The “Upright Confession” of the Empress Catherine II
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/1427-9681.11.08Keywords:
Catherine II, Grigory Potemkin, “Upright Confession”, letter, franknessAbstract
The author of the article focuses attention on the “Upright Confession” (1774), written by the Russian Empress Catherine II in the form of a letter to her new favourite Grigory Potemkin. Catherine speaks to her lover openly about her liaisons with other men. She tries to explain her amorousness in terms of “natural” properties of her “nature”, an Enlightenment concept current at the time. While in fact admitting to adultery, the Empress never mentions sin as such. There is no remorse, no repentance in Catherine’s “Upright Confession”. What is foregrounded is the frankness of the account, slightly coloured by irony. Thus, in her letter of confession the Russian Empress as though places herself beyond the traditional morality.
References
Anisimov, Evgenii V. Tolpa geroev XVIII veka. Sankt-Peterburg: Redaktsiya Eleny Shubinoi, Astrel, 2013.
Briliant, Semen M. Denis Fonvizin. Ego zhizn i literaturnaya deyatelnost. Sankt-Peterburg: Izd. F. F. Pavlenkova, 1892.
Ekaterina II i G. A. Potemkin. Lichnaya perepiska 1769–1791, ed. V. S. Lopatin. Moskva: Nauka, 1997.
Fonvizin, Denis I. Sobranie sochinenii: v 2 tt. Vol. 2. Moskva; Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo Khudezhestvennoi Literatury, 1959.
Golombievskii, Aleksandr А. Biografiya knyazya G. G. Orlova. Moskva: Universitetskaya tipografiya, 1904.
Goryainov, Sergei M. “Stanislav-Avgust Ponyatovskii i Velikaya knyaginiya Ekaterina Alekseevna. Po neizdannym istochnikam”. Vestnik Evropy, No. 1–3 (1908).
Helbig, Georg von. Biogarfii 110 zametnykh lits XVIII v. Berlin: izd. Fridrikha Gottheinera 1900.
Ivanov, Oleg А. Ekaterina II i Petr III. Istoriya tragicheskogo konfilkta. Moskva: Tsentpoligraf, 2007.
Lutsevich, Lyudmila F. Homo confitens Denisa Fonvizina. In: Problemy izucheniya russkoi literatury XVIII veka, No. XV, ed. Ye. I. Annenkova, О. М. Buranok, Sankt-Peterburg; Samara: As Gard, 2011: 130–140.
Lyustrov, Mikhail Yu. Fonvizin, Moskva: Molodaya gvardiya, 2013.
Madariaga, Isabel de. Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great. New Haven, Conn, and London: Yale University Press, 1981.
Makogonenko, Grigorii P. Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin: Tvorcheskii put. Moskva; Leningrad: Goslitizdat, 1961.
Muratov, Mikhail V. Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin. Moskva; Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo Detskoi literatury Narkomprosa RSFSR, 1953.
Pokayanie. In: Polnyi pravoslavnyi bogoslovskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar: v 2 tt. Sankt-Peterburg: Izd-vo P. P. Soikina [1913]: 1826–1827.
Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii s 1649 po 12 dekabrya 1825 goda, vol. XVI: 28 iyunya 1762–1765, No. 11.582 – 12.301. Sankt-Peterburg: Tip. II Otd-niya sobstv. E. I. V. kantselyarii, 1830.
Rassadin, Stanislav B. Satiry smelyi vlastelin. Kniga о D. I. Fonvizine. Moskva: Kniga, 1985.
Shcherbatov, Mikhail М. Izbrannye Trudy. Moskva: Rossiiskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya, 2010.
Slovar russkogo yazyka XVIII veka, ed. Yu. S. Sorokin. Leningrad: Nauka, Leningradskoe otdelenie 1991.
Sochineniya imperatitsy Ekateriny II na osnovanii podlinnykh rukopisei i s obyasnitelnymi primechaniyami akademika A. N. Pypina: v 12-ti tt. Vol. 12, part 2: Avtobiograficheskie zapiski, Sankt-Peterburg: Tip. Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk, 1907.
Uvarov, Mikhail S. Arkhitektonika ispovedalnogo slova. Sankt-Peterburg: Aleteiya, 1998.
Volkova, Tatyana N. Ispoved. In: Poetika: Slovar aktualnykh terminov i ponyatii, ed. N. D. Tamarchenko. Moskva: Izd-vo Kulaginoi Intrada, 2008: 85–86.
Vyazemskii, Petr A. Fonvizin. Sankt-Peterburg: [b. i.], 1848.
Zapiski imperatritsy Ekateriny II. Moskva: Nauka, 1990.
Zapiski imperatritsy Ekateriny Vtoroy. Sankt-Peterburg: Izd. A. S. Suvorina, 1907.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Rossica
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
