Dress
Rehearsal for Master and Margarita Continues.
“That’s
not horses’ gallop, not people’s chatter,
Not
a bugler’s trumpet coming from the field,
That’s
sister-weather whistling and howling,
Whistling
and howling to its heart’s content,
Calling
me, Stenka Razin,
To
take a stroll over the blue sea…”
A. S. Pushkin. A Song od Stenka Razin.
Having
chosen the name Panin for the head of
the theatrical-literary department of the Independent
Theater, Bulgakov opens up for the reader a fascinating page of Russian
history, again connected with the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, and
also with the Pugachev Rebellion.
The
history of this period reads like a political thriller.
In
order for us to have a better feel for that time, the readers need to refresh
their memory regarding another, no less famous name of the Orlov brothers, whom
I am writing about in two posted chapters: master…
and Woland Identity.
There
were five Orlov brothers, one of whom was a favorite of the Empress Catherine
the Great, as opposed to two Panin brothers, no less famous.
The
elder brother Nikita Ivanovich Panin (1718-1783) was one of the conspirators in
the plot to kill the Emperor Peter III, Catherine’s husband.
Choosing
this particular name for his Theatrical
Novel, Bulgakov clearly wishes to imply that the intrigues in the
Independent Theater were no less deadly for the administration and cast of the
Independent. ---
“We have such characters at
the theater that you can only marvel at them. A whole act-and-a-half are ready
just then and there. There are some walking around who wouldn’t think twice to
steal your boots from the dressing room, or else, they might put a Finnish
knife in your back…”
This
deadly affair would not prevent Nikita Ivanovich Panin from becoming the mentor
of the future Emperor of Russia Pavel Petrovich.
Isn’t
it true that this already reads like a political thriller?
The
younger brother Petr Ivanovich Panin (1721-1789), unlike his elder diplomat
brother Nikita became a military General. He distinguished himself by routing
the Turkish Army in the war of 1768-1774.
This
is already another political thriller. Among those fighting the Turks under the
command of Petr Ivanovich Panin was a certain Cossack named Emelyan Pugachev.
Together they took the city of Bendery in 1770, freeing it from the Turks,
together with all Galicia.
The
Cossack was evidently very bright, learning a lot from the General, and
especially from the General’s brother. Because it was under the name of the
assassinated Emperor Peter III that we encounter Pugachev in A. S. Pushkin, and
also in Yesenin’s play Pugachev.
Their
numerous valuable services notwithstanding, the Panin brothers fell into
disfavor at Catherine’s court, due to the elevation of the rival clan of the
Orlov brothers. Yet the Empress was still forced to approach the younger
brother General Petr Ivanovich Panin when the Pugachev Rebellion started
getting out of hand.
As
always, the outstanding military commander was ready to serve his State. And to
him is given the glory, as well as the honor, to suppress the Pugachev Rebellion.
The
first to tackle this theme was the 18-year-old M. Yu. Lermontov in his
unfinished 1832 novel Vadim, in which
a young nobleman Vadim leads a peasant uprising during the time of the Pugachev
Rebellion.
A.
S. Pushkin wrote his historical study History
of the Pugachev Rebellion in 1834 and the novella Captain’s Daughter on the same theme in 1836.
S.
A. Yesenin must certainly have read everything written on this subject before
him, and he performed a truly heroic feat, having written his play Pugachev in verse in 1921. This play
could be staged as such or as an opera, as the action is depicted through the
interaction of several dramatis personae.
Having
learned the popular legend about the slain Emperor Peter III being alive,
Emelyan Pugachev decides to pass himself off as that dead Emperor:
“Pugachev:
Do
you know that there is a rumor among the rabble…
That
some kind of cruel guide
Brings
the dead shadow of the Emperor
To
the Russian expanse.
This
shadow with a rope around its meatless neck,
Tugging
at its dropped down jaw,
Dancing
with its creaking feet,
Comes
to avenge himself,
Comes
to avenge upon Catherine,
Raising
its arm like a yellow stake,
For
the reason that she and her accomplices,
Having
broken the white jug of his head,
Ascended
the throne.”
In
his 1927 long poem It Is Good!, V. V.
Mayakovsky has the last word on this matter, as he uses both Stenka Razin and
Emelyan Pugachev together in the struggle of the oppressed impoverished
majority against the filthy-rich non-productive minority.
“Come
over, eagles!
Enough
of your pilfering.
Meet
them with stakes,
Send
them off with rakes!
The
cause of Stenka and Pugachev,
Let
it burn hotter!
All
estates of the rich
We
shall burn with fire.
Let
the red cockerel out!
Raise
the pitchforks!
Do
not stop burning,
Dear
cockerel!”
And
so, we have another interesting “actor” in the Theatrical Novel: Misha Panin.
A
very interesting combination comes out here: that of M. Yu. Lermontov’s first
name, and of the last name Panin, pointing us toward the Pugachev Rebellion.
Bulgakov
is quite ingenious here in his reference to the rebellion, introducing the name
not of Emelyan Pugachev, but the other one, equally famous in Russian history:
that of Stenka Razin, whose rebellion took place a hundred years prior to
Pugachev’s.
A.
S. Pushkin was the first to write about Stenka Razin, calling his poems
“songs.”
M.
Yu. Lermontov wrote a poem about an “ataman” without calling him by name.
S.
A. Yesenin followed suit in that, writing about Stenka Razin (Lermontov’s
“ataman”) “drowning his [Persian] princess.”
V.
V. Mayakovsky expressed it differently in his 1916 poem Regarding Everything. ---
“…I
am going to paint on the Royal Gate
Over
the face of God --- Razin.”
To
be continued…
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