A Pushkin Quotation in Ivan Karamazov’s Poem

The aim of the study is to determine the functions of a quotation from Alexander Pushkin’s tragedy The Stone Guest in Ivan Karamazov’s poem The Grand Inquisitor . The author argues with previously expressed versions regarding the semantic potential of this quotation. Methodologically, the approach of the article is rooted in the idea that the quotation from Pushkin in the poem about the Grand Inquisitor is not only a form of expression of the author’s position (Dostoevsky’s), but also the position of the literary character, portrayed as the author and subject of the quotation (Ivan Karamazov’s). A hypothesis is put forward that the quotation from The Stone Guest can be regarded as a polemical argument against the inquisitorial concept of man, which Ivan Karamazov insists on. In light of the quotation from Pushkin, Ivan’s position is revealed as characterised by a profound duality and contradictions, which he himself directly denies. This hermeneutic hypothesis is based on an analysis of the genre specificity of the tragedy, which formed as a result of Pushkin’s reconceptualization of the comedic version of the Don Juan story; an analysis of the image of Don Juan as a tragic hero; an analysis of the philosophical integrity of The Little Tragedies cycle; and, finally, an analysis of the receptive structure of the tragedy The Stone Guest . The specificity of the latter is regarded as a task implicitly present in the text for the reader to overcome the inertia of the comedic stereotype in reading Pushkin’s version of the “eternal” plot. As a result of the study, the following conclusions have been made: the involvement (by the hero - Ivan and the author - Dostoevsky) of Pushkin’s quotation from The Stone Guest into the poem The Grand Inquisitor is significant for its meaning in the novel; its main function is to exacerbate the philosophical contradictions of the poem, the clash of opposing ideas about man; the quotation can be defined as an interpretant of Ivan’s position: in its light, that deep duality, which the hero denies, becomes obvious.