Academic literature on the topic 'Grigorii Rasputin'

The personality of Grigory Efi movich Rasputin (1872–1916) was known throughout the world, and the Slovenes knew about him too. He was considered as man whose name is associated with a terrible moral decay at the Russian court and in the government; he was called the “little father” of the Russian revolution and was blamed for the death of tsarist Russia. But it was noted, that during the war he advocated peace. First of all, the Slovenes were convinced that Rasputin was a black spot in Russian history that did not make honor to the Slavs. Along with Moses, Alexander the Great, Caesar and Napoleon, he was reckoned as a man with the immense vitality and power. In the Slovenian lands, the writer Vladimir Bartol studied the phenomenon of Rasputin most deeply. In his opinion, the essence of Rasputin was a magnetic force that almost no one could resist.

This article deals with the political situation around the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Empire in 1912 (4th convocation). The main actors of the campaign were the government, local administration, liberal opposition and the clergy of the Orthodox Russian Church. After the 1905 revolution, the “official Church” found itself in a difficult situation. In particular, anti-Church criticism intensified sharply and was expressed now quite openly, both in the press and from the rostrum of the Duma. A consequence of these circumstances was that in this Duma campaign, for the first time in the history of Russian parliamentarianism, “administrative resources” were widely used. At the same time, the authorities failed to achieve their political objectives. The Russian clergy became actively involved in the election campaign. The government sought to use the conflict between the liberal majority in the third Duma and the clerical hierarchy. Duma members launched an active criticism of the Orthodox clergy, using Grigory Rasputin as an excuse. Even staunch conservatives spoke negatively about Rasputin. According to the results of the election campaign, the opposition was even more active in using the label “Rasputinians” against the Holy Synod and the Russian episcopate. Forty-seven persons of clerical rank were elected to the House — three fewer than in the previous Duma. As a result, the assembly of the clergy elected to the Duma decided not to form its own group, but to spread out among the factions. An active campaign in Parliament and the press not only created a certain public mood, but also provoked a political split and polarization within the clergy. The clergy themselves were generally inclined to blame the state authorities for the public isolation of the Church. The Duma election of 1912 seriously affected the attitude of the opposition and the public toward the bishopric after the February revolution of 1917.

The article is devoted to the experience of poetic visionarism and ekphrastic description in the narrative poem “Siberia” by Marina Tsvetaeva. Tsvetaeva’s poem is a text with a double status. On the one hand, this is a completed historical poem dedicated to the early history of Siberia and the Russian Empire (16 th – 17 th centuries). On the other hand, the poem is part of a large historical epic (“Poem of the Tsar’s Family”) dedicated to the collapse of the empire and the tragic fate of its rulers. The primary sources for Tsvetaeva’s poetic visionary work are the works of Siberian historians (K. Golodnikov, P. Slovtsov, I. Fisher and others), as well as the literary texts of her contemporaries (M. Voloshin). Marina Tsvetaeva has never been to Siberia, there were no meaningful encounters with Siberians in her personal biography, however her contribution to the Siberian text of Russian modernism can be considered as significant. The article explores the sources of several “living pictures” (poetic historical sketches of the morals of pre-Petrine Russia). In particular, the paper deals with the history of the Pokrovsko-Turin Monastery in Tsvetaeva’s poetic reflection. The historical sketch is significantly deepened by the appearance of the “Siberian elder” Grigory Rasputin within the 17 th century history. This figure, while still alive, was mythologized simultaneously on an hagiographic and a demonological basis. Tsvetaeva presents this exotic figure as a cultural revenge of pre-Petrine Rus. In such a historiosophical construction, an important role is played by the Siberian origins of Rasputin. Against the background of various “living pictures” of Tsvetaeva’s poem, one “revived” picture stands out. This is an ekphrastic image of “Menshikov in Berezovo”, referring both to V. Surikov’s painting and to M. Kuzmin’s famous poem “December freezes in a pink sky...”. Tsvetaeva’s image of Menshikov clearly takes on palimpsest features. A similar phenomenon (a multilayered work as a factor in the liberation of author’s consciousness from empirical reality) was examined by Yu. V. Shatin.

The aim of the paper: to introduce the possibility of memoirs research in terms of autobiographical nar-rative at a specific historic period of the first quarter of the 20th century. Knowing particular person life in the context of his historical existence is important for understanding of philosophical, sociological and psychological aspects of historical events. Memoirs and autobiography have common features and dif-ferences as ways of understanding social reality. An autobiography generally provides the solid narration of author’s life, whereas memoirs highlight and de-scribe significant personality formation event, which had an impact on formation of a person. The main event of Prince Yousupov’s memoirs as assassina-tion of Grigory Rasputin is defined by Prince’s own life. The study provides the analysis of Felix Yusupov’s memoirs as autobiographical narrative experience. The scientific novelty of the study re-sults from the statement that exploring memoirs as fact of particular person life one can expand and enhance knowledge of the social reality context and the entire historic epoch. The results of the research show common and distinctive features of autobiog-raphy prose and memoirs: represent analyses of Felix Yusupov’s “Memoirs” as autobiographical nar-rative experience.

“The Empire at the end of the decadent days…” Nicky, Alix, Grigori, and others in journal entries, letters, telegrams, memoirs: Parts I and IIThe first part of the essay is an attempt to identify the primary motivating factors for the February Revolution and, consequently, the Bolshevik coup and the abdication and execution of the last Romanov ruler. In this part, I have discussed a handful of the most often advanced hypotheses of various credibility — from those formulated by historians, historians of ideas, sociologists, and political scientists protracted warfare, rising dissatisfaction of Petrograd “line standers”, incompetence of the political elites, continuing desacralization of the ruler figure, a process set in motion during the reign of Tsar Alexander II, up to those widely considered irrational, shrouded in mysticism or conspiracy-minded the curse of the Ides of March, the unearthing of Lermontov’s prophecy, Rasputin’s last will and testament, and the machinations of “The Grand Orient of Russia’s Peoples” masonic lodge. My attention, however, has been focused primarily on the egodocuments important for the understanding of the empire’s decline and erosion — the journals and correspondence of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna.The second part of the essay focuses primarily on the appearance or its lack of the February and October events in the journals of Russian writers including Bunin, Gippius, Ivnev, Korolenko, Kuzmin, Blok, Chukovsky, Merezhkovsky. All of them rather than only those that suffered the regime’s repressions shared a lack of compassion or empathy for the overthrown monarch, a dislike sometimes turning into outright hatred and hostility of the Bolsheviks, and a proclivity for mourning pre-Revolutionary Russia, a feeling of having witnessed the collapse of a prior, better world. The new definitely not brave — built by peasants clad in military garb, “the pale, tall Barbarians”, and mobs running rampant through post-October streets of Moscow and Petrograd — had a gloomy, hostile face of the “boor”, the “troglodyte”, who had nothing in common with the bucolic, paper characters of Turgenev or Tolstoy, and rather resembled clones of the inhabitants of Bunin’s apocalyptic The Village.In the conclusion, I have discussed the possible reasons behind Vladimir Putin’s decision to abandon the idea of official state celebrations of the centenary of the events of February and October of 1917. „Pимский мир периода упадка…” Ники, Аликс, Григорий и другие в дневниках, письмах, телеграммах, воспоминаниях Первая часть эссе представляет собой попытку назвать главные причины Февральской революции и охарактеризовать некоторые ее последствия: большевистский переворот, отречение от престола и казнь последнего императора из династии Романовых. Я привел несколько чаще других выдвигаемых по этому поводу гипотез с разным уровнем достоверности — начиная с тех сформулированных в публикациях историков, историков идей, социологов, политологов продолжающаяся война, нарастающее недовольство „людей из очередей” в Петрограде, некомпетентность политической элиты, усиливающийся с времен царствования Александра II процесс десакрализации монарха, а заканчивая иррациональными, окутанными мистикой, иногда остающимися в кругу теорий заговора зловещее проклятие мартовских ид, вышедшее из забвения Предсказание Лермонтова, завещание Распутина, козни масонской ложи „Великий Восток Народов России”. Однако свое внимание я сосредоточил прежде всего на эгодокументах необходимых для лучшего понимания процесса эрозии империи — дневниках и переписке Николая II и его супруги Александры Федоровны.Во второй части я писал в основном о при/от/сутствии февральских и октябрьских событий в дневниках русских писателей в том числе Бунина, Гиппиус, Ивнева, Короленко, Кузмина, Блока, Чуковского, Мережковского. Объединило их отсутствие сострадания, эмпатии для свергнутого с престола царя не только у репрессированных режимом, негативное иногда переходящее в ненависть, враждебность отношение к большевикам и всеобщее оплакивание дореволюционной России, чувство потери старого мира. У нового но не дивного — создаваемого крестьянами в военной форме, „варваров роями”, „чернью” на послеоктябрьских улицах Петрограда и Москвы — было угрюмое, недружелюбное лицо „хамов”, „пещерных людей”, которые не имели ничего общего с идиллическими, бумажными персонажами вымышленными Тургеневым или Толстым, а, скорее, были клонами героев, населяющих апокалиптическую Деревню Бунина.Наконец, я упомянул о причинах, по которым Владимир Путин отказался от торжественного празднования сотой годовщины Февраля и Октября.

The phenomenon of Group of Russian poets and fiction writers of the early XXth century, merged by literary critics under the title «new-peasant poets », is seemingly enough researched. However, when there is a serious knowledge of the creative heritage of the two most famous new-peasant poets – Sergei Yesenin and Nikolai Klyuev – heritage (especially prose) of the third significant poet of this circle, Sergei Klychkov, is still poorly studied. The focus of this article is the first part of a trilogy («Sugar German», «Chertuhinskij Balakir» and «Prince of Peace»), roman of S.A. Klytchkov «Sugar German», where most unpopular for this theme post-revolutionary years author undertakes to explore the issue of Holiness. For artistic research of the topic Klytchkov uses not only all the accumulated before him «resources» of the classical Russian literature (primarily heritage of N.S. Leskov), but also his own front-line experience and experience of Russian sectarianism (old believers of different leanings and concerts), a peculiar fad that is going through all Russian intellectuals in the pre-war and prerevolutionary years (correspondence with N.A. Kljuev, block shape of Grigory Rasputin, «Walking to Castle Kitezh» by S.A. Klytchkov himself, etc.). The task of author of this article is to find and describe the exceptional artistic means («double effect» and «double-lighting»), which the writer uses to achieve the necessary objectivity in narration. The article uses characteristics of prose made by writer's contemporaries (A.M.Gorky, A.K. Voronski, P.A. Zhurov), studies of creativity of S.A. Klychkov that became classic now (N.M. Solncev, M. Nikjo), theoretical works on the Russian and world literature and art of M.M. Bakhtin, V. Kozhinov, Ortega Y Gasset, and T. Mann, as well as works on the theory of literature of 2001–2019 years by S.A. Nebolsin, V.V. Fedorov, I.A. Esaulov.

Despite the concerns of doctors about the horrendous conditions in them, banyas remained popular with a broad spectrum of the population. The banya became a battleground on which the process of the modernization and urbanization of the fin-de-siècle empire played out. Literary and artistic figures such as Bely, Chekhov, Kuzmin, Rozanov, and Serebriakova explored anonymity, community, belief, belonging, and sex. Grigory Rasputin, the monk and advisor to the tsar, saw the banya as curative not of physical ailments but of the spiritual void at the center of elite society. He also saw it as a place to take prostitutes.