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The Patriots' Pushkin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Wendy Slater
Wendy Slater*
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Cambridge University
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Extract

A nation's shared culture reflects its status as an "imagined community."1 Different sections of the imagined community, however, have their own ideas about what the shared culture should include and what ought to be excluded from it, and this incessant debate over the cultural canon affects the nation's sense of identity. The rise of the civil rights movement and feminism in the United States in the 1960s, for example, challenged the dominance of "dead white males" in the American literary canon. Political as much as aesthetic considerations, then, dictate what the canon of works that constitute any shared culture should include. Similarly, political circumstances often determine the "correct" interpretation of these works.

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Articles
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Slavic Review , Volume 58 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Aleksandr Pushkin 1799-1999 , Summer 1999 , pp. 407 - 427
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1999

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References

1. The phrase is taken from Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2d ed. (London, 1991).Google Scholar

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3. National patriotic thought is explored in Wendy Slater, “Imagining Russia: The Ideology of Russia's National Patriotic Opposition, 1985–1995” (Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, 1998). See also Laqueur, Walter, Black Hundred: The Rise of the Extreme Right in Russia (New York, 1993), 117–80, 245–71Google Scholar; Parland, Thomas, The Rejection in Russia of Totalitarian Socialism and Liberal Democracy: A Study of the Russian New Right (Helsinki, 1993)Google Scholar; Verkhovskii, A. and Pribylovskii, V., Natsional–patrioticheskie organizatsii v Rossii: Istoriia, ideologiia, ekstremistskie tendentsii (Moscow, 1996).Google Scholar

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13. Siniavskii's response to Pushkin actually followed the early twentieth–century literary trend that tried to liberate Pushkin from canonical veneration and to bring him closer to the reader. See Slobin, Greta N., “Appropriating the Irreverent Pushkin,” in Gasparov, Boris, Hughes, Robert P., and Paperno, Irina, eds., Cultural Mythologies of Russian Modernism: From the Golden Age to the Silver Age (Berkeley, 1992), 214–30Google Scholar, esp. 217–20.

14. “Slava russkogo naroda,” Pravda, 10 February 1937, 1. Siniavskii has identified the concepts of “ours” and “not ours” as key signifiers in Russian nationalist discourse. See his “Russian Nationalism,” trans. John Richmond, Radio Liberty Research Bulletin special edition “Russian Nationalism Today,” 19 December 1988, 25–35.

15. Tertz, Strolls with Pushkin, 50.

16. Ibid., 55.

17. Siniavskii's sexual and vampiric perversions of Pushkin's image are explored in Sandler, Stephanie, “Sex, Death and Nation in the Strolls with Pushkin Controversy,” Slavic Review 51, no. 2 (Summer 1992): 294–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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21. Tertz, Strolls with Pushkin, 49.

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24. “Vse zaedino!” Ogonek, 1989, no. 48: 6–8, 31; A. Andrianov, “Edinstvo ili konfrontatsiia?” Literaturnaia gazeta, 22 November 1989, 7. In fact, the Supreme Soviet prevented Anan'ev's dismissal: see Yitzhak M. Brudny, “Russian Nationalist Intellectuals and the Soviet State: The Rise and Fall of the Politics of Inclusion, 1953–1990” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1992), 432–39.

25. Literaturnaia Rossiia, 21 July 1989, no. 29: 17. For readers’ responses to Progulki, see also 15 September 1989, no. 37: 16; and 29 September 1989, no. 39: 20.

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28. The phrases are clichés from standard Soviet treatments of Pushkin.

29. On this event, see Levitt, Russian Literary Politics and the Pushkin Celebrations of 1880, 122–46.

30. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, “Pushkin (A Sketch),” A Writer's Diary, trans, and annotated by Lantz, Kenneth (London, 1995), 1294.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., 1249.

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36. Both Khodasevich's and Solzhenitsyn's titles referred to Pushkin's 1830 lyric “Poetu” (To the poet).

37. On the centenary celebrations, see Meilakh, B. S., “Osnovye etapy izucheniia Pushkina v sovetskoe vremia,” in Gorodetskii, B. P., Izmailov, N. V., and Meilakh, B. S., eds., Pushkin: Itogi i problemy izucheniia (Moscow, 1966), 125–57.Google Scholar

38. This phenomenon was explored by Timasheff, Nicholas S., The Great Retreat: The Growth and Decline of Communism in Russia (New York, 1946).Google Scholar

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44. Nepomnyashchy, “Introduction,” 44–45.

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47. Timasheff, The Great Retreat, 177.

48. “Slava russkogo naroda,” 1.

49. Stalin, I. V., “Marksizm i voprosy iazykoznaniia,” Pravda, 20 June 1950, in McNeal, Robert H., ed., Sochineniia (Stanford, 1967), 16: 119.Google Scholar

50. Belchikov, “Pushkin i nasha sovremennost',” 23.c

51. See, for example, Lobanov, Mikhail, “V srazhen'e i liubvi,” Nash sovremennik, 1990, no. 6: 162–77Google Scholar; Shafarevich, Igor’, “Rusofobia: Desiat’ let spustia,” Nash sovremennik, 1991, no. 12: 124–39Google Scholar; Alekseev, Mikhail, “Po retseptam prorabov, “Den', 1991, no. 7: 1.Google Scholar

52. Siniavskii, A, “Solzhenitsyn kak ustroitel’ novogo edinomysliia,” Sintaksis, 1985, no. 14: 18 Google Scholar. Siniavskii continued a long polemical debate with Solzhenitsyn over the latter's espousal of a rigid, near–paranoid Russian patriotism.

53. “Vse zaedino!” 6.

54. Ibid.

55. Tat'iana Glushkova, “'la chislius’ po Rossii, '” Sovetskaia Rossiia, 5 June 1993, 1, 4.

56. M. Filin, introduction to Konstantin, Archimandrite, “Zhiv li Pushkin?” Moskva, 1995, nos. 2–4: 3–8 Google Scholar, also published in Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura, 1996, no. 12: 3–10, and first published in Pravoslavnaia zhizn', 1962, no. 3.

57. “V zashchitu Pushkina: Aktsiia Dvizheniia Den’ v tsentre Moskvy,” Den', 1992, no. 42: 1.

58. Prokhanov, Aleksandr, “Ieronim Boskh na Tverskom bul'vare,” Den', 1993, no.27: 2.Google Scholar

59. Oktiabr', 1989, no. 6.

60. Extract in Nedelia, 1988, no. 39; complete in Iunost', 1988–89.

61. Antonov, M. F., Klykov, V. M., and Shafarevich, I. R., “Pis'mo v sekretariat pravleniia Soiuza pisatelei RSFSR,” Literaturnaia Rossiia, 1989, no. 31: 4 Google Scholar. On the connection between Grossman and Siniavskii, see Shafarevich, “Rusofobia: Desiat’ let spustia,” 126–27; Lobanov, “V srazhen'e i liubvi. “

62. Solzhenitsyn,” … Koleblet tvoi trenozhnik,” 159; Aleksandr Kazintsev, in “Obsuzhdenie knigi Abrama Tertsa,” 93.

63. Kazintsev, in “Obsuzhdenie knigi Abrama Tertsa,” 92. The phrase comes from the futurist manifesto of 1912, “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste. “

64. Doroshenko, Nikolai, in “Diskussionnaia tribunal: ‘V otvete za vremia, “’ Molodaia guardiia, 1987, no. 9: 234 Google Scholar. See also Kliucharev, Georgii, “Labirinty avangardizma,” Nash sovremennik, 1989, no. 7: 118–22Google Scholar; Vykhodtsev, Petr, “O mode i vechnykh tsennostiakh: Kponiauiu narodnosti iskusstva,” Nash sovremennik, 1988, no. 5: 161–70.Google Scholar

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66. Stanislav Kuniaev, “Pomirat’ sobralsia—a rozh’ sei! “Sovetskaia Rossiia, 14 December 1990, 3.

67. Kozhinov, Vadim, “Samaia bol'shaia opasnost',” Nash sovremennik, 1989, no. 1: 141–79Google Scholar; Liubomudrov, Mark, “Izvlechem li uroki?” Nash sovremennik, 1989, no. 2: 170–83.Google Scholar

68. Solzhenitsyn ” … Koleblet tvoi trenozhnik,” 158–59.

69. Terts, Abram, “Literaturnyi protsess v Rossii,” Kontinent, 1974, no. 1: 143–90.Google Scholar

70. Shafarevich “Fenomen emigratsii “; Antonov, Klykov, and Shafarevich, “Pis'mo v sekretariat pravleniia Soiuza pisatelei RSFSR “; Kazintsev, in “Obsuzhdenie knigi Abrama Tertsa,” 91. Aleksandr Arkhangel'skii criticized the polemical use of the phrase, in “Obsuzhdenie knigi Abrama Tertsa,” 104–7.

71. Terts, “Literaturnyi protsess v Rossii,” 182–83.

72. Nepomnyashchy, Catharine Theimer, Abram Tertz and the Poetics of Crime (New Haven, 1995), 197–247.Google Scholar

73. Tertz, Strolls with Pushkin, 79.

74. Elizabeth Gray, “Signposts to the Past: Re Inventing Political Symbols, Moscow 1985–1996” (Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, 1998), 186. I am grateful to Liz Gray for making her thesis available to me.

75. A. S. Pushkin: Put’ k Pravoslaviiu (Moscow, 1996); reviewed by Aleksandr Sakharov, Moskva, 1998, no. 2: 175–76.

76. Nepomniashchii, V. S., ed., Moskovskii Pushkinist: Ezhegodnii sbornik (Moscow, 1995)Google Scholar. A periodical called Moskovskii Pushkinist had been published beginning in 1930, but there was no indication that Nepomniashchii's publication was connected with it.

77. Lebedeva, E. S., ed., Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura: Po materialam traditsionnykh khristianskikh pushkinskikh chtenii (St. Petersburg, 1993)Google Scholar. I am grateful to Stephanie Sandler for bringing these periodicals to my attention.

78. “Pushkinskie iubilei v XX veke,” 6.

79. The most important were Rus’ sobornaia: Ocherki khristianskoi gosudarstvennosti (St. Petersburg, 1995); Samoderzhavie dukha: Ocherki russkogo samosoznaniia (St. Petersburg, 1994).

80. Compare Chizhov, Archdeacon Andrei, “Pushkinskaia tema v kurse russkoi slovesnosti dukhovnoi seminarii i akademii,” Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura, 1995, no. 8: 80–83 Google Scholar, with Veresaev, V., Pushkin v zhizni, 2 vols., 6th ed. (Moscow, 1936; reprint, The Hague, 1969), 2: 403.Google Scholar

81. Archpriest Vladimir Sorikin, “Talant A. S. Pushkina v svete Pravoslaviia,” and Archdeacon Simeon Gavril'chik, “'… I vnemlet arfe Filareta …, '” Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura, 1994, no. 2: 37–52, 94.

82. Nepomniashchii, V, “Slovo o blagikh namereniiakh: Pis'mo v redaktsiiu sbornika Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura,” Moskovskii Pushkinist 2 (Moscow, 1996): 335.Google Scholar

83. Dmitrii Merezhkovskii, “Pushkin s nami,” Den', 1992, no. 7: 6 (reprint of Den’ russkoi kul'tury, Paris, 8June 1926); see also Archimandrite Konstantin (1887–1975), “Zhiv li Pushkin? “

84. Filin, M. D., “O Pushkiniane russkogo zarubezh'ia: Bibliograficheskii opyt,” Moskovskii Pushkinist 2 (Moscow, 1996): 296.Google Scholar

85. Ivan Il'in, “Prorocheskoe prizvanie Pushkina,” in A. S. Pushkin: Put’ k Pravoslaviiu, 217, 241 (emphasis in the original). The fourth issue of Moskovskii Pushkinist included the first Russian publication of Il'in's 1943 lecture in Zurich, which detailed Pushkin's shift from youthful atheistic rebellion to mature conservative, religious statesmanship. Since this lecture was aimed at a non-Russian audience and began by explaining Pushkin's importance to Russian culture, the article was probably of interest to the modern Russian reader as an example of Il'in's thought rather than as a radically new interpretation of Pushkin.

86. Nepomniashchii, V. S., “Fenomen Pushkina i istoricheskii zhrebii Rossii: K probleme tselostnoi kontseptsii russkoi kul'tury,” Moskovskii Pushkinist 3 (Moscow, 1996): 6–61 Google Scholar.

87. Skatov, N. N., “U nas est’ Pushkin,” Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura, 1994, no. 5: 6.Google Scholar

88. Kazin, A. L., “Poet pravoslavnogo tsarstva,” Pushkinskaia epokha i khristianskaia kul'tura, 1994.no. 6: 125.Google Scholar

89. Nepomniashchii, Valentin, “S veselym prizrakom svobody: Iz dnevnika Pushkinista. Zametki mezhdu delom,” Nash sovremennik, 1993, no. 5: 164–77Google Scholar; first published in Kontinent 73, no. 3 (1993).

90. Skatov, “U nas est’ Pushkin,” 6.

91. Bashilov, Boris, extracts from Pushkin i Masonstvo (Buenos Aires, 1950?)Google Scholar, in A. S. Pushkin: Put’ k Pravoslaviiu, 283–84 (emphasis in the original).

92. On Zhidomasonstvo, see Laqueur, Black Hundred, 37–44; Korey, William, Russian Antisemitism, Pamyat, and the Demonology of Zionism (Chur, 1995), 60–73.Google Scholar

93. Vadim Pigalev, “Pushkin i masony,” in A. S. Pushkin: Put’ k Pravoslaviiu, 260–69. First published as “Pushkin i masony: Gipotezy, dogadki, predpolozheniia,” Literaturnaia Rossiia, 9 February 1979, no. 6: 16–17.

94. Bashilov, Boris, Pushkin i Masonstvo (Buenos Aires, 1950?), 121–22.Google Scholar

95. Kazin, “Poet pravoslavnogo tsarstva,” 122–26. “To the Slanderers of Russia” condemned French support for the Polish uprising of 1830. Sovetskaia Rossiia printed it on its front page in 1992. See “Klevetnikam Rossii,” Sovetskaia Rossiia, 8 February 1992, 1.

96. Paul Debreczeny has explored the retelling of Pushkin's final duel as shaped by the Russian hagiographic tradition of the first princely martyrs, Boris and Gleb. See “ ‘Zhitie Aleksandrogo Boldinskogo': Pushkin's Elevation to Sainthood in Soviet Culture,” in Lahusen, Thomas with Kuperman, Gene, eds., Late Soviet Culture: From Perestroika to Novostroika (Durham, 1993), 47–68 Google Scholar; first published in South Atlantic Quarterly 90 (1991): 269–92.

97. “160 let so dnia gibeli A. S. Pushkina,” Nash sovremennik, 1997, no. 2: inside front cover.