4 .Evdokiia Rostopchina
Evdokiia Rostopchina (1811–58), one of the few recognized women po-
ets of her generation, has been the subject of numerous biographical ac-
counts by memoirists and literary critics. One finds, however, a sur-
prising uniformity among these biographies.^1 The same episodes
repeatedly reappear in the same way, almost in the same words, like
scenes from a saint’s life. This “official biography” has in turn shaped
ideas about Rostopchina’s work, influencing her literary reputation.
It is worth examining the standard version of Rostopchina’s life—the
choice and interpretation of events, as well as the assumptions about
gender inherent in them. Could these episodes be interpreted in other
ways? Are there excluded or underemphasized circumstances that
might give us a different understanding of her life and work? I suggest
that in addressing these questions we may gain a richer, more complex,
and truer appreciation of Rostopchina as a poet.
One often-repeated scene from Rostopchina’s life concerns her initia-tion into literature. Petr Viazemsky, the well-known poet and critic, while
visiting the family of the eighteen-year-old Rostopchina (née Sushkova)
came upon her poem “Talisman.” He secretly copied it, then without
Rostopchina’s knowledge or permission published it in Anton Del’vig’s
al’manakh, Severnye tsvety(Northern flowers) for 1831.^2 This story differs
from accounts of how contemporary men poets entered literature, in its
suggestions of a virgin birth.^3 As a powerful male spiritual force im-
pregnates Mary without her knowledge or permission, so a powerful
male literary force sweeps the equally innocent Rostopchina into litera-
ture. As Mary therefore cannot be accused of the sin of lust, so Ros-
topchina cannot be accused of the sin, for a woman, of literary ambition.
This connection between lust and literary ambition—for women—88