Der dreiste „Monsieur K*“: Über Karamzins Briefe eines reisenden Russen

Abstract

SummaryIn Karamzin’s ‘Letters of a Russian Traveller’ the narrator displays a strong inclination to confound his readers, to irritate and to provoke them. Under the surface of his sentimental style we encounter persistent violations of norms generally accepted in eighteenth-century Russian society, including the Petrine ethos of service and the relationship of official to private values. The narrator frequently ignores traditional morality. He depicts suicide not as a mortal sin, but as a human catastrophe. The same goes for norms of marital fidelity and social hierarchy; venerable concepts like ‘love of the fatherland’ and ‘historical greatness’ are reinterpreted. The latter phenomenon is especially striking: in 1790, while Russia was fighting two wars (against the Ottoman empire and against Sweden), the Traveller constantly displays a love of peace, implicitly condemning Catherine II and her bellicose foreign politics. A concluding digression touches upon the striking political difference between the youthful and the mature Karamzin.