Diplomats with pro-German leanings unsurprisingly shared Sazonov’s positive views about German culture, but not his wider anti-German resentments. Petr Botkin, for example, who served at the Embassies in the USA and Portugal, remembered that he had to think of no one less than Goethe’s last words — «mehr Licht!» — when he first entered the dark corridors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg. He also was a great admirer of the music of Bach, Beethoven and, in particular, Richard Wagner, whom he mentions several times in his memoirs[1363]. Iurii Solov’ev, who later was one of the first tsarist diplomats to join the Bolsheviks, apparently had a late start in his Foreign Service career because of his pro-German attitudes. He had become a victim of Izvol’skii’s personnel policies (at least so he thought). When he finally received a diplomatic post and arrived in Stuttgart in 1909 «in order to find out in reality the German attitude towards Russia which was always shown in a hostile light in St. Petersburg», he was utterly surprised. Like Botkin, he liked Wagner’s music and frequently visited the Bayreuth Festival. But he was also deeply impressed by the cleanliness of Württemberg villages and the excellent conditions of German roads. As a proud member of the German automobile association, ADAC, he clearly knew what he was writing about[1364]. Others based their image of Germany on less concrete facts. Dmitrii Abrikosov, for example, who was mostly stationed at posts in Asia and had little experience with Russo-German relations proper, still thought highly of German virtues. In his case, this attitude was determined by the admiration for a former superior. He started his career as attache at the Embassy in London under Count Alexander Benckendorff and later reminisced that «the Russian character was much more difficult to deal with than that of the disciplined Germans». He then concluded that this is «the main reason perhaps why our diplomatic service is full of barons from the Baltic provinces»[1365].
It should be noted that some of these Baltic barons themselves held rather critical views of Germany and can thus not automatically be counted as pro-Germans simply because of their names and ancestries. Benckendorff, for example, was a passionate anglophile and an ardent supporter of Russia’s rapprochement with Britain, who believed that the German Empire posed the biggest danger to Russia It seems ironic then that the Anglo-Russian Entente (1907) had to be negotiated in St. Petersburg instead of London, allegedly because there was so little confidence in the personnel of the Russian Embassy there which, according to the popular newspaper «Novoe Vremia», was filled with «foreigners»[1366]. Roman Rosen, the ambassador in Washington (1905–1911) and later member of the State Council, was critical of irrational attitudes on both sides. In his memoirs, he attacks pan-Germanism, the disease of the «swelled head» and German «inability to understand other people’s mentality». For Russia, in turn, he bemoans the absence of a «feeling of personal responsibility for the condition of public affairs», attributes a «fatalistic strain» to the Russian national character and, after warning of the dangers of pan-Slavism to Russian foreign relations, demands a policy of «reason and competent statesmanship»[1367].
It is interesting that none of the pro-Germans quoted here stood out as particularly conservative. They were thus not quite fitting the customary pattern that pro-Germans in Russian politics tended to belong to conservative circles and to be close to the monarchy, the Ministry of the Interior or the radical Right[1368]. But perhaps these crude divisions into pro— and anti-Germans are themselves not particularly helpful and such categorizations of people just too simplistic in explaining a complex web of relations, politics and personal attitudes. It may well be that Izvol’skii and Savinskii were more the exception than the norm when it came to frankly expressing national stereotypes and taking sides. Most memoirists, it appears, avoided too offensive value judgements when it came to revealing their image of Germany or generally positioning themselves in relation to another country. As true diplomats, they would have failed their career, if they had done so. Consequently, most of them continued to present their public persona rather than their innermost personal thoughts in their memoirs. Once a diplomat, always a diplomat, one might say. But as the examples have shown, Foreign Service officials also were just ordinary human beings who developed their ideas about Germany from a plethora of very different experiences and impressions. These were not always associated with high politics, diplomatic rancour or nationalist ideologies. Most of the time, they had their roots in culture and the arts. As we have seen with Sazonov, these ideas could also change over time. They reached from love and admiration to rejection and deep hatred. It was characteristic for the venomous atmosphere of the time, that anything in between hardly registered in the official discourse. By 1914, the «love-hate relationship»[1369] between Russia and Germany had firmly swung in the direction of the latter, with according results for the mutual perceptions of the two countries. Yet World War and Revolution eventually also led to new beginnings, with cultural links spearheading new political relations in the 1920s. But that is an altogether different story.
Константин Маркович Азадовский:
Библиография (1958–2011)
Предлагаемая библиография представляет собой список публикаций К. М. Азадовского на русском и иностранных языках, изданных в СССР/ России и за рубежом с 1958 года по 1 июня 2011-го. В него включены работы по истории и теории литературы, а также литературная критика, поэтические и прозаические переводы, публицистика, интервью. Материал расположен в хронологическом порядке, в пределах одного года — в алфавите авторов и заглавий. Библиографические описания разных изданий одного текста, а также фрагменты этих текстов регистрируются под первой публикацией. В список не вошли отклики и рецензии на сочинения К. М. Азадовского, а также статьи о его жизни и деятельности. Список не снабжен справочным аппаратом. Материалы библиографии описаны de visu. Библиографическое описание дано в соответствии с ГОСТ 7.1–2003 «Библиографическая запись. Библиографическое описание». Исключение сделано для сведений о соавторах: они приведены в примечаниях.
1. [Перевод и установление текстов немецких поэтов] // Обручев В. А. В старой Сибири: Сб. ст., воспоминаний и писем, 1888–1955. — Иркутск, 1958. — С. 54, 286.
2. Бехер И. С. Борьба и знание: сонет / пер. с нем. // Звезда. — 1959. — № 11. — С. 128.
3. Альберти Р. Песня ангела-неудачника; Приглашение в воздух; Элегия поэту, который встретил не свою смерть: (Федерико Гарсиа Лорка); Кадис, мечта моего детства; Гадирская Атлантида; Риотинто, адское озеро; Песня бедных рыбаков из Кадиса; Мощь Геракла / пер. с исп. // Альберти Р. Стихи: пер. с исп. / сост., вступ. ст. Р. Зерновой; ред. пер. Э. Линецкой; примеч. Г. Шмакова. — М.; Л., 1963. — С. 94–95, 160, 215–217, 221–225, 237–239.
Др. публ.: Альберти Р. Риотинто, адское озеро; Песня бедных рыбаков из Кадиса//Альберти Р. Стихи. — М., 1966. — С. 138, 143–145; Альберти Р. Приглашение в воздух // Испанские поэты XX века. — М., 1977. — С. 488.
4. Поэзия Луиса Фюрнберга: (сб. «Ад, ненависть и любовь», «Вступающий в утро» и «Чудесный закон») // Сборник студенческих научных работ. Сер. гуманитар, наук / Ленингр. гос. ун-т им. А. А. Жданова. — Л., 1963. — С. 74–80.
5. Брехт Б. Разговоры беженцев: гл. 4 / пер. с нем. // Брехт Б. Театр: в 5 т. — М., 1964. — Т. 4. — С. 24–31. — Совместно с Ю. А. Афонькиным.
6. Моралес P. O. «Роза цветет на могиле…»: стихи / пер. с исп. // Молодежь Грузии. — Тбилиси, 1964. — 19 сент. — С. 4; В сокр. под загл.: Пискаревское кладбище // Лит. газ. — 1964. — 25 янв.
7. [Переводы стихов немецких поэтов] // Меринг Ф. Литературно-критические статьи. — М.; Л., 1964. — С. 51, 54–58, 67, 208, 211, 235, 237, 256, 363, 364.
8. Шиллер Ф. Руссо: стихи / предисл., с. 109–110 (Полный текст стихотворения Шиллера, пер. с нем.) // Вопр. лит. — 1964. — № 2. — С. 109–111.
9. Вальверде Х. М. Европа; Гарфиас П. Рабочие; Моралес P. O. В поисках образа; Гильен X. Современный способ быть ребенком; Матео X. Возьми мое сердце, возьми!: стихи / пер. с исп. // Молодежь Грузии. — Тбилиси, 1965. — 9 окт. — С. 1.
Др. публ.: Моралес P. O. В поисках образа: стихи / пер. с исп. // Нева. — 1965. — № 6. — С. 94.
10. Гильен Н. [Стихи] / пер. с исп. // Плавскин З. И. Николас Гильен: критико-биогр. очерк. — М., 1965. — С. 11, 13, 19, 20–21, 28–29, 33, 34, 47–48, 53, 58, 63, 64, 69, 78, 80, 81, 86, 87, 98–99, 103–105, 113, 128, 139–140, 142.
11. Отеро Л. В голубом форде: новелла / пер. с исп. // Кубинская новелла XX века. — М.; Л., 1965. — С. 390–396.
12. Вальехо С. Страус: стихи / пер. с исп. / Вальехо С. Черные герольды. — М., 1966. — С. 40–41.
13. Поэзия жизни: [рец. на кн.: Стихи друзей: поэты Болгарии, Венгрии, ГДР, Польши, Румынии, Чехословакии, Югославии / пер. под ред. Е. Винокурова. М.: Худож. лит., 1965] // Иностр. лит. — 1966. — № 11. — С. 265–266.
1365
Revelations of a Russian Diplomat. The Memoirs of Dmitrii I. Abrikossow. Seattle, 1964. P. 129.
1366
According to Abrikosov in ibid. P. 112, 129; see also: