A Journey to Arzrum

A Journey to Arzrum (Russian: «Путешествие в Арзрум»; full title: A Journey to Arzrum during the Campaign of 1829, «Путешествие в Арзрум во время похода 1829 года») is a work of travel literature by Alexander Pushkin. It was originally written by Pushkin in 1829, partially published in 1830, reworked in 1835, and then fully published in Pushkin's journal Sovremennik in 1836.[1]

A Journey to Arzrum during the Campaign of 1829
AuthorAlexander Pushkin
Original titleПутешествие в Арзрум во время похода 1829 года
TranslatorThe first translation of 'Journey to Arzrum' into English was by Birgitta Ingemanson in 1974
CountryRussian Empire
LanguageRussian, with some French
GenreTravel literature
PublisherSovremennik
Publication date
1836
Media typePrint

The work recounts the poet's travels to the Caucasus, Armenia, and Arzrum (modern Erzurum) in eastern Turkey at the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29). The Tsarist authorities never allowed Pushkin to travel abroad and he had only been permitted to travel as far as Tiflis (Tbilisi), capital of Georgia and Russian Transcaucasia. His unauthorized journey across the border into Turkey infuriated Tsar Nicholas I, who "threatened to confine Pushkin to his estate once again."[2]

Pushkin's text challenged, though did not entirely reject, the Orientalist romanticism of his earlier Prisoner of the Caucasus.[3] As a result, it was not popularly received by contemporary readers who expected a romantic epic poem about the Caucasus.[4]

A Journey to Arzrum was later adapted into a film during the Soviet era. Produced by Lenfilm and released on the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's passing in 1937, it was directed by Moisei Levin and starred Dmitri Zhuravlyov as Pushkin.[5]

English translations
  • Birgitta Ingemanson, A Journey to Arzrum. Ann Arbor: Ardis. 1974. ISBN 978-0882330679.
  • Ronald Wilks in Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings. New York: Penguin Classics. 1998. ISBN 978-0140446753.
  • Nicholas Pasternak Slater in Lermontov, Mikhail (2013). A Hero of Our Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199652686.
  • Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky in Novels, Tales, Journeys: The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2016. ISBN 978-0307959621.
  • Derek Davis in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Cambridge: Royal Asiatic Society. 2022. ISSN 1356-1863.

See also

References
  1. Greenleaf, Monika Frenkel (Winter 1991). "Pushkin's 'Journey to Arzrum': The Poet at the Border". Slavic Review. 50 (4): 940–945.
  2. Lermontov, Mikhail (2013). A Hero of Our Time. Translated by Nicholas Pasternak Slater. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0199652686.
  3. Layton, Susan (1995). Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 62-66. ISBN 978-0521444439.
  4. Langleben, Maria (2004). "A Journey to Arzrum: The Structure and the Message". In Reid, Robert; Andrew, Joe (eds.). Two Hundred Years of Pushkin, Vol. 3: Pushkin's Legacy. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. p. 89. ISBN 978-9042009585.
  5. Puteshestvie v Arzrum at the Internet Movie Database.
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