«Пишу Вам не для полемики, а потому, что не могу молчать…»

The literature and the policy in our country always adjoined closely enough. Russian writers aspired not only to reflect and convict «ulcers» of Russian society in literary texts, mentioning tpolicy area, but also to join in public life. V. G. Korolenko wasn’t an exception. His involvement in Russian public life during his life is demonstrated by his publication of 700 publicistic products devoted to «topic of the day». After Bolshevist revolution, performance against the government in press pages became impossible. Then the writer staged the protest against Bolshevist excesses not in articles, but in letters to new leaders («To us, far-outers, it is necessary to write not articles, and reports», – the writer marked in the first letter to Lunacharsky), such as H. G. Rakovsky and A. V. Lunacharsky. The writer has expressed the main theme and objective of these letters in the letter to Rakovsky from June 13, 1919: «And, maybe, another word of an old man, Korolenko, who has kept bourgeois prejudices about freedom, about justice, about sanctity of human life, will find the response in Bolshevist souls». Focusing on the theme, all letters of Korolenko to Rakovsky (34 texts during the period between 1919 and 1921) and to Lunacharsky (1 text was not added both in undispatched letter and a cycle of 6 letters as of 1920) will be analyzed in detail. These letters weren’t reduced to condemnation of extreme forms of revolutionary violence, but included the well-grounded and reasonable criticism by the writer of «military communism», which was a substantiation of what should be a true socialism. The letters contain numerous requests for help to the innocent subject to repression and – that is especially interesting – a number of comparisons of a new mode with an old one, not in favor of the first. Considering the letters of Korolenko to Rakovsky and to Lunacharsky, it is necessary to consider that the writer was connected with Rakovsky in friendly relations and with Lunacharsky especially in business relations. It, certainly, has left a certain mark on the texts of letters. However, in general all of them were included in the context of a special epistolary genre «letters to the leader», that is, letters to heads of the Soviet state. We will notice that Rakovsky willingly responded to requirements and requests of Korolenko; the texts possess various reciprocal letters and telegrams. The short mention is known in «Letters from Poltava» (1921). These texts are directed against excesses of the white power. It is important that they have been published in Ekaterinodar which was at that time under the power of White Guards. «Letters to Lunacharsky» was not published, despite the addressee’s promises to make it. Lunacharsky even asserted that some letters included in the cycle didn’t represent the facts. In our opinion, it is possible to talk about larger tolerance of the white power in comparison with the Bolshevist power. The spectrum of mentioned problems in letters by Korolenko to Rakovsky and to Lunacharsky is very wide. Korolenko wrote about bureaucracy, about informing against people, about freedom of press and publication, about arbitrary executions, about provocations from the authorities, and about that danger to Bolsheviks, which is not in external conditions, but in their own actions. Korolenko repeatedly asked about the help to many people. Letters by V. G. Korolenko to H. G. Rakovsky and A. V. Lunacharsky are a new stage of development of the publicism by Korolenko, which forcedly has accepted new forms at the new power and a part of the special genre «letter of chief».