The Captain's Daughter by Pushkin

*As partners with Bookshop and Amazon, we earn money from qualifying purchases.

Show Notes

This week, Matt and Cameron take up positions as Sergeants of the Guard in Aleksandr Pushkin's historical novella, The Captain’s Daughter. We’ll be talking about the real history of the Pugachev Uprising, the place of violence in Pushkin’s era, and - naturally - about imagined communities. So grab your grapeshot, find your local pretender to the throne, and tune in!

Major themes: Is it really fatalist?, My boy Pugachev, Benedict Anderson will never leave us alone

03:45 - It’s “Farmer’s Daughter” by Rodney Atkins, if anyone’s wondering.

34:07 - “Alexandr Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter: A Poetics of Violence” by Alexander Groce

38:01 - Plotting History: The Russian Historical Novel in the Imperial Age by Dan Ungurianu

38: 47 - “Between Nation and Empire: Aleksandr Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter” by Irina Anisimova

46:38 - Close, but no cigar. It’s The History of Pugachev

53: 45 - “Grinev the Trickster: Reading the Paradoxes of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter” by Polina Rikoun

The music used in this episode was “soviet march,” by Toasted Tomatoes. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and YouTube.