On March 17, 2022, Dmitry Medvedev, in a publication on Telegram, quoted a famous poet, thereby illustrating that “anti-Russian hysteria is by no means a new phenomenon.” We checked whether these words belong to Tyutchev.
On March 14, 2022, the former President of Russia and now Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev started his own Telegram channel. After three days there appeared the first entry dedicated to “the most dramatic topic” - “the rabid Russophobia of the West,” which, “apparently, will never reach the bottom.” In his text, Medvedev also makes the following argument: “The anti-Russian hysteria that we are now seeing is by no means a new phenomenon. It existed in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Let us recall the famous words of Fyodor Tyutchev: “It was already possible to predict long ago that this furious hatred, which for thirty years, every year stronger and stronger, was kindled in the West against Russia, would someday break loose. This moment has come. Russia was simply offered suicide, renunciation of the very basis of its existence, a solemn recognition that it is nothing more in the world than a wild and ugly phenomenon, like evil, requiring correction." It feels like it was written in 2022.”
This phrase, attributed to Tyutchev, began to actively spread in March 2022. For example, March 12 quote posted in her Telegram channel, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, and the next day she shared on its Facebook page, the Russian Embassy in Argentina. March 15 quote from Tyutchev brought in her speech at UNESCO, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the organization Tatyana Dovgalenko. At the same time, users of social networks began to actively publish the poet’s statement, although previously they had paid virtually no attention to it.
The quotation wording used in the examples listed above appears to be taken from books literary critic Vadim Kozhinov about Tyutchev, who came out in the series “The Lives of Remarkable People” (first in 1988, then in 2009). According to Kozhinov, he found words about “rabid hatred” in a certain letter from Tyutchev dated April 21, 1854. The author of the book about the poet provided the corresponding fragment with abbreviations and explanations, while Medvedev and others used this text as a single quotation.
The original of this letter is presented in an earlier biographical sketch of Tyutchev, published back in 1874, the year after death poet. The author of this essay is Tyutchev’s son-in-law, publicist and one of the ideologists of Slavophilism Ivan Aksakov. In his work, Aksakov cites several letters written by Tyutchev during the Crimean War and addressed to his wife, who was being treated in Germany. In particular, on April 21, 1854, the poet spoke about his reaction to an article by the French publicist Eugene Forcade, where excerpts from other letters of Tyutchev were placed without a signature.
The full quotation from the letter written in French, translated by Aksakov, reads: So: “It has long been possible to predict that this furious hatred - like the hatred of a dog against a leash - hatred that for thirty years, every year stronger and stronger, was kindled in the West against Russia, would someday break loose. This moment has come. What was called Russia in the official language - no matter what it did to avert the fatal fate: it wiggled, and bargained, and hid the banner, and even denied itself - nothing helped. The day finally came when they demanded even more vivid proof of her moderation from her, they simply offered suicide, renunciation of the very basis of her being, a solemn recognition that she was nothing more in the world than a wild and ugly phenomenon, an evil requiring correction.”
Thus, Medvedev in his post on Telegram (like many others) presented a slightly edited, but still not significantly distorted quote from Tyutchev. The corresponding fragment can be found in the poet’s letter to his wife, written shortly after the start of the Crimean War.
Correct quote attribution
- V. Kozhinov. Tyutchev
- I. Aksakov. Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev: biographical sketch
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