Apollon Maykov’s Tales from Russian History: from Idea to Implementation

Download:

PDF
Author: Olga V. Sedelnikova
Information about the author:

DSc in Philology, Professor, Department of Russian Language of the School of Basic Engineering Training, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Lenin Avenue 30, 34050 Tomsk, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3727-7954

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Author 2: Ekaterina A. Golovacheva
Information about the author 2:

PhD in Philology, Head of Online Education Development Department, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Lenin Avenue 30, 34050 Tomsk, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2744-8767

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Author 3: Oksana P. Olejnik
Information about the author 3:

Postgraduate Student, Department of Russian Language, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Lenin Avenue 30, 34050 Tomsk, Russia.

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For citation:

Sedelnikova, O.V., Golovacheva, E.A., Olejnik, O.P. “Apollon Maykov’s Tales from Russian History: from Idea to Implementation.” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 1 (25), 2024, pp. 198–221. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2024-1-198-221
Received: 24 Nov. 2023
Published: 25 Mar. 2024
Issue: 2024 no. 1 (25)
Department: DOSTOEVSKY: HIS READINGS
Pages: 198-221
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2024-1-198-221
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/XUPUYQ
UDK: 821.161.1.0
BBK: 83+83.3(2=411.2)+86.2
Keywords: Apollon Maykov, Tales from Russian History, Fyodor Dostoevsky, epistolary heritage, the development of the author’s intention.
Abstract: The article analyses the formation and development of the idea of the unfinished prose cycle Tales from Russian History by Apollon Maykov. The most important source of information about this part of the poet’s creative biography is considered his correspondence with Fyodor Dostoevsky, where the prerequisites for the origin of the cycle idea and the stages of its formation are revealed. One of the most expressive novelist’s letters to his friend is devoted to the discussion of the general idea of the cycle and its plots. It contains a conceptual reflection on the poem “as a precious stone, a diamond, in the poet’s soul” and highlights the most significant events in Russian history, according to the writer’s understanding. The plots of individual stories expressively described there by Dostoevsky originated the assumption that the writer was the author of the cycle concept and inspired Maykov to create it. However, a chronological analysis of the correspondence between Maykov and Dostoevsky in 1867–1869 allows us to gather and sequentially arrange facts reflecting the process of gradual development and final formation of the idea in the poet’s creative consciousness. It leads to the conclusion that the idea was formed in Maykov’s creative consciousness during an in-depth study of Russian history, prompted by his work on the translation of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. Dostoevsky took some part in shaping the key features of the content and the principles of the artistic form of the tales. He was not directly involved as the ideological inspirer. He participated as a friend, an interlocutor, and like-minded person, with whom Maykov shared the details of his own creative search and thoughts on pressing issues of Russian social life at that time, among which questions about the originality and identity of Russian history, and the relations between Russia and Europe were some of the most important.

Acknowledgments: The study was carried out at National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) (RSF project No. 23-28-01497, https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-01497/)

 

References

1. Ashimbaeva, N.T. “A. Maikov. Pis’ma k Dostoevskomu 1867–1878” [“A. Maikov. Letters to Dostoevsky 1867–1878”]. Ashimbaeva, N.T. Dostoevskii. Kontekst tvorchestva i vremeni [Dostoevsky. Context of Art and Epoch]. St. Petersburg, Serebrianyi vek Publ., 2005, pp. 91–101. (In Russ.)

2. Bel’chikov, N.F. Dostoevskii v processe petrashevtsev [Dostoevsky in the Petrashevsky Trial]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1971. 294 p. (In Russ.)

3. Iuzhakov, S.N., editor. Bol’shaia entsiklopediia: Slovar’ obshchedostupnykh svedenii po vsem otrasliam znaniia: v 20 tomakh [The Great Encyclopedia: A Dictionary of Publicly Available Information on All Branches of Knowledge: in 20 vols], vol. 10. St. Petersburg, Prosveshchenie Publ., 1902. 794 p. (In Russ.)

4. Gacheva, A.G. “Nam ne dano predugadat’, kak nashe slovo otzovetsia…” (Dostoevskii i Tiutchev) [“We Cannot Predict How Our Words Will Be Received…” (Dostoevsky and Tyutchev)]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2004. 640 p. (In Russ.)

5. Zakharova, O.V. “Kontseptsiia byliny u F.M. Dostoevskogo” [“Dostoevsky’s Conception of the Bylina”]. Problemy istoricheskoi poetiki, vol. 13, 2015, pp. 271–286. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.15393/j9.art.2015.3444

6. Zlatkovskii, M.L. A.N. Maikov. 1821–1897 g.: Biograficheskii ocherk [Apollon Maykov. 1821–1897: A Biographical Sketch]. 2nd Ed., revised. St. Petersburg, P.P. Soikin Publ., 1898. 122 p. (In Russ.)

7. Liapina, E.I. “Istoricheskie vpechatleniia Maikova v stikhakh i proze” [“Maykov’s Historical Impressions in Poetry and Prose”]. Zhanrovo-stilevoe vzaimodeistvie liriki i eposa v russkoi literature XVIII–XIX vekov [Genre-Style Interaction of Lyrics and Epic in Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries]. Moscow, MRPI Publ., 1986, pp. 124–141. (In Russ.)

8. Maikov, A.N. “Pis’mo k F.M. Dostoevskomu ” [“Letter to Fyodor Dostoevsky ”]. Epistoliarnoe nasledie F.M. Dostoevskogo i ego korrespondentov [The Epistolary Legacy of Fyodor Dostoevsky and His Correspondents]. Available at: https://philolog.petrsu.ru/fmdost/letters/majkan/otMajkov~051867.htm (Accessed 15 Apr. 2022) (In Russ.) 9. Maikov, A.N. “Pis’mo k F.M. Dostoevskomu 3 noiabria <1867>” [“Letter to Fyodor Dostoevsky November 3rd, <1867>”]. Epistoliarnoe nasledie F.M. Dostoevskogo i ego korrespondentov [The Epistolary Legacy of Fyodor Dostoevsky and His Correspondents]. Available at: https://philolog.petrsu.ru/fmdost/letters/majkan/otMajkov~03111867.htm (Accessed 15 Apr. 2022) (In Russ.)

10. Majkov, A.N. “Pis’mo k F.M. Dostoevskomu 7 marta <1868>” [“Letter to Fyodor Dostoevsky March 7th <1868>”]. Epistoliarnoe nasledie F.M. Dostoevskogo i ego korrespondentov [The Epistolary Legacy of Fyodor Dostoevsky and His Correspondents]. Available at: https://philolog.petrsu.ru/fmdost/letters/majkan/otMajkov0803~1868.htm (Accessed 15 Apr. 2022) (In Russ.)

11. Maikov, A.N. “Pis’mo k F.M. Dostoevskomu 7 avgusta 1869” [“Letter to Fyodor Dostoevsky August 7th, 1869”]. Epistoliarnoe nasledie F.M. Dostoevskogo i ego korrespondentov [The Epistolary Legacy of Fyodor Dostoevsky and His Correspondents]. Available at: https://philolog.petrsu.ru/fmdost/letters/majkan/otMajkov07081869.htm (Accessed 15 Apr. 2022) (In Russ.)

12. Maikov, A.N. “O Sviatykh Moskovskikh mitropolitakh Petre i Aleksii i o slavnom Mamaevom poboishche” [“About the Holy Moscow Metropolitans Peter and Alexius and the Glorious Battle of Mamaev”]. Zaria, no. 5, 1869, pp. 1–19. (In Russ.)

13. Maikov, A.N. “Nachalo vostochnogo voprosa” [“The Beginning of the Eastern Question”]. Zaria, no. 8, 1869, pp. 1–50. (In Russ.)

14. Maikov, A.N. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 4 tomakh [Complete Works: in 4 vols]. Ed. by P.V. Bykov. St. Petersburg, T-va A.F. Marks Publ., 1914. (In Russ.)

15. “Pis’ma Maikova k Dostoevskomu za 60 gg. (soobshchil G. Prokhorov)” [“Maikov’s Letters to Dostoevsky in the 1860s (Reported by G. Prokhorov)”]. Dolinin, A.S., editor. Dostoevskii F.M. Stat’i i materialy [Dostoevsky F.M.: Articles and Materials], vol. 2. Leningrad; Moscow, Mysl’ Publ., 1924, pp. 338–361. (In Russ.) 

16. Maikov, A.N. “Pis’ma k Dostoevskomu 1867–78” [“Letters to Fyodor Dostoevsky 1867–1878”]. Ed. by N.T. Ashimbaeva. Ashimbaeva, N.T. Dostoevskii. Kontekst tvorchestva i vremeni [Dostoevsky. Context of Art and Epoch]. St. Petersburg, Serebrianyi vek Publ., 2005, pp. 103–168. (In Russ.)

17. Maikov, A.N. Putevoi dnevnik 1842-43 gg. Ital’ianskaia proza [Travel Diary 1842–1843. Italian Prose]. Сomp., ed., comm. by O.V. Sedelnikova. St. Petersburg, Pushkinskii Dom Publ., 2013. 400 p.; ill. (In Russ.)

18. Prokof’eva, E.N. “A.N. Maikov” [“Apollon Maykov”]. Korovin, V.I., editor. Istoriia russkoi literatury XIX veka: v 3 chastiakh [History of Russian Literature of the 19th Century: in 3 parts], part 3: 1870–1890 gody [1870–1890]. Moscow, Gumanitar. izd. tsentr VLADOS Publ., 2005, pp. 137–163. (In Russ.)

19. Savel’ev, P.S. Mukhammedanskaia numizmatika v otnoshenii k russkoi istorii [Muhammadan Numismatics in Relation to Russian History]. St. Petersburg, tip. Voenno-uchebnyh zavedenii Publ., 1846. CCXXXII, 180 p. (In Russ.)

20. Sedel’nikova, O.V. F.M. Dostoevskii i kruzhok Maikovykh [Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Maykov Circle]. Tomsk, TPU Publ., 2006. 275 p. (In Russ.)

21. Sedel’nikova, O.V. “V dopolnenie kommentariia k pis’mam F.M. Dostoevskogo A.N. Maikovu (Pis’mo o ‘poeme’ Dostoevskogo i sobytiia russkoi istorii v tvorcheskom osmyslenii Maikova)” [“In Addition to the Commentary on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Letters to Apollon Maykov (The Letter on Dostoevsky’s ‘Poem’ and the Events of the Russian History as Understood Creatively by Maykov)”]. Sibirskii filologicheskii zhurnal, no. 2, 2012, pp. 95–103. (In Russ.)

22. Iampol’skii, I.G. “Iz istorii raboty A.N. Maikova nad perevodami ‘Slova o polku Igoreve’” [“From the History of the Work by Apollon Maykov on the Translation of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”]. Trudy otdela drevnerusskoi literatury [Works of the Department of Ancient Russian Literature], vol. 31. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1976, pp. 334–340. (In Russ.)