Article

Name: Bulat Okudzhava’s Poem “The Lucky Man” within the Context of Pushkin’s Work and the Thaw-Era Pushkiniana

Authors: Maria A. Aleksandrova

Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Life of the Plot

Abstract:

This article analyzes Bulat Okudzhava’s poem “The Lucky Man” (1966), focusing on how his literary experiences are creatively translated into its motif structure, rhetorical composition, and figurative language. It demonstrates Okudzhava’s contrasting polemical approaches to two younger contemporaries. Okudzhava criticizes Yevtushenko’s portrayal of Pushkin, viewing it as shaped by the superficial rebelliousness of the Thaw-Era. Specifically, he rejects an oversim-plified interpretation of Pushkin’s and Blok’s idea of “secret, inner freedom” and the excessive emphasis on the outward expressions of Pushkin’s emancipation.

In response to Akhmadulina’s effort to “save Pushkin” (as seen in her early poem “The Duel”), Okudzhava presents his own vision of the poet’s ideal destiny. While Akhmadulina “cancels” the fatal outcome of the duel, creating an image of Pushkin who “knew no sorrow,” the author of “The Lucky Man” interprets the actual biographical plot – including its final tragedy – as the triumph of the hero’s values. Okudzhava’s dialogue with Bulgakov – whose literary return became one of the most significant events of the Thaw-Era – is considered in two aspects. On the one hand, the article traces Okudzhava’s vibrant engagement with the carnivalesque spirit of The Master and Margarita, noting how this led to a reinterpretation of the “Pushkin’s envier” figure and, consequently, the adoption of the naive narrator’s “mask”. On the other hand, allusions to the play The Last Days are interpreted as a means of overcoming the myth of Pushkin as a martyr. The high assessment of “The Lucky Man” formulated by Yuri M. Lotman is shown to be well-founded through an analysis of the poem’s implicit and explicit intertexts connected to Pushkin’s oeuvre. Special attention is devoted to reconstructing the author’s intimate lyrical dialogue with his hero.

The analysis reveals that, at the subtextual level, the sequence of events and the narrative structure of the poem derivate from the naïve “role” monologue. This divergence stems from the initial event – the resurrection of the fallen poet. The function of the narrator’s “mask” is thereby confirmed as a literary device allowing Okudzhava to express both his admiration and bewil-derment regarding Pushkin’s “secret freedom”.

Keywords: A. Pushkin, B. Okudzhava, E. Evtushenko, B. Akhmadulina, M. Bulgakov, Yuri M. Lotman, Pushkin myth, biographical plot, motive, poetic narrative

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