Monthly Archives: July 2019
“Drone”, Novikov magazine
Of the Russian prints of the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, the most serious was Novikov’s journal “The Drone”, which was published in the capital from May 1769 to April 1770. In this organ Novikov began to flaunt the vices of modern society, exposing them to the living faces of contemporaries, probably well-known and because it is easy for everyone to recognize.
Catherine resolutely rebelled against this — her satire in “All things” was “in a smiling way” and did not allow certain individuals to be convicted — she did not invade the state, even public life, and was of a general nature, as a result of which she was distinguished by vagueness. Continue reading
“Taras Bulba” Gogol
The story of Gogol’s creation of the Taras Bulba story, the history of influences on the author of literary works by his predecessors, is very complex and has not yet been fully elucidated. First of all, interest in the past of Little Russia, and especially in the Cossacks, as the most vivid manifestation of its history, was strong in Gogol from his youth. He dreamed about creating a historical tragedy from the life of old Ukraine, then about the history of Little Russia, “in six small, or in four large volumes”. Continue reading
“The Tale” by Abraham Palitsyna
The famous figure of the Time of Troubles, Avraham Palitsyn, described the circumstances of protection from the Polish troops of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and his personal exploits in a work entitled: “The Legend of the Troitsky Sergiyev Monastery siege from the Poles and Lithuania, and the insurgencies later in Russia, composed by the Holy Trinity Monastery Kelarem Abraham Palitsyn. This “Legend” is a monument, remarkable as much in literary as in historical terms and reveals in the author remarkable literary talent and not only the reading in books of theological content, but also familiarity with the facts of the history of civil and even philosophy. Continue reading
