Subcarpathia 1944 through the eyes of a Soviet private. Victor Astafyev 's war thind and memoir prose

Abstract

Subcarpathia 1944 through the eyes of a Soviet private. Victor Astafyev 's war thind and memoir prose

Viktor Astafyev is a representative of the literary movement called “village prose” and one of the most significant Russian writers of the second half of the 20th century. The writer also uses the war theme in his literary works pretty often. Being a Red Army's soldier and a participant in World War II, he took part in a number of battles at the territory of Polish Subcarpathia in particular. The article presents the image of Subcarpathia in Astafyev’s memoir prose. In his work Astafyev does not hide the fascination with Polish noble culture and the landscapes of Subcarpathia as well. At the same time, the influence of Soviet historiography and propaganda in the author’s way to create the narration in his literary works shows up pretty clearly. Despite the writing craftsmanship improvement and his personal ideological evolution in the last decades of his life (the writer finally had rejected the ideology of communism and had condemned the wars), Viktor Astafyev hadn't accepted Polish historical narrative after 1989. The reason for the lack of acceptance was the fact that The Red Army had lost the status of the “liberator” of the Polish lands from German occupation. So, no wonder then, that in his latest novel, The Jolly Soldier, Astafyev took a very critical stance towards Poles and Poland.