Spanish guerilla of 1808-1814 according to the memoirs of Faddei Bulgarin
Galeev Serafim
The War for Independence of Spain in 1808–1814 found a wide response in Russian society, which sympathetically followed the desperate resistance of the Iberian peoples and enthusiastically perceived the loud defeats of the Napoleonic army. Interest in the events of the war on the other side of Europe gave rise to a surge of numerous publications in the Russian press in the first half of the 19th century, among which were the memoirs of the then-novice journalist of Polish origin Faddei Bulgarin. They are unique in that the author was one of the few representatives of Russian society who was not only a direct eyewitness, but also a participant in the events of the Pyrenean War as military of Napoleon's army. “Memories of Spain” became a breakthrough work for the young writer: it was with this work that he began the conquest of the Russian literary Olympus. Excerpts of the work have been published in periodicals since 1821, and it was published in its entirety in 1823. The moment was chosen well – the attitude towards the Poles who served in the Napoleonic army was condescending at the end of the reign of Alexander I, the public reflection on the events of the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Foreign campaign of 1813 was active, interest in the personality and affairs of the recently deceased Napoleon was great. The work answered several author’s tasks at once: it was written simultaneously in a legitimist and liberal spirit, the author’s participation in the struggle against Spanish independence was fairly obscured by a fictional style with almost complete absence of a description of personal experience, the narrative was diluted with various stories in the spirit of a military anecdote, the reader’s request was satisfied with romanticism impregnating the text. Ultimately, with later reprints of the text, Bulgarin will rename it “The Picture of the Spanish War in the time of Napoleon”, as if renouncing the memoir character of the work. Despite all the above, the text contains very valuable and vivid sketches about the realities of the Spanish Guerilla, which may be of considerable interest for studies of the Iberian War.
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