An Unknown Story by N.D. Akhsharumov in the Aspect of Author's Self-Consciousness

The article analyses the previously unpublished story written by the critic and writer Nikolai Dmitrievich Akhsharumov in the the 1880s. The story is written in the epistolary genre and reveals the history of the relationship between a young provincial girl and an eminent writer N.D. Coincidences in a number of details (name and patronymic, address, professional identification) allow correlating the addressee of the letters with their author, Akhsharumov. A hypothesis is presented that the writer creates the story to sum up the preliminary results of his literary activity. Not satisfied with the actual state of affairs, he creates an “improved version” of his biography, captured in the life and reputation of N.D. The text provides detailed assessments of N.D. as a person and a writer. Firstly, the author of the letters uses regular nominations “my good dear” and “big sweet”. This love-passion ("You are my dear, golden, incomparable, in my soul, in my heart, no one is closer and dearer in the world; I wish I could say it all as soon as possible") deprives the author of the letters of will and self-esteem: “. . . At a warm word of yours, I was ready to come to Petersburg on foot and work, work for as long as I can.” Secondly, describing a provincial feast in the spirit of a socially denunciatory trend, the author of the letters calls herself “the most loyal fan of one of the famous writers and enlighteners.” As a sidenote, Akhsharumov did not participate in numerous discussions about the social projects of the 1860s-1870s. Thirdly, the books of N.D. are an important part of children's reading. Referring to the opinion of one of her sister's children, the author of the letters says that the tales literally “mesmerized him”. Akhsharumov was really known for his works for children, first published with a serious preface “On the Pedagogical Significance of the Fantastic Tale". However, at the time, tales by another fiction writer, V.P. Avenarius, were more popular. Thus, the unpublished correspondence found in the papers of Akhsharumov, being a fictional text, testifies to characteristic shifts in the author's self-consciousness. The aging fiction writer, who has worked in the field of Russian literature for more than 30 years, sums up the peculiar results of his literary activity. In this reflection, there arises a projection of an “improved N.D.”, whose real or “natural: capital (determined by his health and the sympathies of the young girl) increases significantly along with the “symbolic” one (the role of educator, humanist and real children's writer). Naturally, Akhsharumov never played any of these roles in his real life. Thus, the story that does not have any outstanding features in its poetics is interesting for us as a dialogue or monologue between Writer-1 and Writer-2 (fictional influential writer), and as a kind of a mirror reflecting his passions and desires. Thr text of the story is attached to the article. The story, found in Akhsharumov's personal papers (which mainly consist of draft notes, abstracts and drafts of research articles), is published for the first time.

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