Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maruthoor Purushothaman, Translator
Only a year before his death in 1881, Dostoevsky gave his famed “Pushkin Speech” at the Pushkin Celebration of 1880. In an impassioned speech that was received with overwhelming positivity, he praised Pushkin as Russia’s national poet. A common interpretation of the speech is that it was not only about Pushkin, but about Dostoevsky himself as well. Dostoevsky made his intentions for the festival clear, writing that “I have prepared my speech about Pushkin, and precisely in the most extreme spirit of my convictions”. Dostoevsky began by quoting Gogol’s words on Pushkin: “Pushkin is an extraordinary phenomenon, and perhaps the only manifestation of the Russian spirit,” before going further than those before him by saying “I will add from myself: and prophetic”. Throughout the rest of the speech, Dostoevsky expands on Pushkin’s prophetic status as a unique manifestation of the Russian spirit and how “Russia’s national mission is validated in terms of its literary “incarnation” in Pushkin” He ends the speech by speculating on Pushkin’s potential successor to the title of prophet; by this point the crowd was firmly on his side and responded rapturously, spontaneously conferring upon Dostoevsky that title by chanting “Prophet, prophet!”.
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