Contenu du sommaire

François-Xavier Coquin, Philosophy of the monarchie function in Russia in the XVIth century. In less than one century, during the period going from the death of Ivan III (1505) to that of Ivan IV (1584), the Great Prince of Moscow from a vassal of the Golden Hord changes into a sovereign by divine right, tsar, and autocrat of the whole of Russia, whereas his capital takes over from Byzantium and is acknowledged as the Third and last Rome. Such a metamorphosis could not be explained without the patient effort of theoretical thought which was the task of the clerks of the XVIth century striving to define and justify by a doctrine the prerogatives of the " new Constantin. " It is this construction of an original theocratic absolutism, inherited from Byzantium and from the Russian national past, that the present study outlines in its various stages. Quotations from the most significant texts allow to clearly visualize this legal, political and religious revolution which culminated in the correspondence of Ivan IV and Prince Kurbskij and which expresses this " new Russian orthodox autocracy, " the ultimate destiny of which is known to all.

Maurice Comtet, V. G. Korolenko and the Russian sects (1853-1921). This study bears on the relations of the Russian writer, V. G. Korolenko (1853-1921) with Russian schismatics. Korolenko's interest in this matter corresponds to the important place reserved to the Sectarians by the ideology and the tactics of revolutionary populism. Korolenko met the Old Believers principally in Nižnij -Novgorod, in the Oural and in Rumania, where he had no opportunity to contact the " rationalists. " In the light of " critical " or " legal " populism, Korolenko submitted to criticism the idealized image prevalent at the time of Russian Sectarians, all the more so as he considered that the religious forms upheld by them were ill-fitted to the restless spirit of his time. However, this subject appealed to the writer because of his interest in what was strange and belonged to the past and inspired some lovely passages in his work where his originality is displayed at its best.

Frank T. McCarthy, The Kazan' Missionary Congress. The Kazan' Missionary Congress of 1910 was summoned to report on the problems of Russian Orthodox missionary work among the Eastern peoples of the Russian Empire and to suggest possible reforms. Many of the delegates to the Congress were missionaries who had worked for long periods of time among these peoples. Their testimony described the efforts of the Orthodox Church to implement the linguistic programs of Il'minskii, the caliber of the Orthodox missionary personnel, and the education provided to future missionaries by the Orthodox seminaries. The delegates also described the increasing strength of Islam among the Eastern peoples and the growing ascendancy of the Tatars over the other native peoples of the Eastern Empire. Finally, the delegates proposed administrative reforms, new missionary tactics, and changes in the education provided for Orthodox missionaries.

Michel Mervaud, In connection with the Herzen-Herwegh conflict : an unpublished letter of Proudhon. An uncomplete version only of the letter of Proudhon to Herzen dated August 7, 1852 was known until now. This letter, preserved at the Municipal Library of Besançon, contains an unpublished part pertaining to the Herzen-Herwegh conflict. Its first part repeats the text of another letter written by Proudhon in July. This last letter had never been published, but R. Labry who examined this document at Madame Henneguy's, reported on it in his work Herzen and Proudhon. There are reasons to believe that Herzen had not received the letter of July 1852 and that Proudhon was thus led to reaffirm on the 7th of August that he supported him unreservedly and definitely condemned Herwegh. In presenting this document, we retrace the principal phases of the conflict between the two revolutionary writers, at the origin of which was the connection of Herwegh and Natalie Herzen.

Henri Granjard, An unknown libretto of the 'opéra bouffe' by I. S. Turgenev " The last sorcerer ". Among the Maupoil documents (Bibliothèque nationale, Nouvelles acquisitions françaises, VII : Varia, No. 16.278), there exists a small blue note-book, where an unknown hand wrote the only known complete version of the libretto in one act of the 'opéra bouffe' The last sorcerer. This version, of which the article below reproduces the text, was probably written in Courtanevel during the summer of 1859, because Turgenev mentions the " scenario of Krakamiche, " the principal character of the 'opéra bouffe' in question, in two letters unpublished until 1972 written at the end of his sojourn in 1859 in the country of Brie. It would be a mistake therefore to place the composition of The last sorcerer between 1865 and 1867 and adopt the point of view of André Mazon who filed the drafts of Turgenev pertaining to the 'opéras bouffes' in the ledger called Registre des brouillons de 1865 à 1867 at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The present article tends to establish that Turgenev started to work on the libretti of the 'opéras bouffes' already in the 50s.