Is Russia part of East or West? Is it European or Asian? These questions have long been central to the identity of the country. While originally ruled by a Scandinavian dynasty lasting over several centuries, texts we have studied attribute their origins to the Scythians, the Greeks by way of their faith, and other civilizations littering the Eurasian supercontinent.
The Bronze Horseman begins by recounting the mythical founding of St. Petersburg, a city meant to open the door to Europe for Russia. The city was founded on Finnish farmland by the River Neva, and Pushkin belligerently warns the Swedes shortly thereafter. Following this account, we are introduced to the serf Yevgeny who falls in love with a woman named Parasha. Parasha serves as metaphor for the European door St. Petersburg was meant to unlock. While still living, Yevgeny is sure this is the woman with whom he wants to start a family. This is analogous to Petropolis’s founding; Peter and the Russian aristocracy were certain this was the direction in which the country was heading, his westernization of Russia speaking for itself. Following her death, however, Yevgeny paces around the city aimlessly and mad. Both doors, St. Petersburg and implicitly, Parasha, were also both destroyed as the Neva flooded. As the doors close, this question of identity stumps Russian thinkers as it has evidently stumped Yevgeny.
The irony of it all is that Peter’s statue, the lasting tangible legacy of the great Tsar and all of his modernization, chases Yevgeny around the city towards the end of the account. This almost urges him, and analogously the Russian state, to not lose sight of why St. Petersburg was founded—a portal to the west.
Great job placing this work within the vexing context of Russia’s persistent identity crisis. But one small correction: Evgeny is not a serf! He is an impoverished noble, a very common social type in the early 19th century (and the same class that Pushkin belonged to). This is why Pushkin writes that his surname once “was lauded / in native lore, its luster keen / Blazed by the pen of Karamzin” in that author’s History of the Russian State–because Evgeny belonged to a prominent noble family.