The poem “Memory”, according to the author’s intention, opens the last lifetime collection of Gumilyov’s “Pillar of Fire”. Firstly, compressed in form, but extensive in volume, it reveals the poet’s autobiography. Secondly, this work has a deep philosophical meaning of earthly existence of human memory, wonderfully conjugated with premonitions of the future. The poem sets the tone for the whole book of poetry, adjusts to the subsequent perception of poetic texts.

The article is dedicated to interpret Nina Sadur’s story “Permafrost” (2001). Real events in the story are intertwined with fictional episodes, which make the process of understanding more challenging. The article views the untruthful elements as the images which reflect the true reality hidden behind the visible and obvious. The plot is based on drama principle and unravels the person’s inner division and duality. The article also examines the plot’s dynamics and interprets anti-realistic episodes. The story’s main theme brings out the singularity of the author’s approach to the real.

The mythological motive of the spring that gives inspiration was actively developed in the Russian poetry of the 18th-19th centuries. By means of this motive Derzhavin affirms the succession of the Russian literature to the classical literature and at the same time establishes the beginning of the native poetical tradition. Pushkin uses the conventional language of the classical mythology to define the sources and the themes of his poems and he considers the Russian literature to be the part of the world literature. Yazykov uses the system of images formed in the works of the predecessors and at the same time he carries on polemics with them rejecting the European culture as the source of creative inspiration.

The article analyzes the works of the German literary critic and cultural theorist W. Benjamin about the literary situation in Germany in the 1920s. In response to new conflicting trends in German literature of his time, the critic refers to the “epic theatre” of B. Brecht, novels by F. Kafka, the New Objectivity literature, the poetry of cabaret. Exploring concepts and works of various authors in connection with the artistic, philosophical, social and political context of the 1920s, Benjamin tries to identify truly innovative phenomenon of modernity. The subjective nature of some of the observations makes him not only a critic, but also a direct participant in the literary process of his epoch.

The article contains analysis of some poetical publications of Teplov sisters on the pages of the Russian almanacs of 1830s. The mutual themes are determined as well as the poem’s motives, similarities of creative settings, correlation of sisters’ creativity and poetical traditions of V. Zhukovskiy. The article also provides biographical evidence of the friendship among the sisters. A hypothesis is suggested that the poems by Nadezhda and Seraphima Teplova published in the “Northern Flowers” (1832) and “Dennitza” (1834) form a poetic dialog. The dialogue takes you to special reality of close relationship of the sisters that is separated from the rest of the world and the description of which is only possible within women’s poetry.

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the lexical representation of the «sharashka» concept in Solzhenitsin’s novel «The First Circle». It determines the concept’s value, place in the language picture of the world of the writer, and considers the possibilities of the compatibility. The point of correlation between the concept’s semantic components and sense fragments of Solzhenitsin’s «freedom» and «volya» key concepts is analyzed. The conclusion about broadening of the concept «sharashka» semantic area has been drawn.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the expressive function of negation in plays by Alexander Ostrovsky. It considered expressivity as appearance and constituents of expressivity: intensity, emotionality, evaluation, figurativeness. Each of these components is characterized, and shades of meaning, which are expressed in forms of negation in plays by Alexander Ostrovsky, are analyzed: intensified negation, emotions (irritation, resentment, anger, disdain, condemnation, regret), negative evaluation, trope as means of expression.

The article describes the features of the use of descriptive verbal-nominal phrases that characterize the epistolary texts of the end of 18th century. It considers descriptive phrases, the formula of speech etiquette that express gratitude, request, politeness. Semantics of descriptive phrases in moralizing letters is analyzed. Similarity of these constructions in the different types of letters is revealed. It is proved that the use of descriptive verbal-nominal phrases in “Pismovnik” reflects the general trends in the development of analytical constructions during the formation of the Russian literary language.

The article determines the value and functions of foreign abbreviations functioning in the texts of modern newspapers “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”; analyzes their derivational productivity in the Russian language. We consider several structural types of abbreviations (letter, sound, letter-sound, letter-numeric, recursive). The author in accordance with the laws of pronunciation and features of syllabic structure allocates consonant and consonant-vocal abbreviations.

The article is devoted to the analysis of individual author’s word-formation innovations and their functions, which include the explication of emotional and rational assessment, increase of expressiveness and extent of impact on a reader. Nonce-words are systematized on the basis of an community of their derivational meaning, in connection with this considered are concepts of word-formation category, a syntactic derivation, affixal polysemy and a homonymy. The most popular word-formation meanings that testify to relevance of expression of an assessment, names of persons and abstract concepts come to light.