German Empire as an Author’s Project

Опыт интерпретации в русской перспективе

Abstract

The article represents the experience of a generalized interpretation of the political and literary personality of Otto von Bismarck as one of the key figures of German and European culture of the 19th century. The purpose of the article is to remind the reader that the significance of Bismarck goes far beyond the history of international and diplomatic relations and should be studied inextricably with the history of ideas in particular on the background of German romanticism and Russian Slavophilism. The important source for such a statement of the question is Bismarck’s book “Memoirs and Thoughts”, comparable to the best examples of documentary prose, which, without losing their specificity, do not turn into either novels or story and are at the same time outstanding monuments of verbal art.