Демон поверженный: Российская культура XX века

Ėta kniga zadumyvalasʹ avtorom kak uchebnik, a prevratilasʹ po mere raboty nad neĭ v ispovedʹ cheloveka, vlozhivshego zhiznʹ v pogibshee, no ot ėtogo ne menee interesnoe delo - issledovanie rossiĭskoĭ kulʹtury. Bolʹnoe porozhdenie bolʹnoĭ sistemy, russkai͡a kulʹtura obrechena vmeste s sistemoĭ i pogibnutʹ. Russkai͡a t͡sivilizat͡sii͡a, po mysli Dmitrii͡a Bykova, mozhet eshchë kakoeto vremi͡a funkt͡sionirovatʹ - institut͡sionalʹno ili fizicheski, no ne soderzhatelʹno. Soderzhanie proekta ischerpano, on prishel k logichnomu i neizbezhnomu samounichtozhenii͡u. Iz Rossii nachisto ushlo, uekhalo ili poprostu vymerlo to, za chto Gospodʹ eë terpel. A znachit, avtoru prikhoditsi͡a imetʹ delo s zavershënnym prot͡sessom - v ėtom print͡sipialʹnai͡a novizna predlagaemogo issledovanii͡a. Tolʹko zakonchennyĭ prot͡sess i dostupen izuchenii͡u: dli͡a analiza russkoĭ kulʹtury segodni͡a nastupilo optimalʹnoe vremi͡a, chto i podtverzhdaetsi͡a vsemirno vozrosshim interesom k neĭ. Razve ne estʹ konechnai͡a t͡selʹ vsi͡akoĭ literatury - biograficheskoĭ, v chastnosti, - poni͡atʹ, pochemu ėto tak zakonchilosʹ? Novai͡a kniga Dmitrii͡a Bykova - do zhestokosti gorʹkai͡a, no pri ėtom takai͡a zhivai͡a, takai͡a strastnai͡a i gori͡achai͡a, chto zakradyvaetsi͡a somnenie: do kont͡sa li verit sam avtor v osnovnoĭ eë postulat o smerti russkoĭ kulʹtury?..

This book was conceived by the author as a textbook, and as he worked on it, it turned into a confession of a man who put his life into the dead, but this is no less interesting — the study of Russian culture. A sick product of a sick system, Russian culture is doomed to perish along with the system. Russian civilization, according to Dmitry Bykov, may still function for some time — institutionally or physically, but not meaningfully. The content of the project has been exhausted, it has come to a logical and inevitable self-destruction. What the Lord tolerated her for is completely gone, gone, or simply extinct from Russia. This means that the author has to deal with a completed process — this is the fundamental novelty of the proposed research. Only the completed process is available for study: today is the optimal time for analyzing Russian culture, which is confirmed by the worldwide increased interest in it. Isn't the ultimate goal of all literature—biographical, in particular—to understand why it ended this way? Dmitry Bykov's new book is bitterly bitter, but it is so lively, so passionate and fervent that one wonders if the author himself fully believes in its basic postulate about the death of Russian culture..