“Cholera Morbus” in Moscow as a Literary Situation

Abstract

This article considers the cholera epidemic (cholera morbus), which first shook Russia in the early 1830s, and more precisely, the time when cholera reached Moscow (summer and autumn of 1830). The article draws on numerous pieces of documentary evidence from those years and later. The cultural and historical approach to studying them makes it possible to present a “bitterly deplorable picture of the dying humanity” and assess the degree of fear and depression in people in the face of the “Indian infection” previously unknown to medicine. The article interprets “cholera morbus” as a fact that is tragically significant not only for Russian public life but also as a literary situation in which a human being faces death. Using the biographical method, the author studies the literary situation referring to the creative behaviour of two authors, A. A. Orlov, and M. Yu. Lermontov. Orlov entered the history of Russian literature as a “grassroots writer” (A. I. Reitblat) known as the author of parody arrangements of the “Vyzhigin” novels by F. V. Bulgarin. However, Orlov also wrote the “Moscow story” known as The Meeting of Plague with Cholera, or The Sudden Destruction of all Human Intentions (1830), which, due to the established literary reputation of the author, does not attract researchers’ attention. The article notes that by parodying the genre form of a vision traditionally designed for the mass reader, Orlov fills it with cutting-edge content and even sends a civic message encouraging readers and instilling faith in God and the Sovereign. Staying in Moscow for the entire epidemic, M. Yu. Lermontov would for the first time get real experience of facing death, which would be reflected in his work. Analysing the poems of different genres (Plague in Saratov, Plague (Excerpt), Grave of a Fighter, Death – Sunset Burns with a Fiery Streak…) created in 1830 during the cholera epidemic (as evidenced by the marks in the autograph), the author of the article concludes that cholera morbus was perceived by the young poet, unlike the creator of the “Moscow story”, not in a particular historical aspect but in philosophical terms. The experience of death, aggravated by the “picture of the dying humanity”, contributed to Lermontov’s comprehension of the eternal antinomy of being in its dialectical unity. Death and life, death and immortality would become a cross-cutting theme in Lermontov’s work giving it philosophical depth and timeless content.