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PHJ № 4 (44) 2024 – P. V. Sedov. TO ONE OF PUSHKIN’S PLANS FOR “THE HISTORY OF PETER I”

In the preparatory materials for writing The History of Peter the Great, A. S. Pushkin outlined one of the cross-cutting themes of his future work, namely the bribery of officials and their violation of the law. This topic was of great relevance in Pushkin’s time. Having identified “greedy clerks” as the initial focus of his analysis of the Muscovite kingdom, Pushkin drew upon the work of I. I. Golikov’s account to Peter I detailed the instances of bribery and embezzlement that were prevalent at the time, as well as the efforts made by Peter to combat these practices. From this, we can infer that, in Pushkin’s view, the despotic nature of the autocratic tsar’s reforms was not primarily a reflection of his character, but rather a consequence of the historical and socio-political conditions that shaped Russian life over centuries. From this perspective on Russian autocracy and national history, it is evident that Pushkin was a pioneer in his understanding of these issues.

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PHJ № 2 (34) 2022 — M. M. Safonov. “AGENT OF HEKKERN” (A. A. AKHMATOVА AND N. N. PUSHKINА)

In the late 1930s A. A. Akhmatova began to work on the history of the death of A. S. Pushkin. The work continued until her death. On the eve of the death of Akhmatovа called these articles “almost ready”, but did not give them to print. This circumstance must be taken into account when evaluating these essays. E. G. Gerstein called Ahmatovа’s studies about the death of Pushkin “artistic concept” and allocated as distinctive features “the artist’s imagination”. In fact, they are artistic works that the form of a documentary study. Akhmatova based on the classical work P. Shchegolev about the last duel of Pushkin. And presented the death of the poet, which painted her poetic imagination. From this outstanding pushkinist Ahmatovа inherited hostility to the wife of the poet, who was the head of the fateful duel. The most interesting thing in this Akhmatovа’s cycle of articles is the language they have been written. Language features of this difficult time, when party and government figures one after another declared spies of foreign states.

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PHJ № 1 (33) 2022 — M. M. Safonov. AME DE DENTELLES, OR NATALIA NIKOLAEVNA AND PAVEL ELISEEVICH

For the study of the death of Pushkin, P. E. Shchegolev did more than all the Pushkinists combined. He found, published and commented on the most important documents reflecting the course of the dueling history. The author of the article has consistently reviewed all editions of his famous book and its previous publications. This made it possible to identify the research techniques used by the outstanding researcher of Pushkin, which had a strong influence on Soviet Pushkin studies. The scientist interpreted the sources one-sidedly and biased, setting a biased goal at all costs to make N. N. Pushkin the main culprit of the poet’s death. Even in cases where P. E. Shchegolev knew that the sources were unreliable, but they served to accuse the poet’s wife, the outstanding researcher, whose contribution to Pushkin studies cannot be overestimated, did not stop to use them to create his own concept of the death of Pushkin. It was based on the projection of his own vision of the relationship between a creative person and just a beautiful woman on the relationship between Pushkin and Natalia Nikolaevna. While the true reason for the duel remained unknown to him.