Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Rossica
Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Rossica is an interdisciplinary, international periodical affiliated with the Institute of East European Studies at the Faculty of Philology, University of Lodz (Poland). It continues the traditions of two journals of the University of Lodz: Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Rossica (published since 1999) and Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Linguistica Rossica (issued between 2003 and 2024).
Grammatical Categories of Verb Tense and Verb Mood in Teaching Translation from Russian into Bulgarian
This article examines errors in verb tense and verb mood that occur in translations from Russian into Bulgarian. Focusing on literary translations produced by students of Russian from various Bulgarian and international universities, the study examines how closely the use of tense and mood in the translations adheres to that in the original texts. It aims to identify the most frequent errors in these two grammatical categories. The analysis compares the form and content of the translated texts with their originals. According to the findings, verb tense errors most often involve the use of the aorist tense instead of the imperfect or pluperfect; verb mood errors typically arise from using the retelling (non-testimony) mood instead of the indicative. The latter errors arise from the formal similarity between Russian past tense verb endings and Bulgarian verbs in the retelling mood.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Report from the Scientific Conference. The 6th Sosnowiec Linguistic Forum
This text offers an account of a cyclically organized conference called the Sosnowiec Linguistic Forum. This conference enabled its participants, including students and PhD candidates, to share the results of their original research. While promoting a scholarly exchange of ideas, the event provides an opportunity to establish effective academic collaboration and confront different approaches to linguistic research. The report briefly characterizes papers delivered by the conference participants. While most of those papers focused on the comparative analysis of the respective elements of various languages, some were also concerned with the theory and practice of translation. The conference sessions were held in different sections. The presentation of each paper was followed by a discussion of its content involving both the paper’s author and the audience.
Derivative Semantics of Numerical Substantives (First Russian Decade)
This article examines formations such as двойка, тройка, десятка, двойня, тройня, четверня, пятерня, etc., with different suffixes. The author’s analysis involves both current and older or outdated material. The latter is derived from the dictionary of V.I. Dahl. The purpose of such a presentation has been to create a perspective from which to discover nominative and semantic mechanisms operating in the selected group of words, and to address their internal linguistic potential. The author is concerned with the frequency character of various formations and their stylistic features, and places particular emphasis on the outdated material, as it separates itself from the typical usage of modern words. The declared internal potential may reveal the features of new formations that are hidden in the language and do not always manifest themselves. The analysis involves three steps: Initially, the observed formations from единица to десятка are taken sequentially (structural form Rits(a) / Rk(a)), then formations such as двойня, тройня, четверня, пятерня (Rn'(a)), and finally, the remaining ones organized into structural groups with common suffixes. The article concludes by showing what unites such divisions, what distinguishes them, and how various nominative and semantic positions can be determined. Such a perspective opens up the possibility of further, more complete and more detailed analysis and involves referral to a more complete set of numerical substantives, including the formations that follow the first ten quantitative and ordinal units.
The Images of Childhood in Yevhen Soya’s Creative Work before and after 2022
This article explores the evolution of the images of childhood in the poetry of Yevhen Soya (Yessoya in social media) before and after 2022. The analysis draws on both published and unpublished poems, including material from the author’s social media and personal archives, and considers the biographical context, the generational experience of millennials, and the sociocultural shifts following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In Soya’s earlier work, childhood emerges as an idyllic and sacralized chronotope, characterized by nostalgia, the motif of the “eternal present,” and a turn inward toward personal memory and introspection. However, after 2022, this image undergoes a notable transformation, acquiring dimensions of trauma, existential rupture, and a longing for inner restoration. Particular attention is paid to Soya’s poetics as a generational voice of Russophone post-Soviet millennials, who face a sudden transition from a deferred or prolonged adolescence into a traumatized adulthood marked by the collapse of utopian visions of the future. His poetry thus becomes a testimony to the shifting lyrical gaze shaped by historical catastrophe, while the poet himself emerges as a representative of a new, generationally inflected perspective on memory, vulnerability, and resilience. Methodologically, the study draws on Bakhtin’s chronotope theory, while also referencing the works of Valerie Sanders, Henry Jenkins, and scholars, who wrote about childhood in poetry, such as Natalia Ryabtseva and Nadezhda Tropkina. This approach allows for the positioning of Soya’s poetry within both post-Soviet Russophone literary trends and a broader European literary tradition that interrogates the sacred and symbolic dimensions of childhood.
The Vagueness of Vladimir Putin’s Narrative about the Russian-Ukraine Conflict
This article deals with Vladimir Putin’s use of vague narrative meanings linked with contemporary newspeak. The author’s focus is on the speech of the President of the Russian Federation regarding the commencement of the so-called special military operation of February 24, 2022. The aim of the article is to identify and analyse the signs of vagueness, a key feature of the Russian authorities’ newspeak. The author analyses the vocabulary used along with its connotations and determines the pragmatic functions of lexical units (ways of using words). The study confirms the hypothesis that Putin used vague semantics to create an ideologized image of reality. This vague language remains largely conditioned by the newspeak’s monovalence. By subordinating semantics to value judgments, the analysed speech offers a specific interpretation of reality that is more important than the meaning of words.
Russian vs. Polish Constructions Expressing State
This article examines constructions expressing state in Russian and Polish. In Russian grammar, predicates denoting state are recognized as a distinct part of speech, which makes the use of such lexemes much broader than in Polish. Such predicates also show a notable ease of formation in both literary and colloquial speech. It is therefore worthwhile to consider how Polish equivalents render Russian predicates of state. Constructions with such predicates as совестно, обидно, досадно, любопытно, смешно, славно, and others often pose difficulties in translation into Polish. The study demonstrates that Russian exhibits a stronger tendency to synthesize state and evaluative meanings, whereas Polish more often keeps these two types of meanings separate. Polish also tends to employ different syntactic constructions, owing to the morphological specificity of lexemes that function as predicates. The author’s analysis draws on excerpts from Russian literary works included in the National Corpus of the Russian Language and their translations from the Polish Parallel Corpus.
Chronotope as Generative Model of the Artistic Anthropology of Aging in Dmitry Lipskerov’s Play “Elena i Shturman” and the Short Story “Neznakomets”
The present article seeks to interpret the artistic construction of the chronotope in selected works by Dmitry Lipskerov. The chronotope is examined as a structural and semantic layer that not only performs the function of organizing the narrative but also acquires the qualities of a closed and fluid continuum in which the past and the present merge into an indivisible whole, while the subjective perception of reality becomes fragmented and elusive. The spatiotemporal structure in Lipskerov’s texts is built as a reflection of the inner state of the characters who lose their sense of stability and the logical continuity of being. Within such an artistic model, time ceases to be linear, turning into a metaphor for aging, where memories and real events intertwine, creating an effect of cyclicality and enclosure of existence. This kind of spatiotemporal composition of the artistic world allows old age to be perceived as a process of losing ontological grounding and the disintegration of identity, in which corporeality takes on traits of alienation and simulation. The aging body in Lipskerov’s fictional world is seen as a sign of a disintegrating self rather than as a physical reality. The chronotope in the play Elena i Shturman and the short story Neznakomets is regarded as an instrument of philosophical reflection on old age, revealing the existential dimension of human experience and showing how the breakdown of temporal and spatial integrity in the artistic world reflects the crisis of personal being.
Word Familiarity and Its Accentual Characteristics
This article focuses on the pragmatic factor in determining word stress placement in contemporary Russian. The pragmatic factor refers to the speaker’s attitude – or that of a particular social or professional group – toward the words of their native language. On this basis, Russian vocabulary can be divided into familiar and unfamiliar words. Familiar words typically display a non-trivial accentual pattern, tending toward inflectional or mobile stress (accent paradigms B or C), while unfamiliar words generally exhibit fixed (immobile) stress on the stem or base (accent paradigm A). To explore the possible influence of the pragmatic factor in modern Russian, the study analyses the speech of Russian-speaking YouTubers. The findings reveal that the pragmatic factor affects borrowed Anglicisms and adjectives derived from English stems. The analysis further demonstrates that this influence is evident in loanwords and their derivatives, reflecting the ongoing process of linguistic assimilation – one of the most dynamic and productive trends in contemporary Russian.
Image and Word: Visual and Verbal-Visual Synaesthetic Metaphors in Selected Internet Advertisements
Modern advertising, as a dynamic and multifaceted means of communication, employs a variety of techniques and sophisticated methods of persuasion to engage the audience’s senses and elicit the desired responses. One of the more intriguing artistic devices used in advertising is the synaesthetic metaphor. These complex linguistic constructs, which refer to various sensory modalities, offer a unique perspective on the interplay between image and text in the process of advertising communication. This paper introduces a classification of synaesthetic metaphors employed in Polish and Russian online advertisements and analyzes their role in the synergy between image and language on the basis of selected examples.
The Role of Purism in Anna Akhmatova’s Self-Portraits
The aim of this article is the study of linguistic purism that is clearly displayed in ten self-portraits in the first collection of verses The Evening (1912) by Anna Akhmatova. She focuses on the development of pure language in her proposed aesthetics and politics, a process known as akmeism. The purists’ arguments of Akhmatova demonstrate not only the distinguishable traits of her voice, breath, and diction but also establishes new limits in the development and expression of Russian poetry in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The philological selection joined with future linguistic, cross-cultural, and etymological analyses, demonstrates Akhmatova’s choice of using ambiguous ordinary words of Russian origin and tones that were often used in the spoken Russian language and in the Guild of Poets in Saint Petersburg. For the first time, her aesthetic purification and choice of words and their spoken tones applied to the standard norms of modern Russian. The linguistic problematic, along with the results of this study, can be used in dictionaries of twentieth-century Russian poetry and in other philological studies focused on authors’ choices in poetry. The puristic views on the language of The Evening significantly expand the methodology for describing Akhmatova’s poetry.
The Linguistic Image of Cognitive Processes in Polish Phraseology (a Cognitive-Metaphorical Perspective)
The article reconstructs the linguistic image of cognitive processes in Polish based on a sample of fifty phraseological units. It adopts a cognitive-metaphorical perspective combined with a semantic-pragmatic analysis, allowing for the description of dominant conceptual schemas: THINKING IS EFFORT, THINKING IS A JOURNEY, THE MIND IS A CONTAINER, UNDERSTANDING IS LIGHT, and THINKING IS WAR. The analysis reveals how phraseological units denote intellectual activities (reasoning, memory, decision-making, idea generation), attributing to them spatial, material, dynamic, and conflictual dimensions. Particular attention is given to somatic metaphors – especially metaphorical representations of the head – as central conceptual material for both knowledge storage and the expression of emotional tensions. The novelty of the study lies in the typology of conceptual metaphors related to cognitive processes in Polish and the reconstruction of their evaluative dimension. The results indicate strong evaluative patterns regarding cognitive processes: intellectual competence is linguistically endorsed, whereas cognitive chaos and forgetting are devalued. The article includes a typology of metaphors, an index of analyzed units, and a discussion of the pragmatic functions of the phraseological expressions. The study is qualitative in nature; the selection of units was based on their representativeness in phraseological dictionaries.
Muslims on the Volga in the Viking Age. In the Footsteps of Ibn Fadlan, eds. J. Shepard, L. Treadwell, I.B. Tauris, London–New York–Oxford–New Delhi–Sydney 2023, pp. 404
This monograph attempts to address the latest research into relations between Muslims and other Eastern European nations, as conducted in both the West and Russia. This book is an excellent example of a well-prepared collective publication, in which the individual contributions complement each other to form a unified whole. This is not a common practice in the era of collective publications, such as those under the Brill label, where the thematic, geographical or chronological scope is often too broad. Thanks to the editors, however, the monograph includes the findings of researchers from influential Western centres, as well as Russian archaeologists and historians. Their contribution is significant, not least because they regularly conduct research on the sites of events depicted in Ibn Fadlan’s account, and it would be difficult to write on this topic without considering their perspective.
Zofia A. Brzozowska, Mirosław J. Leszka, Nowogród Wielki. Historyczno-kulturowy przewodnik po średniowiecznej republice [Novgorod the Great. A Historical and Cultural Guide to the Medieval Republic], Lodz University Press, Łódź 2019, pp. 266
The book Novgorod the Great. A Historical and Cultural Guide to the Medieval Republic by Zofia A. Brzozowska and Mirosław J. Leszka (1963–2024) is the result of a research project carried out between 2017 and 2019. It consists of a foreword, ten chapters, lists of Novgorodian rulers, bishops, and archbishops, and a comprehensive bibliography. The authors explore the history and political structure of the Novgorod Republic, focusing on the monuments of its capital, Novgorod the Great, arranged geographically. Their knowledge of written sources, especially the Novgorod First Chronicle, enabled them to reconstruct even lost or poorly preserved buildings. Field research helped verify historical accounts. The book discusses secular architecture and over forty churches, reflecting the city’s wealth and importance until its annexation by Moscow in 1478 and its devastation by Ivan IV’s troops in 1570. Detailed descriptions include the Kremlin (Detinets), the Market with nine churches, the Sophia Side with twelve churches, and the Market Side with nine. The final chapter presents seven sites from the surrounding area. Though not a traditional guidebook, the publication offers a panoramic view of medieval Novgorod’s architecture. Enhanced with maps, plans, and color photographs, most taken by Mirosław J. Leszka, it provides a valuable contribution to Polish scholarship on Eastern European history.
Bartosz Juszczak, Językowo-kulturowy obraz przestrzeni miejskiej. Polsko-czesko-rosyjskie diachroniczne studium konfrontatywne [The Linguistic and Cultural Image of the Urban Space a Diachronic Polish-Czech-Russian Comparative Study], Atut, Wrocław 2021, pp. 230
The review article concerns Bartosz Juszczak’s monograph Językowo-kulturowy obraz przestrzeni miejskiej. Polsko-czesko-rosyjskie diachroniczne studium konfrontatywne, Wrocław: ATUT, 2021, which constitutes a pioneering contribution to the fields of cultural linguistics and urban sociolinguistics. The author juxtaposes three urban centres – Warsaw, Brno, and Moscow – examining the processes through which their dialects evolved in the context of the social, political, and cultural transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries. The review highlights the interdisciplinary character of the project, which integrates linguistic, cultural, and memory-oriented analysis. The diachronic perspective and the use of lexicographic sources (Słownik gwary warszawskiej, Slovník nespisovné češtiny, Язык старой Москвы), which enables the presentation of language as a vehicle of collective memory and urban identity, are particularly noteworthy. The study’s methodological consistency is assessed positively, as it draws inspiration from the concept of the linguistic worldview and theories of spatial semiotics. The review concludes that Juszczak’s monograph fills a significant gap in research on the urban culture of the Slavic world, offering an original approach to the relationship between language, space, and cultural memory.
Yaroslav Hrytsak, Vadym Aristov, Halyna Kachur, Навігатор з історії України. Русь [Navigator on the History of Ukraine. Rus’], Publishing House “Portal”, Kyiv 2024, pp. 144
The review article presents one of the ten volumes in the series published by the Kyiv-based publishing house “Portal,” titled Navigator on the History of Ukraine. The series offers concise introductions to various epochs in the history of Ukrainian lands, spanning from the earliest times to the present day. The volume under review is the fourth in the series and covers the period traditionally referred to in historiography as Pre-Mongol Rus’ or Kievan Rus’. The book describes events from the years 839 to 1240. Each chapter includes not only an overview of key political and military events but also addresses religious and ecclesiastical issues, as well as social, economic, legal, and cultural aspects (including language, literature, architecture, and art). The authors base their analysis on a highly diverse range of sources, incorporating local accounts alongside Byzantine, Arab, Western European, and Scandinavian texts, as well as findings from archaeological excavations. This approach enables the verification of many long-standing interpretations found in earlier syntheses of Rus’ history. The publication excellently organizes knowledge about Kievan Rus’ and thus may serve as an invaluable resource for anyone – students, university students, and history enthusiasts – wishing to explore this aspect of medieval European history.
The Reception of Byzantine Poetic Genres in Orthodox Liturgy, as Exemplified by the Akathistos Hymn to the Mother of God
The article discusses particular elements of the structure of the Akathistos Hymn to the Mother of God, a Byzantine work composed between the 6th and 8th centuries and sung in the Eastern liturgy to this day. Paradoxically, its actuality raises a research problem, namely the discrepancy in terminology between literary studies and liturgical studies. The terminology related to its structure has undergone changes throughout history, especially in the liturgical aspect, because in the history of literature, genre names are used according to their original meaning. Individual terms describing the components of the Akathistos Hymn function outside of it, either denoting model elements of other akathists or single-stanza liturgical hymns, as shown in the article with several examples. The study uses a comparative method in terms of terminological analysis and the content of selected stanzas. The name kontakion in manuscripts with the Akathistos Hymn is a term for its genre, and over time it began to refer to individual stanzas remaining from longer hymns, intended for more important holidays in the Orthodox Church. Ikos narrowed its meaning to only a specific type of verse, rather than to all stanzas of the kontakion. Chairetismoi, although most often denoting a series of greetings with the word χαῖρε, in relevant translations, mainly Slavic, this term has become synonymous with the Akathistos Hymn and a distinctive feature of other akathists, in which, following the example of Marian greetings, there are other types of anaphoric salutations. Due to the evolution of nomenclature and the need to organize genological issues, it is more appropriate to speak of the reception of Byzantine genres in today’s liturgy, as their contemporary designations do not correspond exactly to their original names.
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From Divine Light to Earthly Matter and from Sergey S. Averintsev to the Material Turn: the Development of Research on the Gold in Byzantine Art
Gold in Byzantine art has long been interpreted as a symbol of divine light and transcendence. This article re‑examines Sergei S. Averintsev’s seminal text Золото в системе символов ранневизантийской культуры (Gold in the Symbolic System of Early Byzantine Culture; 1973) in dialogue with recent scholarship on materiality in medieval art. While Averintsev’s reading of gold as an “absolute metaphor” for divine light emerged from symbolic hermeneutics, this study argues that his insights can be productively reinterpreted through the lens of the “material turn”, which foregrounds the agency of matter, multisensory perception, and the socio‑economic conditions of artistic production. Rather than opposing symbolic and material approaches, the article proposes their integration as a coherent methodological framework. It demonstrates that Averintsev anticipated key concerns of contemporary materiality studies by conceptualising gold not only as a theological sign, but also as a substance that acts – reflecting light, shaping ritual experience, and mediating divine presence. Particular attention is given to his distinction between light (φῶς) and radiance (αἴγλη), which allows for a more precise understanding of gold’s dynamic, performative, and affective roles in Byzantine visual culture. By merging symbolic and material perspectives, the article advances a nuanced interpretation of gold in Byzantine art as both a medium of theological meaning and a material embedded within networks of production, power, and ritual. Matter and meaning thus emerge not as opposing categories, but as mutually constitutive dimensions of Byzantine artistic practice.
Is There a Political History of Sarir? Some Observations Based on Muslim Sources. Part I: The Expeditions of Marwan Ibn Muhammad
Sarir, one of the smaller Caucasian states located in present-day Dagestan, is primarily known for its alleged Christianization, supposedly due to influences from Georgia or Albania. In this text, however, we will focus on the accounts of Arab historians. Based on these accounts, we can gain some understanding of the political role of Sarir in the emerging relations between Muslims and local political entities in Dagestan. I do not intend to discuss the numerous geographical works in which Arab authors mention Sarir. This topic has been discussed numerous times in existing literature, and the bibliography includes the main geographical works in which Sarir plays a significant role. Here, I will focus on specific references to the activities of Sarir’s rulers, in particular the political and military situations. Studying selected geographical references might lead one to believe that this state played a significant role in Dagestan. However, Muslim historians’ references to specific events in the history of Arab-Caucasian relations can significantly challenge such beliefs. This article is the first part of a planned discussion of the activities of Sarir’s rulers from the 8th to the 11th centuries, covering events from the first half of the 8th century.
Use of the Term JIHAD in Russian-Language Media
The article presents examples of the use of the religious term jihad in Russian-language media. The author deliberately cites only the most significant examples to illustrate the derivational potential of the lexeme jihad in Russian. Particular attention is paid to the accentuation of the interpretation of this term in scientific and media discourse. The interpretations of the lexeme jihad presented show that the Russian-language media space is dominated by established connotations associated with war, violence, and aggression. The semantics of the word jihad imply action, which is why the term is used in texts as an independent definition of action; when combined with a verb, this factor is reinforced. Russian-language lexicographic sources confirm this point of view, thus forming a single acceptable norm for interpreting the lexeme jihad in dictionary entries. A diametrically opposite interpretation of jihad is found in Islamic religious sources aimed at the Muslim population and anyone interested in Islamic culture. In order to identify acceptable lexical variants of the word jihad and establish possible boundaries of its use, the author of the article classifies examples in terms of thematic affiliation. As the analysis showed, Islamic vocabulary is used across media formats regardless of content genre. The only natural barrier to the free use of Islamic vocabulary in the media is regions with a predominantly Muslim population. In these territories, Islamic terminology is interpreted and used in the media in accordance with Islamic canonical norms.
Human Relationships with Grave Trees in Eastern Slavic and Polish Verbal Folklore (Selected Examples). The Perspective of a More-Than-Human Anthropology
The motif of the relationship between people and trees, often present in Eastern Slavic folk literature, although discussed many times, still seems to offer undiminished interpretive potential. In the light of contemporary – postcolonial and postsecular – social anthropology, it can be read as a representation of belief practices that implement assumptions close to indigenous approaches to natural reality. This is indicated in particular by the non-anthropocentric attitude to the tree, usually understood as a personal entity, demonstrating an ability to transform the world analogous to humans, and also having the ability to extend human life in a material, not just symbolic, way. This applies especially to trees growing or planted on graves, widespread in North Russian and Belarusian tradition, and artifacts made from their wood, such as musical instruments. They demonstrate a “resurrection potential” towards the dead, which corresponds to the understanding of continuity between humans and non-humans, characteristic of animistic indigenous cultures, as well as between existence during life and after death.
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The Sociocultural Archaics of Bylinas in the Works of the Writer and Historian Lev Prozorov
In the study of Northern Russian folk epics (bylinas), modern folklore studies persistently seek new paths and re-examine many established views. Historian and writer Lev Prozorov (1972–2020) left a scientific legacy that will continue to cause controversy for a long time and serve as a guide for many modern researchers of the bylina. Prozorov is characterized not only by a thorough, comprehensive knowledge of the material, but also, which is much less common, by an understanding of the Slavic eth­noreligious tradition, the culture of Kievan Rus and the peculiarities of the existence of Northern Russian epic tales. He outlined the contours of the historicism of the bylinas, approaching it through the study of their history, evolution, and transformation of the people’s worldview and ethnic religiosity. A number of his articles and the book “Times of Russian Bogatyrs” (2006) are devoted to the problem of studying byli­nas. His work is based on primary sources, including annals and chronicles concerning the history of Rus and other Slavic countries, to the analysis of which Prozorov himself made a great contribution. While basing his work on nativist positions, he also used data from Celtic, Germanic, and Indo-Aryan mythol­ogy, legends, and tales, as comparative material. This allowed him to discover reflexes of Indo-European and Old Slavic images and motifs in bylinas. His analysis of the lexical features of the bylinas enabled him to reveal in them numerous echoes of an archaic, pre-Christian worldview. Prozorov also drew attention to traces of social-cultural archaism in bylinas such as the polytheism of their creators, descriptions of ancient potestary institutions and social structures, and medieval military customs.
Meetings on Ky Boulevard (Dostoevsky vs Chernyshevsky)
This article examines some aspects of Dostoevsky’s polemic with Chernyshevsky reflected in the novel Crime and Punishment. Chernyshevsky’s philosophical concept, embodied in its most complete form in the novel What Is to Be Done?, was overshadowed by the authority of the author, who was subjected to repression. It attracted the generation formed in the era of radical changes by its simplicity, logic and seeming irrefutability. Dostoevsky’s novel became a “retort” in which it was subjected to a comprehensive verification of its truth. This critical attitude greatly influenced the ar­tistic originality of Crime and Punishment. A modern Dostoevsky reader cannot help but notice the similarities with Chernyshevsky’s novel at the level of plot and key details, as well as direct references to stories about new people.
Maksim Gorky’s Reading of Aleksandr Pushkin (Based on the Drama The Lower Depths)
The significant influence of Pushkin on the formation of Maksim Gorky as an artist is an un­deniable fact. Nevertheless, the problem of Gorky’s reception of Pushkin’s heritage has not been suf­ficiently investigated. The question of Pushkin’s presence in the drama “The Lower Depths” has not been raised at all, although examination of the seemingly well-studied text of the play allows us not only to re-evaluate its originality, but also to reveal important semantic nuances. The subject of this publication, which opens a series of articles devoted to the study of the peculiarities of Gorky’s mastering of Pushkin’s work based on the drama “The Lower Depths”, is the remark of the Actor, who, quoting Pushkin’s ballad “The Drowned Man” (1828), attributes its authorship to Béranger. This article attempts to clarify some aspects of the study of the ballad “The Drowned Man” and the poem <Refutation of Mr. Béranger> (1827) by Pushkin.
Lesya Ukrainka and the Theme of Women’s Liberation in her Literary Works
This article examines the contribution of Lesya Ukrainka (1871–1913) to the develop­ment of feminist thought and the influence of the early 20th century Ukrainian social context on her work. Special attention is given to the theme of women’s emancipation in Ukrainka’s writings, analyzed through the lens of Alain Touraine’s social theory, which views feminism as a cultural movement aimed at deep societal transformation, including the creation of new cultural codes. The primary goal of the article is to show how Ukrainka used literature to advance feminist ideas, such as the expansion of women’s rights. Two works are analyzed: the essay New Perspectives and Old Shadows, where Ukrainka critiques Western European literature for its superficial portrayal of women, and the poetic drama The Forest Song, which challenges traditional gender roles through the characters Mavka and Lukash. Ukrainka portrays women as active agents capable of independ­ence, thereby questioning established patriarchal norms. The authors emphasize the significance of Lesya Ukrainka’s literary legacy in the development of Ukrainian feminism, especially in its connection with the national liberation movement. The struggle for women’s autonomy in Ukraine was closely intertwined with the movement for national sovereignty, giving Ukrainian feminism distinctive characteristics that can be seen through the anal­ysis of the work of female writers.
The Mythopoetic Space of Baltic Cities in the Selected Short Stories by Max Frei
This article attempts to analyze the mythopoetic space of the capitals of the Baltic states in selected stories by Russian-speaking fantasy author Svetlana Martynchik (born in Odesa in 1965, pseudonym – Max Frei), published during a time of global upheaval for European culture, namely after 2022. The Lithuanian capital, especially in comparison with Riga and Tallinn, emerges as a lim­inal space where characters find it most convenient to transition between the world of wonders and everyday reality. The vivid geography of Vilnius includes real topography imbued with stereotypical connotations, as well as established loci tied to urban practices (courtyard, avenue, supermarket), transforming into a functional field for constructing the author’s urban myths and reproducing pre-existing cultural ones. Special attention is given to a group of Scandinavian myths in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, which the author perceives as yet another, and this time ultimate, decline of Europe and civilization as a whole. Mythopoetic Vilnius, forming a unified northern cultural space together with Riga and Tallinn, becomes a realm of escapism, acquiring features of Eden and an anti-Babylon.
Problems of Translating into Russian CZE-KA-NIE-NA-SCHO-DACH by Joanna Ślósarska
This article examines the problems of translating into Russian the volume CZE-KA-NIE-NA-SCHO-DACH by Joanna Ślósarska , as well as the titular poem from this collection. The source material is treated as a cycle, which influences both the choice of translational dominant and subsequent decisions regarding translation methods and techniques used by the translator. The article addresses the issue of translating a polysemiotic text, which, in this case, combines verbal text and graphics. Starting from an analysis of the volume, highlighting the general difficulties of translation related to elements in the poems characteristic of Ślósarska, the author turns to a specific poem and discusses it in the context of the entire cycle. This analysis leads to the conclusion that translating free verse does not pose fewer challenges for the translator than translating verse based on a metrical system. The most significant translational challenge is shown to be the differences in language structures and intertextual references. On the other hand, similarities in literary systems are also noted, which facilitate the translation process.
“A Most Delightfully and Carefully Translated Book”. Problems of Translating Proper Nouns on the Exaple of the Polish Translation of the Evocations of Italy by Pavel Muratov
This article deals with the little researched topic of the translation of an art history essay. The Polish translation by Paweł Hertz of Pavel Muratov’s “Evocations of Italy” served as the material for analysis. The context of the work’s publication in Poland is presented at the outset. In the following part of the article the basic translation problems related to the translation of ekphrasis are listed: translation of terms from the fine arts, calque, and loanwords. Most of all, however, paper focuses on the problem of translating proper nouns, especially titles of works of art, defined by the term “artionym”. On the basis of selected examples, it was concluded that this is an important transla­tion problem, requiring the translator to be familiar with the literature on the subject, as individual works may have many different titles.
Gestures (Emblems) in the Preliminary Translational Analysis of a Literary Text
This paper deals with the interpretation of the elements of non-verbal communication in the process of translation-oriented text analysis. The discussion focuses on the reasons why these el¬ements are often omitted during the analysis of literary texts by novice researchers. The author invokes issues related to the perception of the components of non-verbal communication, citing sources from the fields of anthropology, literature, and culture and focusing on the perception of gestures, their role in the creation of literary characters as well as their close connection to the cul¬ture of the source text. Attention is paid to the perpetuation in literature of certain norms of social behavior in a given historical period and to the influence of authorial creation on the characteristic features of non-verbal communication of individual characters. Thus, non-verbal communication behavior is shown to be a rich source of information, significantly deepening not only the portrayal of characters, but also the depiction of the realities of everyday life. In order to properly interpret non-verbal sources of information such as visuals, their origin, and semantics, the translator should pay due attention to them during the analysis of the literary text. Emblems are distinguished by their greatest cultural significance among the other gesture types. The author describes the most important functions of gestures in the text and their significance for the socio-psychological portrait of characters.
Rhythm and Dialogue. On the Literary Memory and Poetry of Josif Brodsky