''Boyarin Orsha'' () is a poem by
Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romanticism, Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called ...
, written in 1835-1836 and first published by
Andrey Krayevsky in the No.7, 1842, issue of ''
Otechestvennye Zapiski
''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lit ...
''.
[Commentaries to Boyarin Orsha. The Works of M.Y.Lermontov in 4 volumes. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishers. Moscow, 1958. Vol. 2. Pp. 518-519.]
Background
A romantic poem, influenced by
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...
's "
Parisina
Laura Malatesta (140421 May 1425), better known as Parisina Malatesta, was an Italian marchioness. She was the daughter of Andrea Malatesta, lord of Cesena, and his second wife, Lucrezia Ordelaffi. She had an affair with her illegitimate ste ...
" (from which comes the
epigraph to Chapter I), "Boyarin Orsha" also reflects Lermontov's interest in
Russian folklore
The Russian folklore, i.e., the folklore of Russian people, takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales. Epic Russian bylinas are also an important part of Slavic paganism. The oldest ...
and history. The poem's action takes place in the time of
Ivan Grozny
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia from 1547 until his death in 1584. I ...
and the
Livonian War
The Livonian War (1558–1583) concerned control of Terra Mariana, Old Livonia (in the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia). The Tsardom of Russia faced a varying coalition of the Denmark–Norway, Dano-Norwegian Realm, the Kingdom ...
(1558-1583).
The author seems to be ambivalent about the moral choice his hero makes: fighting successfully for personal rights and freedom, Arseny commits treason and finds himself siding with the enemy, fighting his own people.
Synopsis
Arseny falls in love with his master Boyarin Orsha's daughter and plots to take her away from her father's home. On discovering this, the old man locks the girl into her room and throws the key into
Dnieper
The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...
. The young man faces
igumen and monks who interrogate him, but refuses to name his accomplices. On the night before the execution Arseny, helped by his mysterious friends, escapes from his cell. He finds himself in
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
, now at war with Russia. Some time later, he returns with the invasion force. After one particularly fierce battle, he finds dying Orsha among the dead men lying on the ground. Having received the permission to come to his house and take the girl with him, Arseny goes there, breaks the lock on the door of the room which nobody has entered for years and finds a heap of bones on the bed where he once made love to Orsha's daughter. Grief-stricken, Arseny laments at length about his cruel fate and leaves.
Critical reception
The poem was praised by
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (; Pre-reform spelling: Виссаріонъ Григорьевичъ Бѣлинскій. – ) was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of p ...
who admired the character of Arseny, a rebel, defying both his master and the church. The critic admitted the poem was far from perfect but considered it "more precious than many mature, artfully executed works."
[The Complete Belinsky. The Academy of Sciences Publishers. 1955. Vol. VII, p. 37, 548.]
References
{{Mikhail Lermontov
1836 poems
Poetry by Mikhail Lermontov