Pushkin\'s Ambivalent Fealty to Peter the Great

Pushkin's Ambivalent Fealty To Peter The Great

Peter the Great's vision for Russia involved sweeping changes, changes so radical that although they brought about tremendous progress, they also crushed many old traditions ruthlessly. Alexandr Pushkin simultaneously admired the vision and determination shown by the ruler, and was troubled by the measures necessary to carry out the envisioned reforms.

The Bronze Horseman exemplifies this dual viewpoint. In the beginning, Peter the Great (referred to as "he" -"on"- as if his identity needed no explanation) contemplates the unpromising site of his projected city of St. Petersburg. In time, his vision is realized. "That city young, gem of the Northern world" became the world-class city envisioned by its founder. Pushkin's admiration for the achievement is palpable: "I love thee, city of Peter's making."

However, with the flood, the limits of human power and vision are exposed: "No Tsar, with God, is master over God's elements!" The humble man Evgeny loses everything and everyone he has ever loved, and he turns in anger on the Emperor's statue, denouncing it as haughty and presumptuous, "Ay, architect, with thy creation of marvels...Ah, beware of me!" The angered statue comes to life (in Evgeny's crazed mind) and chases him mercilessly through the devastated city, to his eventual death. The tone of the ending of the poem echoes the opening, in its description of the shabby marsh with its wretched denizens.

The meaning of the poem and its disturbing imagery would seem to indicate that Pushkin was torn between Peter the Great's laudable ambition to make Russia a center of power and influence in Europe - to create a cultured, imperial seat out of an umpromising marsh, as exemplified in the planning of Petersburg. But at the same time, Pushkin was highly sensitive to the plight of the serfs, humble men like Evgeny. Peter the Great established factories throughout Russia to compete in the European economy, for example, and in one of his reforms, allowed the factories to purchase entire towns of agricultural workers for manpower. Although he decreed that families could not be broken up, he nevertheless also upheld the right of landowners to sell their serfs as the market dictated.