A Survey of Russian Literature, with SelectionsHapgood, Isabel Florence
History
A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections
Hapgood, Isabel Florence
Russian literature -- History and criticism
The Tzar replies that it is well Kalashnikoff
has answered truthfully; he will give the young widow and the children a
grant from his treasury, and give command that, from that day forth, his
brothers may traffic throughout the wide Russian realm free of taxes.
But Kalashnikoff must mount the scaffold, lay down his turbulent head,
and the executioner shall be ordered to make his axe very sharp, and the
great bell shall be tolled in order that all the men of Moscow may know
that the Tzar has not deprived him of his favor. The execution and
Kalashnikoff's farewell speeches to his brothers, with his last messages
to his wife not to grieve so greatly, and his commands that she is not
to tell his children how their father died, together with requests for
prayers for his soul, are described in very touching and lofty terms, as
are also the burial, and the scenes at the grave.
* * * * *
The influence of Schelling's philosophy on the society of Moscow (the
literary center until half-way through the '30's of the nineteenth
century) was very great. This philosophy held that every historical
nation should express some idea or other; that a nation could be called
historical only on condition of its being independent in this respect;
and that its importance in the progress of general civilization is
determined by its degree of independence. This set all thoughtful people
to considering the place of Russia among the European nations; and all
the problems suggested by this philosophy came up with special force in
the Russian literature of the end of the '30's, and split society into
two great camps--the Slavyanophils (slavophils)[18] and the Westerners.
These camps had existed earlier, but had concerned themselves only with
the purification of the Russian language, or with sentimental admiration
for everything Russian, or for everything foreign, as the case might be.
But now both parties undertook to solve the problems connected with the
fate of the nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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