Classics of Russian Literature | December’s Uprising and Two Poets Meet (Lecture 5)

Lecture 5: In 1825, a group of aristocrats attempted an uprising on a St. Petersburg square. Naively, given that they had no widespread support, they thought they could overthrow the tsarist regime and replace it with a republic. Among these would-be revolutionaries were many friends of Pushkin. After an interview with the new tsar, the poet managed to extricate himself from these associations. He then discovered the work of another great poet - William Shakespeare, whose works Pushkin read in French translation. He was particularly impressed by the plays written about the guilt-ridden Henry IV, and he decided to respond in Russian. The result was his tragedy Boris Godunov, concerning events surrounding Russia’s early-17th-century “Time of Troubles.”

The tragedy involves a Russian tsar who made his way to the throne by means of a murder and suffered the pangs of conscience. Naturally, the play had considerable political resonance on the Russian scene, which had just witnessed an attempted regime change. The resonance of the play was made even more powerful two generations later, when one of the greatest Russian composers, Modest Mussorgsky, converted the tragedy into one of the world’s greatest operas, Boris Godunov.

Suggested Reading and Listening:
Modest Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov, an opera based on the play.
Aleksandr Pushkin, Boris Godunov.
Aleksandr Pushkin, The Poems, Prose, and Plays of Alexander Pushkin, edited by Avrahm Yarmolinsky.
William Shakespeare, Richard II; Henry IV, Part One; Henry IV, Part Two; Henry V.