Entertaining Tsarist Russia

by Von Geldern, James; McReynolds, Louise

• ISBN13: 9780253334077
• ISBN10: 0253334071
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

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