Ivan Susanin - Legacy

Legacy

Stories and images of Ivan Susanin as an iconic Russian patriot inspired many artists, composers, and writers, especially in the Russian Empire. Kondraty Ryleyev glorified Susanin's exploits in a poem. Mikhail Glinka wrote one of the first Russian operas of international renown, "Ivan Susanin" (aka "A Life for the Tsar"). The opera saw several name changes. The original title of the opera was to be "Ivan Susanin", after the hero, but when Nicholas I attended a rehearsal, Glinka changed the title to "A Life for the Tsar" as an ingratiating gesture. This title was retained in the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution, when it reverted back to "Ivan Susanin". The opera's openly monarchist libretto was edited to comply with Soviet ideology. The Tsar's anthem melody on Tchaikovsky's 1812 finale was in turn replaced by the chorus "Be glorified, be glorified, holy Rus'!", Славься, славься, святая Русь! from Glinka's Opera.

In 1838, Nicholas I ordered a monument built to Susanin in Kostroma, but this was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, who were offended by the tsar's statue which the monument incorporated. Later they erected another monument to the hero.

Nikolay Kostomarov, a historian opposed to Nicholas's regime, was the first to raise the issue of the legend's doubtful historicity. He was nonplussed by the fact that it was in the Ipatiev Monastery and not in the village of Domnino that Mikhail Romanov was residing in 1612. His arguments were dismissed by the more orthodox scholars, most notably Mikhail Pogodin and Sergey Solovyov.

The name "Susanin" has become an ironic cliché in the Russian language for a person who leads somewhere claiming to know the way, but who eventually proves not to.