Prishvin and Trotsky: a Man “like a pharmacist” in the novel “The World Cup”, journalism and the Writer’s Diary

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the subject of the article is the question of the influence of L. D. Trotsky [Bronstein], who was one of the key leaders of Bolshevism, who headed the October Revolution, on the worldview and creativity of M. M. Prishvin, which has not yet been considered in the European studies. It is shown that in Russian art it is difficult to find an artist of the word, whose work would be to the same extent conditioned by the influence of the ideological and political context. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time an attempt was made to show how, through individual characters in his works, Prishvin in an artistic and figurative form reflected the characteristic features of behavior, everyday habits, the style of thinking and speech of Trotsky. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of previously unpublished due to censorship restrictions of the writer’s works: the story “The World Cup”, journalism of the revolutionary years and the 18-volume Diary, which became available to the reader only in the post-Soviet period. It is shown that, depicting Trotsky as a “pharmacist” who, according to his recipes, is trying to create the future of a huge country, Prishvin seeks not only to artistically reflect his moral appearance and personality traits, but also to convey the features of the ideological and political struggle in Soviet society.

1. Blok, A. A. (1962). Sobraniye sochineniy [Collected works], 8 (5). Moskva, Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoye izdatelstvo khudozhestvennoy literatury. 329—361. (In Russ.).

2. Borev, Yu. (1991). Estetika Trotskogo [Aesthetics of Trotsky]. In: Trotskiy L. D. Literatura i revolyutsiya. Pechatayetsya po izd. 1923 g [Trotsky L. D. Literature and Revolution. Published in 1923]. Moskva: Politizdat. 3—20. ISBN 5-250-01431-3. (In Russ.).

3. Chernyavskiy, G. I. (2012). Lev Trotskiy [Lev Trotsky]. Moskva: Molodaya gvardiya. 665 p. ISBN 978-5-235-03510-2. (In Russ.).

4. Gorkiy, M. (1990). Nesvoyevremennyye mysli [Untimely thoughts]. Moskva: Sovetskiy pisatel’. 400 p. ISBN 5-263-02154-X. (In Russ.).

5. Grigoryev, M. (1930). Begstvo v Berendeyevo tsarstvo: O tvorchestve Prishvina [Flight to the Berendeyev Kingdom: about Prishvin’s creativity]. Na literaturnom postu [On a literary post], 8: 48—61. (In Russ.).

6. Lenin, V. I. (1963). Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy [Complete works], 41. Moskva: Politizdat. 336—337. (In Russ.).

7. Omelchenko, N. A. (2016). Vlast’ i tvorchestvo: o knige Lva Trotskogo «Literatura i revolyutsiya», klassovom podkhode, «Voronshchine» i sovetskikh vozhdyakh-metsenatakh [Power and creativity: about Lev Trotsky’s book “Literature and revolution”, class approach, “Voronshchina” and Soviet leaders-patrons]. PolitBook [PolitBook], 3: 114—133. (In Russ.).

8. Podoksenov, A. M. (2007). Mirovozzrencheskiy kontekst povesti M. M. Prishvina «Mirskaya chasha» (Opyt germenevticheskogo issledovaniya): monografiya [Worldview context of the story of M. M. Prishvin “Mir Cup” (Experience of hermeneutical research). Monograph]. Yelets: Yeletskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet im. I. A. Bunina. 326 p. ISBN 978-5-94809-273-7. (In Russ.).

9. Yurganov, A. L. (2018). Kontroliruyemyy literaturno-khudozhestvennyy protsess: publitsisticheskaya programma Lva Trotskogo [Controlled literary and artistic process: publicistic program of Lev Trotsky]. Vestnik RGGU. Seriya: Literaturovedeniye. Yazykoznaniye. Kulturologiya [Vestnik RSUH. Series: Literary Studies. Linguistics. Culturology], 1 (34): 91—100. (In Russ.).