"THE LANGUAGE OF THE HIGHEST TRUTH...": PUSHKIN'S ATTITUDE TO THE GOSPEL IN HIS JOURNEY TO ARZRUM

The article deals with the Christian code of Alexander Pushkin’s Journey to Arzrum, which is a style forming factor for the whole story, featuring a large thematic diversity. The genre of this book is similar to Old Russian pilgrimage stories. It includes an ethnographic sketch, a battle, Oriental and situational impressions of moving in space. All these are balanced with the biblical names and allusions, as well as the existential experience of the sacred. According to Pushkin, the Gospel is the foundation for real politics and an effective means of annexation of the Caucasus to the Russian Empire. Journey to Arzrum had an impact on the image of the war created by Leo Tolstoy in his War and Peace, as well as on the creation of such pilgrimage stories of the 20th century as A Journey to Armenia by Osip Mandelshtam and A Journey to Mount Athos by Boris Zaytsev.