RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Middle Ages. Some Epic Narratives. Renaissance in the Seventeenth
Century. Literature Imitative of the West in the Eighteenth Century.
Original Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
THE MIDDLE AGES.--Russia possessed a literature even in the Middle Ages.
In the eleventh century the metropolitan Hilarion wrote a discourse on
the Old and the New Testament. In the twelfth century, the _Chronicle_
that is said to be by _Nestor_ is the first historical monument of
Russia. At the same period Vladimir Monomaque, Prince of Kief, who
devoted his life to fighting with all his neighbours, left his son an
autobiographic _instruction_, which is very interesting for the light it
throws on the events and, especially, on the customs of his day. At the
same time the hegumen (abbot) Daniel left an account of his pilgrimage to
the Holy Land. In the thirteenth century (probably) another Daniel,
Daniel the prisoner, wrote from his distant place of exile to his prince
a supplicatory letter, which is astonishing because in it is found a
remarkable and wholly unexpected degree of literary talent. In the
thirteenth or fourteenth century two epic pieces, _The Lay of the Battle
of Igor_ and _The Zadonstchina_, of which it is uncertain which imitated
the other, alike present vigorous and vivid accounts of battles. In the
fifteenth or sixteenth century there is a didactic work, _The Domostroi_,
which is a moral treatise, a handbook of domestic economy, a manual of
gardening, and a cookery book, etc. The Tzar Ivan the Terrible (sixteenth
century) was a dexterous diplomatist and a precise, nervous, and ironical
writer. He left highly curious letters.
RENAISSANCE.--Kutochikine (seventeenth century), who was minister in his
own land, then disgraced and exiled in Sweden, wrote an extremely
interesting book on the habits of his contemporaries. The "Renaissance,"
if it may be so termed, that is, the contact between the Russian spirit
and Western genius, occurred in the eighteenth century. Prince Kantemir,
Russian ambassador in London, who knew Montesquieu, Maupertuis, the Abbé
Guasco, etc., wrote satires in the manner of Horace and of Boileau.
Trediakowski took on himself to compose a very tedious _Telemachidus_,
but he knew how to unravel the laws of Russian metre and to write odes
which at least were indicative of the right direction.
LOMONOSOV.--Lomonosov is regarded as the real father of Russian
literature, as the Peter the Great of literature--a great man withal,
engineer, chemist, professor, grammarian. Regarding him solely as a
literary man, he made felicitous essays in tragedy, lyrical poetry, epic
poetry, polished the Russian versification, established its grammar, and
imparted a powerful impulse in a multitude of directions.
CREATION OF THE DRAMA.--Soumarokoff founded the Russian drama. He was
manager of the first theatre opened in St. Petersburg (1756). In the
French vein he wrote tragedies, comedies, fables, satires, and epigrams.
He corresponded with Voltaire. The latter wrote to him in 1769: "Sir,
your letter and your works are a great proof that genius and taste
pertain to all lands. Those who said that poetry and music belonged only
to temperate climates were deeply in error. If climate were so potent,
Greece would still produce Platos and Anacreons, just as she produces the
same fruits and flowers; Italy would have Horaces, Virgils, Ariostos, and
Tassos.... The sovereigns who love the arts change the climates; they
cause roses to bud in the midst of snows. That is what your incomparable
monarch has done. I could believe that the letters with which she has
honoured me came from Versailles and yours from one of my colleagues in
the Academy.... Over me you possess one prodigious advantage: I do not
know a word of your language and you are completely master of
mine.... Yes, I regard Racine as the best of our tragic poets.... He is
the only one who has treated love tragically; for before him Corneille
had only expressed that passion well in _The Cid_, and _The Cid_ is not
his. Love is ridiculous or insipid in nearly all his other works. I think
as you do about Quinault; he is a great man in his own way. He would not
have written the _Art of Poetry_, but Boileau would not have written
_Armida_. I entirely agree with what you write about Molière and of the
tearful comedy which, to the national disgrace, has succeeded to the only
real comic type brought to perfection by the inimitable Molière. Since
Regnard, who was endowed with a truly comic genius and who alone came
near Molière, we have only had monstrosities.... That, sir, is the
profession of faith you have asked of me." This letter is quoted, despite
its errors, because it forms, as it were, _a preface to Russian
literature_, and also a patent of nobility granted to this literature.
CATHERINE II.--The Empress wrote _in Russian_ advice as to the education
of her grandson, very piquant comedies, and review articles. Von Vizin, a
comic author, was the first to look around and to depict the custom of
his country, which means that he was the earliest humorous national
writer. The classic works of Von Vizin were _The Brigadier_ and _The
Minor_. Whilst pictures of contemporaneous manners, they were also
pleadings in favour of a reformed Russia against the Russia that existed
before Peter the Great, which still in part subsisted, as was only
natural. He made a journey to France and it will be seen from his
correspondence that he brought back a highly flattering impression.
RADISTCHEF.--Radistchef was the first Russian political writer. Under
the pretext of a _Voyage from Petersburg to Moscow_, he attacked serfdom,
absolute government, even religion, for which he was condemned to death
and exiled to Siberia. He was pardoned later on by Paul I, but soon after
committed suicide. He was verbose, but often really eloquent.
ORATORS AND POETS.--The preacher Platon, whose real name was Levchine,
was an orator full of sincerity, unction, and sometimes of real power. He
was religious tutor to the hereditary Grand Duke, son of Catherine II.
Another preacher, and his successor at the siege of Moscow, Vinogradsky,
was likewise a really great orator. It was he who, after the French
retreat from Russia, delivered the funeral oration on the soldiers killed
at Borodino. Ozerov was a classical tragedy writer after the manner of
Voltaire, and somewhat hampered thereby. Batiouchkov, although he lived
right into the middle of the nineteenth century, is already a classic. He
venerated and imitated the writers of antiquity; he was a devout admirer
of Tibullus, and wrote elegies which are quite exquisite. Krylov was a
fabulist: a dexterous delineator of animals and a delicate humourist.
Frenchmen and Italians have been alike fascinated by him, and his works
have often been translated; until the middle of the nineteenth century he
enjoyed European popularity.
THE GOLDEN AGE: PUSHKIN.--The true Russian nineteenth century and its
golden age must be dated from Pushkin. He wrote from his earliest youth.
He was an epic poet, novelist, and historian. His principal poems were
_Ruslan and Liudmila_, _Eugene Onegin_, _Poltava_; his most remarkable
historical essay was _The Revolt of Pugachev_. He possessed a fertile and
vigorous imagination, which he developed by continual and enthusiastic
study of Byron. He did not live long enough either for his own fame or
for the welfare of Russian literature, being killed in a duel at the age
of thirty-eight. Mérimée translated much by Pushkin. The French lyric
stage has mounted one of his most delicate inspirations, _La Rousalka_
(the water nymph). He was quite conscious of his own genius and, freely
imitating the _Exegi monumentum_ of Horace, as will be seen, he wrote: "I
have raised to myself a monument which no human hand has constructed....
I shall not entirely perish ... the sound of my name shall permeate
through vast Russia.... For long I shall be dear to my race because my
lyre has uttered good sentiments, because, in a brutal age, I have
vaunted liberty and preached love for the down-trodden. Oh, my Muse, heed
the commands of God, fear not offence, claim no crown; receive with equal
indifference eulogy and calumny, but never dispute with fools."
LERMONTOV.--Lermontov was not inferior to his friend Pushkin, whom he
closely resembled. Like him he drew inspiration from the romantic poets
of the West. He loved the East, and his short, glorious suggestions came
to him from the Caucasus. Among his finest poetic works may be cited _The
Novice Ismael Bey_, _The Demon_, _The Song of the Tzar Ivan_. He wrote a
novel, perhaps autobiographical, entitled _A Hero of Our Own Time_, the
hero of which is painted in highly Byronic colours.
GOGOL.--Russian taste was already veering to the epic novel or epopee in
prose, of which Gogol was the most illustrious representative until
Tolstoy. He was highly gifted. In him the feeling for Nature was acutely
active, and recalling his descriptions of the plains of the Crimea, its
rivers and steppes, he must be regarded as the Rousseau and Chateaubriand
of Russia. Further, he was a close student of village habits, and a
painter in astonishing hues. He eminently possessed the sense of epic
grandeur, and added a sarcastic vein of delightful irony. His _Taras
Bulba_, _King of the Dwarfs_, _History of a Fool_, and _Dead Souls_, have
the force of arresting realism, his _Revisor_ (inspector of finances) is
a caustic comedy which has been a classic not only in Russia but in
France, where it was introduced in translation by Mérimée.
TURGENEV.--Turgenev, less epical than Gogol, was also studious of local
habits and dexterous in describing them. He began with exquisite
_Huntsman's Tales_ impregnated with truth and precision, as well as
intimate and picturesque details; then he extended his scope and wrote
novels, but never at great length, and therefore suited to the exigencies
or habits of Western Europe (such as _Smoke_). He had selected Paris as
his abode, and he mixed with the greatest thinkers of the day: Taine,
Flaubert, Edmond About. In the eyes of his fellow-countrymen he became
ultimately too Western and too Parisian. His was a delicate, sensitive
soul, prone to melancholy and perpetually dreaming. He had a cult of form
in which he went so far as to make it a sort of scruple and superstition.
TOLSTOY.--Tolstoy, so recently dead, was a great epic poet in prose, a
very powerful and affecting novelist, and in some measure an apostle. He
began with _Boyhood Adolescence and Youth_, in itself very curious and
particularly valuable because of the idea it conveys of the life of the
lords of the Russian soil, and for its explanation of the formation of
the soul and genius of Tolstoy; then came _The Cossacks_, full of
magnificent descriptions of the Caucasus and of interesting scenes of
military and rural life; subsequently that masterpiece of Tolstoy's, _War
and Peace_, narratives dealing with the war of Napoleon with Russia and
of the subsequent period of peaceful and healthy rural life. It is
impossible to adequately admire the power of narration and descriptive
force, the fertility of incidents, characterisations, and dramatic
moments, the art or rather the gift of portraiture, and finally, the
grandeur and moral elevation, in fact, all the qualities, not one of
which he appeared to lack, of which Tolstoy gave proof and which he
displayed in this immense history of the Russian soul at the commencement
of the nineteenth century; for it is thus that it is meet to qualify this
noble creation. The only analogy is with _Les Misérables_ of Victor Hugo,
and it must be admitted that despite its incomparable merits, the French
work is the more unequal. _Anna Karenina_ is only a novel in the vein of
French novels, but very profound and remarkable for its analysis of
character and also impassioned and affecting, besides having considerable
moral range. _The Kreutzer Sonata_ is a romance rather than a novel, but
cruelly beautiful because it exposes with singular clairvoyance the
misery of a soul impotent for happiness. _Resurrection_ shows that
mournful and impassioned pity felt by Tolstoy for the humble and the
"fallen," to use the phrase of Pushkin; it realises a lofty dramatic
beauty. Tolstoy, in a thousand pamphlets or brief works, preached to his
own people and to mankind the strict morality of Christ, charity,
renunciation, peace at all price, without taking into account the
necessities of social life; and he denounced, as had Jean Jacques
Rousseau, the culpability of art and literature, being resigned to
recognising his own works as condemnable. His was the soul of an exalted
poet and a lofty poetical mind; from a poet must not be demanded
practical common sense or that feeling for reality which is demanded,
often unavailingly, from a statesman.
DOSTOEVSKY.--Dostoevsky, with a tragic genius as great as that of
Tolstoy, may be said to have been more restricted because he exclusively
delineated the unhappy, the miserable, and those defeated in life. He
knew them personally because, after being arrested in 1849 at the age of
fifty for the crime of belonging to a secret society, he spent years in
the convict prisons of Siberia. Those miseries he describes in the most
exact terms and with heart-rending eloquence in _Buried Alive: Ten Years
in Siberia_, and in the remarkable novel entitled _Crime and Punishment_.
He has lent invaluable aid in the propagation of two sentiments which
have created some stir in the West and which, assuredly, we desire to
foster: namely, "the religion of human suffering" and the cult of
"expiation."