THE IDEA OF JUST RETRIBUTION IN THE WORK OF V. ASTAFIEV

The article deals with the issue of the role of the motive of just retribution in V. Astafiev’s works. The analysis of the writer’s main literary texts leads to the conclusion that the factor of dynamic balance between affective hatred of social evil and the thirst for mercy plays a key role in them. In the creative biography of Astafiev, there is an approximately ten-year “pessimistic” period (from the mid-1980s to the mid-1980s), when affective anger prevailed over kindness. However, in the future, the writer’s thirst for righteous retribution is again balanced by a exhortation to mercy.