Patriotic Romanticism in the Russia of Nicholas I: the Raich Society and the “Northern Lyre”

The article is devoted to the social and literary life in Russia during the reign of Nicolas I and to the work of S.E. Raich, Russian poet, one of the representatives of the Moscow school of Romanticism, and the creator of the “Northern Lyre” almanac. The purpose of the study is to show in retrospect the literary path of Raich, his formation and influence as an educator, author and translator of Italian literature. The creative life of Raich and his circles was a movement from aesthetic romantic epicureanism and imitation of poetic Roman and Italian forms to restrained ascetic Christian Romanticism, in which the noble form voluntarily bows its head to the moral force of the content.