Russian Soul Research Articles

YURIY MAMLEEV’S CREATIVE WRITINGS: PHILOSOPHY AND / OR LITERATURE?

The author of the article studies the creative legacy of Yuriy Mamleev, trying to establish the correlation between of his philosophical and fiction writings. The conventional editorial distinction between philosophical and literary texts as different and autonomous categories (where philosophical texts are “The Destiny of Being” and “Eternal Russia”, the rest are fiction) is rejected. Instead of the idea, that philosophical and fictional aspects of texts by Mamleev are inextricably linked, it is claimed that they should be considered together. In the author’s opinion, these texts present different perspectives and implementations of his oeuvre that contains the rational dimension (which requires categorical language of philosophy) and on the other hand – irrational dimension of artistic images and obscure allusions. Mamleev’s writings considered by means of 5 crucial “metathemes”: Аbyss and the “Ultimate relationships” concerned with it, the Mystery which has two levels – one cognizable and the another – uncoognizable in principal, the “root of self-being” and metaphysic (utrism) of “I”, death and immortality, Russia and the Russian soul which are existed between West and East with special historical and cosmological mission. It is concluded that these 5 metathemes pervade all Mamleev’s texts and comprise his spiritual search. The characters of Mamleev’s fiction are mostly people of post-Soviet world, who ask questions with no set answers to become acquainted with the secrets of being. At the same time they are concerned with their own existence, their self destiny. Their actions are extraordinary and illogical. Supposedly Mamleev’s artistic images not only correspond with his philosophical ideas, for instance – utrism or the “Ultimate relationships”, but also reveal them from unexpected perspective. The author determines that distinction between philosophy and literature of Mamleev is incorrect, as these areas are conflated. Any distinction of this kind will ruin the logic of Mamleev’s thinking and outlook. Thus, metaphysical realism (that Mamleev founds) can be viewed as the crossing, distinction blurring area, productive and creative transgression. Or as the situation when philosophy (and literature) is more than it is itself.

“The Russian Lessons” by Johannes Baar, Doctor of Philology

This article describes the personality, life, and work of Johannes Baar (1921–2018), doctor of philology, outstanding person, and organiser of seminars on the Russian and German languages in Germany and Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. The authors describe his biography in historical and social context, the circumstances of his personal life, and his vigorous humanitarian work to strengthen the international relations between Germany and Russia. After going through the gruelling ordeal of World War II and captivity, Baar managed to understand the “mysterious Russian soul” and did everything to restore good relations between the German and Russian peoples. Baar was an extraordinary person with a broad outlook, brilliant erudition, and an ability to gather friends and like-minded people around himself. Baar’s life’s work was to spread the Russian language in Germany. In the tense years of postwar misunderstandings, he bridged the gap between Germany and Russia. Baar’s activity relating to the teaching and popularisation of the Russian language received international recognition. He established the oldest International Russian Seminar in Germany in Timmendorfer Strand, which has been working for 53 years and is known all over Europe.

EARLY RECEPTION OF MAXIM GORKY’S BIOGRAPHICAL MYTH IN ITALY

The article examines the reception of M. Gorky in Italy in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, and the process of his becoming mythologized. Right from the beginning, Italians’ idea of Gorky gets woven into the European myth about Russia, with him epitomizing the Russian soul and blending with the stereotypical Russian landscape. Early Italian reception of Gorky’s autobiography never distinguishes between his life story and creative work: both critics and common readers draw their idea of the Russian author from biographical sketches as well as his own writings, seen as a proof compelling enough to influence critical reviews and biographies devoted to Gorky. On Gorky’s arrival in Italy, his image becomes more nuanced, more details about his life and work come to light, and the press starts printing personal accounts of meetings with him. But the key elements of the Gorky myth survive and keep shaping Italian perceptions of him. It wasn’t until much later that Italians stopped interpreting Gorky through the myth about Russia and the Russian soul.

Unfinished Trials and Sentences

Unfinished Trials and Sentences

Tabachnikova, Olga Russian Irrationalism from Pushkin to Brodsky: Seven Essays in Literature and Thought (review)

SEER, 96, 2, APRIL 2018 328 Tabachnikova, Olga. Russian Irrationalism from Pushkin to Brodsky: Seven Essays in Literature and Thought. Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York, 2015. x + 270 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £65.00. For many decades, right back into the nineteenth-century, there has been a tendency to regard and interpret Russian culture as particularly dichotomous. The Slavophiles and Westernizers and their many descendants are obvious cases in points, and this kind of (perhaps ultimately fruitless) debate continues to the present day, both in Russia and the West (to be dichotomous!). Similarly, from around the same time there has been an endless quest for and endless discussions about the ‘Russian soul’, with emphasis on its unique breadth and capacity for the ideal and the extreme. If one were tempted to think that, as we approach the end of the second decade of the third millennium, such debates would have run their course, then one would be mistaken, as the publication of Olga Tabachnikova’s monograph suggests. In seven chapters of distinctly different lengths, preceded by an Introduction, Tabachnikova makes valiant attempts to nail these particular jellies to the wall, to paraphrase the German metaphor. As she herself acknowledges, her central topic, irrationalism, is both enormous but also very vital and contemporary. She argues that this subject has been extensively covered, but insufficiently systematically: ‘The history of Russian irrationalism and its socio-cultural impact on the life of the country and the outside world are still to be comprehensively studied. This is essential, in particular, for understanding contemporary Russian society and its development, with all the implications of this for the West’ (p. 1). While irrationalism is the presenting topic, there is much else besides: the seven chapters cover such diverse themes as language, Russia and the West, Russian Dreamers, rebellion, nature and culture, and the relationship between the two. Tabachnikova has interesting things to say about all these ideas, and there are penetrating insights aplenty into a very diverse range of writers and thinkers. Indeed, one of the strengths of this work is its enormous scope, with coverage of the medieval period right through, virtually, to the present, although, as the title suggests, the main object of study is the last two hundred years. Her own analyses are based on and underpinned by a huge body of equally diverse research material. The book is well presented as a physical object. Ultimately, however, she is perhaps defeated by the very breadth and scope of the subject matter, as well as other issues, of which there are several to address. The problems start with part of the book’s title (‘from Pushkin to Brodsky’). This implies that the work will be chronological in structure, and based on studies of individual authors and their works. Neither presumption is correct, as each chapter is organized around the abstract concepts mentioned above, and each one covers a variety of authors, in no apparent order. For a work of REVIEWS 329 this scope and seriousness, it is very surprising not to include a Bibliography, so that it is difficult to quickly ascertain exactly which works by which authors have been studied, and which critics and theorists (and which of their works) are most important. As noted, the chapters are of very different lengths, from eight pages (‘Towards the Question of “man of Nature” and “Man of Culture” in Russian Literature’) to sixty-five pages (‘Rebellious Tradition: Russian Literary Laughter, between Poetry and Pain’). While, of course, no volume will have chapters of exactly equal lengths this extremely wide range creates an odd impression, almost as if the book has been compiled a little randomly from what was to hand. Another structural problem is the lack of any Conclusion, so that the work is not properly rounded off. In more technical areas there is no explanation of what transliteration system is being used, nor when transliteration, translation or Cyrillic is to be used for Russian works: this too creates an impression of a certain randomness, and lack of consistency. While the work is generally written in appropriately sophisticated academic language, there are quite a few infelicities that arise from the fact that the author’s...

«...И ОБРЯЩЕТЕ ПОКОЙ ДУШАМ ВАШИМ...». «ВАЛААМСКИЙ ХЛЕБ» РУССКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

The article traces ideological development and integrity of a series of “Valaam” essays as a unique phenomenon of Russian pilgrimage publicistics closely associated with the traditions of domestic spiritual prose. The author focuses on the works, which are almost forgotten today (essays of Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), A. N. Muravyev, N. S. Leskov, V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko et al.). It allows us to get deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Valaam world and spirit, to trace the dynamics of the “restless” Russian soul over the whole century. Valaam essays surely represent the processes of spiritual unrest, finding the ways to faith typical of the Russian literature of this period.

South African Literature's Russian Soul: Narrative Forms of Global Isolation

South African Literature's Russian Soul: Narrative Forms of Global Isolation

«Старый замок» Мусоргского в контексте аналогий и параллелей

In examining Mussorgsky’s piece “The Old Castle” from the suite “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the article draws parallels with various phenomena of world art (mainly, the art of music). Following the logic of intertextual approaches, they expand the scale of the content-related characteristics and elucidate the stylistic foundations. The genuinely national nature of the cycle of “Pictures at an Exhibition” is most evidently embodied in the outer sections of the piece in view of the links with Russian folk songs, Znamenny chant and horn-call compositions from the early 19th century. Its inherent idea – the embodiment, in Dostoevsky’s words, of the universal responsiveness of the Russian soul – is clearly manifested in the depictions from the life of other peoples and cultures. Among the realized analogies with the piece “The Old Castle”, some may seem obvious, others – unexpected. There is the Sicilienne genre, familiar to Russian composers from the 18th century, Wagner’s Tristan chord progression, the “cherishing soul of humanity” (according to Vissarion Belinsky), the theme of unrequited love, recalled from remotely ancient times, one of the novels of Akutagawa, the traditions of the troubadours and Meistersingers of combining through composition and a system of repeats, the principle of converging to sameness, familiar from Schubert’s work, the bar form, the Mugham, the Kuy and other Asian musical styles. All of this, of course, is unlikely to arise in a complex manner in the direct perception of Mussorgsky’s music. But does not the possibility itself of providing so many analogies testify of the rare breadth of his ideas about the world and art? All of this may be evaluated, obviously, from his letters and memoirs, but mainly in the effectiveness of the artistic endeavours, which were apparently carried out spontaneously and intuitively. And is not one of the sources of intertextual, polystylistic and collage-technique inspirations of composers of subsequent generations hidden here? Keywords: Mussorgsky, “The Old Castle,” parallels in art, Richard Wagner, Franz Schubert, Mugham.

Nikolai Berdiaev and the “boundless spaces” of Russia

The article analyses the ways in which the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev understood Russian space and geography, beginning with the texts that he wrote during the First World War and ending with his book The Russian Idea (1946). It was characteristic of Berdiaev to extensively recycle passages from his own texts, not least those that put forth the claim that there was a correspondence between Russia’s vast and wide-open spaces and the “Russian soul.” However, the article argues that Berdiaev’s seemingly similar phrases had different meanings in different contexts. In the 1910s, his perspective was predominantly critical, if speculative, positing that the acquisition of large territories had prevented the Russian “self-organization” in thought and culture. After the 1917 revolutions and his own emigration in 1922, by contrast, Berdiaev gradually became more essentialist in his approach to Russian space, seeing the vast territories as perfectly matching the strivings and quests of the Russian people. The article contextualises Berdiaev’s understanding of space both in relation to nineteenth-century traditions of interpreting Russian geography and to the political upheavals that took place during his lifetime.

Новини сепаратистських інтернет-медіа в інформаційній війні проти України

This article deals with the media policy of terrorist groups, that has become one of the tools of the hybrid warfare in Ukraine. The separatist’s sites rusvesna.su, novorosinform.org, http://antifashist.com and www.dnr-news.com are investigated. The news groups that make up the usual order of the day of the separatist news sites are emphasized: exaggeration of the economic, political, social and other problems in Ukraine; ‘Bloody crimes’ of Ukrainian ‘chasteners’; demoralization of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (suicides, low level of military discipline); the achievements of self-proclaimed republics, separatist’s feats; reports on Russian successes in the economy and foreign policy; US criticism; negative attitude to soldiers and volunteers in Ukraine; negative attitude to the internally displaced people in Ukraine, Russian language, and Christian values.Separatist news sites adhere to common priorities in the selection of topics to cover, some events become more publicized than others. In addition, these sites tend to produce numerous fake news, disseminating completely artificial and non-existent problems. Journalists of separatist’s media are very selective in the picking of events, justifying government policy of the self-proclaimed republics. The separatists openly and aggressively express the Russian political narrative: Russian World, Russian values, Russian soul. The basic principles of journalistic ethics are violated. There is no balance of opinion, the facts are not separated from comments. The activities of separatist’s media are dangerous because they may influence not only the mind but also the behavior of recipients.The Ukrainian society has to improve the culture of news consumption, which is the ability to analytically select, check, compare, evaluate, and decode them. Every citizen has to learn how to interpret, analyze, and evaluate texts, understand their essence, targeted focus, goals, reveal hidden value, and the impact of individual information.

Autotradução e a autobiografia de Nabókov

Este artigo busca explorar a identidade própria de autores em autobiografias autotraduzidas por meio da leitura de textos de Nabókov em duas línguas, apresentados de três formas diferentes com três títulos diversos. A autobiografia de Nabokov é, por um lado, uma tradução dupla, e, por outro, três life writings diferentes. A primeira versão foi escrita em inglês e é intitulada Conclusive evidence. Nela, o autor parece estar tentando prover evidências para seu lugar em uma cultura estrangeira. O segundo livro é a tradução do supracitado, mas feita pelo próprio autor, que teve uma abordagem muito criativa nesse processo, adaptando-o corajosamente a um novo público. Essa versão russa foi intitulada Druguie beregá, e nela Nabókov fala a seus compatriotas sobre sua vida em outras cercanias. O livro não inclui todas as partes da primeira versão, e o autor escolhe informações convenientes para causar efeito sobre o espírito russo. A terceira versão, Speak memory, é a forma mais madura de life writing do autor, e investiga sua identidade em duas línguas, mas com fontes quase idênticas para fomentar seu talento. O artigo analisa as buscas de identidade nas autobiografias de Nabókov, comparando-as onde se faz relevante.

Концепт «душа» в языковой картине мира обучающегося

The article deals with the concept of «soul» from the methodological point of view: the effectiveness of its analysis at the Russian language lessons for the formation of linguistic, communicative and cultural competences in fifth class while studying the topic «Phraseologisms». The author shows that the complex analysis of the concept «soul» forms systemic thinking among pupils effectively and also teaches them to use the communicative and aesthetic means of the Russian language. The author emphasized that attention to the fact that it is important to explain to pupils the «mysterious Russian soul» in the perception of foreigners, because in their languages there's not so much meanings of the word «soul»

Vladislav Solotarjow and the Russian way of playing the accordion: a case study

Abstract Name: Elisa van Kesteren Research supervisor: Stefan Petrovic Title of the Research: The Russian way of playing the accordion: a case study related to the Chambersuite of Vladislav Solotarjow Research question: Does the Russian way of playing the bayan exist and if so, how can I achive this in my own artistic practice? Summary of the results: Russian music is very particular. Through the centuries of this huge country’s history, art has always been of great importance, no matter what the political situation was. The world still honors their cultural heritage, their literature, dance and music. Russian music has always touched and inspired me so it was obvious to specialize during my master in this subject. Becoming myself a performing musician I wanted to investigate what this Russian music is about. What are the characteristics and how do Russian performers play? I wanted to get as close as possible to the ‘Russian way of playing’. Focusing on Vladislav Solotarjow’s ‘Chambersuite’ or ‘Sentimental pieces to Alexander Blok’, made me develop my Russian way of playing. I have done this through listening, analyzing and comparing recordings, from Mika Vayrynen a Scandinavian bayanist and one of Russia’s most important bayanists Friedrich Lips and making my own recordings. This research has proved to me that the Russians play very expressive, with a lot of passion and freedom. Both their music and their instrument are very colorful. I have achieved many of these characteristics in my own playing, even adding my own personal style to it in the end. Only the colorfulness of sound was still missing sometimes. Wondering about my technique and musical decisions, I took the chance to compare the two instruments with each other. My accordion built in Western Europe (Castelfidardo, Italy) versus the Russian-built Bayan (Moscow). It was really helpful to investigate the history of the instrument, the history of Russia and their music in order to get as close as possible to the Russian way of playing. Furthermore, reading about Solotarjow’s life, analysing his composition and listening to different recordings, greatly improved my understanding of this music. These things have helped me to develop my artistic practice. The part of the research that directly involved my artistic practice has been of great value for me. It has enriched my expressive pallet by including more freedom in my playing in many different aspects. I have concluded that it is possible to achieve the Russian way of playing. I have also found that besides having background information about the history of the country, knowledge about the composer and the composition, it is important to have or to imagine the Russian soul. Next to this, it is also important to be open to a different way of playing. A way of playing that might be unfamiliar to a performer. Biography: My name is Elisa van Kesteren and was born in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. I started playing the accordion at the age of eight. After graduating for the Bachelor Degree here at the Royal Conservatory in 2014, I continued studying with An Raskin and will graduate for the Master degree this year. I am a member of the very recently founded accordion ensemble “The Blackboxes”, have a great interest for Russian but also contemporary music and teach at the moment in various music schools.

Patterns of Prejudice from Henri Massis to Walter Bedell Smith

Astolphe de Custine’s collection of letters La Russie en 1839, first published in France in 1843, was rediscovered by Henri Massis in 1946. Massis re-introduced Custine’s by then long forgotten letters on Russia to the French public. Once American Cold Warriors such as George Kennan and General Walter Bedell-Smith discovered the book, they promptly promoted it to the status of the most prophetic book on the “Russian soul.” Denounced as “fictional,” by many nineteenth-century writers and by a host of twentieth-century scholars, Custine’s book was accepted as canonical by a large reading public and, more importantly, by successive generations of us policy makers. This article contributes to the historiography of Cold War propaganda by looking first at the context in which the book was initially resurrected by Massis, and then by analyzing the ways in which Cold War propaganda constructed its “relevance,” “actuality” and “prophetic” character. The article begins by taking a look at the way in which Massis, the first popularizer of the book, fitted it into his own ideological pattern. In a second movement, the article analyzes the ways in which the book functioned in the post-wwii ideological context, seeking to discover if the alleged relevance of the book had anything to do with the survival into the postwar world of the European Right’s interwar tangle of received ideas and patterns of prejudice.

Turysta w poszukiwaniu domu: tożsamość ponowoczesna w „Encyklopedii duszy rosyjskiej” Wiktora Jerofiejewa

This article investigates the issue of postmodern identity in Victor Erofeev’s Encyclopaedia of the Russian Soul with reference to Zygmunt Bauman’s thoughts on liquid modernity. The narrator of the novel can be seen as a tourist in search of a home as his attempts to define his individual identity are deeply connected with the need to find the Russian Idea.

Ivan Bunin and Russian Revolution: From Russian Soul to Eternal Presence

Ivan Bunin and Russian Revolution: From Russian Soul to Eternal Presence

Pierre Pascal et la mentalité russe pendant la Première Guerre mondiale

Pierre Pascal : Russian mentality in the context of First World War events. The paper analyzes Pierre Pascal’s Memoirs with a focus on World War I, the Russian Empire and military action. Pascal spent time in his Memoirs not only analyzing current events, but also pondering the intricacies of the Russian soul, attempting to understand a country he loved and the Russian people suffering during this war. His “ Russian Memoirs ” are a kind of literary monument to Russia, a country that was deeply convulsed by war and revolution ; they are an invaluable source for the intellectual history of that period.

Are you a dissident? Art and diplomacy - two encounters

Although his background was in science, the ambassador reminded me that, because he was a Russian, art and poetry were deeply, deeply rooted in his psyche. It followed that he knew well the Moscow writers’ centre, the Gorkiy Institute, which I had visited with the poets Ian Wedde and Tusiata Avia a few months earlier. (We had stood in the room where Mayakovsky made his last public address, and beside the desk where he wrote some of his greatest verse...) Not far from Red Square, the Gorkiy Institute is a part of the Russian soul, he said, just as literature and art are. A Russian can never be a stranger to poetry.

The Phenomenon of "Russian Soul" as a Reflection of Traditional Russian Conservatism: New Theoretical and Methodological Approaches and Ordinary Perception of Conservatism

The modernization changes happening in Russia since the beginning of the 90th of the XX century designated deep division of society and power. The wave of public performances, which is lasting since December 2011 and decreased, but completely did not disappear now in Russia, found a certain extent of misunderstanding and mutual distrust. The special role in the course of formation consolidating society spiritually – moral and socially - political bases is allocated for conservatism as conservative function of the state consists in association of the people in social space, and involvement of social thought of apologists of the Russian conservatism allows to carry out this association. Traditional Russian conservatism is considered as essential part mysterious "the Russian soul" that defines life of the Russian person both in the native environment (Anisimov & Gulyaihin, 2013; Karabulatova, Koyche & Gultyaev, 2013; Karabulatova & Polivara, 2013; Karabulatova, Sayfulina & Akhmetova, 2013 & Karabulatova & Akhmetova 2015). The phenomenon of "mysterious Russian soul" is known as a hackneyed stamp, a stereotype around the world, causing firm interest from residents of the countries and the West and East. Authors believe, that existing "scissors" in perception of mentality of the Russian people are the starting mechanism for the distorted portrait of Russians, but also influence a choice of the preferred strategy and tactics in communication with Russians therefore both parties sustain losses of the material and moral plan. The authors provided analysis of existing concepts and concluded to megalocephaly and poly aspartate Russian conservatism as such. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s3p113

Folk Elements in Aleksei Balabanov’s Brat and Brat 2: A Morphological Analysis

Abstract The article uses Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale (Морфолоƨuя сказкu, 1928) as a framework to illustrate the way in which Aleksei Balabanov masterfully creates a modern folk tale using classic motifs and structures in his 1997 film Brother (Браm, Russia) and its sequel Brother 2 (Браm 2, Russia, 2000). The paper argues that Brother and Brother 2 are post-Soviet retellings of classic tales of Russian folklore and that Danila is a modern hero, an unlikely saviour of the Russian nation and the Russian soul. Danila’s journey is formulaic, predictable and straightforward, yet nevertheless makes for a powerfully new take on concepts of Russian nationalism and heroism. The underworld to which our hero must journey is located in the heart of Russia’s ‘Peter’, and possession of the Russian nation and soul are the object of his quest in the volatile post-Soviet period.