Themes of 19th C. Russian literature: Fully sourced from text. Includes Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Fathers and Sons by Turgenev, and The Lady with the Little Dog by Chekhov. All quotes are in Russian.
Just to the east of riotous, industrialising Western Europe sat Imperial Russia, pendent between tradition and modernity, a vast empire of duality. As if trying to vent her frustrations, 19th century Russia produced a selection of history’s finest writers; each writer packing their work with themes of duplicity, hope, and heavy social criticism.
Duality was the cardinal theme for Imperial Russia. 19th century Russia was a peasant-filled, agrarian empire rushed through the gawky adolescence of industrialisation. The serfs were only freed in 1861, and by 1900 around 2.3 million Russians worked inside factories: in a century, Russia had moved from a feudal system of serfdom to the shores of modernity. A theme of duplicity was carried throughout. The new industries and arterial railroads were European inventions, so was Russia a European nation? Or, did Russia’s devotion.....
