The Image of the Atamansha in the Boris Lavrenev`s Novel ‘The Wind’ (1924): Gender Aspect and Razin`s Plot

The paper addresses the Boris Lavrenev’s “The Wind. The Novel about the Days of Vasily Gulyavin” (1924). The gender approach is used as a method of analysis. Although the novel repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers in Soviet times, the paper represents the mentioned research aspect for the first time. The image of the novel’s heroine Lyolka is constructed by different characters` attitudes towards her. The image of the novel’s heroine Lyolka is constructed by the views on her of different characters. She considers herself as a leader, demonstrates excessive cruelty, denies the feminine in herself, generally marks it as weak, secondary. Male heroes impose a normative femininity on her: beauty, sexuality. The novel raises the question: whether a peasant woman (“baba”) can be a comrade? The main character Gulyavin perceives Lyolka ambivalently, trying to recognize the right for a woman and for a prostitute to be called a man. Because of the cruelty and betrayal shown by Lelka, Gulyavin answers the question negatively. In addition considers the Razin’s plot, implicitly presented in the novel. It is also read through the vision of different characters. While in her subjective perception Lyolka is an ataman, then for Gulyavin she is a Persian princess, she is subordinate to him as to a commander and a man. The intimacy with her leads the hero to the betrayal in relation to his friend what correlates with the Razin’s behavior. The execution of the “Persian Queen” Lyolka is similar to the death of the princess.