The Faces of Soviet Totalitarianism in the end of 1940s and Beginning of 1950s in Ludmila Ulitskaya’s Literary-journalistic Reflection

Abstract

A great part of Ludmila Ulitskaya’s interest is focused on people and their fate. As the heroes of their universes, they are located in a concrete place and time, which are work, home, and the loved ones. Nevertheless, from the close perspective, they happen to be closely connected to historical events that cast a shadow on their ordinary lives and their, frequently, alternative worlds they made for themselves to survive. To escape the terror and the Soviet standards and restrictions, some of the people fight underground and the others immerse themselves in literature and art. However, there is one more group – people who spread the ideas of communism, pioneers of the political system, the Stalin’s myth authors, who help with rewriting the reality. Hence, the problems of totalitarianism, the tyrant’s myth, homo sovieticus are the essential elements of this paper. The paper aims to show the questions from the verge of history and anthropology, philosophy and sociology, as present in Ulitskaya’s works to exhibit the whole spectre of live events in the Soviet Russia in the end of 1940s and beginning of 1950s.