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• Turgenev Today: On the Problem of Perception

  17 p.

  Irina Belyaeva

  Views:

  354

  The article deals with the question of how Turgenev’s work is perceived by the modern
  reader. There are identified aspects related to the complexity of understanding the writer’s
  texts, which are largely due to stereotypes that have developed in the culture of perception,
  and are also features of his poetics. There are different ways of new interpretations of Turgenev’s
  famous texts – those of the novels “Fathers and Sons” and “The Noble Nest”. In “Fathers
  and Sons” the idea of reconciliation with contradictions is emphasized, and ‘The Noble’s
  Nest” is considered a successful social project in literature. The article briefly highlights
  the main stages of Turgenev’s popularizing Russian culture in the West.

• One can only Understand a Journey by Embarking on it

  Antonina Nikonova

  Views:

  234

  The present article is devoted to a new field of research in humanities–the „hygiene of culture” and its leader – Olga Szűcs. The formation of an international researh community is a long and difficult procedure. In the course of the development of the theoretical and the empirical basis of the „hygiene of culture” owing to Olga Szűcs’s personal qualities,the scientific and ethnic norms of a collective of researchers working in different fields of humanities have been set. The results of the research have been published in collective monographs. The paper considers Olga Szűcs’s main scientific contributions to this field and the role she played in this scientific project.

• Trans-Disciplinary Methodology: Procreation Capital as a Basic Factor in the Viability of a Civilizational-Cultural Unit

  12 p.

  Dmitrii Reut

  Views:

  298

  The main problem raised in the paper is in line with a new trend of research, conceptual programs and practical activity that can be termed “hygiene of culture”. The study is transcritical in its character and proposes to consider the category of capital generated by the economy in relation to the reproduction of the population in its structural units of civilization and as a cultural community. Trans-discipline methodology is currently being developed, which makes the work is up-to-date. It develops basic aspects of the procreation capital category, which claims to be a generalization of the human capital category. The problem is the restoration of European culture, which has been eroded by the distortion of the ideas of market economy. The reason why it is particularly urgent to find a solution to the problem is the threat posed by the demographic situation of the developed countries of European culture and the adjacent countries of the Slavic-Orthodox cultural cluster by the actual organization of housing.

• Angelika Molnar: Text, Genre, Word: Studies in Russian literature of the 19th–21st centuries. Moscow, Azbukovnik 2022, 424 pp. ISBN 978-5-91172-221-0

  Irina Belyaeva

  Views:

  306

  This review contains a critical analysis of Angelika Molnar's new book, her monograph entitled Text, genre, word: Studies in the Russian literature of the 19^th-21^st centuries is devoted to various texts of different eras from Pushkin’s to Sorokin’s, however, the focus of the study is Molnár's favorite Russian writer, Goncharov, whose work, unfortunately, rarely attracts the attention of Western researchers. In Molnár's book, the main, clearly indicated methodological principle is discursive poetics, which works well when studying intertexts within the framework of both large and small literary and historical series. Therefore, Russian literature is considered by the researcher as a single text in which the "old" is updated by the "new". The review emphasizes the significance of the monograph, which first of all offers an up-to-date interpretationof Russian classics in the context of modernity. The book will be of interest both to a professional researcher of Russian literature and to everyone who is interested in Russian culture and the Russian worldview.

• Specificity of the Organization of Text Space in the Novel of E. Vodolazkin «Soloviev and Larionov»

  9 p.

  Natalia Fateeva

  Views:

  296

  The article analyzes the specificity of the organization of the text space in the novel, the relationship of its title and main characters is clarified. The main motives of the story that unite the heroes and motivate the interweaving of their destinies are highlighted: the railway, the sea, the horse and the rider, childhood, life and death. It is proved that the text of the novel is built as a search for an answer to the question about the secrets of the life of General Larionov.

• The Motive of Passage as a Cultural Universal In I.S. Shmelev’s Novel “The Story of a Love”: Semantic and Functional Aspect

  Viktoriya Kondratyeva

  Views:

  294

  The article considers the motive of passage from the point of view of its role in the plot inI.S. Shmelev’s novel and from the point of view of mythopoetic meanings. It has been established that in the work “The Story of a Love” the symbolism of the passage motive is associated not only with the situation of the transition, but also with the Fall, which is interpreted by the writer as a stage of the movement towards insight. The passage motive organizes two spaces of storytelling: real and mental. Real space is divided into a space of purity and sin, the transition from one spatial locus to another also signifies the transition taking place in the soul of the protagonist from purity to sin and vice versa. The motives of the passage and temporary death are combined with the Christian motive of the transformation, allowing I.S. Shmelev to show the spiritual toss of the main character more clearly – as a transfer from life to death and its subsequent revival, as well as to assert the main motivein his work – the merger of the “mundane” and the “heavenly”, the world of objects, the material world and the “invisible" world of divine light.

• Comedy against a tearful background: The interference of catharsis in L.S. Petrushevskaya’s play Colombina’s Apartment

  Aleksandr Kubasov

  Views:

  286

  The paperraises the question of catharsis in modern dramaturgy as a complex and ambiguous aesthetic reaction of the reader. The concept of “interference of catharsis” is introduced, meaning the combination of two of its types, laughter and tears, due to which a synergistic effect occurs that enhances both reactions. The introduced definition is tested based on the analysis of Petrushevskaya’s one-act play Colombina’s Apartment, which is recognized as an example of a philosophical farce. It is noted that in modern drama, the place of pure tearful and laughter catharsis has been taken by their reduced derivatives. Irony replaces open laughter, and feelings of bitterness or regret replace tears. The analyzed play is recognized as an example of modern metadrama. Petrushevskayauses not only the traditional characters of the commedia dell'arte (Harlequin, Pierrot, and Columbine) ata new time and in a new setting, but also the poetics of puppet theater, as well as the realities of Soviet children's theater. Laughter, which operates throughout the entire play, is removed at the end by the bitterly ironic aesthetic reaction of the readers, which is caused by compassion for the funny characters. Superimposed on one another, they create what is called the interference of catharsis.

• Era of Post-Pragmatical Strategies

  12 p.

  Dmitry Reut

  Views:

  259

  An extended definition of culture as a phenomenon that includes processes and results of human communities interaction with wildlife, e.g. viruses is propounded. An indicator of development limitations of Global civilization-cultural integrity is proposed. We put forward the concept of a post-pragmatic strategy of a cultural unit. The latter signifies social integrity that represents a separate culture – a stable set of traits, categories, patterns reproduced in series of generations. We believe a cultural unit to be a large-scale system. Our study is carried out in the context of the emerging intellectual discipline Hygiene of Culture with the help of methodology of sustainable reproduction of a cultural unit. The aim of the study is to form methodological bases for the reaction of cultural unit aimed at confronting phenomena similar to COVID-19. The result is altruistic post-pragmatic strategy, free of mistrust. We propose to supplement the known security dilemma as follows. Actors allocate their military budgets in proportion to confidence/mistrust rates to opponents while likelihood of risk events in the environment increases according to sandpile model and information noise rises.

• The Transformation of Spiritual Culture in the Context of the Formation of the "New Ethics" (Problem Statement)

  Andrey Chukurov

  Views:

  327

  The article is devoted to the analysis of the spiritual values that are being formed today and the reasons for the actualization of the New Ethics. Catastrophic dynamism leads to the elimination of the stable social groups as well as to the maximum diffuseness of personal boundaries. At the same time, the transformation of the communication system brings an extremely vulnerable virtual body to the forefront of cultural life. The new communication system, social atomization, the lack of understandable guidelines in the process of socialization and self-identification - all this turns the concept of “border” into a basic one for the New Ethics. However, the design of boundaries and self-defense mechanisms does not always lead to the expected positive results. We come to the conclusion, that an initially inadequate assessment of the aggressiveness of the environment forces a person to build the most aggressive defense mechanisms: the man himself is transformed into a source of toxicity, which in turn makes the environment even more toxic than it was originally.

• Cultural Policy of Russia and Hungary: Modern Discourse and New Actors

  11 p.

  Olga Szűcs

  Tatyana Yudina

  Views:

  360

  The authors of the article argue that contemporary cultural policy discourse is in the focus
  of attention of scientific communities, social and political organizations and government institutions.
  It represents a sort of symbolic struggle and nominations and has necessitated a
  new approach to cultural policy structuring. The article shows that this necessity is demonstrated
  by the development of cooperation between Russia and Hungary in terms of cultural
  sectors and cultural heritage. Expert communities and non-governmental organizations are
  becoming significant elements in the structure of cultural policy subjects. The association
  “For Hungarian-Russian cooperation named after Leo Tolstoy” has become such a key issue.
  The authors of this article attempt to highlight the most essential contemporary issues in
  the sphere of cultural policy in general and in relation of two separate countries – Russia and
  Hungary – through the scientific project “Hygiene of culture”.

• World Model in the Novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn

  7 p.

  Viktoriya Kondrateva

  Views:

  498

  The paper deals with the world model and ways of its creation in a novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In the process of world-modeling following basic categories are of a great importance: native-strange, light-darkness, principle of 3 levels. The space of camp is characterized by features of a strange world. Native world is narrowed to the boundaries of hut, bed and even to a hole in a mattress. World organization is also realized with the help of a system of prototypical images, e.g. a table, bread, sun, a stove, etc. Due to this concepts, which have hierarchic values, are formed. Solzhenitsyn achieves generalization following a peculiar way of depicting of a group of characters which can be conditionally called “convicts”. There we can see different social layers, nationalities, ages. It has metonymical nature: according to the principle “a part of the whole” the fate of the entire country is shown. In terms of sense complex “human-being – environment – their interaction” the world model in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s novel has “human”, natural and social levels in its structure. The writer compresses time and space, satiates it with details, which are different in semiotic power of generalization, and as a result he receives solid world model.

• Gogol’s Vij and L.N. Tolstoy’s War and Peace in V.V. Mayakovsky’s Poem War and Peace

  Sergei Shul’ts

  Views:

  469

  Representing himself in his poem War and Peace in the form of a fictional "absolute unit" - the new Vij - Mayakovsky demonstrates the infernality of a new type, in comparison with Gogol's one. Mayakovsky's ideacontrasts with Tolstoy's pacifism and the idea of "eternal peace" (the novel War and Peace). Unlike Tolstoy, refusing to notice and recognize the real diversity in the manifestations of man and the human principle, Mayakovsky reduces all people, their thoughts and concerns to their personal ideas.

• The chronotope of O. E. Mandelshtam’s Poems about the Unknown Soldier

  Sergei Shul’ts

  Views:

  324

  The chronotope of O.E. Mandelstam’s Poems about the Unknown Soldier has at least three levels: (1)  the level  of internal time-space as immanent to the subject, the author-hero; this is the level of subjective refraction of events in individual consciousness/thinking; (2) the  level of external time-space: the historical and natural beginning of world life (historical and physical cosmos) in their correlation; here worldly life is presented as if outside any of its perception from the outside, “by itself”; and (3) the mythical-symbolic dimension shining through the other two; the events here are interpreted in their parabolical content, including in the aspect of the philosophy of culture and intertextuality as a kind of “new mythology”.

• European Cultures in Leo Tolstoy’s Interpretation: Ambiguous and Unambiguous (on the Basis of the Sketch “Sevastopol in May” and the Novel “War and Peace”)

  Dmitry Romanov

  Views:

  274

  The article examines the embodiment of the interactions of Russian culture with French and German cultures in the course of global historical eventsin Tolstoy’s works. The review includes the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and the Patriotic War of 1812. The author analyzes the use of foreign language inclusions by the heroes of Tolstoyʼs works and the authorʼs assessment of them. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the ideas and images of European cultures, which help to express the worldview of the writer.

• With them or without them? Jangfeldt, B.: Mi és ők: Az orosz eszme története [Us and them: History of the “Russian idea”]. Swedish to Hungarian translation by Imre Bartók. Budapest, Helikon Kiadó, 2024, pp. 224. ISBN: 978-963-620-057-2

  András Bozorády

  Views:

  162

  Jangfeldt's book Us and Them: History of the "Russian idea" was published in Hungarian translation in 2024. The author is a Swedish writer and translator from Russian, associate professor of Slavic languages ​​at Stockholm University. The aim of the review is to show what ideological and philosophical currents Jangfeldt's book discusses, and how all of these have influenced Russian history and culture in the past 300 years.

• The Outlines of Meaning’s Analysis of Social Phenomena in the Concept of S. L. Frank

  14 p.

  Natalya Matveeva

  Views:

  519

  The present paper deals with the problem of how cultural meanings are perceived in S. L.
  Frank’s social theory. His conception lies between two main paths of sociological thought:
  Durkheim’s cognition of social facts as objective phenomena on the one hand, and Weber’s
  cognition of subjective meanings of personal actions, on the other. In his theory Frank concentrates
  on the concept of objective forming idea-force, which resembles the concept of
  social fact in its quality of exerting pressure on individual consciousness and volition, but it
  should be brought into harmony with interpretive methodology. In Frank’s view social ideas
  are regarded as a force forming social relations and therefore lie in the foundation of social
  institutions. These are, for example, ideas of state, of family, of friendship and so on. Social
  ideas are connected with the consciousness of the individual by their moral force. That is
  why such ideas are accepted by the individual at the emotional level of his spiritual life,
  because they believe that these ideas are true and organize their meanings and activities according
  to them. Thus social meanings of moral good or evil in human relations and in the
  social structure arise. At the same time they signify the emergence of sacred phenomena in
  society. Human beings, according the Frank’s theory, have an internal need to be possessed
  by the sacred senses that give them the feeling of the participation in the implementation of
  the transcendent goals. Society is an objective living idea which provides sacred meanings
  for the individual. On the whole, a society’s life is formed by the historically specific complex
  of ideas that are freely accepted or rejected by individuals and determine their feelings and
  behavior. There is no contradiction between personal freedom, creativity and social structure
  in S. Frank’s theory. The author of the present paperfinds similarities between S.Frank’s ideas
  and the fundamentals of cultural sociology.

• “Hungarian Subject Matter” in Chekhov (The Short Story The Unnecessary Victory)

  Tatyana Ilyuhina

  Views:

  274

  The paper considers “The unnecessary victory” as one of the notable works of the earliest stage of Chekhov’s creativity. The Hungarian theme of the story, inspired by the novels of Mór Jókai translated into Russian, and its plot, related to the traditions of the European career novel, address a wide audience. The young writer plays along with this reader with exotic narrative elements and delineates the difference between serious and marginal literature. This hoax, together with other skits of those years, reveals the young writer’s view of literary pursuits as an exciting game in which the main expectation is to be truthful and graceful. The same goals, according to Chekhov, characterize literature in general, regardless of the field of its competence and of the readership coverage.

• The Importance of Animacy-Inanimacy Category of the Noun and the Context

  11 p.

  Andrey Narushevich

  Views:

  327

  The article considers the semantic aspect of the of animacy-inanimacy category in nouns in Russian language, in particular, peculiarities of collocability of some nouns with verbs in terms of animacy-inanimacy category.The study of the semantic interaction of nouns and animate-inanimate marked verbs, which are collocating with these nouns, allows to detect combination of signs of “animate” or “inanimate” in meanings of some nouns with fluctuant grammatical indicator of animacy-inanimacy category. Thus, this study can raise the issues about the cognitive factor in meaning formation process and also about specific character of the process how peculiarities of cognitive experience, received from human exploration of the environment, are expressed.

• The Linguistic Means of Representation of the Category of Generality in the Text of A.P Chekhov’s Three Years

  Natalja Kim

  Views:

  264

  The multi-level means of representation of the category of generality inherent in the language as a whole are reflected in the story of A. P. Chekhov "Three Years" in all their diversity. The characters of the work reflect on generally significant topics in the context of their own lives, thatimplementthe category of generality in the work. When language units function in the text of the story, their particular-specific and generalizing meanings interact, which causes a two-dimensional semantic perception both within a single utterance and the text as a whole. The use of the means of generalizing in the speech of the characters is pragmatically driven and is determined by the purpose of the speaker to depersonalize the statement or to influence the interlocutor, giving personal reflections a universal meaning.

• The story Сhildhood as the beginning of Leo Tolstoy’s linguopoetic search

  Dmitry Romanov

  Views:

  273

  The paper discusses the most prominent linguistic and poetic techniques in Leo Tolstoy’s story Childhood. Linguistic poetics is understood in a broad sense: with the inclusion of not only linguistic units themselves, but also compositional characteristics, stable plot moves, details of subject expressiveness, and effects on the reader. The evolution of the studied techniques in Tolstoy’s further work is traced.

• B. Spinoza, N.V. Gogol, J. Baudrillard: On the Debate about Theocentrism and Anthropocentrism

  13 p.

  Sergey Shults

  Views:

  360

  Interest in the problem of man, in the structure of the world and in its foundations is brought together, with all the difference, Spinoza, Gogol, Baudrillard. In the lineup of authors, three main attitudes are revealed. Spinoza: all that exists is theocentric; one must strive to comprehend God and His "extensions" (not creatures!) in the form of the world and man. Gogol: comic-romantic criticism regarding intramural irrationality with the author's aspiration for an eschatological perspective. Baudrillard: immersion in the pan-social as the only being, although it has (starting from the Renaissance) an empty foundation. According to Spinoza, man, nature, the world, in general, everything in reality is an extension of God. Not "creation"! - it is a continuation, practically an integral part of God, some "doubles", although those with less "good."  It turns out that God is not able to separate himself from what is around him, what is in the outside world and everything that is not He considers himself to be. Gogol, on the other hand, strove to portray man as really different in relation to God and at the same time capable of changing (the concept of “Dead Souls”). Isn’t the “apocalypse of our time” outlined by Baudrillard? Its unchanging Marxist-Freudian jargon is intended only to serve the immediate intention of reforming social reality. The Baudrillard concept is marked by post- and neo-romantic skepticism regarding the nature of man and society. The extra-Marxist (and non-Freudian) in Baudrillard - his bet on "reversibility", on the "gift" (in the terminology of Moos and his followers) of the "gift", ie installation on a "symbolic exchange" between communicants in all spheres of existence. Thus, Baudrillard comes to recognize the linkage "modern / postmodern" and to recognize the benefits of modernity. The transformation of “dead souls” is a path that Gogol also thought about realizing on different grounds and which opposes the complacency of Spinozist machines.

• Types and Functions of Comparative Tropes in Contemporary Prose Texts (as represented in L. Ulitskaya’s Short Story ”The Queen of Spades”)

  5 p.

  Angelika Molnár

  Natalia Nikolina

  Views:

  507

  This article studies the types and functions of comparative tropes in Lyudmila Ulickaya’s short story ”The Queen of Spades”, a reference to Alexander Pushkin’s famous masterpiece. This question is connected with the main heroine’s figure constructed on the basis of the system of tropes. In the analysis suggested by the authors, special attention is paid to the animalistic, vegetative and theatrical metaphors, parallels and similes. In the conclusion the difference between traditional and individual tropes in the woman writer’s literary work is discussed.

• In search of winners: On the 100th anniversary of Yuri Trifonov's birth

  Igor Sukhikh

  Views:

  199

  Trifonov’s short stories are characterised by a direct tackling of moral issues. Tthe story The Winner contrasts social activity and biological longevity. Trifonov does not choose between the two but reflects on both. The conflict between biology and history is one of the main conflicts depicted in his remarkable prose.

• Between Mystery and Riddle: From Narrative Strategy to Literary Genre

  9 p.

  Olga Fedunina

  Views:

  321

  In the paper a difference is made between the mysterious and the enigmatic as fundamentally
  different narrative and genre strategies. The first is typical of the so-called novelmystery
  or the novel-myth, charcterized by the concept of impossible rational comprehension
  of the mystery explained by the plot. The second represents a vast field of criminal literature,
  where the plot is dependent on a riddle that has a pre-given answer. The differences between
  these two types of novels are manifested at all the main levels of poetics, especially in the
  specific traits of the subject-oriented organization. However, the paper shows that the general
  strategy of the mysterious is also implemented through different moods in different criminal
  genres such as classic detective stories, the police novel, the “adventurous investigation”, and
  the “victim-centered investigation”. Thus, we can conclude that the mystery and the riddle
  can reassemble genre constructive strategies not minus then narrative.

• A Story by A. P. Chekhov “The Wolf”: Historical-medical and Archetypal Aspects

  Viktoriya Kondratyeva

  Views:

  612

  The plot of A. P. Chekhov's story "The Wolf" (in the first edition the story was called "Hydrophobia (A true story)") is associated with the frequent facts of wolves attacking people in the 1880s in the central part of the country (called an epidemic at the time).The time of writing the story between March and December 1886 is a year after the discovery of the rabies vaccine in the laboratory of Louis Pasteur and its successful testing in 1885; and in the year the story was created, the first Pasteur stations in Russia were opened. The paramount aspect of a plot of the work by A. P. Chekhov is connected with the field of psychology. Fear, which takes possession over the character, the landowner Nilov, is a psychological phenomenon in the medical sense and leads to an understanding of the fact why Chekhov needs an emphasis on the wolf in the title of the second edition of the story. The image of a wolf with its archetypal component plays a fundamental role in recreating a clinically accurate picture of fear. The real clash with a real wolf becomes a reflection of the fight with the "mental wolf," with its own fears. The writer is interested not so much in the existential side of the phenomenon of fear, as in the psychological one. And the image of a wolf with its archetypal component plays a fundamental role in recreating a clinically accurate picture of fear.