AMERICAN INFLUENCES IN SLAVIC LITERATURES 517 



to provide him with a draft of the American Constitution, and Jeffer- 

 son sent him this. It is not unlikely that the American Constitution 

 was well known to Speranski when he drew up a constitution for 

 Russia. This still demands investigation. The Emperor's friendship 

 for the United States caused him in 1812 to offer his mediation 

 between England and America. Meanwhile, too, the enthusiasm for 

 Russia was so great in the United States that Alexander's victory 

 over Napoleon was most elaborately celebrated in Boston, Philadel- 

 phia, and Georgetown. This interest, independently of the oppo- 

 sition to Napoleon, had been systematically evoked in the American 

 press by Eustaphieffe, the Russian consul in Boston, who persistently 

 enlightened the public on Russian affairs and even wrote in English 

 an elaborate, though insipid epic, Demetrius. This Eustaphieffe 

 played quite an important part in Boston society, and, it seems, 

 became quite Americanized. 



There were also other Russians who visited the United States. 

 Among them was one Poletika, who wrote one of the first books on 

 America. This book was written in French and attracted attention 

 even in the United States, where it was translated into English. 

 This man's name does not appear in the list of those who took part 

 in the Decembrist revolt, but as other Poletikas did take part in it, 

 it is fair to assume that this acquaintance with American affairs 

 existed among the Decembrists, and, in all likelihood, was also a 

 determining factor in their revolt. 



So scant is the information on American influence at that time 

 that all the inferences must rest on circumstantial evidence alone. 

 Thus it is also difficult to determine the personal influence of the 

 many Americans who apparently stood on a footing of friendship 

 with Russian literary, or at least intellectual, men. Such a man may 

 have been W. D. Lewis, who lived for a long time in St. Petersburg, 

 knew Russian, and was so much interested in Russian literature that 

 ho translated some poems of Neledinski-Mclotski. Dmitriev. Der- 

 xhavin. Pushkin, and Krylov, during the lifetime of these poets, and 

 had them published in America. These are the first translations 

 from the Russian into English, some of them antedating the trans- 

 lations of Sir John Bowring. In the introduction to a small collected 

 volume of his translated poems. The Hakrhesnrian Fountain, and 

 Other Poems, published by him in Philadelphia in 1849. he speaks 

 of his early friendships in Russia, and so it is not unlikely that he. 

 together with other Americans resident in Russia, exorcised a personal 

 influence upon the men who in one way or another identified thorn- 

 selves with the literary movement. 



A second stage of American influence upon Russian thought 

 began with the abolition literature, which in America culminated in 

 Harriet Beccher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and in Russia brought 



