page_title: History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev / Plot
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Нестор-летописец
context_page_description: History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev is a poem in 83 verses by the Russian poet and dramatist Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, written in 1868. Initially banned by censors and published for the first time in 1883 by Russkaya Starina, eight years after the author's death, it became one of the best known examples of political satire in 19th-century Russia, popular with Russian intellectuals of many generations.
context_section_description: According to William Harkins, The History of the Russian State should be seen "as an important work by an author who has a very substantial claim to be regarded as Russia's leading humorous poet, and not as a serious or entirely consistent statement of definite ideological position." It begins with a short extract from Nestor's Chronicle (page 8): "Our land is vast and abundant, one thing it lacks is order." The phrase, forming half of Verse 1 (Poslushaite rebyata/Tchto vam rasskazhet ded/Zemlya nasha bogata/Poryadka v nei lish net. - Now take a listen children/What grand-dad's have to say/Our land is rich. The Order / Is one thing that it lacks) and is repeated many times later, in a manner of a refrain.
  In verses 2-6 Russia's forefathers (Gostomysl, actually, never mentioned), having noticed the fact (as expressed by Nestor) make a decision to bring the Varangians in, to face the task of bringing order to the rich lands of Russia. Verses 7-8 see three brothers, after a short consideration arrive at the scene. The accounts of Ryurik and then Igor, Oleg, Olga and Svaytoslav's deeds (verses 9-14) are marked by the "macaronic" (as W.Hoskins describes it) use of the German language: Nu, dumayut, komanda/Zdes nogu slomit tchort/Es ist je eine Shande/Wir mussen wieder fort. - Oh dear, what a fix, they think, here devil will break his leg/It is a shame, and we gotta get out of here! (Ryurik and his team's first impression of the place).
  After Svaytoslav, Vladimir came: "Da endigte fur immer/Die alte Religion" ("Then came an end to the old religion..."), his rationale related in Russian: Perun uzh otchen gadok/Kogda yego spikhnyom/Uvidite, poryadok/Kakoi my zavedyom (Perun, you see, is too loathsome. You just see what an Order we'll have once we dethrone him!). Vladimir dies ("of grief, having failed to bring Order", according to Verse 20) and the Yaroslav the Wise marches in: coming close to bringing order, he ends up with breaking the country into fragments, merely for "the love of his children" (Verse 21).
  A loather of Mongol's Yoke, Tolstoy then describes the enemy's advent in neutral, jovial manner, reserving most of the bile for the Russian local leaders, quick to report one on another to heir foreign masters (Verse 26).
  Ivan III frees Russians from the occupation but still brings none of the Order about, with Ivan IV stepping in. Here Tolstoy's reserve becomes even more apparent: the Grozny's era (which always horrified the author) is described in a tone more ironic than hostile (Ivan Vasilyich Grozny/Emu byl imyarek/Za to shto byl seryozny/Solidny tchelovek. This anti-idyll ends (One's life'd be rather carefree/With such kind of Tsar/But ah! No thing's eternal/And Tsar Ivan, he died) and in comes Tsar Fyodor, his father's antypode, "quick not in wits, but words" (...Byl razumom ne bodor/trezvo′nit lish gorazd. - Verse 33.) Tsar Boris whose claims to virtue, according to the author, were "serious intelligence", "good looks" and "being a brunette" (Verse 34) is followed by The Impostor (Samozvanets) with a girl. The Poles rioted, were driven off, and Vasiliy came up throne only to be asked "by all the land to instantly come off" which led to another invasion of the Poles who this time brought Cossacks with them ("The Cossack and the Poles/They beat us again and again/And without Tsar we're very down/Like crawfish out of depth"). Minin and Pozharsky emerged to drive the Poles away, and Mikhail got up on throne, still bringing none of the Order expected (Verse 47).
  Tsar Aleksey's mission, apparently, was to give birth to Pyotr, and that was when "new times have come to our State", for "Tsar Pyotr indeed loved discipline/Almost like Tsar Ivan" (Verse 48). In search of it, having chosen Amsterdam for his port of call, he's shaven the nations' beards off, "dressed all of us up as Hollanders" and indeed maintained a certain kind of discipline which promptly vanished with his death (Verse 55). 
  After that "several tsars were ruling, and even more of queens" (Verse 56), Anna and ('a true gendarme') Biron getting a brief mention. 
caption: St.Nestor the Chronicler by Viktor Vasnetsov
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