Russian Emigration Reads L. M. Leonov: Was the Explication Realized and Could it Have Come True?

Abstract

In the paper, proposed for consideration are reflections and estimations expressed by the Russian emigration members (G. V. Adamovich, M. Aldanov, P. M. Bitsilli, B. K. Zaitsev, E. I. Zamyatin, M. Slonim, F. A. Stepun, G. P. Fedotov, etc.) concerning the creative work of the Russian and Soviet writer the thinker L. M. Leonov. Chronological boundaries of the estimates are between early 1920s and mid-1950s. The paper proves that L. M. Leonov had an unambiguous influence on the Russian emigration (writers, literary critics and philosophers) and until the 1930s he was perceived as the hope of Russian literature (in the course of its Christian, humanistic search), as a writer who continues the development of artistic and philosophical line of thinking of F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy in spite of his “revolutionary” writing. Since the 1930s, the estimations have generally become restrained and cool, but positive ones are not excluded. It is shown that the favor or rejection of Soviet writers, especially L. M. Leonov, by the intellectuals sent abroad had occurred taking into account two mutually exclusive lines as it was agreed among the Russian emigration members: “the artist’s conscience” and “the social demand”. Based on representative historical material, the paper is aimed on answering the question of why L. M. Leonov did not ultimately become the “hope” of Russian emigration and why couldn't he become one in principle.