Contenu du sommaire : Hommage à Alexandre Bennigsen

Articles

• Pasternak et la Révolution française - Michel Aucouturier p. 181-191
  Michel Aucouturier, Pasternak and the French Revolution. The author analyzes a little-known work of Boris Pasternak: two dramatic scenes in verse devoted to the French Revolution (and more precisely to the Thermidor coup d'état). Pasternak's verses date from June-July 1917 and were published in May-June 1918 in the S-R Znamia truda. These were the first direct expressions of Pasternak's attitude to the Russian revolution. Through the figures of Saint-Just and Robespierre, represented on the eve of their defeat and execution, we see the outline of the conflict between the poet and the revolutionary which will be taken up in his work as a novelist. Through this opposition, Pasternak already expresses an ambivalent vision, divided between an enthusiastic adhesion to the spontaneous explosion of the revolution and a pessimistic lucidity as to its outcome.
• Le « Discours sur les lois » de Fonvizin : Une éthique subversive - Wladimir Berelowitch p. 193-205
  Wladimir Berelowitch, Fonvizin's "Discourse on the laws" : subversive ethics. This article is a commentary on the "Discourse on the immutable laws of state" written by Fonvizin for Count Panin in 1783. Faced with two classical interpretations of this text - aristocratic "Fronde" and French Enlightenment on the one hand, and the Germanic natural law on the other hand -, the author purports to demonstrate by means of a detailed analysis of texts that both these ideological trends co-exist in Fonvizin's mind though at different levels. It is the "telescoping" between them that forces him into a very radical ethical protest, concentrated on the person of the sovereign and "subverting" the legal and institutional framework.
• Les Vénitiens en mer Noire, XVIe-XVIIe siècles [Nouveaux documents] - Mihnea Berindei p. 207-223
  Mihnea Berindei, The Venetians in the Black Sea over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. New documents. Thanks to recent research work we know that Venetian merchants were still present in the Black Sea after the conquest of Constantinople and of almost all the Pontie coast by the Ottomans. Was it a mere survival of the past, fated to die out in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries - as experts arc inclined to believe - or was it on the contrary to be ascribed to the persistency of long-standing trade movements ? The discovery of several copies of Ottoman documents in the Venetian archives enables us to settle the question: not only were the Venetian merchants still present in the harbours of the Black Sea in the sixteenth (and also in the seventeenth) centuries, but their importance was such that they could be represented and defended by consuls when the need arose (such was the case in Kefe in 1593 and 1635, or in Kili in 1640).
• La question nationale - Alain Besançon p. 225-230
• De Čackij à Hlestakov : Les métamorphoses de l'esprit dans Gore ot uma de Griboedov - Jean Bonamour p. 231-244
  Jean Вonamour, From Chatskii to Khlestakov: the metamorphosis of wit in Griboedov's Gore ot uma. Woe from wit continues to be "an enigma not yet completely deciphered" (Blok). Both the title of the play and certain confidences made by the author seem to hint at a "philosophical" purpose, of a general, universal value. However, commentators do not find any trace of that trend in the play which remains a satirical comedy of social-political significance. The discrepancy between interpretations is to be linked to the very structure of the play itself. The play is not a comedy in spite of its borrowing certain elements from the genre to incorporate them in a complex system of polemics and play with the tradition of the comedy. On account of the free play with various traditional devices, Woe from wit can be considered as "a theatrical poem" which by its very essence favours rhythm and speech.
• L'emploi de gaz toxiques au XVIIIe siècle : Le cas de la Russie - Matei Cazacu p. 245-253
  Matei Cazacu, The use of toxic gas in the eighteenth century: the case of Russie. Three witness cases attest that the Russian army possessed in fact chemical arms in the eighteenth century and that it made use of them at least on one occasion: during the disembarkment operations of Turks in the Crimea (1787). This was the first case when Russians employed toxic gas against Turks.
• Idéologie et sémantique : Le vocabulaire politique des anarchistes russes - Michaël Confino p. 255-284
  Michael Confino, Ideology and semantics: the political vocabulary of the Russian anarchists. This article deals with the formation of the political terminology (and of the specific jargon) of the Russian anarchists as expressed in their publications and in their everyday discourse and utterances (speeches, lectures, private letters). This distinctive anarchist terminology was shaped by two main factors: first, by the need of words and terms (of a "language") different from those of their nearest political and ideological adversaries, that is - in the present case - the left in general and the revolutionary groupings in particular. The continuous debate with the Marxists and the Russian Social Democrats (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks alike) was one of the sources for the formation of an important and significant set of terms reflecting, at one and the same time, the ideological differences between the two movements, and the strong disdain of the anarchists for "state socialists" and all brands of "authoritarian socialism". Another area which generated an original and interesting constellation of terms and buzzwords was the terrorist action and the "expropriations" (eksy). Finally, the study examines the widespread use of war metaphors in the writings and everyday speech of the anarchists, a linguistic phenomenon rather surprising and paradoxical in a political milieu so strongly committed to combat all and any kind of militarism. Throughout the article an attempt has been made, whenever possible, to translate the Russian anarchists' terms and jargon words, by French equivalents used during the same period in the anarchist groups in France.
• Pèlerins russes à Constantinople [Notes de lecture] - Gilbert Dagron p. 285-292
  Gilbert Dagron, Russian pilgrims in Constantinople. Russian pilgrims who visited Constantinople in the Middle Ages were tourists who were guided and sometimes deceived; deprived of critical sense, they believed and repeated what they were being told. They were heirs of the Byzantine culture, better prepared than some others to understand what they were being shown: magical statues, relics of Old and New Testament that gave to Constantinople the status of a New Jerusalem; icons, sources of "usual" miracles, spectacular liturgies... Their admiration was made in part of a rediscovery of what they had formerly read and heard about the wonders of the city. But the narration of Russian pilgrims lacks in depth what lends to the urban legends of Byzantium their occult meaning and provocative value.
• Le paradoxe du Potemkin - Marc Ferro p. 293-295
  Marc Ferro, The Potemkin paradoxe. The purpose of this article is to analyze the following paradoxe: how comes that a fiction composed fundamentally of imaginary scenic events can call to mind an analysis bearing on an historical phenomenon that makes it more comprehensible than when it provides the subject-matter of scientific works ? This question allows to formulate the problem of the work of history, of the modality of its creation, of its function, be it obvious or occult: history-memory, general history, experimental history, or fiction.
• Подмена как образ жизни (История и сатира Юрия Тынянова) - Michel Heller p. 297-303
  Michel Heller, Substitution used as a representation of life. History and satire in the works of Iurii Tynianov. In the late 1920's, the most perspicacious (and incidentally the most talented) writers make use of metaphor (substitution) to speak of the changes occurring in the country. E. Zamiatin, M. Bulgakov, A. Platonov, M. Zoshchcnko write metaphorically on contemporary themes. Iurii Tynianov, for his part, is applying this method to historical material. He is doing so most successfully in the "trilogy" of stories "Podporuchik Kizhe", "Voskovaia persona", "Maloletnii Vitushishnikov", composed in the rare style of historical satire. A non-existent officer - Kizhe - was born of a mistake in a written order. This fact does not prevent him from making a brilliant career in acting as an excellent substitution for living persons. The waxen figure of Peter I is substituted for the emperor, lie is substituted for truth. "All is substituted! All is unreal!", says A. Platonov 's hero. Thus is created the "kingdom of the imaginary" in which the heroes of Tynianov (and of his contemporaries) are turned into figures in the formula of despotism.
• À propos de Sultan Galiev - Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay p. 305-307
  Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, In connection with Sultan Galiev. Unlike many other leaders of the Russian communist party, eliminated during Stalin's rule and fallen into oblivion, there is the figure of one of the Muslim leaders - Mir Said Sultan Galicv - who is well remembered. His spirit has never been granted a respite ever since his death and he is still being denounced as a "deviationist", "nationalist", "anti-communist" agent and even as a spy and a traitor. In an article published in the official Tatar periodical Kazan utlary, the historian Indus Tahirov adopts a different tone and asks: "Who was actually Sultan Galiev?"
• Angoisse et classicisme dans la poésie de Hodasevič - Georges Nivat p. 309-320
  Georges Nivat, Anguish and classicism in Khodasevich's poetry. Khodasevich's poetry is classical through its dislike for the self, its many poetical borrowings, its realism on a "reduced" scale. Because of its nakedness and absence of metaphors it comes very near to the ideal of Pushkin in his last period. And through its mumbling «straight orwardncss very near to Derzhavin. The "biological link" of Khodascvich with his time is deep and despaired. Some contemporary Soviet poets see in him a reflection on the cmigrcc side of the fate of Russian metropolitan poetry.
• Un empire comme les autres ? - Marc Raeff p. 321-327
  Marc Raeff, An empire like any other? Neither the people nor the elites were conscious of the imperial character of old regime Russia. Two lines of explanation may be offered for this state of affairs: in the first place, Moscow's expansion to the East facilitated the integration of the native elites into the social and political leadership groups of the Russian empire; while the conquest of a "cultural parapet" in the West enabled the creation of modern. Westernized, Russian culture thanks to the contributions made by the europeanized elites of the conquered territories. In the second place, the "civil society of the educated" and the ideologized intelligentsia that emerged in the course of the nineteenth century in opposition to the State, totally rejected all aspects of the imperial regime without giving any thought to the ethnic and cultural diversity of the population. We may wonder whether history will repeat itself, for the bolshevik regime has neither eliminated Russia's imperial(ist) character nor paved the way to a better understanding of its political problems.
• Prélude au problème cosaque [À travers les registres de dommages ottomans des années 1545-1555] - Gilles Veinstein p. 329-361
  Gilles Veinstein, Prelude to the Cossack problem as seen through the Ottoman registers of damages of 1545-1555. Settled as from the end of the fifteenth century on the northern coast of the Black Sea that they endeavoured gradually to control and to colonize, Ottomans will be constantly molested by attacks launched from the Polish-Lithuanian border. This article deals with incidents that occurred during the afore-mentioned decade. It is based on Ottoman sources preserved in Central Archives of Ancient Deeds in Warsaw, and most specifically on the nine registers of damages addressed by the Ottoman authorities to the Polish Crown in support of claims for compensation. It gives details on the nature and the contents of these registers of which the Abrahamowicz catalogue gives only regests. Information is drawn about the authors of these operations: border governors like Bernard Pretwicz or princes Fedor Sanguszko and Dimitri Wisnowiecki, and simple leaders of bands, direct forerunners of Cossacks. A typology of actions is also established, specifying raids against the city of Gankerman (Ochakov) and its suburbs, plunder of sheepfolds disseminated in the steppe and aggressions against travellers and isolated merchants ; also, the description of victims and analysis of spoils, comprising captives, cattle and handicraft wares, project a light on the social composition and the economic role of Ottoman establishments between the Dniester and the Dnieper, towards the middle of the sixteenth century.