Toska: A Russian Word for Sadness with No Specific Cause, Melancholia
A word from the lands that cultivated the legends of literature, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy, Chekhov.
Toska.
Toska is a deep and wordless sadness, often without any specific cause.
In classical Russian novels, we breathe a lot of Toska-like atmosphere. Nobles and soldiers are always in agony in their vast, magnificent palaces. People suffer, people die, and people commit suicide. Likewise, before and during the Russian Revolution, the workers lived in the shadow of poverty and strived to overcome their difficult lives.
Toska, the Russian Despair is a remarkable part of Russian culture. Living in a rough climate, coming from a history filled with tragedies puts these northerners in a melancholic mood of their own.
Russian-American Novelist Vladimir Nabokov, best known as the author of Lolita, explains toska:
"No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
An inner boredom that we do not find any cause for gnaws at us in the long and dark winter days. Searching for the little things that will make us happy these days is a trend in the post-modern world. Even though Lagom, Hygge, and more are not named, the culture of "trying to make yourself happy" is quite common in every country. With the effect of the pandemic, war and economic contractions, the troubles have long exceeded being specific to the Russians.
Each country has its own toska. Inspirations for picturing those shady feelings as well as coming through are welcome. Especially if they result in masterpieces like Anna Karennina.