The theme of apostasis in Zagoskin's "Concert of the demons"

The topic of trial by faith is one of the main ones in the cycle of stories by M. N. Zagoskin The Evening on Khoper. Author analyses the mechanism of apostasy essence on human nature in Zagoskin's Concert of the demons. The main character faces a choice between “dilapidation”, ossifying in sins and the renewal of human nature, between decay and death, and resurrection and immortality. The setting is Great Lent's eve and its first week. It allows analyzing the passionate state of the character mainly in context of the Great Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete and Old Testament readings on Adam and Eve during the first week of Great Lent. The setting at the masquerade ball defines the way apostasy manifests: infernal disguised as human trying to replace the image with a mask, gloze. Apostasy in this novel is projected onto the modern age, for along with society secularization the aggression of apostasy grows, the outer forms of manifestation somehow change with its essence remaining the same.