Artistic work of the Yakutia People’s Writer P.N. Kharitonov-Oyuku

Abstract

The P. N. Kharitonov’s heritage includes several collections of poetry, autobiographical proze, a number of journalistic and critical books; however, the greatest contribution to the genre of the novel he made as the author of a monumental historical work in four volumes “The Bells over the Lena”, dedicated to the “works and days” of several generations of “sovereign coachmen”, Russian peasants who settled on the Yakut land. The relevance of studying the Oyuku’s artistic work lies not only in the fact that it has not been sufficiently studied, but also in the author’s philosophy of the history, according to which it is necessary to assess the modern era in the context of the past and taking into account the development prospects.

The author of the novel, who was born and spent his childhood on Toyon Aryy, one of the largest and most beautiful Lena islands, surrounded by Russian coachmen, reproduced his genealogy and told about his young years in the story “On the Threshold of Life”. As for the novel “The Bells over the Lena”, its specifity lies in the fact that each of the four parts has its own intra-genre characteristics: the first book has the outlines of a moral narrative, the second corresponds to the logic of the educational genre, the third and fourth volumes are built according to the historical and chronicle principle. The Oyuku’s novel reveals the special ethnic mentality of “sovereign coachmen”. For a long time, being surrounded by the Yakut people, they not only adopted the way of life, mastered the Yakut language, but also influenced the Yakuts and, in particular, spread farming and grain growing in their new homeland, and also managed to preserve their traditions and customs, legends and ceremonies, songs and dances. The article shows that in artistic terms the novel “The Bells over the Lena” is one of the best examples of modern Yakut literature.