The reception and elaboration of Tolstoy’s Plot motifs in the poem “The Tsyganovs” by David Samoylov

David Samoylov in the poem “The Tsyganovs” refers to the idyllic topos and comprehensively changes it, undermining the reliability of social utopia by questioning (through the inner voices of Tsyganov) the sense of all its elements: work, family and love. The tragic uncertainty in which we find Tsyganov in the last part of the poem, as it was noted by scholars, reminds the plot of “The death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy. We invite the reader to a closer look into Tolstoy’s motifs in the poem. Using Samoylov’s memoirs and diaries, adding the literature and biographic context, we show different aspects of the dialog between poet and writer. This side of “The Tsyganovs” was not in the focus of researchers previously. Broadening and correcting a common interpretation of the correspondence between the episode of death of Tsyganov and the “The death of Ivan Ilyich”, we comment other references: the birth of Tsyganov’s son corresponds to the episodes of Levin’s son birth in “Anna Karenina”; the motif of chopping wood reminds several scenes of “Three deaths”. We assume that Samoylov reconstructs the ideal peasant world, using references to “Cossacks,” “Anna Karenina,” “The death of Ivan Ilyich,” “Idyll,” “Tikhon and Malanya” and enters into a polemic dialogue about the sense and content of simple happy life.

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