“Teach me what to do...”: About M.A. Markovich’s requests to Russian writers and her letter to L.N. Tolstoy

The article discusses important milestones of M.A. Markovich’s (Marko Vovchok) life, her interaction with Russian classic writers. Markovich eager to learn from I.S. Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy, N.A. Nekrasov, N.A. Dobrolyubov, D.I. Pisarev. The author of the work focuses on Markovich’s letters to Russian writers and her unpublished letter to Tolstoy is examined in particular detail. Quoted in “Materials for the biography of L.N. Tolstoy” by N.N. Gusev, this letter was interpreted by the researcher solely as a sign of Markovich’s admiration for Tolstoy’s pedagogical works and her admiration for the writer’s talent. This article shows the masterful construction of this message from the point of view of psychology, noting Markovich’s life attitude, which was to find a talented and knowledgeable man whom a woman can follow. The conclusion is drawn about the illusory duality of the writer, who positively perceived the idea of women’s emancipation, regarded a woman as a free person in society, but never clearly belonged to the ‘new people’ with their attempts to present a woman as a comrade and worker.

Keywords: M.A. Markovich, Marko Vovchok, I.S. Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy, N.A. Nekrasov, correspondence, letter structure, emancipation, ‘new people’

The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RNF, project No. 23-28-00661, https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-00661/)
 

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