Pushkin’s Non-Handmade Monument as a Poetic Temple of Freedom in the Context of the Ideology of Russian Imperial Statehood and Religious Philosophy of Freemasonry

Abstract

The article analyses the concept of “Alexandria column” in Pushkin’s Monu­ment as a symbol of Russian imperial statehood and ideology edifice (“Alexan­dria” of Alexander I – by analogy with the pseudo-historical “Alexandria” of Alexander the Great) in opposition to the “non-handmade monument” cre­ated by Pushkin, which in light of religious philosophy of Russian Masonry and in correlation with Mk. 14:58 and 2Cor. 5:1 could be considered as a poetic temple of Freedom – “Alexandria” of Alexander Pushkin. In parallel to this, the article interprets the ideological and philosophical peculiarities of Pushkin’s in­terpretation of Peter the Great’s mission as the founder of the Russian Empire and St. Petersburg as the Fourth Rome, reflected in “The Bronze Horseman”. Particular attention is paid to the identification of certain aspects of the se­mantic field of Pushkin’s concept of “non-handmade” (hapax legomenon of the poet’s language) in comparison with its meanings in the sources, from which the term can be borrowed. The author also analyses Pushkin’s concept of freedom in correlation with the corresponding Russian Masonic views on free­dom and the spiritual temple of freedom – world/universal and inner/individual. The author also considers the peculiarities of evolution of Pushkin’s idea of the inspiration of God in his works, first of all, in the comparison of his poems “The Prophet” and “The Monument”. The author concludes that Pushkin’s no­tion of true freedom, in correlation with his belief in the divine inspiration, is close to the corresponding concept of Joseph de Maistre, whose works were well known to the poet.