Russian literature is, has and always will be one of the most influential and heartwarming forces in the world. Realism originated in Russia, perhaps, as early as Pushkin (1798-1837). Russian philosophy has always been an integral part of the literature. The seed of existentialism is found in Dostoevsky and passive resistance, used so effectively by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, originated in the works of Tolstoy.
One of the last messages which Turgenev [1] addressed to Russian writers from his death-bed was to implore them to keep in its purity “that precious inheritance of ours – the Russian Language.” He who knew in perfection most of the languages spoken in Western Europe had the highest opinion of Russian as an instrument for the expression of all possible shades of thought and feeling, and he had shown in his writings what depth and force of expression, and what melodiousness of prose, could be obtained in his native tongue. In his high appreciation of Russian, Turguéneff – as will often be seen in these pages – was perfectly right. The richness of the Russian language in words is astounding: many a word which stands alone for the expression of a given idea in the languages of Western Europe has in Russian three or our equivalents for the rendering of the various shades of the same idea. It is especially rich for rendering various shades of human feeling,–tenderness and love, sadness and merriment–as also various degrees of the same action. Its pliability for translation is such that in no other language do we find an equal number of most beautiful, correct, and truly poetical renderings of foreign authors. Poets of the most diverse character, such as Heine and Béranger, Longfellow and Schiller, Shelley and Goethe – to say nothing of that favorite with Russian translators, Shakespeare – are equally well turned into Russian. The sarcasm of Voltaire, the rollicking humor of Dickens, the good-natured laughter of Cervantes are rendered with equal ease. Moreover, owing to the musical character of the Russian tongue, it is wonderfully adapted for rendering poetry in the same metres as those of the original. Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” (in two different translations, both admirable), Heine’s capricious lyrics, Schindler’s ballads, the melodious folk-songs of different nationalities, and Béranger’s playful chansonnettes, read in Russian with exactly the same rhythms as in the originals. The desperate vagueness of German metaphysics is quite as much at home in Russian as the matter-of-fact style of the eighteenth century philosophers; and the short, concrete and expressive, terse sentences of the best English writers offer no difficulty for the Russian translator.
Together with Czech and Polish, Moravian, Serbian and Bulgarian, as also several minor tongues, Russian belongs to the great Slavonian family of languages which, in its turn – together with the Scandinavo – Saxon and the Latin families, as also the Lithuanian, the Persian, the Armenian, the Georgian – belongs to the great Indo-European, or Aryan branch.
Like all other languages, the Russian has adopted many foreign words Scandinavian, Turkish, Mongolian and lately, Greek and Latin. But notwithstanding the assimilation of many nations and stems of the Ural-Altayan or Turanian stock which has been accomplished in the course of ages by the Russian nation, her language has remained remarkably pure. It is striking indeed to see how the translation of the bible which was made in the ninth century into the Ianguage currently spoken by the Moravians and the South Slavonians remains comprehensible, down to the present time, to the average Russian. Grammatical forms and the construction of sentences are indeed quite different now. But the roots, as well as a very considerable number of words remain the same as those which were used in current talk a thousand years ago.
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1 – Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Russian: Иван Сергеевич Тургенев) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman’s Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. Henry James who wrote no fewer than five critical essays on Turgenev’s work, claimed that “his merit of form is of the first order” (1873) and praised his “exquisite delicacy”.
Henry James was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
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Learning in Russia 