Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - IV
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hate, she gave her daughter poison, and when the poison
did not result in death, she went with her to take a bath,
seized her by her long braids of hair, and hurled her out
into the eddies of the stream, where she met with death.
There runs through this poem the attempt to show the
coarse and cruel traits of character in the Great-Russian
race, without sparing the poet’s own countrymen. But
the vices he upbraids them for are the vices of the
oppressed: self-abandonment and cowardice. Thus in
the poem, “Taras’s Night,” the singer narrates for the
Little-Russian youth of the country the achievements of
the great hetman, Taras Triasylo. The circle listen
with tears in their eyes. But immediately after the
listeners begin to sing and dance with happy recklessness.
Then the singer shouts to them, “Lie behind the stove;
it is warm and safe! I will go to the inn and make
jokes about the Poles and Muskovites. Will you go
with me? That you can still do. But you can no
longer have any spirit.”[1]
The history of Russian literature counts martyrs and
apostles in great number. The life of Shevtchenko is a
prolonged martyrdom; among the other great men of
Russia who bore their part of the martyrdom is the
apostle of activity who first attracted the attention of
posterity. A long time imprisoned, twice exiled, and
finally banished, Alexander Ivánovitch Herzen
(1812-1870) is the apostle of the new times for Russia.
He is, as a spirit, among the Russians of this century,
what the year 1848 is among the years of the century.
He is the year 1848 in human form, an incarnation of all
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