Maksim Bogdanovich is a star of Belarusian poetry (To the 130th anniversary of the poet’s birth)

It is investigated how a poet who was born in Minsk, was brought up in the cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl in the close family environment of the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky, felt that he was a Belarusian poet (collection of poetry “Wreath”, Vilnia, 1913), called Belarus “Matzi-Kraina”. Thanks to his poetic gift, through originality, self-awareness, self-determination and self-affirmation in poetry, the history of literature declared himself as a genius of Belarusian poetry. Maksim Bogdanovich argued that Belarusian literature “is not a monster, not a rarity, not a unique one”, but the outstanding work of the Belarusian people developed in genre and stylistic terms, it can rightfully be put on a par with other literatures of the peoples of the world. The poet also showed himself as a critic, translator, introduced a variety of genres and styles into Belarusian poetry. The name of Maxim Bogdanovich is on a par with the names of Yanka Kupala and Yakub Kolas. These are three stars of the first magnitude in the history of the Belarusian red writing.

The Literary Canon in the Russian Magazine and Newspaper Cartoons of the late 19th - early 20th centuries

An enormous amount of research has been devoted to studying the Russian classics. Nevertheless, the issue of reflecting social ideas about the writers whose works were included into the Russian literary canon has been insufficiently studied, especially with regard to satirical graphics. Caricature in the legitimate press is considered to be a popular visual art, with the image of a Russian writer demonstrating the attitude of society towards his work. The purpose of this paper is to study the frequency of the portrayals of Russian writers in the satirical graphics of the early 20th century, which are viewed as a reflection of the established (and constantly updated) literary canon of Russia. Our objectives include identifying the images of Russian writers found in the satirical graphics, comparing the visualization techniques used to portray the authors in the caricatures of the 19th and early 20th centuries, highlighting the visual motifs used to contrast the literature of the past and the contemporary magazine issues and pointing out the persistent satirical characterizations and tropes of the images of famous writers, depending on the periodical. On the basis of a selective scan of 25 thin magazines and two newspapers published from 1877 to 1917, more than 200 caricatures and satirical cartoons were identified, including benevolent and spiteful caricatures of Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Nicolai Nekrasov, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and many others. The cartoons held the readers’ interest in their literary work, forming the people’s attitude towards the human qualities of the writers and highlighting their personality among the rest of their peers. The prevalence of humor or satire was directly related to the historical context, either to the works of a particular writer, the editorial policy of publications or the position of a caricaturist. The cartoons of the early 20th century reflect the social atmosphere of the Silver Age: creative, critical, nervous and overthrowing the idols of the bygone eras. The article would prove useful for literary critics, historians of journalism and visual content researchers interested in the Russian pre-revolutionary press.

“Distant death” in Maxim Gorky's short story “Obsession”

The paper analyzes the short story “Obsession” written by Maxim Gorky in the Nizhny Novgorod period of his work, which has been given little attention in philological works. On the one hand, the author himself defined its genre as a Christmas tale; on the other hand, this work cannot be brought into line with Christmas tales and short novels by Gogol and Dostoyevsky, since in Gorky’s story, no miracle occurs. However, this small text still deserves literary scholars’ attention. The short story introduces an interesting paradox of artistic space and time: in outward appearance, the action takes place within one room, on the couch, but the hero’s internal experiences, his conflict with the alter ego carry the reader into the distant past, the Christmas days of the main character’s family, and then the imagination, vision that visited Foma Mironovich come to the fore and become a plot-forming feature. The form in which the story content is presented (obsession, dream, delusion) is typologically similar to the structure of Russian folklore tales telling about encountering the phenomena of the “other world”. The results of the study may be of interest to both literary and cultural scholars.

THE ROLE OF THE SOCIOCULTURAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE FORMATION OF A CULTURAL DIALOGUE IN THE STRUCTURE OF A LANGUAGE PERSONALITY

The article is devoted to the issues of the formation of a special language personality type, which is defined through the collaboration of cultures in its structure. The originality of the language personality is based on the interaction of different types of speech culture and different national cultures. The article studies sociocultural factors that can lead to a dialogue of cultures in the structure of a language personality. These factors can be common for the whole society and for an individual. The example of a language personality, in the structure of which there is a dialogue of speech cultures, is Maxim Gorky, a writer who is known for a creative attitude to the word. The dialogue of different national cultures is a mark of originality of the language personality of a modern rock poet Boris Grebenshchikov. It influenced his poetic language. The quality of assimilation of different cultures is realized at the level of meanings of a polysemous word, while either the meanings of the word refer to different cultures, or connotations, related to a particular culture, stick to the major meaning of the word.

Socialist Realism And The Situation Of Women In Society In The Works Of Maxim Gorky "Mother" (Социалистический Реализм И Положение Женщины В Обществе В Произведении Максима Горького "Мать")

Maxim Gorky’s Mother is one of the most important literary genre in social realism, in which he depicts female characters with revolutionary fervor and enthusiasm, projecting his social ideologies and dreams. Though the novel unique importance lies in the fact that it has been thoroughly analyzed by many writers, historians and sociologists, there are almost no studies devoted to the role of women out of a Marxist and feminist point of view. The present paper sheds light on the Russian woman‘s important role in overcoming all adversity and gain her position on Social Realism. Одно из центральных мест среди произведений, написанных в таком литературном жанре, как социалистический реализм, занимает произведение Максима Горького "Мать", в котором он изображал женские персонажи с революционным задором и энтузиазмом, проецируя через них свои социалистические мысли и мечты. Актуальность данной работы заключается в том, что произведение Горького "Мать" было анализировано многими литераторами, историками и социологами, однако почти отсутствуют исследования, посвящённые революционной роли женщин с марксистской и феминистской точки зрения. В заключении делается вывод о том, что Максим Горький в романе "Мать" дал чёткий портрет русской женщине в рамках социалистического реализма, которая смогла преодолеть все невзгоды, переродиться и стать полноправным членом общества.

V. I. Nilov is “a very modest man and an exceptionally serious scientist” (concerning one comment in M. Gorky’s letter to I. V. Stalin)

This publication explores the history of personal contacts and correspondence between the distinguished biochemist V. I. Nilov and the writer Maxim Gorky in 1933–1936. Through out his life, M. Gorky tried to use his influence to help talented scientists as well as scientific and cultural institutions. In 1933, V. I. Nilov, a researcher from the Nikita Botanical Gardens, wrote to Gorky about the experiments he performed in his biochemistry lab on the synthesis of vitamin C, plant breeding for chemical composition, and isolation of opiates from poppy. The writer appealed to the USSR top officials, intending to improve the situation with scientific institutions in Crimea. As a result of Gorky’s mediation efforts, Nilov’s documents were presented to I. V. Stalin. The leaders of the USSR were interested in such research, because it complied with the country’s strategic objectives. This, in its turn, led to changes in vitamin research and production in the USSR and had an effect on the status of the Nikita Botanical Gardens. V. I. Nilov’s scientific biography was closely interlinked with the history of the Institute of Plant Industry and its director N. I. Vavilov. By this publication, earlier unknown materials from the Archive of A.M. Gorky (Institute of World Literature, Moscow) and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Moscow) are for the first time introduced into public scientific discourse.

Essays by Viktor Ya. Iretsky in the Context of the Journalism of 1917 and 1918

This article aims to initiate a study of an extremely interesting body of texts by Viktor Ya. Iretsky that were published in the major metropolitan newspaper Rech' [Speech] and caused a resonance in 1917-1918. The study of the originality of the half-forgotten prose writer's revolutionary journalism in the context of the ideological searches of the author's famous contemporaries - M. Gorky, V.G. Korolenko, L.N. Andreev, A.A. Blok, I.A. Bunin - seems relevant. Based on newspaper, magazine, and book collections of the National Library of Russia, the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the House of Russia Abroad, the article analyzes the essays published in Rech' from March 1917 to August 1918 using historical-literary and intertextual research methods. In the course of the research, the author selected the most revealing essays that are comparable to well-known journalistic works about the revolution, analyzed their artistic originality, evolution, and similarity to the journalism of 1917-1918. Iretsky's texts are thematically and ideologically similar to Andreev's articles and diary entries, Korolenko's writings, and - particularly - Gorky's cycle published in Novaya Zhizn' [New Life]; however, theses texts describe the facts, moods, and the revolutionary atmosphere from the point of view of an observer who opposes the revolution and, since May 1917, sees it only as destructive force. The author concludes that Iretsky's essays, reflecting the metamorphoses of the intelligentsia's perception of the revolution, problems close to Gorky's and Korolenko's notes, are more similar to emigrants' diaries, especially Bunin's Cursed Days, in their confessional nature, antiBolshevik pathos and artistry. The specificity of Iretsky's texts is explained by the attention to specific everyday material immersed in the cultural and historical context. The value of the essays is determined by its orientation to everyday life, inclusion of the living tissue of life in the texts; by its confessional nature, which back in 1917 and 1918 revealed a critical emigrant attitude - then expressed in diaries only - to the course of the revolutionary transformation of Russia; and by the inclusion of expressive historical and cultural figurative elements. Abstracting, analyzing the situation from the point of view of European history and culture (including the ideals of the French revolution), using images of works of Russian literature (Dead Souls by Gogol, The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov, The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, etc.) and reminiscences on them, Iretsky does not approach authors of political pamphlets, but rather such important figures of Russian journalism as Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Korolenko, and the diary prose of the brightest Russian writers.