Entertaining Tsarist Russia

This anthology introduces readers to Tsarist Russia's emerging popular and commercial urban culture and the individuals and groups that produced and consumed it. The selections translated here illustrate in colorful detail how the experiences and the composition of Russian society and culture evolved from the late eighteenth century through the 1917 revolution, in response to economic, technological, and political changes. Fortunetelling and etiquette manuals, thieves' tales, children's literature, popular songs, war stories, women's novels, satires of life in America, and vaudeville skits are just a few of the genres represented.

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction

xiii

Note on Transliteration

xxvii

Part I: The Heyday of Absolutism, Late Eighteenth Century--1825

Anecdotes about Balakirev (Traditional Tales)

4

(2)

Tales of the Ancient Poshekhonians (1798)

6

(4)

Vasily Berezaisky

Teller of Old Moscow Tales, The Merry Old Fellow (1790)

10

(2)

The Ancient and Modern Divinatory Oracle (1821)

12

(3)

Martin Zadek

Guak, or Unbounded Devotion: A Knightly Tale (18th century)

15

(8)

The Tale of Vanka Kain (1815)

23

(8)

The New Sterne (1805)

31

(10)

A. A. Shakhovskoi

``Traditional Songs'' (Late 18th century)*

41

(8)

Part II: Commerce Asserts Its Mediating Presence, 1825--1860

Ermak Timofeich (1845)

49

(8)

Nikolai Polevoi

Filatka and Miroshka the Rivals (1833)

57

(8)

Pavel Grigoriev, Jr.

Ivan Vyzhigin (1829)

65

(9)

Faddei Bulgarin

The Little Humpbacked Horse (1834)

74

(3)

Petr Ershov

The History of Russia Told for Children (1838)

77

(6)

Aleksandra Ishimova

The Battle of the Russians with the Kabardinians (1842)

83

(10)

Nikolai Zriakhov

Etiquette Manuals (1849--1911)

93

(12)

Street Types

105

(2)

M. Pikki

K. Richau

God Save the Tsar (1833)*

107

(1)

Aleksei Lvov

Dark Eyes (1843)*

108

(1)

Evgeny Grebenka

The Great Moscow Fire (1850)*

109

(2)

N. Sokolov

Elegy (Khas-Bulat) (1858)*

111

(8)

Aleksandr Ammosov

O. Kh. Agrenova-Slavianskaia

Part III: Great Reforms and the Expansion of Civic Space, 1861--1881

Balagan Advertisements, Malafeev Theater (1883)

119

(2)

The Slums of Petersburg (1864)

121

(8)

Vsevolod Krestovsky

How the Russian Gave It Hot to a German (1869)

129

(6)

Oh Those Yaroslavites, What a Fine Folk! (1868)

135

(6)

Fedor Ivanich Kuz'ma

The Slums of the Female Heart (1870)

141

(8)

Correspondence from the Russo-Turkish War (1876--77)

149

(5)

Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko

War Stories from the Present-Day War with the Turks (1879)

154

(2)

M. Evstigneev

Where Is It Better? (1873)

156

(10)

L. A. Tikhomirov

A Flask of Hooch (1882)

166

(7)

Gypsy Romances*

173

(10)

Part IV: Political Stagnation vs. Rapid Industrialization, 1882--1905

Scenes from a Third-Class Car (recorded circa 1910)*

183

(3)

B. S. Borisov

V. A. Kriger

Sarah Bernhardt (1891)

186

(12)

M. L. Lentovsky

The Queen of Diamonds (1908--1910)

198

(5)

V. P. Valentinov

Anecdotes (1840--1917)

203

(9)

Moscow Court Reporting, The Moscow Sheet (Early 1880s)

212

(5)

The Terrible Wedding Night (1883)

217

(4)

Aleksei Pazukhin

The Terrible Bandit Churkin (1885)

221

(9)

Where the Oranges Ripen (1892)

230

(9)

N. A. Leikin

Messrs. Businessmen (1890s)

239

(5)

I. I. Miasnitsky

The Diary of Maria Bashkirtseva (1889)

244

(6)

Ivanov Pavel (1901)

250

(9)

V. M. Doroshevich

Song of The Stormy Petrel (1901)

259

(2)

Maxim Gorky

Light-Fingered Sonya (1903)

261

(8)

M. D. Klefortov

Revolutionary Songs (Late 19th Century)*

269

(9)

Part V: The Eruption of Commercial Culture in the Interrevolutionary Years, 1906--1917

Vaudeville Skits (1905--1910)*

278

(7)

Why Was I Born into This World? Tobolsk Prison Song (1908)*

285

(1)

K[onstantin] R[omanov], The Poor Fellow Died (circa 1910)*

286

(4)

Marusia Poisoned Herself (1915)*

290

(2)

Russian Sob Sister (1910)

292

(3)

Olga Gridina

How the Lasses Burned a Lad in the Stove (1911)

295

(4)

Al. Aleksandrovsky

The Wrath of God (1909)

299

(7)

V. I. Kryzhanovskaia

The Little Siberian Girl (Sibirochka) (1910)

306

(10)

Lidiia Charskaia

The African Princess (Vampuka) (1907)

316

(7)

M. N. Volkonsky

Gladiators of Our Times (1909)

323

(6)

N. N. Breshko-Breshkovsky

Sanin (1908)

329

(4)

Mikhail Artsybashev

The Keys to Happiness (1913)

333

(4)

Anastasia Verbitskaia

The Vanquished (1912)

337

(2)

Count Amori

Do You Remember? (1915)*

339

(2)

Petr Chardynin

The Wrath of Dionysus (1910)

341

(8)

E. A. Nagrodskaia

The Countess-Actress (1916)

349

(13)

Count Amori

The Bloody Talisman (1915)

362

(15)

Nat Pinkerton

The Headlands of Manchuria (1906--1908)*

377

(2)

The Heroic Feat of the Don Cossack Kuzma Firsovich Kriuchkov (1914)

379

(4)

Jackals (1916)

383

(2)

Sergei Sokolsky

Rasputin's Nighttime Orgies (1917)

385

(6)

V. V. Ramazanov

Glossary

391

(2)

Selected Bibliography

393

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Entertaining Tsarist Russia

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials