Scholarly record

REVOLUTION OF 1905 IN LATVIAN AND RUSSIAN LITERATURE: TESTIMONIAL ASPECT

A. Romanovska, Z. Badins, E. Badina

Abstract

The Revolution of 1905 and its successive events had an essential impact on the development of literature – both themes and form. In Latvia, the Revolution started with demonstration on 13 January 1905 protesting against „Bloody Sunday” in Saint Petersburg (January 9, 1905). In both events a significant role was played by intellectuals. In Russia, the attitude of intellectuals towards the events of 1905 mostly caused the dissidence that would lead to the tragic events of the October 1917 and the Civil War. The national factor aggravated social and political conflicts in the Empire leading to its collapse. In Latvia, the Revolution was perceived as a kind of awakening – a possibility to strengthen the national self-confidence, to gain long-awaited freedom. The Revolution as a great national movement inspired writers. For many the year of 1905 turned into tragedy, some were arrested and exiled, others were forced to go into hiding and changing their place. The personal experience made many writers change their initial excitement to fully tragic feeling for the events of 1905. In the Soviet Union, Lenin’s views on the revolutionary events of 1905 became canonical for many years undoubtedly influencing literary texts created in the frames of the soviet ideology. The comparative analysis of the texts by eyewitnesses of the events of 1905 in Russia and Latvia allows defining the character and attitude towards the Revolution in the both capital cities, in province and national outlying districts of the former empire.

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