For your fifth paper, you will discuss an issue from the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855), based on your analysis of the following:
Imperial Russia: docs. 32, 37, 38
Portable 19th Century Russian Reader: pp. 202-37 (Gogol)
Russian Thought: pp. 67-92; 116-35, 147-48
Choose one topic:
1. Drawing on the documents in Imperial Russia and Russian Thought, discuss the Slavophile/Westerner debate as a reaction to Chaadaev’s “Letters on the Philosophy of History.” (Please note that although an extract from Chaadaev’s letters appears in IR as doc. 34, I want you to use the more complete version in RT, 67-78.)
2. Nikolai Gogol was Russia’s first great prose writer. (Although Pushkin and Lermontov also wrote wonderful prose, they were poets first and foremost). Gogol’s early work, exemplified by his masterful short story “The Overcoat,” offered a scathing critique of Russian society during the reign of Nicholas I. Later, his ideas evolved into something akin to Slavophilism, prompting Vissarion Belinsky’s magnificent “Letter to Gogol.” Drawing on the excerpts from Gogol in the Russian Reader and the “Letter to Gogol” in Russian Thought, discuss the power of literature in the “land of silence.” (Note: Belinsky’s letter also appears in IR, but the RT translation is more readable.)
Your paper must be typed and at least two pages long (500 words). Three pages are ideal; four is the maximum that will be accepted. I am looking for concrete ideas, clearly and concisely expressed. At the very least, you should be trying to demonstrate that you have read the assignment!