THE THEME OF APOSTASIS IN ZAGOSKIN’S CONCERT OF THE DEMONS

The topic of trial by faith is one of the main ones in the cycle of stories by M. N. Zagoskin The Evening on Khoper. The Author analyses the mechanism of the influence of apostasy essence on human nature in Zagoskin’s Concert of the demons. The main character faces a choice between “dilapidation“, ossifying in sins and the renewal of human nature, between the decay and death, or resurrection and immortality. The setting is Great Lents Eve and its first week. It allows analyzing the passionate state of the character mainly in the context of the Great Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete and Old Testament readings on Adam and Eve during the first week of Great Lent. The setting at the masquerade ball defines the way apostasy manifests: the infernal disguised as the human trying to replace the image with a mask, guise. Apostasy in this novel is projected onto the modern age, as far as along with society secularization the aggression of apostasy grows, the outer forms of manifestation somehow change with its essence remaining the same.