"And the green lamp will not go out...": traditional features of Russian battle studies in M.Y. Elizarov's novel "The Librarian"

Shuiskaya Yuliya Viktorovna ORCID: 0000-0002-6752-3063 Doctor of Philology Professor; Department of Journalism, Media Communications and Advertising; Griboyedov Moscow University 66a Zeleny ave., office 311, Moscow, 111396, Russia shujskaya@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Kalashnikova Marina Vladimirovna Associate Professor; Department of Linguistics and Literature; Prince Alexander Nevsky Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation 111033, Russia, Moscow, Volochaevskaya str., 3 building 5, room 3809 marinavlady5@yandex.ru

The depiction of battle scenes in Russian literature has a long tradition. The first battle scenes were described in ancient Russian works – for example, in "The Word about Igor's Regiment", "The Story of the Conquest of Ryazan by Batu". K.A. Potashova, exploring the typical scheme of battleistics in ancient Russian literature, notes the formation of a "canonical battle text organized according to a single compositional scheme 'invasion of the enemy' – 'unity of forces' – 'battle' – 'victory', which is also used in the depiction of the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol army in ancient Russian literature" ^{[1, p. 3780]}. Usually, the heroism of individual soldiers is emphasized in ancient Russian works (for example, Yevpaty Kolovrat in The Tale of the Conquest of Ryazan) and grief over the death of those killed on the battlefield. During the XIV – XVIII centuries, the description of battles, as a rule, inherited the patterns laid down by ancient Russian literature. In the XVIII century, as A.Y. Tsitsinov points out, the vector of description and perception of the battle changed both in journalism and in fiction: "notes on military campaigns of the Time of Troubles and the XVII century in many ways still inherited the tradition of ancient Russian literature and represented a kind of mixture of a real description of a battle or campaign with its sacred interpretation inherited from traditions of descriptions of campaigns of antiquity and the Middle Ages. The writer was interested not so much in the details of a particular battle as in its semiotic significance, and his text was intended not so much for contemporaries as for descendants. For Peter the Great, something fundamentally different was important: constantly faced with the rejection of his reforms and innovations, he intended to consolidate his position through military victories, the fame of which was to spread in this case as quickly as possible" ^{[2, p. 27]}. In the light of the journalistic and later artistic coverage of battles and battles, the corresponding semiotics was inherited: a specific battle was perceived not only as a sacred, religiously significant action, but also as a patriotically colored victory of the Russian army, skill, and fighting spirit.

The rise of interest in battle studies in the literature of the XIX century was associated with the war of 1812, as well as with the appeal to earlier military conflicts in connection with the clash with Napoleon's troops. So, in A.S. Pushkin's poem "Poltava", attention is focused not on the actions of people, but on weapons that seem to fight independently:

Balls are rolling, bullets are whistling;

Cold bayonets loomed.

…

Detachments of the flying cavalry,

Reins, sabers sounding,

Colliding, they cut from the shoulder.

Throwing piles of bodies on top of a pile,

Cast iron balls everywhere

They jump between them, they strike,

They dig the ashes and sizzle in the blood.

^{[3, pp. 498-500]}

The pattern of depicting the battle as chaos, a huge number of movements and sounds carrying "death and hell from all sides" also goes back to "Poltava" ^{[3, p. 500]}. The same pattern is observed in the poem "Borodino" by M.Y. Lermontov:

The fire glittered in the smoke,

Bulat sounded, buckshot screamed,

The fighters' hand is tired of stabbing,

And it prevented the nuclei from flying by

A mountain of bloody bodies.

^{[4, p. 65]}.

Further reference to the battle scenes in L.N. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" leads to the formation of a complex structure for the coverage of the battle in literature: using the Old Russian scheme, L.N. Tolstoy refers to the heroism of individual soldiers (for example, Captain Tushin during the Battle of Shengraben), while contrasting the "war of generals" - "war E.A. Avdeeva points out that "in War and Peace, this conflict develops on the basis of the East-West antinomy and the proximity/remoteness of the hero to Tolstoy's idea of a "swarm" common life" ^{[5, p. 115]}. Inheriting the traditions of Tolstoy, M.A. Sholokhov introduces into battle scenes the perception of war as a painful, pathological condition that cannot be considered normal. E.S. Makarova notes the double perspective of describing scenes of war and rebellion: "When describing battle scenes, Mikhail Sholokhov uses two main techniques: distancing, in which the author describes events as a documentarian, depicting them as past, using the appropriate verb forms, and immersion, in which the collision is depicted from the inside and synchronously, more dynamically and in detail. In other words, we see pictures of the war, where the people are fused together, shown as an indivisible organism fighting for its fate, making history, and episodes of personality struggle (first of all, in the chapters devoted to the Vyoshensk uprising, this is the struggle of General Grigory Melekhov at the head of an insurgent division) one-on-one with the enemy, in which the war is being shown from the inside" ^{[6, p. 143]}.

Summing up the analysis of the "Quiet Don" in relation to the depiction of battle studies, P.V. Kuksa recognizes this novel as the pinnacle of the domestic depiction of battle scenes: "M.A. Sholokhov inherited the best traditions of the greatest classic of world literature – L.N. Tolstoy. In many ways, following the author of "War and Peace", the author of "The Quiet Don", it is no exaggeration to say that the student surpassed his teacher, presenting the battleistics on the pages of the novel much more voluminous, clearer, brighter than the brilliant predecessor" ^{[7, p. 25]}. At the same time, P.V. Kuksa notes the exceptional physiology of the descriptions in Sholokhov's prose: he talks a lot about death, about blood, physical pain, etc.

Examining the traditions of the continuity of ancient Russian batalistics by M.A. Sholokhov, E.A. Avdeeva points to another root cause of the war: if in ancient Russian batalistics such a cause is perjury, violation by one or another prince of this oath. In Sholokhov, following the traditions of Tolstoy, Pushkin, and Lermontov, war is perceived as a kind of eschatological, all-encompassing chaos: "Civil war, in comparison with the internecine wars depicted in ancient Russian literature, also becomes different. If in ancient Russian texts there is always a guilty party in civil strife – the apostate prince, then in Sholokhov's novel there is no such categorical division into the right and the guilty, since the search for a common truth is an incomparably more difficult task than identifying perjury, which became the official pretext for princely wars" ^{[8, 153]}. The invasion of the enemy from the outside is perceived in ancient Russian literature as punishment for sins, for wrong, unrighteous life. Grigory Melekhov, Sholokhov's hero, comes to this idea indirectly, projecting a military conflict onto his family and personal problems.

In the light of the revealed line of succession, Mikhail Elizarov's novel "The Librarian", written in 2007, and awarded the Russian Booker Prize in 2008, is of great interest. Interest in the novel has increased recently in connection with the release of the TV series of the same name in 2023.

In the novel "The Librarian", battle scenes are widely presented in connection with the so-called "satisfactions" - the battles of libraries and reading rooms among themselves. In the fantasy world of Mikhail Elizarov, the books of the writer Dmitry Gromov are distinguished by special properties, the reading of which gives a person incredible strength, power, patience, etc.

In the world of people who know about the properties of these books, a kind of code has been adopted regulating the reading of books and their possession in so-called "libraries" and "reading rooms". At the same time, people who know about the incredible properties of books periodically kidnap them or forcibly take them away dishonestly, which provokes the so–called satisfaction - a battle between libraries conducted according to certain rules.

In this moment of the artistic world of Mikhail Elizarov, one can see the first reference to the artistic world of ancient Russian battle studies: the root cause of the battle is betrayal, perjury, violation of the world order and the established law. In accordance with the established rules, the fight is carried out without the use of firearms: opponents use kitchen and agricultural utensils so that in case of injuries and injuries they can be explained to doctors as a domestic injury. Homemade spears and chain mail made by the participants of the battle also refer to the appearance of ancient Russian warriors.

One of the key moments of the novel is the chapter "The Battle of Neverbin", which describes the battle between representatives of libraries and the old women who lived in the hospital who usurped one of the books. The book gives them extraordinary strength, and they give battle to the combined forces of several libraries on equal terms. The author directly refers to the Battle of Kulikovo in the description of the deployment of troops: "The coalition detachments were organized primitively, following the model of the Russian troops on the Kulikovo field. There were people at the headquarters who were far from modern tactics, but, as it turned out later, quite practical.

The vanguard of the formation were the guard and advanced regiments, consisting of reading rooms. Behind them was a large regiment manned by squads of six libraries, flanked by right- and left-handed regiments, each with four combined detachments. The Shulgi clan hid behind a large regiment, calling itself a reserve regiment, and an ambush regiment in the forest nearby became a detachment of the Lagudov clan, whose selectivity as troops was also relative" ^{[9, p. 54]}. At the same time, the very description of the deployment, location of troops and strikes refers to L.N. Tolstoy, who told in detail about the deployment of troops and the direction of the strike before describing the battle itself: "At five o'clock in the morning it was still completely dark. The troops of the center, reserves and the right flank of Bagration were still motionless, but on the left flank the columns of infantry, cavalry and artillery, which were supposed to be the first to descend from the heights in order to attack the French right flank and throw it, according to disposition, into the Bohemian Mountains, had already begun to stir and began to rise from their overnight shelters" ^{[10, p. 511]}. A similar train of thought is repeated in Elizarov's description of satisfaction: before the battle, a description of the place of battle and the deployment of forces is also given.

The main character of The Librarian, Alexey Vyazintsev, is not himself a direct participant in this battle, respectively, describes it dryly and without including direct impressions from the battlefield. "Formally, the whole narrative is an analogue of the notes of the hero, acting as a chronicler. However, the narrative structure turns out to be extremely heterogeneous: at the beginning of the novel, when reconstructing the history of the creation of the Gromovsky universe, the illusion of an impersonal narrative arises, then it is replaced by an open reproduction of Alexey Vyazintsev's point of view, revealing the process of introducing the hero to the Gromovsky world" ^{[11, p. 237]}.

"Satisfaction", experienced directly by the hero himself, contains physiological descriptions of death, referring to the tradition of M.A. Sholokhov: "Maria Antonovna Vozglyakova nailed a Gorelov man on all fours, stunned by a bearing, with a terrible blow of a flail, to the ground, as if not noticing that she was being stabbed in the side with a knife and the narrow blade plunged full length into a padded jacket.

Igor Valeryevich bent in a quick lunge, aiming his bayonet at the enemy's defenseless lower abdomen. Veronika Vozglyakova's shovel cut the face of the Gorelov man who was pressing.

…

The steel case was stuck right into the base of the back of the head. A broken vertebra crunched unpleasantly. Marchenko was no longer crawling, but, having fallen on his side, moved his legs as if turning invisible pedals" ^{[9, pp. 150-152]}.

In addition, before describing the battle itself, there is also a mention of A.S. Pushkin in the text, although not in the context of the battle "Poltava": "Every fighter was wearing an ancient army bulletproof vest and a helmet, so Gorelovsky looked exactly like Pushkin's naval heroes, who are "equal as a selection" ^{[9, p. 145]}.

Thus, in the description of the battles for the books endowed with special magical power, the author accumulates several key references to Russian battle studies: starting with the ancient Russian military case described in the "Legend of the Mamaev Massacre" and "Zadonshchina", then to the tradition of A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy and M.A. Sholokhov. Also in the context, there are references to other battle traditions – for example, the battle is conducted according to strict rules, the course of the battle is monitored by observers, whose task is to track violations of the rules. This indicates references to the traditions of gladiatorial fights, jousting tournaments and battles of "funny regiments". The end of the battle is marked by the murder of the librarian, which is carried out by the main character himself, Alexey Vyazintsev. In the battles of libraries and reading rooms of the Elizar universe, a kind of dueling code operates, and in its Russian version: libraries fight until one of them is completely destroyed and/or the librarian is killed. In European practice, a duel was considered to have taken place if each opponent fired one shot (no matter with what result) ^[12]. Russian nobles, by agreement, fired several shots, up to a fatal outcome and/or severe injury ^[13]. A significant reference in the text of the novel is the mention of the Great Patriotic War – despite the obvious discrepancy in the scale of the battles (in the Librarian, the battle is carried out in the number of forty people on each side), Elizarov's heroes also recall the battles in which their grandfathers and fathers took part: "Personally, I usually try to remember the song before the battle, the best thing is about the Great Patriotic War, about heroic death – and immediately the mood is right, the fighting spirit wakes up" ^{[9, p. 207]}.

The novel "The Librarian" is written in the genre of fantastic realism – in the quite realistically outlined late Soviet reality in the 1990s, the story of books endowed with incredible power of influence and people who randomly experienced their effect develops. The book becomes the key subject in this artistic world, and it is logical that the author saturates the text with numerous allusions to famous, textbook books. The battle of Neverbino, described retrospectively, and the satisfaction in which Vyazintsev takes part, seem to accumulate the reference points of the most famous literary battles and battle writers of the Russian tradition. This seems logical in the light of the global metaphor of the novel – Book as a transformative force over which neither pain, nor death, nor memory has any power. Implicitly present in the description of the battle, the reference to the duel is also important in the light of the history of Russian literature – A.S. Griboyedov, A.S. Pushkin, M.Y. Lermontov shot at duels, the last two died as a result of the duel.

Accordingly, the battle scenes of the novel "The Librarian" should be recognized as a kind of "assemblage point" of all significant military conflicts presented in Russian literature and the traditions of their description. The novel contains a description of the heroism of individual participants in the battle, a description of the deployment of troops, physiological descriptions of torment and death, implicit references to the dueling code and gladiator fights and explicit – to the lyrics of songs about the Great Patriotic War.