Rostovtseva, Yu. A. Mikhail Kheraskov’s ‘Numa Pompilius’ and ‘Nakaz (Instruction) of Catherine the Great’: Literary Utopia in Terms of Historical Mythology

Abstract: The research is focused on Mikhail Kheraskov’s ‘Numa Pompilius or the Flourishing Rome’ (1768). The writing is viewed in terms of the legislative policy carried out by Catherine the Great. The Established Commission for creating the project of the New Establishment has become a general topic in the history of novel. Many Russian researchers of the Russian literature of the 18th century underline that (V. Sipovsky, G. Gukovsky and A. Zapadov) as well as foreign Slavicist researchers (S. Bayer). The fact that the writing was devoted to the activity performed by the Commission in 1766 – 1767 could be explained not only by the times when the work was written and ideological orientation of Mikhail Kheraskov (according to L. Kulakova) but also the peculiar genre of the novel (according to G. Gukovsky). However, despite these traditional approaches, the influence of the main document of the legislative campaign, ‘The Great Nakaz of the Empress’ has never been an individual subject of research. Analysis of the novel in term of Catherine’s Nakaz (1767) gave an opportunity to reconsider established scientific views on the ideological and genre peculiarities of the novel. This approach has allowed to interpret Kheraskov’s writing as a panegyric to Catherine’s legislative initiatives and to understand the role of Kheraskov’s ‘Huma Pompilius’ in the process of creating the state mythology of the period of Enlightened absolutism.

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