In the words of Shumakr, Russia experienced "a complete inward revival."
Old customs seemed to disappear, all things were become new. New life,
new hope, new aspirations throbbed in the hearts of the subjects of the
gigantic empire, and better times were knocking at their doors. _Joli
tout le monde, le diable est mort!_
This era of great reforms and the resuscitation of all that is good and
noble in the Slavonic soul brought about also a moral regeneration. The
colossus who, according to Turgenief, preferred to sleep an endless
sleep, with a jug of vodka in his clutched fingers, proved that he, too,
was human, with a feeling, human heart beating in his bosom. With the
restoration of peace and the abolition of serfhood, there began a
removal of prejudice even against Jews. Hitherto the foremost
litterateurs in Russia, imitating the writers of other lands, had
painted the Jew as a monstrosity. Pushkin's prisoner, Gogol's traitor,
Lermontoff's spy, and Turgenief's Zhid (Jew) were caricatures and
libels, equal in acrimony, and not inferior in art, to Shakespeare's
Shylock and Dickens's Fagin. But now the best and ablest men of letters
signed a protest against such unjust and impossible characters.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231