«Russian Theme» in William Blake’s Works

Abstract

The article is devoted to the factors and evidences of William Blake’s interest in Russia, Russian places and politicians. An analysis of Blake’s works, especially his prophetic poems, confirm that Russia, Russian territories, and in particular the Russian Empress Catherine II, were interesting to Blake and were manifested in many ways in his works. Blake counts Russia and its territories in his great prophecies Milton and Jerusalem. The mention of Poland and Siberia, Tartaria, and Russia separately indicates that the spiritual geography of Blake’s works did not exactly correspond to the current administrative division of the world. There is a reason to believe that the image of the Russian Empress Catherine II was for Blake the embodiment of the sinister Female Will and became a model for the harlot of Babylon, captured by him in a portrait of 1809, as well as one of the prototypes of the powerful demiurge-spinner Enitharmon in prophetic poems. In politics, the end of the XVIII century, there was no ruler who would more embody the concept of female power than Catherine II.