M. Proust in the perception of the Russian literary emigration: the case of I.S. Shmelev

It is emphasized that M. Proust is the only of the French writers about whom I.S. Shmelev left the extended statement in the form of the answers to the questionnaire of the literary collection “Numbers”. Contrasted with the followers of M. Proust the position of I.S. Shmelev is characterized by the underlined coldness. The represented national and religious principles by I.S. Shmelev turned out to be inappropriate for the qualification of the artist of the other sense, the ideological principles and approaches externally are to be insufficient for the detailed understanding of the delicate portrayer of the “inner man”, whose evaluation needed the other approaches and new points of references.