The image of Peter I in the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva

Abstract

The article discusses the features of the interpretation of the image of Peter I in the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva. Some methods of its creation are characterised. The intersections of Marina Tsvetaeva's concept of personality of Peter the Great with the assessments of the activities of the reformer tsar is presented in the philosophy of Slavophiles, Nikolay Danilevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, as well as in the novel “The Antichrist (Peter and Alexis)” by Dmitry Merezhkovsky and the poem “Russia” by Max Voloshin, and that is revealed in our article. It is shown that when depicting Peter's rule in the cycle “Moscow” Marina Tsvetaeva refracts individual images and motifs borrowed from the painting (“Feodosia Morozova” and “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution” by Vasily Surikov). It is proved that the semantic evolution of the image of Peter I in Marina Tsvetaeva's lyrics fits into the framework of the triad: Peter the Great is the enemy of Moscow (“Poems about Moscow”, “Moscow”); Peter the Great is the Antichrist, guilty of the post-October troubles of Russia (“Peter”); Peter the Great is the “founder” of Alexander Pushkin (“Poems to Pushkin”). It is concluded that such a sharp change in the interpretation of the image of Peter I, which occurred in the cycle “Poems to Pushkin”, testifies not only to an impulsive change in Marina Tsvetaeva's perception of the reformer Tsar’s activity, but also to the poetess's desire to illuminate different facets of this contradictory historical personality.