The category of conscience in Soviet literature of the 1920s (on the material of A. Fadeev’s novel “The Debacle”)

Abstract

The article demonstrates the difference between two interpretations of conscience – traditional and post-revolutionary. In the first case, conscience is the inner distinction between good and evil (V. Dal’), which is present in every person. In the second case, conscience is “responsibility for one’s behavior to other people, society” (S. Ozhegov). The author of the article shows that in A. Fadeev’s novel “The Debacle” positive characters evolve in the direction from the first interpretation of conscience to the second interpretation.