Abstract
The aspect of the historical theme in the work of the bright representative of the Pushkin pleiad, Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov, has been studied little. Meanwhile, the plots from Russian history often became the basis of the original artistic design in the Yazykov's poetry. The purpose of this article is the historical and literary analysis of the songs and ballads by N. M. Yazykov in the aspect of the reception of the works of N. M. Karamzin and A.S. Pushkin on the historical theme.
The comparative method used by the author of the article allows us to come to a number of conclusions concerning the embodiment of the theme of the historical past in the poetry of N. M. Yazykov. In the 1820s Yazykov wrote two “Livonian poems” “Ala” and “The Swordsman Aran”, “The Military Song of Novgorod in 1170”, several “songs” of Bayan and the bard, referring to the historical ballad genre.
The analysis of N. M. Yazykov’s ballads, “Yevpaty”, “Oleg”, “The Magician”, reveals a close connection of their subjects with “the History of the Russian State”. Following N.M. Karamzin, N. M. Yazykov considers the death of Oleg "from his horse" a dubious version. N. M. Karamzin’s creative remaking of the information about the deeds of the first princes of Kievan Rus and the apparent interchange of N. M. Yazykov’s "The Magician" with Pushkin's "Song of the Prince Oleg" allow us to conclude that there was a mirroring turning over of the historical situation embodied by A.S. Pushkin.
Young Yazykov, a future ardent supporter of Slavophil ideas, considers pre-Petrine Russia as an inexhaustible source of the examples of the glorious feats in the name of a wholehearted love for the fatherland.
Keywords
The theme of pre-Petrine Russia in the lyrics, a ballad, a song of a bard