Derzhavin and the Return of the Victorious Tsar

This article is about Derzhavin’s ode on Alexander I’s return to Russia after his victory over Napoleon. It aims to shed light on the development of Derzhavin’s panegyric poetry and thereby also on the cult of the Russian emperor. One point deserves special attention: the sacralization of the tsar. I argue that in contrast to the tradition of Russian panegyrics, Derzhavin’s ode represents Alexander not only as a successful ruler and a military hero, but also as a very pious Christian, one could even say: as a saint, which was highly unusual in Russia’s 18^th and early 19^th century. We shall also see how Derzhavin uses a panegyric motif borrowed from Lomonosov: the infinite space of the Russian fatherland. Finally, the article attempts to situate Derzhavin’s occasional poem in its “place in life” (“Sitz im Leben”), focussing on the specific, including the biographical circumstances under which it was created and in which it was to function. Two concluding digressions will deal with the demonization of Napoleon and the idea of human greatness in the early years of the 19^th century.

Keywords

Derzhavin, panegyric poetry, cult of the emperor, structure of panegyric space, “place in life”, demonization, human greatness

Received

28.09.2022

Publication date

28.09.2022

Number of characters

56089

Cite

GOST	Klein J. Derzhavin and the Return of the Victorious Tsar // Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka – 2022. – V. 81. – Issue 4 C. 5-20 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://izv-oifn.ru/S160578800021452-3-1 (circulation date: 03.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S160578800021452-3
MLA	Klein, Joachim "Derzhavin and the Return of the Victorious Tsar." Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 81.4 (2022):5-20. DOI: 10.31857/S160578800021452-3
APA	Klein J. (2022). Derzhavin and the Return of the Victorious Tsar. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 81(4), pp.5-20 DOI: 10.31857/S160578800021452-3

100 rub.

When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 316

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Shilder, N.K. Imperator Alexandr Pervyj, jego zhizn i tsarsrvovaniye [Emperor Alexander the First, His Life and Reign]. St. Petersburg, 1897–1898, Vol. 1–4. (In Russ.)

2. Massie, Suzanne. Pavlovsk. The Life of a Russian Palace. Boston, Toronto, London, 1990. XX, 394 p.

3. Wortman, Richard S. Scenarios of Power. Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy. Princeton University Press. 1995. Bd. 1.

4. Holtz, Britta. Der “Retter Europas” und sein ruhmreicher Empfang in Russland im Jahr 1814. In: Herrscherlob und Herrscher-kritik in den slawischen Literaturen. Festschrift für Ulrike Jekutsch zum 60. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden, 2013, S. 109–125. (In Germ.)

5. Derzhavin, G.R. Sochineniya [Works with Explanatory Notes by Ya.K. Groth. 2nd Academic Edition]. Vol. 1–7. 1868–1878. (In Russ.)

6. Morozova, N.P. 1814-j god v zhizni Derzhavina [The 1814th Year in Derzhavin’s Life]. Derzhavinskiye chteniya [Derzhavin Readings]. Coll. 10. St. Petersburg, 2015, pp. 144–183. (In Russ.)

7. Florovsky, G. Puti russkogo bogosloviya [The Ways of Russian Theology]. 3rd Ed. Paris, 1983. (In Russ.)

8. Rey, Marie-Pierre. Alexandre Ier. Paris, 2009. 593 p. (In French)

9. Pypin, A.N. Religioznye dvizheniya pri Alexandre I [Religious Movements under Alexander I]. Petrograd, 1916. X, 483 p. (In Russ.)

10. Martin, Alexander M. Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries. Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I. Northern Illinois University Press, 1997. 304 p.

11. Zorin, A.L. Kormya dvuglavogo orla... [Feeding the Double-Headed Eagle... Literature and State Ideology in Russia in the Last Third of the 18th – First Third of the 19th Century]. Moscow, 2001. 416 p. (In Russ.)

12. Altshuller, M.G. Beseda lyubitelej russkogo slova... [Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word. At the Origins of Russian Slavophilism]. Moscow, 2007. 444 pp. (In Russ.)

13. Klein, J. Russkaya literatura v XVIII veke [Russian Literature in the 18th Century]. Moscow, 2010. 440 p. (In Russ.)

14. Siegel, Holger (Hg.). Der Briefwechsel zwischen Aleksandr I. Turgenev und Vasilij A. Žukovskij 1802–1829. Köln, Weimar, Wien, Böhlau Verlag, 2012. (In Germ., in Russ.)

15. Mayofis, M.L. Vozzvaniye k Yevrope... [View of Europe: The Literary Society “Arzamas” and the Russian Modernization Project of 1815–1818]. Moscow, 2008. 800 p. (In Russ.)

16. Grot, Ya.K. Zhizn Derzhavina [Derzhavin’s Life]. Moscow, 1997. 685 p. (In Russ.)

17. Klein, J. Derzhavin i Tilzitskuj mir [Derzhavin and the Tilsit Peace Treaty]. XVIII vek [The 18th Century]. Collection 31. St. Petersburg, 2022 (in print). (In Russ.)

18. Korovin, V.L. Derzhavin i 1812 god: o smysle o kompozitsii “Gimna lyroepicheskogo na prognaniye frantsuzov iz otechestva” [Derzhavin and Year 1812: The Imagery and Composition of “A Hymn, Lyric-and-Epic, on Making the French Retreat From Fatherland”]. Izvestiâ Rossijskoj akademii nauk. Seriâ literatury i âzyka [Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Studies in Literature and Language]. 2012, Vol. 71, No. 6, pp. 42–52. (In Russ.)

19. Zhukovsky, V.A. Polnoye sobraniye sochinenij i pisem v 20 t. [Complete Works and Letters in 20 Vols.]. Vol. 1: Poems of 1797–1814. Moscow, 1999. 760 p. (In Russ.)

20. Korovin, V.L. Kak starik Derzhavin liru peredaval (o “mladykh pevtsakh” i “yunom tsare” v “Gimne lyroepicheskom”) [As Derzhavin Passed the Lyre: (about “Youthful Singers” and “Young King” in “The Anthem Lyroepics”)]. Novgorodskiy Derzhavinskiy sbornik [Novgorod Derzhavinsky Collection (to the 200th Anniversary of the Poet’s Death)]. Velikiy Novgorod, 2016, pp. 84–97. (In Russ.)

21. Pogodin, M.P. Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin po yego sochineniyam, pismam i otzyvam sovremennikov [Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin According to His Writings, Letters and Reviews of Contemporaries]. Moscow, 1866, Vol. 1. (In Russ.)

22. Morozova, N.P. 1813-j god v zhizni Derzhavina [The 1813th year in Derzhavin’s Life]. Derzhavinskiye chteniya [Derzhavin Readings]. Coll. 9. St. Petersburg, 2014, pp. 110–143. (In Russ.)

23. Morozova, N.P. 1815-j god v zhizni Derzhavina [The 1815th year in Derzhavin’s Life]. Derzhavinskiye chteniya [Derzhavin Readings]. Coll. 11. St. Petersburg, 2016, pp. (In Russ.)

24. Shilder, N.K. Imperator Nikolaj Pervyj, jego zhizn i tsarsrvovaniye [Emperor Nicolas the First, His Life and Reign]. Moscow, 1997, Vol. 1. (In Russ.)

25. Lomonosov, M.V. Polnoye sobraniye sochinenij v 11 t. T. 8 [Complete Works in 11 Vols. Vol. 8]. Moscow, Leningrad, 1959. 1280 p. (In Russ.)

26. Kotchetkova, N. Karamzin entre gallomanes et gallophobes. Nikolaï Karamzin en France. L’image de la France dans les “Lettres d’un voyageur russe”. Paris, 2014, pp. 207–218. (In French)

27. Klein, J. Karamzin, un Européen russe en France Nikolaï Karamzin en France. L’image de la France dans les “Lettres d’un voyageur russe”. Paris, 2014, pp. 202–206. (In French).

28. Klein, J. Pri Yekaterine. Trudy po russkoj literature XVIII veka [Under Catherine. Works on Russian Literature of the 18th Century]. Moscow, 2021. 462 p. (In Russ.)

29. Uspensky B.A., Zhivov V.M. Tsar’ i Bog [The Tsar and God (Semiotic Aspects of the Sacralisation of the Monarch in Russia)]. Uspensky, B.A. Izbrannye trudy v 2 t. [Selected Works in 2 Vols.]. 2nd ed., Reworked. Moscow, 1996, Vol. 1, pp. 205–337. (In Russ.)

30. Klein, J. Religiya i Prosvescheniye: Oda Derzhavina “Bog” [Religion and Enlightenment: Derzhavin’s Ode “God”]. Klein, J. Puti kulturnogo importa... [Ways of Cultural Import. Works on Russian Literature of the 18th Century]. Moscow, 2005. pp. 489–497. (In Russ.)

31. Gasparov, B.M. Poeticheskij yazyk Pushkina kak fakt russkogo literaturnogo yazyka [Pushkin’s Poetic Language as a Fact of the History of the Russian Literary Language]. Wien, 1992. (In Russ.)

32. Larkovich, D.V. Myth o Napoleone-antikhriste v poeticheskoy retsepsii Derzhavina [The Myth of Napoleon the Antichrist in the Poetic Reception of Derzhavin]. “I vechnij pamatyu dvenadtsatogo goda…” [“And the Eternal Memory of the Twelfth Year...”: Materials of the All-Russian Scientific Conference Dedicated to the 200th Anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812]. Yekaterinburg, 2013, pp. 43–54. (In Russ.)

33. Karamzin, N.M. Polnoye sobraniye stikhotvirinij [Complete Verses]. Moscow, Leningrad, 1966. (In Russ.)

34. Batyushkov, K.N. Sochineniya v 2 t. [Works in 2 Vols]. Moscow. 1989 (In Russ.)

35. Briant, Pierre. Alexandre: “Héros” des Lumières. In: Héroïsme et Lumières. Paris, 2010, pp. 105–115. (In French)

36. Bonnet, Jean-Claude. Naissance du Panthéon. Essay sur le culte des grands hommes. Paris, 1998. (In French)

37. Gukovsky, G.A. K voprosu o russkom klassicizme (sostyazaniya i perevody) [Russian Classicism Revisited (Competitions and Translations)]. Gukovsky, G.A. Rannie raboty po istorii russkoy poezii XVIII veka [Early Works on the History of Russian Poetry of the 18th Century]. Moscow, 2001, pp. 251–276. (In Russ.).

38. Ospovat, K.A. Gosudarstvennaya slovesnost: Lomonosov, Sumarokov i literatutnaya politika I.I. Shuvalova v kontse 1750-kh gg. [State Literature: Lomonosov, Sumarokov and I.I. Shuvalov’s Literary Policy at the End of the 1750s]. Yevropa v Russii [Europe in Russia: Collection of Articles]. Moscow, 2010, pp. 6–65. (In Russ.)