Ideals and Reality in Russian Literature

Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was not only a prominent revolutionary, ideologist, and theorist of anarcho-communism but also a famous scholar, researcher, who wrote a number of serious scientific works in geography, geology, and literature. He engaged in educational activities and sought to familiarize Western readers with the richness of Russian culture. His course of lectures on the history of Russian literature, delivered in the USA in the early 20th century, became popular. Recorded in English and lightly edited by the author, the lectures were then translated into Russian and first published in Russia in 1907. Since then, they have been reprinted multiple times, and some of Kropotkin's assessments and concepts became the foundation of Soviet literary studies. We owe to the prince some well-known stable expressions and definitions from Soviet literature textbooks. The main feature of this course can be called its extreme political bias. Ideas are the main measure of everything, influencing any assessment; the author and the work are weighed based on their benefit or harm to the cause of 'revolutionary struggle and the establishment of a better world.' Despite these peculiarities, the course of lectures represents a monumental attempt to systematize the entire history of Russian culture and offers a coherent concept and scheme for its study. With all its drawbacks, Kropotkin's views are interesting and often original, assessments are peculiar and frequently accurate, and the theoretical propositions hold not only ideological but also scientific value.