The image of „the National Leader” and his people in Dmitry Glukhovsky's short stories

Abstract

The article focusses on three distinct yet interrelated images: the „National Leader” (Glukhovsky's synonym for the president of Russia), Russians and public officials collectively constituting the contemporary Russian society. Dmitry Glukhovsky creates the president’s figure through propaganda portraits, highlighting their cultural and religious symbolism in an almost poetic manner. In Glukhovsky’s short fiction the people of Russia are presented in an opposition to the overdecorated image of the president. They are depicted as fearful and humble, afraid to „crawl out of a crack in the kitchen floor”. The third kind of characters – the public officials – are depicted as senseless and heartless individuals mindlessly following orders to satisfy their own ambitions and financial needs. Meanwhile, the backdrop for these characters is a dying homeland.