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Acknowledgments: The research was carried out at IWL RAS at the expense of a Grant from the Russian Science Foundation No. 22-18-00051-П, available at: https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00051/.

Abstract:

The article examines the development of the theme of estate and war in Russian literature of the 18–20th centuries, as well as the first experiences of its literary interpretation related to the works of Leo Tolstoy, M.M. Prishvin and K.G. Paustovsky. The changed role of the estate in the USSR is indicated: having ceased to be the territory of the lordship, it retained the status of a “cultural nest”. In the “Story of Woods” (1948) by K.G. Paustovsky, the estate is shown simultaneously as a locus of high creativity (where Tchaikovsky wrote music) and part of his native nature (the surrounding forest). Combining both of these principles, cleansed of social confrontations, the estate becomes the highest expression of beauty, the ideal of a way of life. The war opposes the estate and its values. As an exponent of the romantic artistic and stylistic trend in the literature of socialist realism, Paustovsky portrayed the Soviet estate and the fascist occupiers in extreme contrast, in accordance with the principle of romantic double speak: Agrafena is beautiful in her righteous anger, defending the sublime estate values and heroically dying from the malice of destructive beasts; fascists are shown to be predatory, base, ugly, and cowardly. Thus, the estate in the “Story of Woods” is not only a place of national art development and the crown of Russian nature, but also the center of patriotism, which makes it close to the tradition of the 18th- century classicism. Its values continue to be passed on to new generations: Maria Trofimovna, academician Bagaley, writer Leontiev, girl Anfisa, young forester Kolya Evseev, etc.

Keywords: K.G. Paustovsky, estate, nature, art, war, classicism, patriotism, romanticism, contrast, socialist realism, democracy.