A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections Part 5

Even in far-away, northeastern Russia a break is apparent in the middle of the sixteenth century; and during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, a new sort of historical composition came into vogue--the so-called "Stepennaya Kniga," or "Book of Degrees" (or steps), wherein the national history was set forth in order, according to the Degrees of the Princely Houses in the lines of descent from Rurik to Ivan the Terrible in twenty degrees. This method found favor, and another degree was added in the seventeenth century, bringing the history down to the death of the Tzar Alexei Mikhailovitch. During the seventeenth century many attempts were made at collections and chronicles, the only one approaching fullness being the "Chronicle of Nikon," so-called, probably, because it was compiled by order of the Patriarch Nikon.

During the seventeenth century a fad also sprang up of writing everything, even school-books, pet.i.tions, and calendars in versified form, which was known as _virshi_, and imported from Poland to Moscow by Simeon Polotzky. At that time, also, it was the fashion for school-boys to act plays as a part of their regular course of study in the schools in southwest Russia; and in particular, in Peter Moghila's Academy in Kieff. Plays of a religious character had, naturally, been imported from western Europe, through Poland, in the seventeenth century, but as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century certain church ceremonies in Russia were celebrated in a purely dramatic form, suggestive of the mystery plays in western Europe. The most curious and famous of these was that which represented the casting of the Three Holy Children into the Fiery Furnace, and their miraculous rescue from the flames by an angel. This was enacted on the Wednesday before Christmas, during Matins, in Moscow and other towns, the first performance, so far as is known, having been in the beginning of the sixteenth century, it being mentioned, in the year 1548, in the finance-books of the archiepiscopal residence of St. Sophia at Novgorod. The "furnace" was a circular structure of wood, on architectural lines, gayly painted with the figures of appropriate holy men; specimens have been preserved, one being in the Archeological Museum in St. Petersburg.

The second famous "Act" (for such was their t.i.tle) was known under the name of "The Riding on the Foal of an a.s.s," and took place (beginning with the end of the sixteenth century) in Moscow and other towns, generally on Palm Sunday. It represented the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and in Moscow it was performed in accordance with a special ritual by the Patriarch, in the presence of the Tzar himself; the Patriarch represented Christ, the Tzar led the a.s.s upon which he was mounted. In other towns it was acted by the archbishops and the Voevodas. The third, and simplest, of these religious dramas, the "Act of the Last Judgment," generally took place on the Sunday preceding the Carnival.

In 1672 Tzar Alexei Mikhailovitch ordered Johann Gregory, the Lutheran pastor in Moscow, to arrange "comedy acts," and the first pieces acted before the Tzar on a private court stage were translations from the German--the "Act of Artaxerxes," the comedy "Judith," and so forth. But under the influence of southwestern Russia, as already mentioned, it was not long before a Russian mystery play, "St. Alexei, the Man of G.o.d,"

founded on a Polish original, thoroughly imbued with Polish influence, was written in honor of Tzar Alexei, and acted in public by students of Peter Moghila's College in Kieff. A whole series of mystery plays followed from the fruitful pen of Simeon Polotzky. Especially curious was his "Comedy of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Golden Calf, and the Three Youths Who Were Not Consumed in the Fiery Furnace." He wrote many other "comedies," two huge volumes of them.

Theatrical representations won instant favor with the Tzar and his court, and a theatrical school was promptly established in Moscow, even before the famous and very necessary Slavonic-Greco-Latin Academy, for "higher education," as it was then understood.

None of the school dramas--several of which Peter Moghila himself is said to have written--have come down to us; neither are there any specimens now in existence of the spiritual dramas and dramatic dialogues from the early years of the seventeenth century. In addition to the dramas of Simeon Polotzky, of the last part of that century, we have the dramatic works of another ecclesiastical writer, St. Dmitry of Rostoff (1651-1709), six in all, including "The Birth of Christ," "The Penitent Sinner," "Esther and Ahashuerus," and so forth. They stand half-way between mysteries and religio-allegorical pieces, and begin with a prologue, in which one of the actors sketches the general outline of the piece, and explains its connection with contemporary affairs; and end with an epilogue, recited by another actor, which is a reinforcement and inculcation of the moral set forth in the play. St. Dmitry's plays were first acted in the "cross-chamber," or banquet-hall, of the episcopal residence in Rostoff, where he was the Metropolitan, by the pupils of the school he had founded. He cleverly introduced scenes from real life into the middle of his spiritual dramas.

Collections of short stories and anecdotes current in western Europe also made their way to Russia, via Poland; and freed from puritanical, religious, and conventional bonds, light satirical treatment of topics began to be met with in the seventeenth century, wherein, among other things ridiculed, are the law-courts, the interminable length of lawsuits, the covetousness and injustice of the judges, and so forth.

Among such productions are: "The Tale of Judge Shemyak" (Herring), "The Description of the Judicial Action in the Suit Between the Pike and the Perch"; or, applying personal names to the contestants, "The Story of Yorsha Yorshoff (Perch, the son of Perch) and the Son of Shtchetinnikoff (the Bristly)." A similar production is "The Story of Kura (the c.o.c.k) and Lisa (the Fox)." The first place among such works, for simplicity of style and truth of description, belongs to "The History of the Russian n.o.bleman, Frol Skovyeeff, and Anna, Daughter of Table-Decker Nardin Nashtchokin." But many writers of that age could not take a satirical view of things, and depicted life as a permanent conflict between the powers of evil and good--wherein the Devil chiefly got the upper hand--and man's princ.i.p.al occupation therein, the saving of his soul.

One of the best compositions of ancient Russian secular literature belongs to this gloomy category, "The Tale of Gore-Zloshtchastye; How Gore-Zloshtchastye Brought the Young Man to the Monastic State,"

Gore-Zloshtchastye being, literally, "Woe-Misfortune." Woe-Misfortune persecutes the youth, who finds no safety from him, save on one road, where, alone, he does not besiege him--the road to the monastery.

It will be seen that the spirit of the age was deeply influenced by the state of material things.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

1. What kind of historical writing sprang up in northeastern Russia during the time of Ivan the Terrible?

2. Describe the fashion of acting plays in the schools.

3. What were the "comedy acts" given before the Tzar?

4. For what is Dmitry of Rostoff to be remembered?

5. What kind of anecdotes and short stories came from western Europe to Russia in the seventeenth century?

6. What picture of Russian life do they bring before us?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_History of Russia._ Alfred Rambaud.

_The Story of Russia._ W. R. Morfill.

CHAPTER VI

FIFTH PERIOD, THE REIGN OF PETER THE GREAT (1689-1723).

The Fifth Period of Russian literature is that which comprises the reign of Peter the Great, with its reforms, scientific aims, and utter change of views upon nearly all conceivable practical and spiritual subjects.

With the general historical aspects of that reign we cannot deal here.

The culture which Peter I. introduced into Russia was purely utilitarian; and moreover, in precisely that degree which would further the attainment of his ends. But however imperatively his attention was engaged with other matters, he never neglected to maintain and add to the inst.i.tutions of general education and special schools, and to order the translation of such works as were adapted to the requirements of his people, as he understood those requirements.

His views on the subject of literature were as peculiar as those on culture, and were guided by the same sternly practical considerations.

But it must be said, that under him the printing-press first acquired in Russia its proper position of importance, and became the instrument for the quick, easy, and universal dissemination and exchange of thought, instead of serving merely as an indifferent subst.i.tute for ma.n.u.script copies. Not only were books printed, but also speeches and official poetry for special occasions; and at last the "Russian News" (January, 1703), the first Russian newspaper, keenly and carefully supervised by Peter the Great himself, made its appearance.

At the end of the seventeenth century, only two typographical establishments existed in all Russia: one in the Kieff Catacombs Monastery (which does an immense business in religious books, and cheap prints and paper _ikoni_, or holy pictures); the other in Moscow, in the "Printing-House." In 1711 the first typographical establishment appeared in St. Petersburg, and in 1720 there were already four in the new capital, in addition to new ones in Tchernigoff, Novgorod-Syeversk, and Novgorod; while another had been added in Moscow. Yet Peter the Great distrusted the literary activity of the monks--and with reason, since most of them opposed his reforms, while many deliberately plotted against him--and in 1700-1701 ordered that monks in the monasteries should be deprived of pens, ink, and paper.

His official, machine-made literature offers nothing of special interest. But one of the curious phenomena of the epoch was the peasant writer Ivan Tikhonovitch Pososhkoff (born about 1670), a well-to-do, even a rich, man for those days, very well read, and imbued with the spirit of reform. Out of pure love for his fatherland he began to write projects and books in which he endeavored to direct the attention of the government to many social defects, and to point out means for correcting them. One of the most interesting works of Peter the Great's period was Pososhkoff's written "Plan of Conduct" for his son (who was one of the first young Russians sent abroad, in 1708, for education), ent.i.tled, "A Father's Testamentary Exhortation." His "Book on Poverty and Wealth" is also noteworthy, inasmuch as it affords a complete survey of Russia under Peter the Great.

During this reign, the highly educated and eminently practical Little Russians acquired more power than ever. The most notable of them all was Feofan Prokopovitch, Archbishop of Novgorod (born in Kieff, 1681), who had been brilliantly educated in Kieff and Rome, and was the most celebrated of Peter the Great's colaborers, the most zealous and clever executor of his sovereign's will, who attained to the highest secular and ecclesiastical honors, and prolonged his influence and his labors into succeeding reigns. His sermons were considered so important that they were always printed immediately after their delivery, and forwarded to the Emperor abroad, or wherever he might chance to be. Like others at that period, he indulged in dramatic writing, for acting on the school stage; and at Peter the Great's request he drew up a set of "Ecclesiastical Regulations" for the Ecclesiastical College, and was appointed to be the head of the church government, though Stepan Yavorsky was made head of the Holy Governing Synod when it was established, in 1721.

Peter the Great's ideas were not only opposed but persecuted, after his death (1723), until the accession to the throne of his daughter Elizabeth, in 1741. It was a long time before literature was regarded seriously, on its own merits; before literary and scientific activity were looked upon as separate departments, or any importance was attributed to literature. Science usurped the first place, and literature was regarded as merely a useful accessory thereto. This view was held by all the first writers after Peter the Great's time: Kantemir, Tatishtcheff, Trediakovsky, and even the gifted Lomonosoff, Russia's first secular writers, in the present sense of that word.

The first of these, in order, Prince Antiokh Dmitrievitch Kantemir, was born in 1708, and brought to Moscow at the age of three by his father, the Hospodar of Moldavia (after the disastrous campaign on the Pruth), who a.s.sumed Russian citizenship. Prince Kantemir published his first work, "A Symphony (concordance) of the Psalter," at the age of eighteen, being at that time in the military service, and a member of Feofan Prokopovitch's circle, and his close friend. His father had left a will by which he bequeathed his entire estate and about one hundred thousand serfs to that one of his children who should prove "the most successful in the sciences"; and one of Prince Antiokh's brothers having married a daughter of Prince D. M. Galitzyn, one of the most influential men of the day, Peter the Great naturally adjudged him the heir to the estate.

This embittered Prince Antiokh Kantemir, and he revealed his wrath against the Emperor and his party in his first two notable satires, which appeared about the time the Empress Anna Ioannovna ascended the throne (1730). Galitzyn was one of the n.o.bles who were ruined by this event, and Prince Kantemir recovered a portion of his rightful possessions. In 1731 his powerful protection secured him the appointment of diplomatic resident in London. Thence he was, later on, transferred to Paris, and never returned to Russia. Before his departure to London, he wrote five satires, several fables and epistles, none of which were printed, however, though they won him great reputation in cultivated society, where they circulated in ma.n.u.script copies. Satire was quite in the spirit of the age, and Kantemir devoted himself to it. He displayed much wit and keen observation. In all, he produced nine satires, four being written during his sojourn abroad. In Satire Second, ent.i.tled, "Filaret and Evgeny," or "On the Envy and Pride of Cantankerous n.o.bles,"

he describes the arrogance of the n.o.bility, and their pretensions to the highest posts, without any personal exertion or merit, solely on the merits of their ancestors; and here he appears as a zealous advocate of Peter the Great's "Table of Ranks," intended to put a stop to precisely this state of affairs, by making rank depend on personal services to the state. The Third and Sixth Satires are curious in that they clearly express the author's views on his own literary activity, and also on society and literature in general. The Sixth Satire, written in 1738, is the most important, as showing Kantemir's own nature, both as a man and as a writer.

One of the men most in sympathy with Peter the Great was Vasily Nikit.i.tch Tatishtcheff (1686-1750), who was educated partly in Russia, partly abroad. He applied his brilliant talents and profound mind to the public service, first in the Artillery, then in the Department of Mines, later on as Governor of astrakhan. In pursuance of a general plan for useful literary labors, Tatishtcheff collected materials for a geography, which he did not finish, and for a history of Russia, which he worked out with considerable fullness, in five volumes. It was published thirty years after his death, by command of Katherine II. It is not history in the sense of that word at the present day, but merely a very respectable preliminary study of materials; and the author's expressions of opinion are valuable features, as setting forth the spirit of the Epoch of Reformation. He is generally mentioned as a historian, but far more important are his "Spiritual Testament" (Last Will) and "Exhortation to his son Evgraff" (1733), and "A Discussion between Two Friends as to the Advantages of Sciences and Schools"

(probably written 1731-1736). The Testament consists of a general collection of rules concerning worldly wisdom, applied to contemporary needs and views, though his son was already grown up and in the government service, so that much of its contents are of general application only, and were introduced to round out the work, and for the edification of the rising generation. It is the last specimen of a cla.s.s of works in which, as has been seen, Russian literature is rich.

The first Russian who devoted himself exclusively to literature was Vasily Kirillovitch Trediakovsky (born at astrakhan in 1703), the son and grandson of priests, who was educated in Russia and abroad. When he decided, on his return from abroad in 1730, to adopt literature as a profession, the times were extremely unpropitious. He had, long before, during his student days in Moscow, written syllabic verses, an elegy on the death of Peter the Great, and a couple of dramas, which were acted by his fellow-students. In 1732 he became the court poet, or laureate and panegyrist, and wrote, to the order of the Empress Anna Ioannovna, speeches and laudatory addresses, which he presented to the grandees, receiving in return various gifts in accordance with the custom of the epoch. But neither his official post nor his personal dignity prevented his receiving, also, violent and ignominious treatment at the hands of the powerful n.o.bles. His "New and Brief Method of Composing Russian Verses" const.i.tuted an epoch in the history of Russian poetry, since therein was first set forth the theory of Russian tonic versification.

But although he endeavored to create a distinct Russian style, and to put his own system into practice, he wrote worse than many of his contemporaries, and his poems were all below mediocrity; while not a single line of them supported the theory he announced. They enjoy as little consideration from his literary posterity as he enjoyed personally in the society of Anna Ioannovna's day. Yet his work was very prominent in the transition period between the literature of the seventeenth century and the labors of Lomonosoff, and he undoubtedly rendered a great service to Russian culture by his translations, as an authority on literary theories and as a philologist.

The first writer of capital importance in modern Russian literature in general was the gifted peasant-academician Mikhail Vasilievitch Lomonosoff (1711-1755)--a combination of the scientific and literary man, such as was the fashion of the period in general, and almost necessarily so in Russia. Born in a village of the Archangel Government, near Kholmogory on the White Sea, he was a fisherman, like his father, until the age of sixteen, having learned to read and write from a peasant neighbor. A tyrannical stepmother forced him to endure hunger and cold, and to do his modest studying and reading in desert spots.

Accordingly, when he obtained from the village authorities the permission requisite for absenting himself for the s.p.a.ce of ten months, he failed to return, and was inscribed among the "fugitives." In the Slavo-Greco-Latin Academy at Moscow, which he managed to enter, and where he remained for five years, he distanced all compet.i.tors (though he lived, as he said, "in incredible poverty," on three kopeks a day), devoting himself chiefly to the natural sciences. At the age of twenty-two he was sent abroad by the government to study metallurgy at Freiburg. There and elsewhere abroad, in England, France, and Holland, he remained for five years, studying various practical branches.

In 1742 he became a.s.sistant professor at the Academy of Science in St.

Petersburg, at a wretched salary, and in 1748 professor, lecturing on physical geography, chemistry, natural history, poetry, and the Russian language. He also was indefatigable in translating scientific works from the French and German, in writing a work on mining, a rhetoric-book, and so forth. By 1757 he had written many odes, poetical epistles, idyls, and the like; verses on festival occasions and tragedies, to order; a Russian grammar; and had collected materials for a history, and planned extensive philological researches. Eager to benefit his country, and conscious that he was capable of doing so, he made practical application of many important improvements in architecture, navigation, mining, and manufacturing industries. For example: in 1750 he zealously engaged in the manufacture of gla.s.s (with the aid of the government), set up a gla.s.s-factory, and applied his chemical knowledge to colored gla.s.s for mosaics. The great mosaic pictures which glorify Peter the Great, and the vast, magnificent _ikoni_ (holy pictures) which adorn the Cathedral of St. Isaac of Dalmatia, in St. Petersburg, are the products of those factories, which still exist and thrive.

It is impossible to narrate in detail all Lomonosoff's enterprises for the improvement of the economic condition of the ma.s.ses, his government surveys of Russia, ethnographical and geographical aims, and the like.

His administrative labors absorbed most of his time leaving little for literary work. Like others of his day, he regarded literature as an occupation for a man's leisure hours, and even openly ridiculed those who busied themselves exclusively with it; though he ascribed to it great subsidiary importance, as a convenient instrument for introducing to society new ideas, and for expounding divers truths, both abstract and scientific. Thus he strove to furnish Russia with models of literary productions in all cla.s.ses, and to improve the language of literature and science. Nevertheless, although he rendered great services in these directions, and is known as "the Father of Russian Literature," he was far more important as a scientific than as a literary man. It is true that precisely the opposite view of him was held during the period immediately succeeding him, and he became an authority and a pattern for many Russian writers, who imitated his pseudo-cla.s.sical poetry, and even copied his language, as the acme of literary perfection. In reality, although he acquired a certain technical skill, he was a very mediocre poet; yet he was as an eagle among barnyard fowls, and cleverly made use of the remarkable possibilities of the Russian language as no other man did, although he borrowed his models from the pseudo-cla.s.sical productions then in vogue in foreign countries. A few of his versified efforts which have come down to us deserve the name of poetry, by virtue of their lofty thoughts and strong, sincere feeling, expressed in graceful, melodious style. Among the best of these are: "A Letter Concerning the Utility of Gla.s.s," "Meditations Concerning the Grandeur of G.o.d," and his triumphal ode, "On the Day of the Accession to the Throne of the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna"--this last being the expression of the general rapture at the accession of Peter the Great's daughter.

The most important feature of all Lomonosoff's poetical productions is the fine, melodious language, which was a complete novelty at that time, together with smooth, regular versification. Not one of his contemporaries possessed so profound and varied a knowledge of the Russian popular and book languages, and this knowledge it was which enabled him to make such a wide choice between the ancient Church Slavonic, ancient Russian, the popular, and the bookish tongues.

In Peter the Great's Epoch of Reform, the modern "secular" or "civil"

alphabet was subst.i.tuted for the ancient Church Slavonic, and the modern Russian language, which Lomonosoff did so much to improve, began to a.s.sume shape, literature and science at last freeing themselves completely from ecclesiasticism and monasticism.

The first writer to divorce literature and science, like Lomonosoff, a talent of the transition period, between the Epoch of Reform and the brilliant era of Katherine II.--a product, in education and culture, of the Reform Epoch, though he strove to escape from its traditions--was Alexander Petrovitch Sumarokoff (1717-1777). Insignificant in comparison with Lomonosoff, the most complete contrast with the peasant-genius by his birth and social rank, which were of the highest, he was plainly the forerunner of a new era; and in the sense in which Feofan Prokopovitch is called "the first secular Russian writer," Sumarokoff must be described as "the first Russian literary man."

The Empress Anna Ioannovna had had a troop of Italian actors, early in her reign; and in 1735 a troop of actors and singers. The Empress Elizaveta Petrovna revived the theater, and during her reign there were even two troops of actors, one French, the other Italian, for ballet and opera-bouffe (1757), both subsidized by the court. Sometimes an audience was lacking at their performances, and on one occasion at least, Elizaveta Petrovna improved upon the Scripture parable; when an insufficient number of spectators presented themselves at the French comedy, she forthwith dispatched mounted messengers to numerous persons of rank and distinction, with a categorical demand to know why they had absented themselves, and a warning that henceforth a fine of fifty rubles would be exacted for such dereliction of duty.

A distinctive feature of Elizaveta's reign was the growth of closer relations with France, which at this period represented the highest culture of Europe. Dutch and German influences which had hitherto impressed themselves upon Russian society, now gave place to French ideas. Translations of the French cla.s.sics of the brilliant age of Louis XIV. were made in Russian, and the new Academy of Fine Arts established by Elizaveta in St. Petersburg was put under the care of French masters.

It was in her reign also that the University of Moscow was founded.

In 1746 Feodor Grigorievitch Volkhoff, the son of a merchant, built in Yaroslavl (on the upper Volga), the first Russian theater, to hold about one thousand spectators. Five years later, the news of the fine performances of the actors and actresses of Volkhoff's theater reached St. Petersburg, and the troop was ordered to appear before the court.

Four years later still, the existence of the Russian theater was a.s.sured, by imperial decree. Sumarokoff was appointed the director, having, evidently, for a long time previously had full charge of all dramatic performances at court; and also, evidently, been expected to furnish plays. His first tragedy, "Kh.o.r.eff," dates from 1747. In the following year "Hamlet" appeared. Until the arrival of the Volkhoff troop, all his plays were acted in St. Petersburg only, by the cadets and officers of the "n.o.bles' Cadet Corps," where he himself had been educated. Towards the end of Elizaveta Petrovna's reign, Sumarokoff acquired great renown, almost equaling that of Lomonosoff in his literary services, and the admirers of Russian literature of that day were divided into hostile camps, which consisted of the friends and advocates of these two writers, the Empress Elizabeth being at the head of the first, the Empress Katherine II. (then Grand d.u.c.h.ess) at the head of the second.

For about ten years (1759-1768), Sumarokoff published a satirical journal, "The Industrious Bee," after which he returned to his real field and wrote a tragedy, "Vsheslaff," and the comedies, "A Dowry by Deceit," "The Usurer," "The Three Rival Brothers," "The Malignant Man,"