America & Russia are brother countries emerging from the destruction of Europe. There is no going back to Europe. It is over. Russia & America must be studied as alternate takes on post-european democracy.
Their simultaneous literary golden ages can be seen as a coherent totality. Art suffered under their dominions, in America by the hands of the market, & in Russia by state censorship.
Melville & Poe enjoyed mostly unmolested freedom of speech, but suffered impoverishment, & economic woe- while Pushkin & Lermontov enjoyed lavish wealth, but suffered poltical exile, & a public censorious enough to claim their lives in duels.
When it comes to 20th century art in both countries, the turn to politico-economic utility becomes obvious when you realize that "Abstract Expressionism" vs "Socialist Realism" was a proxy war between CIA & KGB funding & promotion.
In many senses, Russian & American (& Anglosphere) histories are intertwined as antagonists to the hegemony of a unified continental europe. There is a central fixation on Hitler, the continental euro antagonist. It was only after WWII, when it became a scuffle *over* continental europe, that they obtained opposing interests.
Alexander II & Abraham Lincoln provide a contrasting parallelism, as both were assassinated after liberating the serfs, but by differing parties (populist socialists in russia, confederate cavaliers in america). Also, they had an geopolitical alliance.
You have to think in a sort of upside down logic when it comes to American & Russian history & their parallel developments from the 18th to the 21st century. Both are massive unwieldy creatures, whose sheer size dwarfs the multifarious principalities & nationalities of Europe.
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