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The Russian Response to transcendentalism: Transcendentalism is an American philosophical, political and literary movement, born out of European Romanticism and the idealism of Immanuel Kant, mysticism and skepticism in the early 19th century. Transcendentalists held the view that organized religion and political parties, and institutions more generally corrupted the purity of the individual experience. They espoused the value of the individual, and believed that people where their best when they were purely self-reliant, and solitude in nature aids in achieving this ideal self. The writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, including Emerson's Nature (1836), and Self Reliance (1841) and Thoreau’s Walden (1854) and Civil Disobedience (1854), were foundational in this movement. Although they were translated into Russian at the time of their original publication, they were generally suppressed by political authorities and neglected by the literary community until 1947, when they were made available to a wider readership with publication of The History of American Literature, volume 1, edited by Abel Startsev. These works were followed up by subsequent publication of Thoreau’s Walden in 1962, again translated by A. Startsev, and Thoreau’s collected works were published again in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. With the dawn of the perestroika period in 1986, a volume of The Library of Literature of the USA appeared with a comprehensive review of Emerson’s essays as well as a translation of Thoreau's Walden.

Early reception: The first substantial Russian writings on any piece of American literature appears in the journal Biblioteka dlia chteniia [Library for Reading] in 1847. This piece called the prominent transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, “a forerunner of better times,” and suggested that his ideas would help change the laws and customs of America. The article goes on to say, "It would be desirable that Emerson's philosophy, as a protest in favor of the individual, be disseminated in Europe." A comprehensive two volume edition of Emerson's Works was translated and published in 1902. Emerson’s work remained in print regularly through 1917. Thoreau’s reception followed a schedule similar to Emerson’s; In 1887, the Russian daily Novoe Vremya (New Time) published the first installment of his Walden. Civil Disobedience, another of Thoreau’s most influential works, was first published in 1898. There were two further translations of the work in 1900 and 1910, with a collection of Thoreau’s other essays published in The Philosophy of Natural Life in 1903. The philosophical landscape in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the works of Emerson and Thoreau were first being published, was in many ways well suited to the introduction of American Transcendentalism. With the likes of prominent writers like Ivan Turgenev, and Anton Chekhov, or the poets Alexander Pushkin or Mikhail Lermontov, who all predated the widespread reception of the works of the American transcendentalists, expressing similar Romantic tendencies and affinity towards nature that is present in the prominent works of Emerson and Thoreau. These prominent Russian thinkers set the stage for the reception of Emerson and Thoreau into Russia thinking, but they were much more likely influenced by the English and especially the German Romantic Philosophers who inspired the first transcendentalists. The first prominent writer to be explicitly influenced by both writers was Leo Tolstoy.

Tolstoy and Transcendentalism Leo Tolstoy was widely acknowledged in his time as one of the greatest Russian writers, and his works like War and Peace and Anna Karenina were perceived as classic in their own time, gaining his widespread acclaim in his lifetime. It is important to note that his primary interaction with the Transcendental movement specifically, With the works of Emerson and Thoreau, after the publication of these two works of fiction. After the publication of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy went through a profound moral crisis, followed by a spiritual awakening in the 1870’s, which he details in his non fiction work A Confession which was published in 1882. After this awakening Tolstoy wrote much more non fiction work where he delved into moral spiritual and economic issues, and became just as much a philosopher as a writer. It is in this period where Tolstoy’s interest in the ideas of Emerson become clear. He is known to have written down references to both Emerson and Thoreau in his personal notes and diaries. In a letter to Edward Garrett dated the 21st of June, 1900, Tolstoy expresses his appreciation form many american writers, notably including several prominent transcendentalists, “But thinking over it at night, it came to me that if I had to address the American people, I should like to thank them for the great help I have received from their writers who flourished about fifties [Around the 1850’s]. I would mention Garrison, Parker, Emerson, Ballou and Thoreau, not as the greatest, but as those who I think specially influenced me. Others names are: Channing, Whittier, Lowell, Walt Whitman — a bright constellation, such as is rarely to be found in the literatures of the world.” Here Tolstoy references several prominent American transcendentalists, including Emerson, Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Tolstoy’s work and philosophy can said to be most clearly influenced by Thoreau's views on government in Civil Disobedience; Tolstoy made a significant effort to pursue its first major translation and publication in Russia in 1898 in Vladimir Grigorievich Chertkov's anarchist periodical Svobodnoe Slovo (The Free Word). Tolstoy was well acquainted with Thoreau’s ideas, and in many ways Tolstoy used Thoreau’s ideas to enhance and emphasize his own ideas; his views are however, clearly distinct from those of Emerson and Thoreau. This is particularly evident in the similarities between Tolstoy's and Thoreau’s philosophies on civil discourse and the role (or lack thereof) of government. Although this interpretation of the kinship of their thinking is common, it can be said that there are sharp departures in both style and substance between these two writers on the subject of Civil discourse and the Role of government that make their ideas clearly separate. The repressive tendencies of the autocratic tsars and the purely anarchistic philosophy of Tolstoy, who motivated his actions by his literal interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount, is highly distinct from that of Thoreau’s writing, which highlighted distrust of all regulation by government, rather than complete withdrawal from society on higher principle. Thoreau’s praise for anarchist philosophy is present in his writings: “I heartily accept the motto ‘That government is best which governs least,’ and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — ‘That government is best which governs not at all.’” Thoreau is very careful to point out however, the usefulness of government, and he advocates its betterment, not abolition, “to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.” This is sharply contrary to Tolstoy's anarchist belief, and shows Thoreau as less of an ideology and much more a a practical thinker. Tolstoy and Thoreau also differ significantly in the way they talk about nature. While Thoreau’s descriptions of nature are far more in line with Tolstoy’s predecessors like Turgenev and Pushkin, as their focus more often rests on nature first and foremost, Tolstoy’s primary focus is man. “In The Cossacks, he talks about the stags and the pheasants, the gnats, and now and then an old grapevine in the forest. That is all. Nature makes little detailed impression upon Tolstoy. The flora and the fauna are mentioned only incidentally, and then always for those qualities which would strike the attention of the well-bred huntsman or estate owner.” Tolstoy’s work left nature as a setting, leaving little lasting impression on the reader, whereas in chapter one of Walden Thoreau explicitly states his role as an observer of nature. Tolstoy and Thoreau are most closely in agreement in passages where Tolstoy glorifies the simple life of those who are most in touch with their natural surroundings. Here the similarity can be seen clearly by comparing Uncle Yeroshka from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and the Woodcutter in Thoreau’s Walden. Uncle Yeroshka “is not conscious that he is a remarkable individual. He loves the woods and the mountains. He is ready to fight when there is need.” Thoreau describes the woodchopper in Walden similarly: "He suggested that there might be men of genius in the lowest grades of life, however permanently humble and illiterate, who take their own view always, or do not pretend to see at all; who are as bottomless even as Walden Pond was thought to be, though they may be dark and muddy.” Whether or not Tolstoy’s philosophy and writing were truly transcendental, it is clear that the writings of the prominent transcendentalists made their way into Tolstoy's hands, and that he consumed their writings, advocated for their translation and publication, and clearly used their ideas to further develop and refine his own. Tolstoy’s beliefs are solely his, but the line from the great American transcendentalists cannot and should not be ignored when considering his development as a writer and thinker. Given Tolstoy's preeminence as a Russian author and thinker, and his vast influence on both Russian literature and thought as well as the philosophies of great thinkers like Ghandi and Martin Luther King jr. this contribution of American thought and writing can be considered an important addition to the Russian canon, and global thought. Contemporary Political Response The delayed reception to Emerson and Thoreau's work on a large scale is likely due to the desires of the tsarist government and its censors. There is evidence to suggest however that, in concert with Tolstoy's adoption and interest in the writings and philosophies of these American thinkers, several members of the tsarist government were also reading the works of Emerson as well as Thoreau. Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev, the harshly reactionary advocate for censorship and central control of Russian thought and advisor to Tsar Alexander the Second, Tsar Alexander the Third and Tsar Nicholas the Second spoke to the American diplomat Andrew White in the early 1890’s of his appreciation for Emerson and his work. It is interesting to note that the tie when the works of Emerson and Thoreau started to be published more regularly in Russia coincided precisely with the years in which the Russian empire faced growing revolutionary tensions. Their works were either a sign or a source of fresh revolutionary ideas during that period. Reception in the Post-Revolutionary Period Although the works of prominent transcendentalists were translated into Russian at near the time of their original publication, they were generally suppressed by the political authorities and neglected by the literary and scholarly communities during the period of Soviet control in Russia. Ideologically, the dominance of the tenets of Marxism, and by extension the Soviet government left little room for the ideas of transcendentalists in state sanctioned media. Although both Marxism and Transcendentalism were fundamentally revolutionary ideas, and their major thinkers were seeking to make a better world, their approached were fundamentally different. Transcendentalists saw the answers to society's problems in individuals’ own intuition and creativity whereas Marx saw progress only through the class struggle, materialism and empiricism. Thus transcendentalism’s emphasis on mysticism, individualism and civil disobedience often put it at odds with the Marxist-influenced and fiercely authoritarian Soviet government, particularly while Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This fundamental ideological opposition did not mean there was no publication of American works of literature, or even transcendentalists’ works, during this period, though after the revolution in 1917 the works of Emerson and Thoreau remained out of print until 1947. The absence of transcendentalist works in Russian intellectual circles ended with the publication of The History of American Literature volume 1 in that year. The collection’s primary editor, Abel Startsev, faced significant pressure from the public as well as political authorities at the time for its publication, due to the inconsistency of the ideologies (including transcendentalism) in the volumes with Soviet doctrine. In the collection, the central tenets of transcendentalism are laid out, as well as discussions of the literary work of Emerson and Thoreau in separate chapters of the same volume. Simply getting such a work published during Joseph Stalin’s time was a feat given the ideological restrictions placed on academic thought, and in this context it is clear that Startsev’s analysis of these thinkers is heavily influenced by Soviet thinking. The philosophical mysticism of Thoreau and Emerson was treated as fallacious, and the individualism espoused by both writers as asocial behavior. Starsev concluded that the moral and philosophical mysticism of the transcendentalists’ doctrines was a limitation of the theory, and it blinded them to the true cause of society's ills. The ideological tenets of Marxist theory were directly at odds with these tenets of transcendentalist thought, so given the ideological inflexibility of the time, such editorial notes on are not surprising, if for no other reason than to make the works more palatable to a Soviet readership. After this inflamed response to the earlier publication of the works of Emerson and Thoreau, it took 15 years until another translation of a prominent transcendentalist was attempted. In 1962, again published and translated by Abel Startsev, Thoreau’s Walden appeared in circulation. In keeping with his earlier criticism, Startsev again asserts the limitations of the theories of Emerson and Thoreau because of their reliance on moral and philosophical mysticism. The writer Nikolai Samokhvalov followed this with similar conservative criticism, writing about Emerson and Thoreau in the late 1960s. His studies of their work divided Transcendentalists into two groups: "bourgeois reform-ists" and "radical protesters.” As the transcendentalist philosophy was born out of discontent with the current state of affairs in nineteenth-century America, it is unsurprising that even conservative Soviet literary critics could find some value in the thinking of Emerson and Thoreau, who were vocal critics of the industrial capitalist system in which they lived. In 1977, a volume of translations compiled by Alexander Nikolyukin was published, which included a collection of several of Emerson’s essays, as well as Thoreau’s Slavery in Massachusetts, and Civil Disobedience. The publication of this collection marked a revival of interest in Emerson and his work, which had lain in relative obscurity since its initial publication in Russia in the mid to late 19th century. This spike in interest suggested a change in the moral atmosphere at the time, although the political regime remained unchanged. After decades of obscurity and censorship Emerson's legacy gradually came back to prominence in Russia. Shortly after this volume was published, a third translation of Thoreau’s Walden was published in 1979. At the start of 1980, Alexander Nikolyukin edited a volume of translations titled The Publicist Works of American Romanticism, which included Emerson’s Self Reliance as well as a selection of Thoreau's diary and Plea for Captain John Brown. This publication was followed up by another volume of the translated works of Emerson and Thoreau, which appeared in the series The Library of the Literature of the USA in 1986. With these series of publications, it became possible for the Russian reader to generate a more comprehensive picture of these two prominent transcendentalist thinkers. With this final publication and the dawn of perestroika in 1986, an important phase of the Russian response to transcendentalism can be considered to have begun. In the Soviet Union, with such a heavy tradition of conformism and fear, the transcendentalists’ doctrines of self-reliance and civil disobedience appeared decidedly modern to Russian dissidents and thinkers of the day. Thoreau's declarations that “Under a Government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison," and "We should be men first, and subjects afterwards" seem highly relevant to the citizens of the SOviet Union, who suffered under a totalitarian regime. Many Russian dissidents likely saw justification for their struggle in the Thoreau’s Civil Disobediance. In the tumultuous times of transition that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Emerson's writings on "Power" and "Wealth" turned out to be extremely relevant in the minds of Russians. Emerson's collected works helped many Russian thinkers to understand the processes through which the country was going in its change from the economic stagnation that had characterized the end of the Soviet Union and the subsequent transition to an unforgiving market economy. Unlike in America, Russian Literary scholars and philosophers are generally united in their characterization of Emerson and Thoreau as not just writers and poets but as philosophers. Contemporary Russian literary scholars have had more ease moving past the criticism that was characteristic during the Soviet Period, and given the ability to review the full body of Thoreau and Emerson, much of which remains untranslated, to study their effect on other prominent American writers like Walt Whitman and Jack London. This is particularly relevant to the Russian reader due to the enormous popularity of Jack London in the Soviet Union, as his work combined romantic descriptions of nature while also espousing socialist themes, unlike the works of Thoreau and Emerson. London’s socialist and workers rights focused views make him intellectually distinct from the transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau who preceded him. It is likely his ideological alignment with the Soviet Censors helped aid the publication of his works over those of the more ideologically dissenting views of transcendentalists.

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