The theme of relations between the artist and power in Sergey Maximov's dilogy Denis Bushuyev and Denis Bushuyev's Rebellion

This article examines the unique solution to the problem of the relationship between the creative personality and the state in the dilogy of the émigré writer Sergei Maximov. The author believes that this question is axiological, as it is related to the moral choices of the artist.The relationship between the artist and the authorities is directly linked to the historical situation and the political regime. The novels show different characters through the dialogue between the authorities and the artist. The choice of heroes is largely due to the Stalinist era, which totally restricted the artist's freedom of personal expression. One variant of the characters' behaviour is toadapt to the regime, with the consequent loss of individuality, writing to social order, creating stereotyped socialist-realistic texts, participating in establishing the «Stalinist myth», but living comfortably in the material world and without state repression. Maksimov speaks about the degradation of the artistic level in socialist realistic works that follow an invariant model, which results in the unification of creative individuality. Another important issue to the novelist is the artist's ethical authority, the idea of the moral responsibility of the writer strengthening the position of the criminal regime through his works. Alternatively, one can choose to find freedom of expression, opposition to power, leading to the destruction of the artist by the system. What both choices have in common is that it is a relationship of initially unequal forces, so their dialogue is not constructive.