The Image of a Revolutionary Terrorist in Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (Based on Ivan Kalyaev)
The article is devoted to the formation of the image of the revolutionary terrorist I.P. Kalyaev in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century amidst the Socialist Revolutionary Party and in literary circles. It has been shown that for the Social Revolutionaries, Kalyaev was a convenient figure used to justify revolutionary terrorism. Using his biography in order to demonstrate the fate of a revolutionary martyr, they received the sanctions of the society to continue the activities of the Social Revolutionaries’ Combat Organization. The article analyzes literary testimonies about Kalyaev made by his friend A.M. Remizov, a writer, who knew him well from his Vologda exile. Remizov’s story “Ivan Kupal” is considered as a message to his friend who went underground and a reminder about their previous meetings and joint plans in literature. Remizov’s text is notable for the fact that the author did not take into account the clearly established and guessable canons of description that had developed among the revolutionaries. Thus, the images of the revolutionary terrorist that were different in terms of their purposes and tasks were offered to the readers of the early 20th century.