"… full preference for goodness and truth": Pravda (Truth) in literary world by M. E. Saltykov‑Shchedrin (on the writer's 200th anniversary)

Identificator

EDN: JMYDOP; УДК: 82.09

Authors

Dvoeglazov Vladimir Viktorovich, PhD in Philology, associate professor of the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature and Teaching Methods, Vyatka State University. Russia, Kirov. ORCID: 0000‑0002‑7914‑0190. E‑mail: vladimir6798@yandex.ru

Journal

HERALD OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION №2 (42), 2026

Section

PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Pages

124-130

Abstract

The 200th anniversary of M. E. Saltykov‑Shchedrin, an occasion of importance for humanity, gives new impetus to the literary study of the spiritual foundations of the artistic system of this still "undiscovered" writer. The aim of the article is to provide an initial extended understanding of pravda (truth) – the most important, primarily ethical and aesthetic, element of the writer's artistic world – drawing on the fruitful achievements of Shchedrin studies and of literary scholarship as a whole. The subject of the article is the formal and substantive realization of pravda as a literary and artistic fact in Saltykov‑Shchedrin's works. The initial research reveals that pravda is characteristic of the writer's work as one of its motifs: this is confirmed by reference to works written in different years (Provincial Sketches, The History of a Town, and the cycles Well‑Intentioned Speeches, Abroad, The Little Things in Life, and the fairy tales). Observation of the content of this motif reveals its conditional evolution, the peculiarity of which lies in the ever greater deepening and broadening of the author's understanding and in its acquisition of a philosophical dimension. At the same time, the search remains grounded in the social: the surrounding picture of morals, social collisions, human destinies, and expectations. A complex dialectical reality of pravda takes shape as a unity of "justice" (the substance of the earthly communal order) and the religious, metaphysically pre‑given foundation of life. Such an understanding reflects the modern view of the "complexity" of the writer's consciousness and the emphasized duality of his nature. Turning to the "external" (including biographical) context appears vitally significant within the framework of the topic. These observations can contribute to further research and to the emerging unbiased discovery of the "personal creative truth" of the classic writer, who is still awaiting his "reader‑friend".

Keywords

works of M. E. Saltykov‑Shchedrin ethical and philosophical problems ontological truth (pravda)

Recieved

19.02.2026

Published

20.08.2026

References

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