Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - III
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with which the Tsar responded to the pledge, and his
own promise to Pushkin that he would protect him from
the stupidity and chicanery of the censorship by being
himself his censor in the future. Pushkin, who was
confronted with the choice between reconciliation with the
Tsar and his system or a lifelong persecution and exile,
had not the strength of character that would have made
compromise impossible.
His position in society as well as in the literary world
was soon assured. The Tsar gave him a pension of six
thousand rubles a year, with the task, which bore lightly
on the poet, of writing the history of Peter the Great,
and, at the same time, appointed him gentleman of the
imperial bed-chamber. This appointment was regarded
as very slight honor by the poet, who thought the title
absurd and degrading for a man of his importance and
reputation. He took part anew with brio in the “high
life” of St. Petersburg, but was, in fact, secretly and
heartily ashamed of the court favor he enjoyed while
the friends of his youth were languishing in the
casemates of fortresses and in Siberian mines, or living in
exile in foreign capitals.
He stupefied this sentiment by taking refuge in the
feeling of pride at the extent of Russia and its strength
as a military power, which is not uncommon among
eminent Russians. The former radical enjoyed the
presentation of the Russian power of beating down resistance of
every kind which came from the Poles, who had rebelled
from their longing for independence, or from the nations
of the West who sympathized with them in their love
for freedom. It is thus that his “Ode to the Slanderer
of Russia,” written in 1831, must be understood.
However, he was too unlike his worldly-minded associates,
among whom he was placed, too thoroughly
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