The article considers features of the indirect image of a psychological condition and character of heroes in small prose of L.Ulitskaja (on an example of a cycle of stories "Poor relatives"). Among the means of indirect transmission of the psychology of characters, Ulitskaya uses a portrait, a landscape and a detail, successfully continuing the Chekhovian tradition in Russian literature. The portrait conveys a change in the psychological state of the heroes (Bukhara in the story "The Daughter of Bukhara"), for example, sharp changes in the appearance of a sick heroine are determined not only by illness, but also by loneliness, by the total complexity of life, by the tragic turn in destiny. Particular importance in the image of the psychology of the characters belongs to a smile. This particular detail of the portrait description in Ulitskaya's prose creates a defining impression of the hero (ingratiating smile or naive, etc.). The landscape of Ulitskaya is always consonant with the emotions of the heroes: the sad autumn landscape and its fading colors harmonize the heroine's nostalgia, her disappointment in her uninteresting life, her boring inner world. The world of things in the prose of a writer overcomes the purely objective function and acquires the significance of a psychological accent. In particular, it illustrates such a thing as a child's highchair in the story "Happy", where it becomes something like the center of mental life of Mathias and Bertha, concentrating the meaning of their existence before the tragedy with their child, and after it. Analysis of the cycle "Poor relatives" convinces that the details of the portrait, the symbolism of the landscape, the psychological significance of interior descriptions, the double functional load of household details of the "world of things" serve as an indirect image of the psychology of the characters.
