The apocalyptic images in L. Leonov's story “Ham's departure”

The great Leonov’s novels were preceded by his early stories of the 1920s. This article analyzes the principles of artistic design of the world in one of Leonov’s early stories “Ham’s Leaving”. In this story the artist resorts to a biblical myth of the Great Flood, and creatively reconsiders it. The writer exposes to inversion the logic of the biblical narration, presenting Noah as a false holy man and Ham, as the most decent of his sons. This inversion allowed the author to show the logic of history, approaching its “last days”. As a result, the genre foundation of the story is related to two opposite types of images - idyllic and apocalyptic. The lost of peace occurs due to both a social and political upheaval in Post-revolutionary Russia, and Epiphany of young Leonov regarding the destiny of the modern civilization. Ham, being a hero-justice seeker, enters into an argument with the existing order and, therefore, is doomed to exile, that becomes a harbinger of future disasters.