Martyrdom and the Myth of the Russian Writer: How Dissidence Turns Into Obedience
Location
PANEL: Histories of Resistance
Mudd 113, Terrell Main Library
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-26-2024 3:00 PM
End Date
4-26-2024 4:00 PM
Abstract
The adoration Russia displays for their canonized writers is quite apparent. Many of these authors, such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, and Chernyshevsky, spent time in exile or prison. Their sufferings and conflicts with the state endowed them with the aura of martyrs in later narratives about their lives, granting them love from the state that once punished them. My study traces Russia’s ardor for martyrdom and how the state has used the rhetoric of martyrdom to sanctify both dissidence and obedience. Using both primary and secondary sources (Dostoevsky’ Pushkin speech, poems by Lermontov and Tsvetaeva, Jonathan Brooks Platt’s Greetings, Pushkin!, Soviet biographies, Lenin’s writings on Chernyshevsky), I show how Pushkin has been transformed into a staple of national identity through the romanticization of his martyrdom, while Chernyshevsky’s role as enemy of the state in the late 19th century secured him the status of a deity in the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the secondary school curriculum in Russia has used the myths of both writers to cultivate patriotism in schoolchildren. My study demonstrates that the state ultimately appropriates narratives of dissidence as martyrdom to foster obedience, which helps us better understand the work of propaganda in contemporary Russia. The rhetoric of martyrdom is currently being used by the Russian state to justify war in Ukraine (for example, Putin’s statement that in the case of nuclear attack “we [Russia] will end up in paradise, and they [the West] will simply perish because… we will be martyrs”) and foster an obedience in its citizens.
Keywords:
Martyrdom, Pushkin, Chernyshevsky, Russian/Ukrainian War
Recommended Citation
McDermott, Charlotte, "Martyrdom and the Myth of the Russian Writer: How Dissidence Turns Into Obedience" (2024). Research Symposium. 25.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2024/presentations/25
Major
Russian; Creative Writing
Project Mentor(s)
Vladimir Ivantsov, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
2024
Martyrdom and the Myth of the Russian Writer: How Dissidence Turns Into Obedience
PANEL: Histories of Resistance
Mudd 113, Terrell Main Library
The adoration Russia displays for their canonized writers is quite apparent. Many of these authors, such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, and Chernyshevsky, spent time in exile or prison. Their sufferings and conflicts with the state endowed them with the aura of martyrs in later narratives about their lives, granting them love from the state that once punished them. My study traces Russia’s ardor for martyrdom and how the state has used the rhetoric of martyrdom to sanctify both dissidence and obedience. Using both primary and secondary sources (Dostoevsky’ Pushkin speech, poems by Lermontov and Tsvetaeva, Jonathan Brooks Platt’s Greetings, Pushkin!, Soviet biographies, Lenin’s writings on Chernyshevsky), I show how Pushkin has been transformed into a staple of national identity through the romanticization of his martyrdom, while Chernyshevsky’s role as enemy of the state in the late 19th century secured him the status of a deity in the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the secondary school curriculum in Russia has used the myths of both writers to cultivate patriotism in schoolchildren. My study demonstrates that the state ultimately appropriates narratives of dissidence as martyrdom to foster obedience, which helps us better understand the work of propaganda in contemporary Russia. The rhetoric of martyrdom is currently being used by the Russian state to justify war in Ukraine (for example, Putin’s statement that in the case of nuclear attack “we [Russia] will end up in paradise, and they [the West] will simply perish because… we will be martyrs”) and foster an obedience in its citizens.
