Peasant Utopia in S.A. Klychkov’s Novels and Christian Socialism

Solntseva Natalia M.,

DSc in Philology,

Professor at the Department of History of Modern Russian Literature and

Contemporary Literary Process

Lomonosov Moscow State University

e-mail: natashasolnceva@yandex.ru

The article analyzes the similarity of peasant social illusions described in Klychkov’s novels (“The Sugar German”, “Chertukhinsky Balakir”, “Prince of Peace”) and the attitude of Christian socialists to social harmony. The religious and philosophical works of N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik, V.P. Sventsitsky, V.F. Ern, F.-R. Lamenne, T. Carlyle are involved. The emphasis is placed on the interpretation of the main characteristics of the public good: power, freedom, equality, non-possessiveness, attitude to the economy, private ownership of land, labor, death. The coordinated and contradictory meanings of peasant dreams of an earthly paradise are explained by the religious axiology of Christian socialists. The antithesis of utopias and destructive reality described in the novels is similar to the discrepancy between the Christian and positivist versions of socialism. The naive ideas of the people about a happy ecumene are opposed to Klychkov’s views; his understanding of the unity of the anthroposphere, biosphere, and noosphere is similar to the provisions of the works of G. Lotze, V.I. Vernadsky, the anthropocosmist N.G. Kholodny. A conclusion is drawn about Klychkov’s historical pessimism. A comparison of the mythology of the ideal world in the Scythian poetry of N. Klyuev, S. Yesenin and the novels of Klychkov is carried out.

Keywords: Belovodye, earthly paradise, religious, property, socialism, social, labor

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