The St. Petersburg – Moscow Faust: Two lives of Jacob Bruce in the mirrors of Russian poetry

About the authors:

Tatiana V. Zvereva, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Udmurt State University, Izhevsk, Russia

tvzver.1968@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0485-7664

Alexander V. Markov, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Department of Cinema and Contemporary Art, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia; markovius@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6874-1073

Abstract:

The study addresses the problem of the functioning of a historical image in a literary text. The article presents the first comparative analysis of two poetic works from the late 20th century dedicated to Jacob Bruce: Vladimir Britanishsky’s diptych “The Life and Legend of Yakov Bruce, the Moscow Faust” (1986) and Maxim Amelin’s poem “The Joyous Science, or the True Tale of the Famous Bruce, Versified from the Words of Several Eyewitnesses” (1999). The relevance of the study is due to the insufficient scholarly attention paid to these texts, especially Britanishsky’s work, and the opportunity to trace the deep shifts in Russian self-consciousness at the turn of the era — from the late Soviet period to the post-Soviet reality — through poetic reflection on a historical figure. The aim of the study is to identify the genre nature, intertextual connections, and cultural-philosophical meanings of both works. The methodology combines comparative-historical, intertextual, and mythopoetic analysis. The results demonstrate that Britanishsky creates an elegiac diptych where the tragic solitude of the scholar is juxtaposed with folk legend, while Amelin employs carnivalesque and heroicomic poetics, transforming Bruce into a cheerful trickster-sage. Both texts engage with the Pushkinian tradition, Stoic philosophy, and Rabelaisian laughter, yet they offer different interpretations of the conflict between knowledge and power, faith and cognition. The conclusion suggests that Britanishsky’s Bruce projects the figure of the intellectual facing marginalization, whereas Amelin’s Bruce reflects the intellectual open to the world and history.

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