Two centuries of the Russian classics Two centuries of the Russian classics 2686-7494 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-2-284-303 Research Article Articles The Genre of the Sermon and its Interpretation in “Christ’s Night” and “The Christmas Tale” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Pavlova Irina B. red@rusklassika.ru 25 06 2026 8 2 284 303 M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin sermon parable rhetoric homiletics socio-moralistic stance enlightenment skepticism Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article is devoted to the aesthetic and genre originality of “Christ’s Night” and “The Christmas Tale” created by the satirist and social moralist Saltykov-Shchedrin in the 1880s. Educational and didactic tendencies have always been prominent in the writer’s artistic and journalistic works, and they are clearly manifested in these works. The author used poetic means developed by rhetoric and homiletics. “Christ’s Night” and “The Christmas Tale” are designed for active communication between the author and the reader; the writer pursues an edifying and agitational goal. They reflect the social and ethical ideals embodied in the allegorical images of Shame, Conscience, and Truth. Saltykov-Shchedrin relies heavily on the text of the New Testament, as well as on the style, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and compositional organization of the Orthodox sermon. The author examines the figurative means used from the perspective of their persuasive effect. However, there are also fundamental discrepancies between the literary sermon and the church sermon, conditioned by the writer’s worldview, formed under the influence of evangelical ethicism, the democratic ideas of the 1840s–1860s, and utopian socialism. Averintsev, S. S. “Pritcha” [“Parable”]. Sofiia–Logos. Slovar’ [Sofia–Logos. Dictionary]. Kiev, “Duch i litera” Publ., 2006, pp. 361–363. (In Russ.) Averintsev, S. S. “Propoved’” [“Sermon”]. Sofiia–Logos. Slovar’ [Sofia–Logos. Dictionary]. Kiev, “Duch i litera” Publ., 2006, pp. 363–364. (In Russ.) Aliakrinskaia, M. A. Literaturnaia kritika M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina (k probleme kriticheskogo metoda) [Literary Criticism of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (On the Problem of the Writer’s Critical Method): PhD Thesis, Summary]. Leningrad, 1980. 18 p. (In Russ.) Arutiunova, N. D. “O styde i sovesti” [“On Shame and Conscience”]. Arutiunova, N. D. Logicheskii analiz iazyka. Iazyki ietiki [Logical Analysis of Language. The Languages of Ethics] Moscow, Iazyki russkoi kul’tury Publ., 2000. 448 p. (In Russ.) Arutiunova, N. D. Iazyk i mir cheloveka [Language and the World of Man]. Moscow, Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury Publ., 1999. 913 p. (In Russ.) Bakhtin, M. M. “Problema rechevykh zhanrov” [“The Problem of Speech Genres”]. Bakhtin, M. M. Sobranie sochinenii: v 7 t. [Collected Works: in 7 vols.], vol. 5. Moscow, Russkie slovari Publ., 1997. 733 p. (In Russ.) Bushmin, A. S. Hudozhestvennyi mir Saltykova-Shhedrina [The Artistic World of Saltykov-Shchedrin]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1987. 368 p. (In Russ.) Itskovich, T. V. “O kompozicionno-tematicheskom razvertyvanii tserkovnoi propovedi” [“On the Compositional and Thematic Development of the Church Sermons”]. Izvestiia Ural’skogo gosudarsvennogo universiteta, no. 41, 2006, pp. 163–175. (In Russ.) Kolosova, S. N. “Stilevoe svoeobrazie skazok M. E. Saltykova-Shhedrina” [“The Stylistic Originality of the Tales of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin”]. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta. Seriia: Russkaia filologiia, no. 5, 2022, pp. 67–78. (In Russ.) Koroleva, V. B. “Zhanrovye variatsii v tvorchestve Saltykova-Shchedrina” [“Genre Variations in the Works of Saltykov-Shchedrin”]. Dergachevskie chteniia 2008 [The Dergachev Readings 2008], vol. 1. Ekaterinburg, Ural University Publ., 2009, pp. 216–222. (In Russ.) Lotman, Iu. M. “Literatura v kontekste russkoi kul’tury XVIII veka” [“Literature in the Context of Russian Culture of the 18th Century”]. O russkoi literature. Stat’i i issledovaniia [On Russian Literature. Articles and Research]. St. Peterburg, Iskusstvo Publ., 1997. 848 p. (In Russ.) Mysliakov, V. A. Saltykov-Shchedrin i narodnicheskaia demokratiia [Saltykov- Shchedrin and Populist Democracy]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1984. 262 p. (In Russ.) Feodosii, Episkop Polotskii i Glubokskii. Gomiletika. Teoriia tserkovnoi propovedi [Homiletics. The Theory of Church Preaching]. Moscow, Samshit–izd. Publ., 2007. 334 p. (In Russ.) Khazagerov, G. G., and M. N. Mironenko. “Ritoricheskoe v poietike M. E. Saltykova- Shchedrina” [“The Rhetorical in the Poetics of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin”]. Izvestiia Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, no. 2 (87), 2014, pp. 158–162. (In Russ.)