To the problem of the context of V.A. Zhukovsky's Jerusalem project (on materials of political essays and religious and philosophical prose of the 1840s)

On the material of V. A. Zhukovsky's political journalism and religious-philosophical prose of the 1840s, the underlying intent and basis of his proposal to free the Holy Sepulcher and Jerusalem from the power of the Turkish Sultan (the so-called Jerusalem project of the writer) are considered. Vectors of internal communicative intentions of the author that spawned not only Zhukovsky's later art works of, but also a specific action plan proposed by the poet to the Russian Tsar and described in personal letters of the late 1849 - early 1850 to Grand Dukes Konstantin Nikolaevich and Alexander are identified and connected with the interpretation of specific historical events. The focus of the study is on the contexts in which these proposals are expressed. After his crisis of the rethinking of German idealistic philosophy, guided, like many leading men of the 1830s-1840, by a "search for a high mission", Zhukovsky conceives a project, the implementation of which, in his opinion, would have solved the task of restoring the original integrity of being at all levels of its representation. Almost all researchers refer to the lyric-epic works of late Zhukovsky (primarily, the poem "A Wandering Jew") with obvious parallels with his Jerusalem project as to contexts of this project. In the article, the author dwells on the late prose of the writer that shows the essential equivalence of the proposal under consideration, which allows to clarify its genesis, content and pathos. First of all, attention is paid to Zhukovsky's reasoning of the complex and dangerous crisis in Europe, threatening it with death, and of the ways to save it. The most important characteristic of the European civilization, according to the writer, is atheism that, in his opinion, causes all other painful life-threatening phenomena. Zhukovsky's prediction clear: if not to take action, Europe will suffer from "universal hatred" and destruction. Zhukovsky anticipates the collapse of Europe and interprets it in the light of his late 1840s philosophy of history that reflects the fundamental ideas of the Christian concept of the historical development of the humankind. Zhukovsky's prosaic discourse about Europe discusses the question of Russia and its role in saving Europe and Christendom. One of the frequent characteristics of Russia in Zhukovsky's articles is the "integrity" in it of faith in God and the sanctity of autocracy already destroyed in Europe. Liberation, on the initiative of the Russian Tsar, of the Holy Sepulcher from the power of the Turkish Sultan seems to the writer to be the most important event as Jerusalem with its Holy sites, in Zhukovsky's opinion, is a metaphysical phenomenon that itself is the answer to the vexed questions of history. Zhukovsky sees the success of his Jerusalem project in its peaceful implementation. The conclusion that the Jerusalem project originated from Zhukovsky's late ideas about the possibility of the return of the ideal to the earthly life, its connection with reality, and nurtured theses ideas.

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