On the Issue of a Monument to A.I. Solzhenitsyn in Rostov-on-Don: View of a Literature Theorist

Discussion concerning the proposed and planned erection of a monument to A.I. Solzhenitsyn unfolded in Rostov-on-Don in 2017-2018. Sculptor D. Lyndin, a prominent artist known in the Don Region, created a design and a model of the monument. The city authorities proposed several sites for the monument: not far from the Southern Federal University – former Rostov State University at which Solzhenitsyn was a student, or in a new residential area with one of the streets being named after the writer. However, the process of monument’s erection was paused and postponed due to the discussion, which took place in the city. Adversaries and opponents of the monument accused the writer of the blackening the history of the country and of glorifying the collaborationism. Adherents and supporters appealed to the youth years of Solzhenitsyn in Rostov-on-Don, to the fact that the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to him, to his oeuvre and creative writing activities. The image of steppe in the novel «One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich» is, obviously, of South Russian origin; the image at the same time is within the literature and literary tradition, which has given/added a sustainable artistic filling to this spatial image, from the folklore to Gogol and Chekhov, and from them – to Sholokhov and Solzhenitsyn. Steppe is one of the most ancient symbols, which has also reflected the national notions of the world and human destiny and fate. This spatial image is treated as a cultural periphery, a boundary between «one’s own or ours» and «stranger’s or alien» worlds, the wild field. This is a space of transition, ordeals, and formation of a hero/protagonist. Steppe in Solzhenitsyn’s novel is not simply an action place, rather a meta-image, which acquires the existence character, organises the entire structure of literary text, and contributes to the depiction of the national character