Two Approaches to Tolstoyism in the Works of I.A. Bunin and S. Karonin (N.E. Petropavlovsky)

Abstract

The article raises the question of the artistic representation of Tolstoyism by analyzing the works of two authors, I.A. Bunin and S. Karonin (N.E. Petropavlovsky). The researcher aims to show the difference in writers’ approaches, justifying them not only by the peculiarities of individual authors’ perceptions but also by objective cultural and historical processes. Based on the thesis of E.V. Agarin about the division of Tolstoyism into two groups, communitarian and individualistic, which also have internal differentiation (the communitarian group is represented in the form of communities and artels; individualistic — in the form of neighboring settlements, in closed farm life, in the phenomenon of vagrancy), the author hypothesizes that Bunin and Karonin in their works gave not only a different image of Tolstoyism but also an image of fundamentally different Tolstoyism. Bunin’s approach emphasized the individual embodiments of Tolstoy’s ideals, Karonin — in the representation of their social forms, which is directly related to the discussions about Tolstoyism in the populist environment. The portrait characteristics of the Tolstoy characters help clarify this duality of Tolstoy’s teaching. The article concludes that the difference in approaches to Tolstoyism in Bunin and Karonin’s prose is connected with the internal contradiction of Tolstoy’s teaching, on the one hand, fundamentally denying any dogmatism from the standpoint of counterculture, antistatism, and criticism of the institution of the church, on the other — dogmatizing its moral foundations and their public presentation.

Keywords

• i.a. bunin
• s. karonin (n.e. petropavlovsky)
• l.n. tolstoy
• tolstoyism
• populism