Roman and Olga

A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky was a contemporary of A.S. Pushkin. He was raised at the Gorny Corps and, with the rank of штабс-капітан, transferred to the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment. He was exiled to Yakutsk for participating in the uprising of the Decembrists. Then he was transferred to the Caucasus. For bravery in battles he received the Order of St. George and the rank of non-commissioned officer, and later was promoted to прапорщик. He died heroically in a skirmish with the mountain people; his body was not found. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky was a bright adherent of the romantic style in literature. His captivating tales and stories of times of knights and princesses are filled with passions and feelings at the limit of human possibilities—his works draw you into a world of love, duels, and adventures.

Best of all, Decembrist romanticism is embodied in Bestuzhev’s historical novella “Romance and Olga” (1823). The idealization of the ancient Novgorod veche deciding state affairs, the hero-citizen ready to sacrifice personal happiness and even his life for the freedom of the homeland, the civic pathos of the hero’s speeches—everything about this was characteristic of the romanticism of the noble revolutionaries.