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New Interest in Old Russian Things: Literary Ferment, Religious Perspectives, and National Self-Assertion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Thomas E. Bird
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Slavic Review , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 17 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1973

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References

1. Quoted in Marshall, Richard H., Jr., et al., eds., Aspects of Religion in the Soviet Union, 1917-1967 (Chicago, 1971), p. 181 Google Scholar (translation by George L. Kline).

2. Marshall, Richard H., Jr., “Fifteen Years of Change : A Review of the Post-Stalin Era,” in Hayward, Max and Fletcher, William C., eds., Religion and the Soviet State : A Dilemma of Power (New York, 1969), pp. 1–18.Google Scholar

3. For a discussion of Soloukhin’s stress of the national and Dorosh’s emphasis of the international within the national, see Deming Brown’s important article, “Nationalism and Ruralism in Recent Soviet Russian Literature,” Review of National Literatures, 3, no. 1 (Spring 1972) : 183-209.

4. His essay “Neo-Humanism” was apparently written in reply to a party-sponsored statement, Towards a Society Free from Religion (Moscow, 1960).

5. Kommunist vooruzhenykh sil, 1968, no. 22, p. 6.

6. See Arnoldev, A. I. et al., eds., Stroitel'stvo kommunizma i dukhovnyi mir cheloveka (Moscow, 1966)Google Scholar; Konstantinov, F. V., ed., Dialektika material'noi i dukhovnoi zhizni obshchestva v period stroitel'stva kommunizma (Moscow, 1966)Google Scholar; Sokhan, L. V., Dukhovnyi progress lichnosti i kommunizm (Kiev, 1966)Google Scholar; and the popular writings of A. G. Myslivchenko.

7. “Vospityvat' ubezhdeniia,” Nauka i religiia, 1971, no. 11, p. 3.

8. “Moe vozvrashchenie,” Grani, no. 79 (1971), p. 62, and passim.

9. For an extended discussion of this movement see Gleb Žekulin’s two articles, “Aspects of Peasant Life as Portrayed in Contemporary Soviet Literature,” Canadian Slavic Studies, 1, no. 4 (1967) : 552-65, and “The Contemporary Countryside in Soviet Literature : A Search for New Values,” in Millar, James R., ed., The Soviet Rural Community : A Symposium (Urbana, 1971), pp. 376–404.Google Scholar

10. Solzhenitsyn’s “Prose Poems” provide ample evidence of this motif and for at least one writer, reality. See especially “In Esenin Country,” “A Journey Along the Oka, “ and “We Will Never Die.“

11. KPSS v rezoliutsiakh, vol. 1, p. 713 (reprinted 1968).

12. In his foreword to The Chornovil Papers (New York, 1968), p. vii.

13. See Chronicle of Current Events, no. 17 (April 1971), “Samizdat News,” p. 93. See also Ludmilla Thorne, “The Democratic Movement and Samizdat as Forces Eroding Traditional National, Ethnic, and Religious Hostilities in the Soviet Union,” read at the Eleventh Annual Central Slavic Conference, at Liberty, Missouri, in November 1972; and “Russian Racialists,” Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 19-20.

14. “Chelovek bez prilagatel'nogo,” Grani, no. 77 (1970), pp. 171-98.

15. Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (New York, 1968). The letter of the trio is found in Le Monde, Apr. 1, 1970; the Program of the Democratic Movement in Posev, 1970, no. 7.

16. See Peter, Reddaway, Uncensored Russia : Protest and Dissent in the Soviet Union (New York, 1972), pp. 430–33.Google Scholar

17. Pravda, June 20, 1951.

18. Yaroslav Bilinsky has provided an excellent analysis of Soviet policy toward non-Russian languages and literatures in his essay in Erich, Goldhagen, ed., Ethnic Minorities in the Soviet Union (New York, 1968)Google Scholar. See also Bilinsky, ’s The Second Soviet Republic : The Ukraine After World War II (New Brunswick, 1964)Google Scholar, especially chap. S on Soviet linguistic policy.

19. Internationalism or Russification ? : A Study in the Soviet Nationalities Problem, 2nd ed. (London, 1970).

20. Biographical background and data surrounding his case are found in The Chornovil Papers, pp. 166-226.

21. V kruge pervom has not, of course, been published in the Soviet Union.

22. lunos', 1972, no. 8, pp. 68-72.

23. The whole area of speech culture, orthoepy, and stylistics is one which has taken on new importance and become available to a wide audience in recent years. Consider the series Etimologicheskie issledovaniia po russkomu iazyku : Voprosy kul'tury rechi and the writings of E. A. Bakhmutova, T. A. Degtereva, V. P. Murat, and D. E. Rozental. For an overview consult the annotated bibliographies published by the Lenin Library, Kul'tura russkoi rechi.

24. “The Artistic Heritage of Early Russian Literature,” Oxford Slavonic Papers, vol. 7 (1957).

25. Istoki russkoi belletristiki, ed. la. S. Lur'e (Leningrad, 1970), pp. 3-30.

26. “Osnovnye etapy sovetskogo literaturovedeniia,” in Bazanov, V. G., ed., Sovetskoe literaturovedenie za 50 let (Leningrad, 1968), pp. 5–33.Google Scholar

27. See Jonathan, Harris, “The Dilemma of Dissidence,” Survey, 16, no. 1 (1971) : 107–22.Google Scholar

28. One cannot help but wonder what the ultimate effect will be of Dr. Hist. Sci. A. Iakovlev’s article, “Protiv antiistorizma,” Literaturnaia gazeta, Nov. 15, 1972. The tone of his discussion of how the past is reflected and ought to be reflected in literary works is ominously prescriptive.

29. It is instructive to observe the development of these societies in the three Slavic republics. The early sixties saw the rise of the Rodina society among Moscow students. Its goal, the restoration and preservation of Old Russian monuments, especially churches, was soon taken over by the All-Russian Voluntary Society for the Preservation of Monuments of History and Culture. (Such a society now exists in each union republic.) The All-Russian Society claims over seven million individual and some forty-one thousand collective members. Parties made up of student volunteers continue to be active in restoring and conserving existing monuments. In the years 1967-72 approximately 130 million rubles were spent on the upkeep of monuments in the RSFSR. See Soviet Union, 1972, no. 10, p. 4.

The republic congress of the Ukrainian Society petitioned the government for official status on Dec. 21, 1966, and was confirmed on June 12, 1967, as a civic organization with its statutes confirmed by the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. The initiative for organizing the society seems to have come from a broadly based sector of the population. Since its confirmation (and consequent integration into more official planning), the society has been criticized in print for not zealously pursuing the goals of its original organizers.

The Belorussian Society was also established in December 1966. On Dec. 26, 1969, the Supreme Soviet of the Belorussian SSR adopted a law “On the Preservation of Cultural Monuments” and in 1970 the society began to publish Pomniki historyi i kul'tury Bielarusi (Monuments of Belorussia’s History and Culture). Its first ten issues have ranged in content from descriptions of archeological findings to contemporary items concerning history and culture of the Belorussian people. See Zviazda, Minsk, Aug. 18, 1972, and Belaruskaia Savetskaia Entsyklapedyia, vol. 2 (Minsk, 1970), pp. 15-16, “Akhova pomnikaŭ historyi, mastatsva i kul'tury.“

30. By the end of 1972 seven volumes had appeared; two more are ready for publication and awaiting a paper ration.

31. The exhibit memorializing Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin (1822-91), held during the fall of 1971 at the Moscow Theological Academy, brought private contributions of artifacts from many persons, including academicians (anonymously, since a professor is not permitted to be a believer). See the appreciation of Kavelin in the Zhurnal Moskovskoi Patriarkhii, 1972, no. 6, pp. 70-79.

32. “Ovladevat' teoriei, nesti znaniia v massy,” Nauka i religiia, 1971, no. 11, p. 7.

33. S. S. Dmitr'ev's research (Istoriia SSSR, 1966, no. 7-8, pp. 20-55) constitutes the first significant work on the history of the church since Nikol'sky', N. M.s Istoriia russkoi tserkvi (Moscow, 1930)Google Scholar, itself a reprint of research he had done in the early twenties. The symposium Tserkov' v istorii Rossii, ed. N. A. Smirnov (Moscow, 1967), and Shishkin, A. A.’s Sushchnost' i kriticheskaia otsenka ‘Obnovlencheskogo’ raskola russkoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi (Kazan, 1970)Google Scholar, represent serious archival research in the history of the church.

34. N. D. Uspensky is author of the two-volume study of Russian church music, Drevne-russkoe pevcheskoe iskusstvo (Moscow, 1965) and Obraztsy drevne-russkogo pevcheskogo iskusstva (Leningrad, 1968). These studies are supplemented by M. V. Brazhnikov’s compilation, Novye pamiatniki znamennogo raspeva (Leningrad, 1967). The rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Archbishop Filaret Vakhromeev, is an energetic patron of Russian church music and encourages the serious study of the subject among the seminarians and graduate students at Zagorsk.

35. For some time Lotman has been advocating virtually a Formalist literary position. His university is publishing the writings of Father Paul Florensky, and Lotman himself works in the field of the history of Freemasonry in Russia.

36. Publication of Father Zheludkov’s manuscript has been promised by Posev.

37. Half-way to the Moon, ed. Patricia Blake and Max Hayward (New York, 1965), pp. 107-8 (translation by Max Hayward). For more detailed analyses see Shakhovskaya, Zinaida’s “The Significance of Religious Themes in Soviet Literature,” in Fletcher, William C. and Strover, Anthony J., eds., Religion and the Search for New Ideals in the USSR (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; and Albert C. Todd’s “Spiritual Elements in Recent Soviet Literature,” in Hayward and Fletcher, Religion and the Soviet State.

38. Edward Kasinec and Meinrad Dindorf have provided a repertory of the most extensive holdings of these journals in the Western hemisphere, in the library of St Vladimir’s Seminary, Tuckahoe, New York. See their “Bibliographical Note : Russian Pre- Revolutionary Religious-Theological Serials in the St. Vladimir’s Seminary Library,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, 14, no. 1-2 (1970) : 100-107. A cursory examination of a representative title, such as Pravoslavnyi Sobesednik or Tvoreniia sviatykh ottsov, will suffice to persuade one of the untapped and undescribed riches to be found in these journals.

39. See R. P. Goriacheva’s bibliography of Professor A. A. Sidorov in the series Materialy dlia bio-bibliografii sovetskikh uchenykh (Moscow and Leningrad, 1959). Of particular interest are his Istoriia oformleniia russkoi knigi (Moscow, 1946), dealing with the external history of the book, and his memoirs, Zapiski sobiratelia (Moscow, 1971).

There is a certain ambiguity manifested toward the Old Russian book by those in charge of publishing : the genre is of interest as part of the national legacy, yet there is an apparent anxiety not to have this literature well registered. The Svodnyi katalog russkoi knigi grazhdanskoi pechati 18-go veka was published in 5 volumes beginning in 1956 with a maximum edition of four thousand copies (and a recent supplement issued in one hundred fifty copies !). The Svodnyi katalog kirillovskoi pechati 18-go veka was published in 1969 in five hundred copies, with a recent supplement. By now the rotoprint supplements to these rare materials constitute a bibliography of rarities in themselves.

40. Succeeded the following year by Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov’ i Velikaia Otechestvennaia Voina (Moscow, 1943) and by The Russian Orthodox Church : Organization, Situation, Activity (Moscow, n.d. [1958]).

41. His report, “Zhizn’ i deiatel’nost’ Russkoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi,” appeared in Zhurnal Moskovskoi Patriarkhii, 1971, no. 7, pp. 4-26; and in English translation in the English-language edition, Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1971, no. 2, pp. 3-17.

42. The most comprehensive discussion available of the Georgian Orthodox Church has been published by Father Elie Melia in Marshall, Aspects of Religion, pp. 223-37.

43. See Zhurnal Moskovskoi Patriarkhii, 1971, no. 7, p. 1.

44. Marshall, Aspects of Religion, pp. 232-3S.

45. The democratic movement in all its varying shades has more that binds together than separates its various segments : the value of the human person, the need to adapt politics and economics to man’s spiritual needs, the supremacy of freedom as a value.