The Multiplicity of the Foundations of Russian Classical Literature

The article examines a number of ideological, social, ethical, aesthetic foundations on which the phenomena of Russian classical literature arose. Such foundations determined the content and form of literary phenomena. The work of Karamzin, Pushkin, and writers close to them developed on the basis of assimilation of European and Russian material, which took the form of cultural personalism. Subsequently, there was a change of fundamentals. The tendencies of criticism, social problemativeness, negativism have become predominant. Lermontov abolished Pushkin's measure of man and moved on to the hyperpolarization of personality in the poet's self-consciousness and in the lyrical "I". Gogol's work was governed by socio-anthropological criticism. In the era of crises, ideological struggle, Leskov did not find solid foundations for his worldview and creativity. The trends of the 1860s - 1870s led Dostoevsky to a deeply ethical and philosophical problematization of man. Chekhov's work reflects the tendencies of negativism of the late nineteenth century