The Maker of Martyrs: Narrative Form and Political Resistance in Ryleev's “Voinarovskii”

Abstract

This essay examines the synergy of narrative form and political function in Ryleev's last and best completed narrative poem, “Voinarovskii” (1824). The poem is designed to foment rebellion, to persuade readers to fight tyranny even in the face of failure and certain death. To recruit self‐sacrificing fighters for the cause of freedom, Ryleev creates a sophisticated narrative apparatus, a chain of conversion narratives where one martyr recruits another in perpetuity. While representing his characters’ conversions, Ryleev also strives to engulf his readers in this “chain reaction.”“Voinarovskii” unfolds in a series of nested narrative frames, where each frame contains a story of a character's conversion to freedom's cause; each story helps convert another character in the next frame. The poem's beginning and ending are designed to blur the boundary between characters’ and readers’ lives. They invite readers to emulate the poem's characters and add a story of their own transformation to the “chain reaction” of conversions, which can continue indefinitely, thanks to framed narrative's inherent expandability. Potentially endless replication of conversion narratives creates a sense that the community of rebels transcends time and death; fallen heroes are vicariously reborn in the next generation. This narrative effect gives readers a powerful psychological incentive to join the community of selfless fighters, promising them a symbolic victory over death. Ryleev's aspiration to transform readers into martyrs for freedom may seem hopelessly naïve; however, reader responses, particularly testimonies of revolutionary radicals such as Vera Zasulich and Nikolai Ogarev, suggest that the poet succeeded beyond probable expectation. By exploiting inherent properties of framed narrative (its potential to blur the boundary between life and art and its capacity to expand indefinitely), Ryleev created an effective instrument of political propaganda, a tool for keeping the spirit of resistance alive despite defeat until, for better or for worse, revolution could finally succeed.