Russian serfs writers Cover Image

Rosyjscy pisarze pańszczyźniani
Russian serfs writers

Author(s): Bogusław Mucha
Subject(s): Social history, Russian Literature, Rural and urban sociology, 18th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to a general analysis of the creativity of serf writers of the late 18th century. And the first decades of the next century. In the Russian literature of the period, they constitute a special trend, which can be called peasant. Of the rather large number of such writers, the article includes the most famous people from the serfdom: Mikhail Matinsky, Matvey Komarov, Nikolai Smirnov, Ivan Varakin, Fedor Slepushkin, Yegor Alipanov and Nikolai Tsyganov. Most of them, thanks to a lucky coincidence, could get an initial education and settled in the capital cities of Russia. Working as artisans or merchants at the same time engaged in literary activity. They attracted the attention of noble writers and patrons of art who contributed to the redemption of self-taught people from serf bondage and ensured them the printing of works. However, almost all these people from the peasant class did not reflect the true moods and aspirations of the people in their work. The life of the Russian public lower classes was little known to these former peasants. They had long ago broken away from the village, did not live by its interests, and were associated with a completely different, mostly petty-bourgeois milieu. Their works affected the influence of official, reactionary ideology. Serf writers expressed loyalty and in the spirit of the theory of "official nationality" idealized the Russian village. This creative manner was quite consistent with the policy of the government and it is not by chance that some poets were awarded valuable gifts by Nicholas I for their poems.

  • Issue Year: 1999
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 25-45
  • Page Count: 21
  • Language: Polish