The article presents one of the first responses to the literary novelty of Roman Senchin’s novel “Golden Valleys” (2021). The socio-psychological aspects of the problem, the images of the heroes, the panoramic image of the regional life of the country over the past decades are considered. Special attention is paid to the consciousness of the central character of the 20-year-old geologist student as penetrating analyst of personal, family and social experience.

The article examines the concept of the world and the man in Ivo Andrich’s works. The writer’s perception of the tragic reality makes him feel sympathy for the human being. At the same time, the author clearly expresses the desire to overcome the power of time and to achieve thumankind unity with the help of the recurring bridge image.

The image of Japan in the children’s magazine “Murzilka” has been changing depending on the relations between the USSR and Japan and the development of interliterary ties during the 20th century.
During the period of the Japanese invasion to Manchuria and the Lake Khasan Battle, abstract “Japanese” are presented as aggressors, fascists, encroaching on the Soviet borders. The class nature of the Japanese-Chinese conflicts is emphasized.
During the period of the Khrushchev Thaw Japan turns out to be a country with an interesting and unique culture. There are published poems and songs of Japanese poets, fairy tales, descriptions of folk holidays and everyday life, “paper theater” kamishibai there.
In the first decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Japan mesmerizes “Murzilka”’s readers with the unity of material and spiritual culture, presented in ikebana, origami and tea ceremony. It is a country that exists beyond time, and the basis of Japanese life is formed by ancient traditions and exquisite holidays.

Images of Volga steamships take an important place in the works of Eugene Chirikov (1864–1932) written by him both before the Revolution 1917 and in exile.The writer’s attention and love for this type of water transport is explained not only by his biography (Chirikov was born and grоwn up on the banks of the Volga, traveled a lot along it, etc.), but also by his assuarance in the special role of the Volga the main waterway of Russia that playing a great role in the fate of the country and people. Therefore, the steamer in Chirikov’s prose appears as a kind of spiritual center, and among its passengers, the greatest interest of the author is caused by pilgrims and pilgrims from the peasant environment, whose prayers, spiritual disputes, songs, legends and legends reflect, according to the writer, the aspiration of the national consciousness to the “Truth of God”. They are opposed to the “pure public” from the 1st class, the description of which reflects not only the author’s critical view of the unfair, in his opinion, social structure of modern society, but also his anxiety caused by the loss of a living religious feeling and spiritual and moral ideals by representatives of the upper strata, without which as history has shown the existence of Russia itself is impossible.