“Taras Bulba” and the tragedy of Russia and Ukraine
Literature offers a better way to think about their vexed relations
HE IS DAUNTLESS in battle, defiant in adversity and loyal to his comrades. With his last words, he foresees the coming of an invincible tsar. Taras Bulba, hero of Nikolai Gogol’s novella of the same name, is an avowed Russian patriot. Yet something in the picture is askew. Taras wears trousers “wide as the Black Sea”; he carries the gunpowder for his Turkish pistol in a dangling horn. This ideal Russian is actually a Ukrainian Cossack. His story, and Gogol’s own, are a reminder of the nuances of identity in their tense region—and of lost possibilities in Russia’s relations with Ukraine.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The parable of Taras Bulba”
Culture February 5th 2022
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- “Taras Bulba” and the tragedy of Russia and Ukraine
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