Past, Present and Future in the Execution Diary of Andrei Arzhilovsky: A Motivational Analysis of the Temporal Basis of the Ego-Document

About the author:

Nadezhda A. Nikulina, Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Department of Intercultural Communication, Tyumen Industrial University; nadya-nika2006@yandex.ru

Abstract:

The article proposes the result of understanding the features of the embodiment of the temporal paradigm (past — present — future) in a personal diary using motivational analysis. The object of attention was the evidence, the person who failed to fit his ideas about the world into the ideological matrix of Soviet Russia, which means that the temporal basis of his diary text is specific and even symptomatic for such writing situations. The story of Andrei Stepanovich Arzhilovsky (1885-1937) is an example of the fate of a person who was formed as a person in the pre-revolutionary era, but in the period of post-revolutionary transformations turned out to be among the enemies of the people. In 1920, he was convicted for the first time for participating in the work of the zemstvo council under Kolchak, and in 1929 as a wealthy peasant. During his life at large (after seven years in the camps) — just over a year — he kept a diary, recording everyday observations there, doubts about the new way of life established in the country, worries about raising children, thinking about the movement of time and the fate of mankind, describing his dreams and statements about books which he read and famous people. Important motives of this ego document are “time”, “memory”, “writing (authorship)” and some other motives (“weather”, “food”, “warmth” etc.), illustrating the worldview attitudes of people, who are not always agree with the transformations taking place in Russia. It is the motivational analysis of this ego-document that allows one to come to the study of topical problems of anthropology and literary criticism, where the life story and personal diary of Andrei Stepanovich Arzhilovsky is a unique source for understanding the universal writing strategies characteristic of Russian life at the beginning of the twentieth century and which have not lost their relevance after many decades.

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