Between East and West by Anne Applebaum

Author:Anne Applebaum [Applebaum, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Eventually the hatred fostered by government propaganda and encouraged by the poets translated itself into suppression of any Pole or Ukrainian who showed literary talent and anyone who spoke with a distinctive voice – as well as anyone who spoke of independence or sovereignty. In two separate edicts, czarist Russia banned the use of the Ukrainian language.

Yet although the Russians destroyed as much of the other Slavic cultures as they could, the insecurity created by Russia’s domination of the nations around her borders remained. Occasionally it appears in Russian literature. Toward the end of Anna Karenina, Karenin, Pestsov, and Koznyshev argue about the Russification of the borderlands. While Karenin, a high state official, supports the process, the others are bothered by it:

‘I did not mean,’ he [Pestsov] began over the soup, addressing Karenin, ‘that we should set about absorbing other nations on principle, but that it would come about naturally if our population were larger.’

‘It seems to me,’ said Karenin languidly, and with no haste, ‘that amounts to the same thing. In my opinion, only a nation with a superior culture can hope to influence another. A culture that—’

‘But that is precisely the question,’ interrupted Pestsov in his deep voice – he was always in a hurry to speak and always seemed to be staking his whole soul on what he was saying. ‘How is one to recognize a superior culture?’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.