The image of the Chinese in Vsevolod Ivanov’s prose: from “absorbed by history ” to “making history”

This study aims to analyze the portrayal of Chinese characters in Vsevolod Ivanov’s works of the 1920s, focusing on the short story “The Story of Zhen-Lung, the Seeker of the Shen-Jen Root” and the short novel Armored Train 14-69. Both narratives are set in the Russian Far East and conclude with the death of their Chinese protagonists. Employing comparative and textual analysis, the research contrasts the images of Chinese characters in Ivanov’s works with those created by his contemporaries, such as Isaac Babel and Mikhail Bulgakov. The investigation demonstrates that, although Ivanov’s texts partially retain the stereotypical physical and linguistic traits traditional to Russian literary depictions of Chinese people, his in-depth revelation of the characters’ multidimensional psychology and behavioral motives signifi es a transformation of the image from “absorbed by history” to “making history”. This metamorphosis is rooted in an accurate representation of the historical-cultural context and lifelike reality. Such an artistic approach not only refl ects the profound infl uence of the revolutionary era on national consciousness and mentality but also marks a breakthrough in the principles of creating Chinese characters in Russian literature.