UDC

821.161.1; 825.512.145

Authors

Fesenko Emiliya Yakovlevna
Humanitarian Institute, Severodvinsk Branch of Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Severodvinsk, Russia)
e-mail: e.fesenko@narfu.ru

Abstract

Leonid Leonov’s long literary life began in the North, in Arkhangelsk, where he worked in the newspaper Severny den’. His life there left a deep trace in Leonov’s soul and turned out to be a valuable experience for him. Painter S. Pisakhov and writer B. Shergin introduced him into the world of northern people and northern nature. Memories about his life in the North, acquaintance with northern legends and fairy tales, the period of Allied intervention, which he spent there, later were reflected in his works. The article analyses Leonid Leonov’s novel White Night based on the author’s reflections about his life in Arkhangelsk, occupied by the English and the White Army in the 1920s. The title White Night has both direct and metaphorical meanings: the action took place during the period of northern white nights, while such concepts as “white army”, “white movement”, “as white as two badges” (about the eyes of intelligence service lieutenant Palchikov), emphasize the futility of the “white idea” and the doom of the enemies who had occupied the town of Nyandorsk. K. Paustovsky was convinced that a writer turning to history must know the facts that push his imagination and let him rethink themselves, which Leonov did. Nyandorsk does not exist on the map but it is easy to recognize provincial Arkhangelsk during its occupation. The young writer invented this town and recreated true historical events which had taken place in the North, namely, the failed Allied intervention of the 1920s. The interest in historical prose was typical of Soviet literature of the 1920s and 1930s as writers were trying to understand the current events trough history.

Keywords

Leonid Leonov, North, history, time of troubles, intervention, “white idea”, “unmeasurable world”

References

1. Prilepin Z. Leonov vyderzhivaet sravnenie tol’ko s Tolstym [Leonov Deserves Comparison Only with Tolstoy]. Kul’tura, 2014, 30 May – 5 June, p. 14.
   
2. Prilepin Z. Mir nepomernyy [The Unmeasurable World]. Leonov L. Rannyaya proza [Early Prose]. Moscow, 2009, pp. 10–12.