ИДЕЙНО-ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОЕ СВОЕОБРАЗИЕ ЛИТЕРАТУРНОГО ТВОРЧЕСТВА ДЕКАБРИСТОВ

Abstract

This article examines the ideological and artistic features of the Decembrists’ literary works within Russian literature of the first third of the nineteenth century. The purpose is to identify the principal aesthetic concepts, literary genres, and artistic means by which civic ideals were expressed. The study focuses on works by Kondraty Ryleyev, Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Alexander Odoevsky, Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, and Fyodor Glinka, alongside literary criticism of the period. Historical-literary, comparative-typological, and thematic approaches are employed. The discussion addresses the interaction of civic Romanticism with Enlightenment views of literature and the legacy of Classicism. Particular attention is paid to the historical duma, Romantic narrative poem, civic lyric poetry, historical prose, and literary representations of imprisonment and exile. The article argues that the figures of the patriot, the opponent of tyranny, and the suffering hero share an ethical emphasis on duty while differing in their representations of individual agency and historical conflict. A comparison of literary works indicates a shift from heroic rhetoric to motifs of spiritual endurance and inner resistance after the events of 1825. The article concludes that Decembrist literature is diverse in its genres and aesthetic orientations, rather than a uniform form of political expression. The findings may inform university courses on nineteenth-century Russian literature.