ON THE HISTORY OF CREATION OF I. S. SHMELEV'S NOVELLA “THE INEXHAUSTIBLE CUP”

The article deals with the history of I. S. Shmelev's novella The Inexhaustible Cup. By analysing the draft manuscripts of the novella we have retraced the chronology of the text. Numerous rounds of correction found in the draft copies reveals the high intensity of the author's work on the text. We have outlined 7 draft versions which can be grouped in 2 stages of working on the novella. Stage 1 comprising the first three draft versions shows the author's intention to create the images of physically and spiritually perfect people and express the transforming power of beauty understood in the spirit of Vladimir Solovyev's philosophy. Stage 2 (draft versions 4 to 7) witnesses the author's change of the idea of his work. The structure of the characters evolves, with the protagonists developing new features echoing the types of Old Russian literature.