A semiotic interpretation of national typology: the English, the Boers and ... the Russians

This article examines the text of renowned nineteenth century Russian travellers notes, The Frigate Pallada, by Ivan Goncharov, the author of Oblomov. Using the teachings of Victor Shklovsky, Yurij Tynianov and Yurij Lotm an on the role of the genre of travellers notes in the history of Russian literature, the author examines the chapter on the Cape Province. She dem onstrates that in his descriptions of the two nations of the Cape Province the English and the Boers Goncharov is applying that which is known to him his own cultural model of the Russian society of the midnineteenth century. In his examination of differences between the English and the Boers Goncharov applies the ideological dichotomy between the Slavophiles and the W esternisers. Goncharov, by “inverting" the "dual model of Russian culture" (Lotman & Uspensky, 1984a) draws comparisons between the Russians of the Oblomov Slavophile type on the one hand, and the English on the other hand as the model for the improvement of the industry of the economically backward Russian nation. To Goncharov the Boers resemble the Oblomov, old world side of dichotomy, which by inversions of the dual model can fluctuate between "the good" and "the bad" categories.


Introduction
In the vast area of cross-cultural studies, the field of South African-Russian connections remains arid.However, several Russian literary texts bear witness to the interest of Russian writers in South Africa.Some celebrated 20th-century Russian and Soviet texts reflects events of the Anglo-Boer War, and express a strong sympathy towards, and affiliations with the Boers.In such diverse texts as The Silver Dove {Serebrianyj Golub'), the modernist novel of the beginning of the century (1922), by the symbolist Andrey Bely, and Sholokhov's Quiet Flows the Don (Tikhij Don) of 1925, by Stalin's prize laureat, Russians peasants sing "Transvaal is burning in fire".' Amongst K. Paustovsky's apolitical texts, highly esteemed in his country for their mastery of the short story narration, we encounter a Russian translation of the Transvaal song: "Transvaal', Transvaal' strana moja -ty vsia gorish v ogne".Paustovsky also confesses in his biography A Story o f One Life (Povest' o zhizni) (1955) that his generation was brought up on the story of the heroic Life o f Pieter Maritz, a Young Boer from the Transvaal.What unites all these accounts of the Anglo-Boer war is a sympathy towards the Boers, based on a vague parallelism between the Russians and the Boers on the one hand, in opposition to the pragmatic and pedantic English.In Paustovsky we read; Uncic Juzja left as a volunteer to join the Boers.This act, heroic and altruistic, greatly impressed his relatives.W e, children, were deeply shattered by this war.We knew in all the details every .singleb attle which took place on the opposite side of the world -(he siege of Ladysmith, the battle near B loem fontein, and th e taking o f M ajuba.T he m ost popular people am ongst us w ere the Boer generals; D c W et, Joubert, and Botha.We despised the arrogant Lord Kitchener and mocked the English soldiers for fighting in red uniform s.W e read enthusiastically the book Pieter Maritz -a young Boer from the Transvaal.Not only us -the whole civilized world -followed the events of the tragic dram a that was taking place on the the veld between the Vaal and the O range River, followed events of the unjust battle of a small nation against the world em pire.Even Kiev organ-grinders, who up till now had played a romance "Separation", started to play a new song "Transvaal, Transvaal, my land, you are burning in fire".For this song we used to give them a shilling piatak, which we have saved up to buy ice cream.(Paustovsky, 1955:40-41;my translation.)However, a much more acclaimed Russian text, which addresses itself to the nations of the Cape Province, belongs to the 19th century.This celebrated text is the book of travellers notes.Frigate Pallada, by Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891), the author of Oblomov'^ considered to be the fourth greatest realist novelist in the line of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev.

Travellers notes and the semiotics of Russian culture
In the history of Russian literary scholarship, the genre of travellers notes has received considerable attention at the hands of the Russian formalists^ in the 1920's and 1930's, as a consequence of their preoccupation with the role that this genre played in the formation of the realist novel.Both Yurij Tynianov (1969) and Victor Shklovsky (1983) treated the genre of travellers notes as crucial in their search for signs of the literary struggle against and polemics with the texts of the preceding epochs as important in the evolution of genres and in the formation of literary schools.Yurij Tynianov (1969:192), in his analysis of Pushkin's travellers no\e.i,Journey to Azrum (Puteshestvije v Arznini), demonstrates that the notes contain elements of literary polemics with the school of Romanticism in general, and Karamzin's Notes o f the Russian traveller in 2 G onchorov served as a personal secretary to th e P u tjatin expedition (1852-1856) o f the frigate Pallada, and his duties consisted of maintaining a written account of the expidition.The aim of the voyage was the following.The Russian G overnment had dccided to undertake an expedition to Japan in th e hope o f o p ening com m ercial relatio n s whith that country.A dm iral C ount Putjatin was entrusted with R ussia's attem pt to break Jap a n 's alm ost com plete isolation from the out.sideworld.
T h e voyage tu rn e d out to be less succesful and m o re d an g ero u s than anticipated.D ue to the C rim ean W ar that broke out in 1854, the frigate was in danger of being attacked by the English and the French when sailing near the Saddle Islands.Japanese officials turned out to be unapproachable, and the frigate had to be sunk in 1856 in o rd er to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemies.
A fter spending th ree years on the frigate, which travelled to Chinese shores via England, M adeira, the C ape (1853), M anila, Indonesia and Jap a n , G oncharov m ade an overland journey from the Chinese shores to Petersburg, which took him another six months.
^ In W estern scholarship, G oncharov has been persistently received as a h o m o unius libri, as a creator o f one m asterpiece -the novel O blom ov.In the m id-seventies three m onographs on Goncharov, a uth ored by A m erican scholars appeared: Setchkarev (1974), E h re (1973), and Lyngstad (1971) Loshchitz (1986:204-205) draws parallels between the descriptions o f the English th ro u g h o u t Frigate Pallas and Stolz in the novel, and m aintains that O blom ov's "orientalism" (his "Asian gown" is m ade of Persian silk, and his estate is situated "almost in Asia") is a result of G oncharov's acquaintance during his journey with the "passive and observative" n ature of Eastern nations.U nfortunately, Loshchitz does not fully develop these observations.^ Much later, after the novel was published, in 1978, Goncharov characterised Stolz as pallid and weak in his critical comments "Better late than never".This can be seen as a further instance am ong many of R ussian w riters justifying them selves in the face o f criticism (cf.th e fam ous case of Turgenev changing the end o f Rudin to suit liberal clumsy contradiction to the w riters' own texts.
Russia.6 Notably, Stoltz in the novel is a Germano-Russian and his pragmatism is ascribed to his German descent.
The classification of the Russian national psyche into an antithetical dichotomy of two irreconcilable types did not quite fit into the typology of character of the 19th-century Realist novel.And indeed two decades later a symbolist theorist Merezhkovsky called Goncharov a "first spontaneous symbolist, who turns from observations of concrete matter towards observing the eternat'J Bearing the content of the Stolz-Oblomov dichotomy in mind, the irreconcilable dichotomy of patriarchal values versus pragmatism, of the old world versus the new, we now return to Goncharov's treatment of the two nations of the Cape Province in the chapter on the Cape Province in Frigate Pallada.Russian formalist and semiotic teachings on the genre of travellers notes will form a theoretical base for this investigation, which has as its aim a search for a national typology in comparison and contrast.
Frigate Pallada and the Caf)e Province The singling out of a particular chapter has been the general practice amongst the book's commentators.This practice can be justified by the fact that each chapter of Frigate' Pallada is structured according to an identical formal plan.Each chapter opens with a description of the ocean and the routine life on the ship, and as a new shore approaches, a * G rigoriev (1859) and llic Slavophiles conceived of Oblom ov as a positive type: D ruzhinin (1859) maintained that "overdeveloped Oblomovism is an unbearable thing, but one must by no m eans treat its free and m oderate development with hostility"; a revolutionary democrat, Dobrolyubov (1859), in his "What is Oblomovism?" considered Oblomov to be yet another representative of the "superfluous man", along with Rudin, Beltov, etc.;in Milyukov (1859), S to l/ loo received a harsh treatm ent: "In this antipathetic figure, under a mask of education and humaneness and the striving for reforms and progress, lies concealed all that is so repulsive of the Russian character and view of life" (Goncharov, 1952, vol. 8 description of newly perceived nature is given.As new people and nations are encountered their customs are evaluated, usually in comparison and contrast to Russians customs.Descriptions of nature are built on the antithesis of Natur-philosophy: under the exotic luxury of extravagant nature as it appears to a foreign eye, a hidden world of danger exist.This hidden world takes the form of snakes, tigers, and poisonous trees.The same antithetical disposition is applied in parallel fashion to the life of humans.The topos theme of Frigate Pallada is the image of a colonial Englishman that is present in Africa, India and China, and stands as an emblem of expanding civilization.The latter is put in conflict with primitive mankind.
The account of the Cape Province follows this format.ITie difference is in the very nature of the antithesis, which was dictated to Goncharov by the unique reality of the Cape Province.It was only the Cape Province that provided him with the coexistence of two colonial nations, the Boers and the English.These were put by Goncharov into contrast.Subsequently, the semantics of the antithesis of colonial civilization versus primitivism acquired a new meaning.The English remain on the civilization side of the antithesis, as in the rest of the book, while the other pole is occupied by the Boers.They stand, not for primitive mankind, but for the old, patriarchal, feudal way of life for which Goncharov was as emotionally nostalgic as he was for the old estate Oblomovka.Thus, the content of the antithesis is changed, the form is preserved.Goncharov introduces the antithetical disposition of the two nations in the very first pages of the chapter.Through a descriptive analysis of the differences in byt,^ the furnishing of hotels, the presence or lack of comfort, etc., Goncharov comes to a synthesis of his introductory impressions that allows him to group the nations into opposite types.Descriptions of pictures displayed in the hotel rooms run by the English and the Boers serve as emblems of the essences of the two nations.
O n the walls som e bad drawings were hanging -an unavoidable com ponent of stations and inns all over the globe, as I have now become convinced.And here it is the same.H ere on one picture, for exam ple, a fight betw een soldiers and sm ugglers is depicted; th e h ero es are slaughtering and stabbing one another, but their faces preserve such an expression of serenity, which even the English shown here could not have had in a similar situation, that it constitutes the true comic elem ent of such a depiction.O n the other pictures an obstacle course is depicted: horses head over hooves, people up to their necks in w ater.O n the evidence of these drawings I concluded, without even having seen the owners, that the hotel was English.With the Dutch, the horse-races are not depicted, however you will see tiger hunts and fox hunts everywhere, and after that, portraits of queens and kings.A nd there one is fascinated by their peculiar incongruities: a snow leopard has sunk its teeth into a hunter's leg, but the hunter is lying in the reeds, looking aside and laughing.As a rule one can tell English and D utch inns apart at first glance.W ith the English, comfort, or a pretence to it, can be seen everywhere; with the Dutch -a patriarchal character, manifesting itself in antique furniture, turned black by lime, but perfectly maintained, especially those wooden big-bellied writing-desks and cupboards with old-fashioned porcelain, silverware, and so on.From the condition of these single inns one can correctly conclude that the Dutch fall behind, the English stand head and shoulders above them in this country.O f the former everything looks dull and neglected; of the latter gay, new and fresh.(Cioncharov, 1952, vol. 5:114) The quoted passage illustrates the descriptive nature of Goncharov's art, which, it is often said, is akin to the art of Flemish painting.But it is not only creation of typologies through the realism of psychological detail that is interesting about this description.The quoted passage also contains a, for us, important antithetical disposition of the two nations on the basis of the opposition: O ne of the most persistent oppositions contributing to the structure of Russian culture throughout its whole history from the introduction o f C hristianity into Russia until the reform s of P e te r I is the opposition "old" ways [slarina] -"new" ways [novizna].It proves to be so vigorous and significant that from the subjective standpoint of a b earer of the culture at various im portant oppositions of the type "Russia -W est", "C hristianity -Paganism", "true faith -false faith", knowledgeignorance", "the social top" -"the social bottom", etc.
Goncharov transfers this dual model of Russian cultural history to the antithetical split between the two nations of the Cape Province.The English can develop only within the fram ew ork of the "new ways", i.e. along th e lines of co m fo rt, p ro sp erity , and industriousness.The Dutch, who have been declining in prosperity and who lead a patriarchal, feudal existence, will continue their political and economic decline in the future, thus filling the "old ways" role of the model.

The Boers and the English
After Goncharov has spent approximately two weeks travelling in the Cape Province, he finds himself able to confirm his introductory impressions of the antithetical arrangement of the two nations, with the prosperity of the English offset by the decline of the Dutch: The Englishman is m aster here, whoever he may be: he is always elegantly dressed, and coldly, with scorn docs he issue o rd e rs to a Black.H e sits in his spacious office, o r in his shop, or at the exchange.H e bustles about on the wharf.H e is a builder, engineer, planter, bureaucrat.H e gives orders, adm inisters, works.A nd he rides in a carriage, or on horseback.H e enjoys the cool breeze on the balcony of his villa.He hides in the shade o f a vineyard", (p.121.) Goncharov's sympathies nevertheless lie with the Dutch, for whose patriarchal values he feels an intense nostalgia.Goncharov admires the capitalist industriousness of the English on pragmatic grounds, since they constitute a desirable pattern for imitation by mid nineteenth century Russian society on the eve of the emancipation of the serves.The Stolz-type of the English represents a possible solution to the needs of Russian society, yet the way of life of the Boer is as dear to Goncharov as the old Oblomovka: W e went into a big hall from w here cool air w afted on us.A t the d oor o f the drawing-room we encountered three new phenom ena; the woman of the house in a white bonnet with a narrow little frill, wearing a brown dress; her daughter, a pretty little girl of about thirteen years looking at us so youthfully, so freshly, with the shy curiosity of a child, wearing the same outfit as her mother; and another woman, guest or relative.They invited us with gestures to come into the drawing-room.I could not believe my eyes: Could these really be farm ers, peasants?The draw ing-room was even bigger than the entrance-hall; inside sem i-darkness reigned, like in a fashionable boudoir; in the middle stood a massive w alnut table, piled with various curiosities, like shells and o ther similar objects.In the corner brooded heavy but beautiful antique sofas and arm-chairs; in the middle of the room som e bro cad e-co v ered settees w ere gro u p ed ; th ere w ere indeed lots of cupboards and crockery.O ver the windows and doors hung thick silk draperies from a m aterial that they do not make any longer; the cleanliness was unbelievable; it was a pity to tread with your feet on these varnished floors.I was afraid of sitting on the settee; it seemed that nobody had ever sat on it; it was evident that the rooms were swept out, cleaned, shown to guests, then swept out again and locked.At first we were silent, examining each other closely.W e could see that our guests would for nothing in the world start a conversation themselves.
A t last Posiette started speaking in D utch, apologising for the unexpected and perhaps indiscreet visit.The old man leisurely, without protestation or affection, answered that he was "glad to have visitors from afar".And it was obvious that he was really glad.Good God! W hat a long time it had been since I saw such a way of life, such simple and good people, and how glad I would have been to have stayed here a bit longer!"Well, are they going to give us breakfast?" the baron whispered to me with curiosity."H o sp itality req u ires it.""But you have ju st had breakfast.""You call coffee breakfast?That's a joke," he retorted."1 had in mind beefsteak, cutlets, venison.T here is probably lots o f game here, and there should be quite a bit of 'cattling'", he concluded, mimicking the phrase of our companion W cihrich. (pp. 164-165.)Needless to say the feast follows, and the Dutch hosts are able to treat their Russian guests in the lavish tradition of the Oblomovka estate.
Nature in the Cape Province pleases Goncharov on those instances when it appears to have been arranged by a human in a harmonious order.The Botanic Garden in Cape Town attracts him immensely, because it reminds him of the Letnij Sad in Petersburg, notorious for its classicist arrangement: W hat a delight this garden is!It is not large: it hardly amounts to half of the Petersburg Letnij Sad, but to make up for it, all the flowers and trees growing in the Cape and in the colony are gathered in it.Everything is planned in a specific arrangem ent, according to kind.(p.119.) Goncharov describes untamed nature in the Karamzinesque tradition of Naiur-philosophy: The sun spilled its rays onto Table Mountain; at the top a cloud was suspended at one spot and lay th e re so serenely, not stirring, like a lum p o f snow.T he verdant sides of the Lion [Lions' Peak] seemed even greener, (p.119.) Table M ountain might be totally covered by a blanket -they (the South Africans) are not afraid.But disaster will strike when the lion wears a bonnet.Afterwards I myself would have occasion to verify this through personal observation, (p.120.) In this attitude towards the non-white population of the Cape Province, Goncharov reveals him self as an enlightener.The black and coloured populations do not fall into Goncharov's definition of a type as a historical formed unity, and therefore they are not classified as nations.In his description of the coloured women, Goncharov strangely enough draws parallels with Russian peasant women: Three black women were walking with us along the sam e road.I asked one from which tribe she was."Fingo!" she said."Mozambican!" she then shouted."Hottentot!"All three started to guffaw loudly.M ore than once would I have occasion to hear that im pudent laugh black women have.If one just goes past them ... nothing happens; but just ask a black beauty about som ething -her name, or the road, for example -and she will tell a lie and straight afterwards the boisterous laugh of her and her friends (if they are there) will ring out."Bechuana!Kaffir!" an old peasant woman went on shouting at us.Yes, really -a peasant woman.She was dressed like our Russian peasant women; a scarf on the head, near the waist something like a skirt, as with a sarafan, and a shirt on top; sometimes there is a scarf around the neck, sometimes not.Some of the women from the brown tribes are startlingly similar to our old country women when they are sunburnt; the black women, on the other hand, are similar to nothing, (pp. 112-113.)The parallelism betw een the coloureds and the Russian peasantry is not limited to similarities of appearance.A further parallelism manifests itself in a possible solution for the development of non-whites in the Cape.Both have to be taught to appreciate the fruits of civilization and learning, in order to narrow the gap between them on the one hand and the educated classes on the other.It was precisely issues of this nature, i.e. the need to elevate the educational level of the Russian peasant class, that were at the centre of debate in contemporary Russia.These issues come through Goncharov's rhetorical questions on the subject of the Enlightenment of the native population: Will this situation continue for long?Will the Europeans soon pave the unswept way to the distant refuge places of the savages, and will the latter soon throw off this shameful title?Will the efforts of the Europeans be rewarded, will they succeed ... to extricate from the ungenerous soil all that only it can give m an for his labour?W hether he will perfect the products and industries by all the means that nature possesses?W hether he will elevate the natives to a level of systematic work ? (p. 135.)Further parallels between the newly encountered society of the Cape Peninsula and mid century Russia can be identified.The dichotomy between the English and the Dutch could be perceived by Goncharov as an echo of the conflict between the Westernisers and the Slavophiles.The former saw the future of Russia in a development along the Unes of Western European civilization, while the latter idealised the patriarchal society, with its emphasis on kinship values, as it existed before the reforms of Peter the Great.But whether it is the Stolz-Westernisers-English model, or the Oblomov-Slavophiles-Boer paradigm, both stand for the typology of character that already has fixed position in history, each in its own context, the very essence of which predetermines their future.That future is prosperity for the former, and further decline for the latter.There is no intersection of the two, no interaction between them, nothing which is unpredictable.They present the typological material which Goncharov uses for conveying, not only the so-called reality which he encountered, but also for portraying the eternal conflict between progress and retrogression: "old ways" -"new ways" The extent to which Goncharov intended to present the dichotomy between the English and the Boers not merely as a dichotomy of national typologies, can be seen in the parody on the typology of national identity in the chapter under analysis.A local doctor is fascinated by the opportunity to meet the Russians from the Frigate Pallada, since he is in terested in phrenology, the art of identifying the intellectual and psychological characteristics of a type on the basis of the shape of the skull.However, the Russian delegation presents him with such a diversity of phrenological types, that the doctor ends up in total confusion in his attempts to identify a so-called Russian type.
The doctor ... spoke French fairly well, and explained frankly that he had heard and read so much about the R ussians, th a t he had not b een able to overcom e his curiosity, and had com e to get acquainted with us."I've been studying the natural sciences a bit -geology; and the not so natural ones -phrenology; I also like ethnography.T herefore it is very interesting for me to look at the R ussian type", he said, glancing with the g reatest a tten tio n at the b a ro n K idner, at our doctor W eihrich and at Posiette: but not one of the three was o f Russian descent."So here's the type for you!" he said, continuing to look at them.W e could hardly restrain ourselves from laughing."And what type is that?"I asked, pointing at Zelyony."That's ..." he peered at him for a long time."That's ... Mongol."W e w ere about to burst out laughing, but the doctor, it would seem, was right.Zelyony really has T a rtar features."Well, and this one?"we pointed at Goshkevich.H e thought for a long lime."He lived in C hina for ten years" som eone rem arked about Goshkevich."Well of course he looks like a Chinese!" rem arked Verstveld.W e roared with laughter, and he with us.Goshkevich was from the U kraine.Zelyony and I w ere the only pure Russians."Yes, the Russians are strong.Oh!I have heard lots and lots about them!" H e seemed to be expecting H ercules, or perhaps people of slightly b ru tish ap p earan ce, and was surprised when he le a rn t that G oshkevich also studied geology, that we have many scholars, and a literature, (pp. 161-162.)Besides the parody on early social anthropology with its preoccupation with phrenology and craneology (Carus and Gall were widely read by Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Leontiev, and Tolstoy polim icised with Lom broso's determ inistic criminology in Resurrection), this fragment is interesting for the presence of two motifs.It tells us how in the perceptions held by foreigners of a "Russian type" during travels in the middle of the 19th century, Russians were identified both with the "naturalness" and the "Hercules" motifs.

The inversion model
In his "Poetics of everyday behaviour in Russian eighteenth century culture" Lotman & Uspenskij (1984b:240) makes a distinction between the semiotics of behaviour of Russian nobility when abroad and when at home.He divides the poetics of behaviour into the "usual, everyday", learned by the bearer of culture in a way his native language is learned, and the "ceremonial, ritualised", learned as a foreign language.
When abroad, "an inversion" of the antithetical types of behaviour of a Russian traveller can be taken for "normal", "natural", or "typically Russian".As an example, Lotman uses Peter the G reat's behaviour during his frequent travels to Europe.When abroad, at European courts, the emperor, so ceremonial at home, "de-ritualised" his behaviour, leaving an impression of spontaneity and easiness on the foreigners.As far as the "Hercules m otif is concerned, Lotman qualifies it as a variant of the "warrior" (Bogatyr') masks of behaviour of the Russian nobility.A Russian nobleman would choose a role derived from ordinary behaviour by a quantitative exaggeration of its characteristics or by "turning them inside out".Stories of the monstrous appetite and digestion of Count Potemkin are viewed by Lotman in their relation to the spirit of Rabelais which completely lost its political overtones on the Russian soil.TTie Russian Hercules mask was rooted in the popular Russian print "He ate gloriously and drank to his heart's content" (Lotman & Uspenskij, 1984b:242).
The inversion which Goncharov demonstrates is quite remarkable: he ridicules the doctor for expecting to find Hercules amongst the Russian crew but at the same time attributes Herculean features to the representatives of the Boers, as demonstrated in the previously quoted passage describing the hospitality of the Dutch farmers serving a truly Rabelaisqian breakfast.Thanks to the notion of inversion we may now confirm our earlier postulate that the contrast between the English and the Boers is valid not so much as an objective description of the reality of the Cape Province, but as a manifestation of the eternal typologies 10 of Stolz and Oblomov, "old ways" -"new ways".At the same time we must not read the antithetical disposition of the two nations of the 19th-century Cape Province as a deterministic paradigm, where "old ways", i.e. the English, are destined for eternal prosperity.Lotman's dual cultural model operates by inversion (a further culturological e x te n sio n o f T y n ia n o v 's and S hklovsky's th e o rie s of lite ra ry ev o lu tio n and defamiliarisation), where the inversion involves a shift in the deep structure of a culture, resulting in a new culture still dependent on the previous cultural model.
The antithetical model of Boers vs. English also continued in 20th-century Russian textsan antithetical model with clearly cut boundaries which addresses the question of national typology within the historical confines of the Anglo-Boer War.But in this conflict the antithesis of "old ways" -"new ways" became inverted, and the English were placed by Russian observers into the "old ways" pole of the antithesis, while the Boers were moved into the "new ways" of the dichotomy.Thus, the English were aligned with Oblomov, and the Boers with Stolz.
But what has happened to the sympathy and affiliations of the Russians?To which pole of the dichotom y do they belong today?As far as the "Stolz-Oblomov" antithesis is concerned, the latest trend under Perestroika (in a new culturological re-reading of the 19th century texts) has been to re-evaluate Stolz as a "Russian capitalist", and to condemn Oblomov's national inertia as responsible for the economic misfortunes of Russia and the USSR."

'
Still today, the concept of by! -day by day existance -occupies a very im portant place in discussion on the differences in life style between the West and Russia.T here is unfortunately no com plete English translation of The Frigate Pallada.In 1965 T he Folio Society of London published a short exerpt from the work (two books in the original), based on the abridged 1949 M oscow edition by M uravejskij.All translations in this paper are m ade by Lucas V enter, from the Russian original edition of G oncharov's collected works in eight volumes.Volume 5 and Volume 6, Pravda, Moscow 1952.
he role of dual models in the dynamics of Russian culture (till the end of the eighteenth century)",Lotman & Uspenskij (1984b:4)  makes the following classification of the role of the "old -new" opposition in Russian culture: . The latter's Natur-philosophy and sensibility Pushkin rejects in favour of conciseness of form.Tynianov reminds us that "the correct hierarchy of subjects" in the Iform narration as well as the choice and distribution of the encountered material in the Journey toArzrum served as a school of narratological technique for Leo Tolstoy.
. S etch k arev 's w ell-inform ed study contains a c h ap ter on Frigate Pallas, and is c en tered around G oncharov's personal experiences during his journey.A point is made of certain differences between " the rosy text o f the book" and the contents o f G oncharov's letters to his friends in Petersburg.E h re's book also has a chapter on Frigate Pallas.Ehre, who generally views G oncharov as a realist struggling against the rom an tic tastes o f his youth, devotes atten tio n to (jo n c h a ro v 's hum orous treatm ent o f the rom antic cliches o f travellers notes in general, and Karamzin'n Notes o f a Riisiian traveller in particular.particular Lenin spoke of Oblomov as "a landowner in favour of serfdom, to whom statute labour or corvee secured a reliable income without any risk on his part, without any capital outlay, without any alterations in the age-old routine of production".In the p o st-O cto b er period the O blom ov type is used by Lenin for the castigation of unskilled and lazy workers.In his report "On the international and internal position of the Soviet republic", delivered on M arch, (i, 1922, Lenin said; "It is enough to look at us, how we m eet and how we work at these commissions, to see that the old Oblom ov is still with us, and we must wash and clean, swingle and shear him, in order that som e sense may come out of him" (quoted fromGoncharov, 1952, vol.8:27; my translation).In his "One step forward, two steps backward", he said T o people grown used to the loose-fitting dressinggown and slippers o f dom estic Oblomovism, form al regulations seem narrow, constricting, burdensom e and enslaving, in the free process of the ideological struggle" (p.27).In the "vulgar sociological" period o f Soviet literary criticism, Oblomov was yet again re-evaluated in Petrov :23; my translation); and Chekhov wrote: "Stolz docs not inspire me with any confidence.T he author says h e 's a splendid chap, but I don't believe it.H e's a crafty rogue, he thinks a lot of himself, and he's complaccnt.H e is half fabricated and three quarters stilled"(Goncharov, 1952, vol.8:22).'In the radical sphere O blom ov continued to be perceived as a national type also during the post-Revolutionary epoch.Before the O ctober Revolution, (I.A. Goncharov -A critical bibliographic study, 1952): "Oblomov has great vitality, finding expression in fear o f th e new, in habits and prejudices ... which are a dangerous enem y of .socialism",and: "Soviet literary criticism has cast away the deeply erroneous in terpretation of the author's work as being ap o litical.O n e m ust not consider th e w riter who with such e norm ous strenght expo.sedOblomovism as the consequense of .serfdom, to be apolitical and indifferent to social questions" (p.27).