Наумлюк, М. В. Региональная литература Кольского Севера XX-XXI века в аспекте идентичности и мультикультурности. Страницы истории и современность / М. В. Наумлюк ; М-во образования и науки Рос. Федерации, Мурм. гос. гуманитар. ун-т. - Мурманск, 2013.

longing was in the nature for the huge person!” Lapps - are the fantastic heroes of the mysterious northern world, “the tribe forgotten by the cultural world”. Prishvin spends a lot of time with them, repeats words of Lappish language, lis tens to legends, learns customs. The author is surprised, how these small, naive, fun-loving people live harmoniously under severe conditions of the North. Man living in the North and conquering its spaces is one more generalized character concentrating mythological, natural, psychological and national sense. Sergey Maximov in his book of essays “A Year in the North” (“God na Severe”) revealed basic features of Russian national character, personification of which he saw in Pomors and its origins in Pomors folklore. “The Russians are cheerful in pleasure, don’t fall into boredom. The depression breaks our people, but they have a lot of strength to be the great people”. As Maximov decides, the severe climate and biting cold can’t fight the Russians. The Russians in the North not so much struggle with the difficulties, but lead high-grade life, using all north treasures: fish, berries, animals, wood... He writes that in the North he meet especially healthy people because “pure sea air, a hard work, even the wine-glass of vodka drunk in time, strengthen forces and spirit of the Russian person” [Maximov, 1987, vol. 1, p. 36, 82-83, 111, 204, 211, 246]. Russian man in the North, as Maximov discerned him - free, industrious, fearless, patient, hospitable, healthy, able to joke, not broken down by misfor tunes - personifies indeed best, idealized national character traits. Prishvin is in accord with him. However, the real northerners for Prishvin are the Pomors. The Pomors are considered as the essence of the Russian nation. “It is a unique cor ner of Russia known to me, where people are proud of the native land”. A Po- mor writes a letter to an imperial official about life in the North: “Our region is rich, the best northern region because all northern riches aren’t touched”. The Pomors live with passion, risk fishing in the rough sea, work with enjoyment, fight to death. Describing the Russian North, Prishvin unites real and fantastic lines. It is interesting to notice that fantastic and mystical images are caused by forms of the northern country, a palette of northern paints, dead silence, the white nights, and powerful rhythms of natural life. The Lapps keep the most ancient forms of life and legends. The Pomors for Prishvin are the embodiment of the national character and the basement of the Russian life Discovering the subject of the North in world literature at the turn of XIX-XX centuries London, Prishvin and Sluchevsky created a whole artistic image of the Kola North connecting with the system of poetic symbols - con cepts of space, time, nature, life, death... Living in the North forms national character and, undoubtedly, there are similar features between characters of Maximov and Prishvin and characters of Ibsen dramas and London stories. We note romanticism, bravery, sternness and rebel origin in the character of Brand, Per Gunt, Borkman, London’s gold diggers. 85