in-chief of the journal, one of the leading experts on ancient Russian literature Alexander Pigin. These articles were written by his colleagues and students from different cities of Russia and are related to his scientific interests and activities.

Keywords: Alexander Pigin, Ancient Rus, bookishness, literature, writing, literature, anniversary, professor, textual studies, historical poetics

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The article attempts to substantiate the phenomenological approach to the study of traditional culture. The principles of phenomenological analysis consist in expanding the boundaries of perception and understanding of folk culture facts, which include, among other things, musical, choreographic, applied arts, or, more broadly — everything that is understood by craft (“doing”) in the Aristotelian sense. The key to this methodological approach is the figure of an artisan, his natural sense of beauty and taste in the choice of certain style trends of an era. The concept of self-reflection of the bearers of traditional culture becomes the backbone in the context of interdisciplinary folklore studies. The activity of the local community members in studying the culture of their region is directly related to the comprehension and interpretation of tradition. The purpose of the phenomenological approach is to restore the value orientations of cultural activity and ideas about the natural aesthetic taste in all types and forms of folk art. The key role in the proposed approach is played by the concepts of skill and craft, which are traditionally close to the perception of objects of the so-called applied arts, choreography and music.

Keywords: poetics of folklore, tradition, phenomenology, self-reflection of tradition, identity, local tradition

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A special role in any etiological plot is assigned to the final episode, which sums up the process of creation or transformation of a natural or cultural object. Accordingly, the endings acquire a special role in the structure of etiological texts. The function of endings is to present the result of the creative process as vividly, convincingly and cogently as possible, to answer the question about the properties, qualities or purpose of any element of the surrounding reality and record the “fact of etiology.” This article presents an analysis of the structure and functions of “speech endings” (i.e. final episodes expressed by direct speech of characters) in etiological texts. The material comprises the legends of the Eastern Slavs recorded in the 19th — 21st centuries and extracted from published and archival sources. In the structure of the etiological plot, “speech ending” sums up the plot (records the creation or transformation of an object) and at the same time marks the beginning of the next stage of the object’s existence in its new quality (with new properties). The final replica unfolds the future “program” of being and indicates the circumstances of the relationship of the transformed object with the surrounding world, also containing moral and evaluative maxims.

Keywords: etiological legends, text structure, direct speech, folklore genres, Eastern Slavs

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The article examines the ideas about space that have developed in Russian historical and song folklore. In the poetics of the epic song genres of Russian folklore, namely, in epics and historical songs, space plays an important role, defining “one’s own” and “alien” (“other”) worlds within one of the main mythologemes. Natural space (forests, rivers, seas, mountains, caves, etc.) mark the “other” world; cities — “one’s own” (“human”) at the mythological level. Historical ideas about space arise in heroic ballads, which, according to the concept of V. Ya. Propp, are an example of the state epic. Accordingly, the “own”/“foreign” mythologeme is already determined by the content “Russian world”/“enemy world” and is filled with real toponyms. In historical songs, there is a fundamental replacement of the former generalized type of historicism (epic) by concrete historicism, which affects the toponymic system. A number of examples raise the question of the correspondence or non-correspondence of the toponym in epics and historical songs to geographical reality. With regard to the Caspian Sea toponym, the almost complete absence of connections between the geographical name and the real geographical object is emphasized. The notions of the Baltic Sea, as well as of the towns of the Neva-Baltic space (Shlisselburg, Derpt, Revel), turn out to be more firmly connected with real geography. Shifts in the naming of geographical objects are specially considered: Khvalynsk/Caspian Sea; Varangian/Virian/Baltic Sea; Oreshek/Shlisselburg; Yuryev/Dorpat; Kolyvan/Revel.

Keywords: epics, historical songs, toponyms, poetics, Caspian Sea, Baltic Sea, Shlisselburg, Dorpat, Revel

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Handwritten and oral folklore pieces with Yersh (Ruff) as a character have been studied quite comprehensively by many researchers. This article deals with folk tales belonging to the indexed plot type number 254** “Yersh Yershovich”, which were collected in the 1930s–1940s in Karelia in all major Russian-populated areas (Zaonezhye, Pudozhye, Karelian Pomorye) and are stored at the Scientific Archives of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Only two texts have been previously published, while another five had not attracted the attention of scholars before. The largest number of folk tale variants was recorded from Pudozh-area folklore performers (F. A. Konashkov, A. M. Pashkova, A. Pavkov, A. N. Timonina, E. A. Kokunova), pointing to a local pattern in the circulation of the plot. All the folk tales recorded in Karelia are rich in dialectal vocabulary. The texts were part of the repertoire of several famous performers of bylinas (hero epics) (F. A. Konashkov, A. M. Pashkova from Pudozhye, M. E. Samylin from Zaonezhye). Almost all the folk tales have similarities with the version published in “Russian Folk Tales by A. N. Afanasiev” (No. 79), suggesting re-folklorization, as a result of which printed text subsequently lives on in an oral form. Folk tales about Yersh recorded in Karelia traditionally have a two-part structure, combining narration about fish judging Ruff and about people eating him.

Keywords: plot, Yersh Yershovich, ruff, archival texts, Republic of Karelia, oral folklore tradition, ichthyomorphic character series, rhyme

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The study is devoted to the description of the house as one of the basic concepts of folk culture and folk mentality. It includes ideas not only about housing, but also about a person’s life and death, about family and intergenerational connections, about a person's attitude to society and to himself. In this article, the concept of the house is examined from the point of view of linguo-folkloristics, which allows to identify the features of its representation not only as a material asset, but also as a spiritual basis of peasant life. In addition, the image of a house revealed in the entire complex of Karelian wedding lyrics dedicated to the rite of “transition” is examined. The analyzed texts describe the dwelling from the positions of both the bride and the groom. The work uses lexical material from a number of dictionaries (dialect, etymological, phraseological), as well as published and archival recordings of folklore texts made mainly in the first half of the XX century in Karelia. The focus is on a wide range of vocabulary included in the semantic field of the concept of “house”, texts of Karelian lamentations, wedding runes and eigs, examples from the paremia. The involvement of various linguistic and folklore sources, as well as an integrated approach to the analysis of the identified material, allows us to recognize a wide range of lexemes and stable poetic formulas and structures that denote home and are included in the “friend-foe” opposition.

Keywords: house concept, dwelling, “friend-foe” opposition, language, lexeme, wedding lyrics, Karelian folklore

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The article examines the existence of the plot type 562 “The Spirit in blue light” in the Russian fairy tale tradition. It is generally believed that this text came into the Russian folklore tradition under the influence of the fairy tale by H. C. Andersen's “Flint,” and the first publication of this plot type is a fairy tale from a Brothers Grimm collection. In Russia, the ATU index describes six variants of this plot type, and one of them was published before the appearance of both the Andersen fairy tale and the Brothers Grimm version, which allows to assume that it goes back to some oral version of this plot type. The rest of the texts are influenced by Andersen to one degree or another, but we cannot exclude the influence of the Brothers Grimm’ fairy tale, as well as of the oral tradition. In addition to the six texts marked in the index, we were able to identify two more published and three archived texts. Storytellers have used this plot type in different ways. In a number of texts, the plot in question is used as an additional storyline in the narrative. In others, storytellers improvise within the framework of the fairy tale. They are familiar with Andersen's text, but when retelling it, they modify it, removing incomprehensible realities, adding familiar elements, filling the text with details, revealing the psychology of the characters, explaining the motivations of their actions, etc. There is also a case of improvisation outside the fairy-tale canon. The variant is an improvisation, which is based on the film “The Old, Old Fairy Tale,” based on several fairy tales by Andersen. Despite such a difference in approaches to the fairy-tale text, we can confidently say that Andersen's text has over time displaced a certain oral version of the plot type 562 from the storytellers’ repertoire.

Keywords: folklore fairy tale, folklore and literature, folklore improvisation, personality in folklore, the fairy-tale canon

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The article is devoted to the analysis of the “Narrative About a Young Man and the Magician” (also known as a “Homily About Mesites the Magician”), which was part of several Old Russian miscellanea and originated from Greek. The narrative is examined from the standpoint of plot-building issues, with regard to both the original text and the changes that were introduced by the Slavonic translators and editors. The authors reveal a specific narrative structure in which the elements of one set of plot features are mirrored or duplicated in another narrative. They also trace the distinctive features of two different Greek versions reflected in the translations, such as a change in the narrative focus in the original version. A significant feature of one of the Slavonic translations is the adaptation to the Old Russian miscellany (Prolog), of which it happened to be a part. Another feature that must be noted is the appearance of the idea of God’s obligation to the righteous in the Slavonic version. A parallel is drawn between this narrative and the “Narrations Useful to the Soul” (a sub-genre of Byzantine hagiography), which contain a tale about the penitent thief. The fate of these texts in both Greek and Slavic literature seems almost the same: they existed in two versions in Greek literature, and both versions of these texts were translated into Slavonic. Later, these translations were included in the Slavonic miscellanea of Prolog and Svodny Paterik. There are also a number of parallels in terms of content, of which the most important one is the discussion of the ways of salvation for laymen considered outside the formal ecclesiastical paradigm that assumes a form of non-typical holiness. Yet despite the similarities in style and partly in content, the “Narrative About a Young Man and the Magician” has a more sophisticated plot than the tale about the penitent thief on account of duplicated plot motifs that align it with the literary narrative genre.

Keywords: Old Russian narrative, Byzantine hagiography, Prolog, Paterik, young man, magician, narrations useful to the soul, plot, fictionization

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The study aims to conduct a general analysis of folklore tales about St. Nicolas the Miracle-Worker in one of Northern Russian traditions, namely, that of Komi Republic Ust-Tsilma Region (Pechora river). The study is based on field records from the Folklore archive of Syktyvkar State University, collected by University researchers since the 1980s. A late 18th-century local story from a mid-19th-century Ust-Tsilma manuscript century is used in the analysis of one of the plots. Popular characteristics of the Saint and his various abilities (protection of home and domestic animals, assistance during a voyage, in the forest, on the water, etc.) are revealed in prayers, legendary narratives, beliefs and rituals. The miraculous appearances of St. Nicolas icons are examined separately. These vague legends matter because of their local historical context. The importance of St. Nicolas holidays in spring and autumn in Ust-Tsilma popular calendar is noted. The attempted analysis sets a long-term goal — to compose an index of the key motifs in the St. Nicolas legends of Ust-Tsilma. This task will allow to systematize the voluminous and diverse information in order to compare it with similar items from different localities for a deeper examination of this uniquely profound image of the saint in the tradition in question.

Keywords: St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, Ust-Tsilma, folklore tradition, legends, beliefs

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The article offers an analysis of historical anecdotes, or biographical legends, dedicated to St. Dimitry of Rostov. These texts are read in the collection of the Rostov Museum No. 828. Like most historical legends about outstanding personalities of the 18th century, they differ significantly from modern anecdotes of the folklore and literary type. But they have features that characterize the understanding of the term anecdotes as a moralizing unknown story about an amazing act, often with an unexpected ending. A declaration to historicity, a connection with historiography were their hallmark. Most of the biographical legends about Dimitry of Rostov, both in the collection of the Rostov Museum No. 828, and included in the Life of St. Dimitry, certainly fit into the historical and cultural context. However, in terms of genre they have another side, they were not only part of the hagiographic texts (as the first of Dimitry’s biographies), but they also transformed into another genre, became a story about the miraculous, the miracle itself, and parallels to them are found in Medieval literature.

Keywords: historical anecdote, biographical legends, hagiography, miracles, historiography, evolution of genres, Dimitry of Rostov

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The list of miracles of St. Ephraimof Torzhok in the Extensive redaction of his Life begins with “TheTale of Tsar Simeon,” unknown in the earlier Brief redaction of the Life. The heroes of the Tale are Tsar Simeon Bekbulatovich and Archimandrite of the Novotorzhsky Borisoglebsky Monastery Misail, the alleged author of the Brief redaction. The miracle belongs to the genre of visions, uncharacteristic for the body of texts about St. Ephraimof Torzhok. The article raises several questions: 1) how is the story about Simeon Bekbulatovich constructed; 2) what function does the recourse of the text to the genre of visions perform; 3) what are the possibilities of real commentary on the text. The Tale is an example of an oral story about the times of Ivan the Terrible, preserved in the monastery. The text of the miracle forms the legendary “Kazan” biography of the Kasimov Tsar, where his adoption of Christianity is the central event. The vision of Archimandrite Misail, in which Ephraim complains about the damage to his relics, is the first description of the saint not from the viewpoint of his ancient history, dating back to the time of Boris and Gleb, but from the viewpoint of his proximity to and accessibility for the inhabitants of Torzhok. The question of the wooden shrine and other gifts of Tsar Simeon cannot be resolved with sufficient clarity at the present time. In the appendix to the article, “The Tale of Tsar Simeon” is published according to the early (First) version of the Extensive redaction.

Keywords: Life of St. Ephraim of Torzhok, Torzhok, Tver, miracles, vision, Simeon Bekbulatovich, Ivan the Terrible, Boris Khovansky, wooden shrine, Novotorzhsky Borisoglebsky Monastery

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The article explores the genre varieties of the miraculous used by the author of “Kazan Chronicle” to reveal the main ideas of the story, which form a kind of storyline. At the beginning of the article, the author provides an overview of the existing classifications of mystical material in medieval narrative works — “miracles,” “visions,” “prophecies,” noting the lack of a single viewpoint on the distinction between these concepts, which allowed to consider all these varieties in the “Kazan Chronicle” as a whole. Most often, the author of the “Kazan Chronicle” uses the form of “visions” that perform a prophetic function: long before the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, they predict the victory of the Moscow autocrat over the Kazan kingdom, while both Russian warriors and the people of Kazan see visions of the miraculous appearances of Russian saints (Sergius of Radonezh, Nicholas the Wonderworker). The author uses the prophecies of the Kazan magi, the Kazan queen, and the demon who served as a soothsayer of Kazan’s destinies in the “Kazan Chronicle.” Along with “visible” miracles, the author of the “Kazan Chronicle” saturates his narrative with “invisible” miracles, exposing in his commentaries what he believes to be the true causes of certain historical events, and seeing the direct intervention of higher forces that contributed to the favorable course of the advance of Ivan the Terrible’s troops to Kazan and its siege. Penetrating the entire fabric of the narrative, these authorial references to divine providence create a providential context — a mystical reality that helps to present Ivan the Terrible not only as a talented commander, but also as a person performing a “God-guided feat” for the glory of the Russian land.

Keywords: Miracles, visions, prophecies, “Kazan Chronicle”, Ivan the Terrible, plot, capture of Kazan

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The article is devoted to the first appearance of the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend in the Russian literary tradition. The text of the legend was found in the 1694 manuscript from Vazhe Lake and is now kept in the State Historical Museum (State Historical Museum. Museum collection. No. 2846). The complex structure of this text shows that it went through several stages before it became a part of the collection. The original source of the legend in this manuscript is a Saxon chronicle of the middle — third quarter of the 16^th century. Then it was included in a work (or perhaps a message) by a certain “Arnold Frentaggij” (1580), which was translated into Russian along with this text. Between the initial text and Arnold's message, an oral version of the legend was in circulation over a period of time, when its plausibility was questioned and when the plot could have undergone a transformation. During the translation process, changes could have occurred if the translator was not particularly well-acquainted with the vocabulary of the original language. As a result, the exact date of the incident in Hamelin disappeared from the legend, and the rat-catcher turned from a flutist into a tympanum player. This version of the plot, which seems unique, did not receive further development after ending up in the Vazhе Lake area, in the wilderness of the Karelian forests. The author of the article reproduced the text of the legend according to the No. 2846 manuscript, offered a decipherment of the scribe's record with his name, articulated certain thoughts about the point of departure of the person who came to Vazhe Lake, and formulated a number of questions regarding the subsequent study of the discovered text.

Keywords: the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, plot, translation, cryptography, literary game, baroque, source, Saxon chronicles, Zadne-Nikiforov monastery, “Kriny Selnye”

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The article analyzes for the first time the work of Andrey Borisov, a writer, an Old Believer, and a representative of the Vyg literary school. The work is dedicated to the restoration of the main cathedral chapel of the male Vyg community on July 16, 1788 after the fire. A lengthy Word has been preserved in the draft autograph, which testifies to the author's careful work on the text, and in the handwritten lists representing two editions of the text. The Word of Andrei Borisov describes thoroughly and emotionally the disaster that befell kinovia. The article provides valuable historical evidence about the circumstances of the fire, the new development and restoration of the community, about the rich church decoration of the Vyg temple. As a retrospective analogy to the events of 1787–1788, Andrey Borisov chose the story of the destruction of the first Zion temple and the creation of the second Zion temple after the return of the Israelites from Babylonian captivity. The article analyzes numerous examples of likening of the Vyg chapel to the main temple of the Israelis. Another biblical image, to which Andrei Borisov resorted when describing the events of 1787–1788 is revealed, is the image of the Vygovskaya / Babylonian River, which contains a direct likening of the people of Vyg to “ancient Jerusalem captives” who mourned the loss of the first Jerusalem temple. In accordance with the genre requirements and the Vyg tradition, Andrei Borisov concluded the Word with an edification and a call to observe God's commandments and spiritual renewal. Since the Vyg cathedral church of the Epiphany was the main one for the entire Old Believer district and the entire Pomorian consent, its likening to Zion had not only an external basis (the fact of the fire and subsequent restoration), but also a deep inner content for the Vyg author.

Keywords: Old Believers, Vygo-Leksin community, literary school, epideictic eloquence, genre, literary etiquette, retrospective analogy, Bible, Jerusalem, Zion

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The article presents an analysis of Old Believers' handwritten texts, in which special attention is paid to the formation of the image of a pious Christian. These are didactic texts of various genres, which targeted primarily young people. During the period of Peter the Great's transformations, European fashion was rapidly replacing traditional clothing. External changes affected the inner, spiritual world of a person. The Old Believers’ preachers directed all their efforts to save their flock. Using the Holy Scripture books, the works of the holy fathers, as well as other authoritative works as sources, the authors of works on the Christian image placed the necessary accents and collected arguments in defense of tradition. The number of surviving versions of these works suggests their extreme popularity. Usually the narrative in them is based either on the principle of contrasting the images of fashionistas and those of pious Christians, or on the principle of the negative connotation of trendy clothes. In some collections, these texts are presented as part of thematic collections. Against their background, Timofey Andreev's essay “About newfangled clothing and wearing long hair” stands out. The article also analyzes the work of “The Monk Zacharias to his disciple Euphemia,” the short novel about “sacristy decoration,” visions and dreams of Danila Grigoriev, “About the Beauty of the Divitsa” and others. The authors condemn all fashionable innovations, referring to the authority of the holy fathers, cite various sources, and the experience of visionaries and martyrs for the faith as arguments. Special attention is heeded to the female image: the humble Christian is juxtaposed with the fashionistas. Any interference with natural beauty is condemned: adornment, cosmetics, hair curling and the use of the “beauty mark language,” which has spread throughout social circles in the 18th century. The listed works helped to maintain the authority of Old Believers' teachers, to transmit experience and traditions.

Keywords: handwritten books, Old Believers, the image of a Christian, virtue, fashion, worldly custom, piety

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“Beloberezhsky Paterik” is preserved in the manuscript of the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian National Library (P. N. Tikhanov collection, no. 214) and consists of materials related to the Beloberezhskaya hermitage, founded in the early 18th century in the White Shore tract near Bryansk. The main purpose of the article was to determine the conformity of the “Beloberezhsky Paterik” to the genre canon. The work analyzes the genre composition, configuration, principles of material organization, and establishes the sources and time of compiling the collection . The analysis was carried out with regard to the tradition of ancient Russian patericons and the development of late patericography. As the study demonstrated, the constant features of the genre organically manifested themselves in the “Beloberezhsky Paterik.” Thus, the complex composition of the collection allowed to consider it as an ensemble that includes traditional patericon forms: legends about icons, parochial chronicles, patericon Lives, the Life of the founder of the monastery and the hermit's Life, miracles and visions. The “memory of the genre” also manifested itself on other levels: unification of material by topographical feature, cyclization and the chronological principle of data organization, simplicity of the narrative style, themes and motives traditional for the patericon Life (the theme of hermitage, the motives of martyrdom and temptation) are realized. The ideological and thematic unity of the collection, as the analysis of the works that comprise it has revealed, is organized by two themes — the Beloberezhskaya hermitage as “the house of the Mother of God” and “the second Jordan.” The sources of the patericon were archival materials and publications in magazines of religious and moral content (“Kormchiy,” “Emotional Reading,” “Wanderer”). It was also established that the Paterik was compiled between 1894 and 1905, but it is not yet possible to name its compiler.

Keywords: patericon, genre, legend about icons, parochial chronicle, patericon’s Life, the Life of the founder of the monastery, the Life of a hermit, miracles, visions, “Beloberezhsky Paterik”, Beloberezhskaya hermitage, Schemamonk Simeon Beloberezhsky

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Dostoevsky conceived “Notes from a Dead House” as a memoir, but the concept was transformed, leading to a change in the chronology and circumstances of the author’s biography. The writer not only described, but also composed his life, placed it in the context of world history. Hospital scenes are important in the structure of “Notes.” Dostoevsky gave an almost professional description of physical illnesses and their treatment. He passes competent judgement on hospital medicine, is fluent in the medical thesaurus, and uses medical Latin. His descriptions are accompanied by judgments and stories about crimes and corporal punishment of prisoners, about executioners and executioners. He believes that medicine in Russia is hostile and does not correspond to the spirit of the people, their habits. The author’s descriptions are factual. They recreate an empirical reality that receives metaphysical interpretation. The means of transforming the empirical into the sacred is Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” which influenced the concept of hell, the poetics and structure of Dostoevsky’s “Notes from a Dead House.” Dante saw hell, purgatory, paradise; his visions became the subject of poetry. Dostoevsky lived in hell, in a “Dead House,” this is his personal experience. There are two narrators in the “Notes”: the author’s alter ego and the fictional Alexander Petrovich Goryanchikov, a kind of literary mask of the author. They have different roles, which are often difficult to distinguish. The hero’s name and patronymic are most often heard in conversations with other characters: he asks questions, and they tell him about themselves. It is not the author who asks tactless questions to the heroes — Alexander Petrovich, a knowledgeable prisoner of the “Dead House,” does it for him. He is Dostoevsky’s Virgil. Alexander Petrovich has no future, his hellish toils without purgatory and paradise continued in the “hellish life on the outside.” Not purgatory, but Easter is the act of transformation of the author, who has risen from the dead, found freedom, a new life and a future.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, Dante, hell, Virgil, Dead House, hospital, doctor, treatment, Christmas, Easter, freedom, new life, resurrection from the dead

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The article examines Christian ideas, notions and concepts of Dostoevsky’s Pushkin speech, which was delivered on June 8, 1880. The study provides a critical analysis of the newspaper-magazine controversy that unfolded after the publication of the speech and the release of the “Writer’s Diary.” Dostoevsky invested the most intimate thing that he had nurtured all his life in Pushkin speech. In his analysis of Pushkin’s artistic typology, Dostoevsky revealed the Christian ideal, which is manifested in the image of Tatyana Larina and corresponds to the popular ideal. Almost immediately, the enthusiasm of the listeners was replaced by a stormy controversy around the key ideas of Dostoevsky’s speech. A particular misunderstanding of critics was triggered by his concept of “pan-human (vsechelovek),” which became the subject of criticism by K. D.Kavelin, K. N. Leontiev, V. V. Rozanov and others, ridicule by D. D. Minaev and I. S. Turgenev. In order to discredit the concept, the writer and poet came up with their own parodic neologisms: “all-woman”, “all-wife.” The theological and philosophical meaning of the “pan-human (vsechelovek)” concept is revealed in the works of St. Justin, S. F. Bulgakov, in the works of modern researchers. For Dostoevsky, the pan-human (vsechelovek) is a follower of Christ, “to become pan-human (vsechelovek)” for the writer means to be a Christian. The time has come to understand and accept the ideas of Dostoevsky’s Pushkin speech.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, Pushkin’s speech, controversy (polemic), parody, concept, concept sphere, ideal, pan-human, vsechelovek

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The topic of gospel love is considered the main leitmotif that defines the artistic concept of the novels “V lesakh” (“In the Forests”) (1871–1874) and “Na gorakh” (“On the Hills”) (1875–1881), which comprise a dilogy. It was the result of the reflections of P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky not only about the Old Believers, but also his religious and philosophical contemplations about a person, his spiritual and moral components, national and cultural, spiritual values, the search for true faith and the highest sense of human existence. The religious and philosophical problems of dilogy, its connection with national life, spiritual and moral ideals, traditions of ancient Russian culture, the reflection of Orthodox values in the artistic concept of dilogy allow us to talk about cultural traditionalism and include Melnikov-Pechersky’s creative work in the general literary process of the 19th century. From this point of view, the article considers the motifs of spiritual self-sacrifice, self-denial, serving your neighbor as the highest degree of manifestation of the gospel love. This theme permeates the artistic space of the dilogy and is expressed at different levels in the text structure — in an image-motivated system, plot organization, in quotes and reminiscences. The words of one of the main heroes, the Old Believer merchant Patap Maksimych Chapurin, about serving and self-sacrifice for the sake of his neighbor, representing an inaccurate quote from the Gospel (John 15:13), are the key to uncovering the theme of gospel love. The intentionally positive images of the heroes of dilogy (both Old Believers and representatives of the Orthodox Church) are focused on Christian values, have an Orthodox vision, the essential principle of which is the principle of mutual love in Christ. The example of the heroes of Melnikov-Pechersky shows that love for one’s neighbor is understood as active love, the result of earthly “doing,” be it heroic self-sacrifice or humble asceticism. Love in Christ elevates and transforms the personalities of heroes, leading to unity, sobornost’, a sense of responsibility to each other.

Keywords: P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky, dilogy, traditionalism, Old Believers, Gospel, love, sobornost’, motif, image

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The article analyzes the creative role of the “Diary of Thoughts” — a unique documentary fiction text, which Remizov kept in 1943–1957, in the literary history of the “Legends in the Ages” prose cycle (1947–1955). The cycle includes Remizov’s reworkings of Old Russian original and translated texts: “A Tale of Two Beasts. Ikhnelat” (1947–1949), “Savva Grudtsyn” (1948–1949), “Bruntsvig” (1949), “Melyuzina” (1949–1950), “Bova Korolevich” (1950–1951), “Tristan and Isolda” (sic! — A. G.) (1951–1953), “About Peter and Fevronia” (1951), “Gregory and Xenia” (1954–1955). The dynamics of the writer’s creative development of ancient texts, the creation of a cycle of legends based on them and the role of the “Diary of Thoughts” in this process are considered using the most illustrative examples (“The Tale of Two Beasts. Ikhnelat,” “Savva Grudtsyn,” “Melyuzina,” “About Peter and Fevronia,” “Tristan and Isolda”). A number of conclusions were made: 1) Remizov’s “Diary of Thoughts” is an important source, which, along with plans, sketches, draft and white editions, allows to recreate all stages of the literary history of the “Legends Through the Ages” cycle; 2) “Diary of Thoughts” allows to look inside Remizov’s “creative laboratory”: reveal all the details of the origin and subsequent incarnation the author’s idea with chronological precision; to “see” the initial images that arose in the writer’s consciousness during his “borderline state” between sleep and reality, and then to follow Remizov’s search for ways to further “materialize” them in the verbal fabric of the work; 3) The “Diary of Thoughts”, which Remizov began to keep in 1943, shortly after the death of his beloved wife, provides the opportunity to trace the evolution of his state of mind, which was reflected in his works. From hopeless grief and awareness of the inescapable loneliness, the writer gradually arrives at the idea of the possibility of metaphysical overcoming of death. As a result, the myth of the immortality of love became the meta-plot of the “Legends in the Ages” cycle.

Keywords: Alexei Remizov, style, avant-garde, 20th-century prose, Old Russian literature, “Diary of Thoughts”, “Legends Through the Ages”, genre, legend

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The image of Lapland is a certain constant that has long attracted Finnish writers and poets for its unexploredness. The authors drew on Finnish, Sámi and Karelian mythology and used folklore to describe Lapland and its inhabitants. An important theme was the depiction of literary characters in interaction with their environment. Over time these images have been creatively re-imagined, and fiction has merged with reality in the most unexpected combinations. The image of Lapland in the works of such Finnish writers as F. M. Fransen, S. Topelius, E. Leino, K. Vala, U. Kailas, J. Sinisalo is investigated. The authors aimed to trace the evolution of the image of Lapland and Laplanders in Finnish literature, to explore the mutual relations of literary characters with the environment, to bring out the basic points of the writers’ ecological world view, and to study the features that remain unchanged. Since the early nineteenth century Lapland symbolism has been part of the archetypal system of Finnish literature, linked primarily to the folklore tradition. The authors have gradually shifted from depicting this unique culture as a romantic subject to exploring the ethical principles of the relationship between man and nature in the North, and have shown how the images of Lapland affect the emotional state of the literary protagonists. The nature of Lapland and its ecological, cultural and historical particularities through the lens of a literary artist are powerful stimuli for the production of outstanding literary works.

Keywords: Finland, Lapland, North, aesthetics, mythology, literature, images of water, bees, plants

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The article deals with the problem of prosimetry (prosimetrum) in a work of literary fiction. Viktor Pul’kin’s works in the literary tale genre (narration in the first person, or skaz) from “The Kizhi Stories”, “The Bronze Horseman”, and “The Royal Fingers” literary collections were analyzed. A hypothesis is put forward that Viktor Pul’kin’s works can be classified as prosimetrical compositions. Literary tales (skaz) are proven to be an important material for the study of prosimetry and are of particular interest for verse studies. The author discovers that Viktor Pul’kin relies on the spoken and chanted folk verse traditions. Various genres of Russian (and, in rare cases, Karelian) oral folk art act as sources of poetic elements in Viktor Pul’kin’s prose. These genres include proverbs, sayings, riddles, lyric songs, byline (heroic epics), spiritual verses, incantations, runes of the Kalevala metrics, etc.Prosaic fragments with increased rhythm were also discovered, specifically, these include constructions with syntactic parallelism and most often with grammatical rhyme, which cannot be conclusively qualified as poetic elements. An important aspect of the poetics of Viktor Pul’kin’s skaz is comprised by the experiments with folklore spoken verse, or the so-called rayoshnik. Such texts are numerous, but they almost never reach a significant length. At the same time, the rayoshnik occupies the intermediate place between verse and prose: usually the tales (skaz) written in rayoshnik are, strictly speaking, rhymed prose, rather than verse.This applies both to direct folklore quotations and to folklore and literary experiments. The article attempts to correlate the poetics of Viktor Pul’kin’s works with the poetics of the literary tale (skaz) genre as such. The presence of folklore poetic fragments in a prosaic text seems to be largely predetermined by the poetics of the literary tale (skaz), which is characterized by an orientation towards the “living” word, stereotypes of everyday speech, and the colloquial-speech basis of traditional popular culture.

Keywords: Viktor Pul’kin, prose, verse, study of verse, Russian literature, Russian folklore, prosimetrum, rayoshnik (rhyming verse)

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