L'affaire Skobeev (mai 1722) ou De la chancellerie secrète comme source d'inspiration d'une nouvelle russe ?

摘要

The 'Skobeev Case' (May 1722): or the Secret Chancery as a Possible Source of the History of Frol Skobeev While a majority of specialists holds that the Russian novel Povesť о Frôle Skobeeve dates from the late 17 C, a few influent scholars consider it nevertheless as a typical example of 'Petrine' tale, which could have been written between 1710 and 1722. This latter opinion may find some support in additional facts provided by the details of a minor case of lese-majesty investigated by Peter the Great's Secret Chancery in 1722. A gentleman of very small fortune from the district of Borovsk, one Timofej Skobeev, living on his estate of Frolovskoe, was reported by his servant to have, in a state of intoxication, used slanderous language with respect to the Tsar in the course of a domestic quarrel, which took place shortly before Christmas 1721. Skobeev confessed to the facts and received a sentence of drubbing, while his slave servant was rewarded with emancipation for reporting the crime. The Skobeev case went no further, but there are suggestions that it may have inspired one of the Chancery clerks with the idea of the well-known novel, where the hero, also called Skobeev, was christened Frol and endowed with an estate not much better than that of the gentleman from the Borovsk district. The story is that of the successful marriage, which he manages to conclude by taking advantage both of the candour of the bride-to-be and of the greed and the drunkenness of her father's servants. Together with these similarities of names and situations, it is to be noted that the language used in the novel meets most of the standards of the so-called 'Chancery style' (prikaznoj jazyk) then in use. The article contains an unabridged publication of the inquiry conducted in the Timofei Skobeev case and a study of the parallels to be drawn between these facts and the Povesť o Frôle Skobeeve.