Much research has been devoted to the influence of
nineteenth-century Russian writers, especially Nikolaj Gogol&soft; and
Fedor Dostoevskij, on the works of Fedor Sologub. Lev Tolstoj is
rarely mentioned in such discussions, despite the fact that in 1910
Sologub published a relatively lengthy article on Tolstoj,
In his article, Sologub presents Tolstoj as his version of the
ideal Symbolist poet in terms that are familiar from Sologub's
theoretical articles. Tolstoj, according to him, is daring
(derzaju&shachek;&chachek;ij) enough to tear down the veils (pokrovy)
that obscure the illusion (obman) that is this world. He does not
despair in the face of this illusion, but responds by creating his own
poetic universe whose charms (o&chachek;arovanie) lull readers into
thinking it is an imitation of this world. But Tolstoj's created
universe differs in one important way: it is a world of harmony
brought about by his realization that humans do not possess individual
wills and that a much larger force orders our lives, the same
worldview that underlies Sologub's
In the summer of 1912, while working on his stage adaptation of
takie velikie proizvedenija, kak
This quote leaves the
impression that Sologub intended his play to be a Symbolist version of
v dannom slu&chachek;ae ja pokorno sledoval za avtorom, ne
derzaja priso&chachek;injat&soft; svoe.
My paper will examine Sologub's