L'Europa nello specchio della prima emigrazione russa (1918-1940) by C. Solivetti T. Civjan (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 325 persisted in the tradition of the old faith, before the 'Orthodoxy' which was imposed on them in the seventeenth century. The 'Old Faith'was takenvery seriouslyby Dostoevskii,who in an articleof I862 calledit 'themost important phenomenon in Russianlife, and the best pledge for a betterfuturein Russian life'.Dostoevskii'sinterestextended to the extremesof Russiansectarianism the Flagellantsand the Castrates -nor are these minor themes in hiswriting; they have a symbolicpresence throughout,and it is no coincidence that allhis murderers are connected by allusion and symbol to Russian sectarianism. These are matters for which the student of Dostoevskii needs real help, particularlywhen the unmentioned religiouseccentric Fiodorov has an entry, whereasthe leader of the Flagellants,Danila Filippov(whosename does occur in 7heDevils)is not referencedat all. Most strange of all, in the entry on 7he Brothers Karamazov, the main teachingsof Zosima on adorationof the earthand the doctrineof otherworlds are passed over in complete silence (the doctrine of 'other worlds' was anathematizedby the Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, and 'earth worship'has obvious pagan roots).As a resultthe great spiritualclimax of the novel, Alesha'sepiphany in the monasterygarden, is completelylost. Finally it must be said that the proofreading leaves much to be desired. Among other slips Makar Dolgorukii is referred to as Makar Devushkin (p. 422). Turgenev'sNotesofa Hunter becomes Notesofa Hunger (p. 443) and in a felicitous slip, rather than a cloud, 'a great could of uncertainty' remains over Raskol'nikov'smotivations (p. 74). Having said this, there is a great deal of valuable information here, even though it is not so much an encyclopedia as a usefulhandbook. Department ofRussian Studies RICHARD PEACE University ofBristol Solivetti, C. and Civjan, T. (eds). L'Europa nellospecchio dellaprimaemigrazione russa(1918-1940). EuropaOrientalis, 22, 2o03, 2. University of Salerno, Salerno, 2004. 397 pp. Notes. Appendix. Priceunknown. THIS special issue of the Salerno-basedjournal drawson the proceedings of a conference held in Rome in the late autumn of 2000, bringing together a group of twenty-two scholars, roughly half of them Italian and half Russian. With one exception they write in Russian. Carla Solivetti's introduction (pp. 9-I 4), which for some reason has escaped mention in the book's list of contents, deftly summarizes all the contributions. Most of them revolve around definitions of national identity as articulatedin various kinds of high literarytext. No attention-seekingbig idea or unitarymethodology has been urged upon the contributors,and there is little trace of theory blight;instead, there is a good deal of clunky quotation and paraphrase that can be as offputting as severe cases of it. And there seems to have been no post-conference revision of the contributions,tojudge by the way they sometimes referto the same subjectbut not to each other.The absence of an index to the whole book imposes a furtherself-inflictedresistanceto searchability.All this being said, though, there is much of interesthere for studentsof Russia Outside Russia. 326 SEER, 83, 2, 2005 The contributions are arranged in chronological order of their topic's principal focus. Though the titles seem to promise a broad spectrum of specificity, the collection in fact comes down to a series of narrowlyfocused empirical studies. In the title of the lead article (pp. 15-20), Nikita Struve refersto 'the meeting between the firstRussian emigration and Europe', but what transpiresis a perfunctoryassessmentof a few well-knownencountersin Paris between Russian and French religious-minded intellectuals, with Berdiaev looming large. In the title of their joint piece (pp. 145-70), Dr Solivetti and M. Paolinireferto the 'paradigms'of exile (izgnanie) and mission (poslannichestvo) in the emigration, but what we actually get is a descriptive account of the fugitivepamphlet, Chto delat'russkoi emigratsii? (Paris, 1930) that focuses largely on the contribution of Zinaida Gippius (but does not crossreference a contradictoryfootnote on this same subject on pp. 90-9I). The only essay here in Italian, Michaela Bohmig's 'Ancorasull'emigrazionerussa' (pp. 299-320), would appear from its title to be a general study, but it is in fact a book review discussing five substantial recent publications, of which short titles will be listed here:A. Burchard,Klubsderrussischen Dichter inBerlin I920-I94i; G.-B. Kohler, BorisdeSchloezer (I88I-I969); M. Litavrina,Russkj teatral'nyjPariz...