1. The Language.--2. Literature in the Reign of Peter the Great; of
Alexander; of Nicholas; Danilof, Lomonosof, Kheraskof, Derzhavin,
Karamzin.--3. History, Poetry, the Drama: Kostrof, Dmitrief, Zhukoffski,
Krylof, Pushkin, Lermontoff, Gogol.--4. Literature in Russia since the
Crimean War: School of Nature; Turgenieff; Ultra-realistic School;
Science: Mendeleéff.
1. THE LANGUAGE.--In the Russian language three principal dialects are to
be distinguished; but the Russian proper, as it is spoken in Moscow and
all the central and northern parts of European Russia, is the literary
language of the nation. It is distinguished by its immense copiousness,
the consequence of its great flexibility in adopting foreign words, merely
as roots, from which, by means of its own resources, stems and branches
seem naturally to spring. Another excellence is the great freedom of
construction which it allows, without any danger of becoming ambiguous. It
is clear, euphonious, and admirably adapted to poetry.
The germs of Russian civilization arose with the foundation of the empire
by the Varegians of Scandinavia (862 A.D.), but more particularly with the
introduction of Christianity by Vladimir the Great, who, towards the close
of the tenth century, established the first schools, introduced the Bible
of St. Cyril, called Greek artists from Constantinople, and became the
patron, and at the same time the hero of poetry. Indeed, he and his
knights are the Russian Charlemagne and his peers, and their deeds have
proved a rich source for the popular tales and songs of succeeding times.
Jaroslav, the son of Vladimir, was not less active than his father in
advancing the cause of Christianity; he sent friars through the country to
instruct the people, founded theological schools, and continued the
translation of the church books. To this age is referred the epic, "Igor's
Expedition against the Polovtzi," discovered in the eighteenth century, a
work characterized by uncommon grace, beauty, and power.
From 1238 to 1462 A.D. the Russian princes were vassals of the Mongols,
and during this time nearly every trace of cultivation perished. The
invaders burned the cities, destroyed all written documents, and
demolished the monuments of national culture; but at length Ivan I. (1462-
1505) delivered his country from the Mongols, and prepared a new era in
the history of Russian civilization.
At this early period the first germs of dramatic art were carried from
Poland to Russia. In Kief the theological students performed
ecclesiastical dramas, and traveled about, during the holidays, to exhibit
their skill in other cities. The tragedies of Simeon of Polotzk (1628-
1680), in the old Slavic language, penetrated from the convents to the
court, where they were performed in the middle of the seventeenth century.
At this time the first secular drama, a translation from Molière, was also
represented.
2. THE LITERATURE.--Peter the Great (1689-1725) raised the Russian dialect
to the dignity of a written language, introduced it into the
administration and courts of justice, and caused many books to be
translated from foreign languages. He rendered the Slavic characters more
conformable to the Latin, and these letters, then generally adopted,
continue in use at the present time. Among the writers of the age of Peter
the Great may be mentioned Kirsha Danilof, who versified the popular
traditions of Vladimir and his heroes; and Kantemir, a satirist, who
translated many epistles of Horace, and the work of Fontenelle on the
plurality of worlds.
Peter the Great laid the corner-stone of a national literature, but the
temple was not reared above the ground until the reign of Elizabeth and of
Catharine II. Lomonosof (1711-1765), a peasant, born in the dreary regions
of Archangel, has the honor of being the true founder of the Russian
literature. In his Russian grammar he first laid down the principles and
fixed the rules of the language; he first ventured to draw the boundary
line between the old Slavic and the Russian, and endeavored to fix the
rules of poetry according to the Latin standard. Among his contemporaries
may be mentioned Sumarokof (1718-1777) and Kheraskof (1733-1807), both
very productive writers in prose and verse, and highly admired by their
contemporaries.
In the middle of the eighteenth century the dramatic talent of the
Russians was awakened, through the establishment of theatres at Jaroslav,
St. Petersburg, and Moscow; and several gifted literary men employed
themselves in dramatic compositions; but of all the productions of this
time, those of Von Wisin (1745-1792) only have continued to hold
possession of the stage.
Among the poets of the eighteenth century, Derzhavin (1743-1816) sang the
glory of Catharine II., and of the Russian arms. His "Ode to God" has
obtained the distinction of being translated into several European
languages, and also into Chinese, and hung up in the Emperor's palace,
printed on white satin in golden letters.
The reign of Alexander I. (1801-1825) opened a new era in the literature.
He manifested great zeal for the mental elevation of his subjects; he
increased the number of universities, established theological seminaries
and institutions for the study of oriental languages, and founded gymnasia
and numerous common schools for the people; he richly endowed the Asiatic
museum of St. Petersburg, and for a time patronized the Russian Bible
Society, and promoted the printing of books on almost all subjects. But
toward the close of his reign, in consequence of certain political
measures, literature sank with great rapidity.
Karamzin (1765-1826), the representative of this age, undertook to shake
off the yoke of the classical rules established by Lomonosof, and
introduced more simplicity and naturalness. His reputation rests chiefly
upon his "History of the Russian Empire," which, with many faults, is a
standard work in Slavic literature. The reign of the Emperor Nicholas
opened with a bloody tragedy, which exhibited in a striking manner the
dissatisfied and unhealthy spirit of the literary youth of Russia. Several
poets and men of literary fame were among the conspirators; and to awaken
patriotism and to counteract the tendencies of the age, the government
promoted historical and archaeological researches, but at the same time
abolished professorships of philosophy, increased the vigilance of its
censorship of the press, lengthened the catalogue of forbidden books, and
reduced the term of lawful absence for its subjects. It took the most
energetic measures to promote national education, and to cultivate those
fields of science where no political tares could be sown.
The leading idea of the time was Panslavism, the object of which was the
union of the Slavic race, an opposition to all foreign domination, and the
attainment of a higher intellectual and political condition in the general
march of mankind. Panslavism rose to a special branch of literature, and
its principal writers were Kollar, Grabowski, and Gurowski.
3. HISTORY, POETRY, THE DRAMA.--History is a department of letters which
has been treated very successfully in Russia; critical researches have
been extended to all branches of archaeology, philology, mythology, and
kindred subjects, and valuable works have been produced.
Dmitrief (1760-1827) combined in his poems imagination, taste,
correctness, and purity of language. Zhukoffski (b. 1785) a poet of deep
feeling, took his models from the Germans.
The fables of Krylof (b. 1768) are equally celebrated among all classes
and ages, and are among the first books read by Russian children.
Above all the others, Pushkin (1799-1835) must be considered as the
representative of Russian poetry in the nineteenth century. He was in the
service of the government, when an ode "to Liberty," written in too bold a
spirit, induced Alexander I. to banish him from St. Petersburg. The
Emperor Nicholas recalled him, and became his patron. Though by no means a
mere imitator, his poetry bears strong marks of the influence of Byron.
Lermontoff (d. 1841) was a poet and novelist whose writings, like those of
Pushkin, were strongly influenced by Byron. Koltsoff (d. 1842) is the
first song writer of Russia, and his favorite theme is the joys and
sorrows of the people. Through the influence of Pushkin and Gogol (d.
1852), Russian literature became emancipated from the classic rule and
began to develop original tendencies. Gogol in his writings manifests a
deep sentiment of patriotism, a strong love of nature, and a fine sense of
humor.
The Russians have few ballads of great antiquity, and these rarely have
any reference to the subjects of the heroic prose tales which are the
delight of Russian nurseries, the favorite subjects of which are the
traditions of Vladimir and his giant heroes, which doubtless once existed
in the form of ballads. The Russians have ever been a _singing_ race.
Every festival day and every extraordinary event has its accompanying
song. Though these songs have been modernized in language and form, that
they date from the age of paganism is evident from their frequent
invocations of heathen deities and allusions to heathen customs. Allied to
these songs are the various ditties which the peasant girls and lads sing
on certain occasions, consisting of endless repetitions of words or
syllables; yet through this melodious tissue, apparently without meaning,
sparks of real poetry often shine.
The Russian songs, like the language, have a peculiar tenderness, and are
full of caressing epithets, which are often applied even to inanimate
objects. Russian lovers are quite inexhaustible in their endearing
expressions, and the abundance of diminutives which the language possesses
is especially favorable to their affectionate mode of address. With this
exquisite tenderness of the love-song is united a pensive feeling, which,
indeed, pervades the whole popular poetry of Russia, and which may be
characterized as _melancholy musical_, and in harmony with the Russian
national music, the expressive sweetness of which has been the admiration
of all foreign composers to whom it has been known.
In the rich and fertile steppes of the Ukraine, where every forest tree
seems to harbor a singer, and every blade of grass on the boundless plains
seems to whisper the echo of a song, this pensive character of Russian
poetry deepens into a melancholy that finds expression in a variety of
sweet elegiac melodies. A German writer says of them, "they are the
sorrows of whole centuries blended in one everlasting sigh." The spirit of
the past indeed breathes through their mournful strains. The cradle of the
Kozak was rocked to the music of clashing swords, and for centuries the
country, on both banks of the Dnieper to the northwestern branch of the
Carpathian Mountains, the seat of this race, was the theatre of constant
warfare. Their narrative ballads, therefore, have few other subjects than
the feuds with the Poles and Tartars, the Kozak's parting with his beloved
one, his lonely death on the border or on the bloody field of battle.
These ballads have sometimes a spirit and boldness which presents noble
relief to the habitual melancholy of this poetry in general. Professional
singers, with a kind of guitar in their hand, wander through the country,
sure to find a willing audience in whatever village they may stop. Their
ballads are not confined to the scenes of their early history, but find
subjects in the later wars with the Turks and Tartars, and in the
campaigns of more modern times; they illustrate the warlike spirit, as
well as the domestic relations of the Kozaks, and their skill in
narrative, as well as their power of expressing in lyric strains the
unsophisticated emotions of a tender heart.
The poets of the present age exercise little or no influence on a society
distracted and absorbed by the political questions of the day.
Although the history of Russia is rich in dramatic episodes, it has failed
to inspire any native dramatist. Count Tolstoi has been one of the most
successful writers in this line, but, with great merits, he has the fault
common to the Russian drama in general, that of great attention to the
study of the chief character, to the neglect of other points which
contribute to secure interest.
4. LITERATURE IN RUSSIA SINCE THE CRIMEAN WAR.--After the Crimean War, in
1854, the Russian government took the initiative in an onward movement,
and by the abolition of serfdom the country awoke to new life. In
literature this showed itself in the rise of a new school, that of Nature,
in which Turgenieff (1818-1883) is the most prominent figure, a place
which he still holds in contemporary Russian literature. The publication
of his "Diary of a Sportsman" first made the nobility of Russia aware that
the serf was a man capable of feeling and suffering, and not a brute to be
bought and sold with the soil, and this work was not without its effect in
causing the emancipation. No writer has studied so faithfully and
profoundly the Russian peasant and better understood the moral needs of
the time and the great questions which agitate it.
Within the last twenty years the new theory of Nihilism has begun to find
expression in literature, particularly in fiction. Rejecting all authority
in religion, politics, science, and art, this school is the reaction from
long ages of oppression. The school of nature lent itself to this new
movement until at last it reached the pessimistic standpoint of
Schopenhauer.
Of late, the ultra-realistic school has appeared in Russia, the writers of
which devote themselves to the study of a low realism in its most
repulsive aspects. While it boasts of not idealizing the peasant, like
Turgenieff and others, it presents him in an aspect to excite only
aversion. Art being thus excluded, and the school having neither
authority, principle, nor object, whatever influence it may have cannot
but be pernicious.
SCIENCE.--In mathematics and in all the natural sciences Russia keeps pace
with the most advanced European nations. In chemistry Mendeleéff
formulated the theory relating to atoms and their chemical properties and
relations, not then discovered to be the law by which they were governed,
as later experiments proved.