Tag Archives: poetry

A blog about Pushkin in the Caucasus

“Pushkin discovered the Caucasus.” – Vissarion Belinsky

Recently someone asked me on Twitter which book by Tolstoy he should read first. I don’t know the man and I haven’t got a clue about his preferences, but I unhesitatingly advised The Cossacks. It’s a short novella, and it was Turgenev’s favourite. Obviously I immediately read it again myself. And that’s how I got the idea to write about the 19th century Russian Literature featuring the Caucasus* here on my blog.

Banned to the Caucasus

As we know, Pushkin has been banned to the south and visited the Caucasus. The writer Lermontov was banned to the Caucasus and Tolstoy volunteered in military service there. For all three of them the incomparable beauty of the landscape and their colourful inhabitants, the Circassians, were a source of inspiration. Pushkin wrote The Prisoner of the Caucasus while he was there, Lermontov wrote A Hero of Our Time and Tolstoy wrote three stories about the Caucasus; The Cossacks, The Prisoner of the Caucasus and Hadji Murat.

Pushkin

We shall start with Pushkin, as he was the first to introduce the theme. Of course, you can read the rest perfectly well without reading Pushkin first, but we know that his influence was such, that the rest becomes better and more interesting if we start with him. No self respecting writer in Russia would even dream of putting a word on paper without having read Pushkin first.

The prisoner of the Caucasus

The Prisoner of the Caucasus is a long poem in the Romantic style. At first sight it’s an adventurous story with famous descriptions of the mountain landscape. The Circassians are described as heroes. The mountains are breathtaking, the men brave and quick, well dressed and they have the best horses. The vibrantly dressed women are attractive with their dark hair and eyes and they sing beautifully. Even the prisoner can’t help admiring them.
One would almost forget, but the story is told from the perspective of a Russian Prisoner of war, who was dragged into the Circassian village and is almost died. His rescue was a young Circassian beauty who regularly brings him food and drink in secret. She falls in love with the prisoner, but he, a true Romantic hero, has been disappointed in love and rejects her. Nonetheless she later helps him to escape and the prisoner, who by now loves her back, asks her to come along. Now she rejects him and commits suicide by jumping into the river in front of his eyes.

The story is followed by a rather surprising epilogue in which Pushkin suddenly announces that he hopes that the Russians will conquer the Caucasus, putting an end to the free lifestyle and culture of the Circassians. This patriotic epilogue can be explained as an attempt by Pushkin to get the poem through the strict censure, that put him there in the first place after all, or as an attempt to get his banishment lifted. But that would be underestimating Pushkin’s genius and self righteousness.

“They recall the former days

Of raids that could not be repulsed,

Of the treachery of sly leaders,

Of the blows of their cruel sabers,

And of the accuracy of their arrows that could not be outrun,

And of the ash of destroyed villages,

And of the caresses of black-eyed woman prisoners.”

Violent people

If we take another close look at the poem, we notice how the free and romantic life of the Circassians is full of violence. When they are not fighting, they talk and sing about war. They play extremely violent games in which serfs are beheaded while little children watch excitedly. There is talk of sex slaves. They are one with their weapons and horses, and the horses are also seen as a weapon. Without Russian supremacy it is dangerous to travel there and difficult for Russia to trade with the countries behind the Caucasus.

Russia would benefit from a victory in the Caucasus and in this case Pushkin agrees with the government.

*During the Caucasian Wars from 1817 until 1864 Russia tried, eventually with success, to conquer the Caucasus.

Credit to John Lyles’ Bloody Verses and Pushkin’s The Prisoner of the Caucasus


Next time we’ll talk about the works of Lermontov and Tolstoy about the Caucasus.

A Valentine’s Day Ode to Alexander Pushkin

Last year around Christmas I was in a bookshop looking for presents. It was there that I found, not completely coincidentally, Pushkin’s collected love poems. I could of course have given this little book to my love in a romantic gesture, but he appreciates Russian airplanes more than poetry. And so for him I managed to find the autobiography of aircraft designer Yakovlev. It turned out to be a fine example of communist propaganda, that sent him to sleep after reading just a few lines. Off to dream about tumbling through the skies like a young pioneer in the newest Yak.

Love Poems

The poetry book I kept for myself. It was even more enjoyable than expected. The translator and editor Roger Clarke has made very informative and amusing notes for each of the poems. He has researched when and, more importantly, for whom each poem was written. Pushkin started writing poetry at a young age and continued to do so up to his untimely death.

Pushkin definitely loved women and had many infatuations and affairs before he got married. This collection gives us an amusing overview of his love life. Some of the poems are funny, some are risqué and others are truly beautiful, no doubt in sync with the nature of the addressee.

Pushkin deadly wounded in duel

In 1837 Pushkin died at the age of 37 as a result of a duel with a French officer who threatened his wife Natalya’s honour. Even though he himself had had several affairs with married women, he found it apparently unbearable when he became the deceived husband. He was after all extremely passionate…

Pushkin was one of those brilliant minds to whom writing came naturally. His poetry (and other genres too) just seems to have flowed from his pen effortlessly. There is nothing artificial about it and that makes it a pleasure to read, even in translation. His best known poem is I loved you. The addressee of this particular poem is unknown. Probably the love remained unanswered. Most Russians know it by heart:

I loved you, and a trace of that love’s passion

unquenched within my soul may yet remain;

but my desire is not in any fashion

to sadden you or bring you further pain.

I loved in silence, hopelessly, but dearly,

now shyly, now with jealousy aflame;

I loved you, yes, so fondly, so sincerely –

God grant to you another’s love the same.

1829

Translated by R.H. Morrison

A book to treasure for ever:

– Love Poems, Alexander Pushkin, edited by Roger Clarke

The story of Doctor Zhivago

In 1958 Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago. He initially intended to travel to Sweden to receive it and wrote to the committee that he was “immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed”. Unfortunately Pasternak lived in the Soviet Union and the KGB forced him to refuse the prize.

Soviet censorship

Why was the Soviet government so opposed against the idea of Pasternak receiving the Nobel Prize? The whole affair embarrassed them; Doctor Zhivago had not made it through the strict censorship and was not published in the Soviet Union. But it had been smuggled abroad and was widely published in several countries, causing a worldwide sensation. In the novel Pasternak expresses some criticism, but mostly disappointment, with the outcome of the Russian Revolution.

At the time Pasternak was an extremely popular poet, he enjoyed a rather privileged position in the Soviet Union. Writers were employed by the government. They were expected to help spread communistic ideologies. In return they received a government salary and were able to live in Peredelkino, a quiet town outside of Moscow where most writers lived.

“This is Doctor Zhivago. May it make its way around the world.”

Pasternak spent years writing Doctor Zhivago. It was to be his life’s work, something like Tolstoy ‘s War and Peace. He knew very well that it would never make it through the strict censorship. Once it was finished he was so proud of his brainchild, that he could not resist the temptation to have it published abroad, knowing that this would endanger himself and his family.

Love triangles

However, Doctor Zhivago is much more than a controversial complaint against the communistic regime. That merely forms the background of this beautiful love story. A love triangle even! Yuri (Zhivago) is married to Tonya. During World War I he meets a friend from his youth, Lara. He feels very attracted to her, can’t choose between two his loves and has a lenghty affair with her. Pasternak describes the love between Yuri and Lara in the most beautiful words. For instance: “They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet.”

In reality Pasternak found himself in a similar situation. He was married to Zinaida, and had a family with her, but at the same time he openly had a relationship with Olga. The KGB even used Olga to ‘convince’ Pasternak that he’d better refuse the Nobel Prize. In 1960 Pasternak died at his dacha in Peredelkino. Both his wife Zinaida and his mistress Olga cried over his coffin. Against the government’s wishes hundreds of people came to the funeral, throwing flowers on the casket and reciting Pasternak’s poems.

“To be a woman is a great adventure; To drive men mad is a heroic thing.”

**************

Additional reading suggestions:

-Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak

-The Zhivago Affair, by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée; very interesting, nicely written. I found it at least as enjoyable as the novel itself.

Or why not watch the 1965 film that won six Oscars, starring Omar Shariff, Julie Christie and Geraldine Chaplin?

And for those planning to visit New York later this year, there is now also Doctor Zhivago, the Broadway musical.

 http://www.doctorzhivagobroadway.com

A Passion for Pushkin

One of the nicest things about Pushkin is his simple writing style. When I first read his work at university, I immediately noticed that his Russian was very easy to understand. Even for a relative beginner like me. Now that is precisely his legacy: Pushkin was the first Russian writer to use clear, modern Russian for typically Russian subjects.

Exile

In 1820 Pushkin was sent into exile to the south because of his political opinions. First to the Caucasus and the Crimea, later to his mother’s estate. He was only 21 years old. There our young hero didn’t have as many (female) distractions as he would have had in his hometown St Petersburg. During these five years living in exile, he was able to fully concentrate on developing his literary talents. He learned English and Italian, and read many books, he particularly liked Byron. His environment proved inspiring too.

Eugene Onegin

Pushkin started writing on his most famous work, Eugene Onegin in exile. This novel in verse is generally considered to be the turning point in Russian literature. It is the most printed book in Russian history. Every self respecting Russian knows it. Eugene is actually an anti-hero, he is rich, bored, and a poet, like Pushkin. The sweet and romantic Tatiana falls head over heels in love with him. But does he love her back? Eugene Onegin is an irresistible mixture of western romanticism and Russian folklore. Like all Pushkin’s work (and come to think of it, many other Russian books), you have to read it primarily with your heart.

Pushkin’s influence

Later Russian literature is full of references to Eugene Onegin. All the Tatianas and poets you’ll meet there, all the duels that take place, they all refer to and pay tribute to Pushkin’s masterpiece. In Russian literature these kind of references are always considered as a form of flattery and never seen as plagiarism.

Pushkin developed the standard style of writing in modern Russian. A super simple but subtle way of telling stories, and that specific sense of humour and satire that became so synonymous with the golden age of Russian literature. Sending Pushkin into exile certainly turned out to be invaluable for modern Russian literature!

Before Pushkin hardly anything of any literary value had been written. After Pushkin came the other giants of literature: Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Goncharov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Chekhov.

 

 

Books to enjoy:

Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse (I read Nabokov’s translation)

Boris Godunov, a historic drama

The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, short stories (I see here a reference from J K Rowling, with The Tales of Beedle the Bard)

And plenty of other stories, poems and fairy tales.