The specifics of reception of the “Russian text“ in the poems by Judita Vaičiūnaitė

The paper concerns the specifics of reception and interpretation of several important topics of the “Russian text” of culture (the painting ‘Lilac’ by M. Vrubel, I. Turgenev’s manor in Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, the concept ‘Cherry Orchard’) by Lithuanian poet Judita Vaičiūnaitė (1937–2001). Her poems “In Front Of Vrubel’s ‘Lilac’” (1957), “At Turgenev’s Homeland” (1960), “Cherry Orchard”1 (1976) are analyzed from the point of view of the existential thought which was characteristic for the Russian culture of 20th century. Vaičiūnaitė’s intermedial strategy is considered as it reveals in the poems mentioned above the issues which are topical for Lithuanian culture and literature, namely the ones related to overcoming time, space, oblivion, and to confronting the destructive drives of the destiny. The paper focuses on the analysis of the compensatory function of the existential type of conscience for representing the problem of an artist’s destiny in the condition of the Soviet regime and for preservation of the values of Lithuanian culture.