Poetics of L. N. Tolstoy’s Story “How Much Land Does a Man Need”

The article examines the character system in Leo Tolstoy’s short story “How much land does a man need?”, analyzing the transformations of fairy-tale images, space, time, and audiovisual details. Based on archival materials (autograph and authorized copies of the story’s manuscripts), the author traces the gradual introduction of the main motives and images. Thus, the story of a minor character, Semyon the peasant, appears only in the third edition of the story. It is this antagonist who establishes the image of Pahom as a negative protagonist. The story combines the poetics of a fairy tale and that of a realistic work. The main character’s static nature in the climactic scene of “circumambulation of the earth,” characteristic of folklore, is complemented by the image of his psychological state. This episode is also endowed with the features of an oneiric text, that is, a description of a dream. The spiritual delusion of Pakhom, who pursues the false goal of seizing as much land as possible, is especially evident in the finale of the story — in his distorted perception of space. The results of the study confirm the significance of Tolstoy’s “folk stories” as a unique experiment that has not only moral, but also aesthetic value.