reminiscences

The article regards how significant elements of the main character image in N. M. Karamzin’s novel and «Liza’s complex» described by V. N. Toporov are transformed in the plot lines of B. Sh. Okudzhava’s novel A Date with Bonaparte related to Liza Svechina. The motives of the incongruity of reality and the ideas from books and the topic of suicide set in Poor Liza, associated with the Decembrist theme, accentuate the problems of forced reorganization of society and personal responsibility.

In two articles we propose to consider Karamzin’s reminiscences (predominantly from the novel Poor Liza) in the novel by B. Sh. Okudzhava A Date with Bonaparte. The first article is dedicated to the plot lines of the novel related to the image of the serf Arina. One of the most important historic problems of the novel is actualized in them (serfdom); they also contain links to the up-to-date issues of the relationships between the intelligentsia and the people, inner and outer freedom.

Published memoirs of A. A. Shakhmatov are an important source of study of the life and work of A. N. Pypin. On the basis of the living testimony, the main directions of scientific and organizational activities of Pypin during his tenure in the Academy of Sciences are considered, certain aspects of his personality are revealed.

The article deals with the image of G.R. Derzhavin and the reminiscences from his works being researched in the songs, poems and books of recollections by the singer poet of the second half of the XXth century A. Gorodnitsky: the means and functions of their application, their relation to the pressing issues of today and to the images of the contemporary authors.