“Svitrigailo, Grand Duke of Lithuania, or Supplement to histories of Lithuanian, Russian, Polish-Prussian” : Translation and Publication of Work of August Kotzebue in Russian Empire

Abstract

The issue of the history of the translation into Russian of the historical work of the German playwright August Kotzebue “Svitrigailo, the Grand Duke of Lithuania”, which was published in 1835, when the name of the famous German author had already become a sign of bad literary taste, and his works ceased to be published. For the first time, the study introduces into scientific circulation materials from several archives that store documents that allow us to draw conclusions about why Kotzebue’s essay on the history of Lithuania and Poland has been lying on the shelf of the censorship department for more than a decade. The results of the study showed that the manuscript could not be allowed for publication for a long time, not because of the scandal around the tragic death of its author, and not because of the new heroized interpretation of the image of Svitrigailo. The real reason for oblivion was the additions (documents from the Königsberg archive) with which Kotzebue supplied his work. The author of the article reports that, among various historical materials, three papal bulls were presented at the end of the manuscript, related to the project of a possible reunification of the Latin and Greek churches. It was these documents that delayed the publication of Kotzebue’s work in Russian. The archival materials involved show that the censorship of the first quarter of the 19th century considered the dissemination of materials related to the issue of unification of churches dangerous for Russian society.

Keywords

• russian culture
• german dramaturgy
• translation history
• literary translation
• grand duchy of lithuania
• history of eastern europe
• august von kotzebue