Siberia as an ideal space in the works of Vsevolod Ivanov

This paper examines how Vsevolod Ivanov portrays Siberia as a unique and almost ideal place in his writing. Early texts, created through dialogue and dispute with regional ideas, depict the image as both a future “arena of interaction between two civilizations” (“Ermak's Dream”) and a real space characterized by social and national complexities. The space of Siberia begins to approach the ideal in those works where events take place outside the region. The stories “The Fleeing Island” and “The Death of the Iron Division” refer to the ideal space of Russian utopian legends, Belovodye. The Moscow novel “Y” chooses not the capital but the factory or town built beyond the Urals as an ideal space. The city of Gremyashchiy from the unfinished script “Siberians” is compared with this ideal space of the novel “Y.” The story of the city, intended to be “the first all-encompassing health resort in Eastern Siberia,” reveals an ironic twist. As the narrative moves away from Siberia, the region begins to acquire the qualities of an ideal space. The main character of “The Adventures of a Fakir” leaves a dull, gray Siberia looking for a vibrant life in India, but after facing a series of setbacks, he has to return home. Ivanov shows that the artificial space of the “new civilization,” cities of the future, the legendary Belovodye, or India are not ideal. Conversely, it is the ordinary space transformed by love for the motherland that becomes ideal (the essay “Hops, or towards the autumn birds”).

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