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This work was carried out at IWL RAS with financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 22-18-00051-P “Estate and Dacha in Russian Literature of 20th–21st Centuries: The Fate of the National Ideal” (https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00051/).

For citation:

Dmitrieva, E. E. “The East in Pushkin’s Lyrics of 1824–1825: Country Estate Contexts.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 7, no. 3, 2025, pp. 270–297. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-3-270-297

Abstract:

This article attempts to explain why Alexander Pushkin, who arrived at his ancestral estate of Mikhailovskoye in 1824 and found himself in the heart of Russian life, turned his attention to the East. Indeed, the first major work that Pushkin wrote in the very first year of his exile in Mikhailovskoye was his lyrical cycle Imitations of the Quran. He dedicated this work to his neighbor in Trigorskoye, Praskovya Alexandrovna Osipova (Osipova-Vulf). The reasons for this dedication traditionally have two explanations: Pushkin’s reading of the Quran text translated by D. I. Verevkin in the Trigorskoye library, as well as the assistance provided by Osipova during Pushkin’s difficult time of conflict with his father, who agreed to monitor his son. The article suggests that this autobiographical subtext not only accompanied the work on the cycle, which is quite obvious, but also was hidden or encoded in seemingly unrelated poems that imitate the sacred text of Muslims. In parallel, the article raises the question of how Orientalism, which became fashionable in literature and architecture in the late 18th century, also affected the everyday life of the Russian country estate, and how a kind of game in the East marked Russian country estate life.

Keywords: A. S. Pushkin, country estate, Mikhailovskoye, Trigorskoye, P. A. Osipova-Wulf, Imitations of the Quran, issues of museumification.
Author: Ekaterina E. Dmitrieva
Information about the author:

Ekaterina E. Dmitrieva, DSc in Philology, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences, Senior Researcher, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9692-8329

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

Received: June 26, 2025
Approved after reviewing: July 29, 2025
Published: Seprember 25, 2025
Issue: 2025 Volume 7 No. 3
Department: Exterior View of Russian Estate in the Literature of the 18th – Early 20th Century
Pages: 270-297
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-3-270-297
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/JCFYJS

UDK: 821.161.1.09"19"
Publication Type: Research Article

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