Gerbel’ praised Khvoshchinskaia as a prose writer, while disparaging
her as a poet, specifically taking her to task for “’Vy ulybaetes’?.. .’“:
“Nevertheless, one does not note in her those qualities that make a per-
son a poet. [“’Vy ulybaetes’?.. .’“] can serve as proof of our words. This
wonderful poem is spoiled by the eleven introductory and two con-
cluding lines [that is, the frame narrative], which are completely un-
necessary and which a poet [author’s italics] never would have intro-
duced, especially the last two lines, which pour a spoonful of tar into
the honey barrel.”^46
Gerbel’’s version of “’Vy ulybaetes’?.. ,’“ which appears after his in-troductory note under the title “Otryvok” (Excerpt), consists of Zotov’s
version of the poem, minus the objectionable frame narrative, which
makes the parallel between women’s position in 1730 and 1848. Gerbel’
also removed, without comment, the two lines of the poem that recount
the young woman’s death and her lover’s grief. In Gerbel’’s version the
poem ends
[ ]
,
,
,
.h
(That he, ardent and troubled wouldn’t blame her
For her unfaithfulness and would forgive her for it.)Thus Gerbel’ successfully finished transforming Khvoshchinskaia’s
poem about society’s oppression and destruction of women into one
about a man victimized by a woman’s inconstancy. Gerbel’ also made the
poem virtually untraceable, since he removed its identifying first line
(the poem has no title), while not clearly indicating that “Otryvok” was
his version of “’Vy ulybaetes’?.. ,’“ the poem he criticized in his intro-
duction.
In the final stage of the poem’s annihilation by men critics and editors,“’Vy ulybaetes’?.. .’“ did not appear at all in B. Ia. Bukhshtab’s anthol-
ogy Poety 1840–1850-kh godov( 1972 ), although he reprinted twelve of
Khvoshchinskaia’s poems, including two (“Svoi razum iskusiv ne raz”
and “Solntse segodnia za tucheiu chernoi takoi zakatilosia”), which ap-
peared with “’Vy ulybaetes’?.. .’“ under the title “Piat’ stikhotvorenii”
(Five poems) in Otechestvennye zapiski,no. 8 ( 1852 ). “’Vy ulybaetes’?. .‘“
was the first, and for this reader at least, the most striking of the five.
Khvoshchinskaia’s literary reputation as a poet suffered even morethan Rostopchina’s from biased critical opinion. One hesitates to use the
word “reception” in relation to the ad feminamattacks, blatant distor-
Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia 131