The Semantics of Railways in the Works of N.S. Leskov

The article examines the works of N.S. Leskov related to the railway. The travelogue "From One Travel Diary," written based on publications from a journey along the Warsaw Railway, where the railway becomes a chronotope. And two stories from the cycle "Christmas Stories," where the railway serves as a locus of the works. Today, there is a renewed interest in the writer's creativity. Articles dedicated to him include: T.M. Uzdeeva's “The Concept of ‘Road’ in the Epic Novel by L.N. Tolstoy ‘War and Peace’ and N.S. Leskov's Story ‘The Enchanted Wanderer’” (2025), S.I. Zenkevich's “N.S. Leskov as a Reader (1876): Towards the Release of Volume 15 of the Complete Works of N.S. Leskov” (2024), N.Yu. Filimonova's “The Formation of N.S. Leskov's Journalism (Collaboration with the Newspaper ‘Russian Speech’)” (2024), E.R. Petrova's “Anthroponymicon of N.S. Leskov's Story ‘The Life of One Woman’” (2024) and others. Leskov also attracts the attention of foreign authors such as J.-C. Marcard, Anna Dwyer, and Stefan L. Bayer. However, researchers pay little attention to railway plots in Leskov's works, especially domestic literary critics. Although N.A. Nepomniachtchikh noted that if the perception of the railway as a "road to the other world" is characteristic of Russian literature of that period, only Leskov brought positive connotations to it. The article employs biographical and structural-semantic methods of scientific research, as well as text analysis of the author. Leskov skillfully uses the new opportunities of the chronotope and locus of the railway in his artistic works. Therefore, examining the semantics of the railway in them represents a new study of aspects of his creativity and narrative style. In the travelogue "From One Travel Diary," based on journalistic essays during a trip along the St. Petersburg-Warsaw line, the railway plays the role of a chronotope. In the two works from the cycle "Christmas Stories": "Traveling with a Nihilist" and "Selected Grain," the locus of the railway is utilized. The author's attitude towards this means of transportation is neutral, unlike many of his contemporary writers. Leskov effectively employs the railway, providing additional resources of artistic expressiveness necessary for unveiling the meaning of his works.