Onomastic Code of the Poem by N. A. Mel’nikov “Russian Cross”

The publication reveals the aesthetic significance of the names in N. A. Mel’nikov’s poem “Russian Cross”, traces the spiritual evolution of the protagonist Ivan Rostov by considering his name in the context of Russian linguistic culture (in comparison with stable expressions Russian Ivan, Ivan who does not remember kinship, take the cross, carry one’s cross, and with fabulous mythological images of Ivan Tsarevich and Ivan the Fool) and in correlation with the onomastic space of the poem. The analysis of the contexts of the use of onyms, their expressive and pictorial properties, and the internal form made it possible to identify groups of names with predominantly reduced connotative semantics and with positive connotative semantics. The first type of connotation was found in the poetonyms Russia, Raseya, Moscow, Petrovski Skit (of the XX century), the Temple of the Assumption, (“drunk”) Ivan, Klava, Natasha, Tan’ka. The names Russia / Raseya have the aesthetic meaning of “a deep, dissolute, impoverished, restless, long-suffering, capable of revival country and its simple-minded inhabitants”. Anthropoetonyms of this group nominate characters who have departed from the Orthodox faith and forgotten spiritual and moral values. The second type of connotation is recorded in the names of Rus’, Holy Rus’, George, Rostov, Petr, Petrovski Skit (from the time of Petr Rostov), Fedosei, (“changed”) Ivan, Kubik. Onyms of Rus’ / Holy Rus’ reveal the aesthetic meaning of “the Orthodox space chosen by God, the place of salvation, the inhabitants of which adhere to patriarchal views, are not “spoiled” by civilization, are turned to the Orthodox faith”, which is associated with the names of the group and with the reverential poetonyms Faith, Darkness, Light, Angel, Cross, Deity, Temple, People, etc. Proper names express the originality of the author’s religious and moral picture of the world, which is based on the Orthodox ideal of Holy Ancient Rus’.