History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev
Encyclopedia
History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev (История Государства Российского от Гостомысла до Тимашева) is a parody poem in 83 verses by the Russian
poet
and dramatist Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
, written in 1868
. Banned by censors and published for the first time only in 1883
(by Russkaya starina), eight years after the author's death, it became one of the best known examples of political satire in the XIX century Russia, popular with Russian intellectuals of many generations.
nor a Westernizer
, but shared certain views of each camp, admiring both the Western-type constitutional monarchy and the Kievan Rus' period in Russian history, seeing the latter as heroic and progressive. Unlike the Slavophiles, though, he held the Varangian influence in the earliest period of Russian history as beneficial and abhorred the era of Moscow's rise which led to the centralised Russian state and the Tatar
yoke which he regarded to be the cause of all Russian woes. All in all, Tolstoy was repelled by the whole of the Russia's history down to and including his own times.
The History of the Russian State was written in 1868. Later researchers argued it might have been inspired by the two poems published in the anthology Russian Hidden Literature of the XIX Century (1861), compiled by Nikolay Ogarev
in London, one being "The Fairytale", another – "As Our Novgorod the Great..." (the latter by Mikhail Dmitriev). Karamzin's History also served, apparently, as the inspiration. Tolstoy himself made no attempt of publishing the piece. The manuscript circulated privately between 1868, when it was completed, and 1883, when it first appeared in print.
(February 7, November 3, 1869) and M.Stasyulevich (May 20, November 12 of the same year) he used the title History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev which was deem the full one and was used in all of the XX century's publications.
The quality of the poem's very first publication (an of the few that followed) was very much flawed and full of mistakes many of which were corrected in the next two issues #12, 1868, and #1 1869 of Russkaya Starina. An article in Novoye Vremya (#2780) by M.V-n (Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov) also made some amends. Nevertheless in 1884 the poem was published in Berlin, or, rather, re-printed without taking any of these corrections into consideration. In 1907 the poem featured in the first edition of The Complete A.K.Tolstoy (Volume 1, pp. 465–477). P.N.Bykov who compiled it, took the Russkaya Starina text, saw through the #12, 1868, corrections and ignored all others - of Zhemchuzhnikov's article he, apparently, was altogether ignorant. The process of the restoration of the original text continued for decades. The version that featured in the 1937 edition of Complete A.K.Tolstoy is considered to be the ultimate one and it's been use in all the following Russian publications.
. Here there is little glorification of the Kievan era and the coming of the Varangians to Rus is reated frivolously and tongue in cheek. According to William Harkins, the poem should be regarded "as an important work by an author who has a very substantial claim to be regarded as Russia's leading humorous poet, and not as a serious or entirely consistent statemen of definite ideological position".
The poem (of 83 four-line verses) begins with a short extract from Nestor
's Chronicle (page 8): "Our land is vast and abundant, one thing it lacks is order". The phraze, forming half of Verse 1 (Poslu′shaite rebyata/Tchto vam rasska′zhet ded/Zemlya nasha boga′ta/Porya′dka v nei lish net. - Now take a listen children/What grand-dad's have to say/Our land is rich. The Order / Is one thing that it lacks) and is repeated many times later, in a manner of a refrain.
In verses 2-6 Russia's forefathers (Gostomysl
, actually, never mentioned), having noticed the fact (as expressed by Nestor) make a decision to bring Varangians in, to face the task of bringing order to the rich lands of Russia. Verses 7-8 see three brothers, after a short consideration (Varya′gam stalo zhutko/No dumayut: Tchto zh tut?/Popytka ved' ne shutka/Poydyom koli zovut. - Varyags got duly frightened/But then they said: so what?/Lets have a try, for sure/Lets go once we're being called!) arrive at the scene. The account of Ryurik and then Igor, Oleg
, Olga
and Svaytoslav
's deeds (verses 9-14) is marked by the "macaronic" (as W.Hoskins describes it) use of the German language
(set to remind the reader of the newcomer's Western origins): Nu, dumayut, komanda/Zdes nogu slomit tchort/Es ist je eine Shande/Wir mussen wieder fort. - Oh dear, what a fix, they think, here devil will break his leg/It is a shame, and we gotta get out of here! (Ryurik and his team's first impression of the place).
After Svaytoslav, Vladimir came: "Da endigte fur immer/Die alte Religion" ("Then came an end to the old religion..."), his rationale related in Russian: Perun uzh otchen gadok/Kogda yego spikhnyom/Uvidite, poryadok/Kakoi my zavedyom (Perun, you see, is too loathsome. You just see what an Order we'll have once we dethrone him!). Vladimir dies ("of grief, having failed to bring Order", according to Verse 20) and the Yaroslav the Wise marches in: coming close to bringing order, he ends up with cutting up all land – merely "out of love for children" (Verse 21).
Next part of his History attests to Tolstoy's willingness to suppress the personal political antipathies of his own and be historically objective. A loather of Mongol's Yoke, here he makes a point to describe the enemy's advent (who explain themselves rationally: Ot vashego, mol, spora/Zemlya poshla vverkh dnom/Postoyte-zh, my vam skoro/Poryadok zavedyom. - Your never ending disputes/Made land turn upside down/ Now just you see, how soon we'll bring you Order. - Verse 24.) in neutral and somewhat jovial manner keeping all the bile for the Russian local leaders, quick to report one on another to foreign masters (Verse 26).
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Ivan III frees Russians from the occupation but still brings none of the long sought-after Order about, with Ivan IV stepping in. Here Tolstoy's reserve becomes even more apparent: the Terrible's era (which always horrified the author) is being depicted in a tone more ironic than hostile (Ivan Vasilyich Grozny/Emu byl imyarek/Za to shto byl seryo′zny/Solidny tchelovek. - Ivan Vasillich had the Terrible/For an assumed name/For the reason of him being a serious, a solid kind of man). The author gives Tzar Ivan credit of sorts for being an intelligent ruler and for coming rather close to achieving the historical aim: Priyo′mami ne sladok/No razumom ne khrom/Takoi zavyol poryadok/Hot' pokati sharom (With methods not exactly sweet/But surely not lame in the brain/He's brought such kind of order/T'was like you'd roll the ball. - Verse 31.) The anti-idyll ends (Zhit' mozhno bi bespetchno/Pri etakom tzare/No ah! Nichto ne vetchno/Y tzar Ivan umre. - One's life'd be rather carefree/With such kind of tzar/But ah! No thing's eternal/And Tzar Ivan, he died) and in comes Tzar Fyodor
, his father's antypode, "quick not in wits, but words" (...Byl razumom ne bodor/trezvo′nit lish gorazd. - Verse 33.)
Then came Tzar Boris
whose major claims to virtue, according to the author, were "serious intelligence", "good looks" and "being a brunette" (Verse 34) and after him The Impostor
(Samozvanets) with a girl
: Y, na Borisa mesto/Vzobravshys, sei nahal/Ot radosti s nevestoi/Nogami zaboltal. - And, at the Boris' place this guy and his fiance climbed/So happy with themselves, they, legs a-dangling, sat. - Verse 37) The Poles upstarted, got driven of, and Vasiliy
came up throne only to be asked "by all the land to instantly come off" which led to another invasion of the Poles who this time brought cossacks with them: Kazaki y polyaki/Nas paki byut y paki/my’zh bez tzarya kak raki/Goryuem na meli. - "The Cossack and the Poles/They beat us again and again/And without Tzar we’re very down/Like crawfish out of depth"). Minin and Pozharsky
emerge to drive the Poles away, and Mikhail
get up on throne, still bringing none of the Order expected: Varshava nam y Vilna/Prislali svoi privet/Zemlya byla obylna/Poryadka-zh net kak net (Both Warsaw
and Vilno/Have sent us their hello's/The land, it was abundant/With the Order being missed. - Verse 47).
Tzar Aleksey's mission, apparently, was to give birth to Pyotr, and that was when "new times have come to our State", for "Tzar Pyotr indeed loved discipline/Almost like Tzar Ivan" (Tzar Pyotr lyubil poryadok/Pochti kak Tzar Ivan... - Verse 48). In search of it, having chosen Amsterdam
for his port of call, he's shaven the nations' beards off, "dressed all of us up as Hollanders" and indeed maintained a certain kind of discipline which promptly vanished with his death (Verse 55).
After that "several tzars were ruling, and even more of queens" (Verse 56), Anna
and ('a true genderme') Biron
getting a brief mention. The often quoted Verse 58 provides succinct overview of the most carefree period in post-Peter Russia: Vesyo′laya tsaritza/Byla Yelisavet/Poyo′t y veseli′tsa/Poryadka tolko net. - A merry kind of queen was Queen Elisavet/She she sings, she's having fun/And yet the Order's nil.)
With Yekaterina's epoch the first French phrases creep up into the text. Voltair and Diderot
advice the Russian Queen to grant freedoms to her people and this way maintain Order, but... Messieurs, - im vozrazila/Ona, - vous me comblez/Y to′tchas prikrepi′la/Ukraintsev k zemle. - Messieurs, she retorted/You are being too kind to me/And instantly she fastened Ukrainians
to land.)
After Pavel I
(the one of the Maltese Order, but with "un-knightly ways") Alexander I
came, a man of "week nerves, but gentle manners" whose way of reacting to Napoleon
's 1812 advance was a polite retreat. Kaza′losya, nu nizhe/Nelzya sidet v dyre/An glyad', uzh my v Parizhe/S Louis le Desire. - It seemed, a deeper hole to dwell/Would be hard task to find/Then lo! We are in Paris/ With Louis le Desire
) This jubilant point in history sees "Russia's colours florishing", its land being abundant, but Order still nowhere in sight (Verse 67).
The reason for taking his tale to an abrupt end Tolstoy explains in Verse 68: Posle′dnee skaza′nye/Ya’b napisal moyo/No tchayu nakazanye,/Boyus monsier Veillot. (I would have written the final part of my tale, but expect punishment, and the one who frightens me is monsier Veillot), the latter being the head of a Russian Interior Ministry's Postal Department, with the right to use perlustration
. And it was Verse 68 that's made Tolstoy's poem relevant for all the latter times of the Russian history: Hodit' byva′yet sklizko/Po ka′meshkam inym/Itak, o tom tchto blizko/My lutche umoltchim. - Some cobbles may prove slippery once being stepped on by/So of the things that are close to us we'd rather keep mouths shut.)
Tolstoy ends his poem with a sarcastic paean to the Aleksander II
's cabinet ministers, picturing them as a bunch of children sleighing down the snowy slope. Of them he names just eight, for - Ikh mnogo, otchen mnogo/Pripo′mnit vsekh nelzya/Y vniz odnoy dorogoi/Letyat oni, skolzya. (There's much, so very much of them, one wouldn’t recall their names/And going down and down they slide by just one single track.) The poem ends with Tolstoy's preposterously humble address to the Interior Minister Aleksander Timashev imploring the latter to, first, introduce the now almost mythical Order thing to his land, but also to "re-write and correct, for truth's sake" whatever the author might have put wrong in his tale. Mentioning Nestor the Chronicler again and slipping totally into parodying the latter's style, Tolstoy concludes: Sosta′vyl ot byli′nok/Rasskaz nemudry sei/Hudyi smirenny inok/Rab bozhy Aleksei. (Compiled from small bylinas/This quite unwise account/One skinny humble inok
/God's slave, named Aleksey. - Verse 83).
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and dramatist Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy , was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist...
, written in 1868
1868 in literature
The year 1868 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*First edition of the World Almanac is published.*Emile Zola defends his criticized first novel against charges of pornography and corruption of morals....
. Banned by censors and published for the first time only in 1883
1883 in literature
The year 1883 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Phantom Fortune*Rhoda Broughton - Belinda*Wilkie Collins - Heart and Science*Jonas Lie - Familien paa Gilje ...
(by Russkaya starina), eight years after the author's death, it became one of the best known examples of political satire in the XIX century Russia, popular with Russian intellectuals of many generations.
Background
The poem comes from a time when Aleksey K. Tolstoy was greatly concerned with Russian history and its meanin for the age in which he lived. As W.E.Harkins pointed out, Tolstoy was neither a SlavophileSlavophile
Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...
nor a Westernizer
Westernizer
Westernizers were a group of 19th century intellectuals who believed that Russia's development depended upon the adoption of Western European technology and liberal government. In their view, western ideas such as industrialisation needed to be implemented throughout Russia in order to make it a...
, but shared certain views of each camp, admiring both the Western-type constitutional monarchy and the Kievan Rus' period in Russian history, seeing the latter as heroic and progressive. Unlike the Slavophiles, though, he held the Varangian influence in the earliest period of Russian history as beneficial and abhorred the era of Moscow's rise which led to the centralised Russian state and the Tatar
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
yoke which he regarded to be the cause of all Russian woes. All in all, Tolstoy was repelled by the whole of the Russia's history down to and including his own times.
The History of the Russian State was written in 1868. Later researchers argued it might have been inspired by the two poems published in the anthology Russian Hidden Literature of the XIX Century (1861), compiled by Nikolay Ogarev
Nikolay Ogarev
Nikolay Platonovich Ogarev , was a Russian poet, historian and political activist. He was deeply critical of the limitations of the Emancipation of the Serfs claiming that the serfs were not free but had simply exchanged one form of serfdom for another.Ogarev was a fellow-exile and collaborator of...
in London, one being "The Fairytale", another – "As Our Novgorod the Great..." (the latter by Mikhail Dmitriev). Karamzin's History also served, apparently, as the inspiration. Tolstoy himself made no attempt of publishing the piece. The manuscript circulated privately between 1868, when it was completed, and 1883, when it first appeared in print.
History
The poem was published for the first time by the Russkaya Starina magazine (1883 November issue, pp. 481–496) as The History of the Russian State from Gostomysl. 862-1868. As for to the poem's exact title there was no certainty: Tolstoy himself in his letters referred to it differently: "L'historie de Russie", "L'historie de Russie jusqu'a Timashev", "The History of Russia". At least four times - in letters to Boleslav MarkevichBoleslav Markevich
Boleslav Mikhailovich Markevich 1884, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian writer, essayist, journalist, and literary critic of Polish origin; author of a number of popular novels, including: Marina of the Aluy Rog , A Quarter of a Century Ago , The Turning Point and The Void .-Biography:Boleslav...
(February 7, November 3, 1869) and M.Stasyulevich (May 20, November 12 of the same year) he used the title History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev which was deem the full one and was used in all of the XX century's publications.
The quality of the poem's very first publication (an of the few that followed) was very much flawed and full of mistakes many of which were corrected in the next two issues #12, 1868, and #1 1869 of Russkaya Starina. An article in Novoye Vremya (#2780) by M.V-n (Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov) also made some amends. Nevertheless in 1884 the poem was published in Berlin, or, rather, re-printed without taking any of these corrections into consideration. In 1907 the poem featured in the first edition of The Complete A.K.Tolstoy (Volume 1, pp. 465–477). P.N.Bykov who compiled it, took the Russkaya Starina text, saw through the #12, 1868, corrections and ignored all others - of Zhemchuzhnikov's article he, apparently, was altogether ignorant. The process of the restoration of the original text continued for decades. The version that featured in the 1937 edition of Complete A.K.Tolstoy is considered to be the ultimate one and it's been use in all the following Russian publications.
Poem
History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev was less ideological and serious than Zmei Tugarin (1867), its immediate predecessor, with its dire prophecy of the downfall of Russia brought on by the TatarsTatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
. Here there is little glorification of the Kievan era and the coming of the Varangians to Rus is reated frivolously and tongue in cheek. According to William Harkins, the poem should be regarded "as an important work by an author who has a very substantial claim to be regarded as Russia's leading humorous poet, and not as a serious or entirely consistent statemen of definite ideological position".
The poem (of 83 four-line verses) begins with a short extract from Nestor
Nestor the Chronicler
Saint Nestor the Chronicler was the reputed author of the Primary Chronicle, , Life of the Venerable Theodosius of the Kiev Caves, Life of the Holy Passion Bearers, Boris and Gleb, and of the so-called Reading.Nestor was a monk of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev from 1073...
's Chronicle (page 8): "Our land is vast and abundant, one thing it lacks is order". The phraze, forming half of Verse 1 (Poslu′shaite rebyata/Tchto vam rasska′zhet ded/Zemlya nasha boga′ta/Porya′dka v nei lish net. - Now take a listen children/What grand-dad's have to say/Our land is rich. The Order / Is one thing that it lacks) and is repeated many times later, in a manner of a refrain.
In verses 2-6 Russia's forefathers (Gostomysl
Gostomysl
Gostomysl is a legendary 9th-century posadnik of Novgorod who was introduced into the historiography by Vasily Tatishchev, an 18th-century historian. Gostomysl's rule is associated with the confederation of Northern tribes, which was formed to counter the Varangian threat in the mid-9th century...
, actually, never mentioned), having noticed the fact (as expressed by Nestor) make a decision to bring Varangians in, to face the task of bringing order to the rich lands of Russia. Verses 7-8 see three brothers, after a short consideration (Varya′gam stalo zhutko/No dumayut: Tchto zh tut?/Popytka ved' ne shutka/Poydyom koli zovut. - Varyags got duly frightened/But then they said: so what?/Lets have a try, for sure/Lets go once we're being called!) arrive at the scene. The account of Ryurik and then Igor, Oleg
Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the early 10th century....
, Olga
Olga of Kiev
Saint Olga , or Olga the Beauty, hypothetically Old Norse: Helga In some Scandinavian sources she was called other name. born c. 890 died 11 July 969, Kiev) was a ruler of Kievan Rus' as regent Saint Olga , or Olga the Beauty, hypothetically Old Norse: Helga In some Scandinavian sources she was...
and Svaytoslav
Sviatoslav I of Kiev
Sviatoslav I Igorevich ; , also spelled Svyatoslav, was a prince of Rus...
's deeds (verses 9-14) is marked by the "macaronic" (as W.Hoskins describes it) use of the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(set to remind the reader of the newcomer's Western origins): Nu, dumayut, komanda/Zdes nogu slomit tchort/Es ist je eine Shande/Wir mussen wieder fort. - Oh dear, what a fix, they think, here devil will break his leg/It is a shame, and we gotta get out of here! (Ryurik and his team's first impression of the place).
After Svaytoslav, Vladimir came: "Da endigte fur immer/Die alte Religion" ("Then came an end to the old religion..."), his rationale related in Russian: Perun uzh otchen gadok/Kogda yego spikhnyom/Uvidite, poryadok/Kakoi my zavedyom (Perun, you see, is too loathsome. You just see what an Order we'll have once we dethrone him!). Vladimir dies ("of grief, having failed to bring Order", according to Verse 20) and the Yaroslav the Wise marches in: coming close to bringing order, he ends up with cutting up all land – merely "out of love for children" (Verse 21).
Next part of his History attests to Tolstoy's willingness to suppress the personal political antipathies of his own and be historically objective. A loather of Mongol's Yoke, here he makes a point to describe the enemy's advent (who explain themselves rationally: Ot vashego, mol, spora/Zemlya poshla vverkh dnom/Postoyte-zh, my vam skoro/Poryadok zavedyom. - Your never ending disputes/Made land turn upside down/ Now just you see, how soon we'll bring you Order. - Verse 24.) in neutral and somewhat jovial manner keeping all the bile for the Russian local leaders, quick to report one on another to foreign masters (Verse 26).
Feodor I of Russia
Fyodor I Ivanovich 1598) was the last Rurikid Tsar of Russia , son of Ivan IV and Anastasia Romanovna. In English he is sometimes called Feodor the Bellringer in consequence of his strong faith and inclination to travel the land and ring the bells at churches. However, in Russian the name...
, his father's antypode, "quick not in wits, but words" (...Byl razumom ne bodor/trezvo′nit lish gorazd. - Verse 33.)
Then came Tzar Boris
Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c. 1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.-Early years:...
whose major claims to virtue, according to the author, were "serious intelligence", "good looks" and "being a brunette" (Verse 34) and after him The Impostor
False Dmitriy I
False Dmitriy I was the Tsar of Russia from 21 July 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dimitriy Ioannovich . He is sometimes referred to under the usurped title of Dmitriy II...
(Samozvanets) with a girl
Marina Mniszech
Marina Mniszech Marina Mniszech Marina Mniszech (Polish: Maryna Mniszchówna or Maryna Mniszech; Russian: Марина Мнишек (Marina Mnishek); also known as "Marinka the witch" in Russian folklore; c...
: Y, na Borisa mesto/Vzobravshys, sei nahal/Ot radosti s nevestoi/Nogami zaboltal. - And, at the Boris' place this guy and his fiance climbed/So happy with themselves, they, legs a-dangling, sat. - Verse 37) The Poles upstarted, got driven of, and Vasiliy
Vasili IV of Russia
Vasili IV of Russia was Tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610 after the murder of False Dmitriy I. His reign fell during the Time of Troubles....
came up throne only to be asked "by all the land to instantly come off" which led to another invasion of the Poles who this time brought cossacks with them: Kazaki y polyaki/Nas paki byut y paki/my’zh bez tzarya kak raki/Goryuem na meli. - "The Cossack and the Poles/They beat us again and again/And without Tzar we’re very down/Like crawfish out of depth"). Minin and Pozharsky
Dmitry Pozharsky
For the ship of the same name, see Sverdlov class cruiserDmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky was a Rurikid prince, who led Russia's struggle for independence against Polish-Lithuanian invasion known as the Time of Troubles...
emerge to drive the Poles away, and Mikhail
Michael of Russia
Mikhail I Fyodorovich Romanov Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov was the first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov. He was the son of Feodor Nikitich Romanov and Xenia...
get up on throne, still bringing none of the Order expected: Varshava nam y Vilna/Prislali svoi privet/Zemlya byla obylna/Poryadka-zh net kak net (Both Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and Vilno/Have sent us their hello's/The land, it was abundant/With the Order being missed. - Verse 47).
Tzar Aleksey's mission, apparently, was to give birth to Pyotr, and that was when "new times have come to our State", for "Tzar Pyotr indeed loved discipline/Almost like Tzar Ivan" (Tzar Pyotr lyubil poryadok/Pochti kak Tzar Ivan... - Verse 48). In search of it, having chosen Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
for his port of call, he's shaven the nations' beards off, "dressed all of us up as Hollanders" and indeed maintained a certain kind of discipline which promptly vanished with his death (Verse 55).
Anna of Russia
Anna of Russia or Anna Ivanovna reigned as Duchess of Courland from 1711 to 1730 and as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740.-Accession to the throne:Anna was the daughter of Ivan V of Russia, as well as the niece of Peter the Great...
and ('a true genderme') Biron
Ernst Johann von Biron
Ernst Johann von Biron was a Duke of Courland and Semigallia and regent of the Russian Empire .-Biography:Born as Ernst Johann Biren in Kalnciems, Courland, he was the grandson of a groom in the service of Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland, who bestowed upon him a small estate, which Biron's...
getting a brief mention. The often quoted Verse 58 provides succinct overview of the most carefree period in post-Peter Russia: Vesyo′laya tsaritza/Byla Yelisavet/Poyo′t y veseli′tsa/Poryadka tolko net. - A merry kind of queen was Queen Elisavet/She she sings, she's having fun/And yet the Order's nil.)
With Yekaterina's epoch the first French phrases creep up into the text. Voltair and Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
advice the Russian Queen to grant freedoms to her people and this way maintain Order, but... Messieurs, - im vozrazila/Ona, - vous me comblez/Y to′tchas prikrepi′la/Ukraintsev k zemle. - Messieurs, she retorted/You are being too kind to me/And instantly she fastened Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
to land.)
After Pavel I
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
(the one of the Maltese Order, but with "un-knightly ways") Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
came, a man of "week nerves, but gentle manners" whose way of reacting to Napoleon
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's 1812 advance was a polite retreat. Kaza′losya, nu nizhe/Nelzya sidet v dyre/An glyad', uzh my v Parizhe/S Louis le Desire. - It seemed, a deeper hole to dwell/Would be hard task to find/Then lo! We are in Paris/ With Louis le Desire
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
) This jubilant point in history sees "Russia's colours florishing", its land being abundant, but Order still nowhere in sight (Verse 67).
The reason for taking his tale to an abrupt end Tolstoy explains in Verse 68: Posle′dnee skaza′nye/Ya’b napisal moyo/No tchayu nakazanye,/Boyus monsier Veillot. (I would have written the final part of my tale, but expect punishment, and the one who frightens me is monsier Veillot), the latter being the head of a Russian Interior Ministry's Postal Department, with the right to use perlustration
Postal censorship
Postal censorship is the inspection or examination of mail, most often by governments. It can include opening, reading and total or selective obliteration of letters and their contents, as well as covers, postcards, parcels and other postal packets. Postal censorship takes place primarily but not...
. And it was Verse 68 that's made Tolstoy's poem relevant for all the latter times of the Russian history: Hodit' byva′yet sklizko/Po ka′meshkam inym/Itak, o tom tchto blizko/My lutche umoltchim. - Some cobbles may prove slippery once being stepped on by/So of the things that are close to us we'd rather keep mouths shut.)
Tolstoy ends his poem with a sarcastic paean to the Aleksander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
's cabinet ministers, picturing them as a bunch of children sleighing down the snowy slope. Of them he names just eight, for - Ikh mnogo, otchen mnogo/Pripo′mnit vsekh nelzya/Y vniz odnoy dorogoi/Letyat oni, skolzya. (There's much, so very much of them, one wouldn’t recall their names/And going down and down they slide by just one single track.) The poem ends with Tolstoy's preposterously humble address to the Interior Minister Aleksander Timashev imploring the latter to, first, introduce the now almost mythical Order thing to his land, but also to "re-write and correct, for truth's sake" whatever the author might have put wrong in his tale. Mentioning Nestor the Chronicler again and slipping totally into parodying the latter's style, Tolstoy concludes: Sosta′vyl ot byli′nok/Rasskaz nemudry sei/Hudyi smirenny inok/Rab bozhy Aleksei. (Compiled from small bylinas/This quite unwise account/One skinny humble inok
Degrees of Eastern Orthodox monasticism
The degrees of Eastern Orthodox monasticism are the stages an Eastern Orthodox monk or nun passes through in their religious vocation.In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the process of becoming a monk or nun is intentionally slow, as the monastic vows taken are considered to entail a lifelong...
/God's slave, named Aleksey. - Verse 83).