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Ryleev, Pushkin, and the Poeticization of Russian History
Author(s) -
WANG EMILY
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the russian review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9434
pISSN - 0036-0341
DOI - 10.1111/russ.12211
Subject(s) - passions , poetry , feeling , lyrics , virtue , politics , literature , aesthetics , philosophy , sociology , epistemology , political science , art , law
The historical poetry of Kondratii Ryleev–in particular, the lyrics he called dumy , or meditations–reveals how central emotion was to the Decembrist worldview. In particular, these poems promote an attitude towards political feeling that I call “civic sentimentalism.” Influenced by thinkers like Rousseau and organizations like the Freemasons, the Decembrists divided emotion into positive sentiments and negative passions: the former fostered virtue and, eventually, improved society, while the latter did just the opposite. Ryleev strove to improve Russian society by using a poeticized version of the nation’s history to inspire patriotic feelings in his readers. In addition, this piece examines how Alexander Pushkin–a writer whose worldview has historically been elided with that of the Decembrists–actually critiqued Ryleev’s historical poetry for the way its civic sentimentalism simplified complex historical issues.