TWO STENKA RAZINS (AN IMAGE OF A HISTORICAL FIGURE IN NOVELS “RAZIN STEPAN” BY ALEKSEY CHAPYGIN AND “I CAME TO SET YOU FREE” BY VASILY SHUKSHIN)

Abstract

The paper puts in comparison literary images of Stepan Razin, leader of Cossack major uprising in southern pre-Peter Russia in 1670–1671, as an embodiment of an archetype of the people’s hero in significant writings by two authors of various periods of Soviet era. In the context of genre becoming of a historical novel, literary text, from the one hand, it is a mean for preservation of historical memory; on the other hand, it is a source for shaping mythological image of a historical figure. Russian writer Aleksey Chapygin (1870–1937) continued folklore tradition with taking into account ideological constants of his time, created a romanticized image of people’s leader that makes history. Another Soviet author, Vasily Shukshin, stresses out complicatedness of Stepan’s personality, enriches his literary image with spiritual seek. Comprehension of complexity of mythologized image of a historical figure, mechanisms of its forming and keeping in the nation’s historical memory have not only theoretical value but also practical importance and can be used in further philological, historical, cultural, sociological, and politological studies.