Statements by famous people about the peninsula. Statements of famous people about Crimea Statements about the beauty of Crimea
Literary journey through Crimea
The Crimean land has the amazing property of attracting creative people. The fates of many famous writers and poets are connected with Crimea, one way or another. And Crimea itself has always occupied a special place in literature. The delightful nature, turbulent history and multinational culture of this region have inspired many generations of Russian writers. Some were passing through Crimea, and for others it became part of their biography... For some it is a blessed paradise, for others it is gloomy memories of the war, for others it is a cheerful peninsula full of pleasant memories of their holiday... Many were written in Crimea wonderful works. And even more ideas were born, which, when realized, became the adornment of Russian literature.
And to make sure of this, let’s take a trip along the literary map of Crimea.
Simferopol. The capital of Crimea is certainly visited by everyone who arrives on the peninsula. Writers and poets are no exception. But a few left a noticeable mark.
A. S. Pushkin lived in Simferopol for a short time. Here, on the “shores of the cheerful Salgir,” was his last stop on a long journey across Crimea in 1820, and now a monument to the great poet has been erected in the center of the city.
Oak groves and meadows are revived,
And the peaceful ones caress the shores,
Stubborn snows do not dare to lie down.
A. S. Pushkin about Crimea
Government official P.I. Sumarokov worked in Simferopol from 1802 to 1807. We don’t know what his merits in this field are, but here he wrote a very interesting book: “The Leisure of a Crimean Judge, or the Second Journey to Taurida,” where he gave very accurate descriptions of many Crimean corners. Appreciate the beauty of the syllable: “Do you want to taste the sweet feeling in your soul? Stay on Salgir. Do you want to amuse yourself with an extraordinary spectacle? Cross the Baydars. Do you want to meet splendor? Appear in the vicinity of Yalta. Have you decided to indulge in peaceful despondency? Visit Foros. Finally, whether you are suffering from love or suffering another misfortune, then sit down on the shore of the Black Sea, and the roar of the waves will dispel your gloomy thoughts.”
And on the house where A. S. Griboyedov, who traveled through the Crimea in 1825, also lived for a short time, a memorial plaque was installed. True, in one of his letters he called Simferopol a “crappy little town,” which is explained by the gloomy mood that possessed the writer at that moment. But then he called Crimea “an amazing treasury, a natural museum that keeps the secrets of thousands of years,” which rehabilitated himself in the eyes of Crimeans.
From 1865 to 1870, official E. L. Markov worked in the field of public education in Simferopol. And he wrote the famous “Essays on Crimea: Pictures of Crimean life, nature and history,” in which he depicted with great love the nature of the peninsula, its inhabitants, history, and monuments. A slightly ironic, imaginative, rich description of the long-gone beauty of these places fascinates the reader. “My essays will resurrect in the memory of some some vivid and true pictures of Crimean life and nature; they will seduce him to recognize the living Crimea, to enjoy its originality, its beauty,” Markov wrote.
“I know the famous picturesque places of Europe and I think that it is unlikely that there will be a happier combination of the most opposite elements of the landscape in it than in the Crimea.”
The sacred spirit of history blows on these waters and this shore. Here, every stone, every ruin, every step is an event.
Whoever breathes Crimea breathes the joy of life, poetry, longevity. Hurry up to leave for Crimea, who can, who still has time...”
“People who have lived in Crimea and experienced the pleasures that Crimea alone gives, never forget it...”
E. L. Markov, “Essays on Crimea” (1902)
I. L. Selvinsky (1899-1968), an outstanding Russian poet and prose writer of the 20th century, was born in Simferopol. He was born in the house and lived in 1899-1906. now his house-museum of I. Selvinsky is open and this is the first literary museum in Simferopol. He has written a lot about Crimea, and the lines: “And if you really want happiness, you and I will go to Crimea” have become textbook.
Or this:
There are edges that remain motionless for centuries,
Buried in darkness and moss,
But there are also those where every stone
It buzzes with the voices of eras.
I. Selvinsky about Crimea
From 1918 to 1920, the outstanding Russian thinker and theologian S. N. Bulgakov, who later emigrated, taught at the Tauride Theological Seminary from 1918 to 1920 (Geroev Adzhimushkaya St., 7). This is how he wrote about Crimea:
“Here lies several layers of ancient culture, revealed before us, here our Motherland was spiritually born...”
S. N. Bulgakov about the role of Crimea in history
Evpatoria. Many literary celebrities have visited this city - A. Mitskevich, L. Ukrainka, M. A. Bulgakov, V. V. Mayakovsky, A. A. Akhmatova, N. Ostrovsky. K. Chukovsky. A. N. Tolstoy left a description of Evpatoria in the novel “Walking Through Torment.” The poet I. Selvinsky spent his youth here and studied at the local gymnasium, which now bears his name. Writer B. Balter, author of the story “Goodbye, boys!” I also studied at this gymnasium. Then a film of the same name was made based on this book. In the house where A. A. Akhmatova lived for several years, there is a stylish literary cafe with starched tablecloths, shiny cutlery and a hint of some bohemianism.
But so far the writers have not been awarded monuments, only memorial plaques have been opened in their honor. Only the monument to Ashik Omer (1621-1707), an outstanding Crimean poet of the Middle Ages, stands in Yevpatoria. Traveling around the world, he created works that were included in the treasury of world literature. In old age he returned to his native Gezlev, where he found eternal peace.
And within the walls of the house on Karaimskaya Street, the shadows of those who stayed here in the hot summer of 1825 will soon come to life. The house will turn into the Museum of Adam Mitskevich - the first outstanding poet to visit Evpatoria.
V.S. Vysotsky was also in Yevpatoria when he was filming the film “A Bad Good Man.” The poems, and then the song “Black Pea Jackets,” dedicated to the tragic Evpatoria landing at the end of 1941, were conceived by him in Evpatoria.
V.V. Mayakovsky wrote about Evpatoria simply:
I'm very sorry
those,
which
haven't been
IN EVPATORIA.
Literary traditions are strong in present-day Evpatoria. Here are the lines of Evpatoria resident Sergei Ovcharenko, a wonderful poet:
Still hovering over the land of Taurida
Free spirit of the lost tribes
And the rustle of half-mast banners
Sends us vibes through the centuries.
And a thin thread appears,
And it grows stronger so that those who once lived
Khazars, Greeks, Scythians and Sarmatians
They continue to live in our consciousness.
Saki. In the Resort Park of this town there is a monument to Lesya Ukrainka, who was here for treatment. It turned out, however, that Saki mud, alas, did not help with her illness (bone tuberculosis). There is also a monument to N.V. Gogol, who was treated here in June-July 1835 and, in his own words, “got dirty here in mineral mud.”
Bakhchisaray. This town owes its wide popularity to the Khan's Palace, or more precisely, to the Famous Fountain of Tears, which is installed there. And it was glorified by A.S. Pushkin, who visited here and wrote the poem “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”. And also A. Mitskevich and L. Ukrainka, who dedicated beautiful poetic lines to the fountain. The monument to Pushkin stands not far from the palace.
The museum of I. Gasprinsky (1851-1914) is also located in Bakhchisarai. Here you can get acquainted with the life and work of this wonderful person - a Crimean Tatar writer, educator, thinker. A monument was erected to him in the city, and he is buried in Bakhchisarai. In his articles and scientific works (“Russian Islam”, “Russian-Eastern Agreement”) he reflected on the fate of Islam and national relations. And in the books “The Sun Has Risen” and “The Land of Bliss”) he raised issues of high morality, honor, and human dignity.
Bakhchisarai nature and Bakhchisarai antiquities have always made a huge impression on travelers. A.K. Tolstoy, one of the literary “fathers” of Kozma Prutkov, dedicated many poetic lines to Crimea and wrote about the cave cities of Crimea:
And the city died out. Here and there
Remains of towers along the walls,
Crooked streets, cemeteries,
Caves dug in the rocks
Long deserted dwellings,
Debris, stones, dust and ashes...
A. K. Tolstoy
Here, for example, is your humble servant about the Silver Streams Falls and its surroundings.
“It is hidden from the heat and bright rays of the sun by the thick, centuries-old greenery of huge beech trees. Here the water, murmuring musically, flows down in thin, graceful streams against the dark background of a small grotto overgrown with moss. The waterfall is very reminiscent of the original string instrument, especially on a bright sunny day. It is no coincidence that it is often called the Silver Strings waterfall. The waterfall enchants with that subtle, discreet, spiritual beauty that is so characteristic of small Crimean waterfalls.
It is worth walking just above the waterfall, along the forest river Sary-Uzen. Look at small rapids, cascades of small waterfalls, quiet pools... What a bizarre combination of stone, water, fallen leaves, moss and fallen trees! The whole picture seen, as if straight out of Japanese medieval engravings, gives rise to a feeling of subtle, but bright and pure harmony...”
Sevastopol. This glorious city is associated with the names of many writers. But we will note only those for whom Sevastopol became very important in their work.
“I had to see many cities, but I don’t know a better city than Sevastopol,” wrote K. Paustovsky, who visited Sevastopol more than once. The city is lovingly described in many of his works.
A. S. Green visited Sevastopol many times, and at the beginning of the twentieth century he even spent two years in a local prison for revolutionary activities, as a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. It is here, in Sevastopol, that the ideas of his romantic works with sea winds, high matches, scarlet sails, the invented country of Greenland and the fictional cities of Zurbagan Liss, Gel Gyu are born...
K. M. Stanyukovich (1843-1903), a famous Russian writer and marine painter, was the son of an admiral, commander of the port of Sevastopol. When the Crimean War was going on, he was only 11 years old. But for his participation in the defense of Sevastopol, he was awarded two medals. And when he became a writer, he wrote books about those events: “The Sevastopol Boy”, “Little Sailors”, “The Terrible Admiral”. Sevastopol residents always remember their writer; a library in the city is named after him.
A. Averchenko was born in Sevastopol and lived here until he was 16 years old. And from here he left his homeland forever in 1920.
From 7 to 13 years old, Anya Gorenko, the future great poetess A. A. Akhmatova, the granddaughter of Colonel A. A. Gorenko, a participant in the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855, who had a house here, lived in Sevastopol in the summer. And then she often came here, remembering her childhood in Sevastopol:
I wish I could become a seaside girl again,
Put shoes on bare feet,
And put a crown on your braids,
And sing with an excited voice.
Everyone would look at the dark heads
Chersonesos Temple from the porch
And not knowing what comes from happiness and glory
Hearts grow hopelessly old.
A. Akhmatova
But L. N. Tolstoy glorified Sevastopol forever. The future great writer served here during the First Defense of Sevastopol, commanded a battery on the 4th bastion, where a memorial sign was erected to him. He stayed in besieged Sevastopol for exactly a year and not only fought, but also wrote his famous “Sevastopol Stories.” The brave officer and aspiring writer for the “Sevastopol epic” was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree. This is where his worldwide literary fame began.
Balaclava. This small town has been visited by so many celebrities that it would be enough to fill a large metropolis. A. Mitskevich, A. S. Griboyedov, A. K. Tolstoy, L. N. Tolstoy, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. A. Bunin, K. Balmont, L. Ukrainka, A. Akhmatova, A. Green, M. Gorky, M. Zoshchenko, K. Paustovsky... Sun. Vishnevsky wrote the famous “Optimistic Tragedy” here. This list can be continued and it will be quite impressive.
But A.I. Kuprin became the true singer of Balaklava. The writer lived in Balaklava from 1904 to 1905. He really loved going out to sea with the fishermen, he loved this town and its inhabitants - the Greek fishermen. From his pen came a whole series of wonderful essays about Balaklava and its inhabitants - “Listrigons”. Kuprin really wanted to settle here, he even bought a plot of land to build a house, but it didn’t work out. The monument to the writer stands on the Balaklava Embankment.
Balaklava is the only city in Crimea that is unlike anyone else, its own separate world. You cannot drive through Balaklava, like through Yalta, Alupka, Alushta, and then go further. You can only come to it. There is only the sea ahead, and all around there are stone, impassable communities - there is nowhere to go further, here is the end of the world.”
S. Ya. Elpatievsky “Crimean Sketches” 1913
Yalta, Southern coast of Crimea. It just so happened that this corner of Crimea was visited by almost all the famous writers and poets who visited Crimea. This is the tradition at all times. We went mainly for rest and treatment, sometimes staying here for a long time.
In Yalta there is a museum “Culture of Yalta of the 19th - early 20th centuries”. The choice of this period of history is not accidental. It was at this time that Yalta was one of the cultural capitals of the Russian Empire - many writers, poets, artists, composers and theater figures lived here for a long time - the flower of Russian culture of that time.
But the most famous Yalta literary museum is, of course, the House-Museum of A.P. Chekhov. Everything in the house remained as it was during the life of the great writer, who lived at his Belaya Dacha for less than five years, from 1899 to 1904. Here he wrote more than a dozen works, including the plays “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”, the famous “Crimean” story “The Lady with the Dog”...
The Yalta hotel "Tavrida" (formerly "Russia"), built in 1875, is attractive not only for its architecture. There are few hotels in Russia where so many famous figures of literature and art have lived. In 1876, N.A. Nekrasov, who came to Yalta for medical treatment, lived in the hotel for two months. In 1894, one of the rooms in “Russia” was occupied by A.P. Chekhov. I. A. Bunin, V. V. Mayakovsky, M. A. Bulgakov and many other celebrities stayed at the hotel several times. Some of these well-known names are mentioned on a plaque mounted on the building's façade.
But no one knows where I. Brodsky stayed when he was in Yalta in 1969. But not in this hotel, his income at that time. This was clearly not allowed. But we know and remember his lines:
January in Crimea. To the Black Sea coast
winter comes as if for fun:
unable to hold on to the snow
on the blades and tips of the attack.
Restaurants are empty. They're smoking
ichthyosaurs are dirty in the roadstead,
and the aroma of rotten laurels can be heard.
“Should I pour you this abomination?” "Pour"
On the Yalta Embankment, the Isadora plane tree, which is at least 500 years old, stands out with its huge spherical crown. The famous ballerina made an appointment with Sergei Yesenin under this tree.
And on the Embankment there is a monument to the “Lady with a Dog” - the heroine (and hero) of the famous Chekhov story, the action of which takes place in Yalta.
The events of not only the story “The Lady with the Dog” unfold in Yalta. Styopa Likhodeev is brought to Yalta from Moscow by Woland in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. Kisa Vorobyaninov and Ostap Bender find themselves in Yalta in search of a chair with diamonds in the novel “The Twelve Chairs” by I. Ilf and E. Petrov.
And in the village of Gaspra, west of Yalta, there is the Yasnaya Polyana sanatorium, the former Romantic Alexandria estate. Here in 1901-1902. The writer L.N. Tolstoy was visiting and improving his health. And he met with many famous people, including A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky. The name of the health resort reminds of L.N. Tolstoy and his stay here. Many famous people have been here, and sometimes lived for a long time. For example, the outstanding Russian thinker and theologian S. N. Bulgakov, and the future author of “Lolita”, and then very young V. Nabokov, indulged in his favorite pastime in the local park - catching butterflies...
Even further west there is a village that used to have the funny name Mukhalatka. Here, closer to the mountains, was the dacha of the writer Yu. Semenov, and now his house-museum. Such famous novels as “Ordered to Survive”, “TASS is Authorized to Declare”, “Expansion”, “Burning”, “The Secret of Kutuzovsky Prospekt”, “Versions”, etc. were written in this house. Yulian Semyonov died in 1993 in Mukhalatka . The writer's ashes were scattered over the Black Sea.
Above Mukhalatka, the Shaitan-Merdven (Devil's Staircase, Turkic) trail runs through the mountains, leading to the pass of the same name. The trail starts from the old road Yalta - Sevastopol. A whole galaxy of literary celebrities passed through Shaitan-Merdvenem, leaving memories of this in their diaries, letters, literary and scientific works: A. S. Pushkin, A. S. Griboedov, V. A. Zhukovsky, I. A. Bunin, N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, Lesya Ukrainka, A. K. Tolstoy, V. Ya. Bryusov and many others. This is how young Pushkin described the journey through the pass: “We climbed the mountain stairs on foot, holding our Tatar horses by the tail. This amused me extremely and seemed like some kind of mysterious Eastern rite.”
And here are the lesser-known lines of Lesya Ukrainka about the Shaitan-Merdven pass (translated from Ukrainian):
Red rocks and gray mountains
They hung over us wildly and menacingly.
These are evil spirit caves, closures
Rising under the clouds.
The rocks slide down to the sea in a ridge.
They call them the Devil's stairs.
Demons descend on them, and in the spring
The roaring waters are running down.
Two or three kilometers west of Mukhalatka, the new buildings of the Melas sanatorium stand white. And in the shade of the trees hides an old building - a small, pretty Melas palace. In the middle of the 19th century. Russian poet A.K. Tolstoy lived here - one of the literary “fathers” of Kozma Prutkov, who dedicated many poetic lines to Crimea. We have already mentioned it.
A few lines about Yalta and the Southern Coast.
I hit my pocket and it doesn’t ring.
If I knock on another one, you won’t hear it. If only I'd be famous
Then I’ll go to Yalta to rest.
N. Rubtsov about Yalta
I drive
along the Southern
coast of Crimea, -
not Crimea,
and a copy
ancient paradise!
What kind of fauna
Flora
and climate!
I sing in delight
and looking around!
V. Mayakovsky
A living stream rushes down,
Like a thin veil, it shines through with fire,
Sliding from the rocks with a wedding veil
And suddenly, and foam and rain
Falling into a black pond,
Raging with crystal moisture...
I. A. Bunin about the Uchan-Su waterfall
Gurzuf. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Gurzuf was already a prestigious resort with a wealthy public. “In Gurzuv they don’t look for solitude and poetry. Huge metropolitan-type hotels, a rich restaurant, filled from morning to evening with local and casual audiences, exquisite ladies’ toilets, electric lighting and music played twice a day, give Gurzuf life a completely different character from what we see in Alupka or Miskhor” - This is what N.A. Golovkinsky wrote about Gurzuf. People from creative professions also rested alongside the wealthy audience.
Many celebrities visited Gurzuf at different times. In memory of this, busts of A. Mitskevich, L. Ukrainka, F. Chaliapin, A. Chekhov, M. Gorky, V. Mayakovsky were installed in Gurzuf Park. And Bunin and Kuprin, the artist K. Korovin, were also here. In Gurzuf, Chekhov had a small dacha on the seashore, where there is now a branch of Chekhov’s Yalta house-museum.
But Gurzuf was forever glorified by the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin. In the summer of 1820, young Alexander Pushkin, who arrived in Gurzuf with the family of General N.N. Raevsky, stayed in a house that belonged to the Duke de Richelieu. The days spent in Gurzuf left the most vivid and vivid impressions in Pushkin, to which the poet returned more than once later in poems and letters to friends. He stayed here for only three weeks, but considered this time “the happiest minutes of his life.”
The A.S. Pushkin Museum is now open in this house. Its exhibitions allow you to take a fascinating journey through those Crimean corners where young Pushkin visited. Delight with southern nature and wonderful friends resulted in many works: the poems “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Tavrida” and “Bakhchisarai Fountain”, a lyrical cycle of poems about Taurida. And Pushkin’s main work, “Eugene Onegin,” was also conceived here.
A cypress tree grows near the museum, which remembers Pushkin and is mentioned in his letters. Every year, on the poet’s birthday - June 6 and on the day of his death - February 10, the Pushkin Museum holds poetry festivals in Gurzuf, and in all the cities of Crimea where he visited (Kerch, Feodosia, Gurzuf, Cape Fiolent, Bakhchisarai, Simferopol), to Flowers are laid at his monuments. And we remember his immortal lines about Crimea:
Who has seen the land where the luxury of nature
Oak groves and meadows are revived,
Where the waters rustle and glisten merrily
And the peaceful ones caress the shores,
Where on the hills under the laurel vaults
Stubborn snows do not dare to lie down.
A. S. Pushkin
Alushta. In this city there is the Literary and Memorial Museum of S. N. Sergeev-Tsensky.
The museum is located in the house where the famous writer, academician S. N. Sergeev-Tsensky (1875-1958), now fairly forgotten, lived and worked from 1906 to 1958. Here, on Mount Orlina, the author’s most significant works were written - the epic “Transfiguration of Russia”, which included 12 novels, 3 stories, as well as the famous novel “The Sevastopol Strada”. The writer is buried next to the house.
There is also a museum in Alushta of the writer I. S. Shmelev, a Russian foreign writer. I. S. Shmelev (1873-1950) - lived in Alushta for four tragic years - from 1918 to 1922. In 1922, after the execution of his son, he emigrated to France, where he created many works of art, among which “Sun of the Dead” is one of the most significant artistic and documentary works about the Civil War in Russia. Quite a dark book.
There is a resort area in Alushta - Professor's Corner. Here at the foot of Mount Castel in the middle of the 19th century. One of the first to settle was M. A. Dannenberg-Slavich, an extraordinary woman, author of the first “Guide to the Crimea” (1874). Before the 1917 revolution, prominent scientists of that time had their summer cottages here, hence the name. Many of them were good writers, for example, Professor N.A. Golovkinsky, a prominent hydrogeologist who became the author of one of the first guides to the southern coast of Crimea and a number of poems.
“The narrow, crooked streets of Alushta, which do not deserve the name of streets, were crowded along a steep slope above the Ulu-Uzen River. From a distance it seems that small houses with flat roofs and constant galleries are literally standing on top of each other.”
“This is one of the most charming corners I have ever seen. Only the best places in Switzerland and Italy can compare with it.”
Professor N.A. Golovkinsky about Alushta and the Professor’s Corner
This is how, for example, Golovkinsky described his visit to the cave and his feelings from it:
An hour later the whole cavalcade -
In front of the cave. Dark entrance
Like the opening of hell,
The souls of lost victims await.
They leave with timid steps
Down the slippery slope;
Dirt and stones underfoot
Darkness and cold in the depths...
A. Mitskevich was also in Alushta. And he wrote:
I bow with trepidation at the feet of your stronghold,
Great Chatyrdag, the mighty khan of Yayla.
Oh, the mast of the Crimean mountains! O Allah's minaret!
You ascended to the clouds into the azure deserts.
(Translation by I. A. Bunin)
Zander. In Sudak, many famous writers and poets, philosophers visited the hospitable house of Adelaide Gertsyk - M. Voloshin, the Tsvetaeva sisters, V. Ivanov, N. Berdyaev and a number of others.
The poet Osip Mandelstam was also here, who later wrote:
My soul strives there,
Beyond the foggy cape Meganom...
And here is how S. Elpatievsky describes Sudak resort customs in his “Crimean Sketches” (1913): “This year, a stern pillar with two planks rose on the beach, which indicated: “Men”, “Women”. But the pillar is more of a mental line than the real separation of sheep and goats, since both groups are at such a short distance that they can contemplate each other without arming their eyes at all, and travelers passing along the beach must carefully examine the distant mountains so as not to to see very close, prostrate on the sand, on sheets and rugs, stripped of all coverings, of male and female bodies.”
Koktebel. This village in southeastern Crimea is famous for the House-Museum of M. A. Voloshin. In Koktebel, everything is inseparable from the name of Voloshin, a famous poet, publicist, artist and great original. He left us many very accurate and artistically impeccable descriptions of various corners of Crimea, both in poetry and prose.
Thanks to Voloshin’s efforts and the charm of his personality, the remote village became one of the spiritual and cultural centers of Crimea. Koktebel still attracts creative people like a magnet.
Voloshin lived here permanently since 1917. His guests were people who constituted the color of Russian literature and art of the early 20th century. - A. Tolstoy, N. Gumilev, O. Mandelstam, A. Green, M. Bulgakov, V. Bryusov, M. Gorky, V. Veresaev, I. Erenburg, M. Zoshchenko, K. Chukovsky and many other celebrities. M. Tsvetaeva met her future husband here, S. Efron.
In Voloshin’s house, in addition to the museum, according to his will, there is also a House of Writers’ Creativity. They rested and worked here. For example, here in Koktebel V. Aksenov wrote his famous novel “The Island of Crimea”. The poet's house, with its special intellectual and spiritual atmosphere, played a big role in the formation of new generations of writers and poets.
A few lines from Voloshin.
“In no other country in Europe can you find so many landscapes, diverse in spirit and style, and so closely concentrated on a small space of land, as in Crimea...”
“Here, out of excess, individual streams of human streams flowed, froze in a quiet and hopeless harbor, deposited their silt on the shallow bottom, lay on top of each other in layers, and then mixed organically.
Cimmerians, Tauris, Scythians, Sarmatians, Pechenegs, Khazars, Polovtsians, Tatars, Slavs... - this is the alluvium of the Wild Field.
Greeks, Armenians, Romans, Venetians, Genoese - these are the commercial and cultural yeast of Pontus Euxine.”
M. Voloshin about Crimea
Many writers paid tribute to the beauty of Kara-Dag.
Here is K. Paustovsky: “...For the hundredth time I regretted that I was not born an artist. It was necessary to convey this geological poem in colors. For the thousandth time I felt the sluggishness of human speech.”
And here is Voloshin again:
Like a collapsed Gothic cathedral,
Sticking out with unruly teeth,
Like a fabulous basalt fire,
Widely blown stone flame,
From the gray haze over the sea in the distance
A wall rises... But the tale of Kara-Dag
Do not fade with a brush on paper,
Can't express it in a limited language...
Koktebel and the entire southeastern Crimea (Voloshin called it Cimmeria) is an amazing region, with discreet beauty, special charm and charm. And with its own riddles. The legend about the sea serpent that lives off the local shores still lives. In 1921, an article was published in a Feodosia newspaper stating that a “huge reptile” had appeared in the sea near Kara-Dag. A company of Red Army soldiers was sent to capture the sea serpent. When the soldiers arrived in Koktebel, they did not find the snake, but saw only a trace in the sand from a monster that had crawled into the sea. M. Voloshin sent a clipping “about the reptile” to M. Bulgakov. Perhaps she pushed the writer to create the story “Fatal Eggs”
Feodosia. This city is forever associated with the name of A. Green; the literary and memorial museum of A. S. Green was opened here. He lived in Feodosia from 1924 to 1930. Here he wrote 4 novels and more than 30 stories. Among them are the novels “The Golden Chain”, “Running on the Waves”, “Road to Nowhere”.
The museum of the remarkable romantic writer is opened in a small house with an unusual interior decoration, stylized as an old sailing ship. Museum visitors seem to be taking a fascinating journey through an imaginary country born of Green’s imagination. A. Tsvetaeva wrote about the Green Museum: “The Museum of sailing ships and schooners, where the bow of the ship protrudes from the corner, where sea lanterns and ropes and telescopes live, taking visitors with them to a map of Greenland with new capes and straits, with the cities of Hel- Gyu, Liss, Zurbagan...” And, of course, there is a model of a ship with scarlet sails.
There is also a museum of the Tsvetaev sisters in Feodosia - a tribute to the memory of the great Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva and her sister, the fairly famous writer Anastasia. The museum tells about the period 1913-1914, when Marina and Asya lived for several months in Feodosia, in this house - perhaps the happiest months in the tragic biography of Marina Tsvetaeva. At this time, her beloved husband and little daughter were with her. The townspeople enthusiastically received her poems at literary evenings.
Old Crimea. The modest town occupies a prominent place on the literary map of Crimea. There is a literary and art museum here, where you can learn about many famous writers and poets, whose fate was in one way or another connected with Old Crimea. In the city cemetery lies the poetess Yu. Drunina, who tragically passed away in 1991. Her grave is next to the grave of her husband, A. Kapler, a writer and screenwriter, a popular presenter of Kinopanorama in the 60s. Both loved these places very much.
The famous futurist poet and translator Grigory Petnikov lived in Old Crimea for a long time, and he is buried here. M. Bogdanovich, sisters M. and A. Tsvetaeva, M. Voloshin, B. Chichibabin, and many other poets and writers often visited the city. K. Paustovsky lived here for a long time and now the Paustovsky Museum is open here, who wrote about these regions: “Eastern Crimea... is... a special closed country, unlike all other parts of Crimea...”.
Old Crimea is a place of pilgrimage for many admirers of the work of Alexander Green. He spent the last two years of his life in Old Crimea. The writer's grave with a modest monument, crowned by a girl running along the waves, is in the city cemetery. And in the house where he found his last refuge, the A. S. Green Memorial House-Museum is now open. Everything that relates to the Old Crimean period in the life of the wonderful romantic writer is collected here.
Chickens, apple trees, white huts -
Old Crimea looks like a village.
Was he really called Solkhat?
And made the enemy tremble?
Yu. Drunina about Old Crimea
Kerch. Such writers as A. S. Pushkin, A. P. Chekhov, V. G. Korolenko, V. V. Mayakovsky, I. Severyanin, M. A. Voloshin, V. P. Aksenov, V. N. Voinovich. But the city entered Russian literature, first of all, with L. Kassil’s story about the young Kerchan hero V. Dubinin “Street of the Youngest Son.” And also the story by A. Kapler “Two out of Twenty Millions”, filmed in 1986 - “Descended from Heaven”.
Saint Luke was born in Kerch, V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky, former Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea, doctor of medicine, professor, laureate of the USSR State Prize and... former political prisoner (11 years in camps).
His amazing lines:
“The pure ideas of communism and socialism, close to the Gospel teaching, have always been kindred and dear to me; but as a Christian, I never shared the methods of revolutionary action, and the revolution horrified me with the cruelty of these methods. However, I have long since reconciled with her, and her colossal achievements are very dear to me; This especially applies to the enormous rise in science and health care, to the peaceful foreign policy of Soviet power and to the power of the Red Army, the guardian of peace. Of all systems of government, I consider the Soviet system, without any doubt, the most perfect and fair.”
This is where our literary journey ends. I would like to end it with a quote from the book “Across the Crimea on Foot” by your humble servant:
“A real acquaintance with Crimea, conscious and thoughtful, intimate, if you like, happens slowly, in silence, alone with nature. Only there can you fully appreciate the spiritual beauty of the Crimean Mountains. Swim in a mountain river with ice-cold water. Spend the day in a small bay in the middle of stone chaos on a deserted sea coast. Feel the charm of a miniature waterfall, accidentally discovered in the forest. Feel the charm of a small, pretty canyon, lost among the forest. Inhale the bitter smell of herbs on the yayla. See some details of the buildings of the abandoned “cave” city. Visit the temple, which was carved into a piece of rock at the dawn of Christianity. Touch an ancient menhir, which is several thousand years old, with your hand and feel its healing vibration. Realize the connection of times in an abandoned ancient settlement... In a word, see everything that you will never see from the window of a bus or car. You can feel, see and understand this only by traveling on foot.”
And further.
“...Everyone who has visited Crimea takes with them, after parting with it, regret and slight sadness... and the hope of seeing this “midday land” again.
Konstantina Paustovsky
Thank you for your attention.
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And this has always been the case. Once in Crimea, many of its new residents settled here, adopted the culture of the previous inhabitants and developed their own, becoming part of the Crimean ethnic conglomerate. Here are S. Elpatievsky’s observations from the book “Crimean Sketches” of 1913: “It is not the Germans, Armenians and Russians who bring their culture to Otuz, but they themselves... accept the Otuz way of life. They give up tea, switch to coffee, refuse cabbage soup and buckwheat porridge and accept katyki and “pomades”, kaurma, and masaka, and pasties, and all the endless manners... of using lamb. ...And if they drink, they switch from vodka to wine...”
Maybe the historical purpose of Crimea is to connect different peoples, cultures, states and civilizations through time? To be the place where co-living experiences are developed? Many people already have this understanding. Here, for example, are lines from a poem by the modern Crimean poetess Olga Golubeva:
My dark-skinned, blue-eyed Crimea,
We are gathered under your sail,
Fed by a steppe mare,
We drank water from the same spring,
Let's return to the pure thoughts of the past...
My dark-skinned, blue-eyed Crimea,
A wandering, vulnerable pilgrim,
The undying word guides you
Gasprinsky, Mitskevich, Tolstoy
Towards simple eternal truths...
140Before the light I fell asleep. Meanwhile, the ship stopped in sight of Yurzuf. When I woke up, I saw a captivating picture: the multi-colored mountains were shining, the flat roofs of the Tatar huts from a distance seemed like beehives attached to the mountains, the poplars, like green columns, rose slenderly between them, on the right was the huge Ayu-Dag... and all around was the blue, clear sky, and bright the sea, and the shine and the midday air...
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
Link to quote
7 minutes to think
65Crimea is a wonderful land. It resembles the French Cote d'Azur, but its landscapes are harsher. All around there are high rocky mountains, on the slopes there are pine trees, right up to the shore, the sea is changeable: peaceful and radiant in the sun and terrible in a storm. The climate is mild, there are flowers everywhere, a lot of roses. - “Prince Felix Yusupov. Memoirs"
Felix Yusupov
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7 minutes to think
63I don’t feel the beauty in the Crimea and the Riviera, I love river sow thistle, I believe in thistles.
Boris Pasternak
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3 minutes to think
55We'll move on. We will make a network blockade, then there will be a naval blockade, that is, Crimea will be in complete isolation. This will include a blockade of the Kerch crossing. Let them not get too sophisticated and think that we can’t do it
Lenur Islyamov
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7 minutes to think
53In spite of frantic worries, you, wild and fragrant land, like a rose given to me by God, sparkle in the temple of memory. O quiet valleys, midday trembling over the grass and a hill of quail flight... O strange reflection of the ancient chalk crevices, where peonies bloom at the edge, the scales of the thistle are stained, and the orchid turns purple... - “Crimea”, 1920
Vladimir Nabokov
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7 minutes to think
47In the untapped freshness of early childhood, everything in the world seems good for the sole reason that there was morning and there was evening, because then life’s spiritual eyes open for the first time, and the heart begins to tremble for the first time with the happiness of being. But when this childish trembling subsides and becomes foggy over the years, when, in the poet’s words: “Everyone is aware and only repetition promises the future,” then, reader, go south, go to the Crimea. You will drink living water in its air and resurrect unforgettable moments of your childhood happiness. I have already lived through the Crimean summer and Crimean autumn, and I can now say that, even in Crimea, there is nothing like the Crimean spring. She especially charms the newcomer, the Russian guest who is not pampered at home.
Evgeniy Markov
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7 minutes to think
46The freshness of mountain waters and mountain peaks, not yet completely free of snow, perhaps even the freshness of the sea, felt behind the mountains, breathes in the steppe air, the grass is brighter, more colorful, thicker. Valleys wind between the hills, that is, endless gardens. These gardens of the Crimean valleys have nothing like them in Russia. It’s hard to even exchange their beauty for rocks and the sea, which are newer to us. A beautiful Italian poplar, slender, end-to-end, sometimes gracefully grouped, sometimes running away in rows - this is the main charm of the valley. Without poplar, Crimea is not Crimea, the south is not south. I saw these poplars here in Russia, but I never imagined such a wealth of charm in them. At the first thought of the Crimean landscape, a poplar tree rises in my head. With him it begins, with him it ends. It is impossible to explain this impression, but I am sure that every Crimean traveler, not devoid of a living sense of nature, was immediately enchanted by the Crimean poplar.
Evgeniy Markov
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7 minutes to think
44corr.: The Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, which chairs the EU, Mr. Kouchner recently expressed concern that the next conflict, after the conflict in South Ossetia, could be Ukraine, namely Crimea and Sevastopol, as a base for the Russian Navy. Are Crimea and Sevastopol such a target for Russia? - Crimea is not a disputed territory. There was no ethnic conflict there, unlike the conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia. And Russia has long recognized the borders of today’s Ukraine. We have, in fact, completed, by and large, our negotiations on the border. We are talking about demarcation, but this is already a technical matter. The question of some similar goals for Russia, I think, smacks of provocative meaning. There, within society, in Crimea, complex processes are taking place. There are problems of the Crimean Tatars, the Ukrainian population, the Russian population, and the Slavic population in general. But this is an internal political problem for Ukraine itself. We have an agreement with Ukraine regarding the presence of our fleet until 2017, and we will be guided by this agreement. - interview with German broadcaster ARD, August 29, 2008
Vladimir Putin
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7 minutes to think
41We walked in a dry and dusty haze Along the hot Crimean clay, Bakhchisarai, like a khan in the saddle, Dozed in a deep hollow. And on this day in Chufut-Kale, Having picked dry immortelle flowers, I scratched on the rock: “The twentieth year. Goodbye Russia."
Nikolay Turoverov
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7 minutes to think
40Crimean beauty is colorful. There is no richer palette in the world. There are such colors here that you don’t even know the name of the color. But surrounded by tulips and roses, I was not covered in oblivion with duckweed: the light haze of your hair will not be covered by any paint in the Crimea.
Yaroslav Smelyakov
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7 minutes to think
38The population was Tatars, a picturesque, cheerful and hospitable people. Women wore trousers, bright fitted jackets and embroidered skullcaps with a veil, but only married women covered their faces. The young ones have forty braids. Everyone painted their nails and hair with henna. The men wore astrakhan hats, bright shirts and boots with narrow tops. Tatars are Muslims. The minarets of mosques rose above the flat roofs of lime-whitened Tatar houses, and in the morning and evening the muezzin’s voice called from above to prayer. - “Prince Felix Yusupov. Memoirs"
Felix Yusupov
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7 minutes to think
38In Crimea, literally everything is permeated with common history and pride. Here is Ancient Chersonesos, where Saint Prince Vladimir was baptized. His spiritual feat - turning to Orthodoxy - predetermined the common cultural, value, civilizational basis that unites the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. In Crimea there are graves of Russian soldiers, through whose courage Crimea was taken under the Russian Empire in 1783. Crimea is Sevastopol, a legendary city, a city of great destiny, a fortress city and the birthplace of the Russian Black Sea Navy. Crimea is Balaklava and Kerch, Malakhov Kurgan, Sapun Mountain - each of the places is sacred to us, these are symbols of military glory and unprecedented valor. Crimea is a unique fusion of cultures and traditions of different peoples, and in this way it is so similar to Greater Russia, where over the centuries not a single ethnic group has disappeared or dissolved
Vladimir Putin
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7 minutes to think
33We will form a battalion that will prepare to enter Crimea... and will be there to clear Crimea from those “separators” who have settled there, and from those unwanted elements, from enemy elements that will remain there after the liberation of Crimea
Lenur Islyamov
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7 minutes to think
The life and work of the famous poet Maximilian Voloshin were closely connected with Crimea. Today it is especially interesting to read his articles about the Crimean Tatars, whose history and culture he revered and knew very well.
1. The Crimean Tatars are a people in whom very strong and mature cultural poisons were grafted onto the primitive viable trunk of Mongolism, partly softened by the fact that they had already been previously processed by other Hellenized barbarians. This immediately caused a wonderful (economic-aesthetic, but not intellectual) flowering, which completely destroyed the primitive racial stability and strength. In any Tatar one can immediately feel a subtle hereditary culture, but it is infinitely fragile and unable to defend itself. One hundred and fifty years of brutal imperial rule over the Crimea tore the ground out from under their feet, and they can no longer put down new roots, thanks to their Greek, Gothic, Italian heritage.
Poet of the Silver Age M. Voloshin (1877-1932)
2. Tatar art: architecture, carpets, majolica, metal chasing - all this is over; There are still fabrics and embroidery left. Tatar women, by innate instinct, still continue to weave precious plant patterns from themselves, like silkworms. But this ability is also running out.
3. It is difficult to consider the fact that several great Russian poets visited Crimea as tourists or travelers, and that wonderful writers came here to die from tuberculosis as an introduction to Russian culture. But the fact that the lands were systematically taken away from those who loved and knew how to cultivate them, and those who knew how to destroy what had been established settled in their place; that the hardworking and loyal Tatar population was forced into a series of tragic emigrations to Turkey, in the fertile climate of the all-Russian tuberculosis health, everyone died out - namely, from tuberculosis - this is an indicator of the style and character of Russian cultural trade.
Voloshin's house in Koktebel
4. Never (...) this land, these hills and mountains and plains, these bays and plateaus, have experienced such free plant flowering, such peaceful and deep happiness” as in the “golden age of the Gireys”
Voloshin loved to paint landscapes about Koktebel, since he lived here most of his life
5. The Tatars and Turks were great masters of irrigation. They knew how to catch the smallest stream of soil water, direct it through clay pipes into vast reservoirs, they knew how to use the difference in temperature, which produces exudates and dew, they knew how to irrigate gardens and vineyards on the slopes of mountains, like a circulatory system. Hit any slate, completely barren hillside with a pickaxe and you will come across fragments of pottery pipes; at the top of the plateau you will find funnels with oval turned stones, which were used to collect dew; in any clump of trees that has grown under a rock, you will distinguish a wild pear and a degenerate grapevine. This means that this entire desert a hundred years ago was a blooming garden. This entire Mohammedan paradise has been completely destroyed.
6. In Bakhchisarai, in the Khan’s palace, turned into a museum of Tatar art, around the artist Bodaninsky, a Tatar by birth, the last sparks of folk Tatar art continue to smolder, fanned by the breath of several people guarding it.
7. The transformation of the Crimean Khanate into the Tauride province was not favorable for Crimea: completely separated from the living waterways leading through the Bosphorus and associated only with the “wild field” by economic interests, it became a Russian provincial backwater, no more significant than the Gothic, Sarmatian Crimea , Tatar.
8. The Tatars provide, as it were, a synthesis of the entire diverse and variegated history of the country. Under the spacious and tolerant cover of Islam, Crimea's own authentic culture flourishes. The whole country from the Meotian swamps to the southern coast turns into one continuous garden: the steppes bloom with fruit trees, the mountains with vineyards, the harbors with feluccas, the cities gurgle with fountains and hit the sky with white minarets.
9. Times and points of view change: for Kievan Rus, the Tatars were, of course, a Wild Field, and the Crimean Khanate was for Moscow a formidable nest of robbers, pestering it with unexpected raids. But for the Turks - the heirs of Byzantium - and for the kingdom of Giray, who had already accepted in blood and spirit the entire complex legacy of the Crimea with its Greek, Gothic and Italian ores and, of course, the Russians were only a new rise of the Wild Field.
Here, in these folds of sea and land,
The mold did not dry out human cultures -
The space of centuries was cramped for life,
So far, we – Russia – have not arrived.
For one hundred and fifty years - from Catherine -
We have trampled the Muslim paradise,
They cut down the forests, opened up the ruins,
They plundered and ruined the region.
Orphaned sakli gape;
Gardens have been uprooted along the slopes.
The people left. The sources have dried up.
There are no fish in the sea. There is no water in the fountains.
But the mournful face of the numb mask
Goes to the hills of Homer's country,
And pathetically naked
Her spines and muscles and ligaments
Crimea has always been for creative people not just beautiful and inspiring, but some kind of sacred place. Poets, writers, and artists came here and created their masterpieces. Why was this small peninsula so touching?
Let's go and look at Crimea with different eyes in order to understand where Russian and modern classics drew inspiration from.
Crimea through the eyes of writers
Let us first remember Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. The writer lived in Gurzuf, rented a room in Yalta, received treatment, rested and created immortal works. He finally settled in Yalta in 1899, having completed the construction of his own house. Anton Pavlovich wrote to friends: “ My Yalta dacha turned out to be very comfortable. Cozy, warm and good view. The garden will be extraordinary. I planted it myself, with my own hands”.
“Belaya Dacha” has been preserved unchanged for posterity; the Chekhov Museum is located here. In Yalta, the playwright wrote “The Lady with the Dog”, the magnificent plays “The Cherry Orchard”, “Three Sisters”, the story “In the Ravine” and several short stories.
In 1900, Chekhov saw the production of his plays “Uncle Vanya” and “The Seagull” on the stage of the Sevastopol Drama Theater.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy participated in the Crimean War in the defense of Sevastopol, here he wrote “Sevastopol Stories”. After 30 years, the writer visited Simeiz and, as he admitted, looked at everything in a new way. “ This is where, or in general in the south, those who want to live well should begin to live... Secluded, beautiful, majestic…”
Leo Tolstoy was treated for two years in Koreiz, where Chaliapin, Kuprin, Korolenko, Gorky came to visit him, and they were all fascinated by Crimea. The famous “Song of the Falcon” was written by Maxim Gorky under the impression of the splendor of southern nature.
Kuprin came to rest in Balaklava every summer and autumn, and often went to sea with fishermen. He dedicated the essays “Listrigons” to them. The writer witnessed the uprising on the cruiser “Ochakov” and angrily spoke out against the brutal reprisal against the rebels, after which the commander of the Black Sea Fleet organized the expulsion of the writer from Crimea. In Balaklava, on the embankment, there is a monument to Alexander Kuprin.
In Feodosia there is the Literary Museum of Alexander Green, who lived here for six years. The brilliant novel “Running on the Waves,” dedicated to the writer’s wife, was written here.
Konstantin Paustovsky made an invaluable contribution to the restoration of Green’s creative heritage; he often came to Old Crimea and worked here on the story “The Black Sea,” in which Alexander Green became the prototype for Hart.
Bunin, Griboyedov, Gogol, Sergeev-Tsensky, Stanyukovich left their mark on the Crimean land, inspiring them to create works of genius.
Crimea poetic
In 1820, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin visited Taurida, ending up in southern exile here. For such a “punishment” he was immensely grateful to the authorities, because he fell in love with the picturesque nature. The poet wrote about his stay in the city that he bathes in the sea and gorges himself on grapes.
“A young cypress tree grew two steps from the house; every morning I visited him and became attached to him with a feeling similar to friendship" This cypress still grows in Gurzuf not far from the fountain to which Pushkin came every morning to drink water.
In the Bakhchisaray Palace, the poet was fascinated by the Fountain of Tears:
“Fountain of love, living fountain!
I brought you two roses as a gift.
I love your silent conversation
And poetic tears.”
Pushkin traveled the peninsula from Kerch to Simferopol, visited Bakhchisarai, the entire southern coast, and this is how Crimea appeared to Pushkin:
“Magic land! a delight to the eyes!
Everything is alive there: hills, forests,
Amber and yakhont grapes,
Dolin's sheltered beauty.”
It’s easy to get to Gurzuf by car to see with your own eyes the silent ancient contemporaries of the poet. Nowadays the Pushkin Museum, consisting of six halls, is open here.
In 1825, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz traveled from Tarkhankut to Yevpatoria, visiting Alushta and Chatyrdag. The results of the trip resulted in the cycle “Crimean Sonnets”.
In 1876, the peninsula was visited by Nikolai Nekrasov, who came here to improve his health on the advice of Doctor Botkin. In Yalta, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was completed and several poems were written.
The name of Maximilian Voloshin is inextricably linked with Crimea. The House of the Poet, which he founded and bequeathed to his friends, was opened. On Mount Kuchuk-Yenishar there is Voloshin’s grave, where the flow of admirers of his work never ends. He was buried here according to his wishes.
“And over living mirrors
A dark mountain will appear,
Like a scattering flame
Petrified fire.”
Osip Mandelstam visited Voloshin several times. In 1920, he was arrested in Feodosia by White Guard counterintelligence and after that he returned to the peninsula only in 1933, settling in Old Crimea.
Vladimir Mayakovsky did not ignore Crimea either:
“The wave sighs a little,
and, echoing her,
Breeze
over Evpatoria.”
In 1913, together with Igor Severyanin, the poet toured the peninsula, reading poetry and lectures.
Anna Akhmatova dedicated about 20 poems and the poem “By the Sea” to Crimea and Sevastopol, where she describes her childhood.
The list goes on; talented individuals in any century have found joy for the soul in the Crimean expanses. You can quickly and easily get to any place associated with the name of your favorite poet or writer.