In the epilogue of a cleansing
storm,
a current of fresh air,
a spirit
of deliverance
for Russian people. This seemingly paradoxical
statement indeed reveals important issues in Russian history, such as
freedom, unity and the resurrection of the people's true spirit.
Along with all the trouble and suffering The Great Patriotic War
brought a dramatic change in literary works, both in the themes,
choice of heroes, and subject matter. The war theme itself became an
indulgence for all kinds of socialist heresies.
Socialist realism as the only acceptable method could be ignored, new
critical views expressed, traditional canonic soviet myths destroyed,
required stereotyped characters and situations replaced by previously
unacceptable ones.
In my paper I will analyze three of the most important consequences
of the war experience in literary works: the introduction of the
trench fraternity
as an ideal community of people free
of political and ideological agenda (Nekrasov, Grossman), the
restoration of the village
Russia, its national peasant
values and national character (Tvardovskij, Nosov), and the
resurrection of humanistic ideals (Platonov, Vasil&soft;ev,
Astaf&soft;ev). The war poetry and prose finally established the
direct succession with pre-Revolutionary classical Russian literature.
I included in my research two generations of writers: the ones who
witnessed or personally participated in the war, and those who were
children at that time, but the war became the key event and the main
reference point in their lives and works. I am planning to answer the
following questions in my paper: how the war theme trigged the
renaissance of Russian literature, what connected it with the past,
what tendencies it helped to develop in the future, why the
significance of the war literature can't be underestimated, and how in
spite of the strong censorship was it possible to make a break through
rigid canons of Stalinist totalitarian literature.