Slavica Revalensia is an Estonian multilingual journal in Russian and Slavic Studies established and edited by Dr. Grigori Utgof of Tallinn University in collaboration with Tallinn University Press. This peer-reviewed scholarly journal is aimed at providing grounds for the exchange of ideas in the whole range of relevant subjects, such as Eastern Slavic Medieval Literature, History of Russian Literature, Linguistics and Poetics, Russian Linguistics, Slavic Folklore, etc. The journal provides open access to its content. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, or print full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or author. Slavica Revalensia appears yearly in December. All contributions to the “Articles” section undergo blind reviewing by two anonymous reviewers from within and outside the editorial board.
Рец. на кн.: Киселева Л. Карамзинисты и архаисты: Статьи разных лет. Tartu: [Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus], 2023 [Review of _Karamzinisty i arkhaisty: Stat’i raznykh let_, by Ljubov Kisseljova]
This is a review of the second collection of articles by Ljubov Kisseljova of Tartu University, in which she addresses some lesser-studied writers of the first third of the 19th century (Alexander Shakhovskoi, Vasily Zhukovsky, etc.), and the question of how men of letters of the period contributed to the creation of the Russian state ideology.
Copyright (c) 2025 Slavica Revalensia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
С. А. Рейсер и П. А. Руднев. Переписка 1967—1969 гг. (К 120-летию С. А. Рейсера и 100-летию П. А. Руднева). [The Correspondence of Solomon Reiser and Petr Rudnev: 1967—1969]
What awaits the readers in this section, dedicated to the 120th anniversary of Solomon Reiser, an expert in textual criticism, and the 100th anniversary of Petr Rudnev, a student of Russian verse, is the complete correspondence between the two scholars from 1967 to 1969. Among other things, these letters shed light on the “other side” of Soviet academia, specifically the anti-Semitism and conformism that prevented Rudnev from successfully defending a doctoral dissertation before he moved to Tartu in 1968.
К биографии Макса Фасмера: Тартуский период (1918–1921) [Max Vasmer: The Tartu Years (1918—1920)]
Max Vasmer’s life has been studied in a fragmented and uneven way. One of the lesser-known periods is the one that began in 1918, when Vasmer left the University of Saratov and his home in St. Petersburg and applied for a position at what was then the Landesuniversität der drei baltischen Provinzen (University of Tartu). This article gives an overview of the importance Vasmer attached to preserving European scholarship, his opposition to anything that stood in the way of this, and his personal ethics at critical moments in history. It also provides the readers with the previously unpublished application letter by Vasmer from July 5, 1918. The study is funded in whole by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as part of the project Slavic Studies in Exchange: Austria and Russia 1849—1939 (I 5309-G).
Командировка за океан: Поездка Ильи Эренбурга в США в 1946 г. [Mission over the Ocean: Ilya Ehrenburg in America in 1946]
The article discusses Ehrenburg’s visit to the US in the spring of 1946 which, despite its importance, has fallen out of the focus of scholars as well as his biographers. Ehrenburg and two of his colleagues (Konstantin Simonov and Мikhail Galaktionov) were sent to the United States by the Soviet leadership to participate in the work of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. During his two-month stay in the US Ehrenburg gave many talks and interviews, travelled to the southern states and wrote for influential American papers. As he enjoyed a high reputation in post-war America, his visit was covered by many newspapers. The article demonstrates how in criticizing the American press, the American way of life, etc., Ehrenburg tried to hide the acute problems in his own country: antisemitism, xenophobia, lack of press freedom. His visit to America reveals his anti-Americanism, which will grow at the end of the 1940s.
Эдип в Клонках: К полигенезису «мельничного цикла» Хармса [Oedipus in Klonki: Understading the “Mill Cycle” by Kharms]
This article is an attempt to explain the core plot of the so-called “mill cycle” by Daniil Kharms (early 1930s). As part of this task, the author specifies some known subtexts (from Goethe, Pushkin, Zabolotsky, occult literature) and introduces some previously unknown ones (from Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Poe, Khlebnikov, etc.). In line with his long-term work in the field poetics, the author adheres to the belief that all the significant subtexts of the cycle are closely linked by an intelligible and reconstructable interrelationship. This dictates the entire course of the study, which purposefully reveals the relative character of the motivations behind Kharms’s intertextual techniques. Olga Freidenberg’s 1928 paper unexpectedly turns out to be a “dispatch center” of sorts responsible for the semantic coordination of this literary polyphony.
«Сладкая смерть» в романе Андрея Николева «По ту сторону Тулы»: _Retractatio_ [“The Delicious Death” in Andrei Nikolev’s _Beyond Tula_: A _retractatio_]
Correcting his own suggestion made in the 2023 article (cf. Slavica Revalensia, vol. 10), the author points to the source of one of the passages in Andrei Nikolev’s (A. N. Egunov) novel Beyond Tula (1930, published in 1931): the story of the “delicious death” of a honey-hunter is taken from Moby-Dick.
Andrei Nikolev (Andrei Egunov, 1895—1968)
«Придумайте что-нибудь и приезжайте сюда»: Переписка Виктора и Любови Залкиндов с Алексеем и Серафимой Ремизовыми [“Think of Something and Come Here”: Victor and Liubov Salkind’s Correspondence with Aleksey and Serafima Remizov]
This annotated publication of letters to and from Jerusalem is part of the larger project “Aleksei Remizov in the Cultural Space of Eretz Israel” (cf. Slavica Revalensia, vol. 11). The present selection covers the period from August 6, 1922 to June 15, 1939 (with two additional letters written during the final months of World War II).
Обезьяньи письмена и загадочные «чиганашки»: Об одном анекдоте из биографии А. М. Ремизова [Monkey Scriptures and Mysterious _Chiganashki_: An Episode from Alexey Remizov’s Life Story]
The article focuses on an unusual episode in Alexei Remizov’s life, when shortly after the Revolution his apartment was searched, and visitors mistook a text written in Glagolitic script for a secret code. This story survived in three versions: Maksim Gorky’s account and two versions by Remizov himself. The comparison of these three versions helps to reveal the genesis of a literary anecdote—the genre that played a particularly important role in Remizov’s biography.
Искусство _vs_ искусства: К орфической топике позднего Блока (музыка/ритм) [Art vs the Arts: Orphic Ideas in the Late Alexander Blok (Music/Rhythm)]
This article explores the concept of rhythm in Alexander Blok’s later works. While in the 1900s, Blok, who was a supporter of the utilitarian idea of literature, understood rhythm as the primary tool for lyric poetry’s impact on the world (using Karl Bücher’s theories on the genesis and role of rhythm), during the Revolution, he declared rhythm to be the phenomenon underlying art as a whole. Moreover, following Richard Wagner’s “Art and Revolution” he completely rejected the idea of differentiating the arts and took a decidedly negative view of the specification of aesthetic value as such, that is, the very foundations of the cultural system of modernity. How is the concept of rhythm in Blok’s thinking connected to his rejection of the division of labor in the aesthetic sphere? What is the reason for his complete disregard for aesthetic modernity? These are just a few questions this article will address.
«Ничто-ничто не пропадает»: Михаил Владимирович Безродный (16 февраля 1957 — 18 ноября 2023) [“Nothing is Lost, Nothing Whatever”: In Memoriam Michail Bezrodnyj (February 16, 1957 — November 18, 2023)]
This is an obituary for Dr. Michail Bezrodnyj of Heidelberg University, a scholar and a man of letters, whose debut book End of the Quote (1996) is regarded as one of the major achievements of contemporary Russian literature.
Copyright (c) 2023 Slavica Revalensia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Graduate Student Conference in Russian Language and Literatures (Helsinki—Tallinn—Tartu)
This is an overview of a newly established series of Estonian-Finnish conferences on Russian language and literatures (russkaia filologiia). In 2023, this conference united graduate students from Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Switzerland, the US and Uzbekistan. The first conference of the series took place at Tallinn University from May 12 to 14, 2023, while the upcoming two conferences will be held in Tartu (2024) and Helsinki (2025).
Дело страстей. Рец. на кн.: Велижев М. Чаадаевское дело: Идеология, риторика и государственная власть в николаевской России. М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2022 [L’affaire des passions. Review of _Chaadaevskoe delo: Ideologiia, ritorika i gosudarstvennaia vlast’ v nikolaevskoi Rossii_, by Mikhail Velizhev]
This is a review of the recently published book on the Chaadaev affair—the culmination of Mikhail Velizhev’s research, which took him over twenty years to complete.
Справка (К вопросу об источниковедении и некоторых других вопросах) [A Background Check (On the Question of Archival Sources and Some Other Questions]
This is a rejoinder to the speech from December 9, 2021, which served the purpose of providing Russia’s Supreme Court with a pretext for the closure of Memorial—a human rights organization founded in 1992 in Moscow, whose mission was to record crimes against humanity in the USSR and Russia and foster the rehabilitation of political prisoners.
Заславский vs Аткинсон: Из истории холодной войны [Zaslavsky _vs_ Atkinson: From the History of the Cold War]
The article discusses the confrontation of two reporters—Brooks Atkinson, a Moscow correspondent of The New York Times, and David Zaslavsky of Pravda in 1946. Having spent 10 months in Moscow, Brooks Atkinson perceived the signs of rising xenophobia and anti-Western sentiment in the USSR and wrote a series of articles truthfully portraying the situation behind the Iron Curtain. In response to his assertion that the Soviet people were denied freedom of speech and freedom of the press, Zaslavsky lashed out at the American reporter, blaming not only him, but Western journalism as such of being politically motivated. The vicious attack against the American journalist marked the beginning of the anti-Western campaign initiated by Soviet propaganda in the early period of the Cold War.
Маргиналии к Маршаку [Marginalia to Marshak]
The article is an attempt to find, in Soviet poetry exemplified by poetry for children, reminiscences and allusions to classical or modernist poetry. Thus, Marshak’s typically Soviet propagandist poem “Nash gerb” (“Our Coat of Arms”) is traced back to Cherubina de Gabriac's poem of the same title. Children’s verse by Marshak, as well as some lyrical and satirical poetry, comprise the main material of the paper. Some examples of Marshak’s influence on posterior Russian poetry are analyzed.
Фрагмент из рыцарского романа «Парциваль» Вольфрама фон Эшенбаха в переводе Эллиса (Льва Кобылинского) [A Fragment of the Chivalric Novel _Parzival_ by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Ellis’ (Lev Kobylinsky’s) Translation]
This is the first publication of a previously unknown translation of over 200 lines from Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which survived in Ellis’ (Lev Kobylinsky) anthology Pevtsy Germanii (Singers of Germany). Ellis started to compile this anthology with the purpose of demonstrating the incompatibility of genuine German cultural and religious traditions with the ideology of the Third Reich. His selection of texts for the translation was largely prompted by his previous studies, which included Richard Wagner and Wagner’s sources, esoteric interpretations of the image of the Holy Grail, and the reception of monuments of the Western European Middle Ages.
Булгаковский след в Балтии 1920 – 1930-х годов [Finding Traces of Bulgakov in the Baltic States of the 1920s and 1930s]
This article addresses the question of Mikhail Bulgakov’s reception in the Baltic states of the 1920s and 1930s. I focus my initial attention on the political aspect, and then proceed to aesthetic questions. My research is based on newspapers and magazines published in Estonia and Latvia in Russian, Estonian and German. Finding traces of Bulgakov in this way allows me to make certain conclusions about what Russian readers living in the Baltic states of the period thought about the events in the Soviet Union, and in particular events in the cultural sphere.
«Мачеха российских городов»: Берлин 1920-х годов глазами русских писателей [“The Stepmother of Russian Cities” Revisited: Berlin of the 1920s through the Eyes of Russian Writers]
The article examines images of Weimar Berlin in Russian literature of the 1920s. In contrast to the glamorization of Berlin as the center of modernity in art, technology, mass entertainment and sexual practices in the writings of German and West European authors of the period, most Russian writers echoed Spengler’s critique of Western civilization and portrayed the city in a negative light underlining its boredom, ugliness, and the lack of vitality. For them, Berlin was like a huge transfer station that they were eager to leave as soon as possible. A smaller group of Russian émigrés that stayed in Berlin for a long time tried to ignore the hostile outside world and absorb themselves in their Russian memories and cultural milieu. The only exception to these trends was the Berlin of Vladimir Nabokov, who managed to turn the foreign city into the main source and object of his Russian-language short stories and novels.
«Интеллигент» — одна из волошинских «личин» [“An _Intelligent_” as Part of Voloshin’s _Images_]
This article is devoted to the study of Maximilian Voloshin’s creative process. In particular, it notes that the imagery of the Lichiny (Images) section of the book Neopalimaia kupina (The Burning Bush, 1924) received further development in the multi-figured composition of the long poem Rossiia (Russia, 1924). The proof comes from the corresponding sections of a previously unpublished Voloshin’s workbook preserved in his archival collection.
Об академическом комментарии к поэзии модернизма (Случай Ахматовой) [An Academic Commentary on Modernist Poetry: The Case of Akhmatova]
This article is the extended version of the keynote lecture Roman Timenchik delivered on May 12, 2023 at Tallinn University at the opening ceremony of a newly established Graduate Student Conference in Russian Language and Literatures (Helsinki—Tallinn—Tartu). Roman Timenchik singles out five principles of annotating a text and the eleven sections required for the ideal annotated edition of Anna Akhmatova’s poetry.
Русская литературная собака (Материалы к биографическому словарю) [The Russian Literary Dog: Materials for a Biographical Dictionary]
This unconventional dictionary, having over 100 entries, is the first attempt ever to list dogs that belonged to Russian turn-of-the-century and 20th-century writers (for example, Alexander Blok, Anton Chekhov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Maximilian Voloshin, etc.).
19th and 20th-Century Russian Literature
Из материалов для комментария к «Капитанской дочке» (26–42) [Notes and Queries on _The Captain’s Daughter_ (26–42)]
The following notes highlight some of the structural patterns and textual fragments of Alexander Pushkin’s Captain’s Daughter overlooked by previous scholarship. Thus, I address the narrative strategy of shifting a character’s attributes so that the character’s initial connotations are seamlessly transformed into their opposites. This corresponds to the novel’s overall narrative principle of relativizing the seemingly obvious and stable. Additionally, I explore some of the narrative formulas specific to the historical novel, and comment on some of the historical information on the everyday life and social realities of 18th-century Russia contained in The Captain’s Daughter (the various forms of currency used by the different classes; Pugachev’s military equipment, etc.).
Yemelyan Pugachev’s rebellion (1772—1774)
От составителей [Gabriel Superfin at 80: Section Editors’ Note]
This brief note preceds the section, which contains 10 articles written on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Gabriel Superfin—a scholar, a human rights activist, and one of the brightest minds of his generation. The section’s contributors are Alexander Ospovat (Moscow / Los Angeles), Alexander Sobolev (Moscow / Jerusalem), Roman Timenchik (Jerusalem), Alexander Lavrov (St. Petersburg), Alexander Dolinin (Madison / St. Petersburg), Irina Belobrovtseva (Tallinn), Fedor Poljakov (Vienna), Georgii Levinton (St. Petersburg), Galina Lapina (Madison / St. Petersburg), and Boris Ravdin (Riga).
Неоконченное стихотворение Анны Ахматовой «Из завещания Васильки»: Претекст и контекст [Anna Akhmatova’s Unfinished Poem “Iz zaveshchaniia Vasil’ki: Pretext and Context]
This paper aims to establish the source of Anna Akhmatova’s five-line poem “Iz zaveshchaniia Vasil’ki” composed in Kiev in 1909 and describing the life of a widowed kniaginia (princess). The paper shows that Akhmatova’s text is very close to the excerpt from East Slavic chronicles included in the list of suggested reading, which Akhmatova could not have missed during her studies in Kiev.
Об одном гетевском подтексте у Егунова и Кузмина (Примечание к статье В. В. Зельченко) [On a Goethean Subtext in Nikolev and Kuzmin: A Note to Vsevolod Zeltchenko’s Article]
This paper aims to complement Vsevolod Zeltchenko’s addenda to a recently published annotated edition of Beyond Tula by Andrei Nikolev (Andrei Egunov).
В сторону Тулы: Заметки и дополнения к новому изданию романа Андрея Николева [_Du côté de Toula_: Notes and Supplements to the New Edition of _Beyond Tula_ by Andrei Nikolev]
This paper aims to offer a supplement to the rich and suggestive commentary by A. Agapov, D. Bresler and Chr. Konstantinova in the recent (2022) edition of the novel Beyond Tula (1931) by Andrei Nikolev (a pseudonym of A. N. Egunov, a classical scholar, translator, and poet). The article, in its collection of remarks, identifies a number of quotations and allusions present in Nikolev’s chef-d’œuvre as well as some sources of his inspiration and features of his narrative techniques.
О времени выхода в свет отдельного издания «Охранной грамоты» Бориса Пастернака [Concerning the Publication Date of Boris Pasternak’s _Safe Conduct_ First Edition]
This paper aims to show that Boris Pasternak’s Safe Conduct was published two months before what was previously thought to be the book’s official publication date—not in November 1931, but in the early September. The article also provides some previously unknown information about Valentin Stenich (Valentin Smetanich).
Valentin Stenich (Valentin Smetanich, 1900—1938)
Стихотворение с загадочным посвящением, или Даниил Хармс смотрит Чарли Чаплина [A Poem with a Mysterious Dedication, or Daniil Kharms Watching Chaplin]
This essay offers a reading of a mysterious poem by Daniil Kharms “O tom kak Ivan Ivanovich poprosil i chto iz etogo vyshlo” (“How Ivan Ivanovich Asked and What Came of It”). The poem is analyzed in the context of time, from the noise of which emerge the events and details required to decipher “How Ivan Ivanovich Asked and What Came of It,” starting with the poem’s dedication. More broadly, reading in context allows us to explain some features of Kharms’ poetry in general starting from his “Vzir’ Záumi” (1925—1926) and ending with “Exercises in Classic Meters” (1933—1934).
Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, 1889—1977)
Контуры одной традиции: «Ариец», «семит» и природа (Вокруг полемики Александра Блока и Акима Волынского об иудаизме Гейне) [Outlines of a Forgotten Prejudice: “Aryans,” “Semites,” and Nature (The Polemics of Alexander Blok and Akim Volynsky Concerning Heine’s Judaism)]
At the end of 1919, literary critic Akim Volynsky and poet Alexander Blok exchanged polemical remarks about Heinrich Heine’s attitude towards Judaism. In the course of this debate, one strange thesis arose, expressed by Volynsky and fully supported by Blok: the Jews, compared to the Aryans (they were talking about both religious and racial differences), turn out to be in their worldview indifferent to nature. An attempt to find the genesis of, and to comment on, this idea, strange for today, expressed by a prominent Russian literary critic and outstanding poet, leads the researcher to Hegel’s philosophy of history, its articulations by some of his readers and listeners (including Heine himself), the history of French thought of the 19th century, in particular to the philosophy of religion of Edgar Quinet and the history of Semitic languages written by Ernest Renan, as well as numerous echoеs of the deliberations of Renan (who canonized for European culture the idea of the indifference of Jews to nature) in the history of Russian modernism (Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vasily Rozanov). The outlines of this now almost forgotten intellectual tradition, without which it is impossible to understand some texts in Russian modernism, are the subject of this article.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770—1831)
Спин-офф одного комментария: Речь Н. В. Недоброво [Spin-off from an Annotation: A Speech by Nikolai Nedobrovo]
This article examines a series of celebrations dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Konstantin Bal’mont’s literary career. Its major focus is the event that took place on March 11, 1912 in the hall of the Saint Petersburg Governorate zemstvo. The article gives an overview of the details of the event’s organization, its participants, and reflections on the event in the press, emphasizing the fact that Bal’mont’s anniversary became one of the very few reasons that Saint Petersburg artists would unite. It culminates with a previously unpublished draft of the speech by Nikolai Nedobrovo delivered on the occasion.