Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
LITERATUROVEDCHESKII
ZHURNAL
The Journal of Literary History and Theory
Peer-reviewed Academic Journal

“AND THE WOLVES OF MARXISM ARE FED, AND THE SHEEP OF IDEALISM ARE SAFE…”. THE FIRST RECEPTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF DOSTOEVSKY’S CRETIVE ART IN RUSSIA

OSOVSKII O.E.

Oleg E. Osovskii, DSc in Philology, Professor, Pricipal Researcher, M.E. Evsevyev Mordovia State Pedagogical University, Studencheskaya Street, 11 a, 430007, Saransk, Russia.

Abstract

The research was carried out at M. Evseviev Mordovia State Pedagogical University at the expense of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 23-28-00175). The article deals with the peculiarities of the domestic reception of M.M. Bakhtin’s “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Creative Art” in the late 1920 s – early 1930 s Soviet Russias. Using the material of reviews by N.Y. Berkovsky, A. Glagolev, articles by I.S. Grossman-Roshchin, A.S. Lunacharsky, M.P. Starenkov, and V.L. Komarovich, the author analyzes the specifics of the perception of M.M. Bakhtin’s innovative ideas by his contemporaries. Despite the ideological differences between Bakhtin and the overwhelming majority of reviewers, the scale of the new book on Dostoevsky and the significance of the idea of the polyphonic novel formulated in it were obvious to the latter. The appearance of responses to Bakhtin’s book in leading Soviet periodicals suggests that the book was perceived as a serious event in the literary studies of Moscow and Leningrad.

Keywords

M.M. Bakhtin; reception; “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Creative Art”; RAPP; Soviet literary studies; Soviet literary criticism of the late 1920 s and early 1930 s.

Recieved

05.10.2024

Accepted

15.11.2024

For citation

Osovskii, O.E. “‘And the wolves of marxism are fed, and the sheep of idealism are safe…’. The First Reception of The Problems of Dostoevsky’s Cretive Art in Russia”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 1(67), 2025, pp. 60–79. (In Russ.)

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2025.67.04

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