Emanation of L. Tolstoy’s “folk thought” in the work of B. Okudzhava

The issue of the axiological role of Russian literature in creating the humanitarian image of Russia is focused. Attention is focused on the seeming incompatibility of pacifist views and positions of the unconditional need to defend the Motherland in the Patriotic Wars. The positions of L. Tolstoy and B. Okudzhava on this issue are compared in the light of the concept of the synthetic theory of P.N. Sakulin, which determines the continuity of ideas in culture. The diachronic differences in the formation of the image of the Russian people as a defender of their land at the cost of self-sacrifice are analyzed. The meaning of the concept of “people” in different periods of historical time and its refraction in a changing social context are problematized. In this regard, a spiritual invariant is fixed, which retains its role in culture from A.S. Pushkin to the present day. Based on the texts of B. Okudzhava’s poems, the solution of the contradictions between pacifism, the rejection of war and the defense of the fatherland as a modus of saving the “land” from universal evil, which is not tied to any particular nation, is substantiated. It has been established that L. Tolstoy metaphorizes the people-defender in the image of a bee swarm – in a dynamic quality, while  B. Okudzhava presents the same idea in a monolithic-phytomorphic form of a tree-like “growing” into the ground. It is proved that Russia is depicted in its natural right, and the natural right to protect the habitat from violent invasion determines the humanitarian image of Russia. The all-human pathos of denial of aggression in the work of these authors is emphasized.