Steamboats in Eugene Chirikov᾿s Life and Work

Images of Volga steamships take an important place in the works of Eugene Chirikov (1864–1932) written by him both before the Revolution 1917 and in exile.The writer’s attention and love for this type of water transport is explained not only by his biography (Chirikov was born and grоwn up on the banks of the Volga, traveled a lot along it, etc.), but also by his assuarance in the special role of the Volga the main waterway of Russia that playing a great role in the fate of the country and people. Therefore, the steamer in Chirikov’s prose appears as a kind of spiritual center, and among its passengers, the greatest interest of the author is caused by pilgrims and pilgrims from the peasant environment, whose prayers, spiritual disputes, songs, legends and legends reflect, according to the writer, the aspiration of the national consciousness to the “Truth of God”. They are opposed to the “pure public” from the 1st class, the description of which reflects not only the author’s critical view of the unfair, in his opinion, social structure of modern society, but also his anxiety caused by the loss of a living religious feeling and spiritual and moral ideals by representatives of the upper strata, without which as history has shown the existence of Russia itself is impossible.