В. Катаев

The article researches the problems and the poetics of the play by V. Katayev «A Million Pangs»: devices of creating satirical images are regarded; the problem of a literary dialogue of the author with his contemporaries (M. Bulgakov, N. Erdman, I. Ilf and E. Petrov) is revealed; the peculiarity of Katayev’s satire on pre-revolutionary intelligentsia is identified.

The article studies the play poetics in I. Ilf, E. Petrov, V. Kataev’s play The Rich Bride. The role of the play is singled out on the level of character and action development, and the language strategies of the co-authors. The satirical (social and political) underlying message of the new time vaudeville is revealed, as well as the ambiguity in portraying the kolkhoz life of the 1930s in the play.