“A CREATOR OF PEOPLE, A HERALD OF BOOKS AND TASTES…”: ON THE QUESTION OF THE ROLE OF A. I. URUSOV IN THE LITERARY LIFE OF RUSSIA IN THE 1890s

Abstract

The article explores the place and role of Prince A. I. Urusov, a prominent lawyer and public figure, in the Russian literary process of the 1890s. Drawing on the methodological approaches of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of culture, the author analyzes the phenomenon of “literary missionary work”. Urusov is viewed as a key agent and legitimator who shaped the aesthetic value of new artistic names, texts, and tastes. Based on the memoirs of his contemporaries, the paper analyzes the complex constellation of Urusov's personal traits and dispositions (habitus) that determined his cultural influence. The author highlights his class-based aristocratism, which ensured independent judgment, as well as his deep Europeanism and fluency in foreign languages. His exceptional persuasive eloquence, refined by his professional legal practice, and an organic need to share aesthetic discoveries are identified as the most crucial instruments of his missionary activity in the literary field. Special attention is paid to the substantive side of A. I. Urusov's aestheticism. The author demonstrates his typological affinity with Walter Pater's European philosophy of “New Epicureanism”, as well as his responsiveness to Charles Baudelaire's urbanistic “spirit of modernity”. The article demonstrates the Prince's significant influence on the reception of French Symbolism in Russia, the popularization of the works of Ch. Baudelaire and G. Flaubert, and the development of K. D. Balmont's poetic talent. Drawing upon a wide range of ego-documents and contemporaries' memoirs, the author proves that A. I. Urusov acted as a significant initiator of ideas that predetermined the development of Russian modernist aesthetics at the turn of the century.