The 18th century
The 18th century was a period of codification, imitation, and absorption of foreign models. The century's major contribution was the development of a literary language (Russian language). Under the pressure of new subject matter and the influx of foreign expressions, Church Slavonic proved inadequate, and the resulting linguistic chaos required the standardization of literary Russian. In 1758 Mikhail Lomonosov (Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich) published “Predisloviye o polze knig tserkovnykh v rossiyskom yazyke” (“Preface on the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language”) in which he classified Russian and Church Slavonic words, assigning their use to three styles, and correlated these styles with appropriate themes, genres, and tones. Thus the Russian literary language was to be established by a combination of Russian and Church Slavonic.
Verse also changed decisively. The old syllabic verse, based on qualities of the Polish language, gave way to syllabotonic verse (i.e., verse in which the number of stressed syllables in each line becomes the dominant prosodic element), more suitable to Russian. Theories of versification were advanced by Vasily Trediakovsky in 1735 and 1752 and, especially, by Lomonosov in 1739 (the date Belinsky chose as the beginning of Russian literature). It is also noteworthy that the Petrine assault on the church decisively ended the role of the clergy in Russian literature.
Throughout the 18th century Russian writers imitated, adapted, and experimented with a wide variety of European genres, thus grafting them onto the Russian tradition and making them available for later, more original, use. Much classical and western European literature was translated, read, and assimilated, thus producing a kind of telescopic effect, as works and movements that were centuries apart were absorbed at the same time. Four writers dominate the period from the death of Peter to the ascension of Catherine II the Great in 1762. Antiokh Kantemir is best known for his verse satires. In addition to his treatises and poems in various genres, Trediakovsky produced a poetic psalter. Lomonosov, who was also a scientist and played a key role in founding Moscow State University (1755), achieved his greatest poetic success in panegyric and spiritual odes, especially “Oda na vzyatiye Khotina” (1739; “Ode on the Seizure of Khotin”), “Vecherneye razmyshleniye o Bozhiyem velichestve” (1743; “Evening Meditation on the Majesty of God”), and “Utrenneye razmyshleniye o Bozhiyem velichestve” (1743; “Morning Meditation on the Majesty of God”). Whereas Baroque poetics strongly influenced Trediakovsky and Lomonosov, the younger Aleksandr Sumarokov, a poet and dramatist, stood for a rigorous and lucid classicism.
Catherine II the Great
Catherine began her reign as an enlightened despot. She corresponded with Voltaire and Denis Diderot and sponsored the arts. Although her native language was German, she has to her credit a number of plays in Russian as well as a statement of legal principles, Nakaz (Instruction). In 1769 she established a satiric journal, Vsyakaya vsyachina (“All Sorts and Sundries”), which was soon followed by others, including the Truten (“Drone”), founded by Nikolay Novikov (Novikov, Nikolay Ivanovich). In a curious exchange between journals, Novikov and Catherine disagreed with each other about the nature of satire—like the Kurbsky-Ivan correspondence in the 16th century, it was a case of a sovereign deigning to argue with a subject. Shocked by an uprising of Cossacks and peasants (1773–75), known from the name of its leader as the Pugachov Rebellion, and later by the French Revolution, Catherine turned increasingly conservative. Generally speaking, these events marked a turning point as the Russian autocracy switched from being a modernizing to a restraining force. When Aleksandr Radishchev (Radishchev, Aleksandr Nikolayevich) published Puteshestviye iz Peterburga v Moskvu (1790; A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow), a work that was sharply critical of Russian society and serfdom, Catherine had him condemned to death, a sentence she commuted to Siberian exile. Offended by a posthumously published play by Yakov Knyazhnin (1742–91), Vadim Novgorodsky (“Vadim of Novgorod”), she had copies of the manuscript burned and the published text torn from the offending volume.
Poetry
Catherine's reign saw real accomplishment in Russian poetry. Excellent verse was produced, and the canon as it is known today began to take shape. It is worth stressing the important role of tradition and the canon in Russian poetry. To a much greater extent than in many other traditions, including the English and American, Russian poetry typically relies on the reader's detailed knowledge of earlier poems. The poems of the past constitute a sort of literary bible, a common culture known in detail by the literate public. Poets count on their readers being sufficiently familiar with the tradition to detect even faint allusions to earlier poems. Moreover, Russian poets also rely on readers to appreciate the semantic associations that specific verse forms have acquired, which is perhaps one reason why free (unrhymed and unmetered) verse has played a relatively small role in Russian poetry.
Three poets—Ivan Khemnitser, Ivan Dmitriyev, and Ivan Krylov (Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich)—are known for their fables. Krylov's fables rapidly became classics and some of his lines proverbial. Rossiyada (written 1771–79; “The Rossiad”), an epic by Mikhail Kheraskov, is a rather stilted effort that proved a literary dead end. It was the ode, rather than the epic, that was the successful high poetic genre of the age. But Vasily Maykov and Ippolit Bogdanovich wrote amusing mock epics. Maykov's Elisey; ili, razdrazhenny Vakkh (1769; “Elisei; or, Bacchus Enraged”) cleverly parodies a Russian translation of the Aeneid with a narrative in which the Greek pantheon directs whores, drunks, and other low-lifes. In Dushenka: drevnyaya povest v volnykh stikhakh (1783; “Dushenka: An Ancient Tale in Free Verse”), Bogdanovich produced a light and witty updating of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche.
Gavrila Derzhavin (Derzhavin, Gavrila Romanovich) is generally considered to be Russia's greatest 18th-century poet. He is best known for his odes, including his chatty panegyric “Oda k Felitse” (1782; “Ode to Felitsa”), in which praise for the prosaic virtues of Empress Catherine alternates with depictions of the low amusements of courtiers. His poems “Bog” (1784; “God”) and “Vodopad” (1791–94; “The Waterfall”) daringly make the metaphysical concrete and the specific poetic. Derzhavin, who also served as a governor and as Catherine's personal secretary, exemplifies the tendency of 18th-century writers to pursue government careers, a practice that was almost unthinkable a century later.