Searching for Soulmates (Based on the correspondence of A.A. Fet and P.P. Tsitovich)
Publication Title:
Searching for Soulmates (Based on the correspondence of A.A. Fet and P.P. Tsitovich)
Abstract:
The present paper examines the unpublished correspondence of Afanasiy Fet and Petr Tsitovich. The latter was a prominent political writer who polemicized with A.S. Posnikov and N.K. Mikhailovsky, the authoritative exponents of communal land ownership. Afanasij Fet, an experienced landowner and a vigorous supporter of private land ownership, joined the heated discussion by sending a private letter to Tsitovich. The letter addresses crucial issues in post-reform agrarian economy, the main subject of which Fet had already treated in his unpublished paper under the title of “Our Intelligentsia”. Fet contemplated the idea of sending his letter to one of the Russian newspapers. Leo Tolstoi and Nikolay Strakhov, who were familiar with the correspondence, advised the poet against it. Fet, on the contrary, started delved deeper into the subject in yet another unpublished work (“Communal Land Ownership”). This study aims to answer the question of why the above-mentioned essays failed to go into print. An attempt is being made to reconstruct the epistolary contacts between Fet and Tsitovich, as well as to analyze the nature of the extraordinary ideological alliance that emerged between them.
References:
(Sources)
Collected Works
1. Dostoevskiy, F.M. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy v 30 t., t. 30, kn. 1 [Collected Writings in 30 vols., vol. 30, book 1]. Leningrad: Nauka, 1988. 455 p.
2. Fet, A.A. Sochineniya i pis'ma v 20 t., t. 3 [Collected Writings and Letters in 20 vols., vol. 3]. Saint-Petersburg: Folio-Press, 2006. 518 p.
3. Fet, A.A. Nashi korni. Publitsistika [Our Roots: Selected Essays]. Saint-Petersburg: Rostok; Moscow: Posev, 2013. 480 p.
4. Tolstoy, L.N. Perepiska s russkimi pisatelyami v 2 t., t. 2 [Correspondence with Russian Writers in 2 vols., vol. 2]. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura, 1978. 479 p.
Individual Works
5. Fet, A. Iz derevni [Letters from the Village], in Russkiy vestnik, 1863, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 438–470; vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 299–350.
6. Fet, A.A. Nasha intelligentsiya [Our Intelligentsia], in Voprosy filosofii, 2000, no. 1, pp. 129–170.
7. Fet, A. Obshchinnoe vladen'e [Communal land ownership], in XV Fetovskie chteniya: A.A. Fet i russkaya literatura [Afanasij Fet and Russian Literature]. Kursk; Orel: KGPU, 2000, pp. 13–18.
8. Fet, A.A. Pis'mo k Tsitovichu P.P. [Letter to P.P. Tsitovich], in NIOR RGB, fond 315, cart. 5, no. 12, 4 ff.
9. Derevenskiy zhitel' [Fet, A.A.], in Russkiy vestnik, 1882, vol. 157, no. 2, pp. 484–538.
10. Fet, A. Zametki o vol'nonaemnom trude [Reflections on the hired labor], in Russkiy vestnik, 1862, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 358–379; vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 219–273.
11. Lavrov, P.L. I.S. Turgenev i razvitie russkogo obshchestva [I.S. Turgenev in the Russian social context], in I.S. Turgenev v vospominaniyakh revolyutsionerov-semidesyatnikov [I.S. Turgenev as reflected in the memoirs of the Russian revolutionaries of the 1870s]. Moscow; Leningrad: Academia, 1930, pp. 16–88.
12. Tsitovich, P. Chto delali v romane «Chto delat'?» [“What is to be Done?”: An Inquiry into the Novel]. Odessa: Tipografiya G. Ul'rikha, 1879. 50 p.
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(Articles from Scientific Journals)
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(Articles from Proceedings and Collections of Research Papers)
16. Cheremisinova, L.I. A.A. Fet i D.A. Stolypin [A.A. Fet and D.A. Stolypin], in Mezhvuzovskiy sbornik nauchnykh trudov «Literaturnoe kraevedenie Povolzh'ya» [Interuniversity Proceedings “The Volga Region’s Literary Life”]. Saratov: Izdatel'stvo Saratovskogo pedagogicheskogo instituta, 1997, issue 1, pp. 59–67.
17. Generalova, N.P. 25 let spustya: Itogi Krest'yanskoy reformy 1861 goda v perepiske A.A. Feta s N.P. Semenovym [Emancipation reform of 1861 as reflected in the correspondence of A.A. Fet and N.P. Semenov], in Afanasiy Fet i russkaya literatura: XIX Fetovskie chteniya [Afanasij Fet and Russian Literature]. Kursk: KGU, 2005, pp. 66–90.
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20. Generalova, N.P. Pis'ma S.V. Engel'gardt k A.A. Fetu. Ch. II (1874–1884) [The Correspondence of Sofia Engelgardt and A. Fet. Part II (1874–1884)], in Ezhegodnik Rukopisnogo otdela Pushkinskogo Doma na 1995 god [The Yearbook of the Manuscript Department of Pushkinskij Dom for 1995]. Saint-Petersburg: Dmitriy Bulanin, 1999, pp. 70–120.
21. Generalova, N.P. «…Ya tak davno privyk k vashim druzheskim pis'mam…» (34 pis'ma S.V. Engel'gardt k A.A. Fetu) [“…I have long since become habituated to your intimate letters…” (The correspondence of S.V. Engelgardt and A.A. Fet in 34 letters)], in A.A. Fet: Problemy izucheniya zhizni i tvorchestva [Afanasij Fet: A Study on his Life and Writings]. Kursk: KGPU, 1994, pp. 174–234.
22. Shinkov, M.A. Vzglyad Feta na poreformennuyu derevnyu (po chernovym materialam k stat'e «Nasha intelligentsiya») [Afanasij Fet and his reflections on the Russian post-reform agrarian economy], in Turgenevskiy ezhegodnik 2011–2012 gody [The Turgenev Yearbook 2011–2012]. Orel: Aleksandr Vorob'ev, 2013, pp. 70–74.
23. Steklov, Yu., Volkov, G. Neizdannaya stat'ya A.A. Feta o romane N.G. Chernyshevskogo «Chto delat'?» [An Unpublished Essay by Afanasij Fet on Nikolay Chernyshevsky’s Novel “What is to be Done?”], in Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 1936, vol. 25–26, pp. 479–544.
Key words:
Afanasiy Fet’s publicism, communal land ownership, populism (narodnichestvo), conservatism, reform of 1861, positivism
The DOI index:
10.17588/2076-9210.2025.4.078-091
Publication file:
