The article attempts to identify systemic intertextual connections between novellas “The Barrier” by Pavel Vezhinov and “A Gentle Creature” by Fyodor
Dostoyevsky (as well as individual intertextual connections between “The Barrier”
and “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”) and show how their explication contributes to
the comprehension of the artistic concept of each of the works. The methodological
basis of the study is the interpretation of intertextuality as a product of reading (not
as a phenomenon of “writing”), according to which Vezhinov and Dostoevsky –
writers belonging to different national cultures and historical eras – in some sense
become contemporaries. Accordingly, “A Gentle Creature”, written earlier, is
enriched in meaning as a result of its comparison with “The Barrier”, as well as the
latter by comparison with the story of Dostoevsky. The basis for comparing the stories
is the similarity at the level of the storylines, the narrative type, the system of the
characters. At the same time, the ways of transforming the storyline into a plot, such
as: external composition, focalisation, organization of modal-temporal and spatial
plans, are deeply different. The spatial organization of the works plays a particularly
important role in this sense, since the storyline of both stories is based on one type of
rite de passage – the transition from life “to another life”. This article is devoted to the
question of whether this transition took place and whether, as a result, the spiritual
transformation of the main characters took place.