“Judgment” of the Literary Character as the Interactive Phenomenon of the Literary Work’s Socio-Cultural Existence: The Case of Leonid Andreev

The article deals with the literary and public reaction to Leonid Andreyev’s play Ekaterina Ivanovna. The “trial” over a literary character took place in the literary world before this case, but no “case” was so widely covered in the press as the “trial” over Ekaterina Ivanovna, which took place in the studio of director F. F. Kommissarzhevsky with the participation of representative members of the literary and theatre corporation. Leonid Andreev, who closely followed the reaction of the press, wrote a speech on behalf of the defendant. The unpublished monologue of the protagonist has been partially preserved and is included by the interpreter in the preface to the Еnglish edition of the play (1924). The article presents its back translation into Russian.