G. D. GREBENSHCHIKOV'S NOVEL ‘THE CHURAEVS’ IN THE LITERARY-PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT OF RUSSIAN COSMISM: M.A. VOLOSHIN, V.V. KHLEBNIKOV

Abstract

The article presents an attempt to trace the perception of ‘Russian cosmism’ philosophy by
outstanding representatives of Russian literature of the first half of the 20th century: G.D.
Grebenshchikov (George Grebenstchikoff), Velimir Khlebnikov, and Maximilian Voloshin. The
methodology of the research is based on a comprehensive literary-historical and structuraltypological analysis of the writers' creativity; the leading methods are compare-contrast and
cultural-historical research. As a result, the authors concluded that Grebenshchikov, in his saga
‘The Churayevs’, has expressed the drama of self-isolation of Old Believers while at the same
time highlighting the search of the character for some ‘worldwide new-ploughed field’. He was
trying to connect the new vision of the world of his characters not with modernity but rather with
cosmism and the forthcoming world evolution.