Ivan Shmelev paintings. Biography of A.S. Shmelev

Was bornIvan Sergeevich Shmelev September 21 (October 3), 1873 in Moscow,in the family of an Old Believer contractor. My great-grandfather traded in tableware and wood chips in Moscow; his grandfather continued his business and took out contracts for the construction of houses. “Father,” wrote I.S. Shmelev, - ... built bridges, houses, took contracts for the illumination of the capital on days of celebrations, maintained baths, boats, baths, introduced ice mountains for the first time in Moscow, erected booths... His last work was a contract for the construction of stands for the public at opening of the monument to Pushkin... I stayed after him for about seven years" ( « Autobiography » // Rus. Liter. 1973. No. 4. P. 142).

To his father, Sergei Ivanovich, I.S. Shmelev dedicated heartfelt pages in books "Pilgrimage" And "Summer of the Lord". The family was distinguished by its patriarchal and devout religiosity (“I saw no books in the house except the Gospel,” recalled I.S. Shmelev in his autobiography). An integral feature of this patriarchy was love for the native land and its history. The servants were also patriarchal and religious, telling little Vanya stories about icons and ascetics, accompanying him on his journey to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Later, the writer will devote lyrical memories of his childhood years to one of them, the old “file-maker” Gorkin.

A completely different spirit than in the house reigned in the Zamoskvoretsky courtyard of the Shmelevs, where construction workers flocked from all over Russia in search of work. “The early years,” recalled I.S. Shmelev - gave me a lot of impressions. I received them “in the yard”... This was the first book I read - a book of living, lively and colorful words. Here, in the courtyard, I saw people... Our courtyard for me was the first school of life - the most important and wise” (Ibid. pp. 142-143). The boy’s consciousness, therefore, was formed under various influences: “our yard” became for I.S. Shmelev’s first school of love of truth and humanism, which largely predetermined the nature of his further work and the author’s position as a defender of the offended and oppressed ( "Citizen Ukleikin" (1908), "The Man from the Restaurant" (1911); "Inexhaustible Chalice" (1918); "Napoleon"(1928), etc.). In his family, the trends of culture, education, and art were felt - and the further, the more. This was the merit of the mother, Evlampia Gavrilovna (a merchant’s daughter, nee Savinova, who graduated from one of the Moscow institutes for noble maidens).

Preschool education I.S. Shmelev passed in a private boarding school, then he studied at the 6th Moscow gymnasium. Studying was hampered by reading adventure novels and a passion for theater. A.P. Chekhov played a stimulating role in the passion for “writing” (essay "How I Met Chekhov", 1934). The chance encounters of the little high school student many years later began to seem like I.S. Shmelev were fateful in choosing the path of a writer - a sufferer, a defender of the people. In everyday life at the gymnasium, literature teacher F. Tsvetaev stood out as a bright ray, appreciating the fifth-grader’s abilities and giving him the freedom to write about whatever he wanted. Under the influence of Tsvetaev, I.S.’s horizons expanded. Shmelev the high school student, his spiritual world was enriched. “Korolenko and Uspensky consolidated what was touched upon in me by Pushkin and Krylov, what I saw from life in our yard. Some of the stories from “Notes of a Hunter” corresponded to the mood that was growing in me,” he noted in his autobiography. “I will call this mood a feeling of nationality, Russianness, nativeness.” Tolstoy finally cemented this feeling in me” (Russian literature, 1973. No. 4, p. 144). High school student Ivan Shmelev composed a novel from the era of Ivan the Terrible, poems for the 30th anniversary of the liberation of the peasants, a drama in which “he” and “she” died of consumption, etc. The first success came when, in the days of preparation for final exams, Ivan Shmelev felt an extraordinary surge of creative excitement and wrote a big story in one evening "At the Mill"(published in July 1895 in the magazine “Russian Review”).

In the fall of 1894, Ivan Shmelev entered the law faculty of Moscow University. In his youth, his beliefs changed abruptly from devout religiosity to pure rationalism in the spirit of the sixties, from rationalism to the teachings of Leo Tolstoy, to the ideas of simplification and moral self-improvement. At the university, unexpectedly for himself, he became seriously interested in the botanical discoveries of K. Timiryazev. Then a new surge of religiosity associated with his marriage to Olga Alexandrovna Okhterloni, the daughter of a general, hero of the defense of Sevastopol in the Crimean War of 1853-1856. After their trip (August 1896) to the Valaam Transfiguration Monastery in the north-west of Ladoga, essays were written "On the Rocks of Valaam"(1897). Published at the expense of the author, the book, disfigured by censorship, sold poorly. The break in creativity lasted for a whole decade.

After graduating from university (1898) and a year of military service, I.S. Shmelev has been serving as an official on special assignments of the Vladimir Treasury Chamber of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 8 years. These years enriched him with knowledge of district Russia. “I knew the capital, the small craft people, the way of life of the merchants,” noted I.S. Shmelev - Now I recognized the village, the provincial bureaucracy, the factory districts, the small nobility” (Ibid. p. 145). In district towns, factory settlements, suburbs, and villages, the writer meets prototypes of the heroes of many of his novels and short stories of the 1900s: "On urgent business"(1907), " Citizen Ukleikin», "In the hole" (1909), "Under the sky" (1910), "Syrup"(1911). The sounds of the approaching revolution reached here. “I was dead for service,” said I.S. Shmelev criticized V. Lvov-Rogachevsky. - The movement of the nineties seemed to have opened a way out. ...New things dawned before me, opening a way out for oppressive melancholy. I felt that I was starting to live” (Lvov-Rogachevsky V. Newest Russian literature. M., 1927. P. 276). The main works of I.S. Shmelev, written before " The man from the restaurant», - "Sergeant" (1906), "Disintegration", "Ivan Kuzmich"(1907), " Citizen Ukleikin" - passed under the sign of the 1st Russian Revolution. At the same time or a little later, he creates optimistic stories for children "To the sun" (1907), "Shelf" (1909), "Light Page"(1910), as well as stories about animals "Mary" (1907), "The last shoot" (1908), "My Mars" (1910).

In 1907 he left the service to devote himself entirely to literary work and moved to Moscow. In 1909 he became an active participant in the literary circle “Sreda” and met with the friendly support of V. Korolenko and M. Gorky. “You have been a bright feature in my activities...” M. wrote to I.S. Gorky. Shmelev December 5, 1911, “and if I am destined to leave something worthwhile... then on this path I owe you a lot!” (Archive of A. M. Gorky. IMLI). In 1910 I.S. Shmelev is a member of the “Knowledge” partnership, and in 1912 he becomes a contributing member of the Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow, which publishes his first Collected Works in 8 volumes (1912-1914), it publishes short stories and novellas "Wall", "Shy Silence", "Rosstani", "Grape", which strengthened the position of I.S. Shmelev in literature as a major realist writer.

1st World War I.S. Shmelev perceived it as a difficult test for the Russian people, responding to it with a cycle of stories entitled "Hard Days", to which the story is thematically adjacent "Funny adventure"(1917). The writer greeted the February Revolution of 1917 with enthusiasm at first, as a correspondent for the newspaper “Russian Vedomosti”, making a trip to Siberia to meet amnestied political prisoners. But the harsh reality sobered the writer. “Deep social and political restructuring at once is completely unthinkable even in the most cultured countries,” he asserted in a letter to his son, an artillery officer in the Volunteer Army, “in ours, and even more so, our uncultured, completely ignorant people cannot accept the idea of ​​​​reorganization even approximately” ( July 30, 1917; Department of Manuscripts of the GBRF). I.S. Shmelev had a sharply negative attitude towards the October Revolution. In 1918 he left for Crimea, where he wrote a “quiet book” about a serf artist (“The Inexhaustible Chalice”, 1918), condemned the war as a mass psychosis of healthy people (story "It was", 1919, ed. in 1922), shows the meaninglessness of the death of the whole and pure, straightforward Ivan in captivity, on the wrong side ( "Alien Blood", 1919-1922). In all the works of these years, echoes of the later problematics of I.S. are already noticeable. Shmelev the emigrant.

With the arrival of the Red Army in Crimea, his son Sergei, an officer in A. Denikin’s army, was arrested and shot in November 1920. As a reserve officer in the tsarist army, I.S. himself was threatened with execution. Shmelev. On November 22, 1922, he and his wife left for Berlin. Abroad, the writer creates a number of works permeated with a sense of tragic hopelessness: "Sun of the Dead" (1923), "Stone Age"(1924), etc. His story is an “epic” “ Sun of the dead"translated into many foreign languages, aroused rave reviews from T. Mann, A. Amfiteatrova, brought I.S. Shmelev gained European fame. His novel has a completely different tone. "Love Story"(1927, ed. 1929). In the circle of friends I.S. Shmelev included A. Kuprin, General A. Denikin, A. Kartashev, philosopher and critic I. Ilyin, K. Balmont.

The pinnacle of creativity by I.S. Shmelev's works of the 30s appeared - “ Summer of the Lord: Holidays - joys - sorrows" (1933-48), " Pilgrimage"(1935), as well as a collection thematically close to them "Native"(1931). In 1936, his novel was published, built in line with “ The man from the restaurant", in the tale, - "Nanny from Moscow"(1936). Until the end of his days I.S. Shmelev is working on an epic about the religious trials of the Russian soul "Heavenly Paths"(T. 1 - 1935-1936; T. 2 - 1944-47, separate edition 1948; T. 3 not finished), above the short story "Soldiers", "Foreigner"(not finished).

When World War II began, he remained in Paris. At first I.S. Shmelev harbored illusions that Germany would liberate Russia from Bolshevism; spoke in the Russian newspapers “Novoe Slovo” (Berlin), in the anti-communist newspaper “Parizhsky Vestnik”, and although he did not touch upon political topics in his materials, this cooperation gave grounds to accuse him of collaboration. “I have never been a fascist and never showed sympathy for fascism,” wrote I.S. Shmelev (Russian Thought, May 31 1947 ). Having undergone a serious operation, he decides to settle near an Orthodox monastery in Bussy-en-Haute, 140 km from Paris, and on June 24, 1950 he arrives at the monastery. On the same day, a heart attack ends his life. The writer was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris.

At the beginning of his creative career I.S. Shmelev is close to the realist writers grouped around the Znanie publishing house. In stories and stories " Ivan Kuzmich», « Citizen Ukleikin" and finally, " Restaurant Man“There is a sharp dissatisfaction with life and the topic of the “little man” is raised. “I would like to,” wrote M. Gorky to I.S. Shmelev, revealing the plan " The man from the restaurant", - to identify the servant of man, who, by specific activity, as if in focus, represents the whole mass of servants on different paths of life" (Letter dated December 22, 1910. Archive of A. M. Gorky. IMLI). About the deeply humanistic character " The man from the restaurant“said K. Chukovsky: “Shmelev wrote, in a completely old-fashioned way, a wonderful, exciting story, i.e. so beautiful that you will sit over it the night, suffer and suffer, and it will seem to you that someone has forgiven you for something, caressed you, or you have forgiven someone” (Chukovsky K. Russian lit-pa in 1911 // Yearbook gas, "Rech", 1912). In prose 1912-1916 the writer turns to new layers of life - he writes about the disintegration of the noble estate (“ Shy silence», « Wall"), the dramatic disconnection of the intelligentsia from the "common" man ( "Wolf's Roll"), the quiet life of the servants (“ Grape"), the last days of a wealthy contractor reassessing the past in the face of death (" Rosstani»).

In pre-revolutionary times, I.S. Shmelev did not create his own special style, which was noted by critics: “From elongation to compression - this is the general formula for the evolution of style and form in Shmelev,” noted A. Derman in a general article about him (Russian Notes. 1916. No. 6. P. 83 ). I.S. Shmelev is far from the classical precision and clarity of Bunin's descriptions, from the soulful lyricism of B. Zaitsev, infectious with its mood, from the semi-grotesque convexity of the monstrous figures of L. Tolstoy or E. Zamyatin. But sometimes I.S. Shmelev achieves almost equality with each of these writers: lyrics or landscape " Under the sky" And " Wolf's roll"worthy of Zaitsev, unhurried, calm clarity" Shy silence», "Forests" equal to Bunin's, competed at one time with " County"Zamiatin's tale" The man from the restaurant", could have been written by Chekhov "Fever" And "Mayfly", Gorky - “ Decay", entered the unforgettable "iron fund" of Russian literature " Restaurant Man», « Citizen Ukleikin", worthy of it - " Rosstani», « Funny adventure"(Gorbachev G. Realistic prose of the 1910s and the work of Ivan Shmelev // Shmelev Iv. A funny adventure. Stories. M., 1927. P. 12).

“Own”, lyrical, fantastic I.S. Shmelev acquires already in “ Inexhaustible Chalice" And " Someone else's blood“, however, Shmelev’s innermost is revealed with the greatest force in his emigrant work and, above all, in “ Pilgrimage" And " Summer of the Lord" “The great master of word and image, I.S. Shmelev created here, in the greatest simplicity, a refined and unforgettable fabric of Russian life, in precise, rich and graphic words... here everything radiates from restrained, unshed tears of touched, blessed memory. Russia and the Orthodox structure of its soul are shown here by the power of clairvoyant love. This power of image increases and becomes more refined because everything is taken and given from a child’s soul, open with all trust, reverently responsive and joyfully enjoying” (Ilyin I.A. The work of I.S. Shmelev // Ilyin I.A. About darkness and enlightenment Munich, 1959. P. 176) The language of the writer’s prose is defended and crystallized. “Shmelev is now the last and only Russian writer from whom you can learn the wealth, power and freedom of the Russian language,” said Kuprin (Kuprin A.I. To the 60th anniversary of I.S. Shmelev // Behind the wheel [Paris] 1933 7 Dec.). Like the pre-revolutionary creativity of I.S. Shmelev, his works of the emigrant period are marked by extreme inequality. Next to the poetic " Love story» created on the material of the 1st World War romantic "Soldiers"(1925, separate chapters published since 1924), following the lyrical essays, an autobiography of the character (“ Native», "Old Valaam", 1935, dept. Ed. 1936) an extended narrative appears " Heavenly ways"(1937-48) - about the collapse of scientific skepticism in a clash with higher intelligence. But everything in these books is imbued with the thought of Russia and love for it. The importance of the best books by I.S. Shmelev about the old, departed Russia - merchant, petty bourgeois, factory. However, the greatest recognition came to the writer thanks to his interest in the popular consciousness on religious topics. “So the applicant for a secular “teacher of life,” wrote A. Kartashev, “turned into a church teacher. People have volumes on their night tables along with the prayer book and the Gospel." Summer of the Lord"as before they lay" Lives“St. Dmitry of Rostov. This is no longer literature. This is a “soul asking.” This is the satisfaction of spiritual hunger” [Kartashev A. Singer of Holy Rus' (in memory of I.S. Shmelev) // Revival [Paris] 1950. No. 10. P. 157 ].

HE. Mikhailov

From the biographical dictionary "Russian writers of the twentieth century"

(1873-1950) Russian writer

The future writer was born into a patriarchal merchant family and was brought up in an atmosphere of reverence for antiquity and intense religiosity. At the same time, Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev experienced the influence of the “street” - the working people of different provinces, who flocked to the courtyard of his father - a contractor in Zamoskvorechye - and brought with them spontaneous rebellion, a rich language, and folklore. This determined the social urgency of Shmelev’s best works, on the one hand; on the other hand, attention to the “skaz”, closeness to literary traditions coming from Nikolai Semenovich Leskov and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. All this contributed to the fact that Shmelev became a great master of the Russian literary language, a prominent representative of critical realism.

After graduating from the law faculty of the university (1898) and a year of military service, he spent 8 years as an official in the remote corners of the Moscow and Vladimir provinces.

During these years, Ivan Shmelev lived close to nature for the first time. He feels and understands it vividly. The impressions of these years prompt him from the pages devoted to nature, starting with the story “Under the Sky” (1910) and ending with his later works.

Ivan Shmelev’s first printing experience was a sketch from folk life “At the Mill” (1895). More serious were the essays “On the Rocks of Valaam” published in Moscow in 1897.

The works of Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev, written under the influence of the revolution of 1905-1907, became widely known (the stories “Disintegration”, 1907, “Citizen Ukleikin”, 1908; the stories “Vakhmistr”, 1906, “Ivan Kuzmich”, 1907). Maxim Gorky supported Shmelev in completing work on a significant work - the story “The Man from the Restaurant” (1911).

The main, innovative thing in the story “The Man from the Restaurant” was that the author managed to completely transform into his hero, to see the world through the eyes of a waiter.

A giant cabinet of curiosities unfolds to the music in front of an old waiter. And among the visitors he sees one lackey. The characters in the story form a single social pyramid, the base of which is occupied by Skorokhodov and the restaurant servants. Closer to the top, servanthood is performed “not for fifty dollars, but for higher reasons”: thus, an important gentleman in orders throws himself under the table in order to pick up the handkerchief dropped by the minister before the waiter. And the closer to the top of this pyramid, the baser the reasons for servility.

The lackey's court turns out to be cruel. With all this, Ivan Shmelev does not lose his sense of artistic tact: after all, Skorokhodov is an ordinary waiter, whose ultimate dream is his own house with sweet peas, sunflowers and purebred chickens; he is by no means a conscious accuser. His distrust of the masters, the distrust of the common people, is blind. It develops into hostility towards educated people in general.

In “The Man from the Restaurant”, the feeling of distrust towards the “educated” nevertheless does not turn into prejudice. A dark, religious man, Skorokhodov especially singles out revolutionaries who oppose the self-interested world.

The story was a resounding success.

During 1912-1914, Ivan Shmelev’s stories and novels “The Wall”, “Shy Silence”, “Wolf Roll”, “Rosstani”, “Grapes” were published, which strengthened his position in literature as a major realist writer.

The first thing you notice is the thematic diversity of his works. Here is the decay of the noble estate (“Shy Silence”, “The Wall”); and the quiet life of the servants (“Grapes”); and episodes from the life of the aristocratic intelligentsia (“Wolf Roll”); and the last days of a wealthy contractor who came to his native village to die (“Rosstani”).

In the story “Rosstani” (which means the last meeting with the departing person, farewell to him and his farewell), the merchant Danila, having returned to die in his native village of Klyuchevaya, essentially returns to his true, unrealized self, discovers in himself the person he has long been forgot. Only now, when there is a small handful of life left, collected from the bottom of the barrel - for the last pancake, does Danila Stepanovich get the opportunity to do good, help the poor and orphaned.

Close attention to national specifics, the “root” of Russian life, which is increasingly characteristic of Shmelev’s works, did not bring the writer to the brink of chauvinistic patriotism, which gripped most of the writers during the First World War. Shmelev's mood during these years is perfectly characterized by the collections of his prose - “Carousel” (1916), “Hard Days” and “Hidden Face” (1916).

Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev did not accept October. The writer's withdrawal from social activities, his confusion, his rejection of what was happening - all this affected his work in 1918-1922.

In 1918, Ivan Shmelev wrote the story “The Inexhaustible Chalice.” He branded it “a wild lordship, without feeling, without law,” but the very appeal to the past looked like an anachronism at the time when the Civil War was going on.

The writer's departure in 1922 was not the result of only ideological differences with the new government. The writer loved his only son Sergei more than life itself. In 1920, Volunteer Army officer Sergei Shmelev, who did not want to go with Wrangel’s men to a foreign land, was taken from the hospital and shot without trial. The writer leaves first for Berlin and then for Paris.

Succumbing to the grief of loss, he transfers the feelings of his orphaned father to his social views and creates tendentious stories and pamphlets - “The Stone Age” (1924), “On the Stumps” (1925), “About an Old Woman” (1925). Still, Shmelev did not become embittered against the Russian people, although he cursed many things in his new life. He retained his intransigence during the Second World War, humiliating himself to participate in pro-Nazi newspapers.

From a foreign and “luxurious” country, Ivan Shmelev sees old Russia with extraordinary sharpness and clarity. From the hidden recesses of memory came the impressions of childhood that made up the books “Native”, “Pilgrim” (1935), “Summer of the Lord” (1933).

Until the end of his days, Ivan Shmelev felt a raw pain from memories of Russia, its nature, and people. In the latest books there is the strongest infusion of original Russian words, landscapes and moods that amaze with their lofty lyricism, the very face of the Motherland is in its meekness and poetry.

Despite the fact that the books “Native”, “Pilgrim”, “Summer of the Lord” are the artistic pinnacle of Shmelev’s creativity, in general the works of the emigrant era are marked by extreme, conspicuous inequality. This was also noted in emigrant criticism. Next to the poetic story “Love Story” (1927), the writer creates a popular popular novel “Soldiers” (1930) based on the material of the First World War; Following the lyrical essays of an autobiographical nature (“Native”, “Old Valaam”), the two-volume novel “Heavenly Paths” (1936-1948) appears - a drawn-out and sometimes clumsy story about the “Russian soul”. The novel “Nanny from Moscow” is based entirely on the tale, where the events are conveyed through the lips of an old Russian woman, Daria Stepanovna Sinitsyna.

Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev spends the last years of his life alone, having lost his wife and experiencing severe physical suffering. He decides to live as a “real Christian” and for this purpose, on June 24, 1950, he goes to the monastery of the Intercession of the Mother of God, 140 kilometers from Paris. On the same day, a heart attack ends his life.

Just as the novel “Sun of the Dead” leaves the reader with an alarming, painful impression, just as bright and full of peace does the reading of “The Summer of the Lord” give rise to. These dissimilar books made Ivan Shmelev a recognizable author not only at home, but also abroad.

The Russian writer, who survived the early death of his father, a confrontation with tsarist censorship, the murder of his son and a forced farewell to his native land, was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, but never became a laureate. The writer spent the last years of his life in poverty in exile. In 2000, Shmelev’s remains were taken to Russia and reburied in the capital.

Childhood and youth

Despite the fact that Ivan Shmelev’s grandfather on his father’s side was a peasant from the provinces who moved to Moscow, the future writer was born into a wealthy family. His dad Sergei Ivanovich sorted out the inherited debts and organized an artel of carpenters. He also owned several baths. He chose the daughter of a merchant, Evlampiya Savinova, as his wife. On October 3 (old style - September 21), 1873, his wife gave birth to a son, who was named Ivan in honor of his grandfather.

Ivan’s relationship with his cold and strict mother was always cool, although it was Evlampia Gavrilovna, who was educated at the Institute of Noble Maidens, who taught her son to read Russian classics. The boy spent more time with his father and the craftsmen he hired. Among them was Mikhail Pankratovich Gorkin, an ardent supporter of Orthodoxy; in old age, he left his job and, at the request of Sergei Ivanovich, looked after little Vanya. It is believed that Shmelev’s interest in religion was formed under his influence.

When the boy was 7 years old, his father fell from his horse and was unable to recover. The mother was left alone with six children. They lived on proceeds from the baths; In addition, we rented out the third floor of the house and the basement. The happy, serene time of childhood finally ended when, at the age of 11, Vanya was transferred from a private boarding school, which stood next to the house, to the first Moscow gymnasium. The writer later recalled his studies there as the most difficult period of his youth. “Cold, dry people,” he would write about the teachers later.

Due to poor performance and conflicts with teachers, after a couple of years Shmelev changed his place of study again. He graduated from the Sixth Moscow Gymnasium in 1894, and the student was half a point short of a gold medal. Shmelev entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow University, and a year later the work “At the Mill” was published in the magazine “Russian Review” - the sketch provided the young man with a literary debut.

Literature

Inspired by the first publication, two years later Shmelev decides to publish a collection of stories “On the Rocks of Valaam.” The author collected the material on a trip to the monastery. But tsarist censorship does not allow the work to be published, forcing the writer to remove critical passages. The essays, published taking into account the censors' comments, leave readers indifferent, and the disappointed author takes a break from creativity, which drags on for 9 years.

After receiving an education and serving a year in the army, Shmelev, his wife and son moved to Vladimir. The writer works as an official on special assignments at the Vladimir Treasury Chamber of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Since 1905, Ivan Sergeevich resumed work on his works and wrote with a request to review some of them. The author creates stories and novellas in the center of which is the “little man”.

Returning to the capital, Shmelev joined Sreda in 1909. The literary circle included other authors, as well. Writers are united not only by meetings, but also by cooperation with the Writers' Book Publishing House in Moscow, co-founded by Bunin and Shmelev.

In 1911, the story “The Man from the Restaurant” was published. 16 years later, a film adaptation of the work depicting the decline of morals, created by the Soviet director Yakov Protazanov, was released. By the age of 40, Shmelev became known as the author of essays and stories about the merchants and peasants. Describing the hardships of the people, seeing their difficult life, the writer welcomes the events of February 1917. However, the confusion and violence that follows quickly turns hope into disappointment and horror.

Seeing the destruction of not only the foundations of statehood, but also moral principles, the increase in cruelty and chaos, Shmelev with his wife and son, an officer in the tsarist army who fought on the front of the First World War, leaves for Crimea. Here the family acquires a house and land, Ivan Sergeevich writes the story “How It Was” dedicated to the events of the Civil War and begins the story “Alien Blood”. But the Shmelevs do not manage to stay away from the tragic events for long. The Red Army occupies Crimea and, despite the efforts and letters of his father, 25-year-old Sergei Shmelev is executed.

The writer, whose life is shattered by loss, spends two more years on the peninsula and then immigrates to Europe. He first stops in Berlin and then moves to Paris. Shmelev will spend the rest of his life in the capital of France.

Soon after the move, “The Sun of the Dead” was published, a novel depicting the inhumanity of revolutionary events in Russia. “Read this if you have the courage,” a German writer said of the work, and characterized it as “a real testimony to Bolshevism,” which conveys “the despair and general death of the first Soviet years.”

Fearing for the fate of his homeland, seeing the destruction of the culture that had been formed over centuries and the substitution of values, Shmelev creates stories and pamphlets. In the second half of the 20s, critical motives were replaced by nostalgia for the old way of life. “Lunch for different people”, “Russian song” - these stories are filled with vivid descriptions of Orthodox holidays, life, and traditions.

The pinnacle of this stage is the story “Bogomolye” and the novel “The Summer of the Lord.” It is noteworthy that the works were created in parallel. Both books gained great popularity among Russian emigrants.

With sincerity and warmth, the author resurrects the atmosphere of childhood, and with it the lost pre-revolutionary Russia. “The Summer of the Lord” was published for the first time in 1933 in Belgrade, and “Bogomolje” - in 1935 in the same place. In Shmelev’s homeland, books were published only in the late 80s.

The last period of the Russian writer’s work was marked by an intensified longing for his homeland. Shmelev turns to the memories of his trip in 1896 and creates the essay “Old Valaam”. In 1936, using the fairy tale genre, he wrote the novel “Nanny from Moscow”, in which the main character is an elderly woman forced to emigrate.

Shmelev hated the Bolshevik regime so much that he perceived the Nazi invasion of the USSR as God's providence. In a letter to the philosopher, he called the German attack “a feat of the Knight who raised his sword against the Devil” and expressed the hope that the overthrow of the communist regime would open the way for the spiritual and moral revival of the country.

In 1948, Ivan Sergeevich began work on the novel “Heavenly Paths.” The work remained unfinished due to the death of the author, but from the chapters created it is obvious that he wanted to show the implementation of God's providence in the real world.

During the Soviet period, Shmelev's work was regarded as anti-Soviet. The publication of books by the emigrant writer began only during perestroika. In 1993, a house-museum dedicated to him was opened in Alushta, and soon the author earned recognition in his homeland.

Personal life

Ivan Shmelev married at the age of 20, shortly after entering the university. His wife was Olga Okhterloni. The unusual surname was explained by its origin from a noble Scottish family. Her ancestors moved to Russia at the end of the 18th century. Father Alexander Alexandrovich became a hero of the defense of Sevastopol.

The marriage with Olga Alexandrovna was happy, the couple lived together for 40 years. It was his wife, shortly after the birth of her son Seryozha in 1896, who persuaded the then aspiring writer to visit Valaam. She died in 1936. Ivan Sergeevich outlived her by 14 years.

Death

Together with other writers of Russian emigration, Ivan Bunin and Shmelev, he was twice included in the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize. However, he failed to become the winner. The older the writer became, the more financial difficulties he experienced.

Ivan Shmelev died in 1950, on June 24. The cause of death was a heart attack. He was buried in the cemetery of the city of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, but now his remains rest in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery, located in the capital of Russia. The reburial took place in 2000. The remains of Olga and Sergei Shmelev were also transferred here.

Bibliography

• 1897 – “On the Rocks of Valaam”
• 1907 – “Citizen Ukleikin”
• 1911 – “The Man from the Restaurant”
• 1913 – “Wolf Roll”
• 1916 – “Hard Days”
• 1918 – “The Inexhaustible Chalice”
• 1927 – “About an Old Woman”
• 1927 – “Love Story”
• 1923 – “Sun of the Dead”
• 1933 – “Summer of the Lord”
• 1935 – “Politics”
• 1935 – “Old Valaam”
• 1936 – “Nanny from Moscow”

Quotes

“It’s getting worse day by day - and now a handful of wheat is worth more than a person.”

“An empty road is not empty: it is written along it with fragments of human lives.”

“Do not be afraid of this and do not marvel: the ways are inscrutably revealed even to the unreasonable beast, but are hidden from the intelligent and reasonable.”

• Ivan Shmelev first encountered censorship in the sixth gymnasium. The student included the skeptical words of Semyon Nadson in the text of an essay about the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, for which he received a “one”, missed the exam and remained in the second year. By his own admission, from then on he disliked philosophy.
• As a child, he suffered from nervous tics due to constant beatings from his mother. Instead of persuasion, Evlampiya Gavrilovna took up the rod. If she noticed that her son’s cheek was twitching, she slapped him in the face.
• He experienced his first love at the age of eight, but soon the feeling was replaced by new experiences. The impressions of his youth formed the basis of the novel “Love Story” of 1927, based on which in 2006 Yaroslavl animator Alexander Petrov created an animated film.

His books attract attention literally from the first lines. Moreover, it seems that the writer does not seem to pay attention to the reader at all. It draws him right into the thick of what is happening, and everything you read about happens directly to you. In simple words, it touches the most distant corners of our heart and soul. We are talking about the Russian writer Ivan Shmelev. In the article we will talk about his life and work.

Ivan Shmelev: biography

He was born on September 21, 1873 in Zamoskvorechye. His family was from the merchant class. My father had a carpenter's artel and bathhouses. The family lived very well, there was plenty of everything. Religious traditions were revered and respected in the house. The younger ones unquestioningly obeyed the elders, respected and loved each other. Ivan was taught to read and write by his mother. She introduced him to the best works of Russian classics: Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev. Later, he himself enjoyed reading their books.

At the age of ten, Ivan Shmelev entered the Moscow gymnasium. Strict discipline discouraged the desire to study, despite the boy's great abilities. He spent all his free time reading books and textbooks. The work of Alexander Pushkin had a great influence on his creative growth. While still in high school, he began to try to write. These were short stories, sketches from life and poems.

At the age of twenty-two, Ivan Shmelev got married. Olga Alexandrovna Okhterloni became his life partner. She was a very serious and well-read girl. The newlyweds went on their honeymoon to the holy places of Valaam.

• Ivan Shmelev’s favorite writers are Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Leskov, Vladimir Korolenko.
• During my childhood I spent most of my time communicating with working people. From them he learned to understand the beauty and power of Russian speech.
• Elder Barnabas of Gethsemane blessed Ivan Shmelev to write during his honeymoon in Valaam.
• He lived in Paris for 27 years, although he loved Russia with all his heart, but during the civil war he was forced to leave it.
• The writer’s ashes were transported to his homeland and buried in Moscow (Donskoy Monastery).

The beginning of creativity

The first work of Ivan Shmelev was published in 1895. It was the story "At the Mill". What is this work about? The miller and his wife ruined the landowner and dishonestly took possession of the mill that belonged to him. But in the end, unable to bear their atrocities, they commit suicide. In his story, Ivan Shmelev showed that the evil committed does not allow a person to live in peace. Retribution will definitely come.

Two years after the publication of the story, the writer’s first book, “On the Rocks of Valaam,” was published. It was written under the impression of a trip to these places. It glorified the feat of the people inhabiting this holy land. But censorship forced Ivan Shmelev to greatly change the book, cutting out entire pieces from it. In their opinion, she carried seditious thoughts. Shmelev was very worried that due to the changes the book had lost its originality. Readers coolly accepted the revised version, and Shmelev abandoned writing for many years.

Change of activity

Having decided that it is not worth wasting his energy and time on literature, Ivan Shmelev enters Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. It was necessary to get a profession in order to support my family. Son Sergei was born. In the family he was the only and dearly beloved child.

After graduating from university, Shmelev serves as a tax inspector. Due to the nature of his activity, he has to communicate with a large number of people; later these meetings will be reflected in his books.

Ivan Shmelev: books

The revolution of 1917 changed the writer's life, but despite this, he always showed interest in man, in his spiritual life. Let's remember the best works of the writer:

• "The Lord's Summer" (Ivan Shmelev). One of the writer's brightest books. Through the eyes of a child, the way of life of peasants and merchants is shown. Shmelev masterfully recreates pictures of work and life in Russia at the end of the 19th century. A special place in the book is occupied by the description of holidays.
• "Sun of the Dead" (Ivan Shmelev). The writer’s personal impressions of the revolution and the Civil War. This is a tragic book about the "Red Terror". The book has been translated into many foreign languages ​​and is considered one of the author's best works.
• "The Man from the Restaurant" The story shows the dramatic fate of an ordinary person. Waiter Yakov Skorokhodov suffers insults and humiliation from visitors every day. But it is he who can be called a Man with a capital M, unlike other characters. The hero's inner world is revealed deeply and fully.
• "Heavenly Ways" This novel is the last major work of Ivan Shmelev. He dedicated it to his beloved wife. In the image of the main character - engineer Weidenhammer - Olga Shmeleva's uncle is described. The main idea of ​​the novel is that the soul must necessarily go through suffering in order to be reborn to a new life. The heroes go through a difficult path of spiritual development.

Tragedy in the family. Emigration

The events of 1917 shook the soul of Ivan Shmelev. Although at first he gladly spoke at rallies and accepted the ideas of the socialists. When Ivan Shmelev saw that the revolution breaks a person and deals a strong blow to his morality, he leaves for Crimea. Here, Wrangel’s son Sergei serves in the military commandant’s office. When the city was captured by the Bolsheviks, Sergei was arrested, and after some time he was shot. Parents had a hard time with the death of their beloved child.

After some time, the difficult decision to emigrate was made. At first, Ivan Shmelev and his wife lived in Berlin, and then moved to Paris. The writer has to endure another tragic loss - the death of his wife. On June 24, 1950, Ivan Shmelev died of a heart attack.

Conclusion

The works of Ivan Shmelev must be read and re-read so as not to become hardened in soul. His books are like a sip of cold water on a hot day. How are his books different? Love for Russia, its history, way of life, faith in the triumph of goodness and justice, humanism, the beauty of spiritual values. The contribution of this remarkable Russian writer to the history of world literature has yet to be assessed.

Intercession Monastery in Bussy-en-Haute, France

Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev(September 21 (October 3), Moscow - June 24, Bussy-en-Haut near Paris) - Russian writer, publicist, Orthodox thinker. A bright representative of the conservative Christian direction of Russian literature.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev was born on October 3, 1873 in the Donskaya Sloboda of Moscow, in the house at the address: B. Kaluzhskaya, 13, into the famous Moscow merchant family of the Shmelevs. Ivan Sergeevich’s grandfather - a state peasant from the Guslitsky region (Bogorodsky district of the Moscow province) - settled in Moscow, in Zamoskvorechye, after the fire of 1812. Sergei Ivanovich Shmelev (1842-1880) - the writer’s father belonged to the merchant class, but was not involved in trade, he he was the owner of a large carpentry team (more than 300 people), ran bathhouses and was a contractor. By character, Sergei Ivanovich was a very cheerful person, which had a positive impact on the upbringing of the future writer. The teacher (uncle) under young Ivan was the old carpenter Mikhail Pankratovich Gorkin, a deeply religious man.

The Shmelev family was prosperous, Orthodox with a patriarchal spirit. In the future, Ivan Shmelev will have a special craving for religion, which will affect his philosophical views and creativity.

Little Ivan Shmelev's entourage consisted of artisans and construction workers with whom he communicated closely. Therefore, the “influence of the court,” where a rebellious spirit was felt and various songs, jokes, and sayings were heard with their varied and rich language, could not help but be reflected in his worldview later in his works. Later Shmelev would write: “Here, in the courtyard, I saw people. I’m used to it here...”

Initially, Shmelev was educated at home, where his mother acted as a teacher, who gradually introduced the young writer into the world of literature (the study of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, etc.) Then he studied at the sixth Moscow gymnasium. After graduation, he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University in 1894. And then, 4 years later, having graduated from it, he undergoes military service for 1 year and then serves as an official in remote places of the Moscow and Vladimir provinces. “I knew the capital, the small craft people, the way of life of the merchants. Now I recognized the village, the provincial bureaucracy, the small nobility,” Shmelev would later say.

Revolution period

In Paris, Shmelev begins to communicate closely with the Russian philosopher I. A. Ilyin. For a long time there was correspondence between them (233 letters from Ilyin and 385 letters from Shmelev). It is an important evidence of the political and literary process of the first wave of Russian emigration.

Death

Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev died in 1950 as a result of a heart attack. The death of the writer, who so loved monastic life, became deeply symbolic: on June 24, 1950, on the name day of Elder Barnabas, who had previously blessed him “on his path,” Shmelev came to the Russian monastery of the Intercession of the Mother of God in Bussy-en-Haute and on the same the day is dying.

He was buried in the Parisian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. In 2000, Shmelev’s wish was fulfilled: the ashes of him and his wife were transported to their homeland and buried next to the graves of their relatives in the Moscow Donskoy Monastery.

Results of life

I. S. Shmelev lived a very difficult life. He suffered from a serious illness, which at times almost led the writer to death, and experienced material crises that even reached a beggarly state. The Second World War, which he experienced in occupied Paris, slander in the press and an attempt to slander Shmelev further aggravated his mental and physical suffering [ clarify] .

“According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Shmelev was a man of exceptional spiritual purity, incapable of any bad deed. He was characterized by deep nobility of nature, kindness and cordiality. The appearance of Shmelev spoke about the suffering he experienced - a thin man with an ascetic face, furrowed with deep wrinkles, with large gray eyes full of affection and sadness.”

This magnificent, defended folk language delighted and continues to delight. “Shmelev is now the last and only Russian writer from whom one can still learn the wealth, power and freedom of the Russian language,” noted A. I. Kuprin in 1933. “Shmelev is the most Russian of all Russians, and also a native, born Muscovite, with a Moscow dialect, with Moscow independence and freedom of spirit.”

If we discard the unfair and offensive generalization for the rich Russian literature - “the only one” - this assessment will turn out to be true today.

Language, that great Russian language that helped Turgenev in the days of “doubts and painful thoughts,” also supported Shmelev in his love for Russia. Until the end of his days, he felt a raw pain from memories of his Motherland, its nature, its people. In his latest books there is the strongest infusion of original Russian words, landscapes-moods that amaze with their lofty lyricism, the very face of Russia, which he now sees in its meekness and poetry: “This spring splash remained in my eyes - with festive shirts, boots, horses neighing, with the smells of spring chill, warmth and sun. Remained alive in my soul, with thousands of Mikhails and Ivanovs, with all the spiritual world of the Russian peasant, sophisticated to the point of simplicity and beauty, with his slyly cheerful eyes, sometimes clear like water, sometimes darkened to a black haze, with laughter and lively words, with affection and wild rudeness. I know that I am connected with him for a century. Nothing will splash out of me this spring splash, the bright spring of life... It has entered and will leave with me” (“Spring splash”, 1928).

Shmelev family

Creation

Early creativity

The desire for literary creativity awakened in I. S. Shmelev early, while still studying at the Moscow gymnasium. Shmelev’s first printing experience was a sketch from folk life “At the Mill,” published in 1895 in the magazine “Russian Review,” the author himself told about the history of its creation and publication in his later story “How I Became a Writer.” Later in 1897, a book of essays “On the Rocks of Valaam” was published. However, Shmelev’s first entry into literature was unsuccessful. The book was banned by censorship and did not sell out at all.

After graduating from university () and military service, Shmelev returned to Moscow again and devoted himself to literary creativity. These years enriched Shmelev with knowledge about the vast world of district Russia. In 1907, he maintained an active correspondence with M. Gorky, Shmelev sent him his story “Under the Mountains.” M. Gorky's support strengthened his confidence in his abilities. Shmelev writes short stories and novellas “To the Sun” (1905-1907), “Citizen Ukleikin” (1907), “In the Hole”(), “Under the Sky” (), “Treacle” (). The works of these years are characterized by a realistic orientation; in the already new established historical conditions, Shmelev raises the theme of the “little man”.

In 1909, he became a member of the Sreda literary circle; it also included A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky, L. Andreev. In 1911, the story “The Man from the Restaurant” was published, in which Shmelev depicts the world through the eyes of a waiter. Later in 1912, Shmelev collaborated with I. A. Bunin and became one of the founders of the “Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow”, whose members were V. V. Veresaev, B. K. Zaitsev, S. A. Naydenov, brothers I. A. and Yu. A. Bunin. All subsequent work of Shmelev will be associated with this publishing house.

In the period from 1914 to 1914, the novels and short stories “Grapes”, “The Wall”, “Shy Silence”, “Wolf Roll”, “Rosstani” were published. The works of these years are distinguished by a wide thematic diversity, an abundance of picturesque landscapes, sketches of patriarchal merchant life, in addition, Shmelev depicts the phases of the transformation of a simple peasant into a new type of capitalist. Later, two collections of prose “The Hidden Face” and “Carousel” and a book of essays “Harsh Days” (), then the story “How It Was” (), in which Shmelev speaks out against the fratricidal civil war, and the story “Alien Blood” ( - ). In the works of this time, the problems of his work during the emigration period are already clearly visible.

Creativity of 1920-1930

The departure of I. S. Shmelev in 1922 to emigrate (to Berlin and then to Paris) marks a new period in his creative path. From here, from a foreign country, he sees Russia with extraordinary clarity. Here Shmelev collaborates with such emigrant publications as “Renaissance”, “Latest News”, “Illustrated Russia”, “Modern Notes”, etc., where he publishes his works. Shmelev creates pamphlet stories “The Stone Age” (1924) and “Two Ivans” (1924), “The Stone Age”, “On the Stumps” (1925), “About an Old Woman” (1925). The work of these years is imbued with acute pain for homeland, notes of condemnation of the European world, Western civilization, its lack of spirituality, mundaneness, and pragmatism are heard. The author talks about the bloody fratricidal civil war that brought suffering upon the Russian people.

In his subsequent works “Russian Song” (1926), “Napoleon. My Friend's Story" (1928), "Lunch for Different People", Shmelev to a greater extent develops the problems of old patriarchal Russia, glorifies the common Russian man, creates pictures of religious festivals, depicts rituals glorifying Rus', becomes a singer of old Moscow.

Book “Entry to Paris. Stories about Foreign Russia" (1929) is imbued with deep sorrow and tells about the broken destinies of Russian exiles. Using material from the First World War, Shmelev creates the popular popular novel “Soldiers” (1930).

“Pilgrim” (1931) and “Summer of the Lord” (1933-1948) were enthusiastically received in the circles of the Russian emigration. Continuing the tradition of Leskov, Shmelev depicts the life of patriarchal Russia. The images of Moscow and Zamoskvorechye are deeply poetic and colorful. Shmelev depicts in the novel the worldview of a kind, pure, naive child, which is so close to the people. This is how a holistic artistic world arises, glorifying the Motherland. Until the end of his days, Shmelev felt aching pain and melancholy from memories of Russia.

The last period of creativity

All these years, Shmelev dreamed of returning to Russia. He was always distinguished by a special love for the solitary monastic life. In 1935, his autobiographical essay “Old Valaam” was published, where the author recalls his trip to the island and depicts the smoothly flowing life of an Orthodox Russian monastery, deeply filled with an atmosphere of holiness. Then the novel “Nanny from Moscow” (1936), based entirely on the tale, was published, where all the events were conveyed through the mouth of an old Russian woman, Daria Stepanovna Sinitsina.

In the novel “Heavenly Paths” (1948), the theme of the reality of God's providence in the earthly world is embodied. The novel depicts the fates of real people: the skeptic-positivist, engineer V. A. Weidenhammer and the deeply religious novice of the Passionate Monastery - Daria Koroleva. However, Shmelev’s death interrupts work on the third volume of the novel, but the two published books fully embodied Christian ideas about the world, the fight against sin and temptations, moments of bright insights of an unshakably believing heart...

Works

• On the rocks of Valaam 1897
• On urgent business, 1906
• Sergeant, 1906
• Decay, 1906
• Ivan Kuzmich, 1907
• Citizen Ukleikin, 1907
• In the Hole, 1909
• Under the Sky, 1910
• Molasses, 1911
• The Restaurant Man, 1911
• The Inexhaustible Chalice, 1918
• Carousel, 1916
• Harsh Days, 1916
• Hidden Face, 1917
• Miracle of the Steppes, Tales, 1921