Select your language

Two centuries of Russian classics

Philological journal
A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the
 Russian Academy of Sciences

Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1,
121069 Moscow, Russia

+7 (495) 690-50-30

red@rusklassika.ru

JATS XML:

XML

BibTEX:

BIB

Research Information Systems Citation Format:

RIS

  • Download:

    PDF

  • For citation:

    Antonov, A. Yu. “The Poem ʽTo the Rebellious Greek People’ from V. A. Muravyeva’s Album: Literary Context.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 8, no. 2, 2026, pp. 28–45. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-2-28-45

  • Abstract:

    The article analyzes the historical and literary context of the poem “To the Rebellious Greek People” found in V. A. Muravyeva’s album. The author argues that the poem should be attributed to Semyon Kapnist, an amateur poet and the son of the renowned poet, playwright, and a member of the Lvov-Derzhavin literary circle V. V. Kapnist. The article provides a detailed argument in favor of this attribution by clarifying the poem’s literary context. The comparative analysis of the poetics, motif system, and artistic method of V. V. Kapnist and his son demonstrates the fallacy of D. S. Babkin’s assumption that V. V. Kapnist was the author. At the same time, the article identifies numerous indirect confirmations of G. V. Ermakova-Bitner’s assumption about Semyon Kapnist’s authorship that have previously been overlooked in the scholarly literature on this subject.

  • Keywords: V. V. Kapnist, Semyon Kapnist, literary albums, V. A. Muravyova, the Greek Revolution of 1821, Russian poetry of the 19th century, the Decembrists
  • Author: Alexander Yu. Antonov
  • Information about the author:

    Alexander Yu. Antonov, Junior Research Fellow, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia; Lomonosov Moscow  State  University,  Leninskie  Gory,  1,  119991  Moscow,  Russia.

    ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0706-0180

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  • Received: October 24, 2025
  • Approved after reviewing: March 21, 2026
  • Published: June 25, 2026
  • Issue: 2026 Volume 8 No. 2
  • Department: Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries
  • Pages: 28-45
  • DOI: Visit Website
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/XMZUWX

  • UDK: 821.161.1.09"18"
  • Publication Type: Research Article

References

Arsh, G. L. Rossiia i bor’ba Gretsii za osvobozhdenie: ot Ekateriny II do Nikolaia I. Ocherki [Russia and Greece’s Struggle for Liberation: from Catherine II to Nicholas I. Essays]. Moscow, Indrik Publ., 2013. 280 p. (In Russ.)

Babkin, D. S. “V. V. Kapnist. Kritiko-biograficheskii ocherk” [“V. V. Kapnist. A Critical and Biographical Essay”]. Kapnist, V. V. Sobranie sochinenii: v 2 t. [Collected Works: in 2 vols.], vol. 1. Moscow, Leningrad, Academy of the Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1960a, pp. 12–65. (In Russ.)

Babkin, D. S. “Primechaniia” [“Notes”]. Kapnist, V. V. Sobranie sochinenii: v 2 t. [Collected Works: in 2 vols.], vol. 1, 2. Moscow, Leningrad, Academy of the Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1960b, pp. 707–763, pp. 551–622. (In Russ.)

Blagoi, D. D., Bondi, S. M., Zenger, T. G., Izmailov, N. V., Medvedeva, I. N., and M. A. Tsiavlovskii. “Primechaniia” [“Notes”]. Pushkin, A. S. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 16 t. [Complete Works: in 16 vols.], vol. 2, book 2: Stikhotvoreniia, 1817–1825. Litseiskie stikhotvoreniia v pozdneishikh redaktsiiakh [Poems, 1817–1825. Lyceum Poems in Later Editions]. Moscow, Leningrad, Academy of the Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1949, pp. 1005–1205. (In Russ.)

Vatsuro, V. E. “Literaturnye al’bomy v sobranii Pushkinskogo Doma (1750–1840- e gody)” [“Literary Albums in the Collection of the Pushkin House (1750s–1840s)”]. Ezhegodnik rukopisnogo otdela Pushkinskogo Doma na 1977 god [Yearbook of the Manuscript Department of the Pushkin House for 1977]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1979, pp. 3–56. (In Russ.)

Vatsuro, V. E., Rozin, N. P., and O. K. Suproniuk. “Rodzianko Arkadii Gavrilovich” [“Rodzianko Arkady Gavrilovich”]. Russkie pisateli. 1800–1917. Biograficheskii slovar’ [Russian Writers. 1800–1917. Biographical Dictionary], vol. 5: P–S, ed.-in-chief P. A. Nikolaev. Moscow, Bol’shaia rossiiskaia entsiklopediia Publ., 2007, pp. 309–312. (In Russ.)

Gofman, V. A. “Literaturnoe delo Ryleeva” [“The Literary Work of Ryleev”]. Ryleev, K. Polnoe sobranie stikhotvorenii [Complete Poems]. Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo pisatelei v Leningrade Publ., 1934, pp. 1–67. (In Russ.)

Grigor’eva, V. E. “Grecheskaia revoliutsiia v diskurse rossiiskoi pressy: po materialam zhurnalov ʽSyn Otechestva’ i ʽVestnik Evropy’.” [“The Greek Revolution in the Discourse of the Russian Press: Based on the Materials of the Journals ʽSon of the Fatherland’ and ʽBulletin of Europe’.”]. Kafedra vizantiiskoi i novogrecheskoi filologii, no. 10, 2022, pp. 9–20. (In Russ.)

Dekabristy. Biograficheskii spravochnik [The Decembrists. Biographical Reference Book], publ. by S. V. Mironenko, ed. by M. V. Nechkina. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1988. 446 p. (In Russ.)

Dziubanov, S. D. “Pis’ma S. V. Kapnista D. A. Derzhavinoi. Chast’ I (1815–1822)” [“Letters from S. V. Kapnist to D. A. Derzhavina. Part I (1815–1822)”]. G. R. Derzhavin i ego vremia: sbornik nauchnykh statei [G. R. Derzhavin and His Time: Collection of Articles], issue 16, ed. by N. P. Morozova. St. Petersburg, Vserossiiskii muzei A. S. Pushkina Publ., 2022, pp. 74–150. (In Russ.)

Dziubanov, S. D. “Pis’ma S. V. Kapnista D. A. Derzhavinoi. Chast’ II (1823–1840)” [“Letters from S. V. Kapnist to D. A. Derzhavina. Part II (1823–1840)”]. G. R. Derzhavin i ego vremia: sbornik nauchnykh statei [G. R. Derzhavin and His Time: Collection of Articles], issue 17, ed. by N. P. Morozova. St. Petersburg, Vserossiiskii muzei A. S. Pushkina Publ., 2023, pp. 60–125. (In Russ.)

Ermakova-Bitner, G. V., and D. S. Babkin. “Primechaniia” [“Notes”]. Kapnist, V. V. Izbrannye proizvedeniia [Selected Works]. Leningrad, Sovetskii Pisatel’ Publ., 1973, pp. 531–598. (In Russ.)

Ermakova-Bitner, G. V. “V. V. Kapnist” [“V. V. Kapnist”]. Kapnist, V. V. Izbrannye proizvedeniia [Selected Works]. Leningrad, Sovetskii Pisatel’ Publ., 1973, pp. 5–46. (In Russ.)

Zhdanov, S. S. “Idilliia i istoriia v reprezentatsii Malorossii (na materiale ʽPoezdki professora Pogodina zagranitsu v 1842 godu’ M. P. Pogodina)” [“Idyll and History in Little Russia Representation (Based on ʽJourney of Professor Pogodin Abroad in 1842’ by M. P. Pogodin)”]. Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 7, no. 2, 2025, pp. 80–101. https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-2-80-101 (In Russ.)

Zorin, A. L. Kormia dvuglavogo orla... Literatura i gosudarstvennaia ideologiia v Rossii v poslednei treti XVIII — pervoi treti XIX veka [Feeding the Double-Headed Eagle... Literature and State Ideology in Russia in the Last Third of the 18th — First Third of the 19th Century]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2001. 416 p. (In Russ.)

Il’inskaia, S. “…prekrasnye minuty Nadezhdy i Svobody” [“…Wonderful Moments of Hope and Freedom”]. Grecheskaia Revoliutsiia 1821 goda v zerkale russkoi poezii [The Greek Revolution of 1821 in the Mirror of Russian Poetry]. Athens, Knizhnaia lavka “Estia” Publ., I. D. Kollaros i Ko Publ., 2001, pp. 11–18. (In Russ.)

Ishutin, Iu. Iu. “Gretsiia v poezii A. G. Rodzianki i A. S. Pushkina” [“Greece in the Poetry of A. G. Rodzianko and A. S. Pushkin”]. 225: sbornik statey k iubileiu A. S. Pushkina [225: Collection of Articles on the Anniversary of A. S. Pushkin]. Moscow, R. Valent Publ., 2024, pp. 33–45. (In Russ.)

Klein, I. Pri Ekaterine. Trudy po russkoi literature XVIII veka [Under Catherine. Works on Russian Literature of the 18th Century]. Moscow, Izdatel’skii dom IaSK Publ., 2021. 461 p. (In Russ.)

Nesterova, A. E. “Grecheskoe vosstanie 1821 g. v otrazhenii russkikh poetov” [“The Greek Uprising of 1821 in the Reflection of Russian Poets”]. Molodezh’ tret’ego tysiacheletiia: sbornik nauchnykh statei XLII regional’noi studencheskoi nauchno- prakticheskoi konferentsii, Omsk, 02–27 aprelia 2018 g. [Youth of the Third Millennium: Collection of Articles of the 42nd Regional Student Scientific-Practical Conference, Omsk, April 2–27, 2018]. Omsk, Dostoevsky Omsk State University Publ., 2018, pp. 75–80. (In Russ.)

Nechkina, M. V. Dvizhenie dekabristov: v 2 t. [Decembrist Movement: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, Academy of the Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1955. Vol. 2. 506 p. (In Russ.)

Nikola, M. I. Antichnaia traditsiia v russkoi i zarubezhnoi literature [The Ancient Tradition in Russian and Foreign Literature]. Moscow, Prometei Publ., 2022. 236 p. (In Russ.)

Petina, L. I. “Strukturnye osobennosti al’boma pushkinskoi epokhi” [“Structural Features of the Album of the Pushkin Era”]. Problemy tipologii russkoi literatury: Trudy po russkoi i slavianskoi filologii. Literaturovedenie [Problems of Typology of Russian Literature: Works on Russian and Slavic Philology. Literary Criticism]. Tartu, Tartu State University Publ., 1985, pp. 21–36. (In Russ.)

Potashova,  K.  A.  “Vizual’nost’  obraza  kak  printsip  khudozhestvennogo izobrazheniia istoricheskikh sobytii v batal’nykh odakh G.R. Derzhavina” [“The Image’s Visuality as a Principle of Artistic Description of Historical Events in the G.R. Derzhavin’s Battle Odes”]. Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 4, no. 3, 2022, pp. 66–79. https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2022-4-3-66-79 (In Russ.)