Authors of the 19th century and their works. General characteristics of Russian literature of the 19th century
The 19th century is called the “Golden Age” of Russian poetry and the century of Russian literature on a global scale. We should not forget that the literary leap that took place in the 19th century was prepared by the entire course of the literary process of the 17th and 18th centuries. The 19th century is the time of formation of the Russian literary language, which took shape largely thanks to A.S. Pushkin. At the beginning of the 19th century, such a movement as classicism began to gradually fade away.
Classicism- a literary movement of the 17th – early 19th centuries, based on the imitation of ancient images.
The main features of Russian classicism: appeal to the images and forms of ancient art; heroes are clearly divided into positive and negative; the plot is based, as a rule, on a love triangle: heroine - hero-lover, second lover; At the end of the classical comedy, vice is always punished, and good triumphs; the principle of three unities is observed: time (the action lasts no more than a day), place, action.
For example, we can cite Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” In this comedy, Fonvizin tries to implement the main idea classicism– to re-educate the world with rational words. Positive heroes talk a lot about morality, life at court, and the duty of a nobleman. Negative characters become illustrations of inappropriate behavior. Behind the clash of personal interests, the social positions of the heroes are visible.
The 19th century began with a flourishing sentimentalism and formation romanticism. These literary trends found expression primarily in poetry.
● Sentimentalism− In the second half of the 18th century. In European literature, a movement emerged called sentimentalism (from the French word sentimentalism, which means sensitivity). The name itself gives a clear idea of the essence and nature of the new phenomenon. The main feature, the leading quality of the human personality was proclaimed not reason, as was the case in classicism and the Enlightenment, but feeling, not the mind, but the heart...
● Romanticism− direction in European and American literature of the late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. The epithet "romantic" in the 17th century served to characterize adventurous and heroic stories and works written in Romance languages (as opposed to those written in classical languages)
The poetic works of poets E.A. come to the fore. Baratynsky, K.N. Batyushkova, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Feta, D.V. Davydova, N.M. Yazykova. The creativity of F.I. Tyutchev's "Golden Age" of Russian poetry was completed. However, the central figure of this time was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
A.S. Pushkin began his ascent to the literary Olympus with the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” in 1920. And his novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” was called an encyclopedia of Russian life. Romantic poems by A.S. Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman” (1833), “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”, and “The Gypsies” ushered in the era of Russian romanticism.
Many poets and writers considered A.S. Pushkin their teacher and continued the traditions of creating literary works laid down by him. One of these poets was M.Yu. Lermontov. His romantic poem “Mtsyri”, the poetic story “Demon”, and many romantic poems are known.
Along with poetry, prose began to develop. Prose writers at the beginning of the century were influenced by the English historical novels of W. Scott, the translations of which were extremely popular. The development of Russian prose of the 19th century began with the prose works of A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol. Pushkin, under the influence of English historical novels, creates the story “The Captain's Daughter”, where the action takes place against the backdrop of grandiose historical events: during the Pugachev rebellion. A.S. A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol outlined the main artistic types that would be developed by writers throughout the 19th century. This is the artistic type of “superfluous man”, an example of which is Eugene Onegin in the novel by A.S. Pushkin, and the so-called “little man” type, which is shown by N.V. Gogol in his story “The Overcoat”, as well as A.S. Pushkin in the story “The Station Agent”.
Literature inherited its journalistic and satirical character from the 18th century. In the prose poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" the writer in a sharp satirical manner shows a swindler who buys up dead souls, various types of landowners who are the embodiment of various human vices (the influence of classicism is felt). The comedy “The Inspector General” is based on the same plan. Literature continues to satirically depict Russian reality. The tendency to depict the vices and shortcomings of Russian society is a characteristic feature of all Russian classical literature. It can be traced in the works of almost all writers of the 19th century. At the same time, many writers implement the satirical tendency in a grotesque form. Examples of grotesque satire are the works of N.V. Gogol “The Nose”, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Gentlemen Golovlevs”, “The History of a City”. Since the middle of the 19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has been taking place, which was created against the backdrop of the tense socio-political situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I.
● Realism- In any work of fine literature, we distinguish two necessary elements: objective - the reproduction of phenomena given in addition to the artist, and subjective - something put into the work by the artist on his own. Focusing on a comparative assessment of these two elements, theory in different eras - in connection not only with the course of development of art, but also with other various circumstances - attaches greater importance to one or the other of them.
A crisis is brewing in the serf system, and there are strong contradictions between the authorities and the common people. There is an urgent need to create realistic literature that is acutely responsive to the socio-political situation in the country. Literary critic V.G. Belinsky denotes a new realistic direction in literature. His position is developed by N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. A dispute arises between Westerners and Slavophiles about the paths of historical development of Russia. Writers turn to socio-political problems of Russian reality. The genre of the realistic novel is developing. His works are created by I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, I.A. Goncharov. Socio-political and philosophical issues predominate. Literature is distinguished by a special psychologism.
The development of poetry subsides somewhat. It is worth noting the poetic works of Nekrasov, who was the first to introduce social issues into poetry. His poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” is known, as well as many poems that reflect on the difficult and hopeless life of the people. The literary process of the late 19th century revealed the names of N.S. Leskov, A.N. Ostrovsky A.P. Chekhov. The latter proved himself to be a master of the small literary genre - the story, as well as an excellent playwright. Competitor A.P. Chekhov was Maxim Gorky.
The end of the 19th century was marked by the emergence of pre-revolutionary sentiments. The realistic tradition began to fade away. It was replaced by the so-called decadent literature, the distinctive features of which were mysticism, religiosity, as well as a premonition of changes in the socio-political life of the country. Subsequently, decadence developed into symbolism. This opens a new page in the history of Russian literature.
35) Creativity A.S. Pushkin.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is the greatest Russian poet, rightfully considered as the creator of the modern Russian literary language, and his works as the standard of the language.
Even during his lifetime, the poet was called a genius, including in print; from the second half of the 1820s, he began to be considered “the first Russian poet” (not only among his contemporaries, but also among Russian poets of all times), and a real cult.
Childhood
In his childhood, Pushkin was greatly influenced by his uncle, Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who knew several languages, was familiar with poets, and was himself no stranger to literary pursuits. Little 851513 Alexander was raised by French tutors, he learned to read early and already in childhood began to write poetry in French.
Summer months 1805-1810 the future poet usually spent time with his maternal grandmother, Maria Alekseevna Gannibal, in the village of Zakharovo near Moscow, near Zvenigorod. Early childhood impressions were reflected in Pushkin’s first works: the poems “The Monk”, 1813; "Bova", 1814; and in the Lyceum poems “Message to Yudin”, 1815, “Dream”, 1816.
At the age of 12, having received the rudiments of home education, Alexander was taken to study at a new educational institution that had just opened on October 19, 1811 - the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum near St. Petersburg, the place where the summer residence of the Russian tsars was located. The program of classes at the Lyceum was extensive, but not so deeply thought out. The students, however, were destined for a high government career and had the rights of graduates of a higher educational institution
The small number of students (30 people), the youth of a number of professors, the humane nature of their pedagogical ideas, oriented, at least among the best part of them, towards attention and respect for the personality of students, the absence of corporal punishment, a spirit of honor and camaraderie - all this created special atmosphere. Pushkin retained the Lyceum friendship and the cult of the Lyceum throughout his life. Lyceum students published handwritten journals and paid a lot of attention to their own literary creativity. Here the young poet experienced the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, and also his poetic gift was discovered for the first time and was highly appreciated.
In July 1814, Pushkin made his first appearance in print, in the journal Vestnik Evropy, published in Moscow. In the thirteenth issue the poem “To a Poet Friend” was published, signed under the pseudonym Alexander N.k.sh.p.
At the beginning of 1815, Pushkin reads his patriotic poem “Memoirs in Tsarskoe Selo” in the presence of Gabriel Derzhavin.
While still at the Lyceum, Pushkin was accepted into the Arzamas literary society, which opposed routine and archaism in literary matters. The atmosphere of freethinking and revolutionary ideas largely determined the poet’s civic position.
Pushkin's early poetry conveyed a sense of the transience of life, which dictated the thirst for pleasure.
In 1816, the nature of Pushkin's lyrics underwent significant changes. Elegy becomes his main genre.
Youth
Pushkin was released from the Lyceum in June 1817 with the rank of collegiate secretary and assigned to the College of Foreign Affairs. However, the bureaucratic service is of little interest to the poet, and he plunges into the turbulent life of St. Petersburg: he becomes a regular visitor to the theater, takes part in meetings of the Arzamas literary society, and in 1819 becomes a member of the Green Lamp literary and theatrical community. Without taking part in the activities of the first secret organizations, Pushkin nevertheless had friendly ties with many img_127active members of Decembrist societies, wrote sharp political epigrams and composed poems “To Chaadaev” (“To Chaadaev” (“Love, hope, quiet glory…”, 1818) imbued with the ideals of freedom) , “Liberty” (1818), “N. Ya. Pluskova" (1818), "Village" (1819). During these years, he was busy working on the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” which began at the Lyceum and corresponded to the program guidelines of the literary society “Arzamas” on the need to create a national heroic poem. The poem was completed in May 1820 and upon publication provoked fierce responses from critics outraged by the decline of the high canon.
In the South (1820-1824)
In the spring of 1820, Pushkin was summoned to the military governor-general of St. Petersburg, Count M.A. Miloradovich, to explain the content of his poems, which were incompatible with the status of a government official. He was transferred from the capital to the south to the Chisinau office of I. N. Inzov.
On the way to his new duty station, Alexander Sergeevich falls ill with pneumonia after swimming in the Dnieper. To improve his health, the Raevskys took the sick poet with them to the Caucasus and Crimea at the end of May 1820. Only in September does he arrive in Chisinau. The new boss treated Pushkin’s service leniently, allowing him to be away for a long time and visit friends in Kamenka (winter 1820-1821), go to Kyiv, travel with I.P. Liprandi in Moldova and visiting Odessa (end of 1821). In Chisinau, Pushkin joined the Ovid Masonic lodge, which he himself wrote about in his diary.
In the meantime, in July 1823, Pushkin sought a transfer from service to Odessa in the office of Count Vorontsov. It was at this time that he recognized himself as a professional writer, which was predetermined by the rapid readership success of his works. An affair with the boss's wife and inability to perform public service leads to the poet submitting his resignation. As a result, in July 1824, he was removed from service and sent to the Pskov estate of Mikhailovskoye under the supervision of his parents.
Mikhailovskoe
While in the village, Pushkin often visits his nanny Arina Rodionovna, who tells him fairy tales. He wrote to his brother Lev: “I write notes before lunch, have lunch late... In the evening I listen to fairy tales.” The first Mikhailovsky autumn was fruitful for the poet. Pushkin completes the poems he began in Odessa, “A Conversation between a Bookseller and a Poet,” where he formulates his professional credo, “To the Sea,” a lyrical reflection on the fate of a man in the era of Napoleon and Byron, on the cruel power of historical circumstances over an individual, the poem “Gypsies” (1827), continues to write a novel in verse. In the fall of 1824, he resumed work on autobiographical notes, abandoned at the very beginning in the Kishinev era, and pondered the plot of the folk drama “Boris Godunov” (finished on November 7, 1825 (separate publication in 1831)), wrote a comic poem “Count Nulin”.
In 1825, Pushkin met Anna Kern in the neighboring Trigorsky estate, to whom he dedicated the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment...”. At the end of 1825 - beginning of 1826, he completed the fifth and sixth chapters of the novel "Eugene Onegin", which at that time seemed to him as the end of the first part of the work. In the last days of Mikhailovsky exile, the poet writes the poem “Prophet”.
On the night of September 3-4, 1826, a messenger from the Pskov governor B.A. arrived in Mikhailovskoye. Aderkasa: Pushkin, accompanied by a courier, must appear in Moscow, where the new emperor, Nicholas I, was awaiting his coronation.
On September 8, immediately after his arrival, Pushkin was taken to the Tsar for a personal audience. Upon his return from exile, the poet was guaranteed the highest personal patronage and exemption from ordinary censorship.
It was during these years that interest in the personality of Peter I, the transforming tsar, arose in Pushkin’s work. He becomes the hero of a novel about the poet’s great-grandfather, Abram Hannibal, and a new poem “Poltava”.
Without starting his own home, Pushkin stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg for a short time, rushes between them, sometimes stopping at Mikhailovskoye, rushing either to the theater of military operations with the beginning of the Turkish campaign of 1828, or to the Chinese embassy; left without permission for the Caucasus in 1829.
By this time, a new turn had emerged in the poet’s work. A sober historical and social analysis of reality is combined with an awareness of the complexity of the surrounding world that often eludes rational explanation, which fills his work with a sense of anxious foreboding, leads to a widespread invasion of fantasy, gives rise to sad, sometimes painful memories and intense interest in death.
In 1827, an investigation began into the poem “Andrei Chenier” (written back in Mikhailovsky in 1825), which was seen as a response to the events of December 14, 1825, and in 1828 the Kishinev poem “Gavriiliada” became known to the government. These cases were stopped by the highest order after Pushkin’s explanations, but secret police surveillance was established over the poet.
Pushkin feels the need for everyday changes. In 1830, his repeated wooing to Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, an 18-year-old Moscow beauty, was accepted, and in the fall he went to the Nizhny Novgorod estate of his father Boldino to take possession of the nearby village of Kistenevo, donated by his father for the wedding. Cholera quarantines detained the poet for three months, and this time was destined to become the famous Boldin autumn, the highest point of Pushkin’s creativity, when a whole library of works poured out from under his pen: “The Stories of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” (“Belkin’s Stories”, “The Experience of Dramatic studies”, “Little tragedies”), the last chapters of “Eugene Onegin”, “House in Kolomna”, “The History of the Village of Goryukhin”, “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda”, several drafts of critical articles and about 30 poems.
“Belkin’s Tales” was the first completed work of Pushkin’s prose that has come down to us, the creation of which he undertook several times. In 1821, he formulated the basic law of his prose narrative: “Accuracy and brevity are the first advantages of prose. It requires thoughts and thoughts - without them brilliant expressions serve no purpose.” These stories are also a kind of memoirs of an ordinary person who, not finding anything significant in his life, fills his notes with retellings of stories he heard that struck his imagination with their unusualness.
February 18 (March 2), 1831 Pushkin marries Natalya Goncharova in the Moscow Church of the Great Ascension at the Nikitsky Gate.
In the spring of the same year, he moved with his wife to St. Petersburg, renting a dacha in Tsarskoe Selo for the summer. Here Pushkin writes “Onegin’s Letter,” thereby finally completing work on the novel in verse, which became his “faithful companion” for eight years of his life.
The new perception of reality that emerged in his work at the end of the 1820s required in-depth studies of history: the origins of the fundamental issues of our time should be found in it. In 1831, he received permission to work in the archives and enlisted again as a “historiographer,” receiving the highest assignment to write “The History of Peter.” The cholera riots, terrible in their cruelty, and the Polish events that brought Russia to the brink of war with Europe, appear to the poet as a threat to Russian statehood. Strong power in these conditions seems to him the key to the salvation of Russia - this idea inspired his poems “Before the Holy Tomb...”, “Slanderers of Russia”, “Borodin Anniversary”: the last two, together with the poem by V. A. Zhukovsky, were published in a special brochure “To take Warsaw” and caused accusations of political renegade, causing a decline in Pushkin’s popularity in the West and, to some extent, in Russia. At the same time, F.V. Bulgarin, associated with the III department, accused the poet of adherence to liberal ideas.
From the beginning of the 1830s, prose in Pushkin’s work began to prevail over poetic genres. "Belkin's Tales" were not successful. Pushkin is planning a broad epic canvas, a novel from the era of Pugachevism with a hero-nobleman who went over to the side of the rebels. This idea was abandoned for a while due to insufficient knowledge of that era, and work began on the novel “Dubrovsky” (1832-33), its hero, avenging his father, from whom the family estate was unjustly taken away, becomes a robber. Although the plot basis of the work was drawn by Pushkin from modern life, as the work progressed the novel increasingly acquired the features of a traditional adventurous narrative with a collision that was generally atypical for Russian reality. Perhaps, also foreseeing insurmountable censorship difficulties with the publication of the novel, Pushkin left work on it, although the novel was close to completion. The idea of a work about the Pugachev rebellion again attracts him, and true to historical accuracy, he interrupts for a while his studies of the Petrine era, studies printed sources about Pugachev, seeks to familiarize himself with documents on the suppression of the peasant uprising (the “Pugachev Case” itself, strictly classified, turns out to be inaccessible ), and in 1833 he made a trip to the Volga and the Urals to see with his own eyes the places of terrible events and hear living legends about the Pugachev era. Pushkin travels through Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Simbirsk to Orenburg, and from there to Uralsk, along the ancient Yaik River, renamed the Ural after the peasant uprising.
On January 7, 1833, Pushkin was elected a member of the Russian Academy at the same time as P. A. Katenin, M. N. Zagoskin, D. I. Yazykov and A. I. Malov.
In the autumn of 1833 he returned to Boldino. Now Pushkin’s Boldino Autumn is half as long as it was three years ago, but in significance it is commensurate with the Boldino Autumn of 1830. In a month and a half, Pushkin completes work on “The History of Pugachev” and “Songs of the Western Slavs”, begins work on the story “The Queen of Spades”, creates the poems “Angelo” and “The Bronze Horseman”, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” and “The Tale of the Dead the princess and about the seven heroes", a poem in octaves "Autumn".
Petersburg
In November 1833, Pushkin returned to St. Petersburg, feeling the need to radically change his life and, first of all, get out from under the tutelage of the court.
On the eve of 1834, Nicholas I promoted his historiographer to the junior court rank of chamber cadet. The only way out of the ambiguous situation in which Pushkin found himself was to achieve immediate resignation. But the family grew (the Pushkins had four children: Maria, Alexander, Grigory and Natalya), social life required large expenses, Pushkin’s last books were published more than a year ago and did not bring much income, historical studies consumed more and more time, the historiographer’s salary was insignificant , and only the tsar could authorize the publication of new works by Pushkin, which could strengthen his financial position. At the same time, the poem “The Bronze Horseman” was banned.
In order to somehow get out of urgent debts, Pushkin at the beginning of 1834 quickly completed another, prosaic St. Petersburg story, “The Queen of Spades” and published it in the magazine “Library for Reading,” which paid Pushkin immediately and at the highest rates. It was started in Boldin and was then, apparently, intended for the almanac “Troichatka”, jointly with V.F. Odoevsky and N.V. Gogol.
In 1834, Pushkin resigned with a request to retain the right to work in the archives, necessary for the execution of “The History of Peter”. His resignation was accepted, but he was prohibited from working in the archives. Pushkin was forced to resort to the mediation of Zhukovsky to resolve the conflict. For his loyalty, he was given the previously requested cash loan against a five-year salary. This amount did not cover even half of Pushkin’s debts; with the cessation of salary payments, one had to rely only on literary income. But a professional writer in Russia was too unusual a figure. His income depended on reader demand for his works. At the end of 1834 - beginning of 1835, several final editions of Pushkin’s works were published: the full text of “Eugene Onegin” (in 1825-32 the novel was published in separate chapters), collections of poems, stories, poems - all these books were difficult to sell. Criticism was already loudly talking about the erosion of Pushkin’s talent, about the end of his era in Russian literature. Two autumns - 1834 (in Boldin) and 1835 (in Mikhailovsky) were less fruitful. The poet came to Boldino for the third time in the fall of 1834 on complicated matters of the estate and lived there for a month, writing only “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel.” In Mikhailovskoe, Pushkin continued to work on “Scenes from the Times of Knights”, “Egyptian Nights”, and created the poem “I Visited Again”.
The general public, lamenting the decline of Pushkin’s talent, did not know that his best works were not published, that in those years there was constant, intense work on extensive plans: “The History of Peter”, a novel about Pugachevism. Fundamental changes were ripe in the poet's work. Pushkin the lyricist during these years became primarily “a poet for himself.” He is now persistently experimenting with prose genres that do not completely satisfy him; they remain in plans, sketches, drafts, and are looking for new forms of literature.
"Contemporary"
Under these conditions, he finds a way out that solves many problems at once. He founded a magazine called Sovremennik. It published works by Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Turgenev, V. A. Zhukovsky, P. A. Vyazemsky.
Nevertheless, the magazine did not have reader success: the Russian public still had to get used to the new type of serious periodical devoted to topical problems, interpreted by necessity with hints. The magazine only had 600 subscribers, which made it ruinous for the publisher, since neither printing costs nor staff fees were covered. Pushkin fills more than half of the last two volumes of Sovremennik with his works, mostly anonymous.
The novel “The Captain's Daughter” was finally published in the fourth volume of Sovremennik.
The same aspiration for future generations inspired Pushkin’s final poem, going back to Horace, “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands...” (August 1836).
Duel and death of the poet
In the winter of 1837, a conflict arose between the poet and Georges Dantes, who was accepted into service in the Russian guard thanks to the patronage of the Dutch envoy Baron Louis Heeckeren, who adopted him. A quarrel, the cause of which was Pushkin’s insulted honor, led to a duel.
On January 27, the poet was mortally wounded in the thigh. The bullet broke the neck of the thigh and entered the stomach. For that time the wound was fatal. He knew the end was approaching and endured the suffering steadfastly.
Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. The notes were conveyed by two outstanding people:
V. A. Zhukovsky is a poet, at that time the teacher of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II.
N. F. Arendt - personal physician of Emperor Nicholas I, physician to Pushkin.
The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the royal ban on dueling: “... I’m waiting for the king’s word so that I can die in peace...”
Sovereign: “If God does not order us to meet again in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die as a Christian. Don’t worry about your wife and children, I take them into my arms.”
Nikolai saw in Pushkin a dangerous “leader of freethinkers” and subsequently assured that he “forcibly brought Pushkin to the death of a Christian,” which was not true: even before receiving the royal note, the poet, having learned from the doctors that his wound was mortal, sent for a priest to take communion. On January 29 (February 10) at 14:45, Pushkin died of peritonitis. Nicholas I fulfilled his promises to the poet.
Order of the Sovereign: Pay debts, clear the mortgaged estate of the father from debt, pension for the widow and daughters upon marriage, sons as pages and 1,500 rubles for the education of each upon entry into the service, publish essays to the public account in favor of the widow and children, pay a lump sum of 10 000 rubles.
Alexander Pushkin is buried in the cemetery of the Svyatogorsk Monastery in the Pskov province.
36) Creativity M.Yu. Lermontov.
Lermontov’s creative development is unique not only because he died at the very beginning of his “great career.” The first poems by Lermontov that have reached us are dated 1828 (then he was 14 years old). Most of Lermontov’s works were written in 1826-1836, but the poet Lermontov actually appeared in literature only in 1837, after he responded to the death of Pushkin with an angry poem “The Death of a Poet.” The public reaction to this poem, the expulsion of Lermontov - exile to the Caucasus, the change in the themes and style of his poetry, the publication of poems that were previously written “on the table” - all this allowed us to say that a new poet had appeared in Russia.
Lermontov's creativity is a forward movement, the essence of which is the rise to a new level and at the same time the return to what has already been discovered. At each new turn of the creative spiral, a rethinking of the figurative “drawings” created in the previous one took place. Considering the “spiral-shaped” nature of Lermontov’s creative development, three periods can be distinguished in it.
The youthful period (1828-1831) is the time of the first literary experiments.
Lermontov's parents - retired infantry captain Yuri Petrovich Lermontov and Maria Mikhailovna, nee Arsenyeva, did not have their own home in Moscow. Their place of permanent residence was the village of Tarkhany, Penza province, which belonged to the poet’s grandmother Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsenyeva. The family returned to Tarkhany in the spring of 1815, when Maria Mikhailovna recovered from a difficult birth. In 1816, the parents separated. In the winter of 1817, Maria Mikhailovna began to experience an exacerbation of her illness - “either consumption or tabes.” She died on February 24 of the same year. Lermontov practically did not remember the face of his living mother; it was replaced by a portrait, which his grandmother never parted with. But he remembered the day of her funeral, although he was not even three years old, describing it in the poem “Sashka”:
He was a child when he was in a plank coffin
His family was killed with a bang.
He remembered that there was a black priest above her
I read a big book that was incense
And so on... and what, covering the entire forehead
With a large handkerchief, the father stood in silence...
In 1828-1830 the young man studied at the Noble boarding school at Moscow University, and from 1830 to 1832 - at the moral and political department of Moscow University.
The peak of the first period of creativity is 1830-1831. - a time of intense creative activity of the poet, when about 200 poems were written. Over the same two years, Lermontov created 6 poems - “The Last Son of Liberty”, “Angel of Death”, “People and Passions” and others. Most of Lermontov's works were student-made and artistically imperfect. That is why he was in no hurry to publish them. The first publication - the poem "Spring" in the magazine "Athenaeus" - went unnoticed and had no significance for the young author. But from his first steps in literature, Lermontov did not limit himself to “studying” with his eminent predecessors. In his attitude towards any literary authorities, be it Byron, Pushkin or Ryleev, a position of attraction and repulsion was manifested. Lermontov not only assimilated, but also transformed and rethought poetic traditions.
Lermontov's creativity 1828-1831. had a pronounced autobiographical character. The lyrics reflected childhood impressions, first friendships, love interests. Autobiography was the most important creative principle of Lermontov, although this principle contradicted another - the desire of the romantic poet to include his “genuine”, “reliable” thoughts and feelings in the context of general romantic literary motifs.
Transitional period (1832-1836) - from youthful creativity to mature one.
The poet himself assessed this period as a time of shake-up, “action.” In biographical terms, the beginning of a new stage of creativity coincided with Lermontov’s departure from Moscow University, moving with his grandmother to St. Petersburg, where he entered the School of Guards Ensigns and Cavalry Junkers. His two-year stay in a closed military educational institution ended in 1835. Lermontov was released as a cornet in the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. The sharp change in life, the military career that Lermontov chose, largely determined his future fate and influenced the nature of his development.
Over four years, Lermontov wrote relatively few lyric poems: they gave way to epic genres, as well as drama. In Lermontov's poetry there are motifs of spiritual restlessness, a passionate thirst for change, movement, and new impressions. Images of a stormy sea, a thunderstorm, a rebellious sail were created in many poems of 1832. These are not only echoes of the romantic tradition of Byron - they expressed Lermontov’s impulse to action, to transform his human and creative destiny. The antithesis of rebellion and peace, freedom and bondage determine the meaning of the poems “Sail”, “I want to live!” I want sadness...", "Sailor" (1832).
Autobiographicalism in lyrics is weakened. Lermontov is looking for new ways to express the state of the lyrical hero. One of the fruitful ways found by the poet is the creation of an objective parallel image that correlates with the inner world of the lyrical hero. For example, in “Sail,” a psychological parallel underlies the image of the symbol of a lonely sail sailing on the sea of life. The subject image, saturated with psychological content, absorbs the movement of the poet’s thoughts. The image of the sail unfolds as an act of self-awareness of the “rebellious” lyrical hero: rejecting traditional life values, he chooses restlessness, storm, rebellion. The poetic principle of psychologization in the lyrics of the mature period of creativity (poems “Three Palms”, “Dispute”, “Cliff”, etc.)
In 1832-1836. Lermontov the romantic was the first to touch upon the problem of the relationship between the individual and the social environment. In the unfinished novel “Vadim” (1832-1834) and in the poem “Ishmael Bey” (1832-1833), he reflects on the connection between the fate of an individual, “private” person and the course of history. In 1835-1836 The question of depicting a person in everyday life becomes relevant. The artistic result of Lermontov's creative searches in 1832-1836. - drama “Masquerade” (1835-1836).
The period of creative maturity (1837-1841) is the time of the creation of lyrical masterpieces, the highest achievements in the genre of poetry and prose.
In February 1837, for the poem “The Death of a Poet,” which was distributed in lists, Lermontov was arrested and placed in a garrison guardhouse. After the end of the investigation in March 1837, by order of Nicholas I, he was transferred from the guard to the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment and sent to the Caucasus to a new duty station. However, the first Caucasian exile, during which Lermontov met and became close to the exiled Decembrists, was short-lived. Already in January 1838, thanks to the efforts of his grandmother and the personal intercession of A.H. Benkendorf, the poet returned to St. Petersburg to continue serving in the Life Guards Grodno Regiment.
A complex of themes, motifs and images that had arisen earlier developed in Lermontov’s work, but the romantic writer was experiencing an acute crisis. He became increasingly aware of the limitations of romantic individualism and sought to understand his connection with historical activity: in 1837-1841. The theme of the modern generation in its specific Lermontov interpretation came to the fore. In 1837-1841 the best romantic poems “Mtsyri” and “Demon” were created. The poems “Tambov Treasurer” and “Fairy Tale for Children” were written in a different key: they showed Lermontov’s movement towards realism. "Song…. about the merchant Kalashnikov" amazed contemporaries not only with its perfect mastery of the forms of folk poetry, but also with an understanding of its very spirit. The highest achievement of Lermontov’s prose, a kind of “encyclopedia of favorite themes and motifs of his work,” was the novel “A Hero of Our Time” (1838-1839). Work on the individual stories that made up the work and the formation of its general concept were intertwined with lyrical creativity and the creation of the best poems.
Several periods can be distinguished in Russian literature of the 20th century. The first two decades were called the “Silver Age”: this was an era of rapid development of literary trends, the emergence of a whole galaxy of brilliant Masters of Words. The literature of this period exposed the deep contradictions that arose in the society of that time. Writers were no longer satisfied with the classical canons; the search for new forms and new ideas began. Universal, philosophical themes about the meaning of existence, morality, and spirituality come to the fore. More and more religious themes began to appear.
Three main literary trends were clearly identified: realism, modernism and the Russian avant-garde. The principles of romanticism are also being revived, this is especially clearly represented in the works of V. Korolenko and A. Green.
In the 1930s, a “great turning point” emerged: thousands of members of the intelligentsia were subjected to repression, and the existence of severe censorship slowed down the development of literary processes.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a new direction appeared in Russian literature - military. Initially, genres close to journalism were popular - features, essays, reports. Later, monumental paintings would appear that captured all the horrors of war and the fight against fascism. These are works by L. Andreev, F. Abramov, V. Astafiev, Yu. Bondarev, V. Bykov.
The second half of the 20th century is characterized by diversity and inconsistency. This is largely due to the fact that the development of literature was largely determined by the ruling structures. That is why there is such unevenness: now ideological dominance, now complete emancipation, now the commanding cry of censorship, now relaxation.
Russian writers of the 20th century
M. Gorky- one of the most significant writers and thinkers of the beginning of the century. Recognized as the founder of such a literary movement as socialist realism. His works became a “school of excellence” for writers of the new era. And Gorky’s work had a huge influence on the development of world culture. His novels and stories were translated into many languages and became a bridge connecting the Russian revolution and world culture.
Selected works:
L.N.Andreev. The work of this writer is one of the first “swallows” of emigrant Russian literature. Andreev’s work harmoniously fits into the concept of critical realism, which exposed the tragedy of social injustice. But, having joined the ranks of the white emigration, Andreev was forgotten for a long time. Although the significance of his work had a great influence on the development of the concept of realistic art.
Selected work:
A.I. Kuprin. The name of this greatest writer is undeservedly ranked lower than the names of L. Tolstoy or M. Gorky. At the same time, Kuprin’s work is a vivid example of original art, truly Russian, intelligent art. The main themes in his works: love, features of Russian capitalism, problems of the Russian army. Following Pushkin and Dostoevsky, A. Kuprin pays great attention to the theme of the “little man”. The writer also wrote many stories specifically for children.
Selected works:
K.G.Paustovsky- an amazing writer who managed to remain original, to remain true to himself. There is no revolutionary pathos, loud slogans or socialist ideas in his works. Paustovsky's main merit is that all his stories and novels seem to be standards of landscape, lyrical prose.
Selected works:
M.A. Sholokhov- a great Russian writer whose contribution to the development of world literature can hardly be overestimated. Sholokhov, following L. Tolstoy, creates amazing monumental canvases of Russian life at the most critical moments in history. Sholokhov also went down in the history of Russian literature as a singer of his native land - using the example of the life of the Don region, the writer was able to show the full depth of historical processes.
Biography:
Selected works:
A.T. Tvardovsky- the brightest representative of the literature of the Soviet era, the literature of socialist realism. His work raised the most pressing problems: collectivization, repression, excesses of the idea of socialism. As the editor-in-chief of the New World magazine, A. Tvardovsky revealed to the world the names of many “forbidden” writers. It was in his light hand that A. Solzhenitsyn began to be published.
A. Tvardovsky himself remained in the history of literature as the author of the most lyrical drama about the war - the poem "Vasily Terkin".
Selected work:
B.L.Pasternak is one of the few Russian writers to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago. Also known as a poet and translator.
Selected work:
M.A. Bulgakov... In world literature, perhaps, there is no more discussed writer than M. A. Bulgakov. The brilliant prose writer and playwright left many mysteries for future generations. His work harmoniously intertwined the ideas of humanism and religion, ruthless satire and compassion for man, the tragedy of the Russian intelligentsia and unbridled patriotism.
Selected works:
V.P. Astafiev- Russian writer in whose work the main themes were two: war and the Russian village. Moreover, all his stories and novels are realism in its most vivid embodiment.
Selected work:
- one of the most massive figures in Russian Soviet literature, and, perhaps, the most famous Turkic-language writer. His works depict various periods of Soviet history. But Aitmatov’s main merit is that he, like no one else, was able to colorfully and vividly embody the beauty of his native land on the pages.
Selected work:
With the collapse of the USSR, Russian literature entered a completely new stage of its development. Strict censorship and ideological orientation have become a thing of the past. The newfound freedom of speech became the starting point for the emergence of a whole galaxy of writers of a new generation and new directions: postmodernism, magical realism, avant-garde and others.
Aksakov Ivan Sergeevich (1823-1886) – poet and publicist. One of the leaders of Russian Slavophiles. The most famous work: the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower”.
Aksakov Konstantin Sergeevich (1817-1860) - poet, literary critic, linguist, historian. The inspirer and ideologist of Slavophilism.
Aksakov Sergei Timofeevich (1791-1859) - writer and public figure, literary and theater critic. Wrote a book about fishing and hunting. Father of writers Konstantin and Ivan Aksakov.
Annensky Innokenty Fedorovich (1855-1909) - poet, playwright, literary critic, linguist, translator. Author of the plays: “King Ixion”, “Laodamia”, “Melanippe the Philosopher”, “Thamira the Kefared”.
Baratynsky Evgeniy Abramovich (1800-1844) - poet and translator. Author of the poems: “Eda”, “Feasts”, “Ball”, “Concubine” (“Gypsy”).
Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich (1787-1855) - poet. Also the author of a number of well-known prose articles: “On the character of Lomonosov”, “Evening at Kantemir’s” and others.
Belinsky Vissarion Grigorievich (1811-1848) - literary critic. He headed the critical department in the publication Otechestvennye zapiski. Author of numerous critical articles. He had a huge influence on Russian literature.
Bestuzhev-Marlinsky Alexander Alexandrovich (1797-1837) - Byronist writer, literary critic. Published under the pseudonym Marlinsky. Published the almanac "Polar Star". He was one of the Decembrists. Author of prose: “Test”, “Terrible fortune-telling”, “Frigate Nadezhda” and others.
Vyazemsky Pyotr Andreevich (1792-1878) - poet, memoirist, historian, literary critic. One of the founders and first head of the Russian Historical Society. Close friend of Pushkin.
Dmitry Vladimirovich Venevetinov (1805-1827) - poet, prose writer, philosopher, translator, literary critic. Author of 50 poems. He was also known as an artist and musician. Organizer of the secret philosophical association “Society of Philosophy”.
Herzen Alexander Ivanovich (1812-1870) - writer, philosopher, teacher. The most famous works: the novel “Who is to Blame?”, the stories “Doctor Krupov”, “The Thieving Magpie”, “Damaged”.
Glinka Sergei Nikolaevich (1776-1847) - writer, memoirist, historian. The ideological inspirer of conservative nationalism. Author of the following works: “Selim and Roxana”, “The Virtues of Women” and others.
Glinka Fedor Nikolaevich (1876-1880) - poet and writer. Member of the Decembrist Society. The most famous works: the poems “Karelia” and “The Mysterious Drop”.
Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich (1809-1852) - writer, playwright, poet, literary critic. Classic of Russian literature. Author: “Dead Souls”, the cycle of stories “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, the stories “The Overcoat” and “Viy”, the plays “The Inspector General” and “Marriage” and many other works.
Goncharov Ivan Aleksandrovich (1812-1891) – writer, literary critic. Author of the novels: “Oblomov”, “Cliff”, “An Ordinary Story”.
Griboyedov Alexander Sergeevich (1795-1829) - poet, playwright and composer. He was a diplomat and died in service in Persia. The most famous work is the poem “Woe from Wit,” which served as the source of many catchphrases.
Grigorovich Dmitry Vasilievich (1822-1900) - writer.
Davydov Denis Vasilievich (1784-1839) – poet, memoirist. Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. Author of numerous poems and war memoirs.
Dal Vladimir Ivanovich (1801-1872) – writer and ethnographer. Being a military doctor, he collected folklore along the way. The most famous literary work is “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language.” Dahl worked on the dictionary for more than 50 years.
Delvig Anton Antonovich (1798-1831) – poet, publisher.
Dobrolyubov Nikolai Alexandrovich (1836-1861) - literary critic and poet. He published under the pseudonyms -bov and N. Laibov. Author of numerous critical and philosophical articles.
Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich (1821-1881) - writer and philosopher. Recognized classic of Russian literature. Author of works: “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Idiot”, “Crime and Punishment”, “Teenager” and many others.
Zhemchuzhnikov Alexander Mikhailovich (1826-1896) - poet. Together with his brothers and the writer Tolstoy A.K. created the image of Kozma Prutkov.
Zhemchuzhnikov Alexey Mikhailovich (1821-1908) - poet and satirist. Together with his brothers and the writer Tolstoy A.K. created the image of Kozma Prutkov. Author of the comedy “Strange Night” and the collection of poems “Songs of Old Age”.
Zhemchuzhnikov Vladimir Mikhailovich (1830-1884) - poet. Together with his brothers and the writer Tolstoy A.K. created the image of Kozma Prutkov.
Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich (1783-1852) - poet, literary critic, translator, founder of Russian romanticism.
Zagoskin Mikhail Nikolaevich (1789-1852) - writer and playwright. Author of the first Russian historical novels. Author of the works “The Prankster”, “Yuri Miloslavsky, or the Russians in 1612”, “Kulma Petrovich Miroshev” and others.
Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826) – historian, writer and poet. Author of the monumental work “History of the Russian State” in 12 volumes. He wrote the stories: “Poor Liza”, “Eugene and Yulia” and many others.
Kireevsky Ivan Vasilievich (1806-1856) - religious philosopher, literary critic, Slavophile.
Krylov Ivan Andreevich (1769-1844) - poet and fabulist. Author of 236 fables, many of which became popular expressions. Published magazines: “Mail of Spirits”, “Spectator”, “Mercury”.
Kuchelbecker Wilhelm Karlovich (1797-1846) - poet. He was one of the Decembrists. Close friend of Pushkin. Author of works: “The Argives”, “The Death of Byron”, “The Eternal Jew”.
Lazhechnikov Ivan Ivanovich (1792-1869) - writer, one of the founders of the Russian historical novel. Author of the novels “The Ice House” and “Basurman”.
Lermontov Mikhail Yurievich (1814-1841) - poet, writer, playwright, artist. Classic of Russian literature. The most famous works: the novel “Hero of Our Time”, the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, the poems “Mtsyri” and “Masquerade”.
Leskov Nikolai Semenovich (1831-1895) – writer. The most famous works: “Lefty”, “Cathedrals”, “On Knives”, “Righteous”.
Nekrasov Nikolai Alekseevich (1821-1878) - poet and writer. Classic of Russian literature. Head of the Sovremennik magazine, editor of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. The most famous works: “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, “Russian Women”, “Frost, Red Nose”.
Ogarev Nikolai Platonovich (1813-1877) - poet. Author of poems, poems, critical articles.
Odoevsky Alexander Ivanovich (1802-1839) - poet and writer. He was one of the Decembrists. Author of the poem "Vasilko", the poems "Zosima" and "Elder Prophetess".
Odoevsky Vladimirovich Fedorovich (1804-1869) - writer, thinker, one of the founders of musicology. He wrote fantastic and utopian works. Author of the novel “Year 4338” and numerous short stories.
Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823-1886) – playwright. Classic of Russian literature. Author of plays: “The Thunderstorm”, “Dowry”, “The Marriage of Balzaminov” and many others.
Panaev Ivan Ivanovich (1812-1862) – writer, literary critic, journalist. Author of works: “Mama’s Boy”, “Meeting at the Station”, “Lions of the Province” and others.
Pisarev Dmitry Ivanovich (1840-1868) - literary critic of the sixties, translator. Many of Pisarev’s articles were dismantled into aphorisms.
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich (1799-1837) - poet, writer, playwright. Classic of Russian literature. Author: the poems “Poltava” and “Eugene Onegin”, the story “The Captain’s Daughter”, the collection of stories “Belkin’s Tale” and numerous poems. Founded the literary magazine Sovremennik.
Raevsky Vladimir Fedoseevich (1795-1872) - poet. Participant in the Patriotic War of 1812. He was one of the Decembrists.
Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich (1795-1826) - poet. He was one of the Decembrists. Author of the historical poetic cycle "Dumas". Published the literary almanac "Polar Star".
Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Efgrafovich (1826-1889) - writer, journalist. Classic of Russian literature. The most famous works: “Lord Golovlevs”, “The Wise Minnow”, “Poshekhon Antiquity”. He was the editor of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski.
Samarin Yuri Fedorovich (1819-1876) – publicist and philosopher.
Sukhovo-Kobylin Alexander Vasilievich (1817-1903) - playwright, philosopher, translator. Author of the plays: “Krechinsky’s Wedding”, “The Affair”, “The Death of Tarelkin”.
Tolstoy Alexey Konstantinovich (1817-1875) - writer, poet, playwright. Author of the poems: “The Sinner”, “The Alchemist”, the plays “Fantasy”, “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”, the stories “The Ghoul” and “The Wolf’s Adopted”. Together with the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, he created the image of Kozma Prutkov.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (1828-1910) - writer, thinker, educator. Classic of Russian literature. Served in the artillery. Participated in the defense of Sevastopol. The most famous works: “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection”. In 1901 he was excommunicated from the church.
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich (1818-1883) - writer, poet, playwright. Classic of Russian literature. The most famous works: “Mumu”, “Asya”, “The Noble Nest”, “Fathers and Sons”.
Tyutchev Fedor Ivanovich (1803-1873) - poet. Classic of Russian literature.
Fet Afanasy Afanasyevich (1820-1892) – lyric poet, memoirist, translator. Classic of Russian literature. Author of numerous romantic poems. Translated Juvenal, Goethe, Catullus.
Khomyakov Alexey Stepanovich (1804-1860) - poet, philosopher, theologian, artist.
Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich (1828-1889) - writer, philosopher, literary critic. Author of the novels “What to do?” and “Prologue”, as well as the stories “Alferyev”, “Small Stories”.
Chekhov Anton Pavlovich (1860-1904) - writer, playwright. Classic of Russian literature. Author of the plays “The Cherry Orchard”, “Three Sisters”, “Uncle Vanya” and numerous short stories. Conducted a population census on Sakhalin Island.
The nineteenth century is called the golden age of Russian poetry. During this period, the classicism beloved by writers was replaced by romanticism and sentimentalism. A little later, realism arose, gradually replacing the idealization of the world. It was in the nineteenth century that literature reached its peak, and the contribution that Russian poets of the 19th century made to this is invaluable. The list of them is really large; among such famous names as Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Afanasy Fet, there are also little-known but talented Vladimir Raevsky, Sergei Durov and many, many others.
Nineteenth century in literature
The nineteenth century was far from an easy period for Russia: a series of wars over trade routes erupted, Napoleon’s military campaign began, which was then followed by more wars. All this became a huge shock for the country. It was against the backdrop of such events that literature developed. The great Russian poets of the 19th century wrote in their works about love for the motherland, the beauty of Russia, the difficult fate of the common man and the idleness of noble life, they talked a lot about the place of man in this world, about the opposition of the individual to society. Classicism created an image, romanticism elevated it above the dullness of life, sentimentalism surrounded the lyrical hero with stunning landscapes - poetry of the early nineteenth century sought to idealize the world. They used a huge number of tropes, played with foreign words, perfected rhyme - everything to reflect the ideal. Later, realism began to appear, within the framework of which classical poets no longer disdained colloquial expressions and experiments with the form of a poem: the main task was to demonstrate reality with all its shortcomings. The nineteenth century is a century of contradictions; it amazingly combined the ideality and imperfection of the world in which the poets lived.
Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769-1844)
Krylov laid the foundation for fables in Russian literature. His name is so strongly associated with this genre that it has become something like “Aesop's fables.” Ivan Andreevich chose this form of poetry, unusual for that time, to demonstrate the vices of society, showing them through the images of various animals. The fables are so simple and interesting that some of their lines have become catchphrases, and the variety of topics allows you to find a lesson for any occasion. Krylov was considered a role model by many Russian poets of the 19th century, the list of which would be far from complete without the great fabulist.
Ivan Zakharovich Surikov (1841-1880)
Nekrasov is most often associated with realism and the peasantry, and few people know that many other Russian poets glorified their people and their life. Surikov's poems are distinguished by their melody and simplicity. This is what made it possible to set some of his works to music. Here and there the poet deliberately uses words characteristic not of lyricists, but of peasants. The themes of his poems are close to every person, they are far from being as sublime as the idealized poetry of Pushkin, but at the same time they are in no way inferior to it. An amazing ability to demonstrate the life of ordinary people, show their feelings, talk about some everyday situations so that the reader is immersed in the atmosphere of peasant life - these are the components of Ivan Surikov’s lyrics.
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875)
And in the famous Tolstoy family there were Russian poets of the 19th century. The list of eminent relatives was supplemented by Alexei Tolstoy, who became famous for his historical plays, ballads and satirical poems. His works convey love for his native land and praise of its beauty. A distinctive feature of the poems is their simplicity, which gives the lyrics sincerity. The poet’s source of inspiration was the people, which is why his work contains so many references to historical themes and folklore. But at the same time, Tolstoy shows the world in bright colors, admires every moment of life, trying to capture all the best feelings and emotions.
Pyotr Isaevich Weinberg (1831-1908)
Many poets in the nineteenth century were engaged in translating poetry from other languages, Weinberg was no exception. They say that if in prose the translator is a co-author, then in poetry he is a rival. Weinberg translated a huge number of poems from German. For his translation from German of Schiller's drama "Mary Stuart", he was even awarded the prestigious Academy of Sciences Prize. In addition, this amazing poet worked on Goethe, Heine, Byron and many other famous writers. Of course, it is difficult to call Weinberg an independent poet. But in his transcription of the poems, he preserved all the features of the lyrics of the original author, which allows us to speak of him as a truly poetically gifted person. The contribution that Russian poets of the 19th century made to the development of world literature and translations is invaluable. The list of them would be incomplete without Weinberg.
Conclusion
Russian poets have always been an integral part of literature. But it was the nineteenth century that was especially rich in talented people, whose names forever went down in the history of not only Russian, but also world poetry.
The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later. "Dead Souls"
For what? It's like inspiration
Love the given subject!
Like a true poet
Sell your imagination!
I am a slave, a day laborer, I am a tradesman!
I owe you, sinner, for gold,
For your worthless piece of silver
Pay with divine payment!
"Improvisation I"
Literature is a language that expresses everything a country thinks, wants, knows, wants and needs to know.
In the hearts of simple people, the feeling of the beauty and grandeur of nature is stronger, a hundred times more vivid, than in us, enthusiastic storytellers in words and on paper.
"Hero of our time"
And everywhere there is sound, and everywhere there is light,
And all the worlds have one beginning,
And there is nothing in nature
Whatever breathes love.
In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how can one not fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home? But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
Poems in prose, "Russian language"
So, I complete my dissolute escape,
Prickly snow flies from the naked fields,
Driven by an early, violent snowstorm,
And, stopping in the wilderness of the forest,
Gathers in silver silence
A deep and cold bed.
Listen: shame on you!
It's time to get up! You know yourself
What time has come;
In whom the sense of duty has not cooled,
Who is incorruptibly straight in heart,
Who has talent, strength, accuracy,
Tom shouldn't sleep now...
"Poet and Citizen"
Is it really possible that even here they will not and will not allow the Russian organism to develop nationally, with its own organic strength, and certainly impersonally, servilely imitating Europe? But what should one do with the Russian organism then? Do these gentlemen understand what an organism is? Separation, “detachment” from their country leads to hatred, these people hate Russia, so to speak, naturally, physically: for the climate, for the fields, for the forests, for the order, for the liberation of the peasant, for Russian history, in a word, for everything, They hate me for everything.
Spring! the first frame is exposed -
And noise burst into the room,
And the good news of the nearby temple,
And the talk of the people, and the sound of the wheel...
Well, what are you afraid of, pray tell! Now every grass, every flower is rejoicing, but we are hiding, afraid, as if some kind of misfortune is coming! The thunderstorm will kill! This is not a thunderstorm, but grace! Yes, grace! It's all stormy! The northern lights will light up, you should admire and marvel at the wisdom: “from the midnight lands the dawn rises”! And you are horrified and come up with ideas: this means war or pestilence. Is there a comet coming? I wouldn’t look away! Beauty! The stars have already taken a closer look, they are all the same, but this is a new thing; Well, I should have looked and admired it! And you are afraid to even look at the sky, you are trembling! Out of everything, you have created a scare for yourself. Eh, people! "Storm"
There is no more enlightening, soul-cleansing feeling than that which a person feels when acquainted with a great work of art.
We know that loaded guns must be handled with care. But we don’t want to know that we must treat words in the same way. The word can kill and make evil worse than death.
There is a well-known trick of an American journalist who, in order to increase subscriptions to his magazine, began to publish in other publications the most harsh, arrogant attacks on himself from fictitious persons: some in print exposed him as a swindler and perjurer, others as a thief and murderer, and still others as a debauchee on a colossal scale. He didn’t skimp on paying for such friendly advertisements until everyone started thinking - it’s obvious he’s a curious and remarkable person when everyone is shouting about him like that! - and they began to buy up his own newspaper.
"Life in a Hundred Years"
I... think that I know the Russian person to his very depths, and I do not take any credit for this. I didn’t study the people from conversations with St. Petersburg cab drivers, but I grew up among the people, on the Gostomel pasture, with a cauldron in my hand, I slept with it on the dewy grass of the night, under a warm sheepskin coat, and on Panin’s fancy crowd behind the circles of dusty habits...
Between these two clashing titans - science and theology - there is a stunned public, quickly losing faith in the immortality of man and in any deity, quickly descending to the level of a purely animal existence. Such is the picture of the hour illuminated by the brilliant noonday sun of the Christian and scientific era!
"Isis Unveiled"
Sit down, I'm glad to see you. Throw away all fear
And you can keep yourself free
I give you permission. You know, the other day
I was elected king by everyone,
But it doesn't matter. They confuse my thoughts
All these honors, greetings, bows...
"Crazy"
- What do you want abroad? - I asked him while in his room, with the help of the servants, his things were being laid out and packed for sending to the Warsaw station.
- Yes, just... to feel it! - he said confusedly and with a kind of dull expression on his face.
"Letters from the Road"
Is the point to get through life in such a way as not to offend anyone? This is not happiness. Touch, break, break, so that life boils. I am not afraid of any accusations, but I am a hundred times more afraid of colorlessness than death.
Poetry is the same music, only combined with words, and it also requires a natural ear, a sense of harmony and rhythm.
You experience a strange feeling when, with a light pressure of your hand, you force such a mass to rise and fall at will. When such a mass obeys you, you feel the power of man...
"Meeting"
The feeling of the Motherland should be strict, restrained in words, not eloquent, not talkative, not “waving your arms” and not running forward (to appear). The feeling of the Motherland should be a great ardent silence.
"Secluded"
And what is the secret of beauty, what is the secret and charm of art: in the conscious, inspired victory over torment or in the unconscious melancholy of the human spirit, which does not see a way out of the circle of vulgarity, squalor or thoughtlessness and is tragically condemned to appear complacent or hopelessly false.
"Sentimental Memory"
Since birth I have lived in Moscow, but by God I don’t know where Moscow came from, what it is for, why, what it needs. In the Duma, at meetings, I, together with others, talk about the city economy, but I don’t know how many miles there are in Moscow, how many people there are, how many are born and die, how much we receive and spend, how much and with whom we trade... Which city is richer: Moscow or London? If London is richer, why? And the jester knows him! And when some issue is raised in the Duma, I shudder and be the first to start shouting: “Pass it over to the commission!” To the commission!
Everything new in an old way:
From a modern poet
In a metaphorical outfit
The speech is poetic.
But others are not an example to me,
And my charter is simple and strict.
My verse is a pioneer boy,
Lightly dressed, barefoot.
1926
Under the influence of Dostoevsky, as well as foreign literature, Baudelaire and Edgar Poe, my fascination began not with decadence, but with symbolism (even then I already understood their difference). I entitled the collection of poems, published at the very beginning of the 90s, “Symbols.” It seems that I was the first to use this word in Russian literature.
The running of changeable phenomena,
Past the howling ones, speed up:
Merge the sunset of achievements into one
With the first shine of tender dawns.
From the lower reaches of life to the origins
In a moment, a single overview:
In one face with a smart eye
Collect your doubles.
Unchanging and wonderful
Gift of the Blessed Muse:
In the spirit the form of harmonious songs,
There is life and heat in the heart of the songs.
"Thoughts on Poetry"
I have a lot of news. And all are good. I'm lucky". It's written to me. I want to live, live, live forever. If you only knew how many new poems I wrote! More than a hundred. It was crazy, a fairy tale, new. I am publishing a new book, completely different from the previous ones. She will surprise many. I changed my understanding of the world. No matter how funny my phrase may sound, I will say: I understand the world. For many years, perhaps forever.
K. Balmont - L. Vilkina
Man - that's the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds... proud!
"At the bottom"
I feel sorry for creating something useless and no one needs right now. A collection, a book of poems at this time is the most useless, unnecessary thing... I do not want to say that poetry is not needed. On the contrary, I maintain that poetry is necessary, even necessary, natural and eternal. There was a time when everyone seemed to need entire books of poetry, when they were read in bulk, understood and accepted by everyone. This time is the past, not ours. The modern reader does not need a collection of poems!
Language is the history of a people. Language is the path of civilization and culture. That is why studying and preserving the Russian language is not an idle activity because there is nothing to do, but an urgent necessity.
What nationalists and patriots these internationalists become when they need it! And with what arrogance they mock the “frightened intellectuals” - as if there is absolutely no reason to be afraid - or at the “frightened ordinary people”, as if they have some great advantages over the “philistines”. And who, exactly, are these ordinary people, the “prosperous townsfolk”? And who and what do revolutionaries care about, in general, if they so despise the average person and his well-being?
"Cursed Days"
In the struggle for their ideal, which is “liberty, equality and fraternity,” citizens must use means that do not contradict this ideal.
"Governor"
“Let your soul be whole or split, let your worldview be mystical, realistic, skeptical, or even idealistic (if you are so unhappy), let creative techniques be impressionistic, realistic, naturalistic, let the content be lyrical or fabulistic, let there be a mood, an impression - whatever you want, but I beg you, be logical - may this cry of the heart be forgiven me! - are logical in concept, in the construction of the work, in syntax.”
Art is born in homelessness. I wrote letters and stories addressed to a distant, unknown friend, but when the friend came, art gave way to life. I'm talking, of course, not about home comfort, but about life, which means more than art.
"You and I. Love Diary"
An artist can do no more than open his soul to others. You cannot present him with pre-made rules. It is a still unknown world, where everything is new. We must forget what captivated others; here it is different. Otherwise, you will listen and not hear, you will look without understanding.
From Valery Bryusov's treatise "On Art"
Well, let her rest, she was exhausted - they tormented her, alarmed her. And as soon as it’s light, the shopkeeper gets up, starts folding her goods, grabs a blanket, goes and pulls out this soft bedding from under the old woman: wakes the old woman up, gets her on her feet: it’s not dawn, please get up. It's nothing you can do. In the meantime - grandmother, our Kostroma, our mother, Russia! "
"Whirlwind Rus'"
Art never addresses the crowd, the masses, it speaks to the individual, in the deep and hidden recesses of his soul.
Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin (Ilyin) (1878 - 1942)
How strange /.../ There are so many cheerful and cheerful books, so many brilliant and witty philosophical truths, but there is nothing more comforting than Ecclesiastes.
Babkin was brave, read Seneca
And, whistling carcasses,
Took it to the library
Noting in the margin: “Nonsense!”
Babkin, friend, is a harsh critic,
Have you ever thought
What a legless paralytic
A light chamois is not a decree?..
"Reader"
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The critic's word about the poet must be objectively concrete and creative; the critic, while remaining a scientist, is a poet.
"Poetry of the Word"
Only great things should be thought about, only great tasks should a writer set himself; put it boldly, without being embarrassed by your personal small strengths.
“It’s true that there are goblins and water creatures here,” I thought, looking in front of me, “and maybe some other spirit lives here... A powerful, northern spirit that enjoys this wildness; maybe real northern fauns and healthy, blond women wander in these forests, eat cloudberries and lingonberries, laugh and chase each other.”
"North"
You need to be able to close a boring book...leave a bad movie...and part with people who don't value you!
Out of modesty, I will be careful not to point out the fact that on my birthday the bells were rung and there was general popular rejoicing. Evil tongues connected this rejoicing with some great holiday that coincided with the day of my birth, but I still don’t understand what another holiday has to do with it?
That was the time when love, good and healthy feelings were considered vulgarity and a relic; no one loved, but everyone thirsted and, as if poisoned, fell for everything sharp, tearing apart the insides.
"The Road to Calvary"
“Well, what’s wrong,” I say to myself, “at least in a short word for now?” After all, exactly the same form of saying goodbye to friends exists in other languages, and there it does not shock anyone. The great poet Walt Whitman, shortly before his death, said goodbye to his readers with a touching poem “So long!”, which in English means “Bye!” The French a bientot has the same meaning. There is no rudeness here. On the contrary, this form is filled with the most gracious courtesy, because the following (approximately) meaning is compressed here: be prosperous and happy until we see each other again.
"Alive as Life"
Switzerland? This is a mountain pasture for tourists. I myself have traveled all over the world, but I hate these ruminant bipeds with Badaker for a tail. They devoured all the beauty of nature with their eyes.
"Island of Lost Ships"
Everything that I have written and will write, I consider only mental rubbish and I do not regard my merits as a writer as anything. I’m surprised and perplexed why apparently smart people find some meaning and value in my poems. Thousands of poems, whether mine or those of the poets I know in Russia, are not worth one singer from my bright mother.
I am afraid that Russian literature has only one future: its past.
Article "I'm afraid"
We have been looking for a long time for a task similar to a lentil, so that the united rays of the work of artists and the work of thinkers, directed by it to a common point, would meet in a common work and would be able to ignite and turn even the cold substance of ice into a fire. Now such a task - the lentil that guides together your stormy courage and the cold mind of thinkers - has been found. This goal is to create a common written language...
"Artists of the World"
He adored poetry and tried to be impartial in his judgments. He was surprisingly young at heart, and perhaps also in mind. He always seemed like a child to me. There was something childish in his buzz cut head, in his bearing, more like a gymnasium than a military one. He liked to pretend to be an adult, like all children. He loved to play “master”, the literary superiors of his “gumilets,” that is, the little poets and poetesses who surrounded him. The poetic children loved him very much.
Khodasevich, "Necropolis"
Me, me, me. What a wild word!
Is that guy over there really me?
Did mom love someone like that?
Yellow-gray, half-gray
And all-knowing, like a snake?
You have lost your Russia.
Did you resist the elements?
Good elements of dark evil?
No? So shut up: you took me away
You are destined for a reason
To the edges of an unkind foreign land.
What's the use of moaning and groaning -
Russia must be earned!
"What you need to know"
I didn't stop writing poetry. For me, they contain my connection with time, with the new life of my people. When I wrote them, I lived by the rhythms that sounded in the heroic history of my country. I am happy that I lived during these years and saw events that had no equal.
All the people sent to us are our reflection. And they were sent so that we, looking at these people, correct our mistakes, and when we correct them, these people either change too or leave our lives.
In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether a wolf is dyed or shorn, it still does not look like a poodle. They treated me like a wolf. And for several years they persecuted me according to the rules of a literary cage in a fenced yard. I have no malice, but I am very tired...
From a letter from M.A. Bulgakov to I.V. Stalin, May 30, 1931.
When I die, my descendants will ask my contemporaries: “Did you understand Mandelstam’s poems?” - “No, we didn’t understand his poems.” “Did you feed Mandelstam, did you give him shelter?” - “Yes, we fed Mandelstam, we gave him shelter.” - “Then you are forgiven.”
Maybe go to the House of Press - there is one sandwich with chum caviar and a debate - “about the proletarian choral reading”, or to the Polytechnic Museum - there are no sandwiches there, but twenty-six young poets read their poems about the “locomotive mass”. No, I will sit on the stairs, shiver from the cold and dream that all this is not in vain, that, sitting here on the step, I am preparing the distant sunrise of the Renaissance. I dreamed both simply and in verse, and the results turned out to be rather boring iambics.
"The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Students"