This study intends to reveal the details of the humanistic concept by V. Astafyev who was an acclaimed word artist, a classical author of the Russian literature working between the second half of the 20th and the turn of the 21st centuries. The interpreters of the author�s war prose unreasonably rank him among the writers playing up the atrocities of the war, instilling in the consciousness of presently living people the �military spirit� that reinforces the militaristic consciousness with its characteristic attributes, such as the simplistic approach to the modern society and the dominating confrontations of �us vs. them,� �friends vs. foes.� The modern Russian society is suffering from the syndrome of militaristic consciousness just as much as the Western European ones do. The described problem was researched mainly through the study of the history of literature combined with comparative historical analysis and the study of culture, which involve analyzing both synchronic and diachronic aspects of the studied materials. The study has proved the efficacy and validity of the authors� approach to the comprehension of the concept of humanism by V. Astafyev, the author of anti-war pieces of literature. The material of this article can be used to teach the history of Russian literature of the 20th century, as well as to teach various culture disciplines.

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