Самойлов

The poem by Okudzhava is comprehended against the background of a number of texts published during the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Patriotic War. Okudzhava’s unique stand in the situation of the historic celebration is determined, the controversy with Levitansky’s poem The Little Man is traced. It is shown how Andersen’s formula of the ‘persistent tin soldier’ is transformed in Okudzhava’s point of view. The views of Okudzhava and Samoilov on literature about the war are compared.

The relevance of the topic is determined by the interest of modern humanities to the myth-making aspects of the Soviet culture, including the interpretation of Decembrism. The purpose of the article is to review the main stages and patterns of the literary realization of Decembrism from the beginning of the Soviet era to the moment of the final separation of the two versions of the Decembrism myth (official and oppositional).