Image: Shakespeare’s Birthplace. Robert Bell Wheler, A Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon (Coventry, Henry Merridrew, c 1830s?)

Image from: Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library

In spite of the fact that there were only a few Russian visitors to Britain and the Midlands in the 18^th  and early 19^th centuries, it was they who created the image for Russian society, of a technically developed Britain, with strong political traditions and a rich cultural and literature heritage.

Vassilii Malinowskii (1765-1814) was among the Russian travellers whose English impressions might have influenced Pushkin. He was the first Director of the Lyceum where Pushkin studied in 1811-1817. Malinowskii was in England in 1789-1790 (and spent some time with Karamzin accompanying him in London). He later described his impressions in the article ‘A Russian in England’ (published anonymously in the journal ‘Priiatnoe i poleznoe preprovozhdenie vremeni’ (‘A Pleasant and Useful Way To Spend Time’) in 1796. Describing the monuments of Westminster Abbey, he wrote: “The respect of the British for their countrymen who were distinguished by their talents is extraordinary. They mostly celebrate Newton and Shakespeare who is shown full-length, leaning on an urn with his arm, and pointing with the other one to verses from his works carved there.”  In spite of the fact that many Russian travellers of that period expressed different or even contrary point of view, the idea of the significance of a poet for a nation and country was particularly close to Pushkin’s heart.

The importance of a poet’s house for national culture was formulated by the poet P.Vyazemskii, when after Byron’s death he published in the journal ‘The Moscow Telegraph’ an article dedicated to Newstead, the family house of Byron: “What ever the fate of  Newstead may be in the future, it will remain for ever a commemorative place. Time might cover its walls by grass and weeds, or a rabbit might dig a burrow under its ruins. Newstead might even become the property of an ignorant grandee or a rich villain – never mind! It was the house of a great poet! Now its name is connected with immortal fame, and it will pass to descendants on the most famous page of the national history.”

An attempt to bring this attitude to reality was made in 1837, after Pushkin’s death. His grieving friends tried to commemorate places associated with him. In 1837-1838 they commissioned a set of engravings ‘Views of Pskov and its Environment’ from the local artist I..Ivanov. The set included ‘View of Mikhailovskoe’ and ‘View of Sviatogorskii Monastery with Pushkin’s grave’. In the description of the first of them the artist said: ‘Here the family estate of the Pushkins is shown. This house must be as precious for the Russians as the Shakespeare’s house is precious for the British.”

[He probably did not know about demolishing of the Shakespeare’s New Place house in Stratford-upon-Avon by Reverend Francis Gastrell in 1759].

In Russia belles-lettres have traditionally played a vital role. The Russian men of letters who visited Britain looking for traces of great writers like Shakespeare, Walter Scott, or Byron, did much for imbuing Russian society with the idea of the value of a poet and a writer and the need to keep and respect their memory and preserve their houses and memorabilia. In the 19^th and particularly in the 20^th centuries the striving to see ‘a poet’s house’ or to make a pilgrimage following in the steps of great writers became a significant feature of Russian national culture.

Image: Stratford-upon-Avon Church where Shakespeare was buried. Robert Bell Wheler, A Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon (Coventry, Henry Merridrew, c 1830s?).

Image from: Local Studies and History, Birmingham Central Library

The French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Wars reduced the stream of the Russians to France. They were re-oriented to Germany and Britain. At the same time the social position of the travellers changed considerably – there were fewer members of the nobility but more travellers from the middle class – men of letters, officers, students, who came to England in pursuit of their cultural interests. For many of them England was already synonymous with the name of Shakespeare, which naturally brought them to Warwickshire.

Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev (1784-1845) was the elder brother of Nicolas Turgenev who was sentenced to death in absentia after the suppression of the Decembrist revolt (14^th December 1825). Alexander spent more than 20 years travelling, only returning to Russia occasionally, for short periods. Visiting Nicolas who had become a political refugee in London, Alexander Turgenev came to England four times: in 1826, 1828-1829, 1831 and 1835.  He was greatly attracted to British places of literary significance. In 1828 he undertook a long journey around Scotland following the steps of Walter Scott’s characters and made the acquaintance of the great Scottish writer. He described Scott’s estate of Abbotsford in detail for Russian correspondents.

In 1828, Turgenev visited Warwickshire and Stratford-upon-Avon:

“20.07.1828. We were going to look for the ancient church where Shakespeare and his spouse are buried, and came across the Town Hall where there is monument to Shakespeare erected by Garrick. /…/

The porter led us along an avenue overshadowed by tree branches to the church. From the outside it didn’t appear so huge as the inside appeared to me. The monuments – ancient and new, big and small cover walls and floor. Suddenly the guide stopped us and pointed to an inscription on the floor carved on Shakespeare’s gravestone, which was composed by Shakespeare himself as the guide assured us. Here it is:

Good Frend for Jesus sake forbeare

                        To digg the dust encloased heare

                        Blesed be the man that spares thes stones

                        And curst be he that moves my bones.

The view from the bridge to the church, where the Shakespeare’s ashes remain, is truly delightful. The wood casts shadows on the tomb of the bard and philosopher, and the Avon reflects it and keeps it evergreen, like his fame.” 

His eldest, much beloved brother, Andrej (1781-1803), who died before him translated ‘Macbeth’ into Russian from an English original in 1802. He admired Shakespeare and wrote: ‘the more one goes into him, the more sacred he becomes.’ So Alexander’s visit to Stratford might have been done in memory of his deceased brother.

Alexander Turgenev represents one more – indirect – connection between the Midlands and Russia. In 1828 in London he made the acquaintance of Thomas Moore (1779-1852), and met him constantly during 1828-1829. Russian readers mainly associated Moore with Byron, but apart from this, many of his poems were translated into Russian and became very popular. Moore wrote down for Turgenev his poem Those Evening Bells, which is said to have been written in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, listening to the bells of the St Oswald’s church. It is remarkable that Those Evening Bells had been translated into Russian one year earlier, in 1828, by the Russian poet Ivan Kozlov and set to music by A. Alyabyev. Even today it is still one of the most popular songs in Russia, although the name of its author is often not mentioned.

Image: Medallion of David Garrick produced at the Soho Mint, Birmingham, 1773.

Image from: Birmingham Assay Office (206)

Princess Dashkova was glad to meet poets, writes, and actors in London. Among her acquaintances were Horace Walpole and the actor-manager, David Garrick, who lived for part of his early life in Lichfield, Staffordshire and was instrumental in reviving Britain’s interest in Shakespeare. Samuel Johnson, the Lichfield-born literary master was also another influence. Soon after her return to Russia, Catherine the Great appointed Princess Dashkova as President of the Russian Academy (1783). In this post she initiated and supervised the compilation of an Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, which was modelled, in part, on Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language(1755).

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) made his European journey in 1789-1790. He was neither a rich grandee doing his tour according the fashion, nor a shy provincial sent abroad to study. He was a young well-educated writer who had many literary theories and who wanted to test them against reality. He wished to get to know modern European life, and to meet philosophers and writers. For him a journey was a delightful dream:

For how many long years has this journey been my fancy’s most pleasing dream? Have I not told myself with delight: “At last you are going!” Have I not awakened each morning with joy? Have I not felt a surge of pleasure at the thought: ”You are actually going!” For how long a time have I been unable to think of anything, to be interested in anything save this journey? Have I not counted the days, the hours?” ⁴

Karamzin sold his part of his father’s inheritance to his brothers in order to visit Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, France and England. His own route around these countries was different from the official fashionable routes. It included seeing Emmanuel Kant in Koenigsberg (Prussia), visiting Weimar (Germany) because of Wiland, Herder and Goethe, going to Lausanne (Switzerland) for “those beautiful places where the immortal Rousseau placed his romantic lovers”, and looking in Calais (France) at the places associated with Laurence Sterne.

England was the last country on his route, so he was already too short of time to see many places apart from London. On the way from Dover to London he passed Canterbury and Rochester, and during his stay in London he visited Greenwich, Windsor, Richmond and Twickenham:

I went to Twickenham, a pretty village where the philosopher and poet, Pope, lived and died. There are many handsome properties here, but I was most interested in seeing the poet’s house, now the property of Lord Stanhope. I saw his study, his armchair, the bower where, on summer days he translated Homer – the grotto with its marble bust of him, and from which the Thames is visible – and finally, the century-old willow, which has bifurcated in a wonderful manner, beneath which the philosopher loved to think, the poet to dream. ⁵

Karamzin’s Letters of a Russian Traveller, were published in 1791-1792 in The Moscow Journal, and in 1797 in book form. They reflected his thoughts and impressions. But they were not real letters, but a literary work in epistolary form probably based on notes taken or on a diary kept during the journey. Many descriptions were borrowed from other written and published sources, particularly for his relatively brief description of England. In contrast to the grandees, he did not bring back home valuable paintings or marbles. His treasures were of a different sort – “notes, accounts, books, little stones, dried grasses and twigs” which called to mind places he had visited, amongst these was “the willow beneath whose shade the Englishman Pope wrote his best verses!” ⁶

Even without visiting the Midlands where he might have met Erasmus Darwin or Sir Brooke Boothby, or have seen the achievements of Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton and James Watt, or have visited Shakespeare’s tomb in Stratford, he not only laid a new – mainly literary – route to Europe, but demonstrated his admiration for the great European writers and stimulated his Russian readers’ interest in places associated with them. Later Russian travellers would follow Karamzin’s steps. Many of them would literally carry his Letters, and compare their impressions with those of Karamzin.

^{4 Karamzin N.M, Letters of a Russian Traveler. (N-Y. London. 1957), p.29.}

⁵ ibid., p 326.

⁶ Ibid., p.340. For Karamzin in England see: Cross A.G., “A Love Affair with England: N.M.Karamzin”, in “By the Banks of the Thames”. Russians in Eighteenth Century Britain (Newtonville.1980), chapter 10, p.252-263.