ТВОРЧЕСТВО П.Н. КРАСНОВА В ЛИТЕРАТУРНОЙ ЖИЗНИ РУССКОГО ЗАРУБЕЖЬЯ (1920-Е – 1940-Е ГОДЫ)

 For bulk of the Russian readers in the foreign land literature of the Cossack emigration first of all was embodied in P. N. Krasnov's creativity. And it isn't casual.

From 1921 to 1943 P. N. Krasnov has published more than forty books. They were published in Russian in Paris, Berlin, Riga. Fourteen of his novels have been translated almost into all European languages.

Except memoirs about events of revolution of 1917 and civil war, he has also written and published such documentary works as "On the eve of war" (1937) - about a boundary garrison where the 10th Don Cossack regiment, "Pavlona" (1943) - the description of life and life of cadets of the Pavlovsk military college which was ended by P. N. Krasnov, "Historical sketches of Don" (1943) entered. The deep respect and admiration of a feat of the Russian soldiers who have fallen on fields of battles of World War I has penetrated his sketch "Wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of Imperial Russian army" (1923). His book of sketches on military psychology of "A shower of army" (1927) was highly estimated by the famous Russian military theorist and the historian N. N. Golovin.

A number of the important thoughts and provisions stated by P. N. Krasnov in his publicistic articles have kept the value today. So, in article "Army" (written in November, 1927) he has noticed: "The army is school for the people. Not merely because through its ranks at general compulsory military service almost all nation man's population passed and studied to a debt, courage and patriotism there, but also because the Army gets into all sectors of society and everybody learns to respect and love the fatherland based on its behavior on maneuvers, doctrines, reviews, on the form its officers and soldiers, on their acts, on their talk all judge spiritual power of the state" [1, p. 11].

But the greatest popularity and recognition of readers audience of P. N. Krasnov were brought by his stories and novels. First of all it is the three-volume epic about Russian intelligentsia of the 1910-1920th years – "Largo" (1930), "Vypash" (1931) and "Feat" (1932), a row of adventure stories for youth ("Mantyk, the lions hunter", "Amazon deserts", "White a roll", "With Yermak to Siberia"), the fantastic story "Behind a Thistle", historical novels "Catherine the Great", "Regicides" and others.

Estimating merits and demerits of creativity of the former Don ataman, the literary critic notes about the Novel Hull that "P. N. Krasnov was able and could write perfectly, but only about what he saw. All his military pictures (fights, parades, military life) are always bright, fresh, live and, of course, with big knowledge of business. Still I remember his wonderful article "Cossack Lava" in some military magazine. But when Krasnov in the trilogy ("Largo", "Vypash", "Feat") wrote about "a world Masonic plot" and brought the emigrant Lenin-Ulyanov under a surname of Buryanov, it was rather bad" [2, p. 379].

It is especially necessary to stop on the most famous four-volume novel of P. N. Krasnov "From the Two-headed Eagle to a red banner" (1921-1922). According to Gleb Struve, this novel "was the bestseller in the foreign market for many years and it was translated into foreign languages" [2, p. 376]. By 1938 the novel was published three times in Russian and twelve times in translations [3, p. 112].

In the novel many events of the Russian history of the period of 1894-1921 are reflected, namely: Russian-Japanese and World War I, revolution of 1917, civil war and red terror in Russia. The author has created truthful images of cavalry officers, for example, the regiment commander Pavel Nikolaevich Karpov, the image of the main hero, cornet and subsequently the general, Sablin is psychologically difficult and artly reliable. In the 3rd volume of the novel the ice campaign of kornilovets at the beginning of 1918 is shown almost documentary, but brightly and expressively, portraits of leaders of the white movement of generals Denikin, Lukomsky, Romanovsky, Bogayevsky are given.

And the main plan of the author – through four volumes of the narration – is try to answer a question: "... how was it possible that one part of the Russian army suddenly had become in such irreconcilable attitude towards another, how the soldiers who still had so recently blindly obeyed to officers, were ready to die for them and sincerely loved them, could suddenly begin to hate them so" [4, p. 21].

Being the convinced monarchist, P. N. Krasnov is talented and even with love describe devotion of the main character – Sablin's cornet – to the monarch, at the same time he also doesn't hide weaknesses of the identity of Nicholas II as sovereign. So, one of heroes of the novel general Y.P. Pestretsov has given such assessment to Nicholas II: "He is an autocrat, - but the closer I stand to him, the more I am convinced that in him there is no main thing that is necessary for the autocrat - a big mind and inflexible will. Yes, he is sometimes stubborn and persistent in irresponsible trifles, and in a public affair he is the child who is blindly trusting people around. There are the mother, grand dukes and those ministers who have managed to enter to him soul" [4, p. 297-298].

Responses to the novel "From the Two-headed Eagle to a Red Banner" in emigre press and the Soviet press were contradictory. Responses of some monarchic editions were enthusiastic. For example, Grigory Novitsky in the Berlin newspaper "Chto Delat?" wrote: "As a certain the Old Testament’s prophet Isaiah, the ataman Krasnov has painted to us a majestic picture of former nice power of the Russian empire and a terrible picture of falling and death of Russia.

Krasnov's book awakes good feelings in the reader, seeks for fight and a feat, and, like "Taras Bulba" of Gogol and to "War and peace" of Lev Tolstoy, will enter an assembly of the books making the Russian Bible, one Gold book of the Russian people" [5, p. 99-100].

In general kind, but with critical remarks, the famous Russian writer A. I. Kuprin has given an assessment of the first volume of the novel of P. N. Krasnov. In particular, the reviewer has emphasized that "everything is close familiar to the author, his personally observations and he is able to pass it bright and convex, with the true skill, with especially broad rise in crowd scenes, with noble pathos [...]. The highest parade in Red Village, guard in the Winter Palace, an evening dawn with a ceremony, the Cossack fancy riding, maneuvers, a big ball in the palace are written very well " [7].

A. I. Kuprin has attributed the schematic, unilateral image of liberal and socialist figures to shortcomings of the 1st volume. In general impartial and objective studying and a literary heritage of P. N. Krasnov still waits for the researcher.