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“The
Bronze Horseman”
(1833)
Pushkin’s
comment on Peter the Great’s project of modernization, a century after
his reign (and eight years after the Decembrist Revolt, the failed
attempt by liberal officers in the army to force the Tsar to accept a
constitutional monarchy.)
Peter’s
Situation: - Threatened
by Islamic peoples in the Russian Southeast and Catholic peoples in the
Russian Northwest, Peter had to act to modernize the military or he
faced the reduction of Russia to a bit player in European power
politics and even the prospect of the eventual dissolution of the
Russian nation. - In
his youth Peter had been schooled in the necessity of exercising terror
in royal power politics. - In
his early manhood, Peter traveled extensively in the European West
where he observed the military might of governments which had achieved
sovereignty within their borders: England’s parliamentary system and
France’s absolutist system had begin their duel for the domination of
world trade. Peter’s
Project: - Modernization
of Russian army and navy - Raising
taxes more efficiently (cutting out the middle men) by rationalizing
the state bureaucracy: creation of a ‘meritocracy’(Table of Ranks) in place of an aristocracy
which rewarded individual initiative over simple blind loyalty. - Creation
of St. Petersburg as the new power center of his empire - Subduing
the church and making it into the ideological arm of the state - Keeping
order through the exercise of terror - Ruthlessly
squeezing the peasantry for the wealth necessary to underpinning the
whole project Peter’s enlightened despotism created St. Petersburg and set Russia on
its particular course of modernization. (A determinist would argue that
this course was the only option.) Peter
made Russia into a player in European power politics by consolidating
the tsar’s power. Peter
opened Russia to the West, to the science of government and high tech
methods of waging war (artillery). However, by opeing Russia to the
West Peter also exposed people to the ideas which drove political
movements with sought to free the nation’s citizens from exploitation
by class. Judgments
of Peter: Westernizers
liked: Rational
organization Opening
Russian thought to Enlightenment science Meritocracy Westernizers
did not like: consolidation
of tyrannical rule unconstrained by law Slavophiles
liked a
strong tsar who improves national security and expands the empire by
building a world class military Slavophiles
did not like: the
weakening of church influence the
opening of the Russian mind to alien ideas (which rushed into the
country like a flood). the
tightening grip of the autocracy The St. Petersburg Flood of 1824:
November
19, 1824 The Neva flooded 13.5 feet over the flood level. 462 house
were destroyed and 569 people were killed. The floods resulted from
poor planning in the initial design of the city. The city had flooded
over 270 times in the hundred years of its history. This was the
biggest catastrophe. The
poet Karamzin had written a sentimental elegy commemorating the flood.
Pushkin begins The Bronze Horseman with his parody of that poem.
The
Decembrist Uprising (1825)
On
December 14, 1825, the officer corps of the military had gathered at
the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to pledge their loyaly to the new
tsar, Nicholas I. A number of liberal officers, influenced by their
experiences in the West during the Napoleonic Wars, sought to pressure
the tsar into forming a constitutional government based on liberal
conceptions of the rights of the individual and separation of power
between different institutions of government. Tsar Nicholas had loyal
troops fire on the rebels, and the rebellious officers were arrested
and either executed or exiled to Siberia. This abortive rebellion shook Nicholas, and in response he banned all open dissent or criticism of the regime. To enforce his rule, Nicholas formed the Third Section, a secret police which would seek to infiltrate any organized resistance to autocratic rule. By 1828, Nicholas I had recalled Pushkin from exile and made him a favourite at court. Nicholas I served Pushkin as his personal censor and gave the poet access to the historical archives at court. Pushkin wrote many works in different forms that were the result of his work in the archives. He researched the era of Peter the Great and wrote a patriotic poem celebrating the tsar's victory in the Battle of Poltava. He began a novel titled The Negro of Peter the Great in which he explored the life of his famous ancestor Abram Petrovich Gannibal who was a black African that served Peter the Great and was made a noble. Pushkin studied the era of the Pugachev rebellion during Cahterine the Great's reign and wrote a historical novel about the upheavel. So, The Bronze Horseman should be considered in the context of Pushkin's complicated relationship with Nicholas I. Any criticism of the tsar could only be discerned within the sub-text of his poetry and fiction. The
Statue of Peter the Great:
The
famous statue of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg which is the subject
of Pushkin’s poem was commissioned by Catherine the Great as a tribute
to her predecessor and sculpted by the French artist Falconet in 1782.
Falconet depicts Peter on horseback rearing atop a pedestal of red
granite shaped like a cliff. The horse crushes a snake beneath one
hoof. The pedestal is the famous Thunder Stone, claimed by St.
Petersburg legend to be the largest stone ever moved. City legend also
has it that the city will never be conquered while the horseman stands.
During the 900 day siege of Leningrad by the Nazis during the Second
World War, the statue stood in place- protected by sandbags- and
survived unhurt. Close
Reading of Poem
Introduction: The
Idea! (140) Paean
to St. Petersburg (140-142) Part
One Evgeny
the Hero (142-43),
The
Flood of the Neva (143-44) Tsar
Alexander Contemplates the Storm (144) Evgeny
on the Rooftop (145) Part
Two The
Neva Recedes (146) Parasha
is Dead (146-47) Scoundrel
Time (147) Evgeny
Goes Mad. (148) Evgeny
Homeless (148) Accusing
the Bronze Horseman (149-50) The
Statue Comes to Life (150) Evgeny
Drowns in the Neva (151)
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