Two centuries of the Russian classics

2686-7494

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-2-200-219

Research Article

Articles

The Story “Alyosha the Pot” by Leo Tolstoy: Interpretation Experience

Pavlova

Irina B.

red@rusklassika.ru

25 06 2025

7 2 200 219

: good evil L. N. Tolstoy pot father-master laws of being non- resistance to evil folklore

2026

The article is devoted to the artistic realization of the theme of the confrontation between good and evil in the story “Alyosha the Pot” (1905) by Leo Tolstoy on the metaphysical, socio-psychological, historical, and ethical levels. The hero of the work, genetically associated with folklore, combines humility, non-resistance to evil, love for one’s neighbors, and a timid awakening of the personal principle. The researcher focuses on the image of the “pot,” associated with biblical and folklore traditions, which is the semantic core of the story, and the image of the “father-master,” acting as an intermediary in the spread of evil. The article analyzes the functions of such artistic details as ice, and iron boots, symbolic of the fate of Alyosha the Pot. The author examines the phenomenon of thirst and surprise, which acquires metaphysical significance, which is characteristic of Tolstoy’s late works when it comes to good and evil, life and death, and man’s relationship with eternity. The story embodies the writer’s ideological contradictions, his desire for his own interpretation of the Holy Scripture, and an apology for the idea of non-resistance. According to the internal logic of the artistic text, the image of the “father-master” is debunked, and Alyosha Gorshok has come closer to the mystery of eternal life. The apotheosis of the story is the depiction of the inescapable confrontation between good and evil in the world.

Baryshnikov, E. P. “Bol’shie problemy malen’kogo rasskaza. (ʽAlesha Gorshok’ L. N. Tolstogo)” [“Big Problems of the Small Story. (ʽAlyosha the Pot’ by Leo Tolstoy”)]. Voprosy stilia khudozhestvennoi literatury. Uchenye zapiski Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo instituta, no. 231, 1964, pp. 274–282. (In Russ.)

Batulina, A. V. “K voprosu o funktsionirovanii frazeologizmov bibleiskogo proiskhozhdeniia v sovremennom diskurse” [“On the Issue of the Functioning of Phraseological Units of Biblical Origin in Modern Discourse”]. Vestnik Novgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, no. 57, 2010, pp. 10–12. (In Russ.)

Dvorkin, A. L. Ocherki po istorii Vselenskoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi [Essays on the History of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church. Course of Lectures]. Nizhny Novgorod, Izdatel’stvo Bratstva vo imia sviatogo kniazia Aleksandra Nevskogo Publ., 2003. 816 p. (In Russ.)

Dunaev, M. M. Vera v gornile somnenii. Pravoslavie i russkaia literatura v XVII–XX vv. [Faith in the Crucible of Doubts. Orthodoxy and Russian Literature in the 17th–20th Cen- turies]. Moscow, Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2002. 1056 p. (In Russ.)

Kocheshkova, L. E. Khudozhestvennaia filosofiia i poetika “maloi” prozy L. N. Tolstogo v svete problemy tselostnosti: ot povesti “Kazaki” k rasskazu “Alesha Gorshok” [Artistic Philosophy and Poetics of L. N. Tolstoy’s “Small” Prose in the Light of the Problem of Integrity: from the Novel “The Cossacks” to the Story “Alyosha the Pot”: PhD Thesis, Summary]. St. Petersburg, 2005. 21 p. (In Russ.)

Kurysheva, L. A. “Sentimental’naia narrativnaia proza o neschastlivoi liubvi. (K mortal’nomu razdelu slovaria siuzhetov i motivov russkoi literatury)” [“Sentimental Narrative Prose about Unhappy Love. (To the Mortal Section of the Dictionary of Plots and Motifs of Russian Literature)”]. Siuzhetologiia i siuzhetografiia, no. 2, 2017, pp. 14–56. (In Russ.)

Meletinskii, E. M. Geroi volshebnoi skazki [Hero of a Fairy Tale]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Academy of Cultural Studies Tradition Publ., 2005. 240 p. (In Russ.)

Sat, N. D. Osobennosti zhanrovoi poetiki “narodnykh rasskazov” L. N. Tolstogo [Features of the Genre Poetics of L. N. Tolstoy’s “Folk Stories”: PhD Thesis, Summary]. Barnaul, 2007. 27 p. (In Russ.)

Severtsev, V. V. “Udivlenie i uzhas: skhodstva i razlichiia v strukture filosofskogo vospriiatiia mira” [“Surprise and Horror: Similarities and Differences in the Structure of the Philosophical Perception of the World”]. Gumanitarnye vedomosti Tul’skogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta im. L. N. Tolstogo, no. 3 (31), 2019, pp. 217–228. DOI: 10.22405/2304-4772-2019-1-3-217-228 (In Russ.)

10.

Skripnik, A. P. “Zlo kak ontologicheskaia problema” [“Evil as an Ontological Problem”]. Problemy zla i teoditsei [The Problem of Evil and Theodicy]. Moscow, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ. 2006, pp. 166–173. (In Russ.)

11.

Tereshkina, D. B. “Intertekst ʽChet’ikh-Minei’ v rasskaze L. N. Tolstogo ʽAlesha Gorshok’.” [“Intertext of ʽChetyi-Minei’ in the Story of L. N. Tolstoy ʽAlyosha the Pot’.”] Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo gumanitarnogo universiteta im. M. A. Sholokhova. Filologicheskie nauki, no. 2, 2015, pp. 31–38. (In Russ.)

12.

Tolstaia, S. M. Obraz mira v tekste i ritual [The Image of the World in Text and Ritual]. Moscow, Dmitry Pozharsky University Publ., 2015. 528 p. (In Russ.)

13.

Fedorova, E. A. “ʽVelikie greshniki’ i pravedniki L. N. Tolstogo i F. M. Dostoevskogo v svete eticheskogo ucheniia A. A. Ukhtomskogo” [“ʽGreat Sinners’ and the Righteous of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky in the Light of A. A. Ukhtomsky’s Ethical Teaching”]. Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 6, no. 1, 2024, pp. 210–231. https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2024-6-1-210-231 (In Russ.)

14.

Eikhenbaum, B. M. “O protivorechiiakh L’va Tolstogo” [“On the Contradictions of Leo Tolstoy”]. Eikhenbaum, B. M. Lev Tolstoi: Issledovaniia. Stat’i [Leo Tolstoy: Research. Articles]. St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University Publ., 2009, pp. 711–733. (In Russ.)