The last novel of the last classicOn the 125th anniversary of the birth of academician L.M. Leonov

In 2024, there are three important dates in the fate of the Russian writer academician Leonid Leonov: the 125th anniversary of his birth, the 30th anniversary of his death and the publication of his last novel “Pyramid”, work on which lasted for five decades. The Pyramid is rightly considered a novel-the testament of the writer. It examines such important issues as the existence of world evil, the future of the world and humanity, the role of the devil in world history, Russia’s place in world civilization, gnostic theories of the future of the world and man. Since The Pyramid was published in uncensored conditions, Leonov could write openly about the problems that tormented him. This property of the novel led researchers to attempts at so-called recursive reading (decoding hidden meanings) and earlier works by Leonov. In the “Pyramid” itself, there are a lot of riddles, sometimes deliberately left by the writer for future readers to think about. The article examines the main problems of the novel and by way of copost.