Folk fiction in “The Kizhi stories” by Victor Pul'kin

The article observes folklore and fantastic elements in the book of Victor Pulkin “Kizhi Stories” (1973). In the few publications about the book the question of the importance and specificity of the fantastic, going back to folklore, images and motifs in writer's prose, has not been raised. This article reveals a system of such images in “Kizhi Stories” through the topics and poetics of the book. The complex genre synthesis inherent in the book, often creates artistic situation at the border of reliable and unusual. The article analyzes included in the story fantastic characters along with the realities of the legend area, as well as images and motifs, dating back to the subjects of local and world folklore, including tales, features introduced by the author motivation of the fantastic, and examines the role of these images in the creation of a mythologized image of Kizhi Island. A fantastic character of mythological and folkloristic images is emphasized by concept-based correlation between old and modern times, inherent in Kizhi stories, when mythological origins take form of a constitutive quality of an island life. An event line of the fairy tale and the legend according to the author is projected from the past to the present of Kizhi Island, adding the traits of an idyllic locus to the latter.