The article reconstructs the history of the creative relationship between N. D. Akhsharumov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, drawing on the two writers’ fiction and journalistic works. The focus is on the dialogue between Akhsharumov, the author of the novel A Tricky Business and the story The Prodigal Son, and the texts and contexts of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work. We trace the writers’ evolving aesthetic positions, reflected in their assessments of N. Ge’s painting The Last Supper. A hypothesis is advanced regarding the influence of the “journalistic novel” A Tricky Bussiness on the plot of the novel The Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg. It is demonstrated that in Akhsharumov’s later works, the writer focused not on the poetics of his contemporary, but on the reputation and biography of his contemporaries.
The article is dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
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