Our Notes & References

A touching, beautiful link between the popular cult of the Tsar-Martyr and Alexander II’s own family: a fine volume of three commemorative works celebrating the life of Alexander II, inscribed by the author, a former serf-turned-poet, to the Tsar’s natural daughter – with a supplementary autograph poem.

The recipient of this Sammelband was Olga Aleksandrovna Iurevskaia (1873-1925), Tsar Alexander II’s natural daughter from his mistress Ekaterina Dolgurukaia, whom he married in 1880 just a year before his assassination. Olga mostly lived in France and Germany, especially after having married a German count and grandson of Pushkin in 1895.

Shvetsov must have given this volume himself to Olga, since the autograph poem he added is located and dated Lucerne, 12 May 1888.

Gordei Mikhailovich Shvetsov (1838-after 1906) was a former serf from the Perm region of Siberia, who had himself benefited from Alexander II’s social and educational reforms. He describes himself in the first work and on the (gilt) cover as a “common man”, and he is now seen as one of the first Russian popular writers consciously claiming to represent the view from below.

The volume comprise three works, separately published (see list at end). The first, main work consists of 16 poems dedicated to the memory of Alexander II, accompanied by several pages of explanatory text. These popular verses, written following Alexander’s assassination in 1881, were intended to express the feelings of the people about the loss of their beloved Tsar. Shvetsov repeatedly compares Alexander II to Christ, casting him as a martyr-hero who sacrificed himself for the good of the country.

The poems proved hugely popular among the public, and according to the historian Richard Wortman “Shvetsov’s stanzas expressed the beginnings of a popular cult of Alexander II, which spread in subsequent years.” (Scenarios of Power Vol.2, p.200). Seven thousand copies of the first two editions, subsidised by private donations, were distributed within two months of the assassination; the present example is from the 9^th edition.

The second work, here in first edition, follows in a similar vein, comprising two poems praising Alexander, the first dealing with the celebrated Emancipation Act, and the second the building of the Church of Christ the Saviour in his memory. These are followed by an appeal by Shvetsov to buy his work, the profits from which were to go towards building and decorating the Church, which marks the place where the Tsar was fatally wounded.

The final work marks a contrast with the two previous ones: it contains an allegorical poem about “the White Eagle and the British Whale” detailing the rivalry between the Russian and British Empires – towards the end of the ‘Great Game’. It is not credited, but is also by Shvetsov.

All three works were intended for mass publication among the lower orders, who still held the Tsar in the highest regard. They reflect the huge rise in literacy during the second part of the nineteenth century and also the search for a popular literature that might both educate and entertain the masses.

They are:

Venok tsariu-velikomucheniku, bezsmertnomu osvoboditeliu Russkikh krestian i slavianskikh narodov Khristoliubivomu Vserossiskomu Gosoduariu Imperatoru Aleksandru II Blagoslovennomu Velichaishemu iz monarkhov vsego mira nezabvennomu drugu chelovechestva.

[A Wreath for the Great Martyr-Tsar, the Eternal Liberator of the Russian Peasants and Slavic Peoples, the Blessed All-Russian Blessed Sovereign Emperor Alexander II, the Greatest Monarch in the World and Never-to-be-forgotten Friend of Humanity.”].

Vechnaia slava Tsariu-osvoboditeliu.

[Eternal Glory to the Tsar-Liberator].

Dve basni Diadi Gordeia.

[Two Fables of Uncle Gordei].

Very rare outside Russia: none of these editions could be traced in WorldCat, and no work at all by Shvetsov appeared at auction nor on the market in recent decades. We could trace only 4 copies of other editions of the ‘Venok tsariu’ (1882 in Cornell and NYPL, 1883 in Columbia and LoC), and a related work in Columbia (‘Bukhgalterskii otvet…’) – nothing else by this poet appeared in WorldCat.

Provenance

Olga Aleksandrovna Iurevskaia (inscribed by the author to her, with an autograph poem on the front free end paper, signed and dated Lucerne, 12 May 1888).