От гения-творца к гению нации: репрезентация величия в биографиях М.В. Ломоносова

Abstract

Analyzing biographical narratives shows that, in addition to commemorative functions related to individual achievements, biography is involved in the continuous production of values – contributing not only to the preservation of the existing order but to its ongoing modification. This article explores the concept of the “great man” through two main components: as a heroic person (with a history of military and other exploits, demonstrations of courage) and as a genius (a person endowed with exceptional abilities). At the turn from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, the concept of genius in particular reflected new ideas about the scale and significance of the historical person. On the one hand, genius could be understood as a soaring creative spirit (the genius-creator), an individualistic concept; and on the other, as a manifestation of a collective identity, the people (national genius). Lomonosov’s biographies demonstrate such changes in the concept of genius: a transition from French to German cultural influences, from creative individualism to the unity of the nation. Secularization and returns to religion contribute to the ongoing story: in the Soviet era, Lomonosov embodied the creative potential of the people and the nation, but as the status of Orthodoxy changes in the search for a new ideology in twenty-first-century Russia, the great Russian scientist and poet regains a religious aura, reinforced by national and even nationalistic pathos.