The guard
The Wachsperson ( Russian Восковая персона , Voskowaja persona ) is a historical novella by the Soviet writer Yuri Tynyanow , which - written in 1930 - appeared in 1931 in the January and February issues of the Leningrad literary magazine Zvezda .
content
Late winter 1725 in Saint Petersburg : Peter the Great is dying. The Italian court medic Lazaritti gives the ruler four more days. Profosse , executioners and prison guards chase convicts out of Petersburg into the Russian winter. The severely tested, partially tortured, locked out are to pray in front of the city gate for the health and a long life of His Majesty. Count Rastrelli wants to model a wax figure of Peter I right after his death. Rastrelli's model is the wax figure of Louis XIV , created by master Antoine Benoist.
The tsar dies after a brief introspection . Two cardinal errors can no longer be corrected. First, his treacherous friend Menshikov did not receive the penalty for his embezzlement and other frauds. And secondly, his wife Katharinas was allowed to live on despite the fact that her husband was murdered. The wail of the widow Katharina echoes through the palace. Mr. Legendre, Rastrelli's journeyman, takes off his death mask on his deathbed and rushes to the molding shop in the Petersburg foundry district with the plaster cast on a tray. Rastrelli and Legendre get to work. After the work is done, the mechanic, Lieutenant Bottom, builds a mechanism consisting of cogs, chains, weights and gears into the wooden body of the wax figure. General procurator Jagushinski, "Eye of the Ruler", oversees the completion. The guard is dressed, seated in Peter I's armchair, and taken to the art chamber at night . Mechanikus Bottom installs rails and wires in the floor.
After the tsar has been weeping enough, he is buried and the palace is well ventilated. Menshikov soon approaches Katharina. Menshikov, Duke of Ingermanland , as indicated above, former intimate partner of the Tsar, wants to betroth his daughter Marja to the Tsarevich . Then Marja's father will have taken care of it. Menshikov hates General Procurator Jagushinsky; scolds him plague and snoopers. For Jagushinski, Menshikov is a bastard, a bastard and a bloodsucker. The procurator general steps in front of the armchair in the art chamber and complains about Menshikov to the guard. The guard rises to full height and listens to the visitor with a seemingly lowered gaze. In addition to the dead exhibits, three freaks live in the Kunstkammer. One of them, the clever farmer Jakow, has six fingers. Yakov becomes an ear-witness of Jagushinski's confession. Menshikov gets wind of the allegations against his person and wants to get the witness Jakow out of the way. A great fire precedes this; rages on the Vyborg side . Yakov flees from the conflagration and goes into hiding in a busy St. Petersburg cookshop.
Menshikov, who absolutely wants to marry off his daughter, goes to see Katharina. The schemer is too late. Jagushinski's opponent got ahead of him; amuses Katharina and Princess Elisabeth . Menshikov has to put back a stake for the time being, but nothing is lost yet. Katharina continues to show him her grace.
Peter the Great had ruled the empire with a hard hand. Now such gentlemen as Menshikov get the upper hand. In addition, craftsmen leave because Petersburg is too swampy. The tsar had withdrawn the military from the sewer work. The towpath on the Neva is in places not accessible.
reception
- 1970, Krempien makes it clear that the guard is just a mechanism that reacts when a visitor to the Kunstkammer steps on a certain floorboard. Furthermore, the network of atmospherically dense individual scenes hinders the text overview. Tynyanov asked about the role of the individual in the historical development process: Was Peter the Great ultimately a ruler without power? Or did he resignedly? Tynyanov had "as good as not at all" shaped the consistency of the reform work of Peter the Great, which has been proven through history.
- 1975, Mierau: In this mixture of inner monologue , factual report, personal narration and echoes of the language at the beginning of the 18th century at court, Tynjanow tried complex narration.
- 1977, Lewin targets the atrocities mentioned in the novella text - although not listed in this article. The corrupt bureaucracy of the Russian Empire at that time was maintained by a reign of terror .
literature
Used edition
The guard. Translated from the Russian by Leo Hornung. P. 51–203 in Juri Tynjanow: Second Lieutenant Saber. The guard. The minor W. With an afterword by Herbert Krempien . 292 pages. Publishing house culture and progress, Berlin 1970 (1st edition)
Secondary literature
- Fritz Mierau (Ed.): Juri Tynjanow: The monkey and the bell. Stories. Drama. Essays. 624 pages. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1975 (1st edition)
- Wladimir Lewin: Scientist and Artist , pp. 358–382 in Juri Tynjanow: Wilhelm Küchelbecker, poet and rebel. A historical novel. Translated from the Russian by Maria Einstein . 400 pages. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1977 (2nd edition)
Web links
- The text online in Lib.ru (Russian)
- Reference in the laboratory of fantasy (Russian)