Dmitriev

[Ulrich Schmid]

One chapter of my book on Russian Autobiographies deals with I.I.
Dmitriev's "Vzglyad na moyu zhizn'" from the late 1820ies. It is a
rather typical description of Dmitrievs political carreer, written in
a very dry tone.
Dmitriev does not tell a word about his private life - which
completely fits into the context of the 18th century but not into the
context of Russian Romanticism: Zhukovsky and Vyazemskij complained
about the "officiality" of Dmitrievs autobiography.
I found a possible explanation for Dmitrievs reluctance to describe
his private life: Simon Karlinsky gives in several articles the
information, that Dmitriev was homosexual.
The problem now is to find out whether Dmitriev's "official"
autobiography is in fact a camouflage of his problematic private life.
The ambivalence goes even further: Is homosexuality in the context of
the early 19th century a scandal or is it just a non-event, a kind of
don't ask-don't tell taboo?
Does anybody know any biographical facts from Dmitriev's life which
could explain his situation? How was the legal situation? How was
homosexuality perceived in society - if at all?

Ulrich Schmid
University of Basel (Switzerland)
Slavic Department