ST. PETERSBURG – PETROGRAD – LENINGRAD IN RUSSIAN LITERARY TEXT AS A REFLECTION OF THE CITY’S HISTORIC BEING

ST. PETERSBURG – PETROGRAD – LENINGRAD IN RUSSIAN LITERARY TEXT AS A REFLECTION OF THE CITY’S HISTORIC BEING

Author:  S.G. Ilyenko

Affiliation:  State Pedagogical University of Russia named after A. Herzen, St. Petersburg

Abstract:  A study of perceiving a city name by carriers of a city language space, which is interesting in itself, is of particular interest in relation to a city name that has been changed several times. This is the case of Saint-Petersburg – Petrograd – Leningrad. The uniqueness of this city lies in the fact that, unlike a typical natural and pragmatic creation of cities in Europe, St. Petersburg was built according to a plan, and by the will of one man – Peter I, moreover – “on a swamp”. Hence the legends of the inevitable God's retribution appearing. 
This and several other factors make the study of the perception of the city names successful only if the symbiosis of historical, philological, sociological, socio-linguistic, psychological and aesthetic problems is taken into account.
The mental contiguity and mutual influence of these problems are nothing more than a reflection of “material objects” of St. Petersburg.As generalized representations of these material objects the statue by Falcone Mednyj Vsadnik (‘The Bronze Horseman’) and the poem ‘Mednyj Vsadnik. Peterburgskaya povest’” (‘A Petersburg story’) by A.Pushkin may be seen. The third one is a world masterpiece of book art – the edition of “Mednyj Vsadnik” by Schegolev (1923) with great illustrations by A.Benois. In this edition the reader as well as the researcher has first got Pushkin's authentic text. What was published prior to the mentioned date did not belong to Pushkin, as his “co-authors” were V.A.Zhukovsky, “precensorial Pushkin” and “postcensorial Pushkin” and even Nicholas I who was also his censor.
Of the mentioned nominative chain the first name of the city – Saint-Petersburg (Petersburg) – becomes a researchers’ favorite. It is the most durable and the most significant in historical and aesthetic sense, especially if we bear in mind the historical period named Pushkin's time. This is evidenced primarily by the fact that a brilliant symbiosis of creations by sculptor Falconet, poet Pushkin, artist Benoit is focused on this epoch.
In the present paper the philological perspective selected is the poem “Mednyj Vsadnik”.As the basic method of analysis the original idea of semantic-aesthetic parallelism has been chosen.This is a research process of the choice from a number of works of art created by the author at the same time, which, in turn, results in the emergence of thematic and associative aesthetic symbiosis. This makes it necessary to create a special research technique of «poetic coalitions», both permanent and episodic.
In particular, “Mednyj Vsadnik” is analysed in coalition with the poem “Ezerskij” (which had become a preimage of “Moja rodoslovnaja”) and the story “Arap Petra Velikogo”. The mentioned technique makes it possible to give an answer to the main question about the protagonist of “Mednyj Vsadnik”. It is neither the emperor Peter the Great, nor Evgenij; it is the Mednyj vsadnik (the statue) itself, which is not a plain image of Peter I, but an artistic symbol of the hero who has managed to “raise Russia reared” («поднятьРоссиюнадыбы»). As for the specific characters, Peter I and Evgenij, they have predetermined the style-generating basis of the poem, which is odic and at the same time spoken (the latter as in “Evgenij Onegin”), and namely the same basis has also been used in the poem “Ezerskij”.

Keywords:  Petersburg text, philosophical and aesthetic orientation, poetic and creative parallelism, communicative and semantic opposition, St. Petersburg, Mednyj Vsadnik (the Bronze Horseman)

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Pages:  35-43