literature may be closed. He was tutor to the tsar Feodor, son of Alexis, and may be said to have helped to introduce the culture of the West into Russia, as he was educated at Kiev, then a portion of Polish territory. Polotzki came to Moscow about 1664. He wrote religious works (Vienets Vicry, “The Garland of Faith”), and composed poems and religious dramas (The Prodigal Son, Nebuchadnezzar, &c.). He has left us some droll verses on the tsar's new palace of Kolomenskoe, which are very curious doggerel. The artificial lions that roared, moved their eyes, and walked especially delighted him. There does not seem to be any ground for the assertion (often met with even in Russian writers) that Sophia, the sister of Peter the Great, was acquainted with French, and translated some of the plays of Molière.
And now all things were to be changed. Russia was to adopt the forms of literature in use in the West. One of the The chief helpers of Peter the Great in the education of the people was Feofane (Theophanes) Procopovich (1681–1736), author of the Ecclesiastical Regulations and some plays, who advocated the cause of science; The modern period. the old school was defended by Stephen Yavorskiy (1658–1722), whose Rock of Faith was written to refute the Lutherans and Calvinists. Another remarkable writer of the times of Peter the Great was Pososhkov (b. 1673), a peasant by birth, who produced a valuable work on Poverty and Riches. Antiokh Kantemir (1708–1744), son of a former hospodar of Moldavia, Wrote some clever satires still read; they are imitated from Boileau. He also translated parts of Horace. Besides his satires, he published versions of Fontenelle's Pluralité des Mondes and the histories of Justin and Cornelius Nepos. He was for some time Russian ambassador at the courts of London Lomonosov. and Paris. But more celebrated than these men was Michael Lomonosov (q.v.). He was an indefatigable writer of verse and prose, and has left odes, tragedies, didactic poetry, essays and fragments of epics.
Vassilii Tatistchev (1686–1750) was the author of a Russian history which is interesting as the first attempt in that field. He was disgraced for peculation, and died at Astrakhan, as governor, in 1750. His work was not given to the world till after his death. There had been a slight sketch published before by Khilkov, entitled the Marrow Trediakovski. of Russian History. Basil Trediakovski (1703–1769) was born at Astrakhan, and we are told that Peter, passing through that city at the time of his Persian expedition, had Trediakovski pointed out to him as one of the most promising boys of the school there. Whereupon, having questioned him, the tsar said, with truly prophetic insight, “A busy worker, but master of nothing.” His Telemakhida, a poem in which he versified the Télémaque of Fénelon, drew upon him the derision of the wits of the time. He had frequently to endure the rough horse-play of the courtiers, for the position of a literary man at that time in Russia was not altogether a cheerful one. His services, however, to the Russian language were great.
From the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth Russian
literature made great progress, the French furnishing models.
Alexander Sumarokov (1718–1777) wrote prose and verse
in abundance—comedies, tragedies, idyls, satires and
epigrams. He is, perhaps, best entitled to remembrance
Sumarokov.
Kniazhnin.
for his plays, which are rhymed, and in the French style. His
Dmitri Samozvanets (“Demetrius the Pretender”) is certainly not
without merit. Some of the pieces of Kniazhnin had
great success in their time, such as The Chatterbox, The
Originals and especially The Fatal Carriage. He is now
almost forgotten. In 1756 the first-theatre was opened at St
Petersburg, the director being Sumarokov. Up to this time the
Russians had acted only religious plays, such as those written by
Simeon Polotzki. The reign of Catherine II. (1762–96), herself a
voluminous writer, saw the rise of a whole generation of court poets.
Everything in Russia was to be forced like plants in a hot-house;
she was to have Homers, Pindars, Horaces and Virgils. Michael
Kheraskov (1733–1807) wrote besides other poems two
Kheraskov.
Bogdanovich.
Khemnitzer.
Visin.
Derzhavin.
enormous epics—the Rossiada in twelve books, and
Vladimir in eighteen; they are now but little read.
Hippolitus Bogdanovich (1743–1803) wrote a (pretty lyric
piece, Dushenka, based upon La Fontaine, and telling the
old story of the loves of Cupid and Psyche. With Ivan
Khemnitzer begins the long list of fabulists; this
half-oriental form of literature, so common in countries ruled
absolutely, has been very popular in Russia. Khemnitzer
(1744–1784), whose name seems to imply a German origin, began by
translating the fables of Gellert, but afterwards produced original
specimens. A writer of real national comedy appeared in Denis
von Visin, probably of German extraction, but born
at Moscow (1744–1792). His best production is Nedorosl
(“The Minor”), in which he satirizes the coarse features of Russian
society, the ill-treatment of the serfs, and other matters. He saw
France on the eve of the great Revolution, and has well described
what he did see. Russian as he was, and accustomed to serfdom,
he was yet astonished at the wretched condition of the French
peasants. The great poet of the age of Catherine, the laureate of
her glories, was Gabriel Derzhavin (1743–1816). He
essayed many styles of composition, and was a great
master of his native language. There is something
grandiose and organ-like in his high-sounding verses; unfortunately
he occasionally degenerates into bombast. His versification is
perfect; and he had the courage to write satirically of many persons
of high rank. His Ode to God is the best known of his poems in
Western countries. He was a student of Ossian, and of Edward
Young, the author of the Night Thoughts. Other celebrated poems
of Derzhavin are Felitza, Odes on the Death of Prince Mestcherskiy,
The Nobleman, The Taking of Ismail, and The Taking of Warsaw.
His Memoirs were published in 1857.
An unfortunate author of the days of Catherine was Alexander
Radistchev (1749–1802), who, having, in a small work, A Journey
to St Petersburg and Moscow, spoken too severely of the
miserable condition of the serfs, was punished by banishment
to Siberia, from which he was afterwards allowed to
Radistchev.
Novikov.
return, but not till his health had been permanently injured by
his sufferings. An equally sad fate befell the spirited writer Nicholas
Novikov (1744–1818), who, after having worked hard as a
journalist, and done much for education in Russia, fell
under the suspicion of the government, and was imprisoned by
Catherine. On her death he was released by her successor. The
short reign of Paul was not favourable to literary production; the
censorship of the press was extremely severe, and many foreign
books were excluded from Russia.
But a better state of things came with the reign of Alexander,
one of the glories of whose day was Nicholai Karamzin (q.v.). His
chief work is his History of the Russian Empire, but he
appeared in the fourfold aspect of historian, novelist,
essayist and poet. Nor need we do more than mention
Karamzin.
Platon.
Dmitriev.
Ozerov.
Kriloff.
Zhukovskiy.
the celebrated Archbishop Platon (q.v.). Ivan Dmitriev
(1760–1837) wrote some pleasing lyrics and epistles, Dmimév
but without much force. He appears from his translations
to have been well acquainted with the English poets.
Ozerov (1769–1816) wrote a great many tragedies, which
are but little read now. They are in rhyming
alexandrines. He occasionally handled native subjects with success,
as in his Dmitri Donskoy (1807) and Yaropolk and Oleg (1798).
In Ivan Kriloff (q.v.) the Russians found their most
genial fabulist. As Derzhavin was the poet of the age
of Catherine, so Vasilii Zhukovskiy (1783–1852) may be
said to have been that of the age of Alexander. He is
more remarkable, however, as a translator than as an original
poet. With him Romanticism began in Russia. He became
reader to the empress and afterwards tutor to her children. In
1802 he published his version of Gray's Elegy, which at once
became a highly popular poem in Russia. Zhukovskiy translated
many pieces from the German (Goethe, Schiller, Uhland) and
English (Byron, Moore, Southey). One of his original productions,
“The Poet in the Camp of the Russian Warriors,” was on
the lips of every one at the time of the War of the Fatherland
(Otechestvennaia Voina) in 1812. He produced versions of the
episode of Nala and Damayanti from the Mahabharata, of Rustum
and Zohrab from the Shah-Namah, and of a part of the Odyssey.
In the case of these three masterpieces, however, he was obliged
to work from literal translations (mostly German), as he was
unacquainted with the original languages. The Iliad was translated
during this period by Gnedich, who was familiar
with Greek. He has produced a faithful and spirited
version, and has naturalized the hexameter in the Russian language
with much skill. Constantine Gnedich.
Batiushkov.
Pushkin.
Griboyedov.
Kozlov.Batiushkov (1787–1855)
was the author of many elegant poems, and at the outset
of his career promised much, but sank into imbecility and lived
in this condition to an advanced age. Merzliakov and Tziganov
deserve a passing notice as the writers of songs some of which
still keep their popularity. During his short life (1799–1837)
Alexander Pushkin produced many celebrated poems,
which will be found enumerated in the article devoted
to him (see Pushkin). In Alexander Griboyedov (1795–1829)
(q.v.) the Russians saw the writer of one of their
most clever comedies (Gore ot Uma), which may perhaps be translated
“The Misfortune of being Too Clever” (lit. “Grief out of
Wit”). Ivan Kozlov (1774–1838) was author of some
pretty original lyrics, and some translations from the
English, among others Burns’s Cottar's Saturday Night. He
became a cripple and blind, and his misfortunes elicited some
cheering and sympathetic lines from Pushkin, which will always
be read with pleasure.
