Письмо-жалоба/просьба/оправдание как жанровая разновидность «письма властителю»

This work is the thematic continuation of research of addresses of Russian writers conducted by us in the authorities and in power structures with letters. We mean that that similar texts - letters of representatives of the Russian intellectuals, in particular writers, in the power - form the special epistolary genre possessing a number of distinctive features. We allocated the following versions of an analyzed genre: letter-invective; letter-declaration; letter-lampoon; letter denunciation; letter-complaint/ request/justification; letter-dithyramb/gratitude/creative report. The letters, which we conventionally call a letter of complaint/request/justification, addressed usually to a higher authority, sometimes his closest companions; they are usually portrayed extremely difficult life circumstances of the writer or of those for whom he asks. We have analyzed the following texts: XIX century: the Letters by Alexander Pushkin to Alexander I and Nicholas I, to Lermontov Government and Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, by N. V. Gogol to S. S. Uvarov, M. A. Dondukov-Korsakov, Nikolay I, L. A. Perovski / P. A. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov / A. F. Orlov, the heir Alexander, V. D. Olsufiev; by Dostoevsky to Alexander II; by L. N. Tolstoy to E. P. Kovalevsky, Alexander II, D. A. Tolstoy, D. N. Nabokov, Alexander III, K. P. Pobedonostsev, I. L. Goremykin, N. V. Muraviev, Nicholas II, A. G. Bulygin, P. A. Stolypin; by A. Grin to A. G. Bulygin; 1920s-1950s: Letters by M. A. Bulgakov to I. V. Stalin, M. I. Kalinin, A. I. Svidersky, A. M. Gorky, A. S. Yenukidze; to I. V. Stalin, by Zamyatin to A. I. Rykov, I. V. Stalin; by B. L. Pasternak to I. V. Stalin, by M. I. Tsvetaeva to L. P. Beria, by M. M. Zoshchenko to I. V. Stalin, A. S. Shcherbakov, A. A. Zhdanov; by M. A. Sholokhov to Stalin; by A. A. Akhmatova to Stalin; 1950s - 1980s: the Letters by B. Pasternak to N. S. Khrushchev, by V. N. Nekrasov to G. I. Vladykin, M. A. Suslov; by V. Katayev to the Central Committee of the CPSU; by A. T. Tvardovsky to the CPSU, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev, E.A. Furtseva; the Letter by 62 writers to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, by M. A. Sholokhov to G. I. Voronov, L. I. Brezhnev, by V. S. Vysotsky to V. I. Stepakov, P. N. Demichev. According to our calculations, in the framework of the «letters to king» was created by the 22 letters of complaint/requests/justification by 5 authors, in the framework of the «letters to chef» - 36 letters by 11 authors (and 1 letter collective; 6 authors with 20 texts belong to the first half of the century, 6 the authors with 15 texts, as well as a joint letter, the second; note that Pasternak and Sholokhov turned «up» in the first and in the second half of the XX century). In the nineteenth century is dominated by intercession for others, in the twentieth century - complaints of injustice to the authors of the letters. Thus, it is possible to speak not only about the quantitative predominance of complaint letters in the Soviet era, but also the difference in the themes of the texts. In our opinion, the obtained data enrich the ideas about the relationship between writers and rulers in Russia and confirm the existing view that Soviet censorship was much tighter Royal.