A Historiosophical problematic of the cycle of I.S. Turgenev “A Sportsman's Sketches " is one of the least studied aspects of the writer's work. The main purpose of this article is to research mithopoetic forms of the embodiment of Turgenev’s philosophy of the history in the literally system of the story “Bezhin Lea”, which is the key for the cycle. Scientific relevance and novelty of the work is determined by the new possibilities of interpretation of Turgenev’s textbook. The analysis of symbolic overtones of the story finds here the artistic encoded concept of the historical fates of Russia and of humanity as a whole; empirically observed development of the human society is explained by Turgenev through the logic of sacred metahistory.

The author concludes that Turgenev’s history model is implemented in the system works as a myth through a series of associative and symbolic images and motives. However, the mythologized view of the world does not destroy the essay and factual nature of the story. Myth and reality live here in the dialogue, opening each other both for themselves and for the reader. In the context of this dialogue, the national historical myth is inextricably linked with the myth of the Fall and with the eschatological myth, and in the processes of dialogue mutual reflections each of them not only plays its traditional content, but also substantially enriches it.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2014-3-3