CHAPTER X

RUSSIAN LITERATURE

It is now one hundred years since Pushkin's first writings appeared. All that is of chief importance in Russian literature has been produced in the interval. Rich as the literature of various nations has proved during the past century, the Russian contribution is unexcelled. Translations have appeared of late years in rapid succession; it is as if a gold mine had been uncovered. The literature of Russia possesses extraordinary vigor, brilliance, simplicity, and reality. What a people! Their genius, their strength and weakness, the pathos of their history, are all vividly disclosed in their literature. To read this literature is to understand the soul of Russia.

The land and the people. A glance at the map will serve to remind the reader of the configuration and physical features of this interesting country. It covers an immense area in eastern Europe. East to the Urals and south to the Caucasus it is almost wholly a plain country with an elevation only a few hundred feet above sea level-marshland to the far north, then wooded stretches, then a great agricultural plain, and, last of all, the steppes of the south. Russia has little seaboard, but its rivers are numerous and include the Volga, the longest in Europe. Its cities, particularly Kiev and Novgorod, Moscow, and Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), are famous in Russian history and literature. The reader of the poems and tales of Russia soon receives an indelible impression of the characteristic landscape as it appears in winter and in summer, and of the villages, the country estates, and the manners and customs of the people. He comes to know intimately the life of Moscow and Petrograd; he gets glimpses of the Cossacks on the plains and in their mountain fastnesses; most of all, he meets at every turn

the Russian peasant, that inscrutable and interesting figure, forming by far the largest element among the people of Russia.

Primarily a Slav, the Russian is a descendant of that branch of the Aryan, or Indo-European, race which occupied eastern Europe at a very early period. But there are other racial strains. The Russian people have assimilated a considerable body of Scandinavians,

THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW

who came as traders and roving adventurers during the Viking period. Of more consequence is the Finnish element, so important an influence as noticeably to modify the Slavic character of the Russian. Situated on the eastern border of Europe, the Russian faces both east and west, and he has been influenced strongly by both Orient and Occident. There came in the thirteenth century disastrous incursions of Tatars (or Tartars),-Mongolian tribes which overran Russia and held for centuries some of the richest portions of

the land. This occupation inevitably affected the customs and the language of Russia, though less than might be expected. The Russian is today essentially a Slav and hence an Aryan.

Not all men, even those of one nation, are cast in the same mold, and it is hazardous to make generalizations. But the Russian seems to have certain pretty well-defined qualities, due perhaps to a common racial blend and to similar climatic conditions and ways of life prevailing over large portions of the country and extending over long ages of history. As a rule the Russian is pacific, human, sincere. Intellectually he is keen and quick-witted, with an extraordinary fondness for argument and discussion. He is by nature

commonly religious, even fatalistic. He is patient and stoical under suffering. Bursts of energy and audacity are quite characteristic of him. He has sympathy for his fellows and for dumb animals, and he lives close to nature and to the facts of life. Absolute frankness and reality and freedom of thought and manners seem to be the rule. Some of his less pleasing traits are the defects of his good qualities. He is apt to be self-indulgent, unoriginal, ill-balanced. Thought does not easily resolve itself into action; Russian Hamlets abound. He lacks initiative and independence, and he is prone to let well enough alone. The indolent Oblomov and the indecisive Rudin are typically Russian. A settled gloom and tragic seriousness permeate the novels of Russian writers-among the major novelists only one, Gogol, may be considered a humorist, and his humor is of a grim and searching nature.1

The language. In their early history the Slavs probably spoke only one dialect. The language of the Czechs, the Poles, the Serbians, the Bulgarians, and the Russians (to mention no others) is in its fundamentals the same. Three clearly defined dialects have developed in Russia: Little Russian, spoken by about thirty millions in the southern and southwestern Ukrainian region; White Russian, spoken by eight millions in the northwestern Lithuanian region; and Great Russian, the furthest developed, the literary and written language, spoken by nearly eighty millions-at its purest in the region of Moscow. By the addition of new words from other languages, and by the development of grammatical forms (especially in the skillful hands of Lomonosov in the eighteenth century), the language has undergone considerable change. But at its basis it is the same Slavonian speech current a thousand years ago. All those who know Russian unite in singing its praises. They speak of its sonorous qualities, its elasticity, its wonderful richness in vocabulary, capable of expressing every shade of thought and feeling. "Thou alone," said Turgenev, "art my rod and my staff, O great, mighty, true, and free Russian language! If it were not for

1 See the excellent analysis of the Russian character given in Maurice Baring's "The Russian People."

Impai

Альба English readers

thee, how could one keep from despairing at the sight of what is going on at home? But it is inconceivable that such a language should not belong to a great people."

Russia takes over readily the classics of all nations, for it is able to translate into its own speech every type of literature from every language. The intellectual unity of the Russians seems marvelous to us. Their classics, according to Kropotkin, circulate in the villages by millions of copies; and complete sets of special favorites have sold to the extent of two hundred thousand in a single year.

Historical sketch. During its long history Russia has suffered under cruel disabilities. In the early centuries semi-barbarism and anarchy hindered any real progress. The coming of Christianity brought little advance, for the Greek Church fastened Greek legislation and government upon the country, introduced an unchanging ritual, and had the effect of checking for centuries the intellectual life of the people and of holding Russia in its position of half-oriental seclusion. Add to this the Tatar invasion (1238), with the submergence of national life for a long period. It was not until 1462 that domination by this alien people ceased. Only spasmodically did the progress of the West reach Russia. Political and social changes came about with great difficulty. By an unhappy chance the Russian peasant was bound to the soil as a mere serf and did not secure his freedom until after the middle of the nineteenth century. The ruling class was small and completely estranged from the people.

However, under Peter the Great (1672-1725) important advances were made. Peter brought about far-reaching governmental changes, was powerfully influenced by the West, and gave a decided intellectual impulse to his country. Since his day Russia has taken its part increasingly in the history of Europe. Nearly all the Tsars unfortunately proved reactionary, however liberal their tendencies may have been at the beginning of their reigns. Burning indignation against the selfishness and cruelty of the Russian autocracy became inevitable throughout the country. The revolutionary movement as it slowly developed and gained power won the

sympathy of the liberty-loving people of the world. So overmastering an element did this become in the intellectual life of nineteenthcentury Russia that many Russian novels and tales were permeated with it and had the effect of being tracts for the times.

And now the Romanov autocracy has gone, and in its place has come something which the devoted leaders of the revolutionary movement could scarcely have foreseen. Russia has not yet worked out her destiny.

THE LITERATURE BEFORE PUSHKIN

As in the case of other nations, Russia produced during its early period a large amount of popular oral literature, which, passed on from generation to generation, was finally collected and published. This folk material, in the form of old songs, hero tales, and rude epics, is very rich. The origin of some of the legendary poems, known as byliny, and the folk tales, or skaski, may possibly be traced to early Aryan days. Others come from Mongol and Turk sources; some are plainly borrowed from Eastern tales; while all parts of Russia, including the Cossack region, and all periods as late as the time of Peter the Great, are represented in these tales. As a revelation of the primitive Russian peasant's ideals and beliefs they are extremely interesting. The byliny in general date from the tenth to the twelfth century. At the close of that period they had become thoroughly Russian in character-tales generally of heroes and their adventures, with sometimes magical episodes and with fragments of old myths. While not rhythmical poems in a strict sense, they are imaginative and poetic, and they have been happily termed "history set to music." An attractive collection of the skaski bearing the title "Russian Wonder Tales," rendered into English by Post Wheeler, has been recently published.

The early period produced also a large group of annals, or chronicles, dealing with the important city centers and coming mainly from the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. Kiev, which was for so long the center of Russian culture, contributed the bestknown of a long series of annals, entitled the "Chronicle of Nes