The idea of the book about Mstislav Cherny as a source of the plot for the novel “Vadim” by M. Yu. Lermontov

This article is aimed to research the concept of Mstislav Cherny as a source of the plot for the novel “Vadim” by M. Yu. Lermontov. The idea of “Vadim” as an epic work formed in the merging of two literature genre-generics: poem and drama (the lyrics formed the internal, “soulful” basis of the novel). The outline of the plan for the work about Mstislav Cherny, placed under No. Sixteen in “Plans, Sketches, Plots” in Eleventh notebook (1831), should be considered as the “pre-story” version of the plan. Both the plan and the following “Plot” under No. Seventeen, which was dated 1832 after being found in Forth notebook, contain plot, plot-motivational features, as well as features of the image of the supposed heroes that will become widespread in “Vadim”. The main research methods are comparative, hermeneutic, axiological, literary-historical and textual. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that the concept of the work about Mstislav Cherny as the source of the plot for the novel “Vadim” is researched in detail for the first time. The author claims that both notes contain a forecast of the novel, but, oiented towards the implementation in different genre-generic forms: the first draft was an epic work; the second was supposed to be embodied in a historical drama, – both sketches were written during the period, when the young author was hesitating to select genre for combining the story of Pugachev's rebellion to the work: drama, or novel. The sketches also reflected young Lermontov’s intention to create the imagination of a modern protagonist, combining historical and romantic types of personality. Therefore, the author concludes that there is no doubt about the idea of Mstislav Cherny in its basic, combative ideas will be transformed in “Vadim”.

Mstislav Cherny, Olga, the image of Vadim, the concept of Vadim, Lermontov, drama, poem, plot, genre, plan