Two Fates

Two Fates
Author Apollon Maykov
Original title Две судьбы [Dve Sudby]
Country Russia
Language Russian
Subject A 'superfluous' man of the 1840's
Genre Narrative poem
Publication date
 1845

Two Fates (Dve Sudby) is a poem by Apollon Maykov, first published in 1845 in Saint Petersburg, as a separate edition, under the title "Two Fates. A Real Story by A.N.Maykov" and with considerable censorship cuts. It's never been re-issued in the poet's lifetime and first appeared in its original form in The Selected Works by A.N.Maykov.[1]

The poem, written in 1844, was dealing with the popular issue of a "superfluous man" of the 1840s. Scholars usually see it as the author's reaction to Vissarion Belinsky's ideas and in certain ways his own interpretation of them. More obvious influence, though, was Pushkin, and the motivation of the protagonist Vladimir's wanderings looked very much like that formulated in the poem "Caucasian Captive" ("High society reject, a friend of nature/ He left his native place...") Vladimir, finding no place in the society, engaged in a fight between Westernizers and Slavophiles (for whom "a local cucumber is sweeter than grapevine") subsides under blows of fate and turns a typical landowner, a "mindless 'sky-smoker'".[1]

For all that, according to biographer F.Pryima, "Two Fates is in many ways an original work, marked - if not with artistic maturity, then with daring political verve, containing ideas which were akin to those the Decemberists had regarding the Russian history."[2]

Reception

The poem received generally warm response, several prominent authors praised its relevance, its depth and realism of characters, all rather typical of the time. In his February 1845 review of Two Fates Belinsky wrote: "This talent which has given us such hopes, develops and progresses. The proof of that is his new poem, richly poetic, fine in its intelligence and multifacetious in terms of motifs and colours."[3]

Alexander Herzen wrote in his diary on March 17, 1845: "Two Fates, by Maykov. Lots of fine moments. He seemed to touch so many strings that vibrate in our sould so achingly! Reflected here are our estrangement from Europe and its interests, our apathy at home, etc, etc."[4]

Nikolay Chernyshevsky wrote in a letter to A.N.Pypin: "What is remarkable in Two Fates is [its author's] passionate love for our homeland and for science. His views upon reasons of our mental apathy do not seem to me that important but there are wonderful fragments in the book concerning science."[5]

Maykov himself was quite aware of the social type his character represented. "Vladimir is so ambivalent: he's got both Moskvityanin-like pro-Russian views which I share myself, but also the Belinsky-inspired Westernizing... He is a Pechorin-type hero, but of the University kind, and full of Belinsky's ideas," he wrote in a letter to Pavel Viskovatov.[6] Later Maykov changed both his political views and his opinion of the Two Fates. "All of it is false except for two or three lyrical fragments and the play as a whole is exceptionally bad", he wrote.[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Commentary to Two Fates by A.N.Maykov". Works by A.N. Maykov in 2 volumes, Vol.2 Moscow, Pravda Publishers. 1984. Retrieved 2012-12-01.
  2. ↑ Pryima, Fyodor (1984). "A.N.Maykov’s Poetry". Pravda Publishers. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
  3. ↑ The Complete V.G. Belinsky, Vol. VIII, p. 635
  4. ↑ Herzen, A.I. The Works of... in 30 volumes. Moscow, 1954-1961, Vol. 2, p. 444
  5. ↑ The Complete N.G. Chernyshevsky in 15 volumes. Moscow, 1939-1953. Vol.14, p. 47.
  6. ↑ Zlatkovsky, A.M., Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov, Saint Petersburg, 1888, p. 40
  7. ↑ Ezhegodnik, 1975, p. 85

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