Dramatism of Cossack life in the works of F. Kryukov

Gao Khan' ORCID: 0000-0001-7734-1813 Postgraduate student, Department of the History of Modern Russian Literature and Contemporary Literary Process Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119415, Russia, Moscow, Udaltsova str., 5k1, sq. 94 jiushibuzhidao1@126.com

In the images of Cossacks, Kryukov focused attention on daily life and work, psychotypes, the actions of heroes who witnessed and participated in wars; in the era of the eve of revolutions, their lives underwent drastic changes. Dynamic characters of Kryukov's heroes are in tune with dynamic time. The images of the Cossacks are inscribed in the recognizable space of the village, steppe, less often – the city; in other words, the basis of the image of reality is based on artistic determinism.

In Kryukov's stories there is no romantic admiring of a natural person. In a letter to I.D. Sazanov (1913) ^[1] Kryukov self-critically noted: "All of us, Cossack writers ? you, and I, and Serafimovich have one common flaw especially pronounced: the excess of romanticism. We paint our native not soberly enough, we tint, enhance both light and dark tones, and there are no penumbra at all. We should have more objectivism, less lyrics ? it would be better. But it's probably easier to give advice than to follow it. A sober image of the Cossacks is not given to me in any way"^{[8, p. 72]}.

In Kryukov's short stories and novellas, the central place is given to the personality. According to V.V. Ilyin, man as such is the center of the universe, and the productive way of creativity is anthropocentrism. At the same time, the question of the survival of the individual, his adaptation is the nerve of the anthropocentric approach to understanding a person ^{[3, p. 58]}. Kryukov's prose presents a variety of conflicts that bring acute drama into the existence of characters, sometimes turning into tragedy.

The high degree of drama is explained by the sympathetic position of the author. The writer is not a bystander. Either Kryukov introduces into the text a narrator expressing the author's attitude to the characters, in a certain sense – a witness sympathizing with the hero (heroine), or the writer gives the narrator's language lyrical intonations, subjective vocabulary expressing the mental closeness of him and the hero (heroine). For example, in the story "The Cossack Woman" sympathetically depicts the psychological contradictions of a simple Cossack woman who led her to suicide; in the story "The Soul is one", the author's empathy permeates the entire narrative about the Cossack mother; in "Swell" (1909), the author's sympathy extends to a young Cossack who robbed a grocery store.

In narratology, there are two ways of narration: a story and a show, and in terms of distance from the subject being described, the first is more distant than the second, and the second is more direct. As for the emotional mood of the author, the first is detached, the second is sympathetic ^{[7, p. 17]}. Kryukov's creative manner is characterized by showing. As in most works, in the story "On the Lazoreva River" (1911), the author who empathizes with the heroes gets used to their inner world. Unfolding before the reader the process of breaking the relationship between father and son, the author assumes the role of an exponent of the mental states of the characters and their moral guardian, sympathizes with their disappointments and sufferings, in particular family disunity, the thinning of the sense of kinship in the Cossack house. At the same time, an acute event situation is used: Chekushev, the father, decides to hang himself, which indicates the loss of his spiritual support, his act to end his life is similar, as Kryukov writes, to a silent cry or rebellion.

Kryukov's works are imbued with the conflict of time. The action of his stories falls at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX centuries. For example, the events of the story "Squall" (1909) occur during the creation and dissolution of the First State Duma; one of the motives of "Stanichnikov" (1906) is the participation of Don Cossacks in the Russian?Japanese war; in "Step on the Spot" (1907), a protest sounded against the execution of police pacifying functions by Cossacks; in the story "Dreams" (1908), as in most of Kryukov's works, the theme of a modern village unfolds; in "Half an Hour" (1910), the state of a political prisoner is described, etc.

The difficult era has sharpened the complex personal characteristics of the Don Cossacks. They have a strong self-awareness, cohesion, but they also have confidence in their uniqueness, their superiority. According to M.M. Golubkov, the image of the house is "one of the most important subjects of the image and reflection of the literature of the XX?XXI centuries" ^{[2, p. 12]}. The house is the most important value in Kryukov's worldview. With such self-identification, Kryukov's characters constantly generate conflicts or find themselves involved in dramatic situations. A recurring theme of Kryukov's essays, short stories, and novellas is the contrast between the vital forces of a natural man, such as the stanichnik was, and those conditions of his existence that require him to either compromise, or humility, or submission. In addition, Cossacks and Cossacks in the interpretation of Kryukov, as a rule, are maximalists, which indicates their desire for fullness of life, but also leads to the indomitability of passions, because of which destinies are broken, families are destroyed, people die. Many stories describe family, personal dramas, immoral acts.

For example, the Cossacks are known for their beauty, intelligence and strength: "she threw her brown, shining eyes at him and smiled cheerfully and incredulously. Her swarthy face, oblong, southern type, with a thin straight nose, with thin black eyebrows and eyes with long dark eyelashes, was especially beautiful with her smile: there was something defiant, bold and attractive in her, in this smile" ^{[6, p. 100]} ("Cossack Girl"). The military service of husbands determined the way of life of the Cossacks^[9]. They had to have deep knowledge in all aspects of the life of the village: cultivation of the land, harvesting, maintenance of the kuren, care of cattle. The fate of the Cossacks in the works of Kryukov was not carefree. In addition, a number of love stories are based on the situation of infidelity: "An unmarried life full of ordeals and temptations that lie in wait everywhere: on the street and at home, in the field and in the forest, in every corner, at every step. Then the reckoning: the husband returns, and whatever the life of the eight is, it is certainly subject to "battle"" ^{[5, p. 31]} ("Gulebschiki", "Cossack", "Officer", "Swell", "Weekdays", etc.). In the stories, unfaithful wives are not only subjected to "battle", but they also decide to commit suicide, etch the fetus, their husbands leave them.

Already Kryukov's early stories speak of crisis phenomena in the Cossack society. An example is the story "Stanichniki". The initial sentence defines the theme of the fate of the people at a critical time: "The yard was crowded with people" ^{[4, p. 59]}. The plot conveys the polarity of expectations and the results of military service: the heroic pathos of young stanichnikov called up for war ("Beat, my dear, the Japanese for the glory of Russian weapons!" ^{[4, p. 68]}) is reset by an order to send them to suppress the rebels ("Well, what kind of service is this – for riots? A shame one! Beat men..." ^{[4, p. 69]}). The episodes are built on numerous details that mark the way of life of a Cossack. Through the blessing of the mother, relations in the Cossack family, sincere faith in the help of the Lord, and a working life were transferred. For example: "Wailing and crying, she said something that could not be made out through her sobs, baptized him and put a copper icon on his neck with trembling, wrinkled, laborious hands. And he dropped his head at the feet of his beloved and sobbed for a long time, not getting up from the floor, shaking his broad shoulders"^{[4, p. 63]}. It describes the psychological breakdown experienced by Cossack Andrey, who was initially ready for high military service, then worried about the upcoming shameful city service, then unconsciously submitting to his fierce excitement of the punisher and guardian of the empire ("Something was rising inside - wild, cruel, intoxicating..." ^{[4, p. 83]}).

The value orientations noted above are confirmed by a large corpus of texts. The Don Cossacks from the story "Galloons" (1910) do not part with the hope of changing both their lives and their fate through hard work. Cossack Chicherov expects to correct the plight of his family with service, a hundred-ruble allowance for a horse, a labor allowance of 75 rubles and a monthly feed allowance of 3 rubles. The story of Chicherov is central to the plot. The hero comes on vacation, decides either to save money for the purchase of a windmill, or to put them into trade. However, the obstacle is the act of a family member: the money is carried away by the sister of Chicherov's wife. The hero is saved from despair by the hope of the help of the powers above, he turns to the icon with prayer.

So, in describing the various forms of existence of the characters, Kryukov focused on the ambiguity of human nature. As a realist, he explained many dramatic situations not so much by external as by immanent reasons. The characters face moral dilemmas and a choice between loyalty and their own principles. Kryukov uses a variety of stylistic techniques to enhance the drama: metaphors, symbols, plot twists. They not only describe Cossack life, but also offer a deep study of human emotions and moral dilemmas.