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# In Pushkin, a Singing Girl with a Guitar Tries to Lure the Eligible Bachelor Lensky:
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/u-pushkina-peniem-pod-gitaru-pytaiutsia-zavlech-interesnogo-zhenikha-lenskogo/
- Published: 2021-07-17T10:27:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T09:27:00.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Moscow, Museums, Mores

They call the neighbour to the samovar,  
And Dunya pours the tea;  
They whisper to her: "Dunya, mind your manners!" Then they bring in the guitar too:  
And she starts to squeak (good God!):  
Come to my golden palace!

*Literal translation*

Here the guitar is a sign of noble birth and an elite upbringing.

In Tolstoy, Natasha Rostova dances to the guitar, and what is played for her is the Russian folk song "Down the Paved Street". That is, the guitar already illustrates the link between the upper estates and the representatives of popular culture.

In Ostrovsky, the guitar, which recurs constantly in a great many texts, is finally established as a breath of democratisation, and is now shown as an everyday part of the petty-bourgeois way of life, one that strives for a lofty aesthetic. This very guitar, with its showy theatrical bow, hangs on the wall of Alexander Ostrovsky's house in Zamoskvorechye in Moscow.