“TWILIGHT OF GODS” IN SERGEY STRATANOVSKY'S POETIC BOOK “ANIMATION OF THE TAMBOURINE”

The paper analyses the book Animation of the Tambourine by Sergey Stratanovskii. The research focuses on the poetic interpretation of the Russian peoples’ myths (Karelian-Finnish, Mari, Mordovian, Udmurt, Chuvash, Mansi , Tatar, Bashkir, Buryat, Chukchee, Nivkhi, Yakut, etc.). Special emphasis is made on the analysis of the poetry which refers to Finno-Ugric legends and myths. The author considers that S. Stratanovskii not only educes the unique character of certain cultures but also reveals universal archetypical structures which moderate surface differences on the primal level. The main conflict of the book is the clash between heathen beliefs and Christian faith which replaced them. Most texts deflect S. Stratanovskii’s ‘basic myth’, i.e. the ‘civilization myth’ about the Teacher’s arrival. Reference to fiction pretexts ( Calevala , A. Blok, K. Zhakov and Y. Rytkheu, etc. ) play an important role in sense making. Text analysis lets the author draw the conclusion of conventionality of artistic time continuum which correlates with past and present as well which means the hic et ubique situation rather than a given period in human history. Animation of the Tambourine raises a most important problem for the present-day Russia, namely the problem of interrelationship between the Russian and indigenous ethnic groups’ cultures. The fact ascending to folklore - fundamental variability of the book - is noted as there are a few copies of Animation of the Tambourine written by the author himself which differ in number of texts and genre composition.