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11 - ‘Pushkin’ and identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

By
Stephanie Sandler
Edited by
Simon Franklin  and
Emma Widdis
Stephanie Sandler
Affiliation:
Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Simon Franklin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Emma Widdis
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The love for Pushkin, which is incomprehensible to foreigners, is the true sign of a person born of Russian culture. You can like or dislike any other Russian writer, that's a matter of taste. But Pushkin as a phenomenon is obligatory for us. Pushkin is the pivot on which Russian culture turns, he connects the past to the future. Take away the pivot and the connections will disintegrate.

Lidiia Ginzburg

Jubilee Pushkiniana, 1999: vodka bottle, tea cosy, tea cup, plastic shopping bag, wall hanging, book mark, calendar, quill, key ring, pin, playing cards, candy wrapper, advertisements.

THE PUSHKIN MYTH

More than two hundred years after his birth, Aleksandr Pushkin (1799–1837) stands as a towering emblem of Russian culture, as more than just a monument: the example of his life and work is perceived as giving meaning to the nation's identity. This myth was articulated well by the conservative critic Stanislav Rassadin: ‘we who seem to have lost everything there is to lose – above all, ourselves as a nation and as a people – we possess a hope of remembering our face and suddenly repossessing our soul when we look at Pushkin’. When Russians ‘look at Pushkin’ in this sense, they see all that they hope to be: a symbol of integrity, creativity, and spiritual values, and a dynamic, liberating mind that challenges what seems stultifying or intolerant elsewhere in their culture.

Type
Chapter
Information
National Identity in Russian Culture
An Introduction
 , pp. 197 - 216
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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