Tag Archives: st petersburg

A Palm Full of Copecks Helps the Medicine Go Down

In the United States, we find ourselves at an extremely contentious time in terms of national politics. The New Right conservative movement has reached its zenith and ultimate form with the candidacy of Donald J. Trump, while another Clinton is poised to ascend to the nation’s “throne”. The Republican and Democratic parties are extremely divided over many issues, perhaps none more so than the structure and size of government in the USA. The Democratic Party stands for government as a tool to aid the nation’s citizens in many areas, and thus favors increased power, breadth, and size of government. The Republican stance is one of limited government, where government serves as the common bond between a collection of states with self determined laws, and a mechanism for common national defense. In the Republican view, less government oversight allows citizens to aid themselves with increased efficiency and effectiveness.

It is no small coincidence that the term “bureaucracy” was introduced practically simultaneously with the beginning of our discussion of St. Petersburg. Although Russia was a monarchy until the early 20th century, civil servants dominated St. Petersburg, much as they do today in Northern Virginia, The District of Columbia, and Metro-area Maryland. With this acknowledgment, a study of some rudimentary mechanisms of Petrovian-bureaucracy seems highly in order.

Bureaucracy, in a Petersburg-ian context, is a major theme throughout every one of the assigned works. According to Brodsky, Petersburg was home to “a web like bureaucracy”. Bureaucracy is also a central tenant of Lieutenant Kizhe. Most specifically, though, a convoluted bureaucratic system that would give modern Republicans fits is displayed in The Nose. Bribery is mentioned often. When the police officer returns his nose, Kovalyov “got the message and pressed a 10 ruble note into his hand”. Likewise, when arriving at the Police Superintendent’s home, it is thought that even if Kovalyov had “brought with him a few pounds of tea or a bolt of cloth” (as a bribe) the Superintendent would not have granted him “a particularly effusive welcome”. By emphasizing that these gifts usually would get a kind welcome, and that this was out of the norm, Gogol shows how pervasive the bribe was at this time. It would appear again in Soviet times. Earlier in the story, during the print shop episode, Kovalyov says “I would be extremely grateful to you, and very glad this incident has brought me the pleasure of your acquaintance. In normal context, this may be perceived as simple niceties, but in the context of bureaucratic St. Petersburg and The Nose, we can be sure that “grateful” has some monetary connotation. Although the story is incredibly irreverent and humorous, some comment on Gogol’s residence of St. Petersburg and its corruption circa 1835 is plainly visible.

Olfactory Blues

This week, I’ve chosen to focus on probably my two favorite readings to date: Gogol’s “The Nose” and Dostoevsky’s “White Nights”. Both stories pandered to the romantic side of me, which I absolutely adored. In “The Nose”, the absurdity of social standing is teased as Kovalyov wakes up without his nose and suffers at its hand as it surpasses him in rank. The narrative of the protagonist wandering around St. Petersburg is cartoonish and charming, especially as he struggles with his love interest’s nagging mother. The ridiculous nature of her letter in response, spinning a missing nose into a proposal acceptance, is hilarious: “If by this you mean to say that I am, as it were, turning up my nose at you, that is, rejecting you out of hand, then I am surprised that you yourself should bring this up, since I, as you are aware, was of a directly contrary opinion, and if you were now to seek the hand of my daughter in the legitimate way I would be prepared forthwith to grant your request, for this has always been the object of my most earnest desire…” (57). The desperate mother peddling her daughter in the face of a rogue nose adds to the sheer madness of the piece and contributes to the social climbing motif in a misogynistic but comical way. The internal struggle of Kovalyov is different yet similar to the struggle of Dostoevsky’s narrator in “White Nights”, as both grapple with a whimsical identity crisis set in a whimsical city — whether stemming from unrequited love or societal insecurity, their experiences are beautifully melancholy. As Dostoevsky’s narrator says, “The dreamer’ – if you want an exact definition – is not a human being, but a creature of an intermediate sort.” Both of these pieces took different spins on the hopeless human condition in a conflicted and cosmic city.

All a dream?

The setting of the Nose in St. Petersburg is important and helps make sense of the story. The events are concretely set in the city, with many references to the city’s landmarks throughout. These concrete, realistic details are juxtaposed with the absurd, dreamlike events of the story (Kovalyov having lost his nose without noticing; the strange fog that obscures the ending of scenes, which the narrator waves away). The Russian title is actually “Нос” (Nose), which is the Russian word for dream (“сон”) backwards.

The strangeness of the story is less surprising given this particular setting, because it corresponds with the strangeness of the city itself. The fact that it appeared remarkably quickly and became a focal point of the culture; the fact that it was built on swamps and water, seemingly impossible; the surreal white nights of the far north; all of these make the reality of the city seem more uncertain.

In previous texts, (like Alexander Herzen’s comparison of Moscow and St. Petersburg), the city was criticized for its bureaucracy, the political pressure and ladder-climbing. Gogol parodies this importance of political rank above all else when Kovalyov is afraid to talk to his own nose because it outranks him. No one else seems to notice anything strange about it, either, and pay all due respect to it.