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

THE TRADITIONS OF GOGOL AND DOSTOEVSKY IN THE WORKS OF THE ÉMIGRÉ WRITER V.G. FEDOROV

Naumkina K.O.

Kseniya O. Naumkina, Graduate Student, Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, Tverskoy Boulevard, 25, 123104, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: dvoretskayko@mail.ru

Abstract

The article deals with the intertextual connections of the works of Vasilii G. Fedorov (1895–1989), a writer of the first wave of Russian emigration. It is shown that Gogol’s Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka influ-enced the short story Kuzkin’s Mother and the novella Beautiful Esmerelda. Stylistic references and quotations emphasize the contrast between past and present. Characters from several works by Fedorov have features similar to Bashmachkin. Mushroom Story echoes The Overcoat not only by its protago-nist, but also by plot structure, lexical choices, and syntax. In Russian Holidays, Fedorov replicates the relationships between characters from the novel Poor Folk by F.M. Dostoevsky. In the story Romance with Boots, the pro-tagonist engages in an indirect polemic with Makar Devushkin. Fedorov consciously constructs his connection to the Russian tradition, though his motifs and plots are transformed and filled with meanings shaped by the unique experience of the first generation of Russian emigration.

Keywords

literature of the first-wave Russian émigrés; Gogol; Dostoevsky; literary tradition.

Recieved

10.10.2025

Accepted

20.11.2025

For citation

Naumkina, K.O. “The Traditions of Gogol and Dosto-evsky in the Works of the Émigré Writer V.G. Fedorov”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 1(71), 2026, pp. 157–172. (In Russ.)

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2026.71.10

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