The metaphysics of Russian literature

The metaphysical and ontological aspects of the present study come down to identifying the overall and essential concepts and laws of being that determined the spiritual life of Russia of the XIX and XX centuries. Russian literature gave three great responses to the challenges of the key epochs in Russian history. The first epoch (1812- 1825) is associated with the victory over the huge army of Napoleon, which caused an amazing rise of the spirit of all people and created many hopes. The response included the works of A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, P.Ya. Chaadaev, N.V. Gogol. The second response accompanied the great reforms of Alexander II in the 60-70-ies of XIX century, which affected virtually the whole society. That period was the time of the works of N.A. Nekrasov, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.E. Saltykov- Shchedrin, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov. The third response fell on the Russian Renaissance (the third one after the Italian of the XIII-XVI century, and the German of the XVIII century), which had a planetary and even general space focus. This third renaissance was created by A.P. Chekhov, I.A. Bunin, M. Gorky, N.A. Gumilev, A.A. Akhmatova, M.S. Tsvetaeva, O.E. Mandelshtam, L.N. Andreev, D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius.