Short Selections in
Russian Literature
Academic Decathlon
2012-2013
Literary Periods in Russian Literature
 Russian literature flowered in the nineteenth century with
the work of Alexander Pushkin, who is not as well known or
appreciated in the West, but is certainly considered the equal
of Shakespeare in Russia.
 Pushkin, heavily influenced both by Shakespeare and Byron,
initiated a shift in the national literature away from the
classical forms of the eighteenth century and toward a
Romanticism much like Byron’s, which was based upon the
extraordinary individual or superfluous man, the adversary
of the existing order.
Move from Romanticism to Realism
 By the early 1840s, Russian Romanticism was being replaced
by Realism, a movement which would find its culmination in
the novels of Ivan Turgenev (1818–83), Leo Tolstoy (1828–
1910), and Fyodor Dostoevsky(1821–81), and reach its zenith
between 1855 and 1880.
 Initiated by an idea promoted by literary critic Nicolay
Chernyshevsky that “the beautiful is life,” Realism in fiction
moved away from an emphasis on individual emotion and
toward a representation of occurrences as they appear in
real life, or, even more accurately in the case of Tolstoy:
“‘getting at what should be as well as what is.’”
Chekhov’s view of Realism
 Chekhov, coming nearer the end of the period of Russian
Realism, produced a renewal of the realist tradition in his
work.
 Deeply reverent toward and influenced by Tolstoy, Chekhov,
however, added the dimension of the scientist to the work of
the writer, observing his characters almost clinically and
arguing, “‘The writer must be objective like the chemist.’”
 As both a physician and a writer, Chekhov served as one of
Pasternak’s models for how such a combination of two
apparently opposite worldviews—the scientist’s and the
humanist’s— can come together in the character of Yurii
Zhivago.
From Realism to Modernism
 With the work of Alexander Blok, Symbolism reached a
pinnacle of poetic achievement as it ushered Russian
literature into the age of Modernism just before the onset
of the Russian Revolution.
 In the early years of the twentieth century, Realism in
fiction began to yield to Symbolism, especially in poetic
form.
 Symbolism actually appeared in the 1890s, but by 1917, the
short span of Symbolist art had come to an end as many
Symbolist poets immigrated to Europe, fearing the loss of
their artistic freedoms under the revolutionary
government.
Symbolist Blok
 Blok demonstrates the influence of European
Symbolists like Charles Baudelaire, Friedrich
Nietzsche, and Richard Wagner in his emphasis on the
symbol as a system of correspondences which
promises “ultimate wholeness in the transparent
realm of the spirit.”
Blok
 But Blok’s Symbolist work takes on a special feature based
on the influence of Vladimir Soloviov, an earlier Symbolist
poet, who critiqued rationalism, embraced the notion of an
eternal feminine, and also added in an element of “panMongolianism” as the vision of a wave of barbarians
invading Russia from the East to destroy as well as renew a
country imaged as an aging Rome.
Blok cont’d
 Blok, both chronologically and thematically, most closely
influences Pasternak’s own conception of revolution and its
impact on literature.
 At first enthusiastic about the power of revolutions to bring
about renewal, Blok turned ambivalent in his attitude
toward upheaval in Russia as the poetry of his final years
hows, and his work reflects that turn as it becomes less
ethereal and idealized and more Futurist in its avant-gardism
and its sense of “‘the old world crashing.’”
Alexander Pushkin
 Alexander Pushkin’s (1799–1837) all too brief life began on May
26, 1799 (Old Style Calendar), when he was born the son of
aristocratic parents, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin and Nadezhda
Osipovna Gannibal, whose lineage included famous names in
Russian history.
 Though connected to power until the beginning of the
seventeenth century, the Pushkins lost those connections along
with their influence and fortune when the Romanov dynasty
came into power.
 On Pushkin’s maternal side, his ancestry included a greatgrandfather, Abram Gannibal, who was a black African slave in
the court of Tsar Peter the Great.
 Gannibal proved a loyal servant to the Tsar and was awarded
estates and nobility.
 Pushkin was always sensitive about what he called his “‘Negro
ugliness’” while at the same time proud of the rise to power of
his remarkable ancestor.
 Pushkin failed to find affection from either parent,
but he was nurtured by his maternal grandmother,
Maria Alekseevna, and his peasant nanny, Arina
Rodionovna.
 Pushkin’s first language, as it was for all aristocratic
families in the Russia of the time, was French, but
from his grandmother and nanny he learned Russian
and spent happy summers on his grandmother’s
estate near Moscow, where an old-fashioned Russian
way of life prevailed.
Pushkin’s view of his childhood
 My time under my father’s roof leaves little in the way of
pleasant memories. Of course he loved me—but he showed
no interest in me. I was entrusted to a series of French tutors,
who were constantly being hired and fired. My first
gouverneur was a desperate drunkard, the second, while not
stupid or uneducated, could fly into such rages that he once
tried to murder me for spilling a few drops of ink onto his
waistcoat. The third, who was kept in our house for a whole
year, was totally and obviously insane.
 Pushkin’s ironic tone emerges here as he portrays a period
in his life that could only have been painful
Pushkin’s education
 Happier times followed, though, as Pushkin was sent
to the Lycée, an exclusive boarding school for boys,
from 1811 until 1817.
 When he arrived, he was already extraordinarily wellread, for he had the run of his father’s extensive
library, and he demonstrated an impressive command
of French language and literature.
Pushkin develops as a poet
 The school, recently founded by Tsar Alexander I, was located in
Tsarskoe Selo and attached to the Tsar’s summer residence where
students had access to the Tsar’s extensive library.
 The school was considered the most progressive educational
establishment with the most liberal faculty in Russia at the time.
 While Pushkin’s reputation as a poet grew among his schoolmates
and teachers, he was only a mediocre student, managing to
graduate near the bottom of his class.
 He wrote poetry constantly while there and, as he was exposed
to English, was introduced to the philosophies of Locke and Hume
and the poetry of Lord Byron.
After graduation
 Upon graduation, Pushkin was assigned to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg, where, with little to occupy his
time in the way of real work, he led an indolent and dissipated
life, gambling, attending the theater, and chasing pretty
actresses and dancers.
 In 1819, Pushkin reportedly visited a famed fortuneteller,
Madame Kirchof, who had advised the Tsar during the War of
1812.
 She prophesied that Pushkin would enjoy great fame, would
endure two exiles, and, at the age of thirty-seven, should avoid
conflict related to a white horse, a white head, or a white (blond)
man.
 Pushkin believed in her predictions, and, if, in fact, she did utter
these predictions, they all came true.
Pushkin moves to the left
 Pushkin was also beginning to reveal a more serious side,
advancing a politically liberal perspective and circulating radical
poems in private.
 These poems came to the attention of the Tsar, who threatened to
 exile him.
 In the end, though, the Tsar was persuaded to commute his
sentence of exile to an administrative transfer to the south, where
he could serve the general in charge of colonies recently acquired
from Turkey.
 Before leaving St. Petersburg, Pushkin completed his first major
work of verse, Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820), an ironic poem
patterned on a Russian folktale which became an immediate
sensation.
 In his travel to the south, Pushkin met General
Raevskii, a hero of the campaign against Napoleon,
and was allowed to join him and his family on a tour
of the Caucasus and the Crimea.
 Here, Pushkin found inspiration for The Prisoner of the
Caucasus (1822) and a setting for his Byronic poem The
Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1824), his most popular work
during his lifetime.
 See page 62-63 for “The Fountain”
Life in Kishinev
 Back at his duty post in Kishinev under the benign
supervision of General Inzov, Pushkin had the opportunity to
view and sketch an ethnically diverse population; teased
himself for being “African,” Pushkin showed great tolerance
toward those who were ethnically and racially different.
 Also while there, Pushkin also fought numerous duels—all
ending without injury—and engaged in a string of affairs,
most notably with a Greek woman, Calypso Polichroni, who
mayalso have been one of Byron’s lovers.
 More importantly, though, by 1823, Pushkin had begun work
on his great novel in verse Evgenii Onegin, loosely modeled
on Byron’s Don Juan.
Life in Odessa
 In 1823, Pushkin was transferred to Odessa to serve under
Count Vorontsov, the Governor-General of Southern Russia.
 Vorontsov was both a hero of the Napoleonic Wars and a
liberal who had freed his own serfs.
 Pushkin’s lifestyle, though, despite the help and support of his
supervisors, was flamboyant, and neither his meager salary
nor his earnings from publications provided him with enough.
 Pushkin earned three thousand rubles for The Fountain of
Bakhchisarai, a great deal of money for the time, and
managed to spend it all.
 He also continued pursuing beautiful women, indulging in
love affairs while in Odessa, and flaunting his disrespect for
the authorities.
Exiled Again
 For example, he made the mistake of writing to a friend
that he espoused atheism—these were treasonous
sentiments, for in offending the state religion, he had also
offended the state.
 When the letter came to the attention of the government,
the Tsar removed Pushkin from Odessa and sent him into
exile to his mother’s estate at Mikhaylovskoye in the north,
about three hundred miles southwest of St. Petersburg.
 hen he left for the family estate in August of 1824, Pushkin
carried with him the beginning of his poem The Gypsies and
most of the third chapter of Evgenii Onegin.
 While at his mother’s estate, Pushkin was kept under police
surveillance with his own father acting as his jailer.
 It is possible that during this time he learned that he had
fathered a daughter with Elise Vorontsova, the wife of Count
Vorontsov, with whom he had begun an affair in Odessa.
 Pushkin was bored in the country, but much happier when his
family left in the winter.
 His nanny provided companionship and folktales, which
inspired Pushkin’s work, and he entertained himself by visiting
neighbors.
 From 1824 to 1825, Pushkin completed The Gypsies, a number
of shorter lyrics, his Shakespearean historical drama Boris
Godunov, and additional chapters of Evgenii Onegin.
Decembrists Uprising
 In 1825, Tsar Alexander I died, and instead of being succeeded by
his brother Constantine, who had secretly renounced the throne,
another brother, Nicholas, was poised to take power.
 During the vacuum of power, on December 14, 1825, secret
radical societies mounted a rebellion in St. Petersburg known as
the Decembrist Uprising, and forces loyal to Nicholas opened fire.
 Pushkin knew many of the insurgents, and they knew his poetry;
five rebel leaders were executed, and Pushkin feared he was at
risk through his association.
 As he tried to escape to St. Petersburg, a hare crossed Pushkin’s
path, and in the presence of such an evil omen, Pushkin turned
back.
 Read Pushkin’s view of his life on p. 63
Role of the poet
 In September of 1826, Pushkin was summoned to
Moscow by the new Tsar.
 On the way there, Pushkin composed “The Prophet,” a
lyric meditation on the role of the poet in the nation, in
history, and in carrying out his divinely ordained mission:
Upon the wastes, a lifeless clod,
I lay, and heard the voice of God:
“Arise, oh, prophet, watch and hearken,
And with my Will thy soul engird,
Roam the gray seas, the roads that darken,
And burn men’s hearts with this, my Word.”
Life under the new Tsar
 When he arrived in the Kremlin, Pushkin agreed not to
contradict the regime, and the Tsar removed him from
exile, but at the same time, the Tsar took on the role of
acting as Pushkin’s personal censor.
 Thus Pushkin, though apparently free, was in truth the
Tsar’s hostage and had to report his every movement.
 During the years between 1828 and 1830, Pushkin found
himself constantly under the microscope and questioned
about the politics of poems he had written much earlier.
 He was relatively free to move around, though, and in his
travels between Moscow and St. Petersburg, he had
begun to think of settling down.
 In 1828, he met Natalia Goncharova, the woman he would
marry.
 By Easter 1830, he had finally struck an agreement with
Natalia’s greedy mother, and his offer of marriage was
accepted.
 He finished Evgenii Onegin and began to write long
narrative poems, drama, and prose in the interim before
his wedding, during the first of his “Boldino autumns”—
periods of enormous creative vitality and output.
 Finally, after the proper period of mourning for the death
of his uncle and after the threat of cholera had lifted from
the area of Boldino, Pushkin was able to leave for Moscow,
where, in February 1831, he and Natalia were married
Pushkin develops interest in Russian history; wife is
extravagant
 Pushkin became increasingly interested in Russian history,
and in 1833, he traveled to the Urals to collect evidence
from eyewitnesses of the Pugachev Rebellion against
Catherine the Great (1774), and he also began work on a
history of Peter the Great.
 As his poetic life advanced, his social life declined—his wife
was beautiful and in demand at court.
 To bring her close to him, the Tsar awarded Pushkin the
status of page—a junior position that was insulting to the
poet.
 And because of the excessive spending habits of his wife,
Pushkin was deeply in debt; Natalia, despite four
pregnancies, managed to maintain her figure and beauty
and remain at the center of court life.
 In 1833, Evgenii Onegin was published, and Pushkin began
to integrate his research on the Pugachev Rebellion into
his novel The Captain’s Daughter (1835) and his nonfictional
History of the Pugachev Rebellion (1834).
 The novel owes much to the plot line of Sir Walter Scott’s
Rob Roy and is representative of Pushkin’s finest prose
work.
 He received permission to travel to the provinces where
the rebellion tookplace, hoping that publication of this
new work would bring him badly needed funds.
 On his way back, he stopped at his property in Boldino and
stayed through the autumn, experiencing a second,
powerful burst of creativity.
Same song; second verse
 It was during this period that he produced “Autumn” and a
number of other lyric and long narrative poems, including
The Bronze Horseman and the prose tale The Queen of
Spades.
 On his return to St. Petersburg, where he and Natalia set
up house to escape his grasping mother-in-law, Pushkin
found his wife out at yet another ball.
 Despite his editorship of a journal and the ongoing
appearance of his work in print, Pushkin could not keep
ahead of Natalia’s ability to overspend and was harassed
by creditors for the next several years.
Trouble in paradise
 By 1836, in addition to the favor of the Tsar, Natalia had
begun to enjoy the serious attentions of a Frenchman,
Georges d’Anthès.
 Pushkin found himself publicly ridiculed as his wife
continued to receive d’Anthès’s attentions even while
pregnant.
 Pushkin resolved to defend his honor and that of his wife
by challenging d’Anthès to a duel, but the duel was put
off as d’Anthès proclaimed his love for Natalia’s sister,
Ekaterina.
 D’Anthès married Ekaterina in 1837, but Pushkin refused
to attend the ceremony or to entertain the newlyweds at
his home.
Pushkin’s death
 As d’Anthès continued his pursuit of Natalia even after his
marriage, Pushkin wrote an insulting letter to d’Anthès’s mentor
Baron van Heeckeren, knowing that the inevitable outcome
would be a duel with d’Anthès.
 D’Anthès accepted the challenge, and the duel took place on
January 27, 1837.
 D’Anthès fired the first shot, hitting Pushkin in the abdomen, a
fatal blow.
 Pushkin managed to fire back, only slightly wounding d’Anthès.
Pushkin lived for two days, dying on January 29, 1837.
 Thousands mourned his death, and the government tried to
maintain crowd control by moving the site of the funeral and
sending the coffin with the poet’s body secretly, in the middle of
the night, to the family estate at Mikhaylovskoye.
Pushkin’s impact on Russian Literature
 Pushkin was buried next to his mother at the Sviatye
Gory Monastery.
 Dead before his thirty-eighth birthday, Pushkin, the
contemporary of other literary greats such as Byron,
Goethe, and Dickens, survives in his work as Russia’s
answer to Shakespeare and the father of modern
literature in his land.
 Read the epitaph on p. 65.
 Read “Autumn” p. 65-66.
 Using your resource guide, annotate your copy of
“Autumn.”