We all know and love the poet Alexander Pushkin since in our school years we all learnt the poem “Winter morning”. But do we really know a lot about the “Sun of Russian poetry”?
Prior to Pushkin’s Day celebrated in Russia on 6 June we talked with VSU Professor Andrey Faustov, D.Sc. in Philology, about the importance of Pushkin in Russian culture, about his non-obvious masterpieces, and about modern Russian language which is canonically thought to date back to Alexander Pushkin’s works.
“How often has this Russian classic been evaluated?”
A.F.: “People have said so much about Pushkin (just like about Shakespeare, Goethe, or Dostoevsky) that whole monographs regularly appear in order to review and generalise the information on different works of the author. But it is impossible to overestimate classical authors, otherwise we wouldn’t call them classics. However, sometimes such studies turn into dead monuments to themselves that are interesting only to the researchers who build their professional careers on these “cemeteries”. The best indicator of how much the classics are alive (and valued) is whether their works are read as much as new books and whether new interpretations of classical texts appear on stage or in cinema. A lively reaction is the only criterion here. And in this case I’d like to believe that the situation with Pushkin is still fine.”
“Is Pushkin really “our everything”?
A.F.: “Georgiy Fedotov, a great philosopher and publicist of the first wave of Russian emigration, gave a paradoxical title to one of his articles about Pushkin. He called it “The voice of empire and freedom”. These two sides of Russian history, its “everything” are indeed present in Pushkin’s world, although it doesn’t mean that this combination is stationary. For Pushkin, imperial power is not a suppressing and suspicious power of the government but something that rises above all the laws and is capable of showing friendliness and mercy to the fallen and the lost and to those who are near you. In a late poem “The feast of Peter the Great” this is mentioned as the main achievement of the first Russian Emperor: “And forgiveness prevails, like victory over an enemy.” In the description of a cheerful and bright feast mentioned in the poem we can see the image of an evangelical feast which is free and open to everybody.”
“Can you compare Pushkin with any of the modern authors?”
A.F.: I can’t think of anyone with the same scale and, what’s more important, with same unique combination of qualities that Pushkin had, including brilliant use of the possibilities of both prose and poetry and a great concentration of meaning in small texts. Strictly speaking, Pushkin never had any literary successors although sometimes there were some authors who tried to claim this title or were given one. I think that in the history of Russian literature there was only one writer whose works combined the qualities that were partly similar to those of Pushkin. It was Mandelstam.”
“Which of Pushkin’s works are the best to start with?”
A.F.: “It really depends on the age. And there is definitely no strict list here. For example, children can start with “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, a story that tells us about undeserved wonders and selfless gratitude. “The Blizzard” can be a good choice for teenagers as it deals with the unpredictability of happiness and fate. And adults can start with “Mozart and Salieri”, a drama that shows us whether a person can escape from the prison of narcissism and accept themselves as they really are.”
“Is it a good idea to study “The Captain's Daughter” at school?”
A.F.: “Why not? This question can be asked almost about any classical work that is studied in schools. On the one hand, there is always a risk that teaching will only ruin your perception of the story. On the other hand, you may be lucky and get to know this story (including “The Captain's Daughter”) while you are young.”
“Are there any non-obvious works of Pushkin that people should read?”
A.F.: “The question is for whom they are non-obvious and in what sense. On the whole, there is nothing or almost nothing self-obvious among Pushkin’s works (which also makes him a genius). Therefore, you should read almost everything he has written. It’s probably a good idea to conduct a survey and find out which of his works people mostly read and whether there are any obvious gaps. Maybe it will turn out that people usually miss “The Bronze Horseman”, the greatest of Pushkin’s poems. But this is a specific task for a study.”
“Is it true that Pushkin is the founder of modern Russian literary language?”
A.F.: “It is true and it can be confirmed by any language historian. However, I’d like to imitate Pushkin here and laugh it off by saying something like this: if Pushkin is “our everything”, then Russian people didn’t have anything before his times. Except, maybe, a broken trough.”
