Again ʽAgainst the Currents’: New Foreign Monograph about Nikolay Leskov

Abstract

In a review of a monograph by a Polish researcher, an adjunct of the Department of Russian Studies at Warsaw University, M. Lukashevich, on the work of a Russian classic of the second half of the 19th century Nikolay Leskov, published by the Warsaw University Publishing House, the structure of the book is analyzed, the breadth of coverage of the material and the scientific approach, attractive for the general reader and at the same time promising, are emphasized. Lukashevich presents a broad panorama of Russian religious life in the second half of the 19th century, in the context of which, based on the objectives of the monograph, Leskov's work is considered. The author's attention is focused on the analysis of the least studied layer of Leskov's prose — his journalism. Numerous publicistic statements of the writer dedicated to topical issues of the social life of the Church are interpreted by the Polish philologist in the unity of form and content. The review describes the range of problems raised in the monograph, highlights successful and non-trivial observations of the author of the new book.