THE ROLE OF THE PATRIOTIC WAR OF 1812 IN MOULDING THE IMPERIAL MOODS AMONG THE RUSSIAN SOCIETY OF THE FIRST THIRD OF THE XIX CENTURY: TO THE QUESTION OF LERMONTOVS PATRIOTISM

Abstract

The article deals with the public and poetic reception of the French invasion of
Russia in 1812. The author states that the heroic events of 1812 stimulated the interest to
Pan-Slavist ideas in the Russian society. The moral power the Russian defenders showed in
the fi ght with Napoleon and the might, connected with the orthodox acceptance of the world,
embodied in Lermontovs poem Borodino, found their expression in the works which did
not have direct indications to the French invasion of Russia in 1812. The object of studying
is both Lermontovs poetic works and his contemporaries letters. The offi cial documents of
that time are also the object of studying.