his Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 5 : 460 ; italics in original). Judith Vowles writes
that “Ravnodushnoi” is directed at Elisaveta Shakhova (“The Inexperienced
Muse,” 77 ).
It should be noted that along with Chernyshevskii and Dobroliubov two rad-
ical women critics, Ekaterina Nekrasova (1841–1905) and Mar’ia Tsebrikova
(1835–1917), also wrote articles attacking Rostopchina. While both women took
Rostopchina to task for frivolity and for hostility toward class politics, neither
treats Rostopchina with the dismissive contempt of their men colleagues. Tse-
brikova even expresses occasional grudging admiration for Rostopchina.
29 .Platon Meshcherskii: Khodasevich, “Grafinia E. P. Rostopchina,” 39.
Petr Meshcherskii: Romanov, notes to “Neizvestnyi roman,” in E. Ros-
topchina, Stikhotvoreniia, proza, pis’ma, 419.
Andrei Karamzin: Kiselev-Sergenin, “Taina grafini E. P. Rostopchinoi,” 283.
Kiselev-Sergenin congratulates himself on proving that Rostopchina was not
the heartless coquette Chernyshevskii claimed she was.
30 .Afanas’ev, “‘Da, zhenskaia dusha,’” 6 ; quotation from Pletnev, letter to
Ia. K. Grot, December 10 , 1840 , in E. Rostopchina, Talisman, 276.
31 .N.A. Dobroliubov, “U pristani,” Sovremennik 10 ( 1857 ), reprinted in N. A.
Dobroliubov, Sobranie sochinenii v trekh tomakh(Moskva: Gos. izd. khudozh-
estvennoi literatury, 1950 ), 1 : 423–39.
Rostopchina’s political views cannot be easily categorized. Kiselev-Sergenin
speculates that Rostopchina denounced the 1848 revolutions in order to get back
into the good graces of Nicholas I after the publication of “Nasil’nyi brak” (“Po
staromu sledu,” 146 ). Certainly, starting in 1853 Rostopchina wrote a series of
patriotic poems embodying the doctrine of Nicholas’s regime: pravoslavie, samod-
erzhavie, i narodnost’(orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality). See “Nashim brat’iam:
Iugo-vostochnym pravoslavnym” (To our brothers: The southeastern Orthodox,
1853 ), “Khristianam” (To Christians, 1854 ), “Otvet nekotorym bezymiannym
stikhtotvoreniam” (Answer to some anonymous poetry, 1854 ), “Na osviashche-
nie edinovercheskoi tserkvi” (On the sanctifaction of the Edinoverie Church [an
Old Believer sect that reached an organizational compromise with the official
Orthodox Church], 1854 ), “Pesnia russkim voinam, ranenym v Sevastopole”
(Song for the Russian warriors wounded in Sevastopol, 1855 ), “Molitva ob
opolchennykh” (Prayer about the militia, 1855 ), “Alekseiu Petrovichu Er-
molovu” ( 1855 ), “Molitva za sviatuiu Rus’” (Prayer for Holy Russia, 1855 ),
“Russkomu narodu” (For the Russian people, 1855 ), and “Kuplety” (Couplets,
1856 ). On official nationality, see Nicholas Riasanovsky, Nicholas I and Official
Nationality in Russia, 1825–1855(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969 ).
In addition, like Baratynskii, Zhukovskii, and other poets of the Golden Age
who lived into the 1830 s, 1840 s, and 1850 s, Rostopchina regretted its passing
(Mirsky, History of Russian Literature, 75 ) and criticized the views of the
raznochintsy(nineteenth-century radical intellectuals of nonaristocratic origins)
in her poetry and letters. See Baratynskii’s “Poslednii poet” ( 1835 ) and Ros-
topchina’s “Oda poezii: Anakhronizm” (Ode to poetry: An anachronism, 1852 )
and “Moim kritikam” (To my critics, 1856 ); also Rostopchina’s letters to A. V.
Druzhinin (May 27 , 1854 , and Oct. 28 , 1854 ) in E. Rostopchina, Stikhotvoreniia,
proza, pis’ma,364–65, 368–69.
Notes to Pages 96–97 257