Pushkin is a giant of Russian literature, and his works profoundly influenced subsequent writers. We examine how his literary legacy was inherited and developed.
Studying Russian without reading Pushkin’s works is like entering Treasure Island and returning empty-handed. Thus, Pushkin is like a treasure island in Russian literature. His poetry and prose are that beautiful.
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799–1837) is unquestionably Russia’s greatest national poet. Ivan Goncharov said that if Mikhail Lomonosov was the ‘Father of Russian Science,’ then Pushkin was the ‘Father of Russian Art.’ Literature is an art that uses language as its medium of expression. Pushkin refined the living speech of the people, transforming it into a literary language that was both highly artistic and fresh, clear, and supple. Moreover, through masterpieces like Eugene Onegin, he laid the foundation for Russian realist literature. The subsequent emergence of Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, indeed all of Russian literature thereafter, cannot be considered without acknowledging Pushkin’s influence.
Pushkin began as a poet, but his mature realism inevitably led him to prose. The 19th century was the ‘Age of the Novel,’ and as Belinsky noted, the genre of the ‘prose novel’ was a demand of the times.
These five prose novels, written under the title Povesti Belkina, were composed in the autumn of 1830, when Pushkin was 30 years old. That autumn is particularly known as ‘The Autumn at Vorozhino.’ During the mere three months Pushkin spent at his estate in the village of Vorozhino, he completed numerous masterpieces that would endure in Russian literature, including the novel, about 30 lyric poems, and other short stories. Such miraculous prolificacy is unparalleled not only in Russian literature but in the entire history of world literature.
‘Povesti Belkina’ was published anonymously in 1831 as the work of the fictional character Ivan Petrovich Belkin. It was only attributed to Pushkin three years later, in 1834.
This ‘Belkin Tales’ represented the first exploration of the novelistic in Russian literature. The approach Pushkin took in this exploration of the novelistic is fascinating when viewed through modern eyes. He sought the world of the novel within his own world of tragedy, or as its extension, or within its variations, or from the perspective of its caricature. Consequently, the works he produced span a broad spectrum, ranging from the tragic to the comic, depending on their degree of connection to the world of tragedy. This is the defining characteristic of this collection. Among them, ‘The Shot’ clearly remains within Pushkin’s tragic world. Particularly, ‘The Postmaster’ is a work of great literary historical importance. Attempts to depict the figure of the ‘little man’ existed before Pushkin. For instance, Karamzin’s sentimental and pastoral novel ‘The Poor Liza’ is one such example. Pushkin was the first to portray the figure of the abused human being with great artistic truthfulness, without mixing in any sentimentality or affectation whatsoever. Gorky once remarked, “This story marked the beginning of realism in Russian literature.” The figure of the Postmaster in this work became the prototype for the protagonist of Nikolai Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’ and for Zhevshkin in Dostoevsky’s ‘Poor Folk’.
‘The Blizzard’ and ‘The Undertaker’ significantly lighten the tragic hue, even exuding a bright, humorous flavor. The former possesses the flavor of a parody of ‘Eugene Onegin’, while the latter can be thought of as a clever transformation of the theme from the light, short-form tragedy ‘The Fatal Drink’. Tatyana Larina from ‘Eugene Onegin’, a fusion of obedience and passion, humility and romantic reverie, is transformed in ‘The Blizzard’ into Maria Gavrilovna, a girl merely pretending to be the heroine of a romantic novel, becoming the target of ‘the world’s little jeers’. Furthermore, the tense theme of ‘The Fatal Drink’, which deftly captures the fear of death within the hedonism of despair, is dissolved into the everyday life of ‘The Undertaker’—where the intersection of life and the stench of corpses is commonplace—and reimagined as a bright, humorous piece. ‘The Country Lady’ can be seen as refined into a youthful frolic imbued with the fragrance of pastoral idyll. The ingenious idea of having young men and women pretending to be Byronic figures instead revert to an innocent state through this very pretense undeniably showcases Pushkin’s mastery as a parodist. The interpretation of the briefly mentioned ‘The Postmaster’ as a scathing parody of the famous biblical Parable of the Prodigal Son came from the Symbolist critic Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon. That is, it is the story of a father’s self-destruction, still viewing his daughter who has entered a happy married life through a biblical lens.
When this collection was finally published a year after completion, the literary world’s reception was extremely cold. It was only natural that the Russian literary scene of the time, still clinging to French classicism while already permeated by the influence of German idealist philosophy, failed to grasp the novelistic charm of the work. The author likely anticipated this and concealed it behind the ‘Publisher’s Note’. This is precisely why the title ‘Povesti Belkina’ was chosen; simultaneously, within this character Belkin, one can discern the author’s own creed—that simplicity and spontaneity are paramount in the storyteller—a principle cherished by Pushkin himself. In any case, it is undeniable that these works undoubtedly represent the pinnacle of simplicity and brevity characteristic of Pushkin’s prose, often leaving traces of the fiery poetic sentiment within the author, revealing, so to speak, the beauty of lava not yet cooled.
