Moscow and Magadan in Vasily Aksenov’s novel “The Burn”: the cities of individual and collective trauma

The paper analyses the novel “The Burn” (Ozhog) by Vasily Aksуnov through the prism of urban topography as a space of individual and collective trauma. Moscow and Magadan are considered as two poles of interaction with historical memory: Moscow appears as a city of repression and ideological control, while Magadan functions as a place of inevitable confrontation with the past. The work applies methods of narratological analysis, biographical approach, trauma theory and cultural memory. Particular attention is paid to spatial metaphors that convey a state of anxiety, fragmentation, and surveillance in Moscow, as well as the analysis of architectural and everyday elements of Moscow and Magadan as guardians of historical memory. The study shows that in the novel “The Burn” urban space not only influences the fates of the characters, but also becomes an independent element of the artistic structure that shapes the narrative.