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Bunyn - копия

Peter the Great's reign from 1682 to 1725 marked a significant acceleration of Westernization in Russia, with reforms affecting all aspects of civilization. He enforced these changes through harsh measures, leading to the secularization of literature and a cultural divide between the nobility and the general populace. Following his death, Russian literature continued to evolve by incorporating French classical standards while utilizing traditional Russian themes.

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2 views1 page

Bunyn - копия

Peter the Great's reign from 1682 to 1725 marked a significant acceleration of Westernization in Russia, with reforms affecting all aspects of civilization. He enforced these changes through harsh measures, leading to the secularization of literature and a cultural divide between the nobility and the general populace. Following his death, Russian literature continued to evolve by incorporating French classical standards while utilizing traditional Russian themes.

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distortion504
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Westernization accelerated under Peter the Great, who, during his reign from 1682 to

1725, reformed every aspect of Russian civilization. The czar personally directed this
mammoth invasion of Western thought, but he enforced its adoption by ruthless, even
barbaric means. Peter’s unprecedented debasement of the Church removed schools
and literature from religious control, and from 1708, all nonreligious texts were
published in a simplified Russian alphabet rather than in Old Church Slavonic. West
Russian syllabic verse, originally panegyric or didactic, became fashionable among
Peter’s courtiers as an instrument of amatory and pastoral poetry, in imitation of French
and German models. Peter’s reformations were implemented at enormous cultural cost.
The secularization of literature contributed to the dangerous rift opening between the
general population and Peter’s sophisticated nobility, who largely abandoned the
language and the folklore of the exploited populace.

In the thirty-seven years of political upheaval that followed Peter’s death in 1725, the
first four greats of Russian literature imposed French classical standards on Peter’s
simplified Russian language. All writers imported Western literary forms and theories
while employing at the same time traditional Russian materials.

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