Perevalov, V. P. Two-Verbal Predicate. Analyzing the ‘Core’ of the Central Sentence of Alexander Pushkin’s Poetic Novel

Abstract: The article is devoted to historiosophical views of Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin’s views on the destiny of the Russian Empire are defined by analyzing peculiarities of Pushkin’s images in his ‘The Bronze Horseman. Petersburg’s Novel’ published in 1833. That novel has become a very important piece of spiritual culture in our country. Since it was published, this masterpiece of Pushkin has been evoking a wide response and contradictory conceptual interpretations. Different interpretations are becoming excessive and shadowing the original text and the author’s position. Under the conditions of the ‘extended Universe it is quite natural to try to review the ideological meaning of The Bronze Horseman. According to the author, in order to better understand Pushkin’s masterpiece, it is necessary to shorten the novel to one central sentence and even to one ‘core’ word. According to the author, this ‘core’ word that reflects the contradictory dynamics of the world order is the predicate ‘stand’ in the last sentence of the first part of The Bronze Horseman. The original use of this predicate has attracted attention of many researchers of Pushkin but none of them has ever placed emphasis on it. According to the author of the present article, the original image was created by the two meanings of the verb ‘stand’ (stoyat’ in Russian): stoIt’ (to stand) and stOyat’ (to cost). Based on the author, it is difficult to completely understand the meaning of this key predicate because, firstly, it breaks the rhythm of the poem and secondly, it has the double meanings. This way, the images in Pushkin’s novel combine poetry with prose, common things with fantastic phenomena, the physical with the metaphysical. According to the author’s approached offered in this research article, Pushkin’s devotion to Russia as the Great Empire is obvious. Pushkin had a positive evaluation of Peter the Great in general and urged us to respect mercy and be merciful ourselves.

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