The personality, work, ideas and legacy of the great Russian poet and writer alexander pushkin (1799-1837) are entering in the arena of geopolitics. Anything that comes from Russia is in the spotlight and also tends to be looked at in a different light than a more benign and profitable past in relations between Russia and the West. And this phenomenon unfortunately also affects art, thought and literature.
The author of the novel in verse Eugen Onegin and the historical drama Boris Godunov is becoming a thermometer to estimate the closeness or distance from Russian culture and its major expressions.
Two episodes rather singular and significant illustrate this phenomenon. The first occurred in Ukraine following Russian aggression. The second, less sensational and more subtle in interpretation, concerns the first editions of Pushkin's works which were stolen from libraries in cities not belonging to the Russian Federation. It happened that more than 170 rare books disappeared, replaced by very high-quality copies.
The depushkinization of Ukraine
Let's start with Ukraine. Ukrainians have removed all statues from their territory and cities and renamed the streets dedicated to the writer. Pushkin Street in Kiev became Yevhen Chykalenko Street, an important figure of the turn-of-the-century Ukrainian independence movement. For Ukrainians Pushkin became the brutal ideological face of Russian aggression.
Indeed, Pushkin was a great poet, but also the poet of Russian imperialism, just as Rudyard Kipling, another great author, was of British imperialism. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is no stranger to reciting lines from Pushkin's 1831 poem "To the Slanderers of Russia" which shows his clear intent to dominate neighboring peoples. When Russian forces occupied Kherson, large advertising signs featuring Pushkin's face were put up in the city as part of a propaganda campaign proclaiming the Russian presence "now and forever."
The Pushkinist bombings
It is therefore not surprising that on Ukrainian social media Russian missile attacks are branded as incursions by the “Pushkinists”. The damage to Russia from Putin's choices is not only political-military and human, but also cultural. Russian literature and the Russian language could have been enriched by the contributions of Ukrainian authors and other peoples already part of the Russian Empire, just as English literature was enriched by the work of Asian, African and Caribbean writers. By trying to forcibly restore “Russian primacy,” Putin destroyed this possibility. Only when Ukrainians go back to sleeping soundly will it be possible for them to start reading Eugene Onegin, The Bronze Horseman or The Captain's Daughter with pleasure again. Great works of literature of all time.
The mysterious disappearances
While the Ukrainians are moving Pushkin statues into warehouses, Europol is investigating what it believes to be a coordinated series of 19th century Russian rare book thefts from libraries across Europe. These are mainly first editions and first printings of works by Pushkin and other Russian Romantic writers.
Since 2022, more than 170 volumes worth over two and a half million euros have disappeared from the National Library of Latvia in Riga, the Vilnius University Library, the Berlin State Library, the Bavarian State Library in Munich, from the National Library of Finland in Helsinki, from the National Library of France, from the university libraries of Paris, Lyon and Geneva and from the Czech Republic. The Library of the University of Warsaw was particularly affected and was relieved of 78 rare books.
In many cases, the originals were replaced with very high-quality copies that even imitated the aging stains of the paper. This is a sign that this is a very sophisticated operation carried out by professionals. The disappearance of so many books of the same type from so many countries, occurring in a relatively short period, is unprecedented.
Who is behind the thefts?
We are quite convinced that it is acoordinated operation in which financial interests, geopolitics, counterfeiters and unscrupulous collectors converge and intertwine. Who is behind all this, however, is a mystery. A special unit of the French police to combat art theft is coordinating the work across Europe. The authorities think of a network of people traveling on buses with false identities. They are provided with passes to enter libraries and thus identify rare Russian books, make high-quality copies and then exchange them for the originals.
The reproductions are so well executed that only experts could distinguish them from the originals.
Authorities have arrested nine people in connection with the thefts. Four were apprehended in Georgia in late April. They had over 150 books with them. French police have arrested three suspects. Another man was convicted in Estonia and a fifth suspect is in prison in Lithuania.
Operation Pushkin
According to experts, today, there is a thriving market in Russia for these valuable editions. They have an important cultural and patriotic value for Russians. Therefore the motive could be of a dual nature. A financial motive linked to the high value of these editions on the black market, attractive to private collectors or criminal networks specialized in trafficking in works of art.
This motive is intertwined with a second one linked to the geopolitical situation in Europe. And the nationalist motive which aims to remove works considered of symbolic value for Russian culture and identity from the European cultural heritage and bring them back to their homeland. The French authorities have even gone so far as to hypothesize the involvement of the Russian state. Even the French newspaper "Le Parisien", which carried out an investigation into thefts in France, tends to give value to this hypothesis.
Pushkin, the mirror of Russia
In Russia, Pushkin is a national icon with the status of Shakespeare or Dante. Romantic poet, novelist and playwright, aristocrat, libertine, writer on freedom and empire, he brought Russian literature and the Russian language into modernity before dying in a duel at the age of 37, in 1837.
Every ruling class in Russia has appropriated Pushkin to align him with their own geopolitical vision of the country. It happened when the tsars expanded the Russian empire in the 19th century. It happened with Stalin who held public celebrations throughout the Soviet Union on the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's death in 1937. It was the era of purges and major political trials of opponents. It happened with Putin who repeatedly cited Pushkin in official speeches and inaugurated monuments to the writer around the world. “Pushkin is the mirror of all eras of Russia,” said André Markovicz, translator of the writer's works in France.
Russian collectors
The prices of books published during the lifetimes of the three main Russian romantic writers, Pushkin, Gogol and Mikhail Lermontov, have grown dramatically in the last 20 years, coinciding with the increase in the wealth of Russian collectors. According to experts in ancient and rare books, it is a small market with relatively few books and with collectors who often know the works they intend to get their hands on.
Pushkin died young and therefore the writer's books published during his lifetime were relatively few. A first edition of Eugene Onegin sold for more than 550 euros at auction at Christie's in 2019. Western sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prohibit Western dealers from selling in Russia, a ban that tends to fuel a black market already thriving for rare books. In this market, sales are often brokered privately with transactions that are difficult to trace. The Libraries are the easiest target for thieves. Public libraries with open access, due to the chronic shortage of resources, are equipped with security systems that are easily circumvented by well-organized crime such as the one that carried out these thefts.
Sources:
- Ronan Folgoas and Jérémie Pham-Lê, «Opération Pouchkine» : de Paris à Moscou, sur la trace des mystérieux voleurs de manuscrits russies, “Le Parisien”, 7 January 2024
- Rachel Donadio, Rare Editions of Pushkin Are Vanishing From Libraries Around Europe, “The New York Times,” May 1, 2024
- Timothy Garton Ash, Putin, Pushkin and the decline of the Russian empire, “The Financial Times”, 19 August 2023
