Monthly Archives: November 2018

Nikolay Rymsky-Korsakov

29 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in Russia, Russian Music

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Portrait of Nikolay Rymsky-Korsakov by Ilya Repin, 1893 (Wikiart.org)

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (18 March 1844, near Novgorod – 21 June  1908) was one of the The Five and not the least. We know him as the composer of the Russian Easter Festival Overture. 🎶 Easter is/was a very important feast in Russia. You may have seen painted Russian eggs and a few of the 50 jewelled “Imperial” eggs Fabergé created for the Tsar’s family.

Rimsky-Korsakov was/is the most scholarly member of The Five and, consequently, their editor, Mussorgsky’s editor mainly. However, although his music exemplifies The Five’s attempt to express the Slavic roots of Russia’s music, he infuses into the music of Russia the sophisticated polyphony of European music, developed over centuries. Conversely, Russian music, the music of The Five and other Russian composers, would have a very real and important impact on western music.

Nijinsky in Scheherazade by George Barbier

Nijinsky in Scheherazade (Micheline’s Blog)

Scheherazade “combines two features typical of Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in the East, which figured greatly in the history of Imperial Russia, as well as orientalism in general.” (See Scheherazade, Wiki2.org.)

“American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote that the operas “open up a delightful new world, the world of the Russian East, the world of supernaturalism and the exotic, the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races. Genuine poetry suffuses them, and they are scored with brilliance and resource.” (See Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Wiki2.org.)

The quotations above point to the exotic nature of the music of the Slavic composers,  The Five: the Russian East. We have heard Alexander Borodin‘s In the Steppes of Central Asia (Mongolia). 🎶 Russia reaches from Europe to the Orient. The Five used folktales, a characteristic of 19th-century music and literature. These tales, many are fairy tales, were not necessarily Russian – Scheherazade isn’t, but they were the Russian expression of tales that overrode nationalism and belonged to a very distant past, millennia. Rimsky-Korsakov put his superior knowledge of orchestration, polyphony, blending many voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), into the service of a local idiom.

Exoticism

Besides, although the Slavic composers attempted to express the Slavic and exotic aspects of the music of Russia, Romanticism, a 19th-century movement, was characterized by a degree of exoticism. Rimsky-Korsakov composed Capriccio Espagnol, 🎶 and Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) wrote the poem Les Djinns, published in his 1829 collection of poems, entitled Les Orientales. Yet, Hugo also wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris), published in 1831, locating France in the Middle Ages, which he considered a more genuine and national past, than the plays of Jean Racine (1639 – 1699). He also modified the alexandrine, the “noble” twelve-syllable verse borrowed from the 12th-century French Roman d’Alexandre, featuring Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia. As well, Hugo ensconced French literature into Gothic fiction, a characteristic of Romanticism.

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Rimsky-Korsakov’s birthplace in Tikhvin (Wiki2.org.)

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The Russian military clipper Almaz in New York Harbor in 1863. Rimsky-Korsakov served as a midshipman on this ship and later wrote about this cruise. (Photo and caption credit: Wiki2.org.)

A Musical Career & a Naval Career

Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 -1908) had a passion for the sea, which he had yet to see when he joined the Imperial Russian Navy. But his older brother, Voin Rimsky-Korsakov (1822 – 1871), had travelled to lands far away. Voin graduated from the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg, and so would Nicolai who admired his brother. However, Nicolai would combine two careers. He would be a naval officer and a composer, and, as a musician, he would introduce the Russian East into European music. That would be his gift to classical music. As we have noted in posts about enlightened despots, Russia looked to Europe. Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers, The Five, are less European than Tchaikovsky, but they composed music where east and west interact.

“Teacher, Conductor, and Editor” (Britannica)

In 1873, Rimsky-Korsakov “assumed charge of military bands as inspector and conductor. He therefore left the naval service.” (See Britannica.)

Henceforth, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov would be a teacher of composition (1 & 2) and a conductor (3 & 4):

  1. St. Petersburg Conservatory (1871 – 1908)
  2. Free Music School in St. Petersburg (1874 – 1881)
  3. Conductor of concerts at the court chapel from 1883 to 1894
  4. Chief conductor of the Russian symphony concerts between 1886 and 1900.

We have noted that Rimsky-Korsakov differed from other members of The Five, and must note it again. Rimsky-Korsakov was very interested in the study of harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. He delved into the European tradition, a rich tradition we can trace back to the Middle Ages. That would be his gift to The Five. Polyphony unfolded over centuries of liturgical and secular (the Madrigal and songs) compositions:

“Eager to complete his own musical education, he undertook in 1873 an ambitious program of study, concentrating mainly on counterpoint and the fugue. He ended his studies in 1875 by sending 10 fugues to Tchaikovsky, who declared them impeccable.”[1] 

On 2 March 1874, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the first performance of his Symphony No. 3. That same year, “he was appointed director of the Free Music School in St. Petersburg, a post that he held until 1881.”[2]

Rimsky-Korsakov and Slavophiles

By turning to European music, Rimsky-Kosarkok’s relationship with the four of Slavic composers became that of editor. Had he not revised and enriched Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina, it may no longer be performed. We have heard at least one segment of the introduction to Khovanshchina. Dawn over the Moscow River 🎶 is magnificent. One could suspect that Rimsky-Korsakov’s editing miffed his colleagues. I doubt it. He may be best described as a big brother to brilliant composers who were less learned than he was.

Writers often need a good editor, and the same is true of musicians. Rimsky-Korsakov would not have edited Mussorgsky, had Mussorgky’s music not been the product of a genius.

We now find ourselves returning to Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes (1909 – 1929). 

“In 1889 he [Rimsky-Korsakov] led concerts of Russian music at the Paris World Exposition, and in the spring of 1907 he conducted in Paris two Russian historic concerts in connection with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.”[3]

Conclusion

Russian composers are specialists in the composition of music for ballet and for opera. Their music is “programmatic,”  in that it has a narrative. It therefore differs from “absolute music,” a non-representional form of music. Russian composers also love rhapsodies and contrasts. The programmatic pieces to which I have referred constitute Rimsky-Korsakov’s best-known compositions and they blend the Russian East and the fine polyphony of the European West. Favourites are:

Other favourites are The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Sadko, The Snow Maiden (1882) and other folktales and tales. 

But I have selected his Procession of the Nobles as today’s choice. Rimsky-Korsakov was a member of the nobility.

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Sources and Resources

Love to everyone 💕
______________________________
[1] Nicolas Slonimsky and Richard Taruskin, “Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov”
Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Rimsky-Korsakov

[2] Loc. cit.

[3] Loc. cit.

[4] Image
Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Rimsky-Korsakov/media/503882/13785

Nikolai Golovanov conducts Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Procession of the Nobles”

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, detail of a portrait by V. A. Serov; in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
H. Roger-Viollet [4]

© Micheline Walker
29 November 2018
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The Emancipation Reform of 1861

23 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in Despotism, Russia

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A 1907 painting by Boris Kustodiev depicting Russian serfs listening to the proclamation of the Emancipation Manifesto in 1861 (Wiki2.org.)

Much of Russia’s history has been a grim tale of the very wealthy and powerful few ruling over a great mass of their poor and powerless compatriots.[1]

According to the writers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, serfdom in Russia did not end when Emperor Alexander II of Russia (29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881) issued the Emancipation Manifesto of 3 March 1861:

Serfdom endured well into the modern era; the years of Soviet communist rule (1917–91), especially the long dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, saw subjugation of a different and more exacting sort.[2]

Serfdom & Slavery

For our purposes, the emancipation of serfdom in Russia occurred in 1861, and it was “the first and most important of liberal reforms passed during the reign (1855-1881) of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.”[3] 

Serfdom was a medieval institution and [t]he vast majority of serfs in medieval Europe obtained their subsistence by cultivating a plot of land that was owned by a lord. This was the essential feature differentiating serfs from slaves, who were bought and sold without reference to a plot of land. In theory, serfs were not slaves, but in practice, many were.[4]

Serfs & Private Estates

In Russia, serfdom dated back to 1649.  In 1861, there were two types of serfs:

  1. those living on the land of private landowners and their domestics
  2. those living on state lands, under control of the Ministry of State Property

However, only those who worked on the land of private landowners were called serfs. They constituted 38% of the population.

The Emancipation Reform of 1861 freed 23 million serfs working on private estates as well as domestic household serfs. (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

Peasants: Mir or Obshchina

Altogether, three-quarters of the Russian population were peasants, a total higher than serfs who worked on the land of private landowners.

There was, in fact, a third group of peasants living on communes. These peasants lived in village communities called a Mir or an Obschchina. These were communes and they predated serfdom. Mir peasants cultivated one or two strips of land. Holding more strips would have increased a peasant’s tax burden. They belonged to 100,000 landowners. They did not belong to members of a commune, or ‘Mir,’ or Obshchina. (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

The Mir & the Collectivization of the USSR

These communes were idealized by August von Haxthausen in a book he published in 1847. It was also praised by Karl Marx. (See Obschchina, Wiki2.org.) Mir and Obschchina were destroyed by the Stolypin agrarian reforms (1906–1914), “the implementation of which would lead to the Russian Revolution and subsequent collectivization of the USSR.” (See Obschchina, Wiki2.org.)

KorovinS_NaMiru

Obshchina Gathering, by Sergei Korovin (Wiki2.org.)

Comments

It appears Tsar Alexandre II abolished serfdom to keep up with western European countries. Western Europe remained the model.

“My intention is to abolish serfdom … you can yourself understand that the present order of owning souls cannot remain unchanged. It is better to abolish serfdom from above, than to wait for that time when it starts to abolish itself from below. I ask you to think about the best way to carry this out.”

— Alexander II’s speech to the Marshalls of the Nobility, 30 March 1856. (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

I should note that:

“[m]any bureaucrats believed that these reforms would bring about drastic changes which would only affect only the ‘lower stories’ of society, strengthening the autocracy. In reality, the reforms forced the monarch to coexist with an independent court, free press, and local governments which operated differently, and more freely, than they had in the past. This new form of local government involved in each area an assembly called a zemstvo.” (See The Emancipation reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.)

The Tsar and his advisors wondered whether freed serfs should hold the land they had tilled. Given that a large number of insurrections that had taken place in western Europe in 1848, it was decided that freed serfs could own land. (See Revolutions of 1848, Wiki2.org.) However, the land was not given to them. Some serfs had money and could buy land. But, by and large, they couldn’t. Some continued to work for a landowner to earn money. Others, if not most, borrowed from the government and made redemption payments, of which they were relieved in 1905, the year of the massacre of Bloody Sunday. 

“The peasants remained ‘temporarily bonded’ until they redeemed their allotments.”[5]

Ironically, redemption payments transformed former serfs into slaves. Debt bondage is a form of slavery. As for those serfs who found employment in factories, as we now, their wages were low and their working hours, very long: some 15 hours a day. Workers went on strikes, which led to Bloody Sunday.

We do not know how many people were killed on Bloody Sunday (1,000 – 4,000), but we know that the reprisals were gruesome:

“It is estimated that between October 1905 and April 1906, 15,000 peasants and workers were hanged or shot, 20,000 injured, and 45,000 sent into exile.” (See Bloody Sunday, Wiki2.org.) It was a peaceful demonstration. Workers were carrying a petition. As of Bloody Sunday, Russians ceased to see their Tsar as a father to the nation.

Conclusion

The abolition of serfdom was good in itself. As Tsar Alexander II stated ,“the present order of owning souls cannot remain unchanged.”  Serfs were emancipated in 1861. Landowners could no longer own serfs, domestic or farmers. Furthermore, Russia’s economy grew after the serfs were freed. Many former serfs were working in factories, domestic serfs especially. They could not own land.

“A significant measuring stick in the growth of the Russian economy post-reform was the huge growth in non-gentry private landownership. Although the gentry land-holdings fell from 80% to 50%, the peasant holdings grew from 5% all the way to 20%.”

Yet, there was social unrest (strikes, etc.) and, after Bloody Sunday (1905), confidence in the Tsar having waned, the Bolchevik party had an opportunity to take over. We then suffered through the Cold War.

But the greatness of Russia remains. As a child, the librarian could not let me borrow certain masterpieces of French literature. Several were on the Index of prohibited books. She directed me to the Russian literature shelves of the Public Library. I read Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I wish I could thank that librarian. The first piece of music I was introduced to was Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain.

This post contains many quotations. I did not want to make errors. However, I have left out the Crimean War. Russia’s defeat is a factor in the emancipation of serfs and the role Tsar Alexandre II played in liberating Bulgaria. (See The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Wiki2.org.) Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb in 1881. His legs were torn off and he was otherwise fatally injured.

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Sources and Resources

The Emancipation Reform: the full text.  ↩

 

Love to everyone 💕

____________________

[1] “Russia,” Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Sergey Arsentyevich Vodovozov and Others (See All Contributors)  Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia

[2] Op. cit.

[3] The Emancipation Reform of 1861, Wiki2.org.

[4] “Serfdom,” Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/serfdom/media/535485/121574

[5] “Russian Empire,” The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/place/Russian-Empire/Alexander-II

“The peasants remained ‘temporarily bonded’ until they redeemed their allotments. The redemption price was calculated on the basis of all payments received by the landlord from the peasants before the reform. If the peasant desired to redeem a plot, the government paid at once to the landowner the whole price (in 5 percent bonds), which the peasant had to repay to the exchequer in 49 years. Although the government bonds fell to 77 percent and purchase was made voluntary, the great majority of landowners—often in debt—preferred to get the money at once and to end relations which had become insupportable. By 1880, 15 percent of the peasants had not made use of the redemption scheme, and in 1881 it was declared obligatory. The landowners tried, but in vain, to keep their power in local administration. The liberated peasants were organized in village communities that held comprehensive powers over their members. Nominally governed by elected elders, they were actually administered by crown administrative and police officials.” (Britannica)

—ooo—

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) wrote a Symphony based on Bloody Sunday, his Symphony No. 11, subtitled The Year 1905.

However, I have selected an excerpt from Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, the Andante, or 2nd movement.

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Tsar Alexander II (Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
23 November 2018
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Mussorgsky & Repin: a New Dawn

19 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in American Civil War, Russia, Russian Art, Russian Music

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They did not expect him by Ilya Repin, 1884 – 1888 (Wikiart.org)

“It is generally believed that by depicting various reaction of young man’s household Repin tried to show diverse but mostly positive attitude of society toward revolutionary movements of that time. Actually, under strict censorship of Czarist Russia, it was a political declaration disguised as an everyday genre scene.” (Wikiart.org.)

The Russian Revolution

In the second half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century, Russia changed dramatically. The Emancipation of serfdom, in 1861, led to a major social upheaval. Ironically, several former serfs had to pay for the piece of land they had been cultivating for centuries, but more importantly, an agrarian society was industrialized. (See Industrialisation of Russia, Wiki2.org.) Many Serfs became factory workers whose working conditions were unacceptable.

Matters culminated in a massacre known as Bloody Sunday, 22 January 1905. From 3,000 to 50,000 factory workers marched towards Saint Petersburg’s Winter Palace to deliver a petition (←text) to Tsar Nicholas II. Some 4,000 demonstrators, an approximate number, were gunned down or injured by the Imperial Guard. Others were arrested.

By the end of Word War I, there would no longer be a Russian Empire. Two revolutions occurred in 1917: the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, took over during the October Revolution, sometimes called the Bolshevik Coup.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) had abdicated on 2 March 1917. He and his family were executed during the night of 17 – 18 July 1918.

The painting above is immensely foreboding.

But let us listen to another part of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, its introduction.

—ooo—


Mussorgsky’s Dawn on the Moskva-River
Introduction to Khovanshchina

Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin, 1873 (Wikiart.org.)

© Micheline Walker
19 November 2018
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Mussorgky’s Old Castle

17 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by in Russian Art, Russian Music

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Modest Mussorgsky by Ilya Repin, 2 – 5 March 1881 (WikiArt.org.)

I eliminated my post on the Emancipation Reform of 1861. Although the Emancipation Reform of 1861 had deleterious effects on many Russians, Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) became an alcoholic because extreme behaviour was fashionable in his days. (See Modest Mussorgsky, Wiki2.org.)

However, those who turned to the “worship of Bacchus” did not necessarily become alcoholics. Mussorgsky did, and it led to his death.

Repin‘s portrait of Mussorgsky, the eyes in particular, is one of his finest paintings.

Love to everyone 💕

—ooo—

The Old Castle 

Une larme (A Tear)

above-the-eternal-tranquility-1894

Above the Eternal Tranquillity by Isaac Levitan, 1894 (WikiArt.org.)

© Micheline Walker
17 November 2018
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Frederick the Great

15 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in Enlightened Despotism

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Frederick the Great by Anton Graff, 1781 (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

« La Prusse n’est pas un pays qui a une armée, c’est une armée qui a un pays. »
(See Frederick the Great, Wiki2.org.)

The Monarch as a Young Man

Frederick was the son of Frederick William I of Prussia a disciplinarian who did not shy away from beating his son. Young Frederick attempted to flee to England with a friend, Hans Hermann von Katte ( 1704 – 1730), intending to work for George II of Britain. George II was the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover). Flight was impeded. Frederick William I had the two lads imprisoned, at Küstrin. King Frederick William I spared his son’s life, but Hans Hermann von Katte was beheaded and Frederick William I insisted that his son watch the execution.

Sexuality

Although Frederick married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern when he was crown prince, he did not live with his wife. It appears he was not attracted to women. As a very young man, he may have been attracted to boys, but one can only speculate on Frederick the Great’s sexuality. Although he was not attracted to women, Frederick made sure his wife lived comfortably. He was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II of Prussia.

Frederick the Composer

Frederick’s passion was his “profession,” to quote Catherine the Great of Russia. He was an aristocrat and “born to rule.” Other than his “profession,” Frederick was an excellent musician. He played the flute and was a surprisingly prolific composer. Harmony, counterpoint and form are demanding disciplines. Additionally, one’s melodies are the product of inspiration. Frederick was gifted. Frederick the Great (Wiki2.org) provides a list of Frederick’s compositions. It may not be a complete, but it is very impressive: 100  sonatas for the flute as well as four symphonies, etc. Frederick had a music room at Sanssouci, his castle in Potsdam, and his flute teacher was no less than Johann Joachim Quantz (30 January 1607 – 12 July 1773). 

The Flute Concert of Sanssouci by Adolph Menzel, 1852, depicts Frederick playing the flute in his music room at Sanssouci as C. P. E. Bach accompanies him on a harpsichord-shaped piano by Gottfried Silbermann. (Frederick the Great, Wiki2.org.) 

Voltaire in Prussia

King Friedrich der Große admired all things French, Voltaire especially. Frederick, who learned French as a child, initiated a correspondence with Voltaire in 1736, before Frederick William I’s death. In the 1750’s, Voltaire moved to Prussia, at Frederick’s invitation. He was named chamberlain and appointed to the Order of Merit. Voltaire also received a salary of 20,000 French livres a year. He had rooms at Sanssouci (without worries), Frederick the Great’s castle at Potsdam, and also lived at Charlottenburg Palace. French was spoken at the Prussian court. Voltaire spent three years in Prussia. A misunderstanding separated host and guest, but the two reconciled. Frederick the Great was delighted to have known Voltaire. (See Voltaire, Wiki2.org.)  

Voltaire at Frederick the Great‘s Sanssouci, by Pierre Charles Baquoy. (Wiki2.org.)
Die Tafelrunde by Adolph von Menzel: guests of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci, including members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and Voltaire (third from left). Next to Voltaire, wearing red, is Casanova. (Frederick the Great,Wiki2.org)

The Anti-Machiavel

The influence of French philosophes and British intellectuals led Frederick the Great to write an “idealistic refutation” (Wiki2.org.) of Niccolò Machiavelli’s 16th-century’s Prince, entitled the Anti-Machiavel, published in 1740. Voltaire edited Frederick the Great’s Anti-Machiavel, also providing footnotes. A combined edition was published. Summarizing the Anti-Machiavel would be difficult, but, basically, it describes the king as “the first servant of the state.”

Peter the Great and Catherine the Great westernized Russia, but they also organized it. As for Frederick the Great, the most enlightened of despots, he modernized Prussia. All three despots also promoted, to a greater or lesser extent, religious tolerance. King Frederick the Great joined Freemasonry, as did many of his contemporaries.

In Prussia, the heart of the future German Empire, it became possible to occupy positions formerly reserved for the nobility. Bourgeois could be judges and senior bureaucrats. Frederick welcomed immigrants and he allowed freedom of the press and literature. Moreover, not only was he a musician, but he was also a patron of musicians and artists.  He reformed the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Although it is incomplete, one of Frederick’s finest achievements was the Prussian Civil Code. Civil codes organize a nation. Catherine II the Great of Russia also worked on devising a code of laws.

Conclusion

Frederick the Great was a fine and well-educated leader. He believed, however, that his “profession” had made him what he was. It hadn’t. One does not need to be an aristocrat to govern well. In short, Frederick was an exceptional leader and an extremely gifted gentleman, brilliant, who happened to be a king, and a despot. 

Yet Frederick was also convinced that the Prussian landed noblemen, the Junkers, were the backbone of the state, and he continued accordingly to uphold the alliance between crown and aristocracy on which his kingdom had been built.

Britannica

Sources and Resources

  1. Britannica’s Video on Sanssouci (without worries)
  2. Frederick the Great, Wiki2.org.
  3. Voltaire, Wiki2.org.
  4. Encyclopedia Britannica
  5. Concert for Flute at Sanssouci by Adolph von Menzel
Friedrich II der der Große’s Flute Concertos | Christoph Huntgeburth Ensemble Sans Souci Berlin
Frederick the Great (Frederick the Majestic)

© Micheline Walker
15 November 2018
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Mid-November…

12 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Art, Russia, Russian Music

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Oak Grove by Ivan Shishkin, 1887 (Wikiart.org)

It was a slow day and a cold day. I could not write. But I could sense winter approaching. Je n’ai qu’une saison. C’est l’hiver.

Yvan Shishkin (25 January 1832 – 20 March 1898) was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement.

Forest Path by Yvan Shishkin, 1863 (Wikiart.org)

The video I have inserted combines images by Yvan Shishkin and music by Mussorgsky, one of the Five. You will hear bells.

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Love to everyone 💕

Mussorgsky — Prelude to Khovanshchina (1872-1880)

Portrait of Shishkin by Ivan Kramskoi, 1873 (Wiki2.org)

© Micheline Walker
11 November 2018
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Sweden’s Age of Liberty, Part Two

09 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in democracy, Despotism, Sweden

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Gustav III, King of Sweden by Alexander Roslin, 1777

Sweden’s Age of Liberty

  • Charles XII’s death (1719)
  • Peter the Great’s victory (1721)

Between 1611 and 1721, Sweden was an Empire and between 1796 and 1718, it was ruled by absolutist King Charles XII (b. 17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 [aged 36]). Charles XII was killed during the Siege of Fredriksten, in 1718. In 1731, Voltaire wrote a History of Charles XII (Histoire de Charles XII), the last ruler of the Swedish Empire. After his death, Sweden and its allies lost the Swedish Empire to the Tsardom of Russia, henceforth a Tsardom and an Empire. As we have seen in an earlier post, Peter the Great wanted access to seas, which, to the west, was the Baltic Sea and, by extension, the Baltic provinces and the Baltic states. Peter I was successful in his quest, but he ended Sweden’s age of “greatness.”

However, and ironically, Charles XII’s death and Sweden’s defeat provided a window of opportunity for the development of a rudimentary parliament in Europe. Sweden had lost its “greatness,” but it had entered its Age of Liberty, or Age of Freedom. Sweden’s Age of Liberty is:

a half-century-long period of parliamentary governance and increasing civil rights, beginning with Charles XII‘s death in 1718 and ending with Gustav III‘s self-coup in 1772.

(See Age of Liberty, Wiki2.org.)

In 1719, Count Arvid Horn (6 April 1664 – 17 April 1742), President of the Privy Council Chancellery of Sweden, transferred power from an absolute monarchy to a parliament, Sweden’s Riksdag of the Estates, a name used by the Estates when they assembled.

Charles XII was childless. He was succeeded by Ulrika Eleonora, his sister, who abdicated because power was in the hands of the Riksdag of the Estates. Her husband Landgrave Frederick I of Hesse-Kassel, a prince consort, would serve as King Frederick I of Sweden until 5 April 1751.

The Treaty of Nystad (10 September 1721)

Frederick I of Sweden signed the Treaty of Nystad (1721) which ended the Great Northern War (1700 – 1721). Sweden surrendered Swedish Estonia, Swedish Livonia  (which had capitulated in 1710) and Southeast Finland (Kexholmslän and Karelia), in exchange for two million silver thaler.

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Treaty effects: pre-war Sweden in yellow, Russia in green, Russian gains indicated. (Wiki2.org.)

The Riksdag of the Estates

  • the Riksdag of the Estates vs Britain’s Parliament
  • the Hats and the Caps (Nightcaps)
  • Arvid Horn

The Riksdag of the Estates differs from Britain’s Parliament. It may consist of two parties opposing one another. During the Age of Liberty, the Riksdag opposed the Hats (les Chapeaux) and the Caps (les Bonnets). I noted the role played by the Hats and the Caps in the short version of this post. But I should add that the “Horn Period” was a better Age of Liberty than the period during which the Hats ruled.

His strong hand kept the inevitable strife of the parliamentary factions within due limits, and it was entirely owing to his provident care that Sweden so rapidly recovered from the wretched condition in which the wars of Charles XII had plunged her.

(See Arvid Horn, Wiki2.org.)

Frederick I Martin van Meytens
Adolph Frederick by Gustaf Lundberg

The Two Kings

  • Frederick I and Adolph Frederick
  • The Hats: Wars and Greatness

As for the relationship between the Riksdag of the Estates and the kings who reigned during the Age of Liberty, it reflects to a large extent, the rule of the Hats and the Caps. I have mentioned the Russo-Swedish war of 1741-1743. Sweden, the former Swedish Empire, was defeated and, under the terms of the Treaty of Åbo, it had to cede territory east of the Kymi river to Russia. Elizabeth of Russia demanded that pro-absolutist Adolph Frederick from the House of Holstein-Gottorp be the future king of Sweden. As a result, members of the house of King Frederick I of Sweden, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel were eliminated from the line of succession.

Under pro-absolutist Adolp Frederick of the House of Holstein-Gottorp, the Riksdag of the Estates was attacked twice: the Coup of 1756 and the very serious December Crisis of 1768. (See Sweden’s Age of Liberty, 8 November 2018.)

The Hats also involved Sweden in the Pomeranian Theatre of the Seven Years’ War. Sweden lost 40,000 men in a war France did not win. Sweden suffered immense losses seeking the “greatness” it had lost.

The End of the Age of Liberty

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the reason for the transfer from absolutism to its Age of Freedom was “the complete failure of the policy of ‘greatness’ connected with the Carolingian [Charles XII] absolutism.” In 1772, Gustav III‘s self-coup re-introduced absolutism. Gustav III is described as a popular king. He was when he modelled his absolutism on his uncle, Frederick the Great of Prussia’s enlightened despotism. But what of the people’s will?

They [enlightened desposts] typically instituted administrative reform, religious toleration, and economic development but did not propose reforms that would undermine their sovereignty or disrupt the social order.

(See Enlightened Despotism, Britannica.)

They felt, as did Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, that aristocracy was their “profession.” Elizabeth of Russia used the Treaty of Åbo as a coup. She became an Empress of Russia and named her successor: Peter III of the House of Holstein-Gottorp. In Sweden, kings and queens were elected! When Gustav IV lost Finland, he was deposed by officers of his army and various notables. He had to abdicate and go into exile, never to return. A democracy is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” (See Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburgh Address, Wiki2.org.)

The Age of Liberty‘s early Riksdag of the Estates took all powers away from monarchs. This would change as Swedish democracy developed, a process usually marked by trials and errors. The Age of Liberty can be viewed as an experiment in democracy. Matters  change. Arvid Horn’s grew increasingly neutral, and his neutrality was opposed. Ulrika Eleonora, Charles XII’s sister, abdicated because she refused to be a figurehead. But, although King Charles XIII was prematurely senile, he was involved in the drafting of the Instrument of Government of 1809, Sweden’s constitution. It was not developed unilaterally and it remained unchanged until 1974.

In fact, to what extent was Charles XII an absolute monarch? Voltaire preferred Charles XII to Peter the Great.

The form of government instituted in Sweden under King Charles XI and passed on to his son, Charles XII is commonly referred to as absolute monarchy; however, the Swedish monarch was never absolute in the sense that he wielded arbitrary power.

(See Absolute Monarchy, Wiki2.org.)

It remains that, as an absolute monarch, Gustav III tried to abolish the Privy Council of Sweden and propably did so out of fear. Gustav III’s Union and Security Act of 1789, “swept away most of the powers exercised by the Swedish Riksdag.” He “severely curtailed” the Freedom of the Press Act of 1766. (See Gustav III, Wiki2.org.)

Yet, Sweden defeated Russia at the Battle of Svensksund, Gustav III demonstrating leadership and “greatness.” But such “greatness,” Sweden had probably outgrown in its Age of Liberty.

im524-640px-Desprez-Swedish_war_preparations_1788

Swedish warships fitted out in Stockholm in 1788; watercolor by Louis Jean Desprez

Love to everyone 💕

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Sources and Resources

Charles XIV John of Sweden(Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
9 November 2018
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Sweden’s Age of Liberty, Part One

08 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in democracy, Sweden

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Count Arvid Horn, President of Privy Council Chancellery of Sweden (Photo credit: Wiki2.org)

This post is an abridged version of a second post.

Sweden’s Age of Liberty

  • The Riksdag of the Estates
  • Count Arvid Horn

Count Arvid Horn (6 April 1664 – 17 April 1742), who was named a Privy Councillor in 1705 and a Count, in 1706, under absolutist King Charles XII‘s reign, distanced himself from absolutism. After the death of Charles XII (b. 17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 [aged 36]) an absolute monarch, Arvid Horn transferred the power of the Queen, Ulrika Eleonora, to the Riksdag of the Estates, a ‘parliament.’ In other words, Sweden had a Riksdag of the Estates, but under an absolute monarch, the Swedish Riksdag had no power. This could be described as the flaw in Sweden’s early democracy. The king had died and Arvid Horn could shift his power to the Riksdag of the Estates, but what if the king had not died?

Therefore, we cannot compare Sweden’s Riksdag to Britain’s constitutional monarchy. In England, the death of a king or queen could not lead to the dissolution, or the near dissolution of Parliament. In other words, in Britain, power could shift from one party to another in Parliament, but the reigning monarch remained and laws received royal assent, a form of veto.

It remains that Sweden had a parliament before Montesquieu‘s Spirit of the Laws was published, anonymously, in 1848, and placed on the Index (list) of prohibited books, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church, in 1559.

Consequently, when king Charles XII was killed, Sweden had its Riksdag of the Estates. Had it not been for the existence of the Riksdag of the Estates, however imperfect, Arvid Horn, President of the Privy Council Chancellery of Sweden, could not have transfered the power of deceased absolutist King Charles XII to anyone.

Two Elected Kings

Between 1719 to 1772, the Riksdag ruled Sweden. Two elected kings would ‘reign’ during this period. Queen Ulrika Eleonora succeeded Charles XII, but abdicated in favour of her husband, elected King Frederick I of Sweden because no power was vested in the Monarchy.

Frederick I of Sweden and Ulrika Eleonara had no children. Empress Elizabeth of Russia agreed to return part of Finland to Sweden, if Adolph Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp were elected King of Sweden. Empress Elizabeth of Russia also chose as her heir the future Peter III of Russia, Catherine the Great‘s husband. Adolph Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp  would be the Age of Liberty‘s second king.

Two Coups

  • Coup of 1756
  • Decenber Crisis of 1768

King Adolph Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp was a rather weak king. However, he was the husband of Louisa Ulrika of Prussia (Frederick the Great‘s sister), who believed in the divine rights of kings and wanted to reinstate absolutism. She put pressure on her husband, Adolph Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. Adolph Frederick attacked the Riksdag of the Estates twice. The first attack was the Coup of 1756, which failed. The second attack was the more successful December Crisis of 1768, when Adolphe Frederick refused to sign state documents and abdicated.

The End of the Age of Liberty

When Adolph Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp abdicated, Sweden’s Riksdag of the Estates was weakened, but it stayed afloat. In 1772, King Gustav III used a self-coup to reinstate not absolutism, at least not at first, but enlightened absolutism, modeled on his uncle Frederick II the Great of Prussia’s enlightened absolutism. Gustav III’s self-coup ended the Age of Liberty. Absolutist King Gustav III would be assassinated in 1792, a year before King Louis XVI of France was executed by guillotine, on 21 January 1793.

In short, during its Age of Liberty (1719-1772), Sweden had two kings, but they did not rule, another flaw. The ruler was the Riksdag of the Estates, a form of parliament which consisted of two parties, the Hats (les Chapeaux) and the Caps (les Bonnets). One could dominate the other.

The Caps (les Bonnets), under the leadership of Arvid Horn, threw their lot in with Russia or they remained more or less neutral. Count Arvid Horn’s increasing neutrality was opposed. So Arvid Horn retired to his home, Ekebyholm Castle. As for the Hats, they chose to ally themselves with France. They waged war against Russia, the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-1743, and participated in the Seven Year’s War. These were disastrous wars for Sweden.

Gustav IV Adolf’s arrest during the Coup of 1809 (Wiki2.org.)

The Instrument of Government

In 1809, King Gustav III’s heir, King Gustav IV of Sweden, lost Finland to Russia. His defeat in the Finnish War prompted a revolt: the Coup of 1809. Gustav IV Adolf was forced to abdicate and to go into exile. On 6 June 1809, Sweden’s National Day, the Riksdag of the Estates and King Charles XIII adopted the Instrument of Government that remained in effect until 1974. Charles or Carl XIII was childless, hence the search for a crown prince. As we know, Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was elected crown prince of Sweden who would reign as Charles XIV John of Sweden.

This story is told and beautifully illustrated in Hérodote.FR

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Love to everyone 💕

Johan Helmich Roman – Drottningholm Music

Gustav_IV_Adolf_of_Sweden

Gustav IV by Per Krafft the Younger (Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
7 November 2018
(to be continued)
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Alexander Borodin, Russia’s “Five”

05 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Russian Music, The Five

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The Slavic Composers by Ilya Repin, 1872 (WikiArt.org.)

Time flies. So I am not altogether finished a post on Sweden’s Age Liberty which began a little before Peter the Great defeated the Swedish Empire and ended in 1821 and lasted until Swedish King Gustav III‘s self-coup of 1872, which takes us to the House of Bernadotte (27 September 2018).

I’m nearly done.

I thought of writing a little in-between post introducing Alexander Borodin, one of The Five (composers), or The Mighty Handful, whose goal was to capture the very soul of Russia’s culture. They gave Russian music its idiom. The Five are Mily Balakirev (the leader),  César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin. All lived in Saint Petersburg.

Borodin is exceptional. He was a doctor and scientist. Music was not his profession, but who could tell? His lyricism is a major characteristic of Borodin’s compositions and these are numerous. In the Steppes of Central Asia has an exotic flavour. It is a tone poem, one continuous and rather short piece of music.

The piece I selected does not feature bells. It therefore differs from Modest Mussorgsky‘s Night on Bald Mountain, Une nuit sur le mont chauve, 🎶which is the very first piece of music I was introduced to. Among my early memories of the red brick house are my father’s late night gatherings with music lovers. Chauve means bald. We could see chauves-souris (bats) flying about.

So, we will not hear bells in Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia (Mongolia), composed in 1880. However, a wide range in volume is typical of the music of the Five, and Borodin’s.

My main source is Wiki2.org.’s entry on Borodin’s lovely piece and my own knowledge. I have studied music, every aspect, all my life.

Love to everyone 💕

Altan Khan (1507–1582) (Wiki2.org.)

© Micheline Walker
5 November 2018
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Catherine the Great by V. Borovikovsky

02 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by in Enlightenment, Russia

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Portrait of Catherine, age approximately 65, with the Chesme Column in the background by Vladimir Borovikovsky 1794 (Tretyakov Gallery) (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Portraits_of_Catherine_II_of_Russia#Lampi

In my last post, credits for the image above were left incomplete. I tried to add the name of the artist, but could not access the post. The artist is Vladimir Borovikovsky. The portrait is housed in the Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow.

Britannica’s Video

Moreover, the link to Britannica’s video on Catherine the Great was moved.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-the-Great/media/99597/193539

Finally,

Wiki2.org (2nd part) provides a concise and fascinating discussion of Catherine’s life, times and accomplishments. (See Catherine the Great, Wiki2.org.)

—ooo—

Mussorgsky was one of The Five (composers) (the Mighty Handful) who attempted to give the music of Russia a typically Russian idiom. Remember the bells.

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—ooo—

Modest Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain (ca 1858)

The Rooks have come back by Alezei Savrasov, 1871, Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma

© Micheline Walker
2 November 2018
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