RUSSIA (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE). 



Russian history was .previously enveloped in the 

 obscurity of chronicles and traditions. Karamsin 

 dissipated this obscurity, and threw light upon the 

 darkness of the past. Poetry, by his torch, may 

 no\v light her own. Among other living poets, 

 may be mentioned Kosloff; Gribojedoff, the author 

 of a very amusing comedy; Glinka, a lyric poet, 

 full of fire ; baron Delwig (the editor of the Russian 

 Almanac of the Muses, called the Flowers of the 

 North, in 1825 and 1826); Schazykoff, Baratinskij, 

 &c. Among the translators we may mention pro- 

 fessor Merslakoff of Moscow, who has translated 

 Tasso's poem of Jerusalem Delivered. Russian 

 prose enumerates, at the present time, but few ori- 

 ginal productions. There are many journals, but 

 they are for the most part filled with extracts from 

 foreign periodicals. The critical department of 

 them cannot be important, because the national 

 literature is poor; nevertheless, among a great 

 number of tolerable prose writers, Gretsch has dis- 

 tinguished himself; his style is easy, although he 

 sometimes offends against good taste. For many 

 years he edited the best Russian journal. He has 

 likewise been engaged in the composition of a Rus- 

 sian grammar. In connexion with this, besides the 

 old Russian grammars of Ludolph (Grammatica 

 Russica et Manuductio ad Linguam Sclavonicam, 

 Oxford, 1696, quarto), of Groning (Stockholm, 

 1750), of Lomonosoff, Rodde, Heym (Riga, 1821), 

 that of the Russian academy (St Petersburg, 1802), 

 particularly that of Vater (Leipsic, 1808), and that 

 of Tappe, on account of the happily chosen exam- 

 ples and practical exercises (St Petersburg and 

 Riga, 1810; 5th edition, 1820), deserve to be re- 

 commended, as well as Puchmayer's System of the 

 Russian Language, in German (1820). They all, 

 at least the modern, embrace only the common Rus- 

 sian. For the Sclavonian or ecclesiastical language 

 grammatical aids are greatly needed. The grammar 

 of the ecclesiastical Sclavian, written in the Russian 

 language, which Peter Winogradoff published in 

 1811, is far surpassed in value by Dobrowsky's In- 

 stitutiones Linguce Slawicce Dialecti veteris (Vienna, 

 1822). The government itself has taken charge 

 of grammatical education, and prohibited the sale 

 of Lewitzkij's small Russian grammar (St Peters- 

 burg, 1814), which was put under the interdict of 

 the minister of instruction, in 1814, "on account 

 of its many defects and false definitions." Concern- 

 ing the dictionaries of the Russian language, by 

 Rodde, and Heym, a German, Russian, and French 

 pocket dictionary (Riga, 1805), and many others, 

 see the review, by Schlozer, in the Gottingen 

 Gelehrten Anzeir;en, 1810, number 47. Since that, 

 A. Oldekop has published a Russian-German and a 

 German-Russian dictionary, in 5 vols. The present 

 president of the Russian academy, admiral and 

 minister Alexander Schischkoff, caused a second 

 edition of the academy's dictionary to be published 

 in 6 vols. quarto, in the year 1826. 



After having thus characterized the poets and 

 prose writers who have had an influence upon the 

 formation of the Russian language, we will touch 

 more particularly on certain portions of the Russian 

 literature, as follows: 



I. The old popular songs and traditions, which 

 were formerly neglected by the Russians, have now 

 excited their attention, on account of their similarity 

 to the English, Spanish, and Scandinavian ballads. 

 Like these ballads, they appear to refer to a con- 

 nected series of popular traditions. In that period, 

 however, to which these old songs belong (1015 



1 124), the national poetry had not freed itself from 

 the old Sclavian mythology : and the Russian tales 

 and popular traditions have thereby acquired a 

 peculiar charm of a fantastical description, which is 

 particularly remarkable in the story of Filipat and 

 Maxim, and their valorous deeds ; the marriage of 

 Devgieiewas, and the carrying off of Stratigovnas, 

 in the tale of Shinagrip, the czar of the Adorians. 

 Prince Wladimir I., with his knights, is the central 

 point of this whole series of tales, which may be 

 compared with the stories of Charlemagne and his 

 peers, and those of king Arthur and the Round 

 Table. The heroes, Dobrenja Nikititsch, and 

 Tschurilo Plenkowitsch, and others, here take the 

 place of the well known and harmonious names of 

 Roland, Rinaldo, and Amadis. J. Miiller published 

 the Expedition of Igor against the Polowzians 

 (from the old Russian; Prague, 1811 and 1812), 

 and this poem has since passed through several 

 editions in the Russian original. Prince Wladimir 

 and his Round Table (Leipsic, 1819) is a German 

 imitation, drawn from a collection , of old Russian 

 songs, which were printed at the suggestion of Ro- 

 manzoff. Prince Zerteloff's Spirit of Russian 

 Poetry, or collection of old Russian songs (St 

 Petersburg, 1822, in 2 vols.), has excited the at- 

 tention of the Russians to this portion of their lite- 

 rature. The ecclesiastics of that period displayed a 

 peculiar degree of intellectual activity ; and there 

 were also laymen of considerable merit. Nestor 

 has mentioned many men of rank who shared in 

 this intellectual labour. These beginnings could 

 not, however, be of permanent consequence, because 

 literary institutions of a high character were want- 

 ing. The Greek teachers of the public schools at 

 Wladimir, Smolensk, and Halitsch, did not diffuse a 

 taste for Grecian antiquities, which might have been 

 a permanent barrier against barbarism. The Mon- 

 golian period had a withering influence on literature. 

 In the rich convents only, which the Mongols re- 

 spected, were preserved some remains of intellectual 

 cultivation. Thence are derived the materials for 

 the history of that period, which alone give us 

 some insight into it, particularly the annals in the 

 old ecclesiastical language, composed by St Simon, 

 bishop of Susdal (who died in the year 1226), the 

 Stufenbuch of Cyprian, the metropolitan (who died 

 in 1406), and the Chronicles of Sophia, or the Rus- 

 sian annals from 862 to 1534 (edited by Strojeff 

 Moscow, 18201822, quarto). These, and the 

 lives of Alexander the Great, of the Roman em- 

 perors, of Mark Antony, and of Cleopatra, related 

 after the manner of stories, were the only books. 

 As the authors despised the language in common 

 use, which, by its additions from the Tartar tongue, 

 had acquired a foreign character, displeasing, even 

 to the people themselves, and made use only of the 

 old Sclavoman dialect, the taste for reading, even 

 if we do not take into consideration the other 

 inconveniences attending it, must necessarily have 

 been confined to a few. As the Russians did not 

 travel, nor learn any foreign languages, they were 

 not connected, by intellectual bonds, with the rest 

 of Europe. There were no schools in Great Russia. 

 The press exercised but little influence, as it was 

 exclusively devoted to the interest of the church, 

 and the amusements of the people were rude. In 

 the dramatic exhibitions, which were founded on 

 religious stories, and performed by the students of 

 Kiev, in the principal cities, during their holidays, 

 Judith striking off the head of Holofernes, Ahasuerus 

 ordering Hainan to be hanged, and the spectacle of 



