Literature of Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world with and area of around 17,000 square kilometres mean that Russia is 2.5 times bigger that Australia. It is home to 144 million people. Russia was founded in Northern Asia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The capital of Russia is Moscow, a city located in western Russia. Although, the official language of Russia is Russian, there are close the 100 other languages spoken in the country. The Russian language is over 1000 years old and is derived from Slavic languages. The currency used in Russia is the Ruble (1 Ruble = $0.02 AUD).
History
Russian Literature goes as far back to the 10th century. The oldest Russian book found to date in the Novgorod Codex, a book dated back to the year 999. There were 4 different eras of Russian literature. The ‘Primary Chronicle’ was written by Nestor in the early 12th century. During the 15th and 16th century, there was lots of writing about the lives of monks, patriarchs and saints. Stories of this time include “A Journey Beyond the Tree Seas” by Athanasius Nikitin and “Apostle” by Ivan Fyodorov and Pyotr Mstislavets. The person who is known to be the father of Russian literature is Alexander Pushkin. He wrote the famous play Boris Godunov and many other novels and poems. Many famous Russian and world-renowned writers and poets were born in the 19th century. The 19th century was known as the “Golden Age” of poetry. These people include, Alexader Pushkin, Alexander Griboyedov, Ivan Krylov and Nikolai Gogol.
Hide and Seek By Fiodor Sologub
The story introduces two character in the beginning, Serafima Aleksandrovna and her daughter, Lelechka. Lelechka was a little girl who enjoyed playing hide and seek. They maids of their house were superstitious and had warned Serafima that if the girl was always hiding and hiding, it would lead to her death. Serafima Aleksandrovna continued to play hide and seek with her daughter with a heavy heart and one day Lelechka become sick with a fever. A few day later she passed away and the Serafima continued to think that she was playing hide and seek in a mournful disbelief.
The story explores few things about Russia. One of the ideas it explored was arranged marriage and how it was expected when man and female reaches a certain age. Nowadays Russian is not associated when arranged marriage comes to mind. Although there are themes of love, they are not explored throughout the short story. The length of the story prevented the development of these themes.
THE BET By Anton P. Chekhov.
The story begins with a banker recalling an event that happened 15 years ago. A party in which he made a bet that capital punishment was better than imprisonment on the reasoning that “life-imprisonment kills by degree” while “Execution kills instantly.” He bet 2 million (most likely rubles, which is around $40,000 AUD) that the lawyer would not last 15 years in imprisonment with not human interaction and only books and instruments. The lawyer was held in an isolated room in the banker’s house. During the first he was extremely bored and played the piano and read books about love, crime, comedy and etc. During and after the second year the lawyer read classical books and stopped playing the piano. By the time the fifth year had come, the prisoner had stopped reading books and began to play the piano, take to himself and laze around. The second half of the sixth same year, the lawyer became dedicated to studying philosophy, languages and history. He had gone through hundred of books by the tenth year and learned six languages. In his final five years he studied religion and science. As the time of the lawyer’s release came near, the banker planned to kill him as he was not as wealth as he was fifteen years ago. When he went into the lawyer’s room while he was sleeping, he read a note. The lawyer wrote that through the countless books he read, he had seen the world, fallen in love, climbed mountains and heard music. He loved the books but also hated then because they were merely a mirage. He had understood the true nature of the world and its people, he did not want to be like them and had planned to violate the agreement and thus not receive the 2 million. The banker was moved, and he left. The next morning the before 12 o’clock (the time when the 15 years would have finished) the lawyer was gone.
There are themes of wisdom and knowledge in this story. Throughout his time in isolation, the lawyer gained knowledge from all the books he read, which made him wise and reject the material world. There are also themes of competition and sacrifice. While receiving knowledge and wisdom the lawyer lost 15 years of his life. The banker on the other hand had to sacrifice either 2 million or his pride and he chose the former.
BORODINO by Mikhail Lermontov
Link to Poem: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/borodino-mikhail-lermontov/
Tell, uncle, it is not a gift,
Moscow burnt by a fire,
does given to the frenchman?
A battles was fighting,
Yes, talk, on is to is!
All Russia remembers is not the gift
About the day of Borodino!
— — — — — — — — — —
Do died under Moscow,
As our brothers died! ‘
And to die we were promised,
And we have constrained a fidelity oath
in the Borodino fight.
— — — — — — — — — —
Yes, the people were in our time,
The mighty, dashing tribe:
The bogatyrs — are not you.
The bad part share them:
The few ones goes returned from a field.
A God will do it, would not be,
We would not give Moscow!
— — — — — — — — — -
The poem, Borodino by Mikhail Lermontov is about a young boy talking to a soldier who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. It shows the history of Russian war. They talk about how they had to give up Moscow to the enemy because of the will of God. The soldier recalls the events of the war and ended on the promise that one day they would reclaim Moscow. H soldier made an oath to his fallen comrades to continue fighting the enemy to reclaim Moscow. The poem tells you about the violent history and wars that the Russians faced. The poem explores themes of war and promises made by the war veteran.
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish by Alexander Pushkin
Link to Poem: http://www.stosvet.net/12/chandler/index9.html
A third time the old man cast his net
and what he found in his net was a fish —
no ordinary fish, but a golden fish.
The fish begged, the fish begged and implored;
the fish prayed in a human voice:
‘Release me, set me free in the sea —
and in return you’ll receive a grand ransom,
I’ll grant you whatever you wish.’
The old man was amazed and frightened.
— — — — — — — — — — —
She no longer wants to be a tsaritsa,
she wants to be a sea empress.
She wants to live in the Ocean-Sea
with you as her faithful servant
to bring her whatever she asks for.’
Not a word did the fish reply.
She just slapped her tail on the water
and dived deep into the blue sea.
The old man waited and waited
But that was all the answer he got.
He went back — to a hut made of mud.
His old woman was sitting outside it;
And before her lay a broken washtub.
The poem has themes of greed throughout the tale. The tale is about a poor old fisherman and his wife. One day as the man was fishing, he caught a golden fish that could talk. It said that if he let him go, it would grant him one wish. He let the fish go because he was so surprised and went back home and told his wife. His wife told him to go back and ask the fish to fix their broken washtub. Once it was fixed, the wife asked for more and more things. Get me a house, get me a palace and make me a princess. The wife’s final wish was to become a sea empress, so she could have the gold fish as her servant. Like every time before, the man went to the ocean and called for the fish. The asked him what he wanted and he relayed his wife’s wish. The fish did not say anything but went back to the ocean. When he went back to his old home, he found his wife there, with the broken washtub.
Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights by Alexander Pushkin
Link to Poem: https://russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/tale-about-dead-princess.html
This poem is very much like the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A Tsar’s (King) wife dies while giving birth to his child and he remarries to an evil woman who has a magic mirror. When the Kings first daughter grew up and was ready to be married, the king’s wife asked her mirror who the prettiest was. The mirror said “the Princess is the fairest and her beauty is the rarest.” The queen got one of their servants, named Smudge, to tie the princess to a forest in a tree so that the she would get eaten by animals. The Smudge cared for the princess and let her go in the forest without tying her and told the queen she did as she was told. The princess found a home where 7 knights lived. They took her in and let her live with them. The queen later found out that the princess was alive with the help of her magic mirror. She got her servant to go to the home of the seven knights dressed us as a beggar to poison the princess. The princess offered the “beggar” food and in return she received an apple. When she took a bite of the apple she died. The knights were filled with grief and made her a crystal coffin. The grieving prince who was to marry the princess went to where the princess was and broke the coffin. She magically came back to live, and everyone celebrated. This poem shows themes of jealousy, which brought the queen to kill her step-daughter, and the love from the prince which brought her back to life.
A song about a friend by Vladimir Vysotsky
Link to Poem: http://www.wysotsky.com/1033.htm?1176
In this poem, Vladimir talks about how if you know a friend strong in his heart, you don’t have to be afraid and that he is not a foe.
“ If he lost all his care — got scared,
Took a step on the frost — got lost,
Tripped and screamed in exhaust, -
Then the one you held close is false,”
This poem has themes of friendship. Vladimir tells us of the different types of friends you may have and which ones you can trust. The poem shares life lessons for the wider community and does not mention anything about Russian.
The current of time’s river… by Gavriil Derzhavin
Link to Poem: http://markandrewholmes.com/thecurrentoftimesriver.html
The current of time’s river
Will carry off all human deeds
And sink into oblivion
All peoples, kingdoms and their kings.
And if there’s something that remains
Through sounds of horn and lyre,
It too will disappear into the maw of time
And not avoid the common fate.
This poem by Gavriil shows themes of acceptance. He talks about how one day everything will disappear. People and the rulers, rulers and the empire. Nothing will be spared and “It too will disappear into the maw of time.” There is no correlation to Russian but just shows a broader message to everyone.
Conclusion
Throughout this project, I have greatly developed a greater general knowledge of Russia. I learned of famous writers and their works and I learned of their long history. It has made me want to ready more books by Russian authors. As I researched and read through poems and stories, I noticed the there was a great number of stories and poems that related to wars. This could be due to the countless amount of wars Russia has participated in. Russian literature goes as deep as the ocean and there are many more things for me to learn about.
Bibliography
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