The reception of "Sketchers of a hunter" in USA, or I.S. Turgenev against slavery

Tyunyaeva Ol'ga Dmitrievna Postgraduate student of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Chair of History of Russian literature 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1 tyunuaeva@list.ru Other publications by this author

The reception of the creative heritage of I. S. Turgenev in the USA began in the middle of the XIX century. During the second half of the XIX century, interest in the author of "Fathers and Children" increased: such writers and critics as Yu. Skyler, Ya. Boyesen, W. D. Howells showed close attention to Turgenev's works. G. James played a special role in understanding Turgenev's creative heritage in America.   In America, during Turgenev's lifetime, translations of the novels "Fathers and Children" (1867), "Smoke" (1872), "The Noble Nest" (Liza, 1872), "Rudin" (1873), "Nov" (1877), the story "Spring Waters" (1874) ^{[1, p. 17]}.

However, the beginning of interest in Turgenev in the USA was laid by his cycle of stories "Notes of a hunter". During the XIX century . Russia and the United States showed a keen interest in each other, which was due to a number of economic, social and cultural factors. One of these factors was serfdom in Russia and slavery in America. The famous Americanist A. N. Nikolyukin, noting the similarities between the two cultures, paid special attention to the disenfranchised position of slaves and peasants. "The comparison between the USA and Russia, the slavery of Negroes and serfdom was self-evident and constantly arose both in American journalism and in the Russian democratic press ^{[2, p. 80]}. Nevertheless, we should not forget that there was an obvious difference between the institution of slavery and serfdom. Serfs were not the property of the landowner, but were "attached" to the land. Unlike American slaves, they had the opportunity to dispose of their property (house, cattle, tools). But in the minds of the educated part of American and Russian society, these phenomena were equated. After all, in Russia, cases of selling peasants without land were not uncommon. American and Russian liberals often turned to images of another country to highlight their own problems more clearly.

It is known that in his writing activity I. S. Turgenev showed himself as an ardent opponent of serfdom (as evidenced, for example, by his letter to S. A. To Vengerov from June 19 (July 1), 1874) ^{[3, p. 121]}. The writer's protest is most fully reflected in the cycle of short stories "Notes of a Hunter", the first separate edition of which was published in Moscow in 1852. And in the following year, 1853, individual stories from the cycle were published in the USA. First they were published in German translation, and the next year — in French. The German translation was published in the Sunday supplement to the newspaper "New Yorker Herold: Morgenblatt" — "New Yorker Revue". This is confirmed by a letter from A. I. Herzen to M. K. Reichel dated September 29-30 (17-18), 1853: "In America, Turgenev's hunting stories were translated in German in Revue" ^{[4, p. 120]}. But no documentary evidence of this publication was found ^{[2, p. 77]}. Already in the following 1854, a French translation of individual stories of the cycle was published — in the American magazines "The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science and Art" and "Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art". Excerpts from the stories "Khor and Kalinich", "Burmistr", "Two Landowners", "Singers", "Bezhin Meadow" were received with interest in the reading environment of America.

A number of studies by Russian literary critics are devoted to the reception of "Hunter's Notes" in the USA. M. P. Alekseev was one of the first to address this problem. In the article "The world significance of the Hunter's Notes" ^[5], the scientist asks the question: what influence did the famous cycle of short stories have on the work of a number of US writers of the second half of the XIX century. In particular, the researcher notes that such collections of short stories by American writers as "Old Creole Days" by J. Cable, "Driveways" by H. Garland, stories about California gold diggers by F. B. Garth were written under the impression of the "Hunter's Notes". Somewhat later, A. N. Nikolyukin in the book "Interrelations of the literatures of Russia and the USA" ^[2] briefly outlined the main stages of acquaintance of American readers with the work of Turgenev. And the initial stage of this acquaintance was the "Hunter's Notes". The researcher noted that the direct interest of Americans in the "Hunter's Notes" was caused by the commonality of the social problems of Russia and the United States, namely slavery and serfdom. The works of the last ten years have also been devoted to the problem of the influence of the "Hunter's Notes" on American readers. Among them, it is worth mentioning the dissertation of E. V. Makarova ^[6] and a number of articles by the researcher. So, in a short review work "The history of the perception of the book of short stories "Notes of a Hunter" by I. S. Turgenev in the USA by the late XIX—early XX centuries" ^[7] E. V. Makarova drew attention to the fact that at the end of the XIX century American readers and admirers of Turgenev, among whom there were often writers, began to attract in the "Notes of the hunter" not only social problems, but also artistic discoveries of the Russian writer. Thus, the aesthetics and poetics of Turgenev's cycle of short stories come to the fore for American readers by the end of the century. But the initial interest was caused precisely by general social problems.

After the appearance of the first stories from the series "Notes of the Hunter" in American journalism, the first reviews of them appeared quite soon. A. N. Nikolyukin drew attention to the article by Miss E. Robinson "Slavery in Russia", published in 1856 on the pages of the largest magazine "North American Review" ^[8].

In this article, Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter" are placed in the context of general arguments about serfdom in Russia. The author tries to trace how serfdom was historically formed in the Russian Empire. Miss Robinson's lengthy arguments, sometimes very naive and not always true, are very revealing. Such a detailed conversation about serfdom shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States could not be accidental. And American readers understood this. It is no coincidence that at the beginning of the article the author mentions slavery in the southern states. Ms. Robinson categorically rejects the justification of the existence of slavery by racial differences. Slavery in America is no better than serfdom in Russia, even if the rights of the same white people are infringed in a distant empire.

Nevertheless, in her article, Miss E. Robinson warned American readers against unfriendly French and English books about Russia and, as another example, turned to Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter" — "series of pictures of Russian country life of an incomparably graphic genuineness" ("pictures of Russian rural life written with incomparably colorful truth") ^{[8, p. 314]}. Paintings of serfdom in Russia, according to E. Robinson, were vividly shown by Turgenev in the story "Lgov". The author gives an example of a long dialogue between the hero-narrator and a man nicknamed Bitch. During his life, the Bitch has tried all kinds of activities from different gentlemen: from an actor to a fisherman. In this short scene, the life path of the forced peasants is most highlighted.

It is worth noting that Miss Robinson puts the name of I. S. Turgenev next to the name of one famous namesake of the writer — N. I. Turgenev. The author of the article mistakenly calls him the writer's uncle. The name of N. I. Turgenev appears here in connection with his famous book “La Russie et les russes” ^[9]. This work was published by N. I. Turgenev while already in exile, abroad, in 1847. An ardent opponent of serfdom, N. I. Turgenev outlined in the book his ideas about possible ways of its abolition in the Russian Empire. Speaking about serfdom, N. I. Turgenev did not escape the traditional comparison with slavery in America. As follows from the article in question, the book “La Russie et les russes” was well known to readers of the New World. In their view, the name of I. S. Turgenev was inextricably linked with N. I. Turgenev. This partly formed certain ideas about Turgenev as a writer who dealt with extremely acute social problems, for example, serfdom.

Ending the conversation about serfdom in Russia, Ms. Robinson draws careful parallels with the slavery of Negroes in the United States. The author comes to the conclusion that with all the unfavorable situation of peasants in the Russian Empire, their situation is less disastrous than the situation of American slaves. In many cases, the law protects serfs, while black slaves can only rely on decent behavior and Christian virtues of their masters.

The following response to the translation of the stories from the "Notes of the Hunter" by I. S. Turgenev appeared only in 1867, again in the magazine "North American Review". The article was titled "Serfdom and the laws on the abolition of serfdom in Russia" ("Serfdom and the Emancipation Laws in Russia")) ^[10] and was dedicated to the liberation reform of Alexander II. The news of the abolition of serfdom in Russia reached the New World in the early days of the Civil War. This news was used for their own purposes by both the North and the South. The Southern press described the disasters that threaten Russia after the liberation of the peasants, and the abolitionists, on the contrary, enthusiastically received the news from St. Petersburg ^{[11, p. 430]}. However, after the end of the Civil War and the actual abolition of slavery, this institution has not become a thing of the past. It is no coincidence that American criticism continues to comprehend and compare the experience of the United States and Russia. The article again examines the stages of the formation of serfdom: from Rurik to the reign of Alexander II. A detailed excursion into the history of Russia was necessary for American readers, among other things, in order to understand the peculiarities of the state structure of a distant empire. In particular, the fact that serfdom lasted in Russia until the middle of the XIX century, the article relates to the fact that throughout its history Russia was closer to Asia than to Europe.

The author of the article points to the gradual reforms carried out under the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I, which brought Russia closer to the abolition of serfdom. It is mentioned, for example, the decree on "free farmers" of 1803, according to which landowners could let their peasants go free with a land allotment. However, under the next emperor, Nicholas I, landowners could free peasants without land. The liberated peasants had to redeem their land (decree "on obligated peasants" of 1842). In addition, the article details the amounts of dues and duties that the peasants paid.

The mention of Turgenev arises in connection with the description of the oppressed situation of the peasants. It is worth noting that the author of the article points out the similarity of the arguments used by supporters of serfdom in Russia and slavery in the United States. Both of them talk about the unwillingness of the dependent layer to go free. After all, they simply have no idea how to dispose of it. According to the author, Turgenev gives a true idea of the plight of dependent peasants in Russia in his work. However, there is no detailed analysis of the writer's texts.

At the end of the article, the reform on the abolition of serfdom in Russia is considered. The author complains that the peasants were freed without land. Again, parallels are drawn with the abolition of slavery in the southern states. There are cautious assumptions about how much Russia's experience can be useful for America in connection with the abolition of a similar institution.

Such responses to the situation with serfdom in Russia could be partly provoked by an inaccurate translation of the same "Notes of the hunter", which was made by Ernest Charrier. This translation was made during the cooling of relations between the Russian Empire and France in order to illustrate the oppressed situation of Russian peasants (due to the outbreak of the Crimean War). Turgenev himself was dissatisfied with Charrier's free translation ^[12]. The re-"discovery" of the Hunter's Notes in the USA took place in the 1870s. Already under the influence of Turgenev's translated novels. And the first complete translation of The Hunter's Notes into English, giving an idea of the artistic value of this book, was made by Constance Garnett and was included in the collected works published in New York in 1894 (The novels of Ivan Turgenev. Tr. Constance Garnett. A sportsman’s sketches. New York, Macmillan. v. 8–9. 1896. 292, 284 p.). Since the 1860s, Turgenev's popularity in America has been increasing: translations of Turgenev's most famous novels are published in the USA, the first of which was the novel "Fathers and Children" (1867). But the beginning of interest in Turgenev, the novelist, was "Notes of a Hunter".

It seems that the attention of American readers to the "Notes of the Hunter" and to Turgenev's work in general was due both to the relevance of the problems he raised for the public life of the United States and to the artistic discoveries of the Russian writer. It is worth noting that parallels between Russia and America, and often unconsciously, have arisen in literature and culture in general ^{[13, p. 11]}. However, at the first stage of acquaintance with Turgenev's work, the cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter" interested American readers exclusively in the aspect of the problem of serfdom raised by the author.

The anti-serf pathos of some of Turgenev's works became an occasion for comparing his texts with the sensational novel by G. E. Beecher Stowe "Uncle Tom's Hut" (1852), the Russian translation of which appeared in 1853. In particular, P. V. Annenkov drew attention to the similarity of the Akim from the story "The Inn" with Uncle Tom, the main character of the novel by the American writer ^{[14, p. 155]}. The texts were written almost at the same time, which excludes the possibility of their direct influence on each other.

As it is known from Turgenev's answer to Annenkov, the writer read Beecher Stowe's work after working on his story. "As for "Uncle Tom", which I read the other day, I was struck by the thought myself — that after all, perhaps an Akim of the same caliber. Your letter confirmed this impression" ^{[15, p. 220]}, Turgenev wrote on April 21 (May 3), 1853.

There is reason to assume that Turgenev did not like the comparison of his works with the tendentious Beecher Stowe novel. The American writer was happy to play the role of an ardent fighter against slavery, without caring about the psychological development of her images. Turgenev was interested, first of all, in man in all his complexity. But the comparison of his texts with the sensational novel has been fixed for a long time both in the minds of the Russian reader and the American one.

It is no coincidence that later the first American translator of "Fathers and Children" Eugene Skyler, comparing the success of "The Hunter's Notes" and "Uncle Tom's Hut", wrote: "It seemed strange that in two great countries, so different in their makeup and completely unfamiliar with each other, the publication of a novel about people's life became a public event of great importance. In opposite parts of the world, in two countries, one of which was considered the freest and the other the most despotic in the world, human slavery was dealt an equally strong blow" ^{[16, p. 6-7]}. He compared "The Hunter's Notes" with "Uncle Tom's Hut" and Henry James, who was the closest of American writers to communicate with Turgenev. James noted the aesthetic superiority of Turgenev's cycle of short stories over Beecher Stowe's novel ^{[17, p. 270]}. Note that in the second half of the XIX century. such writers and literary critics as G. James, W. D. Howells, T. Perry, J. Cable, S. Anderson, paid attention not to the anti-serf pathos of The Hunter's Notes, but to the aesthetic merits of Turgenev's book.

For a long time, Russia and the United States have been conceptualizing their internal political and social processes relative to each other. Such a steady interest stimulated cultural contacts of such distant, at first glance, states. One of the clearest examples of such mutual interest is the close attention of the American reader to the work of Turgenev. It is no accident that American readers get acquainted with the legacy of the Russian writer begins with his book of short stories. First of all, American criticism of the XIX century. I saw in this work a book that was close to them with its political and civic mood. The Hunter's Notes became the basis for further interest in Turgenev in the USA. Over time, American criticism has found more and more similarities between Russians and Americans. By the 1870s, translations of Turgenev's famous novels were beginning to appear in the United States. But the appeal to the work of the Russian writer was largely due to an attempt to comprehend the institution of slavery in comparison with serfdom in Russia.