RIVER, DESERT AND FORTIFICATION IN VASILY YAN'S GENGHIS KHAN AND MIRMUHSIN'S KHUJAND FORTRESS

This article compares the narrative functions of natural and built environments in Vasily Yan’s Genghis Khan and Mirmuhsin’s Khujand Fortress (Temur Malik). Instead of treating landscape description as ornament, it investigates how river, steppe, desert and fortress organize conflict, collective action and representations of historical responsibility. The article proposes a distinction between strategic, existential and ethical meanings of landscape and identifies methodological limits to comparing historically related but nationally different novels.