“Color shades ornament”: the symbolism of colors in Andrei Bely's novel Moscow

This paper presents one of the ways to interpret a poorly studied novel Moscow (1926-1932) by Andrei Bely through the symbolism of colors in the descriptions of the city and the images of two antagonistic characters. Three colors were analyzed: yellow, red, and golden, as well as their individual shades and modifications created by the author (leopard and ash-yellow), which, together with other shades (black, grey, etc.), make up a consistent color ornament for the whole novel. Decoding (interpreting) the use of colors in the novel enabled to reveal its genesis through references to the writer’s correspondence and memoirs. Connections were built with the early works of Andrei Bely, written during his Symbolist period, and a deeper level of the novel was explored. A general conclusion was made concerning the specific individual style of the writer, where the color and other text categories are characterized by increased signification and semioticity. The author suggested one of the ways for a new “reading” or interpretation of one of the most complicated works of fiction of the XX century. In the future, it could help trace the creative evolution of the writer and incorporate this novel into the literary landscape of the Russian culture of the XX century.