"And did we not prove in the year 'twelve that we are Russians? Such an example has not been seen since the beginning of the world! We are contemporaries and do not fully understand the great fire of Moscow; we cannot be astonished at this deed; this thou
"And did we not prove in the year 'twelve that we are Russians? Such an example has not been seen since the beginning of the world! We are contemporaries and do not fully understand the great fire of Moscow; we cannot be astonished at this deed; this thought, this feeling was born together with the Russians; we ought to be proud, and leave astonishment to posterity and to foreigners. Hurrah, gentlemen! To the health of the Fire of Moscow!" So writes Lermontov in his early drama of 1831, A Strange Man, placing the burning of Moscow unambiguously among the most significant events of the nation's history. Naturally, alongside the Battle of Borodino.
Lermontov, the author of one of the finest literary monuments to Russian military history, "Borodino", belonged to a generation that grew up after Napoleon, and for him the war of 1812, though still vivid and alive, was nonetheless history. Of course, the poet could not fail to know of his own father's service in the militia, of the relative who, on Barclay de Tolly's orders, blew up the bridge over the River Kolocha, or of the two brothers of his grandmother who distinguished themselves in valour at the Battle of Borodino.
And despite the solemn patriotism and the spirit-lifting pride of the masterly "Borodino", in Lermontov's work Napoleon too occupies a special, exalted, even romantic place.
From Lermontov's pen came an entire Napoleoniad: the poet sympathises with Napoleon and addresses him in a whole series of poems, raising him to the rank of a mysterious hero, a rejected genius who rose above the crowd and was doomed to solitude. At the same time Lermontov perfectly well understands that it was Russia that defeated Napoleon, and says so directly in verse:
"You were vanquished by the walls of Moscow...
You fled!"
Literal translation
In the ballad "The Flying Ship" of 1840 Lermontov names Russia as the chief blow dealt to Napoleon:
"But the moustachioed grenadiers sleep,
On the plain where the Elbe murmurs,
Beneath the snow of cold Russia,
Beneath the sultry sand of the pyramids."
Literal translation
In "The Field of Borodino" we read:
"Sooner will the eyes of the heavens go dark
Than from the memory of the sons of midnight
It will be effaced."
Literal translation
The still very young Lermontov in 1832 pays the Frenchman his due in the poem "The Two Giants", where Russia is
"In a cap of cast gold,
The old Russian giant."
While France is "A three-week-old daredevil."
Literal translation
How, then, in the work of a single poet do such seemingly contradictory things coexist: love for Napoleon and contempt for the French army? The point is that the exaltation of Napoleon is linked above all with the criminal, obscurantist rule of the Bourbons, established after his confinement, when he appears no longer as a bloodthirsty enemy but as a fighter for liberties and, above all, remains a symbol of revolutionary struggle against monarchical reaction. That is why Napoleon proves a favourite figure of Byron, of Heine, of Pushkin, and, earlier than the rest, of Lermontov.
At the very beginning of the Napoleonic cycle the poet asks himself:
"Why did he so chase after glory?
Did he despise happiness for honour?
Did he fight against innocent peoples?"
"Why did he jest with the blood of peaceful citizens,
Scorn both friendship and love,
And not tremble before the Creator?..."
Literal translation
Lermontov answers this himself, saying that Napoleon sought glory but in the end set himself above it.
"I shall scorn the loud songs of praise;
I am above both acclaim, and glory, and men!..."
Literal translation
In the elegiac meditation "Napoleon" Lermontov sings the tragedy of a great man's fate and describes the appearance of his hero in the loftiest style:
"Oh! How in his face there are still visible
The traces of cares and of inner war,
And the swift gaze, astonishing the feeble mind,
Though alien to passions, is still full of former thoughts.
That gaze pierced the heart like a tremor,
And discerned secret desires."
Literal translation
In the "Epitaph of Napoleon" of 1830 Lermontov justifies Napoleon and speaks of his greatness:
"Yes, no one reproaches your shade,
Man of fate! You are with men, for fate is above you.
He who knew how to raise you up alone could cast you down.
But nothing changes what is great."
Literal translation
How can Lermontov's reverence for the enemy be reconciled with his evident, ardent patriotism? If we set aside the lyrical mood and the parallels with the outcast genius, then the greater Lermontov's Napoleon is, the more significant is the achievement of Russia, which defeated him.
