I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 171 Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, the eldest daughter of Nicholas I
Throughout European history, literature and art have always played an important role. In the royal families of various European countries, there have been countless literature lovers, protectors, and practitioners. In other words, literary education itself is a very important part of the education of royal families in various countries, and this is also true for the Romanov family in Russia.

The most representative example is Catherine the Great. As a politician, she was also very enthusiastic about reading and writing. She not only read a large number of works by Enlightenment thinkers and classical writers, but also created plays, opera librettos, fables, memoirs, political essays, and a large number of letters.

Alexander I, who defeated Napoleon and led Russia to the center of Europe, was obsessed with Romantic literature and especially admired Byron.

In the generation of Nicholas I, putting aside Nicholas I himself, his children did receive a good literary education. Among them, Alexander II, who later became known as the "Liberator," was a poet. His love poems were praised as "masterpieces of monarchical poetry." However, this guy sometimes got carried away while writing poetry, and some of his love poems even had erotic elements.

As for the tutors who educated Nicholas I's children, it was the aforementioned Russian Romantic master Zhukovsky. Although he is now far away in Germany, he still exerts his influence on Russia through letters and other means.

For example, he continued to send translated manuscripts to St. Petersburg, such as Rückert's lyric poems and Heine's political poems, influencing the tastes of the aristocratic literary circles; he defended critical writers, writing directly to Count Orlov, the head of the Third Bureau, defending the censored writers by saying that "literature is a mirror of society, not a tool of rebellion"; he sent European literary reviews to the Tsarist family, softening Nicholas I's repressive attitude towards critical literature, and so on.

Just recently, Zhukovsky sent the following letter to Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, the eldest daughter of the current Tsar Nicholas I of Russia:
To Her Eminence Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna:

I extend my sincerest congratulations on your official move into the Mariinsky Palace. In your letter last month, you mentioned that you had purchased Friedrich's painting "The Monastery in the Oak Forest," a very fitting choice. Perhaps the solitary monks and desolate landscape in this painting are just like the Russia we love so dearly, and the souls struggling between faith and suffering.

And you are currently in St. Petersburg. Have you heard of a talented writer from the common people? His name is Mikhail Romanovich Raskolnikov. Since I learned of this new talent in the St. Petersburg literary scene, every poem, every novel, and every piece of news about him has always astonished me.

You must see his works; they contain both the most petty vulgarity and the noblest sentiments of Russia. Following Gogol, he is tenaciously pushing Russian literature to greater depths. What particularly astonishes me is that his reputation seems to be spreading in France. I recently learned some of this, but I still find it hard to believe.

I'm sure you know some things better than I do, and in my opinion, he might be a key figure in the salon you're planning to host soon. Perhaps you could invite him when the time is right.

"

Before Zhukovsky wrote to her, the Grand Duchess Maria had heard of the writer mentioned in the letter, but she hadn't paid much attention to it because she was busy with other matters. Moreover, according to rumors, the writer's works, apart from poetry, seemed to be full of earthy, rustic charm and lacked elegance.

But seeing that even her influential teacher in the Russian literary world spoke so highly of this writer, the Grand Duchess, after having a little free time, specifically asked her maid to find the writer's representative works so she could read them carefully.

The reason why it is considered a representative work is that, as a person with literary cultivation, she is quite aware of one thing: even the greatest writers may have mediocre works. Therefore, reading a writer's representative work will not be a waste of time or make her feel that it is very ordinary and thus develop a bad feeling.

However, after her maid inquired around, she reported with a puzzled expression, "I asked many people, and they all said that every single one of this writer's works could be considered his masterpiece."

Grand Duchess Maria: "?"

really?I do not believe.

So, despite the rumors, the Grand Duchess still had her maid select a few works for her. Then, a few days later, the Grand Duchess, with a sigh and a thoughtful expression, said to her maid again, "Bring me all of his works!"

It is worth mentioning that Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna's appearance and personality were very similar to Nicholas I, and she was described by courtiers as having "a majestic face like that of a Tsar." Because of this, she was indeed very much favored by Nicholas I, and even in matters of marriage, he made an exception for her.

Of course, it's not necessarily a bad thing that she looks like Nicholas I. After all, Nicholas I was quite a handsome young man in his youth. And despite her strong will, as Nicholas I said of her: "My Masha has the spine of a soldier and the heart of a poet."

During the reading process, the Grand Duchess's maids saw her shed tears while reading some of the articles, and sometimes she couldn't help but reveal a sarcastic smile.

After she finished reading all the works in one go, as she placed the magazines containing them on her bookshelf, she couldn't help but say to her maid, "From now on, tell me everything about his work. To write so many excellent works in just over a year is unprecedented among all the writers I know. Do we really have such a writer in Russia?"

It must be said, however, that he is also a very courageous writer. How could the controversy and malice provoked by such an article not defeat him?

The Grand Duchess's attitude toward such works that expose the darkness of reality was indeed unusual, because although she was the eldest daughter favored by Nicholas I, she did oppose Nicholas I's cultural autocracy to a certain extent.

Previously, since she had not yet officially moved into her own residence, she could only think about some ideas in her mind. However, after the Mariinsky Palace was finally completed and she officially moved in in 1845, she used this platform to prepare to officially start her career.

In short, she belonged to the moderate reformists. After 1845, she frequently organized salons at the Mariinsky Palace to discuss the evils of serfdom. Nekrasov and Turgenev were regular guests at her salons, a fact recorded in the archives of the Third Department.

"In the Grand Duchess's salon, Nekrasov continued to spread inflammatory remarks... Her poems compared beggars with nobles, with ulterior motives." "This person used the salon as a channel to distribute the magazine 'The Contemporary' (a banned publication), but could not be arrested due to royal protection."

Although Nekrasov and Turgenev read reactionary poems and articles in the salon, fortunately, the Grand Duchess was powerful enough that they did not encounter too much trouble.

As the Grand Duchess began to pay attention to Mikhail's work and started considering when to formally invite him to her salon, she naturally also began to take notice of the magazine "The Contemporary".

During the time that Mikhail was studying and practicing the piano, two issues of the magazine "Modern Man" had already been published. However, each time the Grand Duchess received her copy, she was both happy and somewhat disappointed, because apart from the ongoing serialized novel, there was nothing else in these two issues. It seemed that the author was busy with other things.

Even so, the Grand Duchess quickly made time to read the new magazine after receiving it.

For her, what surprised her most about this ongoing novel was undoubtedly the seemingly contradictory yet traceable psychological descriptions. Although the characters in the novel all seemed to be in a neurotic state, the psychology they displayed was not sensational, but rather seemed to be delving into the deepest part of the human heart.

As for the first few chapters of this novel, they still revolve around two storylines. Through the story of the poor little girl, Nelly, whom I rescued and cared for, she gradually opened up to me and told me about her mother and her experiences:

"This is the story of a woman who was abandoned after experiencing happiness; she was poor and sick, suffered greatly, and was abandoned by everyone; the last person she could rely on—her own father—also refused to let her in. Her father had been humiliated because of her, and later lost his mind due to unbearable pain and humiliation."

This is the story of a woman driven to desperation; she begged along the cold, filthy streets of St. Petersburg, holding the hand of her daughter whom she still considered a child; the woman then lay dying in a damp basement for months on the verge of death, and her father refused to forgive her until her last breath. Only at the very last minute did he suddenly realize his mistake and rush to forgive her, but what he saw was no longer the daughter he loved more than anything in the world, but a cold corpse.

This story seems to echo another storyline in the novel: Natasha abandons her father and elopes with the duke's son. And as the novel goes on, the old man unsurprisingly loses the case. After all, how could a minor nobleman possibly win against a duke?
The old man was on the verge of bankruptcy, which even gave rise to the idea of ​​dueling with the duke.

Although the duke had previously acted with exceptional nobility and respect for Natasha, he was well aware of his son's weak, naive, and fickle nature and was undoubtedly using this as a temporary measure. He believed that if things dragged on like this, his son would eventually change his mind.

As he had predicted, things unfolded exactly as he envisioned. The duke, who had previously been so polite and noble, became increasingly frivolous and unrestrained, seemingly not content with merely hurting others, but also expecting them to provide him with some mental amusement, just as he himself said:
"Furthermore, I would like to tell you something else: there is another characteristic of my personality that you may not know about—I despise all these vulgar, worthless naiveté and pastoral idylls. My greatest enjoyment is to always put on airs, first pretending to be this way and adopting this tone, then comforting and encouraging some eternally young Schiller in every way, and then suddenly giving him a rude awakening."

"This sudden tearing off of the mask, this shameless and irreverent cynicism that exposes one's true self to others, can give people a special kind of pleasure."

Having fully revealed this attitude, he then smugly expressed his inner thoughts:

"I remember, back then, I returned to the countryside with humanitarian intentions... well, so I started chasing after girls. I remember a shepherdess with a husband, a very handsome young farmer, whom I beat up and tried to send to the army (these are all old pranks, my poet!), but I didn't succeed. He died in the hospital I ran..."

I ran a hospital in the village with twelve beds—the equipment was excellent… But then again, I closed that hospital a long time ago, yet at the time I was very proud of it: I was a philanthropist, but a farmer had his wife beaten to death by me…

Oh dear, why are you making faces again? Don't you like it? Disgusting? Has it offended your noble sentiments? Alright, alright, please calm down! The past is gone, like smoke in the wind. When I did this, my mind was full of ideals, wanting to benefit humanity, to build a charitable society… That's when I embarked on this path. That's when I started hitting people. Now I don't hit people anymore; now it's time to put on airs; now, we're all putting on airs—it's the way things are…

But what I find most amusing now is that big fool Ikhmenev (the butler). I'm pretty sure the old man knows the whole story of this peasant... but so what? He's so kind-hearted, his heart is like honey. And for twelve years he's stood up for me, protected me, until he got burned and burned himself.

Hahaha! Okay, that's all bullshit! Come on, cheers, my young friend. I said: "Do you like playing around with women?"

Harboring a rather peculiar psychology, the duke was so excited that he spoke to the narrator in the novel about his life principles:
"For example, I have long since liberated myself, free from all constraints and even obligations. I only feel obligated to do something when it benefits me. Needless to say, you would never see things that way; your hands and feet are bound, and your tastes are morbid."

You pursue ideals and virtues. But my friend, I am quite willing to acknowledge all that you have bestowed upon us; however, what if I were to know with absolute certainty that the foundation of all human virtues is utter selfishness? The nobler something is, the more selfish it contains.

Love yourself—that's the only principle I acknowledge. Life is a transaction; don't be a sucker, don't waste money, but when someone does something for you, it's okay to give them a small reward. By doing so, you've fulfilled your responsibility to them—if you insist on talking about morality, this is my morality.

Although, to be honest, in my humble opinion, it's better not to pay others, to force them to work for you for free. I have no ideals, nor do I want to; I've never felt the need to pursue ideals. Life can be very happy and beautiful even without ideals…”

Having already marveled at the novel's profound psychological descriptions, at this point, as the previously polite and noble duke revealed his true colors, the Archduchess Maria, while scorning the duke's shamelessness, felt as if her entire being had been swept away by a storm of thoughts.

When everything came to a close, all that remained was the echoing of words, like the resounding of a bell, faintly conveying the author's indignation and condemnation. Where is justice? Where is righteousness? Is this what the aristocracy of high society is like? Is there really no other way for people to achieve a better life except by living shamelessly?
What can kindness and diligence possibly amount to?
When the Grand Duchess recovered from the shock, her hand, which was reaching down, was trembling slightly.
At the same time, the fact that this episode's content was so explicit and impactful sparked even greater discussion.
(End of this chapter)