Aim. To draw attention to the intersection of the destinies of two classics of Russian literature – A. S. Griboyedov and A. S. Pushkin, to identify their human and literary contacts.
Methodology. The article uses modern principles and methods of studying the life and work of Griboyedov and Pushkin, including the biographical method, since, as is known, the biography of a particular writer often explains much in his works.
Results. The problem of the relationship between Griboyedov and Pushkin, the study of various aspects of their creative biography, their close interest in each other’s works is of great importance, because it allows us to draw a conclusion about the multiplicity of phenomena and factors of their writing activity, about the context of their artistic creativity. This is all the more necessary, because the biography and personality of the author of “Woe from Wit” still conceals many mysteries and unresolved issues. This lack of information about certain episodes of Griboyedov’s life was already recognized by A. S. Pushkin, who in his “Journey to Arzrum during the campaign of 1829” on several pages managed not only to give an accurate psychological portrait of the writer-diplomat, but also to hint at some circumstances of his fate that were not fully clarified.
Research implications. The study allows us to reconsider some moments of A. S. Griboyedov’s and A. S. Pushkin’s creative biography, their relationships.

Aim. To identify and describe the features of the syntactic form of author’s remarks in A. S. Griboedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit.”
Methodology. Structural and semantic analysis of syntactic constructions made it possible to determine the features of their grammatical form and syntax semantics of time presented in author’s remarks.
Results. It is established that in A. S. Griboedov’s remarks complete and incomplete varieties of two-part simple sentences, nominative single-part sentences and elliptical constructions use which are significant in the comedy. It is proved that for a dramatic text the grammatical meaning of temporal certainty is typical, namely, the present tense of the imperfective and aoristic aspect.
Research implications. The analysis algorithm presented in the research may be in demand for a linguistic description of dramatic texts.

Aim. To substantiate the Difficulty – Lightness of existence opposition in the Russian World Picture, to detect and enumerate the language means for its indication.

Methodology. When analyzing the Semantic Types of Verbal Pairs and modes of action of the Verb, the units expressing the existence difficulty were being were identified. When analyzing he Simple Sentence types, structures with the existence lightness meaning were being discovered. The two meanings were projected onto the Russian World Picture. Methods of observation and lexical-syntactic analysis are used.

Results. The article has detected: a) 3 semantic types of Verbal Pairs and 2 modes of Action expressing the existence difficulty meanings; b) 4 Simple Sentence structures and their lexical realization (where the Perfective Verbal Aspect in its Pragmatics is the central language means) expressing the existence lightness; c) the correlation of lightness of existence with the concept “daring” in the Russian World Picture.

Research implications. Gained research results widen the picture of Perfective Aspect Pragmatic potential. Gained language and speech facts can be inserted into Russian as a Foreign Language practical courses (Syntax, Lexicology, Culturology).

Aim. To investigate functional and semantic aspects of the hierarchy of titles in the story of the Volgograd fiction writer E. Yu. Lukin “We will be cured” (2008).
Methodology. The question is raised about the need to study the hierarchy of titles in a literary text. Based on the material of E. Y. Lukin’s text, the hierarchy of titles is analyzed, in particular, the functions of internal headings and intra-textual biblionyms, their connections with the key anthroponym Artem. The main research methods are: 1) descriptive and analytical, represented by a set of the following techniques: observation, comparison, generalization; commenting and interpretation of the analyzed material; 2) aspectual, represented by functional, contextual and intertextual analysis.
Results. The author proposes a formal scheme of the hierarchy of title elements in a literary text. According to the author, the hierarchy is formed by the pre-text biblionym, intratext biblionym, and internal title (the name of the structural part of the work: volume, part, chapter, act). The functions of intratext biblionyms and internal titles in the story are revealed: comic, plot-forming, characterological, allusive, text-forming, manipulative.
Research implications. The study clarifies the idea of the functioning of biblionyms in the literary text, develops the theory of the title.

Aim. With consider the correlation between the title and the text of a poetic work based on the material of the work of the poetess from the Arkhangelsk region Irina Kemakova.
Methodology. By the method of continuous sampling from three poetry collections, one-word titles of poems were identified and distributed according to the frequency of use of the title word or its derivatives in the text. The “external” titles of poems in the text of which the title word is not used are particularly noted. The semantic connections of titles and texts of poetic works are consistently considered.
Results. The analysis showed that the title and the text of a lyrical poem enter into certain relationships with each other, revealing a special meaning of the poetic work, while the integrity of the text is constituted, and the meaning of the title itself is enriched. The title performs not only nominative, but also predictive and structuring functions.
Research implications. The theoretical significance lies in determining the semantic links between the title and the text of a poetic work. The practical significance of the materials of the article is due to the possibility of their use in the practice of teaching philological disciplines.

Aim. To consider the word building of possessive adjectives in the Russian language of the 12–15th centuries both in everyday writing and in chronicles; put forward the formation of possessive adjectives as a system; conduct a comparative analysis of the possessive adjectives use in written monuments of various genres.
Methodology. Using analytical and synthetic methods, we classify and process the examples found in birch bark documents of the 12th–15th centuries and in the Synodal List of the Novgorod First Chronicle of the 13th–14th centuries. When comparing the results of the analysis of writings presented in these monuments, the comparative method is used. By applying the descriptive method, a commentary is given on the usage of possessive adjectives in the texts of birch bark letters and the Novgorod First Chronicle.
Results. The data of birch bark letters and the Novgorod First Chronicle show that in the Old Russian language of the 12th–15th centuries possessive adjectives also acted as the main means of expressing belonging.
Research implications. The present data can be used to elucidate the patterns and principles of possessive adjectives word-building in in the Russian language of the 12th–15th centuries.

Aim. To identify and describe the main features of the organization of the subject structure of A. A. Galich’s songs, paying the greatest attention to those song texts in which the lyrical subject is realized through personal pronouns (the most common way of representing the lyrical subject in the Russian language paradigm).
Methodology. The research uses an immanent and comparative analysis of poetic texts. The main subject of the analysis is the subjective structure of Galich’s songs, since this element of the artistic system was especially carefully developed by the author himself throughout his creative career: from his earliest to the latest songs.
Results. The article describes the most frequently used by A. Galich methods of forming the subject structure of a poetic text: combining within one poem different pronouns marking the appearance of different points of view, introducing literary quotations into the lyrics and actively challenging the statements contained in them, which indicates the emergence of a kind of dialogue between the lyrical characters of Galich and the ones of other poets (Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Mandelstam). In addition, because of the analysis, a number of themes and motives are revealed, the appeal to which by Galich is necessarily accompanied by a complication of the subject structure of the text.
Research implications. The analysis of the subjective structure of A. A. Galich’s songs clearly demonstrates the importance of the categories “lyrical subject” and “point of view” for a specific poetic text and for poetry as a kind of literature. The results of the study can be used in the following courses: “Theory of literature”, “Analysis of literary text”, “History of Russian literature of the twentieth century”.

Aim. To prove the participation of literary and theatrical parodies of the “Crooked Mirror” cabaret theater in the controversy about the development of Russian drama and theater at the beginning of the 20th century through opposition to the collection of articles “Theater. The book about the new theater”.
Methodology. The article analyzes the socio-cultural context of the discussion on the problems of Russian theatrical art and the participation in it of the resonant collection-manifesto “Theater. The book about the new theater”, as well as literary and theatrical parodies staged by the “Crooked Mirror” cabaret theater. Using the method of comparative analysis, the author was able to identify intertextual links between the parodies of B. F. Geyer, L. N. Urvantsov and N. N. Ventzel and the articles of S. F. Rafalovich, Vs. E. Meyerhold and F. Sologub, respectively.
Results. During the study, the author concludes that the literary and theatrical parodies by B. F. Geyer “The Evolution of the Theater”, L. N. Urvantsov “Evening Bell”, N. N. Ventzel “The Comedy about Mr. Ivanov” represent a special form of criticism directed against modernist concepts of modern theater and opportunistic phenomena of the Russian theatrical environment.
Research implications. The study draws attention to the currently forgotten names of playwrights and their original and popular works at the beginning of the last century and includes them in the general polemical picture of literary and theatrical polemics about the prospects for the development of Russian drama and theater.

Aim. To reveal the typology of the poetic reception of the Parable of the Sower in Russian poetry of the XIX century. This goal determined the following tasks: to identify the paradigmatic religious code of the Parable of the Sower, to analyze the artistic forms of its reception, to clarify the individual genre and stylistic solutions of Russian poets in the development of motives and images of the gospel parable.
Methodology. An analysis of lyrical corpus of A. S. Pushkin, E. A. Borotynsky, A. S. Khomyakov, N. G. Ogarev, N. A. Nekrasov is presented. The choice of these diverse poets helps to reveal the conceptual nature of the cultural code of the Parable of the Sower for the Russian artistic consciousness, the versatility of the artistic reception of the gospel source. The cultural-historical method, the method of comparative analysis, as well as methods of holistic and intertextual analysis are used. The main content of the study is the analysis of the development of prophetic ministry motifs, summing up life results, spiritual peace and freedom.
Results. The analysis showed the significance of the Parable of the Sower for the Russian artistic consciousness and its inextricable connection with the national concepts of spiritual freedom and peace. According to the results of the study, a conclusion was made about the commonality, continuity and individual differences of Russian poets in the reception of the Parable of the Sower. Evangelical allusions and reminiscences in the works of Russian poets reveal the Christian metaphysics of immortality, acquire an eschatological orientation.
Research implications. The work makes a definite contribution to the study of the genre of the parable in the history of Russian literature, to the understanding of artistic religiosity and philosophical character of Russian classical literature. The materials of the publication can be used in university teaching of the history of Russian literature and preparing notes to lyrical texts.

Aim. Through the analysis of the acute plot twists from the novel about the life of youth in the 1980s, to identify the features of the psychological portrait of the late Soviet generation, in which, within the framework of this work, qualities of spiritual and value instability were manifested.
Methodology. The basis is a structural and semantic analysis of the work with an emphasis on the plot links reflecting the psychology and value orientations of the characters. The plot logic determines the originality of the author’s position, 1980s generation
Results. Using the example of the life of a young provincial girl in Leningrad during the pre-perestroika era, Elena Posvyatovskaya revealed the total rootlessness and instability of the ethical and spiritual values of the generation of the 1980s. Before our eyes, the smart and outstanding heroine Ira Vazhina turns into a moral monster, the existence of which she did not even suspect in herself. However, her environment (primitive and carnal at the beginning and intelligent at the end of the work) cannot fundamentally oppose anything to Irina’s survival strategy. It itself is spiritually unprotected, does not know the truth and therefore acts as a victim next to the energetic Vazhenka. Comparing the research of scientists about people of the era of stagnation and the text of the novel, the author of the article concludes that E. Posvyatovskaya painted a portrait of a wandering generation in it. Nevertheless, the self-reflection of the Brezhnev-era generation that took place in the first quarter of the 21st century suggests that healthy principles of the national spiritual code appeared in it, albeit not immediately.
Research implications. Practical significance is associated with interest in the work of a little-studied author who, with the help of plot logic, seeks to direct the reader towards the search for genuine meanings and unshakable Christian values.

Aim. To assess the terminological status of compositional techniques of retardation in relation to drama considering the ways of introducing artistic techniques into plays; to attempt to give this technique the status of a working concept through offering its own definition which can serve as a reliable tool for analysing dramatic works.
Methodology. The key research method was a comparative analysis of interpretations of retardation in linguistic, literary, and theatrical dictionary-encyclopedic publications, in their connection with epic drama of A. Ostrovsky. Taking into account these interpretations, and relying on the works of theorists (A. Veselovsky, V. Shklovsky, L. Chernets, L. Tyutelova), our definition of retardation was proposed.
Results. The article proves the indefinite status of the concept of “retardation” in the theory of drama, owing also to the synonymous polyphony in the use of the term. It substantiates both plot and off-plot methods of introducing retardation into a play, in close connection with the technique of exclusion. It also defines the terminological framework of this concept in a narrow sense.
Research implications. The significance lies in the possible application of the results to the analysis of dramatic works, including the modern ones, due to the increasing emphasis on their narrative elements.

Aim. To analyze the architectonics of the novel by the contemporary Russian writer Evgeny Vodolazkin “Chagin” (2022): to explore the artistic space of the work revealing the theme of memory and betrayal, the ratio of the four parts of the novel, the location and interrelation of its components – images, motifs, themes, associations that make up a special artistic unity.
Methodology. The article consistently examines the artistic structure of all parts of the work, analyzes the system of images and the place of the main character in it, and tracks the most significant elements of the plot. In the process of studying the architectonics of the novel, structural, comparative and chronological methods are used. The identification of the author’s position and its assessment is based on the axiological method.
Results. The analysis of the literary text showed that the architectonics of the novel “Chagin” is a reflection of the author’s concept of time, which is transformed not only in the memory and fate of the title character – archivist Isidor Chagin, but also in the system of interaction of secondary characters-doubles, which are peculiar mirrors reflecting and recreating the image of the main character. In four parts of the novel, contrasting in the way of narration and internal dynamics, the author’s mechanism of the myth’s appearance in the fate of the protagonist is realized. The intertwining of historical epochs, parallels in solving the characters and actions of the characters reflect the author’s conviction that there is no time, there is eternity.
Research implications. The study reveals the uniqueness of the architectonics of the novel “Chagin”, which allows us to make a conclusion about the integrity of the artistic world of Evgeny Vodolazkin, the unity of aesthetic and axiological components in the author’s concept of time, where eternal, irrevocable spiritual laws of existence operate.

Aim. To analyze the various incarnations of the image of the forest with its folklore and mythological origins, which runs through the entire work of L. N. Tolstoy, reflects the originality of the author’s thinking, his philosophy of nature, ethics, social and practical experience, and is an important component of the national picture of the world created by the writer.
Methodology. The methodological basis of the article was literary, cultural works, and documentary sources. The decisive ones are cultural-historical, descriptive-functional, biographical methods of interpreting the writer’s work.
Results. Using the example of the stories “Cutting Wood”, “Three Deaths”, the story “Cossacks”, the epic “War and Peace”, the novel “Anna Karenina”, the story “Hadji Murat”, the story “Berry”, with the involvement of the Forestry Project, memoirs, diary entries, notebooks, business papers, epistolary, the semantic richness of the image of the forest as a natural element is demonstrated. Attention is focused on the high degree of generalization of the artistic image. The forest appears self-sufficient, multifaceted, ambiguous: it is an environment that conceals powerful energy, inaccessible to people, removed from them – and has a reviving influence on the human soul, introducing it to eternal beauty; a haven for the bearers of evil – and a victim; mysterious, sacred place; combination of dangerous and beneficial principles. Such diversity reflects the greatness of nature, the inexhaustibility of its manifestations, the ability to exert a spiritual influence on the human personality, to introduce it to eternity. The point of view is expressed that L. N. Tolstoy’s ideas about the role of the natural element of the forest in earthly existence, in the life of people, were close to his contemporaries Ostrovsky, Chekhov, and writers of the 20th century. Prishvin, Paustovsky, Leonov and several others. However, the artist remained open to the question of harmonizing the relationship between nature and culture, progress.
Research implications. The results of the study can be used in studying issues related to the philosophy of nature and ethical views of L. N. Tolstoy, how the facts of the writer’s biography determine various moments of his work (afforestation activities and the image of the forest found in works of different years, letters), and also when considering ideological and aesthetic convergences in the development of the image of nature and the elements of the forest by L. N. Tolstoy and his contemporaries (Ostrovsky, Chekhov), prominent representatives of Russian literature of the 20th century (Prishvin, Paustovsky, Leonov, etc.).

Aim. To characterize the strategies and main forms of mythopoetic understanding of history in the novels “The Abode” by Z. Prilepin and “My Children” by G. Yakhina.
Methodology. Based on the established scientific principles of comparative, mythopoetic and hermeneutic approaches to the study of fiction, research attention in the article is drawn primarily to the character level of the text as the most representative one for achieving the goal: mythologemes are associated with the images of heroes, which set the basis for the construction of the author's own neomyth.
Results. The analysis established that the authors of both works strive to comprehend not only private and national history, but also universal history, and myth, being a symbolic form of universalization, helps to realize this intention with the help of different models. Based on specific material, the following neo-mythological strategies have been identified: the creation of an eschatological myth about Solovki in one case, and a mythological chronotope of the Volga Gnadenthal in another. At the same time, Prilepin noticeably strengthens the historiosophical component of the novel, while in Yakhina, the mythopoeticization of history serves rather as an ornamental frame, metaphorically embodied in the plot.
Research implications. The results obtained expand the theoretical understanding of the ways in which myth functions in the Russian novel of the 21st century, where the authors’ attention is drawn to the beginning of the Soviet era – a time of independent scientific interest from the point of view of the mythologization of history, and also outline prospects in the study of the author’s neo-myths of modern literature.

Aim. To describe the rise in popularity and the forms of reception of the concept of “Russian soul” in English-speaking criticism of the early 20th century and the end of the 20th to beginning of the 21st century.
Methodology. An analysis of scholarly works dedicated to the concept of “Russian soul” in the 20th century England and in English-speaking countries at the end of 20th – beginning of the 21st century was conducted. Major tendencies in the attribution of origins, interpretation, and usage of the term were identified. The cultural-historical and comparative-descriptive methods were employed in the analysis.
Results. The stages of development of the “cult of the Russian soul” in the early 20th century England and its forms of influence on contemporary writers were analysed. An overview of translation issues that may have influenced the reception of the term was conducted. A range of key research directions linked to the term’s usage during the later period of reception was identified and analysed.
Research implications. The article constructs the “big picture” describing the origins and the modes of influence of the term “Russian soul” on the culture and literature of the early 20th century England and on English-language literary scholarship of the more contemporary period.