‘What is it that your soul adores?' Vladimir Mikheev

Abstract

In her article, E. Shcheglova remembers the recently deceased author V. Mikheev: sadly, he was largely ignored by critics. Short stories constitute the biggest part of his oeuvre; it is as a master of the smaller form that Mikheev makes a lasting impression. His stories are typified by unobtrusive psychologism, sympathy, and convincing and detailed plots. The main topics of his stories are life and love in the Russian provinces (especially love between mature people, often viewed as failures by those around them), as well as parting with the Soviet era, embodied by such recognizable symbols as N. Ostrovsky's Pavka Korchagin. As Shcheglova points out, a man in Mikheev's works is in permanent search of self, be it in politics, family, art or literature, or even in East-Asian Buddhist philosophy. The same search is depicted in Mikheev's unfinished novel, although the critic argues that the ‘medium of the novel' does not agree with the writer: the readers are likely to remember him as an author of short lyrical prose rather than a novelist. In any case, we are looking at another important Russian writer of the early 21st c.