From Alexandre Dumas to Anna-Lena Lauren: 7 foreign authors who wrote about Russia

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The huge country has always attracted keen interest abroad. For a long time, the representations of foreigners were limited to stereotypes like bears roaming the streets and terrible frosts from which there is no escape. Naturally, books about Russia were popular with readers, regardless of whether their impressions of the country were positive or not. And almost every writer in his work in one way or another conveyed the idea expressed once by Fyodor Tyutchev: "The mind cannot understand Russia …"

Alexandr Duma

After the publication of The Fencing Teacher, Nicholas I wanted to prohibit Dumas-father from entering Russia, but at the same time in the novel one can feel the special attitude of the writer to the country. Incredibly poetic descriptions of St. Petersburg, stories about Russian traditions, interesting stories and Russian habits - all this made The Fencing Teacher a unique work of its kind.

After traveling to Russia in 1858-1859, Alexander Dumas began to publish the newspaper “Caucasus. A newspaper of travels and novels, published daily, "and in 1859, based on newspaper materials, published the book" Caucasus ", which was published in 1861 in Russian under the title" Travel impressions. In Russia". In this book, Dumas described his vivid impressions of the sights seen in Moscow and Valaam, Uglich and Astrakhan, Karelia and Transcaucasia. At the same time, the writer noted the brutal censorship that hindered the development of honest journalism.

Mark Twain

A well-known American writer vividly and vividly described his impressions of a trip to Russia in 1867 in one of the chapters of the book "Simpletons Abroad, or the Path of New Pilgrims." Mark Twain with a group of travelers landed in Sevastopol, which at that time had not yet recovered from the consequences of the Crimean War, and was amazed at the cordiality with which Russians welcome foreigners. Later he visited Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire, and compared it with American cities. When the travelers were offered a meeting with the emperor, Twain wrote a welcome address for Alexander II, in which he compared the emperor to Lincoln and paid tribute to the liberator of the serfs.

Later, Mark Twain will release the story "The Belated Russian Passport", in which he will describe the misadventures of an American who came to Russia without a visa and almost ended up straight in Siberia.

Lewis Carroll

The English mathematician and author of books visited abroad only once in his life, and it was a trip to Russia, a country with which he had long wanted to get to know. During the trip, the writer described everything that happened to him with pedantic accuracy, and later published his notes under the title "Diary of a trip to Russia."

He could not understand the exquisite taste of Russian cabbage soup, but he learned all the delights of a tarantass ride, when he had to shake along an eerie road 14 miles long. But Lewis Carroll was delighted with the beauty of Russian churches and the vastness of the vastness, and the Russian language puzzled with its complexity.

H. G. Wells

The English writer was in Russia three times: in 1914, 1920 and 1934. He was very little interested in landscapes, traditions and beauty, but he was keenly carried away by social issues, to study which he went to a mysterious country. The first trip led to the fact that Wells proposed introducing a program in educational institutions for the study of Russian as a foreign language.

After the second trip and meeting with Lenin, his book "Russia in the Dark" saw the light, in which the writer conveyed his skeptical attitude towards attempts to build communism. After an interview with Stalin in 1934, Wells noted: Russia is sinking more and more into intoxicating dreams of self-sufficiency.

John Steinbeck

The American writer visited the Soviet Union in 1947 and tried to understand how the simplest people live. In the "Russian Diary" Steinbeck noted the tension in the capital, but was fascinated by small towns and villages. Together with photographer Robert Capa, he visited Moscow and Stalingrad, Kiev and Batumi. In those distant times, it was one big country for him, in which he was especially impressed by how the people are taught (and in fact forced) to love their rulers and support all the undertakings of those who are at the top of the government.

Frederic Beigbeder

The French prose writer often visits Russia and most of all he is captivated by the beauty of Russian women, about the danger of which he wrote in his book Ideal, dedicated to Russia. According to the author, Russian women are not loved, moreover, they are hated by the fair sex all over the world only because they consider their beauty to be unfair.

Anna-Lena Lauren

The Finnish journalist has lived and worked in Moscow for several years as a correspondent for the Finnish television company YLE. And her book "They have something with their heads, these Russians" instantly became a bestseller, although it caused completely mixed reviews. The writer conveyed her impressions of Russia in a light and ironic form and emphasized exactly what she wanted to say with her name alone: the mysterious Russian soul is really not a figment of the imagination.

Finnish journalist Anna-Lena Lauren lived in Russia for several years, and collected all her impressions of life in our country in a book with a funny title "They have something with their heads, these Russians." And how much the Finnish woman managed to notice all the subtleties can be estimated from the quotes from her book.