Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - III
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his stubbornness. Pushkin could yield, allow himself to
be won over, compromise, become a patriot of brutality,
— he, never! His friends disappointed and betrayed
him. He continued faithful in friendship. Others were
reconciled to what they hated. He continued faithful
to himself in his hate. The greatness and elevation of
his inner being exposed him ever and again to a fall.
He continued to experience great emotions and to think
freely. He was surrounded by spies, suspected when
he was silent, accused when he spoke, denounced,
slandered, hated, abandoned. He was always far greater
and stronger than his fate. He never bowed the knee
to Baal.
They reviled him for being a poor patriot. He
answered: “I do indeed love my fatherland, but I can
feel no enthusiasm for barbarity. I do not value that
fame which is bought with blood, nor that proud
confidence which relies on bayonets, and least of all in the
glory of the heroes of antiquity.” (The poem “My
Fatherland.”) And a similar outburst of contempt and
disgust for bloody honor ends the masterly battle-piece
“Valerik.” How conventional does not Pushkin appear
in comparison!
The most hidden emotions of Lermontof are revealed
in the collection “Little Conceits and Fancies.”
“They tortured him because he dared to think, stoned
him because he dared to speak; they could make no
answer, and that was the sole cause of their frenzy.”
“But he did not envy them their decorations, nor their
servility by which they were won. They robbed him of
everything except his pride and his courage. He was
on fire for the beautiful, fought for the true. The
others found that to be bad and dangerous. When
liberty is taken from him, long, solitary contemplation
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