Semyon Mashinski

And so far we have no book on Tolstoy's aesthetic views. It is a pity. Such a book would help us not only to comprehend the artistic consequences and theoretical positions of the brilliant writer, but also to penetrate more deeply into some essential and complex problems of our contemporary art. However, this topic has long attracted the attention of our science. In the works of V. Asmus, B. Bursov, S. Bychkov, K. Lomunov, L. Opulska, V. Malinkovsky and other researchers, many essential aspects of Tolstoy's aesthetic system have been revealed. But it is so broad and contradictory that from time to time it is necessary to re-check or specify some of its boundaries in order to present the general picture as reliably as possible. Only in this case can one clearly understand what of Tolstoy's aesthetic heritage belongs to the past and what continues to live actively now. The aesthetic views of the great artist are always interesting - interesting because we involuntarily connect these views with his living creative practice and in this way we can visually verify their vitality and depth. Therefore, we should far from consider Tolstoy's aesthetics only as "the self-knowledge of a brilliant artist." Such a view, which sometimes exists in our country, narrows and impoverishes its meaning. Tolstoy's aesthetic views summarize not only his own work, but also the artistic experience of Russian and world literature.

A quarter century - this is, one might say, the minute hand of history. Especially for a people like the Bulgarians, whose history and culture have existed for so long. And at the same time, the last twenty-five years are an entire era in the social life and consciousness of this people, saturated with a huge and diverse historical experience. The desire to make sense of this experience, to understand its roots and meaning, is a characteristic feature of contemporary Bulgarian literature. Bulgarian writers with remarkable intensity develop the dramatic events of the September Uprising of 1923. For the first time in Europe, the dawn of anti-fascist battles flared up. The Bulgarian people took the front lines of the front, which had, as it soon became clear, global significance. The scale and historical meaning of this struggle are clearly felt in Georgi Karaslavov's epic "Ordinary People" and in Emilian Stanev's "Ivan Kondarev".