Ideals and Realities in Russian Literature - The Anarchist Library

180 Pages·2014·0.75 MB·English

Ideals and Realities in Russian Literature
Pëtr Kropotkin
1915
Contents
Chapter1:TheRussianLanguage 6
TheRussianLanguage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
EarlyFolk-Literature:Folk-lore—Songs—Sagas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
LayofIgor’sRaid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
TheAnnals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
MediævalLiterature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CorrespondencebetweenJohnIV.andKúrbiskíy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SplitintheChurch—MemoirsofAvvakúm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
TheEighteenthCentury—PeterI.andhiscontemporaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
TheTimesofCatherineII. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
TheFreemasons:FirstManifestationofPoliticalThought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
TheFirstYearsoftheNineteenthCentury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
TheDecembrists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter2:Púshkin—Lérmontoff 26
Púshkin:Beautyofform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
PúshkinandSchiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Hisyouth;hisexile;hislatercareeranddeath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Fairytales:RuslánandLudmíla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
HisLyrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
“Byronism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
EvghéniyOnyéghin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Lérmontoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
HisLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
TheCaucasus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
PoetryofNature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
InfluenceofShelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Mtsýri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
TheDemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Loveoffreedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
HisDeath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
PúshkinandLérmontoffasProse-Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Otherpoetsandnovelistsofthesameepoch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Krylóff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Theminorpoets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2
Chapter3:Gógol 43
LittleRussia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
NightsonaFarmnearDikónkaandMírgorod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Villagelifeandhumour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
HowIvánIvánovitchquarrelledwithIvánNikíforytch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
TárásBúlba—TheCloak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
TheInspector-General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Itsinfluence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
DeadSouls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
RealismintheRussiannovel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Chapter4:Turguéneff—Tolstóy 56
Turguéneff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
ThemainfeaturesofhisArt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Pessimismofhisearlynovels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
ASportsman’sNoteBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
HisseriesofnovelsrepresentingtheleadingtypesofRussiansociety . . . . . . . . . 59
Rúdin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Lavrétskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
HelenandInsároff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
WhyFathersandSonswasmisunderstood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Bazároff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
HamletandDonQuixote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
VirginSoil:movementtowardsthepeople . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
VersesinProse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Tolstóy—ChildhoodandBoyhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
DuringandAftertheCrimeanWar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Youth,insearchofanideal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Smallstories—TheCossacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Educationalwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
WarandPeace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
AnnaKareénina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Religiouscrisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
HisinterpretationoftheChristianteaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
MainpointsoftheChristianethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
LatestworksofArt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
KreutzerSonata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Chapter5:Goncharóff—Dostoyéskiy—Nekrásoff 92
Goncharóff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Oblómoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
TheRussianMaladyofOblómovism—IsitexclusivelyRussian? . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
ThePrecipice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Dostoyévskiy—HisfirstNovel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
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GeneralCharacterofhisWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
MemoirsfromaDead-House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
DowntroddenandOffended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
CrimeandPunishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
TheBrothersKaramázoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Nekrásoff—DiscussionsabouthisTalent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
HisLoveofthePeople . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
ApotheosisofWoman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
OtherProse-writersofthesameEpoch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
SerghéiAksákoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Dahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
IvanPanaeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Hvoschinskaya(V.Krestóvskiy-pseudonyme) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
PoetsofthesameEpoch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Koltsoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Nikitin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Pleschéeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
TheAdmirersofPureArt:Tutcheff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Maykoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Scherbina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Polonskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
A.Fet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
A.K.Tolstóy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
TheTranslators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Chapter6:TheDrama 113
ItsOrigin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
TheTsarsAlexisandPeterI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Sumarókoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Pseudo-classicalTragedies:Knyazhnín,Ozeroff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
FirstComedies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
TheFirstYearsoftheNineteenthCentury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Griboyédoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
TheMoscowStage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Ostróvskiy:“Poverty—NoVice” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
TheThunderstorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Ostróvskiy’slaterDramas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
HistoricalDramas—A.K.Tolstóy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
OtherDramaticWriters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Chapter7Folk-Novelists 130
TheirPositioninRussianLiterature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
TheEarlyFolk-Novelists:Grigoróvitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
MarkoVovtchók . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Danilévskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
4
IntermediatePeriod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Kókoreff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Písemskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Potyékhin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
EthnographicalResearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
TheRealisticSchool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Pomyalóvskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Ryeshétnikoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Levítoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
GlebUspénskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
ZlatovrátskiyandotherFolk-Novelists:Naúmoff,Zasódimskiy,Sáloff,Nefédoff . . . . 144
MaximGórkiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chapter8:PoliticalLiterature,Satire,ArtCriticism,ContemporaryNovelists 153
PoliticalLiterature:DifficultiesofCensorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
The“Circles”—WesternersandSlavophiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
PoliticalLiteratureAbroad:Herzen,Ogaryoff,Bakunin,Lavróff,Stepniak . . . . . . . 157
Tchernyshévskiyand“TheContemporary” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
TheSatire:Saltykóff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
LiteraryCriticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Byelinskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Dobrolúboff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Písareff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Mihailóvskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Tolstóy’sWhatisArt? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
SomeContemporaryNovelists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Oertel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Korolénko. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
PresentDriftofLiterature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Merzhkóvskiy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Boborykin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Potápenko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
A.P.Tchéhoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
BibliographicalNotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5
Chapter 1: The Russian Language
The Russian Language
One of the last messages which Turguéneff addressed to Russian writers from his death-bed
wasto implorethem tokeep in its purity “thatprecious inheritance of ours —the Russian Lan-
guage.” He who knew in perfection most of the languages spoken in Western Europe had the
highestopinionofRussianasaninstrumentfortheexpressionofallpossibleshadesofthought
and feeling, and he had shown in his writings what depth and force of expression, and what
melodiousnessofprose,couldbeobtainedinhisnativetongue.InhishighappreciationofRus-
sian, Turguéneff — as will often be seen in these pages — was perfectly right. The richness of
the Russian language in words is astounding: many a word which stands alone for the expres-
sionofagivenideainthelanguagesofWesternEuropehasinRussianthreeorourequivalents
for the rendering of the various shades of the same idea. It is especially rich for rendering vari-
ous shades of human feeling, — tenderness and love, sadness and merriment — as also various
degrees of the same action. Its pliability for translation is such that in no other language do
wefindanequalnumberofmostbeautiful,correct,andtrulypoeticalrenderingsofforeignau-
thors.Poetsofthemostdiversecharacter,suchasHeineandBéranger,LongfellowandSchiller,
Shelley and Goethe — to say nothing of that favourite with Russian translators, Shakespeare —
are equally well turned into Russian. The sarcasm of Voltaire, the rollicking humour of Dick-
ens, the good-natured laughter of Cervantes are rendered with equal ease. Moreover, owing to
the musical character of the Russian tongue, it is wonderfully adapted for rendering poetry in
thesamemetresasthoseoftheoriginal.Longfellow’s“Hiawatha”(intwodifferenttranslations,
both admirable), Heine’s capricious lyrics, Schindler’s ballads, the melodious folk-songs of dif-
ferentnationalities,andBéranger’splayfulchansonnettes,readinRussianwithexactlythesame
rhythms as in the originals. The desperate vagueness of German metaphysics is quite as much
at home in Russian as the matter-of-fact style of the eighteenth century philosophers; and the
short,concreteandexpressive,tersesentencesofthebestEnglishwritersoffernodifficultyfor
theRussiantranslator.
Together with Czech and Polish, Moravian, Serbian and Bulgarian, as also several minor
tongues, the Russian belongs to the great Slavonian family of languages which, in its turn —
togetherwiththeScandinavo—SaxonandtheLatinfamilies,asalsotheLithuanian,thePersian,
theArmenian,theGeorgian—belongstothegreatIndo-European,orAryanbranch.Someday
— soon, let us hope: the sooner the better — the treasures of both the folk-songs possessed by
the South Slavonians and the many centuries old literature of the Czechs and the Poles will be
revealed to Western readers. But in this work I have to concern myseif only with the literature
of the Eastern, i.e., the Russtan, branch of the great Slavonian family; and in this branch I shall
have to omit both the South-Russian or Ukraïnian literature and the White or West-Russian
folk-lore and songs. I shall treat only of the literature of the Great-Russians; or, simply, the
6
Russians. Of all the Slavonian languages theirs is the most widely spoken. It is the language of
PúshkinandLermontoff,TurguéneffandTolstóy.
Likeallotherlanguages,theRussianhasadoptedmanyforeignwordsScandinavian,Turkish,
Mongolian and lately, Greek and Latin. But notwithstanding the assimilation of many nations
andstemsoftheUral-AltayanorTuranianstockwhichhasbeenaccomplishedinthecourseof
ages by the Russian nation, her language has remained remarkably pure. It is striking indeed
to see how the translation of the bible which was made in the ninth century into the Ianguage
currentlyspokenbytheMoraviansandtheSouthSlavoniansremainscomprehensible,downto
thepresenttime,to theaverageRussian. Grammatical forms andtheconstruction of sentences
are indeed quite different now. But the roots, as well as a very considerable number of words
remainthesameasthosewhichwereusedincurrenttalkathousandyearsago.
ItmustbesaidthattheSouth-Slavonianhadattainedahighdegreeofperfection,evenatthat
early time. Very few words of the Gospels had to be rendered in Greek and these are names of
things unknown to the South Slavonians; while for none of the abstract words, and for none
of the poeticaI images of the original, had the translators any difficulty in finding the proper
expressions.Someofthewordstheyusedare,moreover,ofaremarkablebeauty,andthisbeauty
hasnotbeenlostevento-day.Everyoneremembers,forinstance,thedifficultywhichthelearned
Dr.Faust,inGoethe’simmortaltragedy,foundinrenderingthesentence:“Inthebeginningwas
theWord.”“Word,”inmodernGermanseemedtoDr.Fausttobetooshallowanexpressionforthe
ideaof“theWordbeingGod.”IntheoldSlavoniantranslationwehave“Slovo,”whichalsomeans
“Word,”buthasatthesametime,evenforthemodernRussian,afardeepermeaningthanthatof
das Wort. In old Slavonian “Slovo” included also the meaning of “Intellect” — German Vernunft;
andconsequentlyitconveyedtothereaderanideawhichwasdeepenoughnottoclashwiththe
secondpartoftheBiblicalsentence.
I wish that I could give here an idea of the beauty of the structure of the Russian language,
such as it was spoken early in the eleventh century in North Russia, a sample of which has
been reserved in the sermon of a Nóvgorod bishop (1035). The short sentences of this sermon,
calculatedtobeunderstoodbyanewlychristenedflock,arereallybeautiful;whilethebishop’s
conceptions of Christianity, utterly devoid of Byzantine gnosticism, are most characteristic of
themannerinwhichChristianitywasandisstillunderstoodbythemassesoftheRussianfolk.
Atthepresenttime,theRussianlanguage(theGreatRussian)isremarkablyfreefrompatois.
Litttle-Russian, or Ukraïnian,1 which is spoken by nearly 15,000,000 people, and has its own
literature — folk-lore and modern — is undoubtedly a separate language, in the same sense as
NorwegianandDanishareseparatefromSwedish,orasPortugueeseandCatalonianareseparate
fromCastilianorSpanish.White-Russian,whichisspokeninsomeprovincesofWesternRussia,
hasalsothecharacteristicofaseparatebranchoftheRussian,ratherthanthoseofalocaldialect.
AstoGreat-Russian,orRussian,itisspokenbyacompactbodyofnearlyeightymillionpeople
inNorthern,Central,Eastern,andSouthernRussia,asalsoinNorthernCaucasiaandSiberia.Its
pronunciation slightly varies in different parts of this large territory; nevertheless the literary
languageofPúshkin,Gógol,Turguéneff,andTolstóyisunderstoodbyallthisenourmousmass
ofpeople.TheRussianclasicscirculateinthevilagesbymillionsofcopies,andwhen,afewyears
ago,theliterarypropertyinPúshkinsworkscametoanend(fiftyyearsafterhisdeath),complete
editionsofhisworks—someofthemintenvolumes—werecirculatedbythehundred-thousand,
1PronounceOok-ra-ee-nian.
7
atthealmostincrediblylowpriceofthreeshillings(75cents)thetenvolumes;whilemillionsof
copies of his separate poems and tales are sold now by thousands of ambulant booksellers in
thevillages,atthepriceoffromonetothreefarthingseach.EventhecompleteworksofGógol,
Turguéneff, and Goncharóff, in twelve-volume editions, have sometimes sold to the number of
200,000 sets each, in the course of a single year.The advantages of this intellectual unity of the
nationareself-evident.
Early Folk-Literature: Folk-lore — Songs — Sagas
Theearlyfolk-literatureofRussia,partofwhichisstillpreservedinthememoriesofthepeople
alone,iswonderfullyrichandfullofthedeepestinterest.NonationofWesternEuropepossesses
suchanastonishingwealthoftraditions,tales,andlyricfolk-songssomeofthemofthegreatest
beauty — and such a rich cycle of archaic epic songs, as Russia does. Of course, all European
nationshavehad,onceuponatime,anequallyrichfolk-literature;butthegreatbulkofitwaslost
beforescientificexplorershadunderstooditsvalueorbeguntocollectit.InRussia,thistreasure
waspreservedinremotevillagesuntouchedbycivilisation,especiallyintheregionroundLake
Onéga; and when the folklorists began to collect it, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
they found in Northern Russia and in Little Russia old bards still going about the villages with
theirprimitivestringinstruments,andrecitingpoemsofaveryancientorigin.
Besides,avarietyofyeryoldsongsaresungstillbythevillagefolkthemselves.Everyannual
holiday — Christmas, Easter, Midsummer Day — has its own cycle of songs, which have been
preserved,withtheirmelodies,evenfrompagantimes.Ateachmarriage,whichisaccompanied
byaverycomplicatedceremonial,andateachburial,similarlyoldsongsaresungbythepeasant
women.Manyofthemhave,ofcourse,deterioratedinthecourseofages;ofmanyothersmere
fragmentshavesurvived;but,mindfulofthepopularsayingthat“neverawordmustbecastout
of a song,” the women in many localities continue to sing the most antique songs in full, even
thoughthemeaningofmanyofthewordshasalreadybeenlost.
There are, moreover, the tales. Many of them are certainly the same as we find among all
nationsofAryanorigin:onemayreadtheminGrimm’scollectionoffairytales;butotherscame
alsofromtheMongolsandtheTurks;whilesomeofthemseemtohaveapurelyRussianorigin.
And next come the songs recited by wandering singers — the Kalíki — also very ancient. They
are entirely borrowed from the East, and deal with heroes and heroines of other nationalities
thantheRussian,suchas“Akib,theAssyrianKing,”thebeautifulHelen,AlexandertheGreat,or
RustemofPersia.TheinterestwhichtheseRussianversionsofEasternlegendsandtalesofferto
theexploreroffolk-loreandmythologyisself-evident.
Finally,therearetheepicsongs:thebylíny,whichcorrespondtotheIcelandicsagas.Evenat
the present day they are sung in the villages of Northern Russia by special bards who accom-
pany themselves with a special instrument, also of very ancient origin. The old singer utters in
a sort of recitative one or two sentences, accompanying himself with his instrument; then fol-
lowsamelody,intowhicheachindividualsingerintroducesmodulationsofhisown,beforehe
resumesnextthequietrecitativeoftheepicnarrative.Unfortunately,theseoldbardsarerapidly
disappearing;butsomefive-and-thirtyyearsagoafewofthemwerestillaliveintheprovinceof
Olónets, to the north-east of St. Petersburg, and I once heard one of them, whom A. Hilferding
hadbroughttothecapital,andwhosangbeforetheRussianGeographicalSocietyhiswonderful
8
ballads.Thecollectingoftheepicsongswashappilybeguningoodtime—duringtheeighteenth
century—andithasbeeneagerlycontinuedbyspecialists,sothatRussiapossessesnowperhaps
therichestcollectionofsuchsongs—aboutfourhundred—whichhasbeensavedfromoblivion.
TheheroesoftheRussianepicsongsareknights-errant,whompopulartraditionunitesround
the table of the Kíeff Prince, Vladímir the Fair Sun. Endowed with supernatural physical force,
theseknights,IlyiáofMúrom,DobrýniaNikítich,NicholastheVillager,AlexéithePriest’sSon,
and so on, arerepresented going about Russia, clearing the country of giants, who infested the
land, or of Mongols and Turks. Or else they go to distant lands to fetch a bride for the chief of
theirschola,thePrinceVladimir,orforthemselves;andtheymeet,ofcourse,ontheirjourneys,
with all sorts of adventures, in which witchcraft plays an important part. Each of the heroes of
these sagas has his own individuality. For instance, Ilyiá, the Peasant’s Son, does not care for
gold or riches: he fights only to clear the land from giants and strangers. Nicholas the Villager
is the personification of the force with which the tiller of the soil is endowed: nobody can pull
outofthegroundhisheavyplough,whilehehimselfliftsitwithonehandandthrowsitabove
theclouds;Dobrýniaembodiessomeofthefeaturesofthedragon-fighters,towhombelongsSt.
George;Sádkoisthepersonificationoftherichmerchant,andTchurílooftherefined,handsome,
urbanemanwithwhomallwomenfallinlove.
At the same time, in each of these heroes, there are doubtless mythological features. Conse-
quently, the early Russian explorers of the bylíny, who worked under the influence of Grimm,
endeavoured to explain them as fragments of an old Slavonian mythology, in which the forces
ofNaturearepersonifiedinheroes.InIliyátheyfoundthefeaturesoftheGodoftheThunders.
Dobrýnia the Dragon-Killer was supposed to represent the sun in its passiive power-the active
powers of fighting being left to Iliyá. Sádko was the personification and the Sea-God whom he
dealswithwasNeptune.Tchúrilowastakenasarepresentativeofthedemonicalelement.And
soon.Suchwas,atleast,theinterpretationputuponthesagasbytheearlyexplorers.
V.V. Stásoff, in his Origin of the Russian Bylíny (1868), entirely upset this theory. With a con-
siderable wealth of argument he proved that these epic songs are not fragments of a Slavonic
mythology, but represent borrowings from Eastern tales. Iliyá is the Rustem of the Iranian leg-
ends, placed in Russian surroundings. Dobrýnia is the Krishna of Indian folk-lore; Sádko is the
merchant of the Eastern tales, as also of a Norman tale. All the Russian epic heroes have an
Easternorigin.OtherexplorerswentstillfurtherthanStásoff.TheysawintheheroesofRussian
epicsinsignificantmenwhohadlivedinthefourteenthandfifteenthcenturies(IliyáofMúrom
is really mentioned as a historic person in a Scandinavian chronicle), to whom the exploits of
Eastern heroes, borrowed from Eastern tales, were attributed. Consequently, the heroes of the
bylíny could have had nothing to do with the times of Vladímir, and still less with the earlier
Slavonicmythology.
Thegradualevolutionandmigrationofmyths,whicharesuccessivelyfasteneduponnewand
localpersonsastheyreachnewcountries,mayperhapsaidtoexplainthesecontradictions.That
therearemythologicalfeaturesintheheroesoftheRussianepicsmaybetakenascertain;only,
themythologytheybelongtoisnotSlavonianbutAryanaltogether.Outofthesemythological
representationsoftheforcesofNature,humanheroesweregraduallyevolvedintheEast.
AtalaterepochwhentheseEasterntraditionsbegantospreadinRussia,theexploitsoftheir
heroeswereattributedtoRussianmen,whoweremadetoactinRussiansurroundings.Russian
folk-lore assimilated them; and, while it retained their deepest semi-mythological features and
leadingtraitsofcharacter,itendowed,atthesametime,theIranianRustem,theIndiandragon-
9
killer, the Eastern merchant, and so on, with new features, purely Russian. It divested them, so
tosay,ofthegarbwhichhadbeenputupontheirmysticalsubstanceswhentheywerefirstap-
propriated and humanised by the Iranians and the Indians, and dressed them now in a Russian
garb—justasinthetalesaboutAlexandertheGreat,whichIheardinTransbaikalia,theGreek
hero is endowed with Buryate features and his exploits are located on such and such a Trans-
baikalian mountain. However, Russian folk-lore did not simply change the dress of the Persian
prince,Rustem,intothatofaRussianpeasant,Iliyá.TheRussiansagas,intheirstyle,inthepo-
eticalimagestheyresortto,andpartlyinthecharacteristicsoftheirheroes,werenewcreations.
TheirheroesarethoroughlyRussian:forinstance,theyneverseekforblood-vengence,asScan-
dinavianheroeswoulddo;theiractions,especiallythoseof“theelderheroes,”arenotdictatedby
personalaims,butareimbuedwithacommunalspirit,whichischaracteristicofRussianpopular
life. They are as much Russians as Rustem was Persian. As to the time of composition of these
sagas,itisgenerallybelievedthattheydatefromthetenth,eleventh,andtwelfthcenturies,but
thattheyreceivedtheirdefiniteshape-theonethathasreachedusinthefouteenthcentury.Since
thattimetheyhaveundergonebutlittlealteration.
InthesesagasRussiahasthusapreciousnationalinheritanceofararepoeticalbeauty,which
hasbeenfullyappreciatedinEnglandbyRalston,andinFrancebythehistorianRambaud.
Lay of Igor’s Raid
And yet Russia has not her Iliad. There has been no poet to inspire himself with the expolits
of Iliyá’, Dobrýnia, Sádko, Tchúrilo, and the others, and to make out of them a poem similar to
the epics of Homer, or the “Kalevála” of the Finns. This has been done with only one cycle of
traditions:inthepoem,TheLayofIgor’sRaid (SlóvooPolkúIgoreve).
Thispoemwascomposedattheendofthetwelfthcentury,orearlyinthethirteenth(itsfull
manuscript,destroyedduringtheconflagrationofMoscowin1812,datedfromthefourteenthor
thefifteenthcentury).Itwasundoubtedlytheworkofoneauthor,andforitsbeautyandpoetical
formitstandsbythesideoftheSongoftheNibelungs,ortheSong0fRoland.Itrelatesarealfact
thatdidhappenin1185.Igor,aprinceofKíeff;startswithhisdruacute;zhina(schola)ofWarriors
tomakearaidonthePólovtsi,whooccupiedtheprairiesofSouth-easternRussia,andcontinually
railded the Russian villages. All sorts of bad omens are seen on the march through the prairies
— the sun is darkened and casts its shadow on the band of Russian warriors; the animals give
differentwarnings;butIgorexclaims:“Brothersandfriends:Bettertofalldeadthanbeprisoners
ofthePólovtsi!LetusmarchtothebluewatersoftheDon.Letusbreakourlancesagainstthose
of the Pólovtsi. And either I leave there my head, or I will drink the water of the Don from my
goldenhelmet.”Themarchisresumed,thePólovtsiaremetwith,andagreatbattleisfought.
Thedescriptionofthebattle,inwhichallNaturetakespart—theeaglesandthewolves,and
the foxes who bark after the red shields of the Russians — is admirable. Igor’s band is defeated.
“Fromsunrisetosunset,andfromsunsettosunrise,thesteelarrowsflew,theswordsclashedon
the helmets, the lances were broken in a far-away land — the land of the Pólovtsi.” “The black
earthunderthehoofsofthehorseswasstrewnwithbones,andoutofthissowingafflictionwill
riseinthelandoftheRussians.”
Then comes one of the best bits of early Russian poetry — the lamentations of Yaroslávna,
Igor’swife,whowaitsforhisreturninthetownofPutívl:
10