"Step by Step" by Innokentiy Omulevskiy - a novel of "the new people" in the literary process of the second half of the 19th century
The author of the article considers one of characteristic democratic novels of the second half of the 19th century (the novel about “new people” “Step by Step” by Innokentiy Omulevskiy) and tries to show that it contains some lines and features of the epic novel as the topmost genre of the specified period. The author emphasises that behind the standard subject scheme peculiar to so-called “pattern” works, unique features, characteristic of the realistic novels recreating life in its variety and completeness are looked through. Unlike Western positivists, isolated from a thought about folkish destiny, anxious, most of all, with correct, ideological, fair device of life of a certain person, the Russian positivists, as a rule, parallel to ideological and public work, would get filled with feelings of Christian compassion for neighbours. In novels about “new people”, authors focus considerable attention on emotional psychological states of heroes, on the con- flicts and contradictions between belief and feelings. Strong-willed characters of democratic novels, as the reader sees, appear to be ordinary people with their weaknesses. It is remarkable that their ability to endow personal happiness is really epic.