“Сruel memory” about the past and its lyrical surmounting: Transformation of a theme in memorate and song

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the song “It's long since I have been in the Donbass...” (lyrics by N. K. Dorizo, music by N. V. Bogoslovsky), which was popular in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. I analyse how the song refects its “source” text: the memoirs of the actor S. V. Luk'yanov, the prototype of the protagonist of the song, in which he described an actual episode from his biography that made a very strong impression on him. I attempt to reconstruct the events in Luk'yanov's life that were reinterpreted in a very specifc way in his memorate. I also consider the literary context of motifs present both in the song and in the memorate and uncover the text-producing models that lie at the source of both narratives.