Pour le cours 10, il y a eu un problème d’enregistrement.

J’ai complété les quelques notes

que j’avais avec les slides et des recherches sur Internet.

cours 10 - 22/04/2021

Karamzin was not trained as an historian. He was quite skilled to create such a narrative.
Pushkin was not always fond of what Karamzin did, neither Dostoïevski. Aside of his contribution
as an amateur historian, he was a literary author. He his seen as the creator of Russian
sentimentalism. Sentimentalism is more lyrical, down to hearth and with less political ambitions.
Karamzin will always remain faithful and politically correct in all that he was doing. In Russian
context, it means Russian conservatism. Poor Liza (1792) was innovative and rather brave. It was
not a custom to talk about peasants women’s love. It was not a subject that a respectable author
should talk about. It’s not her class that matter but her human inner world and the hidden content
of one’s art. The main agenda of Russian Enlightenment had a lot to do with promoting reforms in
all levels of Russian civilization and to promote the development of the Russian literary language.
He his usually compared with Johnson “Rambler”, both used the norms of colloquial speech and
created easy and uid phrases to re ect emotional expressiveness. It permitted to discover new
semantic tones in old bookish-Slavonic words and to widely use lexical and phraseological
calques from French. French grows as a major language in Russia, almost as a second language.
For example, Tolstoï wrote War and Peace fty percent in French and translated it in Russian.
Karamzin created new words in Russian. He elaborated a new type of lyricism which in uenced
the young Pushkin.

Karamzin never declared his intentions. Some scholars doubt this strict division of
language but we know that old expressions were used. Karamzin transformed the Russian
language and remove the Latin construction and heavy slavonic constructions. He resisted the
use of obsolete Church Slavonicisms. Belinsky said about Karamzin that he «  transformed the
Russian language, removing it from tenets of Latin constructions and heavy Slavonicism and
bringing it closer to live, natural, spoken Russian speech  ». At the same time, he cared to be
politically correct and was a very cautious person. He did not reject Lomonosov’s doctrine. He
understood the necessity and importance of a special «  high  » style in works of political,
philosophical and historical importance. He promoted the “pollution of language” with the loan of
foreign words. This pollution was at some point related to the new educated nobility that Russia
was rapidly gaining and its new nobility was using its own vocabulary. This tendency also meant a
division between two literary tradition and forms of expressing oneself into “noble” and “low”.
Aside of French Enlightenment, an other important source of in uence in all possible
respects in term of politics and culture was French Revolution, a central huge event. The most
important was the victory of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie will become the main deciding social
entity in Europe. The bourgeoisie did not existed in Russia at that time. This new class was
coming. Russian ruling class was looking with much fear in what was happening in France. The

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 topic that was occupying everyone was social equality. That was the main topic that was
discussed among many Russian aristocracy. The mainstream opinion was dealing with French
Revolution as a tragic mistake. They didn’t see the positive e ect of it. Napoleon was seen as a
very welcome phenomenon who put everything into the right context. This entire chain of political
tragic events was looked with much attention. For the Russian point of view, big countries should
have a monarchy softened by Enlightenment. It doesn’t mean a constitutional monarchy.
Alexander I came to the power and Karamzin was the rst to greet him with an ode : You will be
the Sun of the Enlightenment.

Exécution

du roi

Louis XVI.

Caricature intitulée Il faut espérer

que le jeu nira bientôt. Cette

caricature représente la société

divisée en 3 ordres (la noblesse, le

clergé et le Tiers-Etat). Cela signi e

que le Tiers-Etat est accablé par

les deux autres ordres qui

béné cient de privilèges et qui ne

payent pas d’impôts malgré leur

fortune.

Karamzin’s political view was the idea of uniting people through History and Enlightenment. He
managed to in uence the Tsar with his writing. Autocracy was highly needed in Russia and
serfdom was inevitable but Russia was full of social discontent. Tsar Alexander was irritated. In
1819, Karamzin wrote a note called Opinion of a Russian Citizen. It was full of critique and it
displeased the Tsar. Karamzin had faith in preserving power of the autocracy. He condemned the
Decembrist uprising of 1825. The speeches of Karamzin served to strengthen the autocratic

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 system against Decembrists values. His literary achievements were highly appreciated by the
young writers (Pushkin and the Decembrists poets). Pushkin frequents the literary circle Arzamas.
Karamzin’s honesty as a historian was remarquable. He had the ability to penetrate deeper strata
of Russian civilization. He was also using satire and irony. It’s interesting because he introduced
female characters and that was not a custom. It adresses the older subject of the political struggle
of the opposition of two opposite tradition.

The historical nature of the Decembrism

Poets were aristocrats and military o cer. It’s quite an unique combination. They were
aristocrats, they all had their titles and they were o cers. They all participated in the Napoleonic
campaign. It’s a meaningful aspect because they reached Paris. They travelled with their horses
and they stopped in many villages and they were able to see massively what was the life in
western Europe. The Republican spirit was very much alive in France. All those Russian o cers
were very keen to notice. They were immediately comparing the poor state of events in Russia
and they were shocked. The main question was to know why it wasn’t possible to be better in
Russia. They were expecting much more from Alexander I and they were expecting abolition of
serfdom and a constitution but it was too much. They were disappointed. Everyone understood
that Alexander was not inclined to give any European freedom to Russia. The rst steps of
Decembrism began in 1814 and it started in underground societies. They never had concrete
political program. They only wanted to ght political evil and any form of injustice. They were
idealist and completely unprepared. They were several organizations. They were politically
inclined to act. They called themselves Orden Russkich rytzarei. They all were highly decorated.
They never fully agreed with each other. They didn’t realized the importance of an accord in order
to achieve some concrete political goals. When Alexander heard about some movement (because
of his secrete police) he took measures supposed to forbid all the illegal gatherings of highest
o cers because he could smell conspiracies rising. The main goal of Orden was to promote the
establishing of Constitutional Monarchy in Russia. They ended up with very radical demand to
change this regime completely and to dismiss the Tsar and they wanted to elect a new one and to
create a constitutional monarchy. The society of the Soiuz Spasenia is a society which counted
thirty members. Most of all were very decorated soldiers. Its agenda was the same as the other
ones. They wanted to abolish serfdom, to proclaim a New Constitution and to retain the privileges
of the nobility. A more radical segment of the society demanded the assassination of the Tsar. The
rst decisions of the future Decembrists was in 1817, in the so called Moscow Conspiracy. They
wanted to assassinate the Tzar visiting one of the Moscow Cathedrals. They also wanted to
commit suicide to imitate a duel. The plan was dismissed due to the lack of means to succeed.
They were too many signs of disagreement.

The main interest of the secret societies was to be able to express freely one’s opinion. In
1820, a radicalization of intentions occurs and they wanted to change Russian political regime

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from monarchy into Constitutional Monarchy or even Republic. So, they would rather proceed to
Republic if it wasn’t accepted. Russia is too big for Republic. If you discuss every historical
Republic, you see that they were small (such as the Novgorod republic). It’s a little tricky to handle
from the pragmatic point. They chose something that they called military revolt in order to act
against the Tsar. The revolt was based only on military forces and common people were not
allowed to participate. They thought that military forces, which in principle should listen to them,
should obey them despite the fact that the orders were against the monarch. That was an obvious
mistake. An other one was to not include common people. The main goal was to help common
people but they didn’t trust them so they didn’t ask their help. There was no communication
between peasants and aristocracy. They couldn’t reach common people. Decembrists thought, as
future reforms, that Novgorod should become the new capital because of its good geo-location
and the respect due to the ancient Republican tradition originated there. Everyone would be a
citizen, like in Ancient Athens and there will be no aristocracy anymore. It will be a common court
of Law for everyone and a total and complete guaranteed freedom of speech. All peasants will
gain their lands for free and there will be no « slavery » anymore. A l e x a n d e r d i e d o n 1 9 t h
November 1825. He dies in obscure circumstances in a remote town of Taganrog. He died of a
strange disease with his wife which is also very strange. They had a dynastic crisis of 25 days
because it was not clear who would succeed him. His brother didn’t want to be Emperor and
Alexander had no children. Decembrists wanted to use this occasion for accelerating their actions
for the power change in Russia. His brother Konstantin resigned because he didn’t want to be
Emperor so Nikolai, the other brother, stepped on the throne and became Emperor. All the secret
information about the Decembrist’s revolt became fully known to Alexander spies and the court
knew almost everything. Decembrists wanted to have all the military forces of the capital to
become involved in their plan but there were a lack of organization and a constat hesitation. The
Emperor Nikolai had heavy armaments and artillery and all the main actors were executed.

Karamzin wrote History of the Russian State from the Earliest times. In 1818, the rsts 8
volumes were published. It talked about the importance of autocracy and the nobility for Russia. It
was discriminating towards peasants. But Karamzin was not deaf to the social events and he
noticed that autocrats tended to become despotic. Based on a large number of historical sources,
Karamzin was the rst to give a complete summary of Russian history from the most ancient
times to the 17th century. Details included many valuable documents, earlier unknown, and later
lost. Karamzin helped to awaken interest in History in wide circles of Russian society. Karamzin’s
history contained a peculiar artistic conception of the Russian national character. The main hero
of Karamzin’s History was the people. An important feature was that it was entertaining. It’s
written in extremely vivid Russian language. He wasn’t afraid of rudeness and he listened to the
street speech, the language of songs, chronicles, enriching the language with Old Russian.
Pushkin said about Karamzin’s work : «  along with the best works of the beginning of the 19th
century, can be proudly displayed before Europe… ».

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 Alexander Radischev (1749-1802)

Radischev was a writer and a philosopher. He came from a rich noble family. His father’s
estate was in the village of Nemtsov near Moscow. He was taught to read and to write by his
uncle, serf Pyotr Mamontov. From 1756, he lived in Moscow in the family of a relative. He went to
the University of Leipzig where he specialized in law, studied literature, natural sciences, medicine
and mastered several foreign languages. He said that one of the most meaningful epochs of his
life was in Leipzig during the revolt of Russian students against the despotic regime of pedagogy,
led by a Russian Prince Ushakov. In Leipzig, Russian students were following the work of the
Commission for composing a New Code of laws. He was one of the rst Russian Enlighteners,
like Novikov. French Enlighteners played an important role in forming Radischev’s world-view of
this time. Reading Enlighteners, Radischev learned how to think.

In 1771, he was appointed as a protocol o cer in the Senate. He translated a book called
Re ections on Greek History which glori ed civil virtues, democratic character of state institutions
of Ancient Greece and attacked usurpers and tyrants. He considered that autocracy was the
opposite to the human nature condition. In 1775, he became headquarters of the Finnish division
during the peasant rebellion of Pugachev.

Radischev.

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 He saw the awful life of the serf peasantry and the abuses of landlords and the semi-criminal
actions of the Government. Pugachev’s Rebellion was a milestone in the ideological development
of Radischev. After the execution of Pugachev, he preliminary retired. In 1777, he joined the
Commercial Board, at the head of which was Radischev’s dear friend Prince Vorontsov who was a
liberal aristocrat and middle opposed to Catherine II. Vorontsov recommended Radischev to work
in metropolitan O cial customs as a General Director and he will always try t help or save
Radischev against all dangers and odds. In the 1780-ies there was a vigorous activity of Russian
Enlighteners with Novikov, Fonvizin, Krylov,…. and it was rapidly developing. Radischev highly
appreciated the satirical works of Fonvizin and had working relations with Novikov. Radischev had
a big interest in the events of the American War of Independence (1775-83) when a new federative
Republic (The United States of America) was formed. The experience f the American Revolution
con rmed the theory that only the people themselves are the sole creator of all material values
and that they can resist injustice or slavery. In 1780, he wrote an Essay about Lomonosov in which
he praised the scholar and poet. In 1782, Radischev wrote slightly irreverent and even rebellious
Letter to a friend, devoted to the opening of the monument of Peter I. Radischev wrote that Peter
was a great reformer who renewed Russia but he also noted that Peter was a strictly authoritative
autocrat who, by strengthening the landed gentry state, destroyed the last signs of the people’s
natural freedoms. He also wrote an ode called Liberty which was the rst revolutionary poem in
Russia and praised the anti-imperial revolution of the Americans. He though that freedom was a
priceless gift and the source of all great deeds. The obstacle to freedom were the laws created by
the autocracy and sancti ed by the Church which legalized slavery. He though that people had
the right to regain the freedom taken away from them and to resist the monarch. This ode ends
with a prophecy of the future victory of the inevitable Russian revolution but « the year has not yet
come, the fates have not yet been ful lled ». He wrote a biography of his old friend Vita of Prince
Ushakov. Since middle eighties, Radischev started working his main oeuvre Journey from St.
Petersburg to Moscow.

cours 11 - 29/04/2021

Radischev is the rst open Russian literary dissident in the topic of Russian protests
against political power. He will always remain highly relevant for Russian culture. Russian literature
is famous for using literature as means of political protest. This is a rather odd situation because
this is not the case with other world literature. Only Russian literature is characterized by this odd
phenomenon. The reason has to do with the fact that Russia never had free press, this unique
world of political pamphlets and this amazingly rich world of free press which existed during
French Revolution. French Revolution o ers an immense eld for studying the genesis of free
press in modern world. It was an immense political tool. Russia didn’t have that and that’s why
Russian literature was used to express discontent and protest with the reigning state of a airs. An
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other important aspect of this situation is the fact that not everyone could write or read so
Russian authors came from aristocracy. Lomonosov’s existence prove the fact that he’s an
exception to that rule. Radischev was a high-standing Russian aristocrat who, for some reason,
was extremely disillusioned with the state of political a airs in Russia and he decided to express
his disillusionment by his literary text called Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Radischev’s
book is considered of paramount importance for the entire course of Russian literary history and
Russian politics. It was of an immense importance. Radischev demonstrated to everyone that it
was possible not to fear the autocrats and to express discontent openly using his own name and
to be printed. The text was printed in a small private printing house organized by Novikov. Private
printing house still existed. Then, it will be prohibited by Catherine and the other monarchs. It was
printed in the amount of 650 copies. It may seem a small amount but it was not. Actually, it was a
big amount of circulating copies. We can multiply this number by ten or twenty because each
copy could be read by may people. The potential amount of circulation was immense. The rumors
about this fact reach Catherine’s court. Catherine II Secretary’s, Khrapovitsky wrote in his diary on
this occasion : «  There is the suspicion of Radischev. The Empress believes he is a rebel, even
worse than Pugachev  ». They didn’t read the text but they heard about his state of mind.
Catherine already thought about him as a rebel or as a potential rebel. He was even compared by
her to Pugachev. It was a severe accusation because Pugachev was a militant and a very brutal
dangerous man who organized a huge army of rebellious peasants who rebelled against Catherine
and many people died. To compare an innocent re ned intellectual to Pugachev is a severe
accusation. The book was con scated and Radischev arrested. The entire trial was conducted in
a very undemocratic and untransparent way. So, after a brief investigation he was imprisoned.
Catherine was the Supreme Judge. There were no lawyers.

Radischev at his

trial.

You only had a judge who is essentially Catherine servant and with his nger he reads the line of
this rebellious book. There’s a portrait on the wall. It’s Catherine who is symbolically present.
Radischev stands and there’s a guard. This is essentially a very sketchy little caricature form of
representing Radischev’s trial but it’s to a great degree faithful. It’s more or less what happened.
There’s a degree of simpli cation and reduction but it’s a very good illustration.

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As we said, Catherine was the Supreme Judge and there also was a chief secretary of the Secret
Commission, Sheshkovsky. Catherine as many other monarchs always wanted to present
themselves as merciful and generous. She would say that Radischev’s crime was grave enough
for a death penalty (that was a theatrical thing to say for a book) but she graciously replaced this
sentence by 10 years of hard labor in iron mines deep in mainland of Siberia. No one could
survive 10 years. Hard labor and exile didn’t really break Radischev. He was very brave. He used
this time to educate himself. Of course, he managed to get some sort of improvement. He was
not treated like an ordinary prisoner. He was able to have special conditions and he was able to
write letters which was exceptional because not every prisoner was allowed to write. We have
several interesting, down to hearth and very pragmatic texts that come from Radischev’s period of
exile in Siberia. Some of those texts are even relevant today because he was the one who was
able to foresee the future problems and complications in relation to the future rising of China
which geographically is close to Siberia. Nowadays China is very active there. That was
something that Radischev noticed. Radischev represents Russian materialism in its very clear
form. Materialism is a pragmatic philosophy of down to hearth thinking. It comes very close to
atheism. Someone who is materialist is usually also associated with atheist philosophy. No
coincidence that Radischev was associated with Novikov’s project with freemasons. This close
comparison of learning and knowledge with weapons that could be used to armor society against
problems and challenges. Materialism is an important term. It was historically seen as suspicious
and problematic for almost every autocratic regime because materialism undermines the power of
autocrat. With the years, Radischev becomes more critical of freemasons as well. Freemasons are
not atheist and it's not justi ed to call them materialists. They have some notable aspects of their
outlook which come close to materialism and their entire symbolic universe which appeals to
tools, stone, buildings, craft has material nature but they are not atheists. They are considering
themselves the true Christians who help creating new reformed society based on the right
interpretation of Christian teaching. There’s also a very strong mystical aspect in freemasonry. All
this comes at odds with materialism outlook which Radischev was assuming. Radischev criticism
against freemason was the very same criticism he articulates against Christian Church. This is a
classic way of exercising criticism : being anticlerical and being critical of every authority which
didn’t earn its place by transparent clear means but seen as usurping the freedom of people. The
famous of expression of Radischev is «  The existence of things is independent of the power of
knowledge about them, it is self-su cient ». Things exist not matter what we know or don’t know
about them. It’s a materialist manifesto. This anticlerical stance, the anti-church and anti-
Christians didn’t bring him to pure atheism. It’s impossible to speak of pure atheism before
mid-19th century. Radischev was no atheist, he was anti-clerical and anti-mystic. He was a deist
like Voltaire (he also had lots of criticism to address to the Church). It means that he believes in
god, he is not agnostic. He also was doing research on Russian Cossacks, what they were and
how they conquer Siberia. The entire eld of Russian history was less explored by that time. There
was still no Karamzin’s work. This history of the acquisition of Siberia is related to Radischev’s
placement in Siberia because he became interested in the things that surrounded him. It’s an
inquisitive mind (people who wants to know how things work like Newton).

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 After Catherine the Great, Paul I comes. Paul wasn’t meant to become an Emperor
because Catherine didn’t like him and though he was un t to rule Russia. Paul, in return didn’t like
his mother. He thought that she was a bad person, that she was harsh and he considered that she
was a foreigner. As the result of this animosity, which existed between the two, Paul - who was far
for being a humanist, he was quite a harsh ruler himself but he wanted to reverse the politics of
his mother and wanted to do everything as the opposite of what his mother did - allowed
Radischev to come back. He wanted to do something to contradict his mother. Paul granted him
full freedom. This freedom was reinforced by Alexander I. Gradually, Radischev began to be
involved again and managed to contribute to the well-being of Russian statehood. He was
engaged in Alexander’s ideas of reformation of Russian society, of creating new legislative
statues, creating something that would be used as a basic law of Russia. Alexander was the one
who had ideas of abolition of serfdom as well as reforming class privileges. Almost every Russian
monarch starts with this intention of thinking about reforms. They seek Russian authors because
every Russian known cultural gure was also an author. By that time, Radischev was quite radical
in his attitude of demanding profound class reformation and the abolition of class privileges and
serfdom. He also demanded abolishment of corporal punishment which existed till Alexander II in
Russia (till the second half of 19th century). As a result of this number of suggestions that
Radischev o ered to Alexander, a Chairman of this commission was quoted saying that « a new
Siberia is waiting for Radischev ». That was the price that Radischev could expect to pay for his
liberal thoughts. He realized that his entire project is unrealistic and there’s no chance to
implement all the ideas that he wanted to promote and he committed suicide. He poisoned
himself. His posthume in uence is di cult to estimate. This is almost a bible of Russian critical
thoughts. In a very condensed form it unites all the most essential points of critique. In the later
period, especially in the Soviet time, the text was called a revolutionary encyclopedia of the
Enlightenment. It accommodates all the necessary elements of the right opposition to the
tsardom. This was expressed not in a dry formal language of someone who addresses o cial
bureaucrats. It was written in a very accessible satirical way. This is a unique text that combines
features from several genres. It grew immensely popular and it penetrated a very wide base of
Russian readers during the decades that came after its publication. It’s hinted on the creation on a
new society that will be structured by di erent ways of organizing life. This life will be centered
around peasants who will be the most essential element for the simple reason that peasants are
the great overwhelming majority of Russian society. For that reason, peasants must decide how
the society should look like. Radischev was not afraid of peasants or suspicious. This is an
attitude that he called new patriotism. When Russian Revolution will happen, Lenine the political
leader of the Revolution was much more suspicious against peasants because they were seen as
too individual. They were to prone to ask too much freedom and they were less adaptable for the
new autocratic or totalitarian rule. For that reason, Bolcheviks created new serfdom called
collective farming and they were able to manage Russian peasants.

The synthetic genre that Radischev de facto founded should be called critical realism.
Critical realism is an odd term invented by a soviet literary critic. It tells a lot about the way

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Radischev constructs his narrative. He uses obvious realist matters of writing. He’s very direct, he
uses no metaphors, no mysticism. There’s no romanticism. It’s focused on critique. For
Radischev, Classicism was not as relevant as for the authors whom we talked about before. He
more or less dismisses the legacy of Classicism. He was more sympathetic with the new
tendencies which will be later personi ed with Karamzin with sentimentalism for example. He was
also sympathetic to the new realist sentimentalism. It can be felt in this text. We can see signs of
all political elements that we would expect for such a critique (essentially anti-feudal). All the
landlords and serfs represented later form of feudalism. That’s why Radischev attitude could be
called anti-feudal. His ideological basis was always related to Enlightenment. He appreciated
Rousseau and Voltaire. Both were popular in Russia and represented di erent attitude towards
social critique. They were no friends and they didn’t say the same thing. With Rousseau, it’s
important to stress the paramount importance of nature and natural laws that must regulate
human relations. In this natural course of relations, there is no place for a monarch, even less for
an autocratic absolutist monarch and there’s no much place for Church. He was an irreverent
thinker. Voltaire expresses the same idea in a di erent way and tone. Nature has no importance
but rationality and rational reasonable way of reforming society and dismissing the Church was
really important. Voltaire was seen as a big enemy of Christian Church. They are both anticlerical
and their freedom loving spirit is something that unites them. That’s what makes them so
attractive for Radischev and Russian writers. Individualism and subjectivism for Radischev were
seen as weak points of the spoiled civilization that should be reformed. There is a traditional
notion, familiar to us for Enlightenment, that the nature of people is not unchangeable. People and
state can be reformed. It’s a very direct reference that citizens have to take their destiny in their
hands and change it.

With this critical realism, which he more or less invent, the main object of his address is
the object of common people. Who are they is a little obscure. We can understand it as the future
collective of citizens. Those common people are not just peasants or non aristocratic members of
Russian society but essentially everyone who will be responsible for creating the right, just
context for the best realization of people hopes and needs. Russian people were su ering all sorts
of social injustice, serfdom being the more painful. Radischev wanted to emancipate Russian
subjects from the chains that they were tied with, to repair those injustice and to create a new
form of emancipated living. Some of his books are less famous. One of those book is a biography
called Life of Prince Ushakov. The point is to show a good portrait of someone who could be a
role model. Ushakov is the typical exemple of an Enlightened aristocrat who didn’t loose his
humanity and his reason. He always tried to promote the bene cial idea of freedom. This is an
example of Citoyen, a term borrowed from Rousseau. This concept was of the rst importance for
Rousseau, a freedom-loving man whose life is determined not only by the circumstances imposed
on him, but also by the rebellion against them. Someone who is brave and strong enough to
change circumstances and to go against the current. The main character of Journey has also the
same traits. He can change deadly circumstances of his society. Radischev was seing his
compatriotes as prisoners in their homeland. They are not subjects but prisoners. He also

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 developed a special theory of emotions and he insisted on the social nature of emotions which is
interesting. Then, he was talking about the long road to mental emancipation of all kinds of
slavery. This book and the entire current that he represents is about this intention to create the
road of emancipation of di erent sources of slavery (mental and emotional as well, not just
physical). The reason that Catherine and the other monarchs were able to articulate control over
the citizens was because of that, the ability of creating an emotional dependance. Radischev’s
main character does not ee from the world. He remains in the di cult and sad reality of Russian
tsardom. He’s open to national misfortune just as everyone else. He doesn’t use his aristocratic
background to escape. He always stresses that the destinies of the individual and the nation are
intertwined. One should always be alert of the su ering of others. He’s a man who comprehends
the sorrows and joys of the serfs he met who are searching for human dignity and freedom. This
journey could be called the great road of life. During Radischev’s time, it took almost a week to go
to the rst city to the second one. Russia always had two capitals and during this road, one can
meet the big landscape of smaller villages and tows that are situated on the road. A traveler has
to stop everyday and maybe several time a day. The traveler uses this journey as an excellent way
to get acquainted with the real life and the real people. High gentry were never able to see the real
life of people. Radischev went out to see and made himself familiar with this new context. We can
call it a sentimental journey, known in western literature. It’s when the main narrator familiarise
with the troubles and misfortunes of those who surround him. It was an unique opportunity for
Radischev to enter in contact with uncensored reality and with people of all social groups. This
text represents in a condensed form the subject matter and the style that future Russian realistic
novel will assume. He is a pioneer of this approach. This journey was a real one. This is an
example of a peculiar situation when art or literature and real life come together.

Rare scan of rst historical

printing of the Journey.

There’s an interesting epigraph, under the title, from an ancient poem : it describes a very
dangerous beast that lies in front of a man an prevents this man from being happy and accessing
his homeland and his life, essentially. This beast is a metaphoric comparison that Radischev does
between Russian monarchy and this cruel beast that prevent people from realizing themselves
and from emancipating themselves.

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The Journey promotes a doctrine of the active man, someone who never should be pleasant or
passive with the oppressing reality. He should always be able to stand up and voice his protest
against it. No matter the danger this entails. Despite the fact that Radischev was granted full
freedom by Paul I and then Alexander, no o cial publication of this book was possible before
1905. It was the symbolic year of the rst Russian revolution. There always existed samizdat
(hand-written copies). Herzen published the book in London in 1858.

In conclusion, Radischev establishes a revolutionary tradition of Russian literature. He

reinforces this essential quality of Russian literature called social critique. Social critique can be
seen as an essential trait of many literature outside of Russia but never as deadly serious as in
this new tradition that he established. This tradition of social critique and exploiting literature for
political aims and means will be further widely used by Decembrists and by Pushkin who said :
« Following Radischev, I praised the biggest ideas of freedom ». Freedom and gaining it is at the
core of this discussion because there was none. The monarch was usurping freedom of her
subjects.

Alexander Griboedov (1795-1829)

Alexander Griboedov is a very good example of the same course of using literature as
social critique. Just like Radischev and many others, he was an example of Russian aristocrat and
state functionary. He was a diplomat who comes from a family of diplomats and aristocrats. He
had a versatile education at home and went to Moscow University. The ideal student was
supposed to master all the subjects so he studied philosophy and also mathematics and physics.
He was distinguished by talent at an early age. He also mastered several European languages.
Russian as a language was seen as insu cient and mastering other languages was a must. It was
needed to know Latin and ancient Greek especially if someone was seeking a career in literature.
It was essential. Griboedov, as a diplomat, also mastered Persian and Arabian. Griboedov was a
friend of Petr Chaadayev, a friend of Pushkin. 1812 is an important year in Russia because there

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 was a ght between Napoleon’s army and Russia in Borodino. Pushkin wrote a poem called
Borodino.It was seen as a major event for Russian history and civilization in general. This battle is
seen as more important than World War I. Griboedov took part in the army in the cavalry in 1812.

Russian were always combining art with real life. When an author experiences something,
he tries to implement it in his art. Griboedov published an essay called About Cavalry. He also
established Herald of Europe magazine known to us from Karamzin’s activity. It’s a very
prestigious journal. He was also creating translations from French for exemple. Higher Russian
gentry were allowed to retire in a very early age. This retirement was seen as preliminary because
the aristocrat would certainly be called again to service. It happened with him. He was also
enrolled in the network of the best poets of his time which was close to Pushkin.

Griboedov.

Griboedov looks very intelligent and pensive. He looks like an intellectual and a diplomat and she
seems like someone active in the eld of literature.

Karamzin was not perceived as a de nite positive phenomenon in Russian literature and some
colleagues showed irony towards him and Griboedov was one of them.

They critiqued his sentimentalism and something they de ned as the dreaminess of romanticism
of Zhukovsky. The main aspect of Griboedov writing was this post-classical irony. Satire and irony
always come hand in hand. For Griboedov somehow, the ironic attitude proved to be always very
dominant. He was active in the eld of translation too. His rst major comedy was called A
Married Bride (1817), based on a French original. It happened a lot, it was not a direct translation.
There’s a di erence between translations and the genre of tailored translation which means that
the text is based more or less on the main lines of the original but it’s di erent. Griboedov’s
comedy is based on the French playwright Nicolas Thomas Barthe who wrote his comedies in
verse (Les Fausses In délités). Griboedov will always write his comedies in verse. Griboedov’s
variant was even staged. Before Tchekhov, there are some examples of Russian theaters but not
on a large scale and mostly private (with one Imperial theatre).

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Griboedov was appointed in Persia as a high diplomat at Russian embassy. Some said
that it was essentially an exile because he was involved in very mild political critique (not as brutal
as Radischev but quite sharp) and in duels. Duels were forbidden but tolerated. This mission will
be fatal for him. He will be situated in the Iranian town of Tabriz where he will write (Traveler/
Wanderer, a very sad story about a Georgian boy who was sold at the Tabriz market). Slave
markets were still quite active at the time. In Ti is, he wrote the rst two acts of his most famous
comedy Woe from Wit or The Woes of Wit. The text discusses intellect and reason. Witt is about
intellect or reason. The Russian word for wit means being able to formulate things in a very sharp
way. He also creates other texts. He befriends the right people in Russian literary circles and they
will contribute to the popularity of his work. His texts, by the end of 1824 are essentially nished.

When Griboedov

was nishing his

main text.

In 1825, his text is published and he has a huge success in the literary circles. It’s the period of
Decembrist’s activity. It explains partially the immense success of Woe from Wit because it’s a
very critical text, not as critical as Radischev’s work but still. Decembrists were fashionable. This
contributed to its popularity and also the fact that Griboedov had a Russian heroic military past.
He also created a drama (Georgian Night, 1826-27) which is less famous about Georgia. He was
always nding his subjects in Oriental eld. He was described as a Russian Orientalist, a Russian
writer who nds fascination in all the things from Orient (Ancient Armenia, Georgia). He
popularized Georgian and Armenian folkloric subjects, trying to combine their mythological past

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 with some relevant problems -essentially political problems- in the present days. Georgia and
Armenia were annexed by Russia. They were not fully independent at that time and they really
su ered from Ottomans. It came down to a very brutal thing : either Ottomans would conquer
them or Russian. Because they were Christians, they preferred to be a part of a Christian land and
the kings were seeing Russia as the less evil. The formal reason of the annexation is the fact that
Russia wanted to protect Armenia and Georgia from Ottomans. The danger of that was felt and
Russian protection was needed.

After the Decembrist’s defeat, Griboedov was arrested under suspicion that he was a part
of this revolt. Luckily, the investigation didn’t show much results. There was no direct incriminating
evidence against him. He also had a powerful ally, General Yermolov. He returned to Caucasus as
a diplomat and he became a plenipotentiary ambassador for both Turkey and Iran. He also helped
organizing Azerbaijan.

Painting from that period. It’s quite telling. Griboedov greeds one of the Oriental ruler.

The economic part of his activity was important. The economic background of those annexations
was very relevant and part of Griboedov mission was to explore perspectives and horizons. He
established the Russian Transcaucasian Company which became a mega-company in the future.
Griboedov is an example of a very powerful Russian diplomat who coincidentally is also part of
the Russian literary canon. He had a lot of success as a diplomat. He was not living permanently
in Persia. Before he went there, he married a Georgian princess called Nina Chavchavadze. She
was sixteen while Griboedov was considered an old man of thirty-six. He left his pregnant wile for
Teheran.

Griboedov and

his wife.

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Griboedov became a victim of a violent political conspiracy. It’s a very obscure episode. It was a
conspiracy against Russia prepared by a local aristocrat. Most likely, there was support from the
British who were active in Persia and ercely against Russian in uence in Persia. They wanted to
prevents by all means Russian success in Teheran. The Russian success from the military con ict
between Russian and Persia in 1826-28 contributed to British’s anxiety. It was an orchestrated
attack against Russian embassy and Griboedov was murdered by a violent mob of Persian
fanatics. He was transported to Russia were he’s buried.

In conclusion, Griboedov is always mentioned as one of the principle Russian playwrights.

Fonvizin is important but Griboedov is the real rst one mentioned as the real Russian theatre. His
work was rejected by Royal censorship but the comedy circulated in numerous hand-written
copies. His popularity was overwhelming. His work was even more popular that Radischev’s
Journey. Woe from Wit is an extremely funny comedy. It’s a very aphoristic text. Almost every
literate person knew about his work. It shows the limits of censorship and the inability of
censorship to stop knowledge from disseminating. The main character is called Chatsky which is
a funny name because we can think about someone who chat and he does (he’s a chatterbox).
He is a brilliant person. Pushkin read this comedy in exile. The text adresses very fundamental
issues of social and political complexity and various societal problems of Russian way of living.
This cluster of problems stayed in discussion for many years because it should be reformed.
Soviet critics mentioned that Decembrist ideology is somehow included in Griboedov’s comedy.
Some mild allusions to rebellious minds are de nitely to be seen there. It’s an updated comedy
genre. This comedy is not read as an archaic text, it’s read as a modern text. The style and
language are very sharp and very modern. With this text, we have new Russian literature which
we can call fully modern. It coincides with modern time. Griboedov is mentioned as the rst
modern author aside Pushkin.

cours 12 - 06/05/2021

Griboedov represents in some way the beginning of new Russian literature, Russian
literature of new times. It means that with him we have an author whom we can de ne as a
modern one. By saying modern, we mean his style, his language, his way of describing things and
his choice of topic which is much more open and much more accessible to the broad level of
public that appeals to them in a new way which is di erent quite radically from the authors with
whom we have dealt until now. All those authors don’t represent a real accessible sort of literature
open to everyone and understandable, entertaining to everyone. Entertainment is important for
literature in general. Literature should entertain in some extend. When it’s not captivating, it’s an
other sort written for something else (odes for example). With Karamzin, it begins to change and
its sentimentalism is meant to be more accessible than the hardcore tradition of Classicism. The

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real dramatic change comes with Griboedov. His text is full of precious gems of jokes, witness,
accessible irony and it’s very clear in what it wants to say.

Historic cover of the rst

edition of Woe from Wit.

This text had much trouble with censorship. It wasn’t fully approved by the o cial censorship.
The text was published in a private publisher hosted by Imperial medical Academy. It means that
the censor who was in charge there, had little interest in literature. After that, it was completely
banned.

One of the central questions that this comedy poses is the question that one encounters already
reading its title. Ума (um) is di cult to translate in English. Um means the combination of those
three terms : mind, intellect and reason. It’s a funny title. Normally your intellect should bring you
fortune and here, protagonists get the opposite. It’s a dialectical contradiction that refers to
Enlightenment. The spirit of the Enlightenment is one of the dominant mainstream tendencies of
intellectual sphere of this period. This phenomenon of Enlightenment was also German, not just
French. The German one was more philosophical and less accessible and less interested in
Encyclopedia. It was more scienti que, more rigid. Um refers to Kant’s Critique de la raison pure.
This reason is Um. Griboedov refers to the fact that Kant himself was not a lucky person. Despite
all of the immense reason that he possessed, he was unlucky. He worked as a private teacher.
With the years, he became famous and he refused to join University. Those new ideas that
Enlightenment brought were fascinating, even revolutionary. Those ideas were in relation to
Descartes critical philosophy and his new system of knowledge. We call this direction
transcendantal idealism : when we are regarding objects in the forms of appearance. This is
something that Chatsky is doing. We have several instances of most direct quotes or paraphrases
in Chatsky’s répliques. He repeats Kant when he says that representations are not things in
themselves. Generally, Chatsky mocks the idea that we have always to regard objects according
to their form of appearance. It’s true but a little funny because it can mislead people. The
conclusion that Chatsky is o ering is that nothing should be taken for granted. You have to doubt
everything and doubt is the principle of knowledge. It will be repeated by Marx. Everything should

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be doubted. This entire situation is remarkable in the sense that power of discourses are
becoming of paramount importance.

Illustration of

one of

Griboedov’s

editions.

A rich merchant accepts a new person in his house. We can see the hierarchy and we can see
details of fashion like odd shoes, it’s a mocking thing.

The presence of a strong and deep reason is Chatsky and this deep reason is already an evidence
of high political opinions. He’s suspicious and subversive. CHatsky is a free thinker. It becomes
clear for an engaged reader that Chatsky forms some hidden protest against the existing regime,
against the institutionalized system of injustices. He makes this clear through its ability to
recognize the stupidity, sluggishness, meanness of those who were called Pillars of the Society.
They are vain, stupid and highly hypocritical. The new petits bourgeois were emerging. We can
see Woe from Wit as a protest or a mocking exercice against them. This tendency will become
stronger with time.

An other

typical

illustration

from the

time.

Chatsky exempli es the brilliance of new intelligence. He tries to articulate himself as powerfully
as possible. By doing so, he makes somehow other people more important. By doing this, he
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 created inevitably a con ict between himself (a new free thinking sort of citizen) and the backward
retrograde society. This opposition exempli es a typical scene from Enlightenment. In the Russian
situation, it’s also an opposition between westernizing tendencies and backward slavophilic
tendencies. The western European ideology (freedom promoting ideology) is usually identi ed
with Decembrist ideology. An other important aspect is the new urban setting. The entire mise en
scène happens inside the newly emerging urban situation which is also new for Russia. This
urbanism also is re ected in Chatsky’s discourse. Family names in Russian literature are telling.

An other example

of hierarchical

society

of Griboedov’s

time. It’s a permanent

ritualistic behavior

dictated by high

bourgeois.

This problem of reason and mind is the core of the comedy. With this comedy we should
announce the new historical phenomenon called post-classical. It denies Classicism. Some
elements remain in uential, notably chronotope (time-place, meaning one speci c time and
place). This was quite characteristic for Classical literature where we don’t have diversity and we
don’t expect that characters or reality will jump from a place to an other. It happens in one
homogeneous reality. An other characteristic element is civic pathos. Griboedov was a dear friend
of Decembrists and he shared their convictions. A powerful element is the new aphoristic
language. We can endlessly quote Chatsky. We also have this tendency of departing from archaic
language and to come closer to normal, colloquial speech and putting this colloquial speech as
an accessible element inside the text. It was not a trivial task and Griboedov succeeded. This
element testi es the venue of modern literature, it testi es for a drastic change in Russian
literature. It’s an important stage in development Russian realistic literary language. This comedy
is the rst example of a literary text written by an aristocrat which became accessible to common
people and who enjoyed this oeuvre.

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 Some aphorisms.

Chatsky speaks about the judges who decide our moral system and such. Famusov is the
opposition of Chatsky. He represents old fashioned monarchist high bourgeois or aristocrat (it’s
unclear). What Famusov says is the opposite of Enlightenment.

This text proved to be extremely in uential and popular for centuries. It also had a noticeable
in uence on Russian extra-literary eld (social-political thought). Because it o ers such clear
ironic attacks on monarchy, it was attacked by monarchy and conservative critics who protested
that the comedy sarcastically deforms Russian reality, that the main character was a fool or a
bu oon and a chatterbox and that comedy language is uneven and wrong. Such a character was
unusual. The attitude towards Griboedov goes more or less along the lines of pro-Decembrists
and con-Decembrist. Griboedov was very close to the Decembrist circles, especially with
Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and Odoyevsky. The Decembrist tradition accommodated the text as its
main defending classic, its main justi cation and explication for why this revolt happened :
because of all the problems Griboedov described. It’s a very vivid and controversial overview on
Russian morals in general. The new language coincides with new political language. Decembrist
o ered the new form of rebellion which coincide with the new form of expression. Pushkin,
considered the father of modern literature and inventor of Russian literary language, was
extremely positive about this comedy. He praised it and said that Griboedov should be judged
only according to his own ideas and laws and was trying to defend Griboedov in front of harsh
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conservative criticism. There was no free-press and people were used to express their opinions in
letters. Pushkin acknowledged Griboedov’s comic inventive genius in creating new characters
and a sharp picture of human manners. The previous satire looks plain and dull in comparison.
Pushkin though that nearly half of this comedy will go into proverbs. It’s the highest compliment
that any literary author can get. Nikolai Gogol represents Russian literature related to the later
periodization and the real literature accessible to every one. He appreciated Griboedov : « the real
essence of Russian poetry in its sarcastic peculiarity ».

Aleksandr Pushkin

Pushkin represents the new reality of Russian literature. It’s no more an elitist enterprise
created by high nobility for its own use or the pleasure of a monarch. This literature had a di erent
pragmatical side. It was meant to be read by a very limited circle of connoisseurs. It was close
and not directed towards outsiders (common people). Before Pushkin, it was a di erent language.
Pushkin is di erent in so many aspects, starting with his physical body. He is one of the rst
famous Russian authors who didn’t represent high aristocracy. His family was not very high in
terms of Russian o cial leather of signi cance. It was ancient nobility but not rich. From the
mother side, Pushkin had African-Ethiopian background. His grandfather was send as a slave to
Peter the Great. Pushkin family su ered from nancial instability and they were incline to create
literature. His uncle Vasili was know for being a poet. We can’t nd much in his texts about his
childhood. Pushkin is sometimes referred as «  black Russian  ». There is one episode in his
memoirs when a less-known family friend comes to their house and see Pushkin aged eight or
nine and said that Pushkin looks black and Pushkin responded that he may be black but he isn’t
has ugly as him. He went to Imperial high school college, a special institution meant for aristocrats
who can prove their ancient nobility. Living in the internat, Pushkin started writing his poetry, when
he was fourteen. There, he created his rst network of friends, those who will remain his very

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close associates. Unfortunately, most of them would be persecuted because Decembrists poets
were executed (Delvig, Puschin and Kuhelbekker). Lyceum was an important stage in Pushkin’s
life. During his lyceum years, he became quite visible.

The historical scene were Derzhavin was invited to listen to those new youngsters who are trying
their path in literary career. Derzhavin was an old man and was sleepy until the moment Pushkin
came. Then Pushkin started, Derzhavin stood up. He was a little death so he directed his hear
towards Pushkin. The legend says that Derzhavin blessed Pushkin’s further career.

When someone graduates from the Lyceum (Pushkin graduated in 1817), the normal path is to get
employed. This tradition tells a lot about how Russian tradition perceived education. The entire
years of Soviet, when a student graduates from University, by law he was entitled to get an
appointment connected to the diploma. Pushkin was appointed as a secretary in the Collegium of
the Ministry of Foreign a airs. His main fascination was always with literature. He took part in the
Arzamas literary circles (Karamzin was one of the founders of this circle). It was very new, just like
Karamzin’s new sentimentalism as opposed to solemn odes for example. This new reality needed
new attitude in the form of new networking. One of those was Arzamas. Pushkin was active
there : he brings his texts, asked to recite them and then discussed. In St. Petersburg, it was the
time of new revival of fashion. The concept of fashion became relevant. Dandies became popular
for aristocrats. He was discovering the possibilities of making new acquaintances.

Pushkin was sympathetic with Decembrists. He maintained a quite active social agenda.
He wanted the emancipation of serfs. In Russia, there were no slave markets and serfs were not
seen as objects. It was di cult to determine how end of serfdom should go and who will teach
the peasants how to conduct their economic existence. It was di cult. Pushkin was part of one of
most prominent Decembrist circles called Soiuz blagodenstvia (Union of the well-being).Pushkin is
associated with the concept of liberal freedom. He was also a libertin. Pushkin was part of the
Decembrist but Decembrist didn’t want him to become an active practicing member for various
reasons. They identi ed Pushkin as such an important poet whom they need to save because
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they realized that their success is quite doubtful and there’s a danger to be executed. Pushkin
was never fully involved in practical activities and that will help him to survive. We have clear
traces of Pushkin’s Decembrist interest and orientation that are re ected in his poems. He was a
very extrovert kind of person. Decembrism symbolized a certain rebellion against the routine and
forever prescribed mode of activities, all this grey bureaucratic life of St. Petersburg which was
dull and not fascinating. Decembrism o ered a way to escape and to feel more alive. After
Arzamas, Pushkin organized his own networking group of poets called Zelenaia Lampa (Green
lamp). Part of Decembrists and Pushkin were members. An other important name in the eld of
rebellion was Petr Chaadaev, a very interesting gure who represents someone preaching for mild
republicanism. Any intellectual that was active in Russia was supposed to create poetry or prose
at least, otherwise you didn’t exist.

An other important topic is the bigger subject of Tsar and Pushkin. The Decembrist
activities in general didn’t go unnoticed from the part of Russian Tsar. The secret police was
always active, they knew everything. They were fully aware of Decembrists plans and revote didn’t
come as a surprise. Pushkin’s friendly relations with them were not something that secret police
was unaware of. Alexander I was always receiving informations about Pushkin’s jokes, remarks
and subversive activities in general. Some of Pushkin’s jokes were targeted directly at the
monarch and that was seen as a very careless and dangerous. As a result, Alexander decides that
Pushkin is un t to continue to work in St. Petersburg and he sends Pushkin away. He was sent to
the southern part of Russia. Every Russian aristocrat was supposed to serve. He was sent to be
at service at the o ce of general Inzov (Moldavia). Before, he also went to Ekaterinoslav (Ukraine).
He was hesitating how he should accept this new post. He took something as a freely moving
servant. At that time, he crystallized his identity as a poet. This was the time when poets were
perceived as saviors and cultural icons, as very important elements of new society. It was
important to behave like a poet and to appear like one (to dress like one). Only by doing this
complex set of rules and techniques, one could eventually be identi ed as a poet. The romantic
concept of poet’s behavior identi es poet’s life with his art : the poet should nurture his life with
his art. Poets should realized the entire sphere of his aesthetical conceptions by means of his
physical behavior as well as by his texts. That was not the case with previous authors. It’s
something formally related to new romantic pattern (romanticism). New romanticism entails some
old/new ideals and concepts. One of them, maybe the central one, is the concept of genius.
Romantic poet was supposed to believe that he was a genius, to believe in the uniqueness of
everything that this poet is doing (gestures, life events). Every life events of a poet was supposed
to be unique. This uniqueness should result in an unique creative path of live. That should be
tailored to the general essence of the poet. That was the path that Pushkin was following. He was
creating his own character which was emerging at the intersection of emotions and self-analysis.
He should develop his own poetical mask (characteristic actions that he was supposed to
perform). One of these actions was the idea of the road. Russian poet was supposed to be
constantly on the road. When he got this appointment in Inzov, he used every opportunity to travel
to Caucasus for example. He could see magni cent mountains. He went to Caucasus, then to
Crimea which was a Tatar place full of exoticism. It was perceived as a southern paradise, an
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ideal place to live. Then, Pushkin intensi es his a nities with the newly trending image of Lord
Byron. He was busy learning English. He was already uent in French. At that time, no one could
rely on translation and English was becoming more important.

<- A romantic illustration of

Pushkin.

There, Pushkin wrote his longer poem Prisonner of Caucasus, a very romantic poem. His romantic
journey constitutes an element of Pushkin persona. If we talk about Crimea, we mentions Tatar
places which are exotic enough to replace real hardcore exoticism. Pushkin goes to Odessa and
then to Kishinev. The 19th century is the century of national uprising or national building
processes. In 1823, Greek were busy getting their independence from Ottomans. Byron was know
to take part in this war, ghting for Greek independence. Pushkin was fully aware of that but he
wasn’t allowed to live Russia. This entire topic should be de ned as Pushkin’s orientalia. It means
fascination or love for all oriental things. It’s a part of romantic canon and a debt to the Bayronic
attitude. Living in Moldavian Kishinev, he de nes himself as a runaway from the crowds. He sees
the positive aspect in these political punishment that he got from the Tsar. He’s free from this
mondaine routine and free from the noises of the world. It permits to Pushkin to see himself as
someone who has this sense of romantic exile. Almost every situation that he gets, he tries to
exploits it for literary bene t. He was really productive. He created his own new masterpieces. All
of them share one common feature : passion for traveling, exoticism and exploring romantic
image where he compares himself implicitly to the know image of the Roman poet Ovid who
created Tristia Ex Ponto. Ponto refers to Black Sea. Ovid was involved in some conspiracy and
went to exile but we don’t know exactly. There, Ovid established the literary genre we call
romantic exilic writing.

What is also important is the fact that Pushkin perceives his own poetry as some sort of
personal diary. He documents his life or he makes a paraphrase of his life by writing poetry in
various forms (elegiac lyrical cycle or historical cycle for example). By writing poetry, he re ects
upon his own actions, analyses his feelings. This personal diary establishes a sort of second
biography. The second one correspond to the arti cial image created by the magnitude of his
texts. The situation with economy of publishing was quite odd in Russia. There was no literary
market before Pushkin. Every publication was seen as a miracle. Publisher decides to publish
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 something and you need to be grateful. You will never be paid royalties because I’m already
endangering my money with publishing you because we don’t know if anyone would buy and we
don’t have enough literati and public that can read. With the years, the number of people that
could read grew. By the time, Pushkin found himself at a crossroad in the sense of economy of
literature. Potentially, there was enough public to appreciate new literature and to be able to a ord
it. It was necessary to try to break into the market without the help of publishers who refuse to
pay royalties. Pushkin was very fortunate with having many acquaintances and had a huge circle.
He could ask his friends to publish his texts and then do a fair business and it was paid royalties.
For many years, Decembrist and Pushkin had close connections but they tried to not compromise
Pushkin. Pushkin was careless and wanted to enforce his membership in Decembrist circles.
Greece was seen as a new model of national Renaissance which could be adopted for the
Russian matters. In Moldavia, they also had mild nationalists. Pushkin was playing with local
nationalism ideas as well. At the time, nationalism was not seen as conservative but as
progressive. It was opposing imperialism. It was seen as a huge positive force. Russian military
was led by the Decembrists. Some Decembrists were politically active o cers. An other important
theme is the topic of Enlightenment. He was no stranger to this philosophy because it was
perceived as a mainstream ideology of every progressive thinker. It was either freedom or
backwardness. Freedom was identi ed with Enlightenment. Pushkin read Rousseau and Voltaire
and dreamed about new democratic freedom. It’s also the time of post-Napoleonian condition.
Decembrists visited Europe and went from Moscow to Paris with their horses. Pushkin sees
Russian government as mostly oppressive. The minimum program was constitutional monarchy
and the maximum was Republic. Pushkin spends lots of time in Odessa. It’s called small Paris
and small Petersburg. It has its own opera, restaurants and has a cosmopolitan spirit (they speak
French, Italian) and a free circulation of the foreign press. Pushkin was happy there. He lives an
unrestrained life and the climate is much better there than in Petersburg. It was also the time of
anticipation of major social changes. They were all hoping for changes as the result of Napoleonic
war, the spirit circulating in the society. Everyone was realizing that slavery should go away. Then,
comes huge disappointment when Decembrists were crushed. Napoleon will always remain a
controversial gure.

Love was perceived as a dominant element of any romantic construction. Love was
perceived as a ritual. Everyone was supposed to be in love, especially someone wanting a literary
career. Amorous adventures played a major role in high society at the time. Pushkin was an
integral motor of that and was devoted to develop his love career (meaning having constant
a airs with women). When he was young, he said that he was theoretically in love with almost
every young girl of an aristocratic origin who he could see around. This was done by usual rituals
like letters, talking, meeting,… It was quite innocent. In romantic terms, we call this lyrical love.
Many of his love-objects were married with powerful husbands. Even in exile in Moldova he was
active in that regard and he was intensifying this aspect of existence. He renforcer his lyrical
identity being preoccupied with creating his personal myth of a romantic poet living in exile. After
his Moldavian period, comes the period called Pushkin in Mikhailovskoe. When Pushkin grew tired
of his wondering he was allowed to return. The Tsar was suspicious of him in general and he was
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 allowed to return only because his father guaranteed that he will articulate total surveillance of his
son and will report if his son maintain any revolutionary connections. There are sharp contrats in
Pushkin’s life (quietness of the village and the period in Odessa). Mikhailovskoe is the name of the
family village. In the village, Pushkin devoted his time in meditating Russian nature. Nature is an
important topic for romanticism. Every season is very di erent from an other in Russia. It o ers
possibilities to observe all this. Aside of this, he gets acquainted with Russian folklore and
Russian female beauties. Folklore also a good element for romantic ideology. He saw
metaphysical content in nature. The romantic mask is a result of assuming poetical image and it
can never be removed (you always will be a romantic poet). Pushkin is part of traditional ironical
sarcastic discourse in Russia. Irony also help developing his texts among his friends. Pushkin is
not only the inventor of Russian modern language, not only the rst representative of Russian
modern literature, he’s also seen as the rst professional author : the one who managed to force
those who publish him to pay him royalties. He was the rst one to receive money for his
literature. He also had the rst wide success of a literary text. Extraordinary success of poetry
became possible with Pushkin (from 1825). Decembrists were persecuted but popular and
fashionable so they contributed to commercial success. Pushkin was always attentive to Russian
history. At some point, he decided to explore his view of Russian history in various literary texts
where he meditates on troubled episodes of Russian history. One of those texts is Boris Godunov,
and also some quite interesting fairytales which he creates when he explores Russian folklore,
Russian traditional stories. As always, he had many love a airs. They accompany Pushkin all the
way. His household-exile didn’t prevent him from having many love a air. He also starts Evgeny
Onegin. Nikolai, the new Emperor wanted to have a new relation with Pushkin, not the same as
Alexander had with him. Nikolai really wanted to enchant Pushkin. It was in vain because Pushkin
will be exposed later as a typical oppressor, intolerant, despotic. Nikolai remained ambivalent as a
monarch. He couldn’t fail to notice how talented Pushkin was, how fresh and unique his literary
texts were. Nikolai wanted to function as his own censor to control him and also to try to
celebrate his talent. An other side of Pushkin’s activity which is not often mentioned is that he was
a libertin. He’s often seen as one of important Russian libertin because he was active in the eld
of amorous relationships but also because he authored several very erotic texts. They were
unpublishable and they are barely publishable now. The most radical of those is Shadow of
Barkov. Barkov was the rst Russian libertin. Pushkin creates his own variant of Barkov, no less
radical or pornographic. He will only travel inside Russia. He also participated in Caucasian war
where he saw wartime.

The last period of Pushkin’s life was his married time. He married Natalia Goncharova. It
was a big controversy to know if a literary genius is supposed to marry. Despite many problems, it
was seen as a successful marriage. Pushkin got a special secret agent (Bulgarin) appointed to
help him and to censor him. Pushkin was the rst one to create new Russian literary language, to
be able to get paid with his texts and he was the rst one to create the rst Russian newspaper
called Literaturnaia gazieta. He was able to publish all kind of texts and his own epigrams quite
erce against various aristocrats. Pushkin’s marriage was successful. In order to get married, he

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had to secure his approval from Nikolai his special secret agent. They were not rich and had many
economic problems.

Natalia.

He spend his rst family year (1830) in Boldino which is often mentioned as a very productive part
of his life. Being married, he manages to write powerful cycle of texts. One of them is called Feast
among Cholera. Pushkin had problems in the end of his life. He grew more and more sarcastic
towards the Tsar and some powerful ennemies were trying to undermine him. Pushkin felt also a
little tired from this situation of post-Decembrist reality, when he was visiting parties and balls. At
one point, he clashed with Georges d’Anthès, a French man. This man will be fatal for Pushkin. He
was a French monarchist, it was a bad time for guys like him so he ed to Russia where he was
rumored to be homosexual. Then, he was adopted as a son by a Dutch count called Jacob van
Heeckeren. It was the way to live with an other man at the time. George d’Anthès probably
received the with from those who envy Pushkin to try to compromise and eliminate him. Originally,
he was not interested in women but he had to marry Natalia’s sister. It was seen as a courtly
conspiracy against Pushkin. As a result of d’Anthès irting with his wife, Pushkin wrote a letter to
him and he mocks him. Eventually, they clashed and Pushkin was killed by d’Anthès who ee
from Russia. About 50.000 people attended this burial. No other author was that popular with so
many people.

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