Information about the author:
Cheng Liang
Cheng Liang, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Russian Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hebei University, Wusi Dong St., 180, 071002 Hebei, Baoding, China.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5225-4342
E-mail:
Abstract:
This article examines the work of Skitalets from the period of the First Russian Revolution. During almost fifty years of creative life Skitalets created many works that have stood the test of time. Especially notable were his speeches during the First Russian Revolution, which itself marked a new stage in the development of Russian literature. As a native of the village, the writer knew well the life of its inhabitants and those who went to the city to work, so he made the village the center of the growing unrest. The vivid works of Skitalets about the peasantry in the years of the revolution include “Fetters” (1904), “The Court-Martial” and “The Forest Was Burning” (both 1905), “Candle Stubs” (1906). The most thoroughly analyzed among them are the stories “The Court-Martial” and “The Forest Was Burning”, which depict the mood of the Volga peasants in the turbulent days of 1905–1906. Skitalets resorts to natural images, already traditional in literature, symbolizing the awakening and growth of the powerful natural forces of the people — the fire and the raging river. In addition, it is important to recall that after his emigration, Skitalets wrote the “historical tale” “Fetters” (1940), which is based on real historical events that took place in the Central Volga region on the eve of the 1905 revolution.
Keywords: Skitalets (S.G. Petrov), Revolution, Peasantry, Romantic Element.
