RUSSIA.

After having thus generally characterised the poetsand prose writers who have had an influence upon theformation of the Russian language, we may more par-ticularly examine certain portions of the literature ofRussia. The old popular songs and traditions, whichwere formerly neglected by the Russians, have nowexcited their attention, on account of their similarityto the English, Spanish, and Scandinavian ballads.Like these ballads, they appear to refer to a con-nected series of popular traditions. At the period,however, to which these old songs belong, the nationalpoetry had not freed itself from the old Sclavianmythology ; and the Russian tales and popular tra-ditions have thereby acquired a peculiar charm of afantastical description, which is particularly remark-able in the story of Filipat and Maxim, and theirvalorous deeds j the marriage of Devgieiewas, andthe carrying off of Stratigovnas, in the tale of Sh'ina-grtj), the czar of the Adorians. Prince Wladimir I.,with his knights, is the central point of this wholeseries of tales, which may be compared with thestories of Charlemagne and his peers, and those ofking Arthur arid the Round Table. The heroes,Dobrenja, Nikititsch, and Tschurilo Plenkowitsch,sod others, here take the place of the well known andhatmonious names of Roland, Rinaldo, and Amadis.Muller published the Expedition of Igor against thethe Polowzians, and this poem has since passedthrough several editions in the Russian original.Prince Wladimir and his Round Table is a Germanimitation drawn from a collection of old Russiansongs which were printed at tho suggestion of llo-manzoff. Prince Zerteloff’s Spirit of Russian Poetry,or collection of old Russian songs, published at St.Petersburg in 1822, has excited the attention of theRussians to this portion of their literature. Theecclesiastics of that period displayed a peculiar degreeof intellectual activity ; and there were also laymenof considerable merit. Nestor has mentioned manymen of rank who shared in this intellectual labour.These beginnings could not, however, be of perma-nent consequence, becauso literary institutions of ahigh character were wanting. The Greek teachersof the public schools at Wladimir, Smolensk, andHalitsch, did not diffuse a taste for Grecian antiqui-ties, which might have been a permanent barrieragainst barbarism. The Mongolian period had avithering influence on literature. In the rich con-vents only, which the Mongols respected, werepreserved some remains of intellectual cultivation,luence are derived the materials for the history ofthat period which alone give us some insight into it,Particularly the annals in the old eeclesiastieal lan-guage, composed by St. Simon, bishop of Susdal(who died in the year 1226), the Stufenbuch of~TP'j ln the metropolitan (who died in 1406), andthe Chronicles of Sophia, or the Russian annals fromtmz to 1.534. These, and the lives of Alexander themeat, of the Roman emperors, of Mark Antony, andn, ^ related after the manner of stories, were

e only hooks. As the authors despised the lan-m co . mtn on use, which, by its additions frome Uttar tongue, had acquired a foreign character,displeasing even to the people themselves, and madeuse only ot the old Sclavonian dialect, the taste forreading, even il we do not take into consideration theother inconveniences attending it, must necessarilyWe been confined to a few. As the Russians didw travel, nor learn any foreign languages, they were

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not connected, by intellectual bonds, with the rest ofEurope. There were no schools in Great Russia.The press exercised but little influence, as it wasexclusively' devoted to the interest of the church, andthe amusements of the people were rude.

In th* dramatic exhibitions, which were founded onreligious stories, and performed by the students ofKiev in the principal cities during their holidays,Judith striking off the head of Holofernes, Ahasucrusordering Haman to he hanged, and the spectacle ofthe three men in the fiery furnace, excited the highestapplause. The Sclavonian-Russian dramas of thomonk Simeon of Polotsk may be considered us animprovement on the others. These were acted in thetime of Feodor III., first in the convent, and after-wards at court. Amateurs may find his Nebuchad-nezzar, and his Lost Son, printed in the eighthvolume of the old Russian library, and most of hisother productions in manuscript, in the library of theSynod at Moscow. The first foreign comedy trans-lated into Russian was Moiiere’s ‘ Physician in spite ofHimself,’ which was performed by the czarina SophiaAlexiowna, and the ladies of her court. The Polesserved as models, particularly in poetry ; and thetranslation of the Psalms of David, published atMoscow in 1680, by Simeon, deserves mention.As early as the seventeenth century, instances ofversification can he produced, which endeavouredto imitate the Greek peculiarity of long and shortsyllables, hut they had no permanent effect. Eventhe restriction of verses to a particular number ofsyllables, was considered too stiff and unnatural ; and,to tlie present day r , there remains in their poetry(which exhibits, for the most part, the national pecu-liarities) a free and unrestrained style, which neitherrequires lines equal in their number of syllables, norassonance, nor rhyme, hut rests upon certain laws ofaccentuation.

Peter the Great endeavoured to advance litera-ture by technical aids. For this purpose he patro-nised the press, and, in 1704, himself invented a setof written characters for the Russian language, which,being similar to the Roman characters, might makethe communication and interchange of thoughts withthe rest of Europe more easy. With this characterthe first Russian newspaper was printed, in 1705, inthe ecclesiastical press at Moscow. The ukase presswas established in 1711, and from it, in 1714, pro-ceeded the first St. Petersburg gazette. Translationsof foreign .works, for the most, part German, wereintended to excite a love of reading ; and he hoped,by means of the young Russians, whom he sentabroad to travel, to convince his people of the advan-tages of education. At his death, he left fifty-oneschools for the people, fifty-six schools for the garri-sons, and twenty-six other institutions for the childrenof the clergy', which, however, had little perceptibleinfluence upon the great work of civilisation. It was,however, less attachment to ancient usage, that op-posed the effect of his labours on a people very sus-ceptible of impressions, than the artifices of the stateofficers, to whom the public improvement was, fre-quently at least, an object of little importance. Theacademy of sciences, from 1725, promoted the scien-tific direction which intellectual cultivation had taken,because the want of a national literature had not yetbeen felt. Establishments for the promotion of know-ledge and education increased daily hv imperialliberality, and CStharine i I., by the patronage which