The Russian Journey of Karel Havlíček Borovský
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Slavistische Beiträge ∙ Band 128 (eBook - Digi20-Retro) Michael Henry Heim The Russian Journey of Karel Havlíček Borovský Verlag Otto Sagner München ∙ Berlin ∙ Washington D.C. Digitalisiert im Rahmen der Kooperation mit dem DFG-Projekt „Digi20“ der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München. OCR-Bearbeitung und Erstellung des eBooks durch den Verlag Otto Sagner: http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de © bei Verlag Otto Sagner. Eine Verwertung oder Weitergabe der Texte und Abbildungen, insbesondere durch Vervielfältigung, ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages unzulässig. «Verlag Otto Sagner» ist ein Imprint der Kubon & Sagner GmbH. Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 S l a v is t ic h e Beiträge BEGRÜNDET VON ALOIS SCHMAUS HERAUSGEGEBEN VON JOHANNES HOLTHUSEN HEINRICH KUNSTMANN JOSEF SCHRENK REDAKTION PETER REHDER Band 128 VERLAG OTTO SAGNER MÜNCHEN Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 MICHAEL HENRY HEIM THE RUSSIAN JOURNEY OF KAREL HAVLÍCEK BOROVSKY VERLAG OTTO SAGNER - MÜNCHEN 1979 Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 Published with a subsidy from the James B. Duke Endowment Fund Center for Russian and East European Studies University of California, Los Angeles / Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München ISBN 3-87690-161-8 Copyright by Vertag Otto Sagner, München 1979 Abteilung der Firma Kubon & Sagner, München Druck: Alexander Grossmann Fäustlestr. 1, D-8000 München 2 Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 T oS.P.J. in gratitude Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access . ? ъ £ :1 ' ־ ״־׳'t №*י -’ .í י*5די 1# *־*' w ׳ ü ,li ‘ - ־ ' w V :; ־' * *־’• -י ־ ״•«ין-* • гЖ0<АУ'*Ѵ ־•'יק ' - < ;.* ..' . י . ..' ;.* < - ' ־•'יק « .*■-ז-^ין‘ • \ % J j י" T' «г'^■ # 1■ ’"■’ ״ ì j f i 'A a y *7 -*У' Л ^ !'■.ï ׳V ' ;:י ѵ 1 ־ • , - ih י / . £ 4 4 % לי <, V •s ъi ׳ ■'-■ І ш Ш у К -< - 4 4 м ! ] ^Š ׳: 1י _ ,״fíup ' .i1^ , і & J ł ^ aj >j > I - *ייןו l ,à■ .. г Г".’ -"■•״׳" ^ i 'P у А\ '■׳״י I *־ .V ■<'.»=־ *ak'.■** ״ יי!-'׳ ״ ч « י M ' ś Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 я& Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access Ii, ì'^ M ìé k !* л׳ . b ь !,. ׳ 1 ויין 00066189 PREFACE Little is known of Karel Havliček Borovskÿ (1821-56) outside Czechoslovakia, but his fellow Czechs revere him. He is one of their nineteenth-century culture heroes— a satirist of great finesse and a shrewd but always humane journalist and politician. His holy of holies was a stable, self-reliant Czech nation, and his position vis-à-vis that nation's Ger- ־man-speaking neighbors and Slavic brothers has retained valid ity and support throughout the vicissitudes of recent history. The issues he treated are still very much alive. Havliček was a nationalist, but not of the sentimental, passive kind so common among his contemporaries. In the 1830*3 and 1840*3 Prague was the fountainhead of Pan-Slavic thought, but the Czechs were by and large armchair ideologues: with only the most rudimentary ideas of Russian political and social conditions they looked to Russia for models, leader- ship, protection from German tyranny— in short, for salvation. Only Havliček actually traveled to Russia. In his capacity as tutor in the home of the literary critic S.P. Sevyrev he met the Russian ideologues of the Slavophile movement. Despite his predisposition to things Russian, despite his high connec- tions, he came away from the country disenchanted. Indeed, Russian despotism so shocked him that he was ready to reject his original goal of Slavic unity if its price was Russian hegemony. Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 - v i l i - The Russian journey proved to be the turning point in Havliček's life. Having lost faith in Russia, he devoted all his efforts to promoting reform within the framework of the Austrian Empire: he advocated pushing the monarchy as far as ־it would go, but firmly opposed revolution. The two main out lets for his ideas were a steady stream of trenchant editori- als (in "Czech and Slav," for example, he rails as much against his apathetic countrymen as against the powers that be) and a series of the most clever and artistically valid satires and epigrams ever composed in Czech (his verse mas- terpiece, The Baptism of St. Vladimir, pokes biting fun at the Austrian regime while ostensibly telling the tale of the first Russian tsar to accept Christianity). During the reac- tionary backlash that followed the events of 1848 he was the only major liberal figure in Prague to continue publishing and acting on his views. Czech history and literature have produced few figures so lively and controversial. Havliček1s popularity among the Czechs is so great that when they write about him they iden- tify with him and therefore tend to forfeit their objectivity. This rule knows of one principal exception: T.G. Masaryk and his Karel HavKòek. In Masaryk*s study the subjectivity of the disciple and objectivity of the scholar merge in rare harmony, and although it first appeared in 1896, it remains the most vibrant treatment of HavliČek*s ideas. But Masaryk focuses on 1848 and chooses to leave aside his subject1s Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access earlier years• The goal of the study that follows is to put the central episode of his youth, his eighteen-month stay in Russia, into the context of what preceded and followed it. Let it be clear from the outset: The letters and essays Havliček wrote while in Russia in 1842-43 do not open any new vistas on that country. Apart from throwing light on several prominent Russian cultural personalities (Sevyrev, M.P. Pogo- din, O.M. Bodjanskij), they are interesting mainly for what they reveal of Havliček's own intellectual evolution. For the rest of his short life Havliček referred to his impres- sions of Russia when making decisions about the situation in Bohemia. Most important, the disillusionment he felt with Russia influenced his stand on the nationality question in the Austrian Empire. Since this is the first study in English to deal with Havliček's Russian journey, it includes a number of transla- tions from Czech, Russian, and German source materials. In a sense it is a source book with running commentary, and I hope that as such it will provoke interest in and further study of its worthy subject. In conclusion, I wish to thank Professors H. Winston Chrislock, Hans Rogger, and Stanislav Segert for reading the manuscript and offering valuable suggestions. Dr. Alexandr Stich for encouraging me to undertake the project and provid- inq me with important bibliographical information, and to Randy Bowlus for preparing the final typescript. I am also Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 - X - much indebted to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the UCLA Research Committee for support in the form of summer stipends. And I am particularly happy to acknowledge the help and criticism I received from my wife Priscilla, who knew just when to encourage me and when to desist. Los Angeles, September 1978 Michael Henry Heim Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I A Czech Boyhood ......................... 1 Chapter II With the Jesuits ......................... 15 Chapter III In Limbo .................................. 32 Chapter IV The Road to R u s s i a ....................... 47 Chapter V First Impressions ....................... 70 Chapter VI Disenchantment ............................ 96 Chapter VII E c h o e s .................................. 130 Chapter VIII Havliček, Custine, and Haxthausen . 166 N o t e s ................................................... 175 Selected Bibliography .................................. 190 Index of N a m e s ........................................ 193 Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access y *° ־píjjxr1* ?_£ ־־ ’Ц■-■»,'-41M 'счСШкг_ * ׳ Щ 5 :< ■:י ^ ’4 ־ ■ ■ ; S'׳ rf 11? . - ׳ ל >■■t4 '״׳ i■- v V.~ — % י“׳ t ’ י . ь -• •• i n, י\׳ ז י: י:•! I :■\\ 1cl I I i ׳- י־* \ ־ • ־ ־ ־ ■ . i A ^ и I ־ ׳ ״" y J '־ ״1і2Л* ץ* v r ' V "'־* ^ Michael Henry Heim - 9783954792894 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 05:42:42AM via free access 00066189 CHAPTER I — A CZECH BOYHOOD Karel Havliček was born in the Bchemian-Moravian Highlands in 1821. His father, Matēj , was a shopkeeper; his mother, Jose- fina (née Dvoráková), a brewer's daughter.1 Matēj Havliček was of peasant stock. As a young man he left the Dietrich- stein estate, where his forebears had tilled the soil in serfdom, to strike off on his own. After a period of appren- ticeship in a Prague business concern he moved to the town of Borová, about ten kilometers from his native village, where he opened a general store, the only store in the vicinity. A practical man, he soon gained the confidence of his clientele, who deposited their savings with him, and the local clergymen and schoolmaster, who valued him as the most far-sighted man in the community. Young Karel, however, did not get on with his father, and after leaning toward his mother for a while, he finally found refuge at the local parish house. There he was be- friended by the priest. Father Jan Brūžek, who, as legend has it, predicted that his young friend would either make a name for himself or end his days in a hangman's noose.