On the final page of this story, the barely discernible appearance of the heroine ("...one of the walking <...> suddenly raised her head covered with a white shawl, shielding the candle with her hand, fixed her dark eyes into the darkness...") next to a detailed portrait of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna ("...all in white, long, thin-faced, in a white ruffle with a gold cross sewn on it on her forehead, tall, slowly, faithfully walking with downcast eyes, with a big candle in his hand...").

Why did Bunin, who carefully and sparingly selected every word when writing "Clean Monday", need such extravagance in depicting the episodic character of the story? To answer this question, first, with small abbreviations, we will give an extensive monologue of the heroine of the story, which hides the key to understanding the whole Bunin's work: "And she spoke with a quiet light in her eyes:

- I love Russian chronicles, Russian legends so much that until then I reread what I particularly like, until I memorize it by heart. "There was in the Russian land a city called Murom, in it the autocrat-

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There was a pious prince named Pavel. And the devil put a flying serpent in his wife to commit fornication. And this serpent appeared to her in human nature, very beautiful"<...>. So God tested her. " When the time came for her blessed death, this prince and princess begged God to repose to them in one day. And they conspired to be buried in a single coffin. And they ordered to carve two coffin beds in a single stone. And they put on the same monastic garb at the same time..."

This fragment of the chronicle, which is not directly related to the plot of "Pure Monday" and clearly splits into two almost separate passages, is charged with great explanatory power. The first passage contains a commentary-an explanation of the mysterious relationship between the hero and the heroine, as the heroine realizes them, in one of the episodes of "Clean Monday" directly likening the hero to a snake "in human nature, very beautiful".

What does the second passage comment on and predict? Probably, the future fate of the heroine, metonymically embodied in the martyrdom of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, nee Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt. The heroine's story about the "pious prince named Pavel" and his princess in "Clean Monday" is clearly correlated with the remark of the janitor given on the final page of "Clean Monday": "...Grand Duchess Yelzavet Fedrovna and Grand Duke Mitri Palych are there today."

It is even more important to note that the chronicle mention of the" coffin bed "of the princess, "carved in stone", finds a tragic correspondence in the circumstances of the death of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. It is known that she, along with the sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery Varvara Yakovleva, as well as other prisoners - members of the imperial house - were thrown alive by the Bolsheviks into the shaft of an old mine near the Ural town of Alapaevsk.

In conclusion, we will point out one significant difference in the behavior of the heroine of the story and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna in the final fragment of "Clean Monday": Elizabeth Feodorovna leaves the church "with downcast eyes" - she has already renounced all earthly things and is fully ready for the future feat. The heroine in the finale of "suddenly" raises her head and directs "a look of dark eyes into the darkness" - she felt the presence of her former lover and therefore the last decisive and selfless steps have to be taken by him himself: "I turned and quietly left the gate."

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