Taras Bulba
| Author | Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol |
|---|---|
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Historical, Novel |
Publication date | 1835 (1st as part of a collection) |
| Publication place | Russian Empire |
Taras Bulba is a romanticized historical religious novel by Nikolai Gogol. It tells the story of an old Zaporozhian Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andrey and Ostap. Taras’ sons studied at the Kyiv Academy and return home. The three men set out on an epic journey to Zaporizhian Sich located in Ukraine, where they join other Cossacks and go to war against Poland.
Taras Bulba is Gogol’s longest short story. The work is non-fictional in nature with characters that are not exaggerated or grotesque as was common in Gogol's later work, though his characterizations of Cossacks are said to be a bit exaggerated by some scholars. This story can be understood in the context of the romantic nationalism movement in literature, which developed around a historical ethnic culture which meets the romantic ideal. It has been cited as the seminal work establishing the concept of the "Russian Soul".[1] The story is rich in adventure and battle scenes as well as touches of Gogol’s characteristic humor.
Plot (1842 edition)
In the story, Taras Bulba’s two sons, Ostap and Andrey, return home from an Orthodox seminary in Kiev. Of Taras' sons, Ostap is the more adventurous, true to the Cossack spirit, whereas Andriy has deeply romantic feelings stirring within him. While in Kiev, he fell in love with a young Polish noble girl, the daughter of the Governor of Dubno, but after a few meetings, saw her no longer when her family returned home.
As a Dnieper Cossack, Taras Bulba sets out to give his sons the opportunity to go to war as a Cossack. A Cossack is not a man and does not marry until he has seen combat. Taras and his sons reach the Cossack camp at the Zaporozhian Sich, where there is much merrymaking, and Taras works to rouse the Cossacks to go into battle. Taras sets actions underway to replace the existing Hetman when the Hetman is reluctant to break the peace, and works to create the opportunity for combat.
Fortunately they soon have the opportunity to fight the Poles, who rule all Ukraine west of Dnieper. The Poles are accused of atrocities against Orthodox Christians, in which they are aided by Jews. After killing many of the Jewish merchants at the Sich, the Cossacks set off on a campaign against the Poles. Ultimately they reach the Dubno Castle, which they besiege. Surrounded by the Cossacks and short of supplies, the inhabitants begin to starve.
One night a Tatar woman comes to Andriy and rouses him. He finds her face familiar and then recalls she is the servant of the Polish girl he was in love with from his youth. She advises him that all are starving inside the walls. He accompanies her through a secret passage starting in the marsh that goes into the monastery inside the city walls. Andriy brings loaves of bread with him for the starving girl and her mother. He is horrified by what he sees and in a fury of love, forsakes his heritage for the Polish girl.
Meanwhile, several companies of Polish soldiers march into Dubno to relieve the siege, passing through and killing or capturing a regiment of Cossacks, who are too drunk to stop them. A number of battles ensue and Taras learns of his son’s forsaking his Cossack heritage from Yankel the Jew, whom he saved from Cossacks earlier in the story. During one of the final battles, he sees Andriy riding in Polish garb from the castle and has his men draw him to the woods, where he takes him off his horse. Taras then shoots his son from close range. Taras and Ostap continue fighting the Poles and the latter is captured while the former is knocked out.
Taras awakens in a state of delirium. When he regains his composure he learns that Ostap was among the Cossacks captured and is in the hands of the Poles. Yankel agrees to take him to Warsaw where Ostap is held captive, hiding Taras in a cart of bricks, which he knows no one will tamper with on their journey. Once there a group of Jews help Yankel to dress Taras as a German count, and they attempt to go into the prison to see his son. They almost succeed, but a guard recognizes Taras as a Cossack, though they convince him otherwise. Still, he does not let them through and only after being paid 100 gold pieces does he allow them to leave, instructing them to go to the execution the following day if they wish to see the Cossacks.
During the execution, Ostap, in fine Cossack form, does not make a single sound, even while being broken on the wheel, and only near the end calls out to his father, asking if he “can hear this?” Taras calls out that he can, and Yankel turns to him, terrified for him revealing their location, to find that the Cossack has disappeared.
Having lost both of his sons, Taras returns home to find all of his old Cossack friends dead and younger Cossacks in their place; unfazed he goes to war again. The new Ataman wishes to make peace with the Poles, which Taras counsels firmly against, warning that the Poles are treacherous and will not honor their words. Failing to convince the Cossacks, Taras takes his regiment away with him to continue the battle independently. As Taras predicted, once the new Ataman agrees to a truce, the Poles betray the Cossacks and kill a number of them. Taras and his men continue to fight and are finally caught in a ruined fortress, where they battle until the last man is defeated.
Taras is nailed and tied to a tree and set aflame. Even in this state, in true Cossack spirit, Taras calls out to his men to continue the fight, advising them that a Russian Tsar is coming who will rule the earth. Defeat and fire are not sufficient to quench his great Cossack soul.
The story ends with Cossacks on the Dniester River who recall the great feats of Taras and his great Cossack spirit.
Differences between editions
The original 1835 edition reflects the Ukrainian context of the story. In response to critics who called his The Government Inspector "anti Russian", and under pressure from the Russian government that considered Taras Bulba too Ukrainian, Gogol was forced to revise the book. The 1842 edition was expanded and rewritten to include Russian nationalist themes in keeping with the official tsarist ideology at the time, as well as the author's changing political and aesthetic views (later manifested in Dead Souls and Selected Passages from Correspondence with his Friends). The changes included three new chapters and a new ending (in the 1835 edition, the protagonist is not burned at the stake by the Poles). The little-known original edition was translated into Ukrainian and made available to the Ukrainian audience only in 2005.[2][3]
Anti-Semitism
Felix Dreizin and David Guaspari in their The Russian Soul and the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentricis discuss "the significance of the Jewish characters and the negative image of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol's novel "Taras Bulba," pointing out Gogol's attachment to anti-Jewish prejudices prevalent in Russian and Ukrainian culture."[4] In Leon Poliakov's The History of Antisemitism, the author mentions that "The 'Yankel' from Taras Bulba indeed became the archetypal Jew in Russian literature. Gogol painted him as supremely exploitative, cowardly, and repulsive, albeit capable of gratitude. But it seems perfectly natural in the story that he and his cohorts be drowned in the Dniper by the Cossack lords. Above all, Yankel is ridiculous, and the image of the plucked chicken that Gogol used has made the rounds of great Russian authors."[5]
Film, TV and theatrical adaptations
The story was the basis of an opera by Ukrainian composer, Mykola Lysenko. (See article Taras Bulba (opera)).
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)'s "Taras Bulba," a symphonic rhapsody for orchestra, was composed in the years 1915-1918. The composition was first performed on 9 October 1921 by František Neumann, and in Prague on 9 November 1924 by Václav Talich and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
The story has been made into several films, with varying degrees of success. The first silent adaptation was in 1909, directed by Aleksandr Drankov. The second, a 1935 German production, was directed by a Russian director Alexis Granovsky, with superb decor by Andrei Andreyev. A third, in 1936, was produced in Britain under the title The Rebel Son, starring Harry Baur with a supporting cast of significant British actors. Another adaptation was made in the US in 1962, starring Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis and directed by J. Lee Thompson; this adaptation featured a significant musical score by Franz Waxman, which received an Academy Award nomination. Bernard Herrmann called it "the score of a lifetime". "The Ride to Dubno" has become a standard concert piece and has been recorded many times. "Sleighride" uses Schedryk, the Carol of the Bells, as a counterpoint to Waxman's own melody. The finale, an upbeat march as the Cossacks ride into Dubno, is based on a Ukrainian folk song.
A new Russian movie directed by Vladimir Bortko, a member of the Russian Communist Party, was commissioned by the Russian state TV and paid for totally by the Russian Ministry of Culture. It includes Ukrainian, Russian and Polish actors such as Bohdan Stupka (as Taras Bulba), Ada Rogovtseva (as Taras Bulba's wife), Igor Petrenko (as Andriy Bulba), Vladimir Vdovichenkov (as Ostap Bulba) and Magdalena Mielcarz (as a Polish noble girl) premiered in 2009. The movie was filmed at several locations in Ukraine such as Zaporizhye, Khotyn and Kamianets-Podilskyi during 2007. The screenplay used the 1842 "pro Russian" edition of the novel.
In popular culture
- Ernest Hemingway called Taras Bulba "One of the 10 greatest books of all time."
- In Jane Smiley's 2007 novel Ten Days In The Hills, the ageing director, Max, is asked by a Russian oligarch to consider filming Taras Bulba.
- Eugene Hütz, the Ukrainian-born singer and lyricist of the critically acclaimed New York Gypsy punk rock band Gogol Bordello, wrote the introduction for the Subculture Books Edition of Taras Bulba, released in December 2008.
- The villain in the premiere episode of Disney's animated series Darkwing Duck was named Taurus Bulba—a play on the book title and the fact that the character was an anthropomorphic bull.
- Taras Boulba is the name of a Belgian IPA from the Belgian brewery Brasserie de la Senne. It is imported to the United States by Shelton Brothers.
References and notes
- ^ You look: there are people there also, God's creatures, too; and you talk with them as with the men of your own country. But when it comes to saying a hearty word--you will see. No! they are sensible people, but not the same; the same kind of people, and yet not the same! No, brothers, to love as the Russian soul loves, is to love not with the mind or anything else, but with all that God has given, all that is within you. Ah!" said Taras, and waved his hand, and wiped his grey head, and twitched his moustache, and then went on: "No, no one else can love in that way! Taras Bulba Text prepared by John Bickers, project Guttenberg
- ^ The real Taras Bulba, Tetiana Polishchuk, The Day, October 4, 2005]
- ^ E. Bojanowska, NIKOLAI GOGOL: BETWEEN UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN NATIONALISM (2007)
- ^ Antisemitism in Literature and in the Arts
- ^ Leon Poliakov. The History of Antisemitism. p. 75. Pennsylvania Press.[1]
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