“The Golden Grove Has Finished Speaking...”: The Discovery of the Symbolic Russian Landscape by Russian Culture of the 19th and Early 20th Century

The abundance of artists and writers whose works depict the images of birch figuratively or verbally is one of the main arguments put forward by some philologists and art historians in favor of the supposedly uninterrupted centuries-long tradition of love and veneration of the birch seen as a “Russian tree” and a symbol of Russia. However, how natural is it to place the birch at the top of the list of plants revered in Russian culture? Can we really speak of a continuous tradition of glorifying the birch in Russian literature and fine arts? Was classical art a strong link in this process? To answer these questions, the authors took a number of steps. First, after providing approximate statistics on the representation of the birch in Russian classical poetry, they outlined the dynamics of the representation of the birch in Russian poetry and painting of the 19th – early 20th century. Then, they analyzed the process of forming ideas about the national landscape and the place of the birch within it and suggested the connotations and symbolism associated with it. The authors studied in detail the place of the birch in the works of Sergei Esenin and Isaac Levitan, who were often considered in Soviet culture as recognized “singers of the birch.” In conclusion, the question of the adaptation of the pre-revolutionary classical “birch” heritage in the USSR was raised. The authors of the article concluded that the birch occupies a rather modest position among the trees that were depicted in Russian literature and painting of the 19th century. There is much to suggest that the unbroken tradition of love for the birch as a national symbol of Russia was rather a Soviet myth. In any case, the classical Russian culture of the 19th century could not become a permanent link of a controversial, invented transition.

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