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“My Literary and Moral Wanderings”: Apollon Grigor'ev and the Changing Cultural Topography of Moscow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Robert Whittaker
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Modern Russian literature created its image of Moscow by depicting a number of typical inhabitants of the city and by identifying specific locales in which they lived. These settings — buildings, streets, squares, small neighborhoods, and larger regions — lent the authenticity of recognizable landmarks to generalizations about personality and life style. Similarly, descriptions of “typical” if fictitious Muscovites provided actual Moscow locations with specific, characteristic qualities. As these literary images of Moscow evolved, so too did their settings: first one area and then another became the “typical” Moscow. Thus the city's cultural topography changed with the values symbolized by Moscow's landmarks and local populations.

In nineteenth-century Russian memoir literature no work succeeds better than “My Literary and Moral Wanderings” at vividly evoking the historical circumstances of a specific time and place. In this, his best known work, the critic and poet Apollon Aleksandrovich Grigor'ev (1822–1864) depicted the Moscow of his childhood in the late 1820s and early 1830s. However, writing in 1862 and 1864, Grigor'ev described a Moscow that had changed radically in the intervening thirty years. The city's image had been preeminently aristocratic for several decades following 1812, but by mid-century a new image of merchant Moscow began to appear. The “Wanderings” confirm this change with rich descriptive material illustrating the concomitant shift in the city's cultural topography.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , Fall 1983 , pp. 390 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1983

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References

1. For a valuable survey and analysis of descriptions contributing to Moscow's image, see Paul Gregory, “The Theme of Moscow in Russian Literature of the 19th century” (in Russian; Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 1973).

2. “Moi literaturnye i nravstvennye skital'chestva” originally appeared in Vremia, 1862, nos. 11 and 12, and in Epokha, 1864, nos. 3 and 5. References here are to the edition in Egorov, B. F., ed., Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia (Leningrad, 1980)Google Scholar. I have used my own translations in order to preserve details of Grigor'ev's often awkward style, which is remarkably improved in Ralph Matlaw's otherwise excellent rendering, My Literary and Moral Wanderings and Other Autobiographical Material by Apollon Grigoryev (New York: Dutton, 1962).

3. Grigor'ev abandoned the numbering system of the first installment (a “part one” consisting of five numbered chapters). There is no second part, although the second installment bears the subtitle “Childhood” and begins numbering anew (chapters 1 and 2). The third installment continues with chapters 3 through 6, although they do not follow a strict chronology, and the fourth installment consists of two unnumbered chapters.

4. “Zapiski zamoskvoretskogo zhitelia” in A. N. Ostrovskii, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v dvenadtsati tomdkh (Moscow, 1973), 1:32-61.

5. Ibid., p. 59.

6. Ibid., pp. 56, 58.

7. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 10.

8. For an analysis of the prototypes for “Gore ot uma,” of their life style and setting, see M. Gershenzon, Griboedovskaia Moskva, 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1916).

9. Letter of April 7, 1850, in M. D. Prybunov et al., eds., Neizdannyepis'ma iz arkhiva A. N. Ostrovskogo (Moscow-Leningrad, 1932), p. 336. To satisfy the censorship the title of “Bankrut” was changed to “Svoi liudi — sochtemsia!” when it appeared in Moskvitianin, 1850, no. 6 (March). The theatrical censorship was stricter: the play premiered only on January 16, 1861, in Petersburg.

10. “Puteshestvie iz Moskvy v Peterburg” in A. S. Pushkin, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh (Moscow-Leningrad, 1936), 5:359-61.

11. Robert Gohstand, “The Internal Geography of Trade in Moscow from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the First World War (Volumes 1-3)” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1973), 1:17-18.

12. Gershenzon, Griboedovskaia Moskva, p. 19

13. “Panorama Moskvy” in Lermontov, M. Iu, Sobranie sochinenii v chetyrekh tomakh, 2nd ed. (Leningrad, 1981), 4:339 Google Scholar. For a rich sampling of poetry describing aristocratic Moscow, see Ponamarev, S. I., ed., Moskva v rodnoi poezii (St. Petersburg, 1880).Google Scholar

14. “Gore ot uma,” act 1, lines 90-91.

15. “Evgenii Onegin,” chapter 7, strophes 36-38. Although Tat'iana, appropriately enough, stayed in another part of Moscow not traditionally associated with its aristocratic image (on the corner of Griboedov Street and Bol'shoi Khariton'evskii Lane, see “Larinskii domik” in A., Shamaro, Deistvie proiskhodit v Moskve [Moscow, 1979], pp. 24–Google Scholar), she came to the Assembly of the Nobility to “conquer” her future husband.

16. “Bulevar” written in 1830.

17. See M. I. Pyliaev, Staraia Moskva: Rasskazy iz byloi zhizni pervoprestol'noi stolitsy (St. Petersburg, 1891), pp. 505-49.

18. A. I. Gertsen, Sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh (Moscow, 1956), 8:81-82.

19. The Taganka, also in the southeast, but between the Moscow River and the Iauza, was not in Zamoskvorech'e but in Zaiauz'e and was thoroughly merchant as well as the center for Moscow's Old Believers.

20. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 8.

21. Grigor'ev's comparison of Moscow to Rome originates not so much in their similar topography (or the parallel derivations of their regional toponyms from za Moskvoi rekoi and trans Tiberim) as perhaps from Gogol“s “Rim,” in which the critic sensed “our native Russian life style (byt)” and a vision of Moscow and Rus’ (“Zamechaniia ob otnoshenii sovremennoi kritiki k iskusstvu,” Moskvitianin, 1855, nos. 13-14 [July]). In any case, Grigor'ev's Moscow is decidedly not the “third Rome” of the Slavophiles.

22. “Moskva i Peterburg. Zametki zevaki. I. Vecher i noch’ kochuiushchego variaga v Moskve i Peterburge,” Moskovskii gorodskoi listok, 1847, 88: 352-54. Note that the subtitle also suggests “wanderings.“

23. V. Kniazhnin, ed., Apollon Aleksandrovich Grigor'ev: Materialy dlia biografii (Petrograd, 1917), p. 151.

24. “Po povodu novogo izdaniia staroi veshchi. Gore ot uma. Spb. 1862,” Vremia, 1862, no. 8. Quoted from B. F. Egorov, ed., Apollon Grigor'ev: Literaturnaia kritika (Moscow, 1967), pp. 495, 501.

25. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 56.

26. The “casual” nature of this association was conditioned by the fact that, in the months immediately before leaving for Orenburg, when he first contributed to Vremia, Grigor'ev was in debtor's prison (see R. Vittaker, “Neopublikovannye pis'ma Apollona Grigor'eva 1859-1860 gg.,“ Vestnik moskovskogo universiteta, ser. 9, 1981, no. 6, p. 49).

27. M. Lemke, Epokha tsenzurnykh reform 1859-1865 godov (St. Petersburg: Gerol'd, 1904), pp. 179ff. and 188; W. F. Woehrlin, Chernyshevskii: The Man and the Journalist (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), pp. 116ff.

28. In one of the most concentrated and productive stages of his career as a critic, Grigor'ev published nine major articles, three substantial theater reviews, and a book review in the six issues of Vremia from July through December. However, Vremia's subscribers for 1863 had only just about reached the number achieved in 1862 when the journal ceased publication in April (V. S. Nechaeva, Zhurnal M. M. i F. M. Dostoevskikh “Vremia” 1861-1863 [Moscow, 1972], p. 43).

29. See E. Wayne Dowler, “The ‘Native Soil’ (Pochvennichestvo) Movement in Russian Social and Political Thought 1850-1870” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1973), especially pp. 148-76 and 192-96.

30. “Primer apatii” (January 1862) in N. Strakhov, Iz istorii literaturnogo nigilizma 1861-1865 (St. Petersburg, 1890), pp. 113-15.

31. The chapters on Moscow (1-5 of part 2) in Panaev, 's “Literaturnye vospominaniia” appeared in Sovremennik, 1861, nos. 9 and 10Google Scholar ( V., Bograd, Zhurnal “Sovremennik” 1847-1866: Ukazatel’ soderzhaniia [Moscow-Leningrad, 1959], pp. 402, 404Google Scholar).

32. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 5.

33. I. I. Panaev, Literaturnye vospominaniia ([Moscow], 1950), pp. 145, 149, 153, 158.

34. Ibid., pp. 150, 156, 164.

35. Ibid., p. 192.

36. “Progulka po Moskve,” K. N. Batiushkov, Opyty v stikhakh i proze (Moscow, 1977), pp. 379-93.

37. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 9. The annual procession from the Uspenskii Sobor to the monastery celebrated the deliverance of Moscow from the Tatars in 1591. This tradition honoring the icon of Our Lady of the Don was instituted by Fedor I, who established the monastery (in 1592) on the site of this victory.

38. Ibid., p. 9. The Bol'shoi Kamennyi Bridge, built of iron in 1859, replaced the seven-span All Saints Bridge, built in 1692, which had been the first stone bridge over the Moscow River. A. M. Pegov, ed., Imena moskovskikh ulits, rev. ed. (Moscow, 1975), p. 484.

39. The Prozorovskii house, built by V. I. Bazhenov in 1793 and rebuilt by M. F. Kazakov, stood at no. 1 Bol'shaia Polianka. For a description, see E. V. Nikolaev, Klassicheskaia Moskva (Moscow, 1975), pp. 37, 113-14.

40. Brief descriptions and photographs of the churches and monasteries mentioned by Grigor'ev can be found in Moskva zlatoglavaia: Pamiatniki religioznogo zodchestva Moskvy v proshlom i nastoiashchem (Moscow and Paris: YMCA Press, 1979), where St. Gregory Thaumaturgus is number 102. Subsequent references will be by item number.

41. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, pp. 9-10.

42. Ibid., p. 10.

43. Uspeniia Presviatyia Bogoroditsy v Kazachei. Moskva zlatoglavaia, no. 107.

44. These regions are still indicated by the street names Bol'shaia Ordynka and Tatarskaia.

45. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 10.

46. Ibid.

47. G. A. Fedorov, “Novye materialy o rannikh godakh zhizni Ap. Grigor'eva,” Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, pp. 368-73. Born out of wedlock, Grigor'ev was registered as a townsman until he graduated from the university.

48. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 11.

49. Random selections of “Byloe i dumy” had appeared in Herzen's almanac Poliarnaia zvezda from 1855 to 1858; the two 1861 volumes of the first complete edition contained parts 1-4 covering 1812-1847. Grigor'ev directly referred to Herzen's recollections of house servants in his childhood (Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, pp. 15-16), but he did not contest Herzen's image of Moscow, which, although thoroughly aristocratic, is much more positive than Panaev's. On Grigor'ev and Herzen see B. F. Egorov, “Khudozhestvennaia proza Ap. Grigor'eva,” ibid., pp. 354-61.

50. G. Elizavetina, “Aleksandr Ivanovich Gertsen i Nikolai Platonovich Ogarev,” Russkie pisateli v Moskve (Moscow, 1973), p. 361.

51. Perhaps Grigor'ev knew that both he and Herzen were baptized in the same church (Fedorov, “Novye materialy,” p. 370).

52. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 19.

53. Visual testimony to this change in vantage points has survived in a photograph of Zamoskvorech'e taken in 1856 from the Kremlin and depicting precisely the view Grigor'ev describes. For an analysis see E. V. Nikolaev, “Moskva Gertsena na fotografii” in his Klassicheskaia Moskva, pp. 30-39. For a better reproduction of this photograph see Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, pp. 80-81.

54. For Lermontov, see note 13 above. Herzen's panorama begins his “Legenda,” Sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh (Moscow, 1954), 1:81-83.

55. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 19.

56. Of these monasteries situated at the southeast and southwest edges of Zamoskvorech'e, only the Simonov is no longer standing (it was near the Avtozavodskii Bridge on the left bank of the Moscow River, where the Dvorets kul'tury of the Dinamo factory is now located; see Shamaro, “Lizin prud,” Deistvie proiskhodit v Moskve, pp. 16-24). Moskva zlatoglavaia, nos. 141, 147, 263, 264.

57. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 19.

58. These monasteries were the Andreevskii, on the left bank of the Moscow River southwest of the Kremlin (moved for the Khram Khrista Spasitelia in 1837, where the Moscow outdoor pool is now); the Nikitskii, across from the Neglinnaia River (now underground) and overlooking the west wall of the Kremlin (on Herzen Street, where a Metro substation is now); the Novinskii, high on the left bank west of the city where the Presnia River entered the Moscow River (near the Hotel Mir); the Vysoko-Petrovskii and Rozhdestvenskii, on either side of the (now underground) Neglinnaia River north of the Kremlin (on either side of Neglinnaia Street and the Trubnaia Square on the boulevards which still bear their names); and the Spaso-Androniev overlooking the Iauza east of the Kremlin by Priamikova (formerly Andronievskaia) Square. Moskva zlatoglavaia, nos. 82, 169, 209, 210, 242, and 291.

59. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 20. As an example of monasteries no longer influencing their immediate area, Grigor'ev cited the Znamenskii and Bogoiavlenskii in the Kitai-gorod region (Moksva zlatoglavaia, nos. 27 and 28). The “Wanderings” describe or mention thirteen of the twenty-one Moscow monasteries located outside the Kremlin, thereby providing an unusually complete “spiritual” topography of the city.

60. Ibid.

61. Located where the Metro station Novokuznetskaia now stands. Moskva zlatoglavaia, no. 108; Nikolaev, Klassicheskaia Moskva, pp. 37-38

62. Located at Klimentovskii and Golikovskii Lanes. Moskva zlatoglavaia, no. 99; Nikolaev, Klassicheskaia Moskva, p. 38.

63. This word apparently had different connotations in Moscow and Petersburg. Grigor'ev used the term as Ostrovskii had in his 1855 play “V chuzhom piru pokhmel'e” ( Ostrovskii, A. N., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v dvenadtsati tomakh [Moscow, 1974], 2:13–14 Google Scholar), which the critic interpreted in terms of the exploitation of the gullible merchant Tit Titych by the “shyster” Zakhar Zakharych in his 1860 article “Posle ‘Grozy’ Ostrovskogo” (Apollon Grigor'ev: Literatumaia kritika, pp. 383-84). On the other hand, Dostoevskii, in his Dnevnik pisatelia for November 1877, explained striutskii as typical, if not exclusively Petersburg slang meaning only a drunken rowdy ( Dostoevskii, F. M., Polnoe sobranie khudozhestvennykh proizvedenii [Moscow-Leningrad, 1929], 12:295–97Google Scholar).

64. Grigor'ev used this term to suggest simple, socially unprivileged, uneducated, and exploited Russians. Ivan IV's “reforms” of 1565 created the elite personal domain (oprichnina) of loyal boyars and nobility, virtually a political police, which terrorized with impunity the zemshchina — the other part of his realm, which remained under the traditional Muscovite administration.

65. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 20.

66. Spasa Preobrazheniia na Bolvanovke, built in 1485 (restored in 1722) to commemorate the spot where Ivan III overthrew the Tatar yoke by casting down their idols (Moskva zlatoglavaia, no. 136).

67. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 21.

68. Ibid., p. 8.

69. Grigor'ev first elaborated on this difference in “Obozrenie nalichnykh literaturnykh deiatelei,“ Moskvitianin, 1855, no. 15-16, p. 187; see its application in the “Wanderings,” Apollofi Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 69.

70. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 21.

71. Ibid., p. 22. Today the office of the Rot-Front confectionary factory stands where the Grigor'ev home was.

72. Ibid., p. 6.

73. Spasa Preobrazheniia v Nalivkakh, rebuilt in 1738, once stood on the First Spasonalikovskii Lane at the end of Malaia Polianka, where the Grigor'ev home was (Moskva zlatoglavaia, no. 133).

74. See M. Lobanov, Ostrovskii (Moscow, 1979), p. 8.

75. See for example Strakhov's article “N. A. Dobroliubov. (Po povodu I toma ego Sochinenii)“ in Vremia, 1862, no. 2; and Dostoevskii's notebook for 1860-1862 in F. M. Dostoevskii, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh (Leningrad, 1980), 20:154-56.

76. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 26.

77. Ibid., p. 27.

78. Panaev, Literaturnye vospominaniia, pp. 79-81, 265-66; N. G. Chernyshevskii, “Ocherki gogolevskogo perioda russkoi literatury,” Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v piatnadtsati tomakh (Moscow, 1947), 3:23-43. These accounts reflect the radical change in Polevoi's ideological orientation after the closing of Moskovskii telegraf by the government in 1834, when he joined the party of conservative and reactionary nationalists.

79. Apollon Grigor'ev: Vospominaniia, p. 47.

80. Ibid., pp. 48, 52.

81. See, for example, I. K. Lilly, “Moscow as City and Symbol in Pasternak's Doctor Zhwago,“ Slavic Review, 40, no. 2 (Summer 1981): 241-50.