PUSHKIN SPEECH OF IVAN SHMELEV: NEW CONTEXT OF UNDERSTANDING

In the research on Shmelev, the second thesis in Pushkin speech is usually commented on ? the one about "Puschkin's mystery". The famous Dostoevsky's speech is concluded with words about "a mystery" and "revealing" this mystery. Shmelev's reply is that "we seem to have revealed this mystery". However, the first thesis of this speech ? containing a complete agreement between Shmelev and Dostoevsky ? is usually ignored. In this paper, the author polemizes with his predecessors who studied Shmelev's publicistic writings and interprets this agreement between Shmelev and Dostoevsky. "The Truth of God" is brought up, which is not only an individual peculiarity of Pushkin but the high road of Russian literature in general. Applicable as well to Russian culture in general. "The Truth of Russian people", also known as "the Truth of God", is the truth "accepted by us from the font" of Orthodoxy ? and this is the central idea of Pushkin, which became clear to Russian exiles. In particular, it became clear because an almost thousandyear- long Russian history was forcedly interrupted in the homeland they left; this is something that, naturally, Dostoevsky could not even think of.