Dear Friends,
Today as we all know is the 200th Anniversary of the birth Alexander
Pushkin. I regret not having been able to participate in this contest.
Nevertheless, I want to let you know that I haven't forgotten his anniversary.
Many years ago, through the then "Radio Moscow", I became introduced
to his name and works, through programs such as "Audio Book Club",
"Culture and the Arts", and others. It made me read all his prose
and poems, available in English. I was so much interested that I also got
some videos on Eugene Oneguin, Dame Pique and Boris Godunov. Eugene Oneguin,
to this day is my favorite, especially the aria "I love you".
In the poems, "The Fountain of Bachshisaray" always intrigued
me, so much so, that on a trip to Yalta, I managed to get my self a guide,
car and driver to go to Bachshisaray where I found the fountain within
the grounds of the Arab palace. There was the fountain being watched by
a bust of Pushkin, with a red and a yellow rose by his side. I was told
that these roses were changed every day. I was very impressed, moved, and
had wished I had had his poem there and then, and being able to read it
in front of the fountain. That would have been the best tribute I could
have thought of giving him. I do have the images on video, but am not yet
able to transfer them to stills, so that I could send them to you. Pushking
was a great writer, a very sensitive man and through the tragedy of his
life he transformed Russian writing, prose and verse into the Golden era,
thus becoming the "Sun" of Russian literature. The Prisoner of
the Caucus is also my favorite and the "Novels of Belkin". I
am adding some pictures which you probably have, but that I seem appropriate
with this letter. Finally, I just like to add, that I got his works in
Russia, as a memento and a necessary addition to my small library. I cannot
read it in Russian, but I do try to make out some sentences here and there,
page by page, another way of mine of paying homage to this great writer
and poet. Sincerely,
Joseph
Jp.Miranda 3095 shenk road Apt. F Sanborn, N.Y.
14132 CWA USA
By Milena Faustova
In advance of the 200th anniversary of Pushkin's birth European scholars
have come to Moscow to discuss the subject "Pushkin and Europe".
This is the first time that such prominent scholars as Danuta Pivovarska
from Krakow, Efim Etkind from Paris, George Niva from Geneva and Rolf-Dietrich
Kail from Bonn have met in Moscow to speak of Pushkin and Europe.
In a way France looks upon Pushkin as "its poet". Pushkin
had a perfect command of French. He translated into Russian Voltaire, Rousseau,
and Andre Chenier. He also wrote some of his poems in French and then translated
them into Russian. An excellent translator of Pushkin, Efim Etkind believes
that Pushkin was ahead of the French classical literature of the 19th century.
"I'm convinced," says Etkind, "that there wouldn't have
been the prose of Andre Gide if there hadn't been Pushkin's 'The Queen
of Spades'. Many French authors owe Pushkin more than we know. For example,
there wouldn't have been Proper Merimee's 'Carmen', this gem of French
literature, if long before this novel Merimee hadn't translated Pushkin's
poem 'The Gypsies'. On the whole the French prefer Pushkin's lyrical verses.
One of Pushkin's first translators, Prince Elim Meshersky created for the
French a Pushkin of his own. Meshersky had a fantastic ability to penetrate
deep into the texts he dealt with. He invented his own things but so that
the French reader took them for granted. For example, translating Pushkin's
famous "Frost and the sun, what a wonderful day", he introduced
a clearly erotic element, no more than implied in the original. His fluent
pen turned Pushkin's "wonderful day" into a passionate night
of love, which appealed to the amorous nature of the French admirers of
Russian classical literature."
In Poland Pushkin's work gained fame in his lifetime. Many compared
him with Adam Mickiewics. "Pushkin's popularity was boosted by a legend
that he was a friend of Mickiewics'," says Krakow University Professor
Danuta Pivovarska. "That was what shaped public opinion in Poland
about Pushkin as a genius of the entire Slav people. But it was thanks
to Mickiewics, one of Pushkin's first translators, that Pushkin's name
ranked next to the name of Byron. Both Pushkin and Mickiewics were fond
of Byron's poetry and translated it into their languages." "Ordinary
poets believed it impossible to re-create the beauty and innovative character
of Byron's verses," wrote the Polish Pushkinist Vladimir Spasovich
in the middle of the 19th century. "Only Pushkin in his verses could
reveal the miracles in Byron's poetry not seen by ordinary versemongers."
For Germans Pushkin was a worthy successor to Goethe's work. They took
delight in reading Pushkin's "Scenes from Faust", "The Queen
of Spades", "Mozart and Salieri" and philosophical verses.
But this was the case in the 19th century.
In the 20th century, the German Pushkinist Rolf-Dietrich Kail says
that in his country Pushkin fell victim to the political and particularly
military events of the century. "World War One and then Two stopped
all attempts at any regular study of Pushkin's work in Germany. The war
events of those years did not make for a better understanding of Russian
literature, including Pushkin. Therefore, for many years Pushkin was known
to the wide public in Germany mainly by the operas of Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky.
After 1945 Russian was taught as the first foreign language, but many took
it as an enforced subject. In general, Germans were reluctant to study
Russian culture and literature."
Nearly half a century later there came a new wave of interest in Pushkin,
whose name is inseparably linked with Goethe. This is manifested in the
Russian-German festival "Pushkin and Goethe", which has just
ended in Moscow. The round table "Pushkin and Europe" took place
as part of this festival.
We can see that each European country has a Pushkin of its own. But
"Pushkin is such a great phenomenon in Russian culture that his influence
has long gone beyond Russian borders," says the Swiss Pushkinist,
translator of nearly all of the poet's verses, George Niva. "I believe
we cannot look upon Pushkin as an author writing in one form only: lyrical
poetry, prose or dramaturgy. He must be read and translated as a whole
with his brilliance, talent and superb style."
We
are approaching the remarkable date of June 6 when Russia will mark the
200th birth anniversary of its great poet, Alexander Pushkin. The poet's
life and work are deeply connected with the city of St. Petersburg. Without
Pushkin there is no way to understand the city's soul and history. Through
his eyes we look today at the Admiralty building, at the monument to Peter
the Great, "The Bronze Horseman", at the Neva River, and at the
numerous bridges and embankments.
Pushkin was first brought to St. Petersburg when he was one year old.
At this time an episode took place, which he thought to be symbolic. By
orders from Emperor Pavel the First every member of the gentry he came
across had to remove his headgear and bow. Once during a walk in the gardens,
the little Alexander and his nurse encounted the emperor who suddenly 
rose
up before their eyes. The little boy did not know that he had to take off
his cap and the nurse was not quick enough. Later Pushkin wrote: "I
have seen three emperors. The first, Pavel, tore my cap off my head and
reprimanded my nurse for my failure to do so." The poet also described
Pavel the First as Russia's "most romantic emperor".
Pushkin became aware of St. Petersburg much later, of course, when
at 11 he was brought to the city to study at the Royal Lyceum at Tsarskoye
Selo, an elite educational institution for the gentry set up by orders
from Alexander the Second. Pushkin studied there from 1811 through 1817.
Those were the happiest years of his life when he found his most loyal
friends and became aware of himself as a poet.
After he finished the Lyceum, Pushkin plunged into the eventful and
exciting society life of St. Petersburg. The city 
seemed
to promise the fulfillment of his many wishes. Yet soon Alexander the Second
sent the freedom-loving and unruly poet into an exile in the south of the
country. When Nicholas the First came to the throne Pushkin was allowed
to return to St. Petersburg. Pushkin found the city changed, but he had
changed too and now showed a more mature attitude towards life. After moving
from one apartment to another, the poet settled in a house on the Moika
Embankment. The place was connected with his first impressions as a child.
Many of his friends lived here. This place was frequented by famous writers
and cultural figures. And here the poet died in 1837 from a wound in a
duel.
Pushkin paid tribute to the city on the Neva River in many of his works.
His love for St. Petersburg is particularly manifest in the poem "The
Bronze Horseman", which throws into relief the many faces of St. Petersburg
- a city of the Emperors and the people, the city of Russian culture and
traditions and of western trends.
The city's residents have always venerated Pushkin's memory. All tourist
routes include the memorial house on the Moika embankment, the Lyceum at
Tsarskoye Selo, the monument on the site of the duel at Chyornaya Rechka
(the Black River), and many other sites related to the life and work of
the great Russian poet .
By Olga Bobrova
The great Russian writer and Pushkin's contemporary Nikolai Gogol once
said about Pushkin: "Poetry was holy to him. It was his shrine...
He never took anything rash from his own life to his verse... Yet everything
in his poetry adds to his story of himself. But no one can see this. The
reader can perceive only the fragrance of his verse..."
Pushkin's
poems devoted to the women he loved, admired, was friends with or shared
his grief and joy with, are all masterpieces of world poetry. Among the
great many of his women-inspired poems, some open with the name of the
person they are dedicated to, in others the reader has a hard time trying
to discern the name between the lines. Who were they, the poet's Muses?
This year, the year of the 200th anniversary of Pushkin's birth, we pay
a tribute to all these women.
The best-known of the love poems is devoted to Anna Kern. The great
Mikhail Glinka wrote a romance to the words of the poem, which became a
masterpiece in its own right. Another famous poem was inspired by Anna
Olenina, a girl Pushkin wanted to see as his wife. Brought up in the family
of the President of St. Peterburg's Academy of Arts, Anna was highly educated
and accustomed to the society of outstanding personalities of her time.
In early 1829 Pushkin proposed to her but was not accepted. By way of saying
good-bye, he wrote a poem. This later inspired the great Russian composer
Dargomyzhsky to write a romance, which remains popular to this day. Today
scholars offer various versions of what actually happened when Pushkin
proposed to Anna Olenina. Nadezhda Kondakova, a poet and expert on Pushkin's
work, comes up with a version based on Anna's diaries, published recently
in Russia. The diaries suggest that Pushkin was accepted, and the news
was to be broken at a family gathering. However, Pushkin arrived late and
did not join the guests but had a talk in private with Anna's father. The
diary explains that the girl was at the moment recovering from an unhappy
love for another man and was not ready to marry. Pushkin, Nadezda Kondakova,
insists, felt that something was wrong and chose to withdraw.
"Pushkin
is very quick to understand the character of the people he meets. As for
the knowledge of women, he is second to none," a friend of his, Alexei
Wolf, used to say. Meanwhile, among the women in his milieu there were
not only kind and loving Muses. Anna Akhmatova, an outstanding early 20th-century
poetess, said once: "In 1828 beside Pushkin there were an Angel in
the person of Olenina and Vampires in the persons of two ladies: Zakrevskaya
and Sobanskaya". The latter was that very Karolina Sobanskaya, the
glamorous beauty of the south, the addressee of Pushkin's passionate madrigals.
In the course of a decade she kept reappearing in Pushkin's life, each
time stirring up a new passion in him. "Today is the 9th anniversary
since I first met you," Pushkin writes to her. "That day was
decisive in my life. The more I think of this, the more I feel convinced
that I was born to love you and follow you." The sad irony is that
this woman was informing on the poet to the political police, which kept
him under suspicion and watched his every step. Scholars link the name
of Karolina Sobanskaya with a mystery in Pushkin's biography, which they
have dubbed "a hidden love", the words being borrowed from Pushkin's
Dedication to the poem "Poltava". Scholars are not sure who is
the addressee of the Dedication and mention several names: Maria Raevskaya,
daughter of a general and hero of the War of 1812 against Napoleon, Maria
Golitsyna, a grand-daughter of the great Russian military leader Suvorov,
Sofia Pototskaya-Kisilyova, a member of a noble Polish family, Natalia
Kochubei, daughter of a high-ranking officer, Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife
of the Governor General of Russia's southern lands. Each of the girls had
her own beautiful and fascinating story. Each was honored by many lines
in Pushkin's verse of genius. But none could claim a love for the poet
more selfless and whole-hearted than the modest provincial girl Anna Wolf.
In 1824 the girl watched the poet's tempestuous love affair with Anna Kern.
According to 
Nadezhda
Kondakova, "Pushkin accepted the love of Anna Wolf. Though he was
not experiencing any strong passion himself, he gave her a few happy moments.
As for Anna, her love endured until her dying day. In a letter of October
16, 1829, the day when Pushkin arrived at the estate of Malinniki some
200 km from Moscow, he writes: "In Malinniki I found only Anna Wolf".
He stayed on the estate a month and a half. Working happily there, he wrote
one chapter of the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" and a series
of poems. One of these has lines that imply that he had a close relationship
with Anna Wolf. A month and a half in seclusion, under one roof with a
woman who loved him so much... Does anything need to be added!" concludes
Nadezhda Kondakova. Pushkinists believe that Pushkin entered Anna Wolf
in his "Don Juan's List", a joke prompted by the Ushakov sisters
he was friends with. The list carried 37 names of the women who inspired
him or were won by him. It list opens and closes with the name of Natalia,
the first believed to be Countess Natalia Kochubei, the last Natalia Goncharova,
his wife.
"The
die is cast. I'm getting married." Those are the first words of a
literary sketch Pushkin made shortly after he was accepted by the beautiful
Natalia Goncharova. It took him two years to secure the consent of her
family. The Goncharovs were in no hurry to give the answer. Nor was it
easy for Pushkin, a free artist, not very handsomely provided for, to give
up many of his bachelor habits. Just a while before that he would speak
of a married life ironically. But the meeting with Natalia Goncharova was
a novel experience. "I fell in love. And my head went round,"
Pushkin wrote to the mother of his fiancee. Pushkin treated Natalia as
a deity and in his verse presented her as a Madonna.
In his last years, the years of a married life, the poet of passionate
verse gave way to a thinker, historian and literary authority, recognized
as second to none. Yet the profound work of his later years did not overshine
the women's portraits and dedications. Who is the ideal woman of the poet?
"No, it's not a general image," insists Nadezhda Kondakova. "The
point is that Pushkin never created love verse. He wrote on impulse. Here
it is, his infatuation. Tomorrow it may be gone. There is a spark, an outburst.
And there is his verse."
Signatures under the illustrations:
Anna Olenina
Elizaveta Vorontsova
Agrafena Zakrevskaya
Natalia Goncharova .
by historian Aleksei Anikin
June 6 this year will mark 200 years since the great Russian poet Alexander
Pushkin was born. Pushkin paved the way for Russian literature. He holds
the highest place on Russia's poetic Olympos. This was so in his life time,
and has been in the 162 years since his death.
Every
nation has national symbols reflecting its self-awareness. For the people
of Russia Pushkin, his prose and poetry, is a cornerstone of national culture,
first of all because with his works he actually built the contemporary
Russian language, and the language for a nation is perhaps the main property
distinguishing it from other nations. He was a brilliant poet indeed. What
is this reflected in? First of all in the surprisingly precise poetic expressions
abounding in aphorisms. In this sense Pushkin's language is amazing, because
it is lapidary and polysemantic. Many of his phrases have become catch-words.
They penetrated the consciousness of even those people who read his works
not too attentively. Nevertheless this is our habitual linguistic environment,
this is what people take in with their mother's milk from generation to
generation.
It's also important that Pushkin wrote culturally significant works
for all age groups. Children read his tales, adolescents his romantic poems
and novels, adults his philosophic dramas. Pushkin accompanies us, the
Russians, from cradle to grave. Pushkin is viewed as the forefather of
new Russian literature. He marked the beginning of almost all modern genres
of Russian prose: from travel notes and essays to historic and philosophical
novels. His works are of enormous scope - from his early lyrical and romantic
verses and poems, such as "The Gypsies", "The Fountain of
Bakhchisaray", "Ruslan and Ludmila" written in the 1820s
and earlier, to the profoundly realistic works written later. In many of
them he turned for the first time to the problems, which subsequently will
dominate Russian literature. These include the people's attitude to their
rulers (the drama "Boris Godunov"), relations between a personality
and society (the novel "Evgeni Onegin"), the destiny of "unimportant
man" ("Belkin's Stories"), the power of money over people
("Queen of Spades"). In his "Little Tragedies" the
poet analyses the philosophic foundations of human life: love, death, the
divinity of talent. Let's not forget that Pushkin promoted the development
of classical music - operas and lyrics - in Russia. The best works in these
genres were written basing on his works: the operas "Boris Godunov"
by Musorgsky, "Ruslan and Ludmila" by Glinka, "Queen of
Spades" and "Evgeni Onegin" by Tchaikovsky, "The Tale
of the Golden Cockerel" and "The Tale of Czar Saltan" by
Rimsky-Korsakov.
Pushkin's works contain a lot of energy, many strata used by different
people differently. Tchaikovsky took from them one thing, painters and
poets something else. Even those who said: "Let's push Pushkin off
the ship of our times" - I mean avant-gardists of the early 20th century,
such as Mayakovsky - they had grown up on Pushkin's works anyway. Mayakovsky,
for one, knew Pushkin's novel "Evgeni Onegin" by heart. Dostoyevsky
used to say: "Without Pushkin there would have been no talents who
followed him. At least they would not have revealed themselves with such
force and such clarity, despite their enormous gifts." He was echoed
by another Russian author, Ivan Goncharov, who wrote the well-known novels
"Oblomov" and "A Common Story": "Pushkin was the
father of Russian arts,as Lomonosov was the father of Russian sciences.
All the seeds and sprouts, all genres and kinds of arts stem from Pushkin."
It is difficult, almost impossible to translate Pushkin into other
languages adequately. His style is too fine and delicate, too full of purely
Russian piquancies and linguistic finds. Nevertheless there have been and
will be attempts to acquaint other nations with the poet's legacy. His
works have been translated into almost every language spoken on the globe.
Pushkin is a Russian phenomenon, of course, but at the same time a
phenomenon of world level. Dostoyevsky described this as "world response"
to Pushkin. What can world culture derive from Pushkin's works? The understanding
of Russia and Russians, since Pushkin was the quintessence of Russian spirit.
If all his profound thoughts and ideas are collected into a single whole,
they will reflect an integral picture of national self-awareness .
By E.Epstein
This
year marks 200 years since the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was
born. The jubilee is broadly celebrated not only in Russia, but also in
the world as a whole. His works became an integral part of world culture,
including music. Pushkin's poems gained greater popularity through musical
works based on them.
In Russian music the 19th century was inseparable from the name of
Alexander Pushkin. Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgski and Tchaikovsky
- many of their works were prompted by Pushkin's poetry. A major work of
Modest Musorgski - the opera "Boris Godunov" - was inspired by
Pushkin's tragedy of the same name. The Russian public responded to the
opera with enthusiasm, because it was the first time the people were the
main character of an opera. "I consider the people as a great personality
inspired by a common idea," Musorgski said. The final scene of a popular
uprising the opera culminated in was excluded from it for a long time:
the censors had banned it because of its revolutionary meaning.
Piotr Tchaikovsky wrote three operas based on Pushkin's works: "Yevgeny
Onegin", "Queen of Spades" and "Mazepa". He wrote
in one of his letters: "The force of his genius often tears Pushkin
out of the narrow field of poetry, taking him into the infinite sphere
of music. His verses contain something which penetrates the very depths
of human soul. This "something" is music."
In 1877 Tchaikovsky turned to Pushkin's novel in verse "Yevgeny
Onegin". He was fascinated by the idea of reflecting the novel, which
literary critics described as encyclopaedia of 19th-century life, in music.
The independent character of the novel's heroine Tatiana, her strong will
and ardent feelings provided rich material for the musical interpretation
of her image. Following the poet's concept, Tchaikovsky expressed in his
opera his thoughts concerning the destiny of Russian women, and created
one of the most lyrical and charming images in world opera.
Georgy Sviridov accounts for one of the most successful expressions
of Pushkin's poetry in Russian 20th-century music. By the way, his first
creative achievement was lyrics based on Pushkin's verses. Today they are
viewed as vocal classics belonging to the repertoire of many outstanding
singers. Years later Sviridov, already a well-known composer, turned to
Pushkin again and wrote a work that became a noticeable event in his country's
musical life - the choral cycle "Pushkin's Wreath". "To
me Pushkin sounds as the realization of the high predestination of man.
Each epoch interprets him in its own way. Averse to idealizing the Pushkin
era, I do not want to give him a modern interpretation either. I simply
try to follow him into his unattainable heights as best I can," Sviridov
wrote. The ten parts of the "Pushkin's Wreath" cycle reflect
many facets of the poet's art: lyrical, epical, folk. The composer turned
to verses written in different times, to different themes, to different
moods: their interpretation in music reflected the spirit of Pushkin's
poetry to perfection. "Pushkin's Wreath" gained the Russian public's
love and appreciation among the lovers of music abroad.
Pushkin's heroes came to life in choreography too. In 1934 Boris Asafiev's
ballet "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray" based on Pushkin's poem
was staged in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg). 15 years later Reinhold Gliere's
ballet "The Copper Horseman" based on another poem by Pushkin
was staged on the occasion of Pushkin's 150th birth anniversary. Like Pushkin,
Gliere glorified the city founded by the Russian Czar Peter the Great on
the banks of the River Neva in the early 18th century and named St.Petersburg
in his honour.
So far we have spoken about musical works inspired by Pushkin's poetry.
In conclusion we'll mention a vocal-choreographic symphony devoted to Alexander
Pushkin himself - a rare case when the poet's image is reflected in music.
It was written by the well-known composer Andrei Petrov. "It was my
old dream to devote a symphony to the brilliant poet," he said in
an interview. "His verses will feature prominently in it. It is impossible
to perceive the depth of his thoughts without it. I focused on the last
years of Pushkin's life, when his conflicts with the czar, with the censors,
with the high society became particularly obvious." The composer chose
for his six-part symphony the verses in which Pushkin speaks about his
own fate. The vocal-choreographic symphony "Pushkin" was written
for a reciter, dancer, chorus and orchestra.
Musical works inspired by Pushkin's poetry have sounded from the stages
of big and small theaters and in concert halls for a century and a half
now, never failing to find grateful listeners and viewers .
by L.Roshchina
Since 1981 the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts has been playing host to
the annual December Nights festival initiated by 
the
great pianist Svyatoslav Rikhter. He wanted music played by outstanding
performers amid art exhibitions thematically adapted to the main idea of
each such festival.
This year the traditional Svyatoslav Rikhter December Nights festival
(17 in all have already been held since 1981) is devoted to the great Russian
port Alexander Pushkin whose bicentennial birthday falls next year. "The
magic crystal of verse..." this line from Pushkin's famous Yevgeny
Onegin novel is the motto of the art exhibition now being held at the museum
and the December Nights concerts being played in its White Marble Hall.
The excellent exhibition takes the visitor on a trip through the great
novel right into the world of its author and his characters. The late 18th-
and early 19th century paintings, household items, rare books, manuscripts
and documents offer a graphic insight into this "encyclopedia of Russian
life". Paintings, watercolors and drawings by well-known Russian and
European artists provide a fascinating picture of Moscow, St.Petersburg,
the Russian outback, the houses of Russia's rich and famous. The display
is being held exactly 175 years since the great poet set down to write
his all-time evergreen.
Pushkin Museum director Irina Antonova thus describes the program of
this year's December Nights festival: "This year our main subjects
are Pushkin and music. We are going to begin with the Yevgeny Onegin opera
by Pyotr Chaikovsky performed by the New Opera company conducted by Yevgeny
Kolobov and with the well-known actor Vasily Lanovoi reciting excerpts
from the novel in verse. The listeners will be in for surprise performances
by such world-acclaimed musicians as Yuri Bashmet, Nataliya Gutman, Eliso
Virsaladze, Viktor Tretyakov and the well-known Dutch singer Robert Holl.
They will all perform music dating back to the time when Pushkin was writing
the Yevgeny Onegin novel. I hope that the exhibition and the concerts will
be worthy of the great anniversary we'll be celebrating next year..."
THE PUSHKIN DAY IN RUSSIA
By Alla Proshchenko
On June 6 Russia marked the 199th birth anniversary of its greatest
poet Alexander Pushkin. The day has always been dear to every Russian and
last year a presidential decree made it an offcial holiday, "The Pushkin
Day of Russia".
"No other poet in Russia has such a happy fate as Pushkin,"
another Russian classic writer Nikolai Gogol said once. Time shows how
true these words are. People change, as generations come and go but Pushkin
remains with us. The poet's 200th birth anniversary due next year has been
entered in the UNESCO Calendar of Memorial Dates to be marked the world
over. The most significant foreign event will be an international conference
at Stanford University in California, the United States. It will bring
together scholars from the United States, Russia, Israel and many European
countries.
In Russia preparations for the anniversary are well underway. Among
the re-publications are a new academic edition of complete works and the
new one-volume book "Pushkin for Family Reading". The latter
will be given free to every pupil. A unique edition of "The Onegin
Encyclopaedia" and a facsimile of "Pushkin's Working Notebooks"
are soon to be published. Prince Charles (he and Queen Elizabeth are among
Pushkin's descendants) has contributed to the latter edition. Large-scale
celebrations will include some three dozen exhibitions, 25 festivals and
a variety of musical programs.
In connection with the forthcoming anniversary Russian Cultural Navigator
informs you that in our archives you can read several materials devoted
to Alexander Pushkin. We will continue to follow closely every publication
about the great poet.
PUSHKIN IS EVERYONE'S CONTEMPORARY
The story is by Olga Bobrova.
Every
nation has special dates that give rise to a feeling of pride and deep
emotion. In Russia such dates are connected with the name of the great
poet and literary genius Alexander Pushkin. Next year will mark 200 years
since he was born. At the decision of UNESCO (the U.N. Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization) the jubilee will be celebrated throughout the
world. Russia launched preparations for it in advance and with love. Pushkin
was born on June 6. The president issued a decree to mark it as a holiday.
Minister of Culture Natalia Dementieva finds this greatly significant.
"At the turn of a century society is always engaged in revaluing its
traditions and values," Natalia Dementieva says. "But no matter
how we look on our century, people in our enormous state grow up and live
with Pushkin's poetry." Virtually every Russian family has books by
Pushkin.
On the threshold of his birth anniversary Russian libraries will be
supplemented with new editions - from the 20-volume collection of his works
to the modest book for family reading printed at the initiative of Academician
Dmitry Likhachev; from the austere "Pushkin Encyclopedia" to
the elegant 8-volume publication of his notebooks. This unique facsimile
edition is an international project patronized by the Prince of Wales.
On the occasion of the anniversary Pushkin's poems are published in Russia
not only in his native language.
A 3-volume edition of his works will be printed in English, German
and French. It comprises high-quality translations. Perhaps they will serve
as an incentive to resolving a problem mentioned by the Russian Culture
Minister Natalia Dementieva. Here's what she said: "The perfection
and beauty of the Russian language reflected in Pushkin's poetry are so
high, that it is hard to achieve adequate translations into other languages;
that is why Pushkin is little known abroad. It's unfair that many readers
in other countries are deprived of the opportunity to enjoy Pushkin's poetry."
And here's what Academician Yevgeny Chelyshev has to say: "We are
in the complicated process of reassessing the personality of Pushkin. He
has always been evaluated in a different way. Some said that he was pro-western,
others that he was a Slavophile. There were people who viewed him as an
anarchist or monarchist, and in the Soviet times as a revolutionary.
Pushkin is larger than a single ideological concept. He is extremely
many-sided, and our scholars are engaged in research to reveal what Pushkin
was really like." It's symbolic that, though provoking disputes, the
poet's image is also capable of bringing about reconciliation. This is
what happened in 1880 at the inauguration of the well-known Pushkin statue
in Moscow, when the great Russian writers Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- a westernizer and a Slavophile - shook hands. The watch-word of the program
for celebrating the poet's 200th birth anniversary is "Pushkin and
Our Times". According to Academician Chelyshev, "Pushkin is everyone's
contemporary. He will never grow obsolete. When the Russian people face
hard times, when they try to find a way out, they turn to Pushkin; we need
him, he will help us revitalize Russia and reassert moral principles in
our society."
PUSHKIN DAY
Our correspondent Olga Bobrova has this story
February 10th will always remain in the memory of the Russian people
as the day when the great Russian poet of the 19th century Alexander Pushkin
died. "Russia's poetic genius is gone..." These words said back
in 1837 when the Russian people were paying their last respects to Pushkin
are still repeated with the feeling of an irreparable loss and the genius's
immortality.
Though so much time has passed ever since, every year on February 10th
regardless of the weather people gather near the house overlooking the
Moika river in St.Petersburg where Pushkin lived and where he was dying
wounded in a duel...at the age of 37. Moscow residents on this day come
to the poet's statue situated in the centre of the city on the square bearing
his name. They may carry flowers, books of his works or their own poems
devoted to him. Some carry lit candles.... And all - with their own thoughts
about Pushkin.
Pushkin wrote in almost all genres creating the first examples of Russian
literature: from lyrics to historical drama... The analysis of his language
proves that he created the Russian literary language. He wrote for all
ages. The first fairy tales we remember from our childhood were written
by Pushkin. Pushkin's works give a clear and detailed picture of the life
of the Russian society of the 19th century. Pushkin is the "encyclopaedia
of Russian life", said Vissarion Belinsky, the famous Russian critic
of the 19th century. For Russia Pushkin is a phenomenon of literary, cosmic
and psychological scope...
Many outstanding writers tried to express their attitude to Pushkin.
Nickolai Gogol believed that Pushkin was an extraordinary phenomenon of
the Russian spirit, one of the future breed of Russians who would probably
emerge two hundred years later. And Fyodor Dostoyevsky singled out another
trait of Pushkin's character - his endless sympathy for all.
Andrei Bitov, the author of several research works about the poet,
including the novel "The House Pushkin Lived In", says: "
This was a European, may be the only one in Russia. Pushkin is the quintessence
of the European culture. Pushkin has new scenes from Goethe's "Doctor
Faustus". Here is his sympathy for all. Pushkin, the European...He
never left Russia - the tzar would not allow him to.
It's amazing, impossible to understand. But it's also strange that
Pushkin's priceless heritage has not become a truly universal treasure.
Why does Pushkin fail to cross the borders? Above all, he exists in the
realm of the Russian language. There is no translating the language of
poetry. Touch it and the magic is gone. And along with the magic, its depth
and mystery. There is some eternal death of the poet: he dies in the language,
not in a duel. He sacrifices himself to his people."
Translations of Pushkin exist, of course, some of them are really wonderful.
For example, the English translation of the novel in verse "Eugene
Onegin" done by Vladimir Nabokov. The whole world admires Pushkin.
By UNESCO's decision, the poet's 200th birth anniversary in 1999 will be
celebrated the world over. So, what does Pushkin mean to the world? The
writer Andrei Bitov produces a philosophical-psychological metaphor as
he answers the question. He believes that "by an unthinkable effort,
Pushkin created a system that may be called culturally ecological. He created
a new world, without destroying the old. Any literary existence has a violent
touch to it, it sort of enforces itself. This can be done in a noble, elevated,
and great way. As for Pushkin, he did nothing of the kind. Hidden behind
the splendor, easiness and charm, his profundity is not easy to feel. Pushkin
is our civilization as it is today. A genuine civilization is still to
be developed, as well as mentality. In this lies our horror and our charm,
too: we still live and grow like children. Pushkin was the first to go
through all the stages, including developing a culture and creating a civilization.
Within his short lifetime, he managed to cover all the stages and make
a breakthrough to three centuries ahead of his time. In Pushkin we have
found our freedom, not the freedom people are talking about, but an inner,
secret freedom. This freedom is present in his every line, in his every
gesture. It fell upon Pushkin to perform a historical miracle, an deed
equal only to what Peter the Great accomplished. This is a choice of a
historical road. Peter the Great enforced his choice. And Pushkin offered
a choice without violence. The poet in Russia is more than a poet".
Andrei Bitov believes that in Russian literature Pushkin can be compared
with Anton Chekhov. Inobtrusively, both urged the Russians to enter into
a cultivated state, into a civilization. The ideal of Pushkin and Chekhov
makes a person simpler, more modest and bashful.
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