REFLECTION OF THE HISTORICAL PAST IN THE STORY OF MUSA ARSANUKAYEV «IN THE GUNPOWDER SMOKE»

Abstract. The relevance of the topic is due to the increased interest in national history, caused by the need to restore the historical truth, revealed along with historical science by means of fiction. The article examines the genre features of the historical story by M. Arsanukaev «In Gunpowder Smoke». The genre characteristics of the story are systematized, among which, first of all, the appeal to historical themes, the presence of real characters, reliance on documents, the peculiarity of the chronotope and structure of the work, the concept of national character, and the ways of reflecting the author's position are highlighted. The purpose of the study is a literary interpretation of a significant work of national literature that has not been studied to date from the standpoint of modern methodology for analyzing a fiction text. This position confirms the novelty of the study and its practical and theoretical significance for сhechen literary criticism. It is noted that in order to confirm the position of the writer, who exposes the extreme cruelty and inhumane nature of the actions of General Er-molov's army in the Caucasus, documentary materials from the general's personal letters are provided, in which he derogatorily speaks about the highlanders. The active author's position is characterized as a typo-logical feature of historical prose. The work notes the syncretism of the text in terms of style, in particular, the combination of artistic and documentary fragments, which, according to the author's plan, along with reliance on the principles of objectivism and historicism, enhances the authenticity of the work and allows it to be in-terpreted as a historical story. In general, it is concluded that M. Arsanukaev's story is distinguished by a high level of artistry and at the same time is written in the mainstream of historical prose, the basic techniques of which are reliance on facts and the methodology of realistic art.