FIFTH PERIOD, THE REIGN OF PETER THE GREAT (1689-1723).
The Fifth Period of Russian literature is that which comprises the reign
of Peter the Great, with its reforms, scientific aims, and utter change
of views upon nearly all conceivable practical and spiritual subjects.
With the general historical aspects of that reign we cannot deal here.
The culture which Peter I. introduced into Russia was purely
utilitarian; and moreover, in precisely that degree which would further
the attainment of his ends. But however imperatively his attention was
engaged with other matters, he never neglected to maintain and add to
the institutions of general education and special schools, and to order
the translation of such works as were adapted to the requirements of his
people, as he understood those requirements.
His views on the subject of literature were as peculiar as those on
culture, and were guided by the same sternly practical considerations.
But it must be said, that under him the printing-press first acquired in
Russia its proper position of importance, and became the instrument for
the quick, easy, and universal dissemination and exchange of thought,
instead of serving merely as an indifferent substitute for manuscript
copies. Not only were books printed, but also speeches and official
poetry for special occasions; and at last the "Russian News" (January,
1703), the first Russian newspaper, keenly and carefully supervised by
Peter the Great himself, made its appearance.
At the end of the seventeenth century, only two typographical
establishments existed in all Russia: one in the Kíeff Catacombs
Monastery (which does an immense business in religious books, and cheap
prints and paper _ikóni_, or holy pictures); the other in Moscow, in the
"Printing-House." In 1711 the first typographical establishment appeared
in St. Petersburg, and in 1720 there were already four in the new
capital, in addition to new ones in Tchernígoff, Nóvgorod-Syéversk, and
Nóvgorod; while another had been added in Moscow. Yet Peter the Great
distrusted the literary activity of the monks--and with reason, since
most of them opposed his reforms, while many deliberately plotted
against him--and in 1700-1701 ordered that monks in the monasteries
should be deprived of pens, ink, and paper.
His official, machine-made literature offers nothing of special
interest. But one of the curious phenomena of the epoch was the peasant
writer Iván Tikhonóvitch Posóshkoff (born about 1670), a well-to-do,
even a rich, man for those days, very well read, and imbued with the
spirit of reform. Out of pure love for his fatherland he began to write
projects and books in which he endeavored to direct the attention of the
government to many social defects, and to point out means for correcting
them. One of the most interesting works of Peter the Great's period was
Posóshkoff's written "Plan of Conduct" for his son (who was one of the
first young Russians sent abroad, in 1708, for education), entitled, "A
Father's Testamentary Exhortation." His "Book on Poverty and Wealth" is
also noteworthy, inasmuch as it affords a complete survey of Russia
under Peter the Great.
During this reign, the highly educated and eminently practical Little
Russians acquired more power than ever. The most notable of them all was
Feofán Prokópovitch, Archbishop of Nóvgorod (born in Kíeff, 1681), who
had been brilliantly educated in Kíeff and Rome, and was the most
celebrated of Peter the Great's colaborers, the most zealous and clever
executor of his sovereign's will, who attained to the highest secular
and ecclesiastical honors, and prolonged his influence and his labors
into succeeding reigns. His sermons were considered so important that
they were always printed immediately after their delivery, and forwarded
to the Emperor abroad, or wherever he might chance to be. Like others at
that period, he indulged in dramatic writing, for acting on the school
stage; and at Peter the Great's request he drew up a set of
"Ecclesiastical Regulations" for the Ecclesiastical College, and was
appointed to be the head of the church government, though Stepán
Yavórsky was made head of the Holy Governing Synod when it was
established, in 1721.
Peter the Great's ideas were not only opposed but persecuted, after his
death (1723), until the accession to the throne of his daughter
Elizabeth, in 1741. It was a long time before literature was regarded
seriously, on its own merits; before literary and scientific activity
were looked upon as separate departments, or any importance was
attributed to literature. Science usurped the first place, and
literature was regarded as merely a useful accessory thereto. This view
was held by all the first writers after Peter the Great's time:
Kantemír, Tatíshtcheff, Trediakóvsky, and even the gifted Lomonósoff,
Russia's first secular writers, in the present sense of that word.
The first of these, in order, Prince Antiókh Dmítrievitch Kantemír, was
born in 1708, and brought to Moscow at the age of three by his father,
the Hospodár of Moldavia (after the disastrous campaign on the Pruth),
who assumed Russian citizenship. Prince Kantemír published his first
work, "A Symphony (concordance) of the Psalter," at the age of eighteen,
being at that time in the military service, and a member of Feofán
Prokópovitch's circle, and his close friend. His father had left a will
by which he bequeathed his entire estate and about one hundred thousand
serfs to that one of his children who should prove "the most successful
in the sciences"; and one of Prince Antiókh's brothers having married a
daughter of Prince D. M. Galítzyn, one of the most influential men of
the day, Peter the Great naturally adjudged him the heir to the estate.
This embittered Prince Antiókh Kantemír, and he revealed his wrath
against the Emperor and his party in his first two notable satires,
which appeared about the time the Empress Anna Ioánnovna ascended the
throne (1730). Galítzyn was one of the nobles who were ruined by this
event, and Prince Kantemír recovered a portion of his rightful
possessions. In 1731 his powerful protection secured him the appointment
of diplomatic resident in London. Thence he was, later on, transferred
to Paris, and never returned to Russia. Before his departure to London,
he wrote five satires, several fables and epistles, none of which were
printed, however, though they won him great reputation in cultivated
society, where they circulated in manuscript copies. Satire was quite in
the spirit of the age, and Kantemír devoted himself to it. He displayed
much wit and keen observation. In all, he produced nine satires, four
being written during his sojourn abroad. In Satire Second, entitled,
"Filarét and Evgény," or "On the Envy and Pride of Cantankerous Nobles,"
he describes the arrogance of the nobility, and their pretensions to the
highest posts, without any personal exertion or merit, solely on the
merits of their ancestors; and here he appears as a zealous advocate of
Peter the Great's "Table of Ranks," intended to put a stop to precisely
this state of affairs, by making rank depend on personal services to the
state. The Third and Sixth Satires are curious in that they clearly
express the author's views on his own literary activity, and also on
society and literature in general. The Sixth Satire, written in 1738, is
the most important, as showing Kantemír's own nature, both as a man and
as a writer.
One of the men most in sympathy with Peter the Great was Vasíly
Nikítitch Tatíshtcheff (1686-1750), who was educated partly in Russia,
partly abroad. He applied his brilliant talents and profound mind to the
public service, first in the Artillery, then in the Department of Mines,
later on as Governor of Ástrakhan. In pursuance of a general plan for
useful literary labors, Tatíshtcheff collected materials for a
geography, which he did not finish, and for a history of Russia, which
he worked out with considerable fullness, in five volumes. It was
published thirty years after his death, by command of Katherine II. It
is not history in the sense of that word at the present day, but merely
a very respectable preliminary study of materials; and the author's
expressions of opinion are valuable features, as setting forth the
spirit of the Epoch of Reformation. He is generally mentioned as a
historian, but far more important are his "Spiritual Testament" (Last
Will) and "Exhortation to his son Evgráff" (1733), and "A Discussion
between Two Friends as to the Advantages of Sciences and Schools"
(probably written 1731-1736). The Testament consists of a general
collection of rules concerning worldly wisdom, applied to contemporary
needs and views, though his son was already grown up and in the
government service, so that much of its contents are of general
application only, and were introduced to round out the work, and for the
edification of the rising generation. It is the last specimen of a class
of works in which, as has been seen, Russian literature is rich.
The first Russian who devoted himself exclusively to literature was
Vasíly Kiríllovitch Trediakóvsky (born at Ástrakhan in 1703), the son
and grandson of priests, who was educated in Russia and abroad. When he
decided, on his return from abroad in 1730, to adopt literature as a
profession, the times were extremely unpropitious. He had, long before,
during his student days in Moscow, written syllabic verses, an elegy on
the death of Peter the Great, and a couple of dramas, which were acted
by his fellow-students. In 1732 he became the court poet, or laureate
and panegyrist, and wrote, to the order of the Empress Anna Ioánnovna,
speeches and laudatory addresses, which he presented to the grandees,
receiving in return various gifts in accordance with the custom of the
epoch. But neither his official post nor his personal dignity prevented
his receiving, also, violent and ignominious treatment at the hands of
the powerful nobles. His "New and Brief Method of Composing Russian
Verses" constituted an epoch in the history of Russian poetry, since
therein was first set forth the theory of Russian tonic versification.
But although he endeavored to create a distinct Russian style, and to
put his own system into practice, he wrote worse than many of his
contemporaries, and his poems were all below mediocrity; while not a
single line of them supported the theory he announced. They enjoy as
little consideration from his literary posterity as he enjoyed
personally in the society of Anna Ioánnovna's day. Yet his work was very
prominent in the transition period between the literature of the
seventeenth century and the labors of Lomonósoff, and he undoubtedly
rendered a great service to Russian culture by his translations, as an
authority on literary theories and as a philologist.
The first writer of capital importance in modern Russian literature in
general was the gifted peasant-academician Mikháil Vasílievitch
Lomonósoff (1711-1755)--a combination of the scientific and literary
man, such as was the fashion of the period in general, and almost
necessarily so in Russia. Born in a village of the Archángel Government,
near Kholmogóry on the White Sea, he was a fisherman, like his father,
until the age of sixteen, having learned to read and write from a
peasant neighbor. A tyrannical stepmother forced him to endure hunger
and cold, and to do his modest studying and reading in desert spots.
Accordingly, when he obtained from the village authorities the
permission requisite for absenting himself for the space of ten months,
he failed to return, and was inscribed among the "fugitives." In the
Slavo-Greco-Latin Academy at Moscow, which he managed to enter, and
where he remained for five years, he distanced all competitors (though
he lived, as he said, "in incredible poverty," on three kopeks a day),
devoting himself chiefly to the natural sciences. At the age of
twenty-two he was sent abroad by the government to study metallurgy at
Freiburg. There and elsewhere abroad, in England, France, and Holland,
he remained for five years, studying various practical branches.
In 1742 he became assistant professor at the Academy of Science in St.
Petersburg, at a wretched salary, and in 1748 professor, lecturing on
physical geography, chemistry, natural history, poetry, and the Russian
language. He also was indefatigable in translating scientific works from
the French and German, in writing a work on mining, a rhetoric-book, and
so forth. By 1757 he had written many odes, poetical epistles, idyls,
and the like; verses on festival occasions and tragedies, to order; a
Russian grammar; and had collected materials for a history, and planned
extensive philological researches. Eager to benefit his country, and
conscious that he was capable of doing so, he made practical application
of many important improvements in architecture, navigation, mining, and
manufacturing industries. For example: in 1750 he zealously engaged in
the manufacture of glass (with the aid of the government), set up a
glass-factory, and applied his chemical knowledge to colored glass for
mosaics. The great mosaic pictures which glorify Peter the Great, and
the vast, magnificent _ikóni_ (holy pictures) which adorn the Cathedral
of St. Isaac of Dalmatia, in St. Petersburg, are the products of those
factories, which still exist and thrive.
It is impossible to narrate in detail all Lomonósoff's enterprises for
the improvement of the economic condition of the masses, his government
surveys of Russia, ethnographical and geographical aims, and the like.
His administrative labors absorbed most of his time leaving little for
literary work. Like others of his day, he regarded literature as an
occupation for a man's leisure hours, and even openly ridiculed those
who busied themselves exclusively with it; though he ascribed to it
great subsidiary importance, as a convenient instrument for introducing
to society new ideas, and for expounding divers truths, both abstract
and scientific. Thus he strove to furnish Russia with models of literary
productions in all classes, and to improve the language of literature
and science. Nevertheless, although he rendered great services in these
directions, and is known as "the Father of Russian Literature," he was
far more important as a scientific than as a literary man. It is true
that precisely the opposite view of him was held during the period
immediately succeeding him, and he became an authority and a pattern for
many Russian writers, who imitated his pseudo-classical poetry, and even
copied his language, as the acme of literary perfection. In reality,
although he acquired a certain technical skill, he was a very mediocre
poet; yet he was as an eagle among barnyard fowls, and cleverly made use
of the remarkable possibilities of the Russian language as no other man
did, although he borrowed his models from the pseudo-classical
productions then in vogue in foreign countries. A few of his versified
efforts which have come down to us deserve the name of poetry, by virtue
of their lofty thoughts and strong, sincere feeling, expressed in
graceful, melodious style. Among the best of these are: "A Letter
Concerning the Utility of Glass," "Meditations Concerning the Grandeur
of God," and his triumphal ode, "On the Day of the Accession to the
Throne of the Empress Elizavéta Petróvna"--this last being the
expression of the general rapture at the accession of Peter the Great's
daughter.
The most important feature of all Lomonósoff's poetical productions is
the fine, melodious language, which was a complete novelty at that time,
together with smooth, regular versification. Not one of his
contemporaries possessed so profound and varied a knowledge of the
Russian popular and book languages, and this knowledge it was which
enabled him to make such a wide choice between the ancient Church
Slavonic, ancient Russian, the popular, and the bookish tongues.
In Peter the Great's Epoch of Reform, the modern "secular" or "civil"
alphabet was substituted for the ancient Church Slavonic, and the modern
Russian language, which Lomonósoff did so much to improve, began to
assume shape, literature and science at last freeing themselves
completely from ecclesiasticism and monasticism.
The first writer to divorce literature and science, like Lomonósoff, a
talent of the transition period, between the Epoch of Reform and the
brilliant era of Katherine II.--a product, in education and culture, of
the Reform Epoch, though he strove to escape from its traditions--was
Alexander Petróvitch Sumarókoff (1717-1777). Insignificant in comparison
with Lomonósoff, the most complete contrast with the peasant-genius by
his birth and social rank, which were of the highest, he was plainly the
forerunner of a new era; and in the sense in which Feofán Prokópovitch
is called "the first secular Russian writer," Sumarókoff must be
described as "the first Russian literary man."
The Empress Anna Ioánnovna had had a troop of Italian actors, early in
her reign; and in 1735 a troop of actors and singers. The Empress
Elizavéta Petróvna revived the theater, and during her reign there were
even two troops of actors, one French, the other Italian, for ballet and
opera-bouffe (1757), both subsidized by the court. Sometimes an audience
was lacking at their performances, and on one occasion at least,
Elizavéta Petróvna improved upon the Scripture parable; when an
insufficient number of spectators presented themselves at the French
comedy, she forthwith dispatched mounted messengers to numerous persons
of rank and distinction, with a categorical demand to know why they had
absented themselves, and a warning that henceforth a fine of fifty
rubles would be exacted for such dereliction of duty.
A distinctive feature of Elizavéta's reign was the growth of closer
relations with France, which at this period represented the highest
culture of Europe. Dutch and German influences which had hitherto
impressed themselves upon Russian society, now gave place to French
ideas. Translations of the French classics of the brilliant age of Louis
XIV. were made in Russian, and the new Academy of Fine Arts established
by Elizavéta in St. Petersburg was put under the care of French masters.
It was in her reign also that the University of Moscow was founded.
In 1746 Feódor Grigórievitch Vólkhoff, the son of a merchant, built in
Yaroslávl (on the upper Volga), the first Russian theater, to hold about
one thousand spectators. Five years later, the news of the fine
performances of the actors and actresses of Vólkhoff's theater reached
St. Petersburg, and the troop was ordered to appear before the court.
Four years later still, the existence of the Russian theater was
assured, by imperial decree. Sumarókoff was appointed the director,
having, evidently, for a long time previously had full charge of all
dramatic performances at court; and also, evidently, been expected to
furnish plays. His first tragedy, "Khóreff," dates from 1747. In the
following year "Hamlet" appeared. Until the arrival of the Vólkhoff
troop, all his plays were acted in St. Petersburg only, by the cadets
and officers of the "Nobles' Cadet Corps," where he himself had been
educated. Towards the end of Elizavéta Petróvna's reign, Sumarókoff
acquired great renown, almost equaling that of Lomonósoff in his
literary services, and the admirers of Russian literature of that day
were divided into hostile camps, which consisted of the friends and
advocates of these two writers, the Empress Elizabeth being at the head
of the first, the Empress Katherine II. (then Grand Duchess) at the head
of the second.
For about ten years (1759-1768), Sumarókoff published a satirical
journal, "The Industrious Bee," after which he returned to his real
field and wrote a tragedy, "Výsheslaff," and the comedies, "A Dowry by
Deceit," "The Usurer," "The Three Rival Brothers," "The Malignant Man,"
and "Narcissus." In all he wrote twenty-six plays, including the
tragedies "Sínav and Trúvor," "Aristona," and "Semira," before the
establishment of the theater in St. Petersburg, in addition to "Khóreff"
and "Hamlet," "Dmítry the Pretender," and "Mstíslaff." "Semira" was
regarded as his masterpiece, and among his comedies "Tressotinius"
attracted the most attention. All these, however, were merely weak
imitations of the narrow form in which all French and pseudo-classical
dramas were molded, the unities of time, place, and action exerting an
embarrassing restriction on the action; and the heroes, although they
professed to be Russians, with obscure historical names (like Sínav and
Trúvor), or semi-mythical (like Khóreff), or genuinely historical (like
Dmítry the Pretender), were the stereotyped declaimers of the bombastic,
pseudo-classical drama.
Sumarókoff's dramatic work formed but a small part of his writings,
which included a great mass of odes, eclogues, elegies, ballads, and so
forth; and although he ranks as a dramatist, he is most important in his
series of fables, epigrams, and epitaphs, which are permeated with
biting satire on his own period, though the subjects are rather
monotonous--the bad arrangement of the courts of justice, which
permitted bribery and other abuses among lawyers, the injurious and
oppressive state monopolies, attempts at senseless imitations of
foreigners in language and customs, and ignorance concealed by external
polish and culture. Coarse and imperfect as are these satires, they
vividly reproduce the impressions of a contemporary gifted with keen
observation and the ability to deal dispassionately with current events.
As we shall see later on, this protest against the existing order of
things continued, and blossomed forth in the succeeding--the
sixth--period of literature in productions, which not only form the
flower of the century, but also really belong to modern literature, and
hold the public attention at the present day. This Sumarókoff's dramatic
and other works do not do, and their place is rather in the archives of
the preparatory school.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
1. What was the general character of the reign of Peter the
Great?
2. How important did the printing press become in his time?
3. Why did Peter the Great deprive the monks of pens, ink, and
paper?
4. What interesting works were written by Posóshkoff?
5. Who was Feofán Prokópovitch?
6. Give an account of the life and writings of Kantemír.
7. What literary influence had Tatíshtcheff and Trediakóvsky?
8. Describe the early life of Lomonósoff.
9. Give an account of his many activities.
10. How did he regard literature, and what were his best works.
11. In what way did he exert a strong literary influence?
12. What attention did the Court give to theatrical
representations at this time?
13. What new relations with Europe marked the reign of
Elizavéta?
14. When and where was Vólkhoff's theater established?
15. What share had Sumarókoff in developing the Russian drama?
16. How did he protest against the abuses of his times?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
_History of Russia._ Alfred Rambaud. Vol. II., Chapter VI.
_The Story of Russia._ W. R. Morfill.
_Specimens from the Russian Poets._ Two volumes, Sir John
Bowring, contain many specimens from Lomonósoff to Zhukóvsky
inclusive.