Pushkin in the House of Mirrors: The 1937 Centennial Celebrations in Belgium and the Squared One-or-Two-Cultures-Paradigm

The centennial of A.S. Pushkin’s decease in 1937 was met with pomp in both the Soviet Union and Russia Abroad. In Belgium, as in other countries, the contradictory representation of Russia’s national poet as signboard of former (tsarist) Russia, as well as a precursor of Soviet culture, caused considerable confusion. The Russian émigré community in Belgium boasted the presence of Nikolai A. Pushkin, the poet’s grandson, and had direct access to the conservative press. The Soviets, on the other hand, used the celebrations to lure sympathizing intellectuals into believing that the iconoclast period in Russian culture (and politics?) now belonged to the past. The confusion was further enhanced by the specific Belgian situation, in which two literatures, Flemish (Dutch) and French, were existing next to each other. As both literatures were increasingly becoming autonomous and developing reception models of their own, this led to an even more confused image of Pushkin and Russian culture, émigré as well as Soviet. In my paper, I was to focus on the attempts of both Soviets and émigrés to influence the ‘Belgian’ public, without being aware of the dynamics that were at play within the ‘Belgian’ literary system(s). As a result, these attempts misfired and further blurred the image of Pushkin in/and Russian culture. On a theoretical level, I want to present the concept of the squared one-or-two-cultures-paradigm, i.e. the idea that the issue of ‘one or two cultures’ is not restricted to the ‘sending’ side (émigrés & Soviets), but also applies to the ‘receiving’ end (in this case: Belgium).status: publishe