Literay Fact Literay Fact 2541-8297 2542-2421 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2026-40-235-252 Research Article Articles A.A. Izmailov’s Parodies of Christmas Stories Alexandrov Alexander S. editor@litfact.ru 2026 Christmas story parody feuilleton criticism grotesque para- phrase literary cliché Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 This article analyzes critical assessments and parodies of Christmas stories by A.A. Izmailov (1873–1921), a leading literary critic of the early 20th century. Izmailov authored a series of parodies of Christmas fiction: his collection Distorted Mirror includes four such parodies: “Christmas Pretzels,” “How to Write Christmas Stories,” “The Last Graphomaniac,” and “Homunculus (A Christmas Story).” The ar- ticle examines these parodies in detail, noting their connection to Izmailov’s “serious” critical writings and identifying the sources and artistic techniques of his parodic texts. It also emphasizes the growing role of parodies in the early 20th century, which became an effective tool in the arsenal of literary criticism. 1. A.A. Izmailov: Perepiska s sovremennikami [A.A. Izmailov: Correspondence with Contemporaries], comp., introd. by A.S. Aleksandrov; introd., text prep. and notes by A.S. Aleksandrov, E.K. Aleksandrova, N.Iu. Griakalova. St. Petersburg, Pushkin House Publ., 2017. 738 p. (In Russ.) 2. Aleksandrov, A.S. A. Izmailov — kritik i zhurnalist [A.A. Izmailov — Critic and Journalist]. St. Petersburg, ART BUK Publ., 2025. 640 p. (In Russ.) 3. Baran, “Dorevoliutsionnaia prazdnichnaia literatura i russkii modernism” [“Pre-revolutionary Festive Literature and Russian Modernism”]. Baran, Kh. Poetika russkoi literatury nachala XX veka. [Poetics of Russian Literature of the Early 20th Cen- tury]. Moscow, Progress, Univers Publ., 1993, pp. 284‒328. (In Russ.) 4. Baran, “Paskha v 1917 goda: Akhmatova i drugie v russkikh gazetakh” [“Easter 1917: Akhmatova and Others in Russian Newspapers”]. Akhmatovskii sbornik [Akhmatova Collection], vol. 1. Paris, Institute of Slavic Studies Publ., 1989, pp. 53–75 (Series “Russkaia biblioteka Instituta slavianovedeniia” [“Russian Library of the Insti- tute of Slavic Studies”]) (In Russ.) 5. Bondarenko, I. Traditsii “Rozhdestvenskikh povestei” Dikkensa v russkom sviatochnom rasskaze 1840–1890-kh godov [Traditions of Dickens’s “Christmas Stories” in Russian Christmas Stories of the 1840s–1890s: PhD Thesis, Summary]. Kolomna, 2006. 26 p. (In Russ.) 6. Dushechkina, V. Russkaia elka. Istoriia, mifologiia, literatura [Russian Christmas Tree. History, Mythology, Literature]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2023. 424 p. (In Russ.) 7. Dushechkina, V. Russkii sviatochnyi rasskaz: Stanovlenie zhanra [Russian Christmas Story: Formation of the Genre]. 2nd ed. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2023. 550 p. (In Russ.) 8. Dushechkina, , and Kh. Baran. “‘Nastali vechera narodnye veselia...’.” [“‘The Evenings of Folk Merriment have Arrived...’.”]. Chudo rozhdestvenskoi nochi: sviatochnye rasskazy [The Miracle of Christmas Night: Christmas Stories], comp. by E. Dushechkina, Kh. Baran. St. Petersburg, Khudozhestvennaia literature Publ., 1993, pp. 3–32. (In Russ.) 9. Reitblat, I. Pisat’ poperek: Stat’i po biografike, sotsiologii i istorii literatury [Writing Across: Articles on Biography, Sociology, and Literary History]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2014. 416 p. (In Russ.) 10. “Fedor Sologub i N. Chebotarevskaia: perepiska s A.A. Izmailovym” [“Fedor Sologub and An.N. Chebotarevskaya: Correspondence with A.A. Izmailov”], publ. by M.M. Pavlova. Ezhegodnik Rukopisnogo otdela Pushkinskogo Doma na 1995 god [Yearbook of the Manuscript Department of the Pushkin House for 1995]. St. Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin Publ., 1999, pp. 194‒293. (In Russ.)