Change in the concept of personality in the Russian social consciousness at the beginning of the XX century (based on the novel "Envy" by Yu. Olesha)

Abstract

In the article the author writes about a change of a person in a new historical space in the XX century after the October Revolution based on the novel "Envy" by Yury Olesha. The novel displays how a new ideal of personality is formed, as a machine. An intelligent, as a representative of the past, does not fit the new reality any more. The intelligent is afraid to think and create, he is divorced from a full life. The change of a person occurs according to the plan. The plan aims to make the subject better than the past generation's human. If a person is treated as a material, like a thing, then the person should
not have any feelings. However, Yury Olesha writes it is not so, a man remains a man both in capitalist and in socialist societies. Yury Olesha also reveals his understanding of the person with the example of the heroes in his novel. He does not only narrate events, but also plunges into the inner world of one of the heroes. Thereby the integrity of the person’s perception and all its surrounding world is achieved.