ILYA EHRENBURG’S PUBLICISM DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

The article offers a new reading of the book “Le Roman Russe” (1886) by the French writer E. M. de Vogüé. It refutes V. P. Trykov’s idea of Vogüé’s opposing the rational, materialistic West to mystical, irrational Russia and discovers and examines an opposition of the French (Latin) spirit to the Norhern spirit of the Germans and the Slavs, differing in their thinking modes. “Vogüé’s Paradox”, revealed and formulated by V. P. Trykov, is revised. There is no conscious repulsion from the French paradigm of rationality combined with an involuntary attraction to it in «Le Roman Russe». It is proved that Vogüé positevely regarded “l’esprit français” (clarity and precision of thinking, sense of taste and measure, limitation of the investigation field), while disapproving of materialistic and nihilistic rationality. The true paradox of Vogüé’s perception is found in his understanding of the phenomenon of genius, which combines the classicist, romantic and realist conceptions of genius. Vogüé’s values determine his perception of the Russian literature: he doesn’t think much of the Russian Classicism and Romanticism due to their secondary and imitating nature, he praises Pouchkine for his classical Latin mind in his creative work while refusing him the national genius status.