“The First Circle” by A. I. Solzhenitsyn as Easter Novel

The article uses theoretical developments by I. A. Yesaulov, allowing to identify and examine the Easter theme in A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s novel “The First Circle.” Agreeing that the Easter archetype is a key factor in genre generation in Russian literature of the 19th‒20th centuries, the author of the article came to the conclusion that this religious and philosophical novel is by its genre nature an Easter novel, while the Christmas theme in its text is noticeably set off by Easter. This statement is supported by the results of a post-Semiotic analysis of the Easter motif and figurative complex of the novel, as well as the entire system of Christian and medieval images and motifs in this work. In addition, the article examines the specifically shaped embodiment of the image of the Easter sacrifice and the realization of Christocentrism: Solzhenitsyn openly quotes the first verses of the Gospel of John about the Logos/Word. The article confirms O. S. Shurupova and A. S. Shurupova’s statement about the significant role of the archetype of the Russian Orthodox Christmas and its special influence on the meaning of the novel. In it, Orthodox Christmas turns out to be inextricably linked not only with the Protestant Christmas, but also with the Orthodox Easter. The novel’s paschal nature puts it on a par with another classic work of Russian literature, “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak. These two Russian novels share an ideological and thematic affinity with the general idea of Resurrection, literary immortality, and the preservation of Russian cultural traditions.