Two centuries of the Russian classics Two centuries of the Russian classics 2686-7494 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-2-118-141 Research Article Articles Mozart and Salieri and Boris Godunov: Hidden Parallels Khondzinsky Pavel V. red@rusklassika.ru 25 06 2025 7 2 118 141 A. S. Pushkin Mozart and Salieri Boris Godunov holy fool Nikolka Requiem Fenelon Kant Boldin autumn Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 Pushkin’s short tragedy Mozart and Salieri has been in the field of view of researchers for almost 200 years. The result of understanding the tragedy during the time that passed from the first publications about it to the end of the 20th century was the collection published in 1997 by V. Nepomnyashchy: Mozart and Salieri, Pushkin’s Tragedy. Movement in Time. Although its significance is great even today, the question of the possibility or impossibility of an adequate stage embodiment of the tragedy has still not been unambiguously resolved, and several associative connections of the tragedy with other Pushkin works that are not obvious have not been exhausted. The article attempts to look at the tragedy through the hypothesis of internal connections between Boris Godunov and Mozart and Salieri, which was conceived, as we know, in Mikhailovskoye in 1826. Based on this hypothesis, the analysis of Pushkin’s text concludes that the musical subtext of the tragedy is more important than the scenic one, and the image of the “holy fool” Mozart reflects the ideas of righteousness in the spirit of the French mystical tradition of the 17th century, which were characteristic of Pushkin’s time. 1. Kats, B. A. Odinnadtsat’ voprosov k Pushkinu: malen’kie gipotezy s epigrafom na meste poslesloviia [Eleven Questions to Pushkin: Small Hypotheses with an Epigraph in Place of the Afterword]. St. Petersburg, European University at St. Petersburg Publ., 2008. 160 p. (In Russ.) 2. Letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva A. S. Pushkina: v 4 t. [Chronicle of A. S. Pushkin’s Life and Work: in 4 vols.], vol. 2. Moscow, Slovo Publ., 1999. 544 p. (In Russ.) 3. Livanova, T. N. Motsart i russkaia muzykal’naia kul’tura [Motsart and Russian Musical Culture]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1956. 111 p. (In Russ.) 4. Modzalevskii, B. L. Biblioteka A. S. Pushkina (Bibliograficheskoe opisanie) [Library of A. S. Pushkin (Bibliographic Description)]. St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences Publ., 1910. 442 p. (In Russ.) 5. “Motsart i Sal’eri”, tragediia Pushkina. Dvizhenie vo vremeni: Antologiia traktovok i kontseptsii ot Belinskogo do nashikh dnei [“Mozart and Salieri,” a Tragedy by Pushkin. Movement in Time: An Anthology of Interpretations and Concepts from Belinsky to the Present Day], comp. by V. S. Nepomnyashchii. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 1997. 936 p. (In Russ.) 6. Nepomniashchii, V. V. “Iz zametok sostavitelia pri podgotovke etoi knigi” [“From the Compiler’s Notes During the Preparation of This Book”]. “Motsart i Sal’eri”, tragediia Pushkina. Dvizhenie vo vremeni: Antologiia traktovok i kontseptsii ot Belinskogo do nashikh dnei [“Mozart and Salieri,” a Tragedy by Pushkin. Movement in Time: An Anthology of Interpretations and Concepts from Belinsky to the Present Day], comp. by V. S. Nepomnyashchii. Moscow, Nasledie Publ., 1997, pp. 843–912. (In Russ.) 7. Pustovit, A. V. Pushkin i zapadnoevropeiskaia filosofskaia traditsiia [Pushkin and the Western European Philosophical Tradition]. Kyiv, Personal Publ., 2015. 408 p. (In Russ.) 8. Solov’ev, V. S. “Sud’ba Pushkina” [“The Fate of Pushkin”]. Solov’ev, V. S. Sobranie sochinenii: v 10 t. [Collected Works: in 10 vols.], vol. 9. St. Petersburg, Education Publ., 1913, pp. 33–60. (In Russ.) 9. Khondzinskii, P. V. Sviatitel’ Filaret Moskovskii: bogoslovskii sintez epokhi [Saint Philaret of Moscow: Theological Synthesis of the Era]. Moscow, Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities Publ., 2010. 304 p. (In Russ.)