Impudence and boldness in righteous stories of N. S. Leskov: Christian aspect of apprehension

The issue of frequent confusion of notions such as impudence and boldness, Holy Father literature describes as the problem of mixing virtues and vice. In the context of virtue and sin, these two notions are analysed in two stories from N. S. Leskov’s righteous cycle: – Odnodum and Pygmey, in which they become the key to official duty interpretation. The choice between the act of justice and the act of mercy becomes a choice between the word and spirit of law that result from legalism and Evangelical lawfulness. In the context of the two approaches to justice, a question of royal service during tsar Nikolay the First’s regime is also touched upon.