SUMMARIES*

Я и другие в романе Федора Сологуба "Тяжелые сны"

Джон Элсворт

В статье анализируются межличностные отношения персонажей в романе Сологуба "Тяжелые сны". Эта тема прослеживается и на материале других - ранних (опубликованных и не опубликованных) - текстов писателя: эпистолярных, публицистических, поэтических. Особое внимание уделяется взаимосвязи романа Сологуба с книгой Н. М. Минского "При свете совести" и романом Э. Беллами "В 2000-м году". Кульминационное событие "Тяжелых снов" - убийство Логиным Мотовилова - неоднократно рассматривалось в исследованиях как открытая полемика с "Преступлением и наказанием" Достоевского: убийца избегает разоблачения и отказывается признать свою вину. Такое истолкование не оспаривается, но, тем не менее, автор статьи считает, что оно не соответствует замыслу Сологуба. Автор предлагает более приемлемую, на его взгляд, интерпретацию, основанную на анализе представлений Сологуба о межличностных отношениях и коллективной психологии, которые Сологуб, спустя десять лет, изложил в статье "Человек человеку дьявол". Акт убийства оправдывается писателем не в связи с отказом от нравственности и не с точки зрения декаденской этики, а с позиции индусской доктрины о перевоплощении и о карме, излагаемой в книге "Бхагавад Гита".

The Almanac of V. Briusov "Russian Simbolists":
The Destinies of the Contributers

Yevgenia Ivanova, Rem Shcherbakov

The article is about the history of Briusov's almanac "Russian Symbolists" and its three editions published in 1894-95, and the many mystifications connected with it. Valery Briusov, then a novice poet, tried to establish symbolism as a visible movement, led by himself. The authors of this article decipher various pseudonyms of Briusov and trace their story. The paper also contains the biographies of actual contributors to the almanac "Russian Symbolists": Erli Martov, Viktor Khrisonopoulo, N. Novich and G. Zaronin.

N. S. Leskov in Estimation of Merezhkovskies

Lea Pild

The paper is about one of the aspects of the literary evolution of Russian symbolism which has not been investigated. It deals with the reception of the works by N. S. Leskov in the literary works by Z. N. Gippius and D. S. Merezhkovsky. Russian symbolists did not mention Leskov's name in their theoretical articles but they quoted him in their literary works. As the analysis shows, Gippius and Merezhkovsky were attracted mainly by the religious views of Leskov which were antagonistic to those of Dostoevsky.

"The New person" in the story "Teacher" (1886) by I. Yasinsky

Yelena Nymm

In the article, an attempt is made to take a new look at the problem of pre-symbolism in Russian literature. Traditionally researchers considered I. Yasinsky to be a presymbolist writer. However, Y. Nymm shows that his literary works do not easily match in the symbolist context. The author analyses the image of the main character of the Yasinsky's story, Pomorov, and finds there traces of interest in the philosophy of F. Nietzsche characteristic of the symbolist literature. Pomorov typologically and genetically echoes such different phenomena as Turgenev's nihilist Bazarov, characters-ideologists of Dostoevsky, and the superman of Nietzsche. The story demonstrates the dual attitude of Yasinsky to nitzschean philosophy.

Feodor Sologub in Andrei Belyi's myth

Elena Grigorjeva

The presentation studies a specific type of reminiscences treated as an interpretation of the example of literary relations of the two leading authors of Russian symbolism - Feodor Sologub and Andrei Belyi. On textual comparison it is demonstrated how Andrei Belyi creates his personal "myth" of Sologub and then exploits it for different purposes, mainly for describing and denying "bad reality", "horrible world". Belyi locates this "complex of Sologub" in his own mythologized early years and imitates further rejection of it. This action allows Belyi to escape from the responsibility in depicting only the world of anti-thesis and not synthesis. Grigorjeva suggests that those notions which were strictly distinguished in the philosophic discourse were mixed and equated in the literary practice of symbolists.

Nedotykomka and Neznakomka
(about two subtexts of "Silver pigeon" by Andrei Belyi)

Oleg Lekmanov

In the article we bring out two main subtexts of Andrei Belyi's story "Silver pigeon" - the novel of Feodor Sologub "Petty demon" and the poem of Alexander Blok "Stranger" ("Neznakomka"). The quotations from the novel of Sologub have obtained the function of "infernal background" in the "Silver pigeon".

The role of quotations from "Neznakomka" in the story of Belyi is more unexpected. The countryside decorations of Blok are changed by Belyi for a village set-up.

Aleksei Remizov and Feodor Sologub:
Toward the history of their relationship

Alla Gracheva

Alla Gracheva's article, "Aleksei Remizov and Feodor Sologub: Toward the history of their relationship", studies the personal and literary connections between the two modernist writers during the years 1905-1921. The article is based on the correspondence between Remizov and Sologub which is being prepared for publication.

Briusov as a Roman in "Герой труда" by Marina Tsvetaeva

Roman Voitekhovich

The paper focuses on an aspect of the poetics of "Герой труда" by Marina Tsvetaeva which is not yet investigated. It deals with the reception of the works by Sophia Parnok and Maximilian Voloshin in the essay. Inspite of the fact that "Roman myth" about Briusov had already been thoroughly worked out, Tsvetaeva made her own version of it. As the analysis shows, "Roman myth" is not only a theoretical motif. It also plays a narrative role in the essay.

Selected Notes on the margins of the new critical Edition
of Alexander Blok's Complete Collected Works

Omry Ronen

The paper contains additional commentaries to the following poems: 1) Ia - mech, zaostrennyj s obeikh storon [I am a sharp sword with two edges]; 2) Vkhozhu ia v temnye khramy [I enter dark temples]; 3) Tsaritsa smotrela zastavki [The queen was looking at book illuminations]; 4) Utikhaet svetlyj veter [The luminous wind is calming down]; 5) Kholodnyj veter ot laguny [A cold wind from the lagoon]; 6) "Khudozhnik" ["The Artist"]; 7) Vse na zemle umret - i mat', i mladost' [All things on earth will die: mother and youth].

On the Reception of Zinaida Gippius in Estonia (1920s-1930s)

Galina Ponomareva

The aim of this paper is to interpret the reception of Zinaida Gippius in Estonia in 1920s-1930s. The article focuses on the memoirs of Y. Ivask, A. Kondratyev and the young poet A. Dolgoshev who was a plagiarist of the Gippius' poem.

Early poems by Sergei Solov'ev from the manuscript
note-books of Alexander Blok

Aleksandr Lavrov

This publication introduces a collection of early poems by Sergei Solov'ev, a young symbolist writer and the second cousin of A. Blok, to the reader. The texts are of special interest because they represent the first literary steps of the poet who was to become a well-known master later. His poems belong to the sphere of the mystical perception of the world and of lyrical experiences which are most strikingly reflected in A. Blok's early creative works.