“Tambov” pages in the life and work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn

We consider “Tambov” pages of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s artistic and publicistic heritage. We give the analysis of programmatic in the aspect of the declared theme of works: “An Incident at Krechetovka Station”, “Ego”, “On the Edges”. We involve fragments of the writer’s works, the material for which served as historical events in the Tambov Region and the fate of its inhabitants: “The Gulag Archipelago”, “The Red Wheel”, “Two Hundred Years Together”. Tambov theme parameters embodiments in writer’s works are specified. We also make corrections to the available comments to his works. We determine the place of the “Tambov” story “An Incident at Krechetovka Station” as a work that outlines certain features of the ideological and artistic concept of the writer, in particular, his interest in the historical past. In conjunction with simultaneously published in the early 1960s stories “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “Matryona’s Place”, “An Incident...” is considered as a “signature line” of the writer, his “entrance ticket” in Russian literature. The similarities and differences in the publishing fate of the stories are summarized. We carry out the comparison of historical realities documentable in official papers with the events depicted in the story. We also make additions to the title of the story interpretation in relation to the writer’s works fate.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn, “Tambov text” of Russian literature, “An Incident at Krechetovka Station”, Tambov history in the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn