ABSTRACT
The Russian term narod encompasses an entire constellation of meanings, including ethnicity, nationality and the common people. By the early twentieth century, Wagnerism had seized the imaginations of many imperial Russian musicians, writers and audience members. The Wagnerian symbols which found the greatest resonance within Russian society tied the composer to contemporary cultural and political concerns rather than individual artists' personal crises. Rising nationalist sentiment throughout Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries stimulated intense internal debates within Russian educated society about the role that Russian nationalism might play within the multi-ethnic empire. Durlin's interpretation of Wagner, Russian and German cultures found supporters within the Russian musical community. Within wartime Russian discourse, Wagner was interpreted both as the prophet of Russia's future mission and as the symbolic expression of German militarism. Nevertheless, not all Russian commentators were so quick to abandon what they perceived as Wagner's Russian' identity.
