Published in 1836. In Sovremennik, John Tanner, a review of the book by an American who was abducted as a child by Indians and lived among them for 30 years, A. S. Pushkin described American bourgeois democracy: "For some time now, the North American States have attracted the attention of the most thinking people in Europe. It is not political events that are responsible for this: America is calmly pursuing its career, hitherto safe and flourishing, strong in the world, strengthened by its geographical position, proud of its institutions. But several deep minds have lately been engaged in investigating the manners and ordinances of the United States, and their observations have again raised questions that were supposed to have been settled long ago. Respect for this new people and for its code, the fruit of modern enlightenment, has been greatly shaken. They were astonished to see democracy in its abominable cynicism, its cruel prejudices, and its intolerable tyranny. All that is noble, unselfish, and uplifting to the human soul-suppressed by relentless selfishness and the desire for contentment (comfort); the majority, blatantly oppressing society; the slavery of Negroes in the midst of education and freedom; genealogical persecution in a people without nobility; greed and envy on the part of the electors; timidity and obsequiousness on the part of managers; talent, out of which there is no nobility. respect for equality forced into voluntary ostracism; a rich man who puts on a ragged coat so as not to offend the haughty poverty he secretly despises in the street: This is the picture of the American States that has recently been put before us. " 1The literature dealing with this assessment of the United States in John Tanner and the sources Pushkin relies on is sparse. All of it is named in the review of Academician M. P. Alekseev, which summed up the consideration of the issue here and abroad, "To Pushkin's article" John Tanner " 2 . Of the more recent works, we w ... Read more