Unknown notes of VA. Zhukovsky in the book Er-innerung an die Lehren von der Sunde, von der Erlosung und von dem Schicksal desMenschen nach dem Tode (1840) by Julius Martin

In the article unknown notes of V.A. Zhukovsky about the Russian translation of the book Erinnerung an die Lehren von der Sunde, von der Erlosung und von dem Schicksal des Menschen nach dem Tod (1840) by German theologian Julius Martin are considered. The topic of man sinfulness as the most important component in the system of late religious-romantic consciousness of V.A. Zhukovsky is comprehended; and an attempt is made to determine the place of the named composition in the space of the Russian classical author's religious quests. The autographs and marginalia are attributed, dated and commented on basing upon the authentic German environment and the context of the last decade of Zhukovsky's creative life. Books by V.A. Zhukovsky, the Russian Romanticism founder, are still an interesting material keeping on their pages undiscovered aspects of the writer's world view and late creativity. The role of J. Martin's Erinnerung an die Lehren von der Sunde, von der Erlosung und von dem Schicksal des Menschen nach dem Tode in the religious quests of V.A. Zhukovsky is important since, apparently, it is with this book that the journey of the first romanticist into the German ecclesiastical-protreptic literature began. Within this German-language publication there are Zhukovsky's Russian-language pencil notes on separate pages. They can be conditionally divided into six separate theses united by the common theme of the fall. It seems that the conception of sin as a component of V.A. Zhukovsky's late religious-romantic consciousness developed and gained clear forms simultaneously with reading and commenting Erinnerung an die Lehren.von der Sunde, since the poet had a developed approach when dealing with the later works of H. Muller, T. Kliefoth, J. Veit, who were also focused on this motive, and knew exactly what he was interested in. It would be wrong to say that the motive of sin appeared in the later years of V.A. Zhukovsky's creative life. This theme was perfected on different stages of his creative life beginning with the interest of the young poet to J. Milton's Paradise Lost in 1805. In 18081814 the heroes who sinned and received a fair punishment become the center of the following ballads: "Adelstan", "Warwick", "Stormbreaker". In the 1830s the motive of mercy and compassion for sinners sounds clearly (the ballads "Repentance", "Fratricide", "Lenore" and others). In the 1840s Zhukovsky has a very special religious-philosophical approach to the theme of sin developing it in prose and articles from the Thoughts and Observations cycle which is original to Christian philosophy. Undoubtedly, such intensive attention to this notion in the later years may also be explained by personal motives as it occurs in the correspondence with the relatives. The importance of V.A. Zhukovsky's documents in the 1840s-1850s can be hardly overestimated: the material allows to open more new aspects of the way the poet perceived the German world. Later notes, unstudied plans and notebooks raise the question about a complex comprehension of other documents of this period.

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