Set on Edge of Illusions, or The Power of Unfulfilled

Abstract. The article is introduction to the problematics, focused on the theme of “lost illusions”. The choice of this literary allusion due to the fact that the problem of soulsearching and disappointment in ideals is not only a cross-cutting motif of the modern literature, but also the “nerve” of whole history of Modernity. The stress of disillusionment comes to the foreground in times of social transformations and disasters, when society comprehends irreversibility of changes and the collapse of traditional way of life. Difference in views to the development of society lead to the formation of factions, increasingly dissenting from understanding of the true and false values, to enduing of the same concepts with the opposite sense. This conflict can be latent while the problem of choice is urgent. But as soon as the point of no return is passed, one part of the society accepts the new reality, gradually pulling from memory “set on edge” of dashed hopes; the other part rejects it, staying “under the power of Unfulfilled”. Thus, “lost illusions” are not only the eternal theme of literature, but also a key historical metaphor associated with a number of fundamental problems of kenning of the past, first of all – the issue of historical probability, alternatives of social development and methodological principles of counterfactual history modeling.

Keywords: lost illusions, “the power of Unfulfilled”, problem of historical choice, point of no return, conjunctive mood of history, counterfactual modeling.