Беглые в Новороссии. Воля. Княжна Тараканова

Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky (1829-1890), writer of the second half of the 19th century, is known mainly as the author of historical novels, which he created in the eighties . Undeservedly forgotten are his novels about runaway serfs - "The Runaways in Novorossiya" and "Volya" ("The Runaways Have Returned"), written under the fresh impression of the tense atmosphere of the pre-reform years and the wave of peasant uprisings that swept across the country after the announcement of the reform. “The Fugitives in Novorossiya” and “Volya” (“The Fugitives Have Returned”) are not connected by any common characters or plot, and yet they are united by an internal, deep connection - the unity of the writer’s ideological plan. In both novels, Danilevsky showed peasant “will”, in the first - obtained by escape, in the second - “granted” by the autocracy. Neither one nor the other brought, and could not bring, genuine liberation to the peasants. This general conclusion, to which the author leads the reader, and the anti-serfdom orientation of the novels unites them into one whole.