Social and artistic ways of resolving problems in Russia (returning to Alexei Davydov's book "The Soul of Gogol")

The article discusses two topics. The first topic is a continuation of the contemplation of A. Davydov's book, which began in 2010. The author adds another understanding to the previously proposed explanation, which serves as a criticism of mediation. He believes that artistic creativity and the transformation of the psyche are quite capable of alleviating or removing inversion—the process where a personality splits, fractures, and oscillates between contradictions. Creativity and the transformation of the psyche, in this case, act as effective means of resolving the complex problems that arise in culture, not as a condition for achieving a middle ground (mediation), but as a process of reconciling oppositions within an individual. At the same time, the contradictions in culture generally remain unchanged. In the work, the author employs the following methodology: humanitarian and cultural-historical approaches, comparative analysis, and the reconstruction of the personalities and creativity of writers. The second topic is an analysis of two concepts of Russia's historical path and its place in Europe as the conceptual background against which Gogol's creativity unfolded. The author refers to the first concept as "missionary" and the second as "protective," which many rulers of Russia adhered to in the face of Europe. According to the missionary concept, Russia, despite its developmental lag, will eventually show the way to Europe, as it maintains a genuinely Christian spirit and other virtues. The protective concept is a complex of ideas and practical actions that guide Russia on a "special path of development," objectively generating opposition to Europe and the Western world. As a person of his time, Gogol embraced both concepts of Russia's path (missionary and protective) and wavered in this regard; as a genius writer, he represented and presented both concepts, aiding himself and his readers.