Feuilletons by F. V. Volkhovsky (Ivan Brut)
in the “Siberian newspaper”

F. V. Volkhovsky lived in Tomsk since 1881. Almost immediately he began to actively cooperate with the “Siberian newspaper” and eventually became its leading feuilletonist. During
his work, Volkhovsky published 89 feuilletons on its pages, more than half of the edition’s
feuilletons.

A huge role in the formation of the poetics of feuilletons by F. V. Volkhovsky is played by
“literary masks” with characteristic features of his biography and personal qualities. The work
of F. V. Volkhovsky with the images of feuilletonists is best manifested in the image of Ivan
Brut. It is in the feuilletons of Ivan Brut that the dialogicity is manifested, which was not previously characteristic of the author, and also the diversity of satire is revealed even deeper –
in the materials there are many characters with whom the feuilletonist discusses the phenomena of social life. Ivan Brut is the most frequent image of the feuilletonist used by F. V.
Volkhovsky – 22 feuilletons have been written under this pseudonym.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the features and meaning of the feuilletonist’s image in
the materials of F. V. Volkhovsky on the example of the narrator Ivan Brut (1883–1888).
As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that Ivan Brut was perhaps the
brightest character in the artistic and journalistic history of the first private newspaper in
Western Siberia. This is the only full-fledged and thoughtful image of the feuilletonist – with
his pedigree, biography and position, on many issues (in view of the democratization of the
image) different from the author’s. Thus, Ivan Brut becomes not just a pseudonym, but a full-
fledged co-author who constantly refers the reader to the same artistic images and thoughts.
Despite a similar populist position with the author, Ivan Brut was able to “separate” from his
personality and become a separate figure and a full-fledged member of the editorial board.

The tradition of creating “literary masks” of feuilletonists was continued in the Tomsk newspaper “Sibirskaya Zhizn” (1894–1919), which to some extent was the “heir” of the
“Sibirskaya Gazeta”. This technique expanded the satirical possibilities of feuilletonists, made
it possible to involve readers in the literary game, and thereby increased interest in public
problems that were discussed in the feuilletons. The image of Ivan Brut created by
Volkhovsky in this respect turned out to be a kind of “reference point” for all subsequent generations of Tomsk feuilletonists of the 19 th – early 20 th centuries.