“ALYOSHA BESKONVOINY” BY VASILIY SHUKSHIN AND THE ESCORTED RUSSIA

In Shukshin’s text there is a kind of an “anthem” to Saturday and its bathhouse that draws attention to itself. On the one hand, the main character that became free of the bonded kolkhoz labor is opposed to his fellow villagers. The change in the semantics of such words as “reverend”, “without escort”, “unharnessed” is evident. On the other hand, however, the festive Saturday substitutes the Christian Sunday, which makes obvious the transformation of the Orthodox tradition during the Soviet era. Alyosha Beskonvoiny in the context of “global time” of Russian literature follows the subdominant line of the foolishness. In this respect the violation of the “Law” (his firm refusal to work on Saturdays) is considered by others as an undue and provocative behavior and continues the Orthodox tradition of the rejection of sinful reality. The bathhouse looses its role of an instrument for physical purification and is associated with the act of salvation of the hero’s soul. However, the same “Sabbatarianism” in the cultural subconscious of the author symbolizes the oblivion of the Easter origins of Russian culture by the Russian people of the Soviet time, substitution of their own culture for other models of behavior.