A. I. Solzhenitsyn

In the article the image of P. A. Stolypin is analyzed on the material of The Red Wheel, Diary R-17, memoires and essays by A. I. Solzhenitsyn. The authors trace the course the writer took while working on the artistic presentation of the image of one of the most prominent Russian state fi gures of the 20th century; they show Solzhenitsyn’s artistry in endeavoring to reveal to the reader all the “prominence”, “expressiveness” of this great person, as well as the signifi cance of Stolypin’s destiny for the future of Russia.

The autobiographical character of Solzhenitsyn’s oeuvre, inseparable nature of ethical and aesthetic views, have shaped the author’s unique aesthetics. From the point of view of the author of this article, eliciting the meta-poetic principles defi nes the way of comprehension of Solzhenitsyn’s artistic world, of his ‘phenomenon’. The article presents the analysis of two of Solzhenitsyn’s signifi cant meta-poetic principles: self-meta-description and self-psychologism.

The article analyzes the image of Norway in A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s memoir sketches The Oak and the Calf and Between Two Millstones and his letters. The writer intended to settle there in case he was exiled from Russia, because he felt the affinity of living in Norway with that in Russia, he called Norway his ‘second motherland’. The author of the article considers Norway as a significant place in A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s worldview geography.

In this article one of the metapoetic principles of A. I. Solzhenitsyn is analyzed – ‘a dialogue with a classic writer’. In his sketch Immersing into Chekhov Solzhenitsyn renders the pleasure of aesthetic insights from the encounters with Chekhov, enters into a conversation with him, argues with Chekhov’s world outlook. Thereby Solzhenitsyn’s own ‘creative lab’ is revealed to the reader.

The article analyzes parenthetical statements by A. I. Solzhenitsyn on the material of the ‘sketches of literary life’ – The Oak and the Calf. It is proved that this type of narrative is an important means of manifesting the author’s personality in the writer’s memoirs.

The article considers the place, role, functions, forms of final scenes in the structure of the novel March 1917 by A. I. Solzhenitsyn on the level of the chapter final scenes, ends of days, book closings and the final of the Node, which helps to imagine more intensely and to comprehend the author’s concept of the third Node of the Red Wheel.

In this article the author talks about the image-motif of the embroidering girl (the girl with the embroidery frame) in the works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward, The Red Wheel, Three Brides) and the connections of his work with the texts of Russian writers of the 19th century.

The second part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of the key motive and thematic complexes together determining the peculiarity of the ‘soviet’ reality as artistic unity, actualized in the works by A. I. Solzhenitsyn and V. P. Aksyonov (written and published at the turn of the XX–XXIst centuries). The phenomenon of fear is considered in the line of the ideological foundation of the ‘soviet’ system.

The first part of the article deals with the definition and substantiation of the literary criticism task itself –a parallel analysis of the works of two significant writers in the Russian literary process. Another object is to identify the major perspectives of the philological examination in progress. The subject of this research is the texts by A. I. Solzhenitsyn and V. P. Aksyonov, written and published at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries.