Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/963

 has left us many exquisite lyrics. A genuine bard of the people, and one of their most truly national authors, was Alexis Koltsov (1809–1842), the son of a tallow merchant of Voronezh. He has left us a few exquisite lyrics, which

are to be found in all the collections of Russian poetry. He died of consumption after a protracted illness. Another poet who much resembled Koltsov was Ivan Nikitin (1826–1861), born in the same town, Voronezh. His best poem was Kulak. Nikitin, to support his relations, was obliged to keep an inn; this he was afterwards enabled to change for the more congenial occupation of a bookseller. The novel in Russia has had its cultivators in Zagoskin and Lazhechnikov, who imitated Sir Walter Scott. The most celebrated of the romances of Zagoskin was Yuri Miloslavskiy, a tale of the expulsion of the Poles from Russia in 1612. The book may even yet be read with interest: it gives a very spirited picture of the times; unfortunately, a gloss is put upon the barbarity of the manners of the period. Among the better known productions of Lazhechnikov are The Heretic and The Palace of Ice. A flashy but now forgotten writer of novels was Thaddeus Bulgarin (1789–1859) author of Ivan Vyshigin, a work which once enjoyed considerable popularity.

The first Russian novelist of great and original talent was (1809–1852) (q.v.). In his Dead Souls he satirized all classes of society, some of the portraits being wonderfully vivid. Being a native of Little Russia, he describes its scenery and the habits of the people, especially in such stories

as the Old-Fashioned Household, or in the more powerful Taras Bulba. This last is a highly wrought story, giving us a picture of the savage warfare carried on between the Cossacks and Poles. Gogol was also the, author of a good comedy, The Reviser, wherein the petty pilfering of Russian municipal authorities are satirized. In his Memoirs of a Madman and Portrait, he shows a weird and fantastic power which proves him to have been a man of strong imagination. The same may be said of The Cloak, and the curious tale Vii (“The Demon”), where he gives us a picture of Kiev in the old days.

In the field of fiction Gogol had various famous successors, concerning whom details will be found in separate articles. It must suffice here to enumerate (d. 1869); (1812–1891); Dmitri Grigorovich (1822–1899), author of The Fisherman and The Emigrants;

Alexis Pisemskiy (1822–1900); (1826–1889); (1821–1881); (1823–1886); Feodor Ricshetnikov (1841–1871); (1817–1875), also famous as a dramatist; and greater than all these (1819–1883), and (1828–1910), the last of whom ranks as much more than a man of letters.

In Vissarion Belinski the Russians produced their best critic. For thirteen years (1834–47) he was the Aristarchus of Russian literature and exercised a healthy influence. In his later days he addressed a withering epistle to Gogol on the newly adopted reactionary views of the latter.

Since the time of Karamzin the study of Russian history has made great strides. He was followed by Nicholas Polevoy (1775–1842), who wrote what he called the History of the Russian People (6 vols., 1829–33), but his work was not received with much favour. Polevoy was a self-educated man, the

son of a Siberian merchant; besides editing a well—known Russian journal, The Telegraph (suppressed in 1834), he was also the author of many plays, among others a translation of Hamlet. Since his time, however, the English dramatist has been produced in a more perfect dress by Kroneberg, Druzhinin and others. Sergius Soloviev (1820–1879) was the author of a History of Russia which may be described rather as a quarry of materials for future historians of Russia than an actual history. In 1885 died N. Kostomarov, the writer of many valuable monographs, of which those on Bogdan Khmelnitskiy and the False Demetrius deserve special mention. From 1847 to 1854 Kostomarov, whose interest in the history of Little Russia and its literature made him suspected of separatist views, wrote nothing, having been banished to Saratov, and forbidden to teach or publish. But after this time his literary activity began again, and besides separate works, the leading Russian reviews, such as Old and New Russia, The Historical Messenger, and The Messenger of Europe, contained many contributions from his pen of the highest value. Constantine Kavelin (1818–1855) was the author of many valuable works on Russian law, and Kalatchev published a classical edition of the old Russian codes. Ilovaiskiy and Gedeonov attempted to upset the general belief that the founders of the Russian empire were Scandinavians. A good history of Russia (1855) was published by N. Ustrialov, but his most celebrated work was his Tzarstvovanie Petra Velikago (“Reign of Peter the Great”); in this many important documents first saw the fight, and the circumstances of the death of the unfortunate Alexis were made clear. Russian writers of history have not generally occupied themselves with any other subject than that of their own country, but an exception may be found in the writings of Timofei Granovskiy (1813–1855), such as Abbé Suger (1849) and Four Historical Portraits (1850). So also Kudriavtsov, who died in 1850, wrote on “The Fortunes of Italy, from the Fall of the Roman Empire of the West till its Reconstruction by Charlemagne.” He also wrote on “The Roman Women as described by Tacitus.” We may add Kareyev, professor at Warsaw, who wrote on the condition of the French peasantry before the Revolution. Other writers on Russian history have been H. Pogodine (d. 1873), who compiled a History of Russia till the Invasion of the Mongols (1871), and especially I. Zabielin, who has written a History of Russian Life from the most Remote Times (1876), and the Private Lives of the Czarinas and Czars (1869 and 1872) and a History of Moscow. Leshkov has written a History of Russian Law to the 18th Century, and Tchitcherin a History of Provincial Institutions in Russia in the 17th Century (1856). To these must be added the work of Zagoskin, History of Law in the State of Muscovy (Kazan, 1877). Professor Michael Kovalevskiy, of the university of Moscow, wrote an excellent work on Communal Land Tenure, in which he investigates the remains of this custom throughout the world. In 1885 Dubrovin published an excellent history of the revolt of Pugachev. The valuable work by Alexander Pypin (b. 1833) and Vladimir Spasovich, History of Slavonic Literatures, is the most complete account of the subject, and has been made more generally accessible by the German translation of Pech. N. Tikhonravov (1832–1893) wrote a Chronicle of Russian Literature and Antiquities (5 vols., 1859–61). The History of Slavonic Literature by Schafarik, published in 1826, has long been antiquated. A history of Russian literature by Paul Polevoy has appeared, which has gone through two editions. The account of the Polish rebellion of 1863 by Berg, published in 1873, which gave many startling and picturesque episodes of the celebrated struggle, was withdrawn from circulation. It appeared originally in the pages of the Russian magazine Starina.

Nicholas Nekrasov, who died in 1877, left six volumes of poetry which in many respects remind us of the writings of Crabbe; the poet is of that realistic school in which Russian authors so much resemble English. Another writer of poetry deserving mention is Ogariev, for a long time the companion in

exile of Herzen in England; many of his compositions appeared in the Polar Star of the latter, which contains the interesting autobiographical sketches of Herzen, entitled Byloe i Dumi (“The Past and my Thoughts”). Apollon Maikov (1821–1847) at one time enjoyed great popularity as a poet; he is a kind of link with Pushkin, of whose elegance of versification he is an imitator. Another poet of a past generation was Prince Viazemskiy (1792–1878). Graceful lyrics were written by Mei, Fet (whose name would apparently prove Dutch extraction, Veth), Stcherbina, and, going a little further back, Yazykov, the friend of Pushkin, and Khomiakov, celebrated for his Slavophile propensities. To these may be added Mdlle Zhadovskaya, Benediiktov, Podolinskiy and Tiutchev. Polonskiy (1820–18983, contributed exquisite lyrics to the Viestnik Yevropî.

Excellent works on subjects connected with Slavonic philology have been published by Vostokov, who edited the Ostromir Codex, and Sreznevskiy and Bodianskiy, who put forth an edition of the celebrated codex used at Reims for the Coronation of the French kings. After their deaths their work was

carried on by Professor Grot (Philological Investigations, also many critical editions of Russian classics), Budilovich, professor at Warsaw, Potebnya of Kharkov, and Baudoin de Courtenay, who, among other services to philology, has described the Slavonic dialect spoken by the Resanians, a tribe living in Italy, in two villages of the Julian Alps. The songs (byliny) of the Russians have been collected by Zakrevskiy, Rybnikov, Hilferding, Barsov and others, and their national tales by Sakharov, Afanasiev and Erlenvein. Kotliarevskiy, Tereshenko and others have treated of their customs and superstitious. S. Stanislaus Mikutskiy, professor at the university of Warsaw, has published his Materials for a Dictionary of the Roots of the Russian and all Slavonic Dialects, but it represents a somewhat obsolete school of philology. The Early Russian Text Society continues its useful labours, and has edited many interesting monuments of the older Slavonic literature. Two valuable codices have been printed in Russia, Zographus and Marianus, interesting versions of the Gospels in Palaeoslavonic. They were edited by the learned Croat Jagić, who occupied the chair of Sreznevskiy in St Petersburg. An excellent Tolkovi Slovar Velikorusskago Yazîka (“Explanatory Dictionary of the Great Russian Language”) was compiled by Vladimir Dahl. Alexander Hilferding published some valuable works on ethnology and philology, among others on the Polabs, an extinct Slavonic tribe who once dwelt on the banks of the Elbe. The Russians have not exhibited many works in the field of classical or other branches of philology. Exception, however, must be made of the studies of Tchubinov in Georgian, Minayev in the Indian and Tsvetayev in the old languages of Italy.

In moral and mental philosophy the Russians have produced but few authors. We meet with some good mathematicians, Lobachevskiy among others, and in natural science the publications of the Society for Natural History at Moscow have attracted considerable attention.

Recent Literature.—The death of Nekrasov in 1877 deprived Russia of her most eminent poet since the days of Pushkin and