Mysteries of the opera libretto of the Queen of Spades. Opera P

(10.10. 1884 – between 23 and 25.10. 1937)

Poet and prose writer, one of the largest representatives of Russian culture of the first third of the 20th century.

The fate of Klyuev - both in biographical and literary terms - was not easy. He was born in one of the villages of the Koshtug volost, which, according to the then territorial and administrative division, was part of the Olonets province. In which particular village is unknown, since in the metric book of the Sretenskaya Church p. Koshtuga, where the future poet was baptized, only the parish is indicated as his place of birth. Klyuev's father, Alexey Timofeevich (1842 - 1918), came from a peasant background, was a native of the Kirillovsky district of the Novgorod province; returning after fifteen years military service, he became a constable (the lower rank of the district police), and then a clerk in a state-owned wine shop in the village of Zhelvachevo, Makachevsky volost, Vytegorsky district. The poet's mother, Praskovya Dmitrievna (c. 1851 - 1913), was brought up in an Old Believer family. Thanks to her, Klyuev, already a seven-year-old boy, mastered reading and writing in the Book of Hours, “like a palace decorated,” and became familiar with the folk poetic creativity and to spiritual heritage Ancient Rus'. Old printed and handwritten books, as well as icons of Donikon writing were part of the parental home.

In 1893 - 1895 Klyuev studied at the Vytegorsk parish school, then graduated from a two-year city school, entered the Petrozavodsk paramedic school, but a year later he left it for health reasons.

Almost no documentary evidence has survived about his biography at the turn of the century. The poet’s own memories of this period of life (autobiographical notes, the story “The Loon’s Fate”) are clothed in art form and cannot be regarded as completely reliable. According to these memoirs, young Klyuev underwent severe training from the Solovetsky elders, belonged to the sect of “white doves of Christ,” and wandered around Russia from the Norwegian shores to the Caucasus mountains. During these travels, he had the opportunity to see Leo Tolstoy and perform before him religious chants of his own composition.

Revolutionary ferment in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Klyuev was also captured. For inciting the peasants of the Makachevsky volost to anti-government actions, he was captured in January 1906 by the police and spent six months in prisons in Vytegra, St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk. Political activities Klyuev continued to study after his release. He maintained contacts with the All-Russian Peasant Union, with social revolutionaries and social democrats. In 1907, Klyuev had to put on a soldier's overcoat. For refusing to take up arms due to religious beliefs, he was arrested again. Doctors at the Nikolaev Military Hospital in St. Petersburg declared him unfit for military service. After that, he settled in the village of Zhelvachevo and started literary creativity. Klyuev lived in this village from 1895 to 1915. From time to time he had to visit St. Petersburg for publishing matters.

Klyuev first published his poems in the St. Petersburg almanac “New Poets” in 1904. Turning point his biography was the correspondence with A. A. Blok, which began in 1907. Blok saw a representative of healthy people in Klyuev popular forces and helped him enter the world of literature. The poet's works began to appear in well-known periodicals - both reputable, with an established reputation, and newfangled ones (in the magazines Sovremennik, Russian Thought, Testaments, Northern Notes, Golden Fleece, Hyperborey, in supplements to the magazine “Niva”, in the newspaper “Birzhevye Vedomosti”, etc.). The first one was published in 1912 poetry book Klyuev "Sosen chime". It was followed by others: “Brotherly Songs” (1912), “Forest Were” (1913), “Worldly Thoughts” (1916). The works written by Klyuev attracted the attention of critics. They were reviewed by famous writers: V. Ya. Bryusov, S. M. Gorodetsky, N. S. Gumilev, Ivanov-Razumnik (R. V. Ivanov), V. L. Lvov-Rogachevsky, P. N. Sakulin, D. V. Filosofov. Klyuev was invited to read poetry by the owners of fashion salons and organizers of concerts and poetry evenings.

To the sophisticated public of the early 20th century. he appeared as a poet from people's depths and struck her unusual images, richness of language, deep knowledge of the hidden sides of the spiritual life of the northern peasantry. The world that was revealed in Klyuev’s poems was admired by Alexander Blok and Nikolai Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova and Sergei Yesenin. These poems made a deep impression on Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

In terms of theme, Klyuev’s work was adjacent to “peasant poetry”, represented by the names of A. V. Koltsov, I. S. Nikitin, I. Z. Surikov, S. D. Drozhzhin. Klyuev himself did not refuse such a literary relationship. But almost from the very beginning it was clear that the scale of his talent was not limited to his masterful description of rural life and sympathy for the bitter fate of the peasant. The constant desire to discover their deep essence behind the appearance of phenomena, to feel the “presence of the Creator in creation” gave reason to consider him the heir of the Symbolists. For some time the young poet was counted among the Acmeists.

The one closest to him for a while was literary group“Scythians”, formed in 1916. In the programmatic guidelines of this group, Klyuev was attracted by the rejection of bourgeois civilization, which spiritually weakens a person, hope in the creative power of the national element, aspiration for revolutionary changes, faith in the salutary role of peasant socialism for Russia. It was also important for him, apparently, that the group included people creatively close to him: S. A. Yesenin, A. M. Remizov, P. V. Oreshin, A. P. Chapygin. However, “Scythians” did not become a reliable ideological and aesthetic stronghold for Klyuev. He never connected his creative destiny with any of the literary movements or with any of the groups of the early 20th century. and remained, in essence, a solitary poet, without permanent companions.

Klyuev enthusiastically received not only the February, but also October Revolution 1917 and, like many contemporary writers, tried to present it in his works as a long-awaited transformation of all life, as a grandiose spiritual revolution, equal in significance to the creation of the world. But the events taking place in the country quickly dispelled poetic illusions. In the first post-revolutionary years, despite everyday troubles and difficulties, he still felt like an active participant cultural life. Without him, no mass public events took place in Vytegra. He collaborated in local periodicals and gave readings of his works in Petrograd. Separate publications books of his poems and poems were published (“Red Song” - 1917, “Copper Whale” - 1919, “Song Book” - 1919, “Hut Songs” and “Unfading Color” - 1920, “Lion Bread”, “Mother Saturday” and “The Fourth Rome” - 1922, “Lenin” - 1924, etc.). Then the situation began to change noticeably.

For adherents of Soviet ideology, Klyuev was a stranger even in the first post-revolutionary years, when at least relative freethinking was allowed. In 1920, he was expelled from the Russian Communist Party “for his religious beliefs.” He did not want and could not give up these beliefs. The poet’s attempts to penetrate the spirit of “socialist construction”, to sing in his own way about the leader of the proletariat and to come to terms with the dominance of Bolshevism in the country were unsuccessful. He continued to remain faithful to the peasant way of life and consider the hut to be the “sanctuary of the earth”, and the village the guardian of the main human values. He perceived industrialization as evil, as a threat to culture (“The invisible Constantinople is not subject to the turbine,” “The chisel does not yearn for Tyutchev”).

Utopian images of the invisible city of Kitezh and White India begin to play an increasingly large role in Klyuev’s work. Both of them go back to ancient Russian literature and folklore. The first of them is associated with the belief in the indestructibility of the beautiful spiritual essence of Russia and in the miracle of the future revival of this essence. And the second became for Klyuev the focus of the most precious ideas and motives. In the image of White India, the poet expressed his conviction that historically and spiritually Russia is closer to the East, not the West. This image clearly embodied his idea of earthly paradise, where the tirelessly fertile land provides fabulous abundance, where people live in harmony with the world around them and know no enmity towards their neighbor, where peoples merge into a single family, and the human spirit, sensitive to the trembling of the “seraphic wings”, reaches an unprecedented flowering.

The stubborn reluctance of the “singer of the Olonets hut” to submit to the “demands of the era” led to the fact that representatives of the interests of the proletariat hastened to bury him as a poet and declare him creatively bankrupt. Throughout the 1920s. Klyuev was gradually being ousted from literature.

In the summer of 1923 he was arrested and brought to Petrograd. He was released very soon, but decided not to return to Vytegra, hoping to find more favorable conditions for a creative life on the banks of the Neva. Hopes, however, were not justified. It became increasingly difficult to find a way to the reader of his work. Klyuev was ranked among the “kulak poets,” and the word “Klyuevshchina” was used to brand “muzhikovist” writers who could not find the strength to renounce the centuries-old culture of the Russian peasantry. The poem “The Village,” published in the January issue of the Leningrad magazine “Zvezda” for 1927, was sharply criticized. The last book of Klyuev’s poems during his lifetime, “The Hut and the Field,” was published in 1928. Against the backdrop of the unfolding events in the country, it was not difficult to use Klyuev’s works as ideological argument against it. A year earlier, the XV Congress of the CPSU(b) (All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks) proclaimed a course towards collectivization Agriculture, and any expression of affection for old village was perceived as the machinations of a class enemy.

In 1932, the instinct of self-preservation prompted Klyuev to move to Moscow. But the poet was destined for the same fate as many of his contemporaries. In February 1934 he was arrested and exiled. Last years his life was spent in Tomsk. These years were filled with hardship and suffering - both spiritual and physical. In June 1937, the poet was again arrested on false charges of creating a monarchical and church organization, and a few months later they shot him. The execution took place on October 23, 24 or 25. Set the end date more precisely earthly path Klyuev is impossible.

For almost half a century literary heritage Klyuev was removed from cultural circulation. For several generations of readers, such a poet simply did not exist. His works began to be printed again, and then in small editions at that time, only in the 1970s. And the real scale of the poet’s legacy was revealed to the reading public at the very end of the 20th century, when works that had not previously been published became available.

Unfortunately, not all of Klyuev’s works “survived the ashes” of the creator and “escaped decay.” Apparently, the text of the play “Red Easter” has been irretrievably lost, and little remains of the poem “Cain.” But, fortunately, manuscripts of the unfinished poems “Pogorelshchina” (1928), “Solovki” (1928), “Song of the Great Mother” (1931), and the poetic cycle “What the Gray Cedars Are Noisy About” (1933) have been preserved. Several works written in exile have also reached us. They indicate that Klyuev’s talent, in extremely unfavorable conditions for creativity, not only did not fade away, but also reached new heights. Klyuev’s latest poems are large-scale works in concept, dedicated to the fate of the people at turning points in their history. Despite the dominant tragic flavor, the main thing in them is faith in the transformation of long-suffering Russia, in the indestructible ability people's soul to revival.

The St. Petersburg composer V. I. Panchenko wrote a cycle of songs and romances based on Klyuev’s poems. In Vytegra, where the poet lived in the late 1910s and early 1920s, there is his museum. Since 1985, annual Klyuev Readings have been held in this city. The Department of Russian Language of the Vologda Pedagogical University has published a series of collections scientific works, dedicated to creativity poet.

S. Yu. Baranov, Ph.D., professor

Plus

, RSFSR, USSR

Nikolay Alekseevich Klyuev(October 10 (22), Koshtugi village, Olonets province - between October 23 and 25, Tomsk) - Russian poet, representative of the so-called new peasant trend in Russian poetry of the 20th century.

Biography

Father, Alexey Timofeevich Klyuev (1842-1918) - a police officer, a sitter in a wine shop. Mother, Praskovya Dmitrievna (1851-1913), was a storyteller and weeper. Klyuev studied at the city schools of Vytegra and Petrozavodsk. Among his ancestors were Old Believers, although his parents and he himself (contrary to many of his stories) did not profess the Old Believers.

In Klyuev’s autobiographical notes “The Loon’s Fate” it is mentioned that in his youth he traveled a lot around Russia. Specific stories cannot be confirmed by sources, and such numerous autobiographical myths are part of it literary image.

Klyuev tells how he served as a novice in the monasteries on Solovki; how he was “King David... of white doves - Christ”, but ran away when they wanted to emasculate him; how in the Caucasus I met the handsome Ali, who, according to Klyuev, “loved me the way Kadra-night teaches, which is worth more than a thousand months. This is a secretive eastern teaching about marriage with an angel, which in Russian white Christianity is denoted by the words: finding Adam ...”, then Ali committed suicide out of hopeless love for him; how in Yasnaya Polyana talked with Tolstoy; how he met Rasputin; how he was in prison three times; how did you become famous poet, and “literary meetings, evenings, artistic feasts, the chambers of the Moscow nobility for two winters in a row ground me with the motley millstones of fashion, curiosity and well-fed boredom.”

Literary fame

Klyuev's poems first appeared in print in 1904. At the turn of the 1900s and 1910s, Klyuev appeared in literature, and did not continue the standard tradition for “poets of the people” of descriptive minor poetry in the spirit of I.Z. Surikov, but boldly used the techniques of symbolism, imbuing his poems with religious imagery and dialect vocabulary . The first collection - “Pine Chime” - was published in 1911. Klyuev’s work was received with great interest by Russian modernists, who described him as a “harbinger of folk culture" Alexander Blok expressed himself (in correspondence with him in 1907; he had a great personal and creative influence on Klyuev), Valery Bryusov and Nikolai Gumilyov.

Nikolai Klyuev was tied up difficult relationships(at times friendly, at times tense) with Sergei Yesenin, who considered him his teacher. In 1915-1916, Klyuev and Yesenin often performed poetry together in public, and later their paths (personal and poetic) converged and diverged several times.

Klyuev's religiosity

As A.I. Mikhailov points out, Alexander Blok repeatedly mentions Klyuev in his poems, notebooks and letters and perceives it as a symbol of a mysterious folk faith. In one of his letters, Blok even stated: “Christ is among us,” and S. M. Gorodetsky attributed these words to Nikolai Klyuev.

In his 1922 entry, Klyuev says:

...for me Christ is the eternal inexhaustible milk force, a member that dissects the worlds in the vagina, and in our world is cut through by a hole - the material sun, with golden seed continuously fertilizing the cow and the woman, the fir and the bee, the airy world and the fiery underworld.
The seed of Christ is the food of the faithful. This is what it says: “Take, eat...” and “Whoever eats my flesh will not die...”
It was not revealed to our theologians that by flesh Christ meant not the body, but the seed, which is also called flesh among the people.
This is what should emerge in human consciousness, especially in our times, in the age of the shocked heart, and become a new law of morality...

Klyuev after the revolution

Klyuev’s poems at the turn of the 1910s and 1920s reflect “peasant” and “religious” acceptance revolutionary events, he sent his poems to Lenin (although several years earlier, together with Yesenin, he spoke to the Empress), he became close to the left-wing Socialist Revolutionary literary group “Scythians”. The Berlin publishing house "Scythians" published three collections of Klyuev's poems in 1920-1922.

After several years of hungry wanderings, around 1922 Klyuev reappeared in Petrograd and Moscow, his new books were sharply criticized and withdrawn from circulation.

Since 1923, Klyuev lived in Leningrad (in the early 1930s he moved to Moscow). Klyuev’s catastrophic situation, including his financial one, did not improve after the publication of his collection of poems about Lenin (1924).

Soon Nikolai Klyuev, like many new peasant poets, distanced himself from Soviet reality, which was destroying the traditional peasant world; in turn, Soviet criticism criticized him as an “ideologist of the kulaks.” After Yesenin’s death, he wrote “The Lament for Yesenin” (1926), which was soon withdrawn from free sale [ ] . In 1928 it comes out latest collection"The Hut and the Field."

In 1929, Klyuev met the young artist Anatoly Kravchenko, to whom his love poems and letters of this time were addressed (there are 42 letters from Klyuev). The predominance of the celebration of male beauty over female beauty in Klyuev's poetry of all periods was studied in detail by philologist A. I. Mikhailov.

On this top human feeling, like clouds touching the double Ararat, the heavenly swirls above the earthly, earthly. And this law is inevitable. Only now, on my days of the cross, does it, more than ever, become clearly perceptible to me. That's why it's harmful and wrong to tell you that you live in me just like gender and that with sex, love goes away and friendships are destroyed. Irresistible proof that the angelic side of your being has always obscured the floor is my poetry, spilled at your feet. Look at them - is there a lot of floor there? Are all the feelings of these extraordinary and never repeated runes connected with you, as with a snowdrop, a seagull or a ray that has become a young man?

Arrests, exile and execution

On February 2, 1934, Klyuev was arrested on charges of “composing and distributing counter-revolutionary literary works"(Article 58, Part 10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). The investigation into the case was led by N. Kh. Shivarov. On March 5, after the trial of the Special Meeting, he was deported to the Narym region, to Kolpashevo. In the fall of the same year, at the request of the artist N. A. Obukhova, S. A. Klychkov and, possibly, Gorky, he was transferred to Tomsk.

On June 5, 1937, in Tomsk, Klyuev was arrested again and on October 13 of the same year, at a meeting of the NKVD troika of the Novosibirsk region, he was sentenced to death in the case of the never-existent “cadet-monarchist rebel organization “Union for the Salvation of Russia.” At the end of October he was shot. As stated in the certificate of posthumous rehabilitation of Klyuev, he was shot in Tomsk on October 23-25, 1937. The blurred date of the execution may be explained by the fact that from 01:00 on October 23 to 08:00 on October 25 there was no light in Tomsk due to repairs at the local thermal power plant. IN similar cases NKVD officers who carried out sentences over two nights (October 23 and 24) using a lantern " bat", could issue documents retroactively for the entire party only after electric light appeared in the city (October 25). Probably the place of execution and mass grave, where the poet rested, became one of the vacant lots in the ravine (the so-called Scary Ditch) between Kashtachnaya Gora and the transit prison (now pre-trial detention center-1 on Pushkin Street, 48) (See. Kashtak (Tomsk) #Mass executions) .

The investigator in the Klyuev case was the detective of the 3rd department of the Tomsk city department of the NKVD, junior lieutenant of state security Georgy Ivanovich Gorbenko).

Posthumous rehabilitation

Nikolai Klyuev was rehabilitated in 1957, but the first posthumous book It was published in the USSR only in 1977.

The rare great literary talent of Klyuev, who is often placed above Yesenin, grew out of folk peasant creativity and the centuries-old religiosity of the Russian people. Life, nourished by the primordial strength of the peasantry and seeking poetic expression, was combined with him at first with an instinctive, and later with a politically conscious rejection of urban civilization and Bolshevik technocracy. At the same time, the form of his poems developed from proximity to folk ones - through the influence of symbolism - to more conscious independent structures.<…>Poems in the spirit of folk laments are interspersed with verses in tune with biblical psalms, the style is very often ornamental. The richness of the images reveals the fullness of the inner, sometimes visionary, view of the world.

Residence addresses

Petrograd - Leningrad

1915-1923 - apartment of K. A. Rasshchepina in apartment building- embankment of the Fontanka river, 149, apt. 9;
1923-1932 - courtyard outbuilding - Herzen Street, 45, apt. 7.

Tomsk

There are two preserved houses in Tomsk - lane. Krasnogo Pozharnik, 12 and Mariinsky Lane, 38 (now 40), in which different time there lived a poet.

The poet's last refuge is 13 on the street. Achinskaya. The poet himself described his home (after his release from arrest on July 5, 1936) as follows:

They brought me and carried me out of the cart and into my kennel. I'm lying... lying. […] Outside the slanting window of my little room is a gray Siberian downpour with a whistling wind. It’s already autumn here, it’s cold, there’s mud up to the collars, the guys are roaring behind the plank fence, the red-haired woman is cursing them, and the terrible common tub under the washstand reeks of a sickening stench...

The house was subsequently demolished. Installed in 1999 on the house Memorial plaque transferred to literary museum Shishkov's house (Shishkova St., no. 10), copies of documents on the Klyuev case, lifetime publications, periodical articles about his life and work are also stored there. October 21, 2016 on a building built on the site of a house on the street. Achinskaya, 13, a memorial plaque of the “Last Address” project was installed in memory of the repressed poet.

Bibliography

Lifetime editions

Brotherly songs. (Songs of Calvary Christians). - M.: To new land, 1912. 16 p.
Brotherly songs. (Book two) / Intro. Art. V. Sventsitsky. - M.: New land, 1912. XIV, 61 p.
There were forest ones. - M.: 1912.
There were forest ones. (Poems. Book 3). - M.: 1913. 76 p.
Pines chime. / Preface V. Bryusova. - M.: 1912. 79 p.; 2nd ed. - M.: Publishing house. Nekrasova, 1913. 72 p.
Worldly thoughts. - Pg.: ed. Averyanova, 1916. 71 p.
Songbook. Book 1-2. - Pg.: 1919.
Copper whale. (Poetry). - Pg.: Ed. Petrosovet, 1919. 116 pp.; reprint reprint: M.: Stolitsa, 1990.
Unfading color: Songbook. - Vytegra: 1920. 63 p.
Hut songs. - Berlin: Scythians, 1920. 30 p.
Song of the Sun Bearer. Earth and iron. - Berlin: Scythians, 1920. 20 p.
Lion bread. - M.: 1922. 102 p.
Mother Saturday. (Poem). - Pg: Polar Star, 1922. 36 p.
Fourth Rome. - Pg.: Epoch, 1922. 23 p.
Lenin. Poetry. - M.-Pg.: 1924. 49 p. (3 editions)
Klyuev N. A., Medvedev P. N. Sergei Yesenin. (Poems about him and an essay on his work). - L.: Priboy, 1927. 85 p. (includes Klyuev’s poem “Lament for Sergei Yesenin”).
Hut and field. Selected Poems. - L.: Priboy, 1928. 107 p.

Major posthumous publications

Klyuev N. A. Poems and poems / Compiled, text preparation and notes by L. K. Shvetsova. Entry Art. V. G. Bazanova. - L.: Soviet writer, 1977. - 560 p. 2nd ed.: Leningrad: Soviet Writer, 1982.
Klyuev N. A. Heart of the Unicorn: Poems and Poems / Preface. N. N. Skatova, intro. Art. A. I. Mikhailova; comp., preparation of text and notes by V. P. Garnin. - St. Petersburg. : Publishing house RKhGI, 1999. - 1072 p. - ISBN 5-88812-079-0.
Klyuev N. A. Verbal tree: Prose / Intro. Art. A. I. Mikhailova; comp., preparation of text and notes by V. P. Garnin. - St. Petersburg. : Rostock, 2003. - 688 p. - ISBN 5-94668-012-9.
Nikolay Klyuev. Letters to Alexander Blok: 1907-1915 / Publ., input. Art. and comm.

Childhood and youth

The father is a police officer, a sitter in a wine shop. Mother was a storyteller and a weeper. He studied at the city schools of Vytegra and Petrozavodsk. Among Klyuev's ancestors there were Old Believers, although his parents and he himself (contrary to many of his stories) did not profess the Old Believers.

He took part in the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, and was repeatedly arrested for agitating peasants and for conscientious objection to the army oath. He served his sentence first in Vytegorsk and then in Petrozavodsk prison.

In Klyuev’s autobiographical (or pseudo-autobiographical) notes “The Loon’s Fate” it is mentioned that in his youth he traveled a lot around Russia. Specific stories cannot be confirmed by sources, and such numerous autobiographical myths are part of his literary image.

Klyuev also tells how he served as a novice in the monasteries on Solovki; and how he was “King David... of the white doves of Christ” (one of the Orthodox “sects”, see Khlystyism), but when they wanted to castrate him, he ran away; and how in the Caucasus I met the handsome Ali, who, according to Klyuev, “loved me as the Kadra-night teaches, which is worth more than a thousand months. This is a secretive Eastern teaching about marriage with an angel, which in Russian white Christianity is denoted by the words: finding Adam...”, then Ali committed suicide out of hopeless love for him; and how he talked with Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana; and how he met Rasputin; and how he was imprisoned three times; and how he became a famous poet and “literary meetings, evenings, artistic feasts, the chambers of the Moscow nobility for two winters in a row ground me with the motley millstones of fashion, curiosity and well-fed boredom.”

Literary fame

Klyuev's poems first appeared in print in 1904. At the turn of the 1900s and 1910s, Klyuev appeared in literature, and did not continue the standard tradition for “poets of the people” of descriptive minor poetry in the spirit of I.Z. Surikov, but boldly used the techniques of symbolism, imbuing the poems with religious imagery and dialect vocabulary . The first collection - “Pine Chime” - was published in 1911. Klyuev’s work was received with great interest by Russian modernists; Alexander Blok (in correspondence with him in 1907; had a great personal and creative influence on Klyuev), Valery Bryusov and Nikolai Gumilyov spoke about him as a “harbinger of folk culture.”

Nikolai Klyuev had a complex relationship (at times friendly, at times tense) with Sergei Yesenin, who considered him his teacher. In 1915-1916, Klyuev and Yesenin often performed poetry together in public, and later their paths (personal and poetic) converged and diverged several times.

Klyuev's religiosity

As A.I. Mikhailov points out, Alexander Blok repeatedly mentions Klyuev in his poems, notebooks and letters and perceives him as a symbol of a mysterious folk faith. In one of his letters, Blok even stated: “Christ is among us,” and S. M. Gorodetsky attributed these words to Nikolai Klyuev

In his 1922 entry, Klyuev says:

Klyuev after the revolution

Klyuev’s poems at the turn of the 1910s and 1920s reflect a “peasant” and “religious” acceptance of revolutionary events; he sent his poems to Lenin (although a few years earlier, together with Yesenin, he spoke to the Empress), became close to the left-wing Socialist Revolutionary literary group “Scythians” " The Berlin publishing house "Scythians" published three collections of Klyuev's poems in 1920-1922.

After several years of hungry wanderings, around 1922 Klyuev reappeared in Petrograd and Moscow, his new books were sharply criticized and withdrawn from circulation.

Soon Nikolai Klyuev, like many new peasant poets, distanced himself from Soviet reality, which was destroying the traditional peasant world; in turn, Soviet criticism criticized him as an “ideologist of the kulaks.” After Yesenin’s suicide, he wrote “Lament for Yesenin” (1926), which was soon withdrawn. In 1928, the last collection “Izba and Field” was published.

In 1929, Klyuev met the young artist Anatoly Kravchenko, to whom his love poems and letters of that time were addressed (the predominance of the celebration of male beauty over female beauty in Klyuev’s poetry of all periods was emphasized by philologist A. I. Mikhailov).

Arrests, exile and execution

Klyuev himself in letters to the poet Sergei Klychkov and V. Ya. Shishkov called main reason references to his poem “Pogorelshchina”, in which they saw a pamphlet on collectivization and a negative attitude towards the policies of the Communist Party and Soviet power. Similar charges (of “anti-Soviet agitation” and “composing and distributing counter-revolutionary literary works”) were brought against Klyuev in connection with his other works - “The Song of Gamayun” and “If the demons of the plague, leprosy and cholera ...”, included in the unfinished cycle “ Devastation." The last poem, for example, mentions the White Sea-Baltic Canal, built with the participation of large number dispossessed and prisoners:

Poems from the cycle “Devastation” are stored in the criminal case of N. Klyuev as an appendix to the interrogation protocol.

According to the memoirs of functionary I. M. Gronsky (editor of Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and editor-in-chief of the magazine New world"), Klyuev increasingly moved "to anti-Soviet positions" (despite the state allowance allocated to him), when he sent a "love hymn" to the newspaper, the subject of which was "not a 'girl', but a 'boy,'" Gronsky outlined his indignation in a conversation with Klyuev, but he refused to write “normal” poetry, after which Gronsky called Yagoda and asked to expel Klyuev from Moscow (this order was sanctioned by Stalin). The opinion that the reason for Klyuev’s arrest was precisely his homosexuality was also expressed later in private conversations by M. M. Bakhtin.

On February 2, 1934, Klyuev was arrested on charges of “composing and distributing counter-revolutionary literary works” (Article 58 10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). The investigation into the case was led by N.Kh. Shivarov. On March 5, after the trial of the Special Meeting, he was deported to the Narym region, to Kolpashevo. In the fall of the same year, at the request of the artist N. A. Obukhova, S. A. Klychkov and possibly Gorky, he was transferred to Tomsk.

Nikolai Klyuev was rehabilitated in 1957, but the first posthumous book in the USSR was published only in 1977.

Addresses in Petrograd - Leningrad

1915-1923 - apartment of K. A. Rasshchepina in an apartment building - Fontanka River embankment, 149, apt. 9;
1923-1932 - courtyard outbuilding - Herzen Street, 45, apt. 7.

"Queen of Spades" is a masterpiece that unites two world geniuses born on Russian soil: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

The opera is one of the most performed Russian works abroad, along with the opera "Boris Godunov" by M. P. Mussorgsky.

Essay by A. S. Pushkin

The basis of the opera is Pushkin's story "The Queen of Spades". It was completed in 1833, and its printed publication debut took place the following year, 1834.

The plot is mystical in nature, touching on such topics as fortune, fate, higher power, lot and fate.

The story has prototypes and real basis. Its plot was suggested to the poet by the young Prince Golitsyn. But in reality he lived, after losing in card game was able to recoup thanks to a hint from Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, his grandmother. She got this advice from a certain Saint Germain.

Probably Pushkin wrote the story in the village of Boldino Nizhny Novgorod region, but, unfortunately, the handwritten original has not survived

This story is perhaps the first work that gained success not only in Russia, but also abroad during the poet’s lifetime.

Characters and plot

The main characters of Pushkin's "Queen of Spades":

Engineer Hermann is the main character. He had never picked up cards until he accidentally heard about a certain secret of three cards with which you can win a large fortune.
Anna Fedotovna Tomskaya is the keeper of the desired secret.
Lisa is a young naive girl and pupil, thanks to whom main character was able to enter the countess's house.

The night after the funeral, the ghost of the Countess appears to Hermann in a dream and nevertheless reveals the secret of the cards. He does not miss the opportunity and sits down to play with wealthy opponents. The first day turns out to be successful, and a triple bet on 47 thousand gives the lucky winner victory.

On the 2nd day, fortune in the person of seven again turns to face him, and Hermann again emerges from the game as a winner.

On the 3rd day, already inspired and anticipating complete victory, Hermann bets absolutely everything on the treasured ace and loses. Having opened the card, he sees the Queen of Spades, who mysteriously begins to take on features of resemblance to the deceased countess.

The main character cannot stand such meanness and eventually loses his mind, and unfortunate Lisa, having forgotten all this, how horrible dream, marries a respectable man.

Opera "The Queen of Spades"

Opera is one of famous works Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was written in 1890. The work was created based on essay of the same name A. S. Pushkin.

History of creation

The composer worked on it in Florence; surprisingly, the opera was written in just forty-four days. However, the idea of the production piece of music on the stage Mariinsky Theater arose much earlier and belonged to I. A. Vsevolozhsky. Initially, negotiations on the creation of the opera were conducted with other composers - N. S. Klenovsky and A. A. Villamov. Later, in 1887, Vsevolozhsky’s first conversation with Tchaikovsky took place. The composer flatly refused to work on the opera. However, instead of him, his younger brother, Modest Ilyich (a talented librettist), took up the matter. Gradually, Pyotr Ilyich’s attitude towards opera changed, and in 1889, the composer rethought his decision and, quitting his business, studied the libretto (the literary foundation on the basis of which vocal and ballet works are created) written by his younger brother. In January 1890, while in Italy, he began work on the opera.

The work began at a stormy and energetic pace, the composer even wrote the text himself for two of his arias (the hero Yeletsky in Act II and the heroine Liza in Act III). Later, Tchaikovsky added the 7th act to the composition - Hermann's drinking song.

The world premiere took place on December 19, 1890 at the famous Mariinsky Theater under the direction of conductor Eduard Napravnik.

The Moscow debut took place in the fall of 1891 in Bolshoi Theater, conducted by Ippolit Altani.

The opera was a success with the public, and it was decided to go on tour with it to Europe and America. On October 11, 1892, the premiere took place abroad, in Prague, in a Czech translation.

Modest Tchaikovsky, taking Pushkin’s story as a basis, retained all the main characters and the plot as a whole, but despite this, the libretto was significantly different from the literary original:

German felt real, sincere and ardent love for Lisa. For comparison, in the story the main character only used the girl’s naivety and feelings.
Elizabeth is far from being the old woman’s poor pupil, but her rich successor with an impressive inheritance, which she inherited after the death of the Countess. This is not an unhappy and silent nature, but on the contrary - ardently loving and passionate girl, ready to do anything for the sake of the main character.
Herman not only goes crazy, but commits suicide after a devastating loss at cards.
Lisa decides to renounce her newly-made husband Yeletsky and dies, unable to survive the madness of her lover.

The libretto of "The Queen of Spades" is written in verse, and the work of A. S. Pushkin is written in prose. Besides important details, the vocal text also differs in its emotional message. Tchaikovsky reverently experiences the fate of each character, passing their feelings through himself. Pushkin described the situation in the style of secular humor and treated the characters very indifferently.

It is worth noting that in the libretto of “The Queen of Spades” the name of the main character is written with one letter “n”. The thing is that in Pushkin’s work Hermann is probably the surname German origin, that’s why the consonant is doubled. In the libretto, his origin is unknown, as a result of which we can conclude that this is his name.

Each separately

The opera consists of 7 scenes in 3 acts. Events take place in late XVIII centuries in the city of St. Petersburg.

Below is the libretto of the opera "The Queen of Spades" by action.

Act one

First picture. IN summer garden A dialogue takes place between officers Surin and Chekalinsky. They talk about the mysterious actions of Herman's friend, who devotes all his time to the gambling house, but does not take up cards himself. After some time, the main character himself appears in the company of Tomsky, the count of the estate. He talks about his passionate feelings for the girl, without even having an idea of her name. At this moment, Yeletsky appears and announces an imminent engagement. Herman realizes with horror that she is the very object of his desire when he sees Tomskaya with her ward Liza. Both ladies experience anxious feelings when they feel the interested gaze of the protagonist.

Count Tomsky tells an anecdote about a countess who, in her distant youth, suffered a fiasco, losing her entire fortune. From Saint Germain she learns about the secret of the three cards, in return giving him one date. As a result, she was able to regain her fortune. After this “funny” story, social friends Surin and Chekalinsky jokingly suggest that German follow the same path. But he is not interested in this, all his thoughts are focused on the object of love.

Second picture. As night approaches, Lisa sits in a sad mood. The friends try to calm the girl down, but all their attempts are in vain. Only when left alone with herself does she admit her passionate feelings for the unknown young man. At the right moment, that same stranger appears and pours out heartache, begging the girl to return his feelings. In response, tears flow from her, tears of regret and sympathy. The unintentional meeting is interrupted by the countess, and the hidden Herman, at the sight of the old woman, suddenly remembers the secret of the three cards. After she leaves, Lisa confesses her feelings back.

Act two

Third picture. Events take place at a ball, where Yeletsky, concerned about the indifference of his future bride, passionately confesses his love to her, but at the same time does not limit the girl’s freedom. Herman's friends, wearing masks, continue to mock him, but the hero does not like these jokes at all. Lisa gives him the keys to the countess's room, and Herman perceives her action as a hint from fate itself.

Fourth picture. The main character, having made his way into the room of Countess Tomskaya, looks at her portrait, feeling the ominous fatal energy. Having waited for the old woman, Herman begs to reveal the desired secret to him, but the countess remains motionless. Unable to bear the silence, he decides to blackmail him with a pistol, but the unfortunate woman immediately collapses unconscious. Lisa comes running at the sound and realizes that Herman only needed the answer to the three cards.

Act three

Fifth picture. German, while in the barracks, reads a letter from Lisa, in which she makes an appointment with him. Memories of the Countess's funeral come to life. Suddenly a knock is heard outside the window. The candle goes out, and Herman sees the revived Tomskaya, who, against her will, reveals to him the secret of the three cards.

Sixth picture. Elizabeth, waiting for a date on the embankment, experiences doubts and finally loses hope of seeing her lover. But, to her surprise, Herman appears. After some time, Lisa notices that something is wrong with him and is convinced of his guilt. Herman, obsessed with winning, leaves the meeting place. Unable to withstand all the pain of disappointment, the girl throws herself into the water.

Seventh picture. The gaming fun is interrupted by the heated Herman. He suggests playing cards and wins the first two games. For the third time, Prince Yeletsky becomes his opponent, but German, who has lost his mind, no longer cares. According to the plot of “The Queen of Spades”, the old countess managed to win with three cards (three, seven and ace). Herman was close to victory, knowing this secret. However, instead of the proper ace, he finds himself in the hands of a queen of spades, in whose image he sees the features of a deceased old woman.

Unable to withstand everything that is happening, the main character stabs himself, and in his clear-eyed (for the remaining few seconds) consciousness, the image of his bright, innocent love, Lisa, appears. "Beauty! Goddess! Angel!" - are heard last words from the mouth of the main character.

Composition and vocal parts

The opera “The Queen of Spades” features 24 vocalists; in addition to solo performers, the choir plays an important role, as well as the orchestra, which is the backbone of the entire process.

Every active hero have their own part, written for a certain timbre of voice:

Herman was a tenor;
Lisa had a ringing and light soprano;
The Countess (Queen of Spades) had a low mezzo or contralto voice;
Tomsky and Yeletsky are baritones.

From Act I, Herman’s famous aria “Sorry, heavenly creature", and from II - Yeletsky's aria "I love you".

In Act III, it is impossible not to note the incredible sonority of Lisa’s aria “Ah, I’m exhausted with grief” and Herman’s ending with the famous, already catchphrase, with the phrase: “What is our life? A game!”

Summarizing

The opera “The Queen of Spades” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky is one of the pinnacles of world opera, a musical and dramatic work of amazing strength and depth. Some details of the plot have been changed, but what is really important is different accents, the meaning of which is to aggravate the conflicts “life - death”, “man - fate”, “love - game”.

Thanks not only to Peter, but also to Modest Tchaikovsky, the author of the libretto for The Queen of Spades, the opera became a world masterpiece.