“Russia Was Lucky with Mark Twain”

The article analyzes the publications in Russian periodicals in 1910, which appeared in connection with Mark Twain’s death. Some of them are anonymous or signed with undisclosed pseudonyms, others are written by famous writers (A.T. Averchenko, N.E. Heinze, P.T. Gerzo-Vinogradsky, V.M. Doroshevich, A.A. Izmailov, A.I. Kuprin, P.A. Tversky, K.I. Chukovsky). The reaction to Twain’s death showed that he was the most famous American writer in Russia and emphasized his importance to the Russian audience. For the authors of the obituaries his death was a personal loss. The list of writers in which Twain was placed (Swift, Dickens, Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov) reflects the scale of his genius, as well as the fact that a humorist also can be recognized as a great writer. The analysis of periodicals also helps to draw conclusions about the age related, social, ideological and aesthetic aspects of Twain’s reception in Russia. Special attention is paid to “americanism” which Twain embodies in literature and in life for a significant part of the readers. The similarity of critical evaluations, emotions, examples taken from Twain’s works, jokes and biographical details proves the existence of a definite Russian image of Twain, as well as certain clichés in reception of Twain’s work and American literature in general.