Confessional confrontation and ethnostereotypes in Vsevolod Solovyov’s historical novel “The Princess’s Groom”

This article analyzes the religious confrontation and mutual ethnostereotypes of the Russians and the Danes in Vsevolod Solovyov’s historical novel “The Princess’s Groom” (1893). The novel is based on real events of the 17^th-century Russian history – the matchmaking of Prince Valdemar of Denmark to the Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov’s daughter Irina. The marriage failed to take place because Valdemar refused to accept the Orthodox faith. The confessional debates were intensive and uncompromising and ended up with Valdemar’s eighteen month’s confinement in Moscow. The article investigates the mutual perception of the Danes and the Russians, which was influenced by ethnostereotypes and confessional contradictions. We analyze the process of negotiations of the parties and their minor concessions to each other, based on historical research which sheds light on the events of that distant epoch. We have found that Vsevolod Solovyov added some fictional elements to the factual historical basis – the episode of Valdemar and Irina’s secret date, which was organized by her maid Masha (who, according to the author’s idea, was to become Valdemar’s beloved one and leave for Denmark with him). Vsevolod Solovyov was very well acquainted with the circumstances of the events depicted (first of all owing to his father – the famous historian Sergey Solovyov), however, he introduced psychological motivation of the characters’ behavior and described their inner feelings. The article concludes that in the 17^th century, religion played a major role in the conscience of a person (both Russian and West European) since the interconfessional faith collision could not be solved by the parties. By depicting the religious conflict, the author, at the same time, shows the stereotypes of mutual perception of the Russians and the Danes.

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