Degradation of family in "Sad detective" by Victor Astaf'ev and "The Eltyshevs" by Roman Senchin

The aim of this article is comparative analysis of prose by Victor Astafiev and Roman Sienchin. The protagonists of both novels are policemen who have completed their work and try to find themselves in the new reality. The lives of their families are somehow suspended between town and country, which is no longer the mainstay of moral values, work ethic, and contact with nature. The two novels are separated by a quarter of a century. “Sad Detective” by Astafiev is a record of the downfall of Soviet society in the era of the approaching change, for which there is no sanctity and authority. Astafiev saw the rescue for Russia only in the institution of the family in her patriarchal variety. Roman Sienchin's “The Eltyshevs” can be interpreted as one of the possible variants of the fate of a society that does not comply with Astafiev's recommendations. The family as the fundamental social institution did not meet the desirable expectations. Suffering numerous “diseases” it is not able to fulfill its eternal functions. Unlike Astafiev, Sienchin does not judge his characters and does not give them advice for the future. It is hard not to agree with the opinion of one of the researchers who defines the work as “a novel-diagnosis”. Diagnosis is given, but there is no prescription.