“The Path of Purgatory”: A metaphor for spiritual growth in the aesthetics of I.S. Shmelyov (the article “On Dostoevsky” and the novella “The Pilgrimage”)

INTRODUCTION. An analysis of the sustained metaphor of “purgatory” is conducted, which unites I.S. Shmelyov’s later literary-critical essay “On Dostoevsky” with the novel “The Idiot” (1949) and his autofiction “Pilgrimage” (1931). It is considered how Shmelyov, drawing on the ideas of I.A. Ilyin, reconstructs Dostoevsky’s poetics through the prism of the Dantean model and projects this model onto his own work, creating an epic of the national spiritual path. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The empirical basis of the study consisted of I.S. Shmelyov’s article “On Dostoevsky”, the novella “Pilgrimage”, philosophical works by I.A. Ilyin, as well as texts by F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy. The use of intertextual, motif, and comparative-historical analysis allowed us to identify structural and conceptual parallels between Shmelyov’s critical and artistic statements. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The conducted analysis led to the following results: a) the article on Dostoevsky serves as Shmelyov’s poetic manifesto, explicating the world model as “purgatory” – a dynamic path of purification through suffering and struggle; b) “The Pilgrimage” is an artistic realization of this model, built according to the structural principle of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (hell – Moscow, purgatory – the road, paradise – the Trinity Lavra); c) the key motifs (darkness/light, toy, path, ablution, resurrection) form a single complex, polemically directed against Tolstoy’s idea of passive non-resistance; d) the images of Gorkin and Vanya form a dyad of spiritual doing, alternative to the “beautiful natured” lack of will of Prince Myshkin. CONCLUSION. A comparative analysis of the two texts demonstrates the integrity of Shmelyov’s late religious-aesthetic system. The metaphor of purgatory becomes for him a tool for the mythopoetic comprehension of Russian history as a conciliar path through the “night time” of trials to spiritual transfiguration, affirming the ideal of active, painful, and diligent salvation.