Журнал «История: факты и символы»

THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION IN THE WORKS OF MIKHAIL PRISHVIN

Author: Podoksenov A.M.

Actuality of studying M.M. Prishvin's (1873-1954) works is explained not only by the fact that special conditions and atmosphere of important breakings in Russian history are reconstructed in his works, and he himself was a witness and a participator of them, but also by the fact that it is difficult to find another figure in Russian literature whose literary art was in the same way conditioned by the impact of sociocultural context. The aim of the paper is to analyze Prishvin’s view of political, economic and social causes of the October Revolution, based on the material of the «The Worldly Cup» story, the writer’s publicistic writing and diaries, prevusly unpublished due to the censure. Prishvin sharply criticizes the course of the Bolshevik Party for the destruction of all previous culture of the Russian people, being against of the Marxist ideology of class antagonism and primitive equality which established by violence. It is shown in the paper that the class struggle implemented by the Bolsheviks in the village is destroying traditional morality and family ties upon which the peasant life is based. But although Prishvin considerthe new government as a way of life of robbers and thieves, he is against the unilateralism in the assessments of events happening in the country. In contrast to the Whites and emigrants, the writer does not consider the failure of the Soviet idea as the failure of socialism in general. Prishvin has a keen sense of personal responsibility for the fate of the Russian people and state. Historical and philosophical analysis of Prishvin’s creative heritage leads to the conclusion that the dialectical thinking of the writer allows him seeing not only the dark, but the bright side of life. Prishvin believes that there is a way out from the abyss of general enmity, where Russia fell after the revolutionary catastrophe, that the primitive psychology of hostility can be overcome only by means of Christian forgiveness and love. So Prishvin sees his self-affirmation and salvation himself as a writer in his devotion to good, not to evil of the class hatred.