“The Abode” by Zakhar Prilepin: understanding the experience of Christian sacrifice in the novel

The author examines the peculiarities of understanding Christian traditional experience in Zakhar Prilepin’s novel “The Abode”. The historical novel of a modern writer, dedicated to the tragic theme of Solovki, in its own way speaks of Christian sacrifice and repentance. Martyrdom, suffering and compassion, which are natural to Christianity, become important spiritual foundations in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky and the figures of the Russian religious Renaissance with his ideas about “Godmanhood”, which is reflected in the novel “The Abode”: the struggle between the “Godmanhood” and the “Mangodhood” can be traced everywhere in the text. The novel interweaves both classical works of Russian literature and philosophical ideas about the “overman”, enhancing the intertextuality of the “The Abode”: to become a “man-beast” or to clarify the face of God in oneself - this is the spiritual and moral choice that the heroes of the novel face. However, the writer’s task is not to show the complete transformation of the characters: their actions balance between bestiality and the possibility of sacrifice and repentance, and very often this possibility is not realized. This is especially clearly visible closer to the end of the novel: all the desires of the heroes are laid bare, only the human inside remains, thirsting for earthly, bodily things, and for this it is often necessary to “come down from the Cross”.