Gargyants, M. G. THE SOVIETIZATION OF PETER THE GREAT IN THE TOLSTOY’S PLAY “ON THE RACK”: A SEARCH FOR A MARXIST CONCEPT OF THE TSAR. Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2022;44(4):52–58. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2022.767


To the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great

THE SOVIETIZATION OF PETER THE GREAT IN THE TOLSTOY’S PLAY “ON THE RACK”: A SEARCH FOR A MARXIST CONCEPT OF THE TSAR

Gargyants
M. G. 		European University at St. PetersburgSaint Petersburg Institute of History of Russian Academy of Sciences;
Keywords:
cultural memory in the USSR
Tolstoy’s play “On the Rack”
the Soviet myth of Peter the Great
the Sovietization of Peter the Great
Marxist historiography
literary debates
soviet propaganda		 Summary: The purpose of this article is to determine the range of contradictions that emerged during the discussion of the image of Peter the Great in the 1920s in the sphere of literary scholars. For this purpose it was necessary to perform the following tasks: to show the main literary trends of Tolstoy’s play “On the Rack” and to compare them with the ideological and political views of the intelligentsia of the late 1920s, as reflected in reviews of the play’s production. The analysis of the “Petrovsky myth” at the initial stage of its emergence is urgent for today as it allows us to consider the already realized model of constructing a heroic image of one of the national rulers. It also helps us to understand how history can be gradually instrumentalized for the purposes of agitation and propaganda. As F. B. Schenk’s famous research on the image of Alexander Nevsky has shown, the images of national heroes from the past in a modified form remain in the cultural memory of modern Russia as well. The figure of Peter the Great has always occupied a special place in this respect because, starting from the historiography of the 19th century, it has always been related with both negative and pathetic associations. The article demonstrates that this contradiction influenced the discussions about the “Petrovsky myth” in the late 1920s. It concludes that the views of representatives of the literary community on Peter the Great were predetermined, firstly, by the primacy of historiographical evaluations of M. N. Pokrovsky school, secondly, by the desire to avoid the conclusions of bourgeois historiography of the late 19th century, and thirdly, by fears of an overt analogy between the overkill of Petrine reforms and the first years of Bolshevik power formation.



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