ELEIKIN’S POEM FROM THE COMEDY BY E.P. ROSTOPCHINA “RETURN OF CHATSKY TO MOSCOW <...>” AS A PARODY OF SLAVOPHIL POETRY

Abstract

In the comedy “The Return of Chatsky to Moscow <...>” by E.P. Rostopchina is a Slavophile character with the speaking surname Eleikin (elei - church oil), the prototype of which is A.S. Khomyakov. Eleikin’s words “I must cry all the abominations of Russia!!!...” are an allusion to Khomyakov’s famous poem “To Russia” (1854), which the author of the comedy took with indignation immediately after its appearance. There is a poem, which is attributed to Eleikin in the comedy, which is a satire on Slavophil doctrine and contains a number of parodic echoes with the lyric works of Khomyakov, as well as an allusion to his early tragedy “Dimitri the Pretender”. The edge of satire, in which the views of the Slavophiles are caricatured and partially distorted, is directed both against the Pan-Slavist ideas and against the idealization of the patriarchal order and values of old Russia. The appearance of the poem was apparently connected with the intensification of the activities of the Slavophiles manifested in the establishment of the journal “Russkaya Beseda”.