P. Ershov: biography and interesting facts from life

(22.02. 1815 – 08. 08. 1869)

Ershov Pyotr Pavlovich was born into the family of an official - a poet, writer, playwright.

He spent his childhood in the village of Berezovo, where his father was a police officer.

From 12 to 17 years old, Ershov studied at the Tobolsk gymnasium.

After the children graduated from the Tobolsk gymnasium in 1830, the father achieved a transfer to St. Petersburg, where he moved with his family.

In 1831–1834, Ershov studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law of St. Petersburg University “for his five best years,” as he liked to say, at St. Petersburg University, where he appeared "The Little Humpbacked Horse" . At the beginning of 1834, he presented the first part of the fairy tale The Little Humpbacked Horse to the professor of literature as a course work.

The professor immediately arranged a meeting between Ershov and Pushkin. Pushkin praised the fairy tale and announced his intention to publish it with pictures and at the cheapest price. Having high hopes for Ershov, Pushkin allegedly immediately said: “Now I can leave this type of writing to me.”

In 1834–1836 Ershov, modest and shy, quite actively participated in literary life capital, joins a circle, publishes lyric poems. In total, during this period, 10 poems by Ershov appeared in print (mainly in the “Library for Reading”).

In St. Petersburg, Ershov was famous among students as a skilled storyteller and dreamer. At night, he entertained his friends with funny, humorous stories and fairy tales, which amazed his comrades with the wealth of his observations. folk life. One day he told one of his friends about “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

He was quite capable of such a work - he had all the precious capital of Russian folklore in his memory. The poet, closely connected with the people throughout his life, had a clear idea of ​​his future literary activity - he wanted to give it to the people. Preparing to leave St. Petersburg, Ershov thought about a grand journey through Siberia. The poet's heart was drawn to his native country, his native people. The idea of ​​describing Siberia did not leave Ershov almost throughout his entire life. He dreamed of creating a novel about his homeland.

Thoughts about the people were the reason for the birth of the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” Closeness to the people, knowledge of their life, habits, customs, tastes, views, understanding of the people provided the fairy tale with the unprecedented success that it enjoyed even in the manuscript.

"The Little Humpbacked Horse" b was published in the “Library for Reading” in 1834, after which the fairy tale was published as a separate edition. Tsarist censorship distorted the fairy tale - it was published with major changes. But even in this form she was wonderful. The fairy tale genre, a new style in literature, immediately put P. Ershov in the forefront of the best Russian writers. Just like Pushkin, Ershov directs all the arrows of sarcasm at the figure of the “glorious” tsar - a pathetic, stupid, lazy, scratching, yawning tyrant from boredom.

Ershov paints a vivid picture of the oppression of the people and merchants.

The folk spirit of the fairy tale, the wonderful hero Ivan the Fool, the deep meaning, the lightness of the verse, the dance rhythm that the poet adopted from the people's healthy humor - all this ensured the longevity of Ershov's work. Children get used to the fairy tale with all their hearts

During the life of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov, the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” went through seven editions.

After graduating from the university, Pyotr Ershov, who did not like to bow and seek patronage, was forced to go back to Tobolsk, since there was no service for him in St. Petersburg.

In the summer of 1836, Pyotr Pavlovich and his mother returned to Tobolsk, harboring hopes for a wider educational activities in Siberia (studying the life of local peoples, publishing a magazine, etc.), but it was not destined to come true. Ershov became a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium, from 1844 an inspector, from 1857 the director of the gymnasium and the directorate of public schools of the province, where he served until his resignation in 1862.

In 1856, his fairy tale was published in full for the first time. Pyotr Pavlovich at that time was already the director of the gymnasium and retired from his writing activities.

Many times Ershov tried to escape from the Siberian wilderness.

During the first years he still wrote in Tobolsk, occasionally sending his poems to Sovremennik; he dreamed of creating one big fairy tale that would unite all Russian fairy tales - a poem in 10 volumes and 100 songs; he thought of writing a novel from Siberian life.

In 1858, after more than twenty years, Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov again visited St. Petersburg, hoping to resolve official matters there and finally try to move to the capital. However, his hopes were not justified. Returning to Tobolsk, he lived there until the end of his days.

During his Siberian years, Pyotr Ershov wrote a little, but did not give up his literary pursuits, although his works, sent to the capital through friends, were no longer successful. The Tobolsk wilderness, loneliness, isolation from the circle of friends and writers, professional and family failures were a bad incentive for creativity. In total, from 1837 to the end of his life, 28 of his new poems appeared in print.

In Tobolsk, Ershov was the initiator of the creation of an amateur gymnasium theater. He worked as a director in the theatre. He wrote several plays for the theater. It is also known that he himself played the flute and organ, and took part in family music-making.

On the site where Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov was born and with his assistance, a temple was built (built from 1862 to 1876.)

In December 1864, the ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was staged

Forgotten and lonely, Ershov died in Tobolsk (August 8, 1869). The inscription on the monument reads: “Peter Pavlovich Ershov, author folk tale"The Little Humpbacked Horse".

For more than one hundred and seventy years, the fairy tale of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov has graced Russian children's literature. For more than one hundred and seventy years it has captivated the imagination of Russian children.

A journey through the fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse"

And now we will travel through the fairy tale of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov - “The Little Humpbacked Horse”.

2. Choose the correct answer from two options. Make cards with questions. (Appendix No. 2)

3.Pick up a pair for the first word. Make cards (Appendix No. 3)

Appendix No. 1

Who or what is being discussed in the passage that I will read to you:

1. All white as winter snow,

The mane is golden.

Curled in chalk rings (MARY)

2. And I’ll give birth…..

Only three inches tall,

On the back with two humps

Yes, with arshin ears. (The Little Humpbacked Horse)

3. The light burns brighter.

...the field shines as if during the day:

A wonderful light flows all around,

But it doesn’t heat, it doesn’t smoke,

... here lies a feather... (FIREBIRDS)

4. I will live in the palace,

I will walk in gold

Dress up in a red dress,

It's like rolling cheese in butter,

That is, I'm from the garden

I will become a royal commander. (IVAN IS A FOOL)

5. Our Ivan, groaning in frustration,

Someone came out as if from an ambush,

He crawled towards the millet and wine -

Grab one of the birds by the tail. (FIREBIRD)

6. The fifth tale says...

That’s what’s going on in my mind...

“About a beauty, what, what?”

“Exactly! The fifth says

About the beautiful... (KING - GIRL)

7. All its sides are torn,

Palisades driven into the ribs,

The fuss is noisy on the tail,

The village stands on its back;

The men are plowing on the lip,

The boys are dancing between the eyes... (FISH - WHALE)

8. The girl says to him:

“But look, you’re gray:

How can we get married?

Everyone... will start laughing,

Grandfather, they will say, took his granddaughter!” (KING-FATHER)

Appendix No. 2

You are given cards with questions, your task is to choose the correct answer.

(You get 1 point for the correct answer)

Card No. 1

1. How many sons did the old man have?

three five

2.What did the men decide to do to catch the thief?

guard the field stand guard

3. What did Ivan and the Little Humpbacked Horse find while they were driving to the capital?

goose feather firebird feather

4.Who bought two golden-maned horses?

Groom Tsar-Father

5.Who was Ivan the Fool appointed when he caught the Firebird?

royal - forester royal - stirrup

6.What did Ruff get from the bottom of the sea?

chest with ring............... chest of gold

Card No. 2

1. How tall was the toy horse?

three vershoks.............................three arshins

2. Who did the mare decide to give to Ivan?

two lions and a tiger cub two horses and a skate

3. What did Ivan exchange the horses for?

for 10 caps of silver + 5 rubles. ... for 10 caps of stones + 5 rubles.

4. Who plotted against Ivan the Fool?

mayor ............... royal servant

5. Whom did the king order to get for the second time?

king - sister king - maiden

6.Why did the Whale Fish suffer for 10 years?

swallowed 3 dozen ships............swallowed 3 dozen fish

Card No. 3

1. Who did Ivan see when he was guarding the wheat in the field?

mare cow

2. How did the brothers decide to get rich?

steal horses secretly sell horses secretly

3. Who was Ivan appointed for the first time?

royal commander..........the royal groom

4. Whom did the king order to get for the first time?

heat - tit heat - bird

5. What did the Tsar Maiden want to have before the wedding?

ring ............ necklace

6. Whom did Ivan meet by the sea of ​​Okiyan with a village on his back?

fish - ruff fish - whale

Appendix No. 3

Cards with characters from the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” are given.

Your task is to find a pair for the first word.

Miracle Danilo

Horse Yudo

King bird

Elder whale

Father girl

Sea of ​​Hunchbacks

Average fool

Okiyan fish

Ivan Gavrilo

(6.03.1815 - 30.08.1869)

Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov was born on March 6, 1815 in the small Siberian village of Bezrukovo Tobolsk province. His father often changed places of service, so the family moved a lot. Little Petrusha will remember for the rest of his life the long winter evenings at the Yamsk stations and fairy tales, fairy tales, fairy tales... Many Siberians were masters at telling them.

In 1824, Petya and his brother Nikolai were sent to a gymnasium in Tobolsk. He studied easily, even outpacing his older brother, always humming something and inventing various tales to make boring lessons more interesting. When he graduated from high school, he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Faculty of Philosophy and Law of St. Petersburg University.

One day, Professor Pyotr Alekseevich Pletnev, who taught Russian literature, came to the course where Pyotr Ershov was studying, and instead of a lecture, to the great surprise of the students, he read... a fairy tale. And the author, who was only nineteen years old, sat and died from embarrassment and joy. In response to the applause, Pletnev pointed to student Ershov. In the same year, the fairy tale - and this was “The Little Humpbacked Horse” - was published in the magazine “Library for Reading”.

In 1834, Ershov graduated from the university, returned to his native Tobolsk and began working as a teacher in the same gymnasium from which he himself graduated.

Pyotr Pavlovich himself said that he did not come up with anything new, but simply retold a folk tale well. But that's not true! Yes, in Russian fairy tales there is a hero - a good fellow, and a foolish tsar, and a beautiful princess. But in Ershov, all these familiar heroes have their own faces, they are told about them with a smile and humor.

"The Little Humpbacked Horse" has been translated into many languages ​​of the world - English, French, German, Polish... and even Japanese! When the fourth edition of the fairy tale came out of print, Ershov wrote: “My horse again galloped throughout the Russian kingdom. Happy journey to him.” Since then, not four, but more than one hundred and seventy editions of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” have been published, and the horse continues to gallop around the world, surprising everyone, young and old, with fun and daring, humor and extraordinary adventures.

It seems this fairy tale has always existed. It seems that it was composed by the people. But no - the fairy tale turned 175 years old in May 2009. And it has an author - Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov. Many people do not know these facts. But the fairy tale - “The Little Humpbacked Horse” - is known to everyone.

Collect puzzles, answer quiz questions

GUESS THE RIDDLES OF THE HUNCHBACK

Circle chart
"Friend and assistant of Ivanushka the fool"

Literary "arithmetic"

willow + waves - ox - s + drying - s =
hero of the fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse"

The mystery in the drawings

Remember the fairy tale scene when the king ordered Ivanushka to bathe in three cauldrons, and look at our drawings. In which cauldron did Ivan bathe first, and in which ones later? Check your answer based on the text of the fairy tale.

A few facts about P.P. Ershov and his tale

Ershov's fairy tale was published as a separate book in mid-1834 and went through seven editions during the author's lifetime. The book was born when the writer was only 19 years old!

P.P. Ershov was closely acquainted with many famous poets, including V.A. Zhukovsky and A.S. Pushkin.

The first four verses of the tale were sketched by A.S. Pushkin, who read it in manuscript. After reading the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” he said with praise to the aspiring poet: “Now I can leave this type of writing to me.”

In addition to “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” Ershov wrote several dozen poems. There are also indications that he published poetry, short stories and dramatic works under pseudonyms.

In December 1864, for the first time at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was staged to the music of Ts. Pugni and directed by A. Saint-Leon. The ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse” is still performed successfully today.

In 1941, the Soyuzdetfilm film studio made a feature film of the same name based on the fairy tale, and in 1947 and 1975, the Soyuzmultfilm studio made an animated film.

In 2006, in the city of Ishim, Tyumen Region, the homeland of the author of the world-famous fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse", the Ershov Museum was created (since 2009 - the Cultural Center). You can get acquainted with the activities of the Center on its website - www.ershov.ishimkultura.ru

In 2005, the Union of Writers of Russia and the administration of the city of Ishim established the All-Russian Literary Prize named after P. P. Ershov for works for children and youth. Every year, five winners are determined, who are awarded a monetary reward, diplomas and the symbol of the Prize - a sculptural composition made of bone, Ivanushka on the Little Humpbacked Horse holding the Firebird in her hands. According to tradition, the prize is awarded in the storyteller’s homeland on his birthday - March 6.

Little Humpbacked Fool
Helped me become a prince.
Who is he, Little Hunchback?
Nice, fabulous horse!

Library poster
Poster size - 1024x730
File size - 517 kb.
The author of the poster is O.I. Verkhoturova.

Double click on the thumbnail to view or copy the poster

Philword "Heroes of the fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse"
(Find 12 words among the letters)

KEYS:
1. The name of the main character of the fairy tale
2. Ivan the Fool's older brother
3. Middle brother of Ivan the Fool
4. Ivan’s envious and ill-wisher
5. Brother of the Tsar Maiden
6. Mother of the Tsar Maiden
7. Ivanushka’s most devoted friend
8. Affectionate name, which the Tsar called Ivan
9. Miracle Yudo fish
10. The name of Ivan the Fool's father
11. Fish - screamer, reveler and bully
12. Hunchback's Mother

To see the correct answers, double-click on the answer grid

Compiled by Galushko N.V.

MATERIALS TO HELP TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

The mane jumps is not simple,
Miracle golden mane,
He carries the boy through the mountains,
There's no way he'll be reset.
The horse has a son -
Amazing horse
Amazing horse
Nicknamed: The Little Hunchback

HE IS KNOWN FOR A FAIRY TALE. BUT WHAT!
THE HUMPED HUMPED HORSE HERO TO ALL HEROES!
THE WHITE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN SUCH A HORSE!
PUSHKIN HIMSELF, GUYS, WAS ENVY OF ERSHOV.

.

Chords and lyrics of the song “The Little Humpbacked Horse”
Tatiana Puchko

Let's gallop to the sea, we'll gallop to the sea Am
G C
For the Tsar's wife.
Dm Am E Am
You fly, big-eared, like a bird,
Am G C
Let's go home at a trot.
Dm Am E A7

Don't go crazy, owl,
Dm G C
Don't let your brow rest on your shoulder:
A7 Dm G C
After all, my, fool, rights -
A7 Dm E F
Hold the pen in your palm.
Dm E Am

Dm Am E Am E Am
Exclude me from the rules -
These are the white guys.
I set up a tent for you
For government pennies.

This is what, my joy, learn,
And now stop trembling:
My stupid destiny is this -
Hold the pen in your palm.

I'm a fool, a fool, I'm not a beast -
I can't drown kittens.
I keep catching feathers with my hands,
And let the firebirds fly!

So don't blame me.
And tell the king what you want,
But my, foolish, essence
There, in the forest, he lies on a stump.

June 1989, Moscow

IN OUR LIBRARY: EVENTS DEDICATED TO P.P. ERSHOV

For P.P.’s birthday Ershov, the author of the famous fairy tale in verse “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” was held for younger readers literary game“Following the Little Humpbacked Horse, we will enter a Russian fairy tale.” First, the guys got acquainted with the biography of the storyteller, and then took part in the competition program. After watching a fragment of the cartoon, they answered questions about what they saw; guessed what was hidden in the Tsar Maiden's chest; competed in the interpretation of outdated Russian words that appear in the text of the fairy tale. The children proved that they had read the book very carefully, as they answered all the quiz questions correctly and quickly found the names of the fairy tale characters hidden in the computer fillword. For this, the children were awarded honorary medals “Experts of the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

Years of life: from 03/06/1815 to 08/30/1869

Russian poet, writer, playwright. The most famous work: the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse”.

Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov was born in the village of Bezrukovo, Ishim district, Tobolsk province, into the family of a minor official. The writer's father often moved for work and P. Ershov spent his childhood in various cities: the fortress of St. Petra (now Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan), Omsk, Berezov, Tobolsk. Graduated from the Tobolsk gymnasium. In 1830, my father achieved a transfer to St. Petersburg, where he moved with his family. In 1831–1834 Ershov studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law of St. Petersburg University. During his student years, Ershov became close to the professor of Russian literature Pyotr Pletnev, met Vasil Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin. During his student years, Ershov wrote his most famous work: the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” The tale was highly appreciated by A.S. Pushkin and P. Pletnev, and in 1834 it was published first in part and then in full. Ershov used many folk fairy tales (about Ivan the Fool, Sivka-Burka, the Firebird, etc.), creating on their basis a completely original work, close in poetic form to Pushkin’s literary adaptations of Russian fairy tales.

In 1834–1836 Ershov quite actively participated in the literary life of the capital, entered the circle of V.G. Benediktov, published lyrical poems marked by the influence of the latter. In the same years, Ershov published the dramatic scene Thomas the Blacksmith (1835) and the play Suvorov and the Station Warden (1836).

In the summer of 1836, P. Ershov and his mother (his father and brother died in 1833 and 1834) returned to Tobolsk, harboring hopes for extensive educational activities in Siberia. Ershov became a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium, where he served in various positions until his resignation in 1862 (from 1844 inspector, from 1857 director of the gymnasium and the directorate of public schools of the province). In 1844 he sent the “Course” for consideration by the Ministry of Education Russian literature“, however, the book was rejected on the grounds that “it does not fully correspond to the concepts of the pupils.” During this period, Ershov wrote little, and his works, sent to the capital through friends, were no longer successful. The publication of the cycle of seven stories “Autumn Evenings” (1857), with which Ershov pinned his hopes of returning to literature, and the play “Merchant Bazim, or the Cunning of the Poor Man” (1858) went unnoticed. The grandiose plan of the poem Ivan Tsarevich in 10 volumes and 100 songs remained unfulfilled. Ershov died on August 18, 1869 in Tobolsk. He was buried at the Tobolsk Zavalny cemetery. The inscription on the monument reads: “Peter Pavlovich Ershov, author of the folk tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” The P. P. Ershov Cultural Center is now open in Ishim.

A. Yaroslavtsev conveyed the words of A. S. Pushkin, said to the author of The Little Humpbacked Horse: “Now I can leave this type of writing to me.” There is also an unreliable report by P.V. Annenkov that the first four lines of the tale belong to Pushkin.

Ershov's fairy tale circulated as a folk work, giving rise to many imitations and direct fakes (in the 1870s–1890s, about 40 fake Little Humpbacked Horses were published with a total circulation of about 350 thousand copies).

In 1996, an article by literary critic Alexander Latsis appeared, in which he argued that the author of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was not P. Ershov, but A.S. Pushkin. This point of view had a number of supporters who pointed to the following arguments: P. Ershov’s youth and lack literary experience, the similarity of the tale’s style to Pushkin’s, the absence of the first manuscript of the tale. They also drew attention to the fact that P. Ershov was no longer able to write anything that would approach the artistic merits of his first major work. Most researchers of the works of P. Ershov and A.S. Pushkin do not adhere to this version, considering P. Ershov the sole author of “The Little Hunchback Horse”.

There have been repeated attempts to ban Ershov's fairy tale. From the first edition of 1834, at the request of the censor, everything that could be interpreted as satire against the tsar or the church was excluded. In 1922, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was declared “inadmissible for release,” on the contrary, because of the scenes of admiration for the Tsar. In 1934, at the height of collectivization, censors saw in the book “the story of one remarkable career of the son of a village kulak.” In 2007, activists of the Public Movement “Bulgarian National Congress” demanded that the book be checked for extremism because of the tsar’s statements in which the word “Tatar” is used as a dirty word. The prosecutor's office refused to conduct an inspection, since the work belongs to the “classics of Russian literature.”

In 1986-1988, the video game “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was created in the USSR, which could be played on Soviet slot machines.

Bibliography

Apart from the fairy tale “”, P. Ershov’s works were not popular and did not receive positive reviews from critics. Only in 2005 a collection of his works appeared, edited by V.P. Zverev.

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

Ballets
The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet Pugni) (1864)
The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet by Shchedrin) (1958)

Film adaptations
The Little Humpbacked Horse (1941, USSR), dir. Alexander Rowe
The Little Humpbacked Horse [cartoon] (USSR, 1947), dir. Ivan Ivanov-Vano - Special Jury Prize of the IV IFF in Cannes, 1950
The Little Humpbacked Horse [cartoon] (USSR, 1975), the cartoon was drawn anew based on sketches from 1947.

Petr Ershov: an entertaining biography of the writer for children and adults

Petr Ershov: an entertaining biography of the writer, author of the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” short and complete.

Petr Ershov: biography of the writer for children and adults

There is no adult or child who does not know the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” And many will say that this is a folk tale. They will be right. After all, on the one hand, this is a folk tale, and on the other, it has an author - Pyotr Ershov. His life was not simple, but full of amazing upheavals and exciting events. That is why his fairy tale about the Little Humpbacked Horse turned out to be so magical.

In this article you will find everything you need to tell children, students or adults interestingly about Pyotr Ershov:

1. short biography of P. Ershov for children of senior preschool and primary school age,
2. full biography of P. Ershov for older students and adults,
3. list of references about the writer Pyotr Ershov,
4. list of essays P. Ershova,
5. Interesting Facts about the life of the writer and portraits of the writer,
6. portraits of Pyotr Ershov.

Section 1. Pyotr Ershov: a short biography of the writer for preschool and primary school children

Tell your child a short biography of the writer Pyotr Ershov as a fairy tale, a mysterious story. It will be enough to tell the child how the writer’s fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” came about, what he was like as a child, and what life lessons we can take from his biography.

For example, you can talk about Ershov like this.

Text of Ershov's biography for children of preschool and primary school age

“A long time ago, when neither your mother, nor your grandmother, nor even your great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother were in the world, one family lived far, far away in the north in Siberia. They lived in the village of Bezrukovo near the small town of Ishim.

In winter 1816, on February 22, a boy was born into this family. They named him Peter. Peter later became a famous poet and wrote about himself and his birth like this:

"Born in the depths of bad weather,
In the land of fog and snow,
Pet of northern nature
And the grief of painful shackles,

I was greeted by a blizzard
And met by decrepit winter,
And over the baby's bed
A whirlwind of snow swirled...

My first sight was the howl of a snowstorm,
My first look was a sad look
To the icy shore of the ocean,
On the snowy hump of high mountains..."

Task for children: In what region was this boy born? (help the children remember expressive words from a poem) Yes, in a cold, snowy land with fogs and blizzards, blizzards and blizzards, with snow blizzards! In a harsh land!

The boy was born very, very weak and it even seemed that he would soon die. Therefore, his parents immediately wrapped him in swaddling clothes and took him to the church to be baptized, because they were afraid that he would die unbaptized. The boy screamed constantly and was very weak. A whole year passed like this. The parents prayed and did everything they could, but nothing helped; they were very worried about their baby. But the baby never recovered.

When Pyotr Ershov was one year old, his parents decided out of desperation to perform a ritual to save their son that came from nowhere to Siberia - “to sell their son.”

It was done like this. A beggar approached the open window. They handed him a child: “Buy it!” “How much will you take?” - asked the beggar. “A penny,” the parents answered. A penny is a coin. And then the parents of the “sold child” put him back in bed. The same ritual was done with little Petya. For some reason, in those ancient times it was believed that the beggar would then take away the disease from the child. And as his parents later recalled, the boy really recovered after that. Then, when Petya grew up, he jokingly said about himself: “I’m worth nothing.”

Task for children: What is a penny? That's right, this is a coin, like a penny now - the lowest price.

(Note for adults: in this family of Pyotr Ershov’s parents, 12 children were born, and only two of them survived - Pyotr Ershov and his brother. His brother died young and only Pyotr Ershov continued the family line. That is why the parents were ready to do anything just to the child survived).

Of course, it was not an old conspiracy, but the love of the parents and their true faith in the salvation of their son that helped little Petya recover, gain strength and become a healthy, smart, strong, talented boy, and after that a famous writer and storyteller.

Usually children in preschool, the same age as you, live with their parents in the same place. But this was not the childhood of little Petya Ershov. It was a childhood journey in which he, along with his parents and brother, constantly moved from one place to another and saw a lot along the way. His father’s job was such that he often had to move. Along the way, he saw interesting cities, the peoples of the north with their strange customs, and beautiful nature.

Task for children: What do you think Petya Ershov traveled with with his parents? (most likely the child will name either a train or a plane, a car, then answer this way: “It was so long ago that people didn’t have a car or a plane back then! Then everyone rode a cart in the summer and on a sleigh in the winter, and floated along the river on boat. Do you think it was convenient for people then to travel by boat, cart, sleigh? In what ways is it convenient? And in what ways is it not convenient?") You could see a lot of beautiful things along the way! But the journey was difficult, do you remember which region they traveled through, what the weather was like there, so from childhood Peter was not afraid of difficulties!

And on long winter evenings, little Peter would climb into a hut full of old people and listen to them tell each other fairy tales, some fables.

When the time came to study, the mother and father who loved their two children did not even think about whether to stay in the village and decided that the whole family should go from the village to the city where there is a gymnasium! So that children have the opportunity to study in a real school! And they go to Tobolsk. There Petya became a high school student.

Peter studied diligently at the gymnasium. And on weekends he studied in a literary circle, in which children read Russian and foreign books, their works and discussed them. Such circles still exist in many schools, and they used to exist. The circle was led by the director of the gymnasium, Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev. It was his son who in the future would become an outstanding Russian chemist, and the whole world would know his name, because he would come up with the famous “periodic table”! Ivan Pavlovich, a teacher from God and the director of the gymnasium, immediately noticed Pyotr Ershov’s literary abilities and took upon himself the responsibility of helping him develop them, became his friend and mentor, gave him reading materials good books and talked with him about what he had read. He greatly helped the development of the talent and good taste of Pyotr Ershov.

Of course, like any child, Peter also loved to play pranks. Here is one example of the pranks of that time. The gymnasium in Tobolsk was located in a house of historical significance and decorated with various statues. So, on the facade of the building there was a figure of Minevra carved from wood. However, the schoolchildren nicknamed her “Venus.” And the favorite pastime of the schoolchildren, including Peter, was to shoot turnips at passers-by, hiding behind this very “Venus”.

After successfully graduating from high school at the age of 16, Pyotr Ershov and his parents came to St. Petersburg. For that age he was very childish - just a boy! And very thoughtful! During all his classes at the university, Peter wrote and wrote, and from the outside it seemed that he was diligently writing everything down for the teacher. But in fact he wrote poetry!

And then one day in 1833, young student Pyotr Ershov finished a poem and handed it over to his university teacher Pyotr Aleksandrovich Pletnev, a friend of A.S. Pushkin.

Question to the children: What happened the next day? Guess? What did his teacher tell Peter?

Here's what really happened. The next day P.A. Pletnev came to his students’ classes and began reading Pyotr Ershov’s fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” out loud to the entire audience! Instead of a lecture! He liked her so much!

How surprised were the students who listened to a fairy tale instead of a regular lecture! After all, until that day, their teacher Pletnev read to them only the works of famous writers and poets - Baratynsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig, Karamzin, Zhukovsky! Everyone was surprised at the literary merits of the fairy tale! We were also surprised that its author was unknown.

Pleased with the effect produced, the teacher named the author - it turned out to be Petr Ershov, 19 years old from Tobolsk, sitting next to him! This is how the fame of a storyteller came to Pyotr Ershov in his youth.

And soon Pyotr Ershov goes with the text of his fairy tale to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin himself to the house on the corner of Gorokhovaya and Bolshaya Morskaya in St. Petersburg. Nobody knows what they were talking about. It is only known that Pushkin said, having become acquainted with the fairy tale by Pyotr Ershov: “Now I can leave this branch of literature.” Just as Derzhavin blessed Pushkin in his time, so now Pushkin blessed Ershov with these words.

After this, Ershov’s fairy tale about the Little Humpbacked Horse was reprinted many times and is now known to everyone—to all children!

Let’s remember what it’s about!” Re-listen or watch a fairy tale with your child.

Fairy tale The Little Humpbacked Horse by Peter Ershov: cartoon for children

Fairy tale The Little Humpbacked Horse by Peter Ershov: audio for children

Modern editions of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” with classic children’s illustrations from “The Labyrinth”:

click on the picture with the cover of the book to go to its page in the Labyrinth

1. Illustrator - Eliseev A.M.

2. Illustrator - N.M. Kochergin

Section 2. Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov: a complete biography for senior schoolchildren and adults

The childhood of Pyotr Ershov

We all come from childhood. What was the childhood of Pyotr Ershov like?

A very weak baby was born into the family of Pavel Alekseevich and Evfemia Vasilievna Ershov. It seemed that he was about to die. Fearing for the life of the child, who was born very weak, the parents decided to baptize him on the same day in the city-Ishim Epiphany Cathedral. The boy was very weak and screamed, desperately screaming, and later the baby began to have nervous attacks.

Desperate parents decided to carry out an ancient ritual and sell the boy to a beggar. You have already read above how it happened. The ritual helped - the seizures stopped.

As a child, Peter traveled a lot with his parents, because his father often moved from one city to another due to his duty. These are the children's vivid impressions then they entered like fairy-tale images into his fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

What Ershov learned from childhood: the forerunner of “The Little Humpbacked Horse”

Since childhood, Peter was very attentive and observant. Moreover, he retained his childish view of the world and his heart open to the world until last days own life. It is very difficult for such people to live, and this is what happened to Pyotr Ershov.

First observation from childhood. Horse market and the image of the Little Humpbacked Horse

Until the age of 8, Petya lived in Petropavlovsk and Omsk. These cities then were not at all the same as they appear to us now. These were cities where in the bazaars you could see such outlandish goods that you probably wouldn’t even find them in Moscow. There were also horse markets, which Petya Ershov could go to with his father. Stately horses and foals of all stripes and colors look at the boy from all sides. But foreign guests brought not only horses for sale; there were also strange animals, for example, a camel. And here is a little camel with two humps. Apparently, this is why Peter’s fairy tale became the tale of an outlandish horse with a hump - the Little Humpbacked Horse.

Second observation from childhood. City capital

Finding himself in Tobolsk, a large bustling trading city, Pyotr Ershov absorbs this diversity of colors of the capital city. The capital city with its Kremlin, which is visible from afar, made a great impression on Petya even when the family first entered the city. And then it intensified every day. And it later poured into the pages of a fairy tale.

“Here they harnessed the horses
And they came to the capital,
We stood in a row of horses,
Opposite the large chambers.

In that capital there was a custom:
If the mayor does not say -
Don't buy anything
Don't sell anything.
Now mass is coming;
The mayor leaves
In shoes, in a fur hat,
With a hundred city guards.
A herald rides next to him,
Long mustache, bearded;
He blows a golden trumpet,
He shouts in a loud voice:
"Guests! Open the shops
Buy, sell..."

Third observation from childhood. Where could the Miracle Whale come from?

One day the Ershov family Once again moved. And this time they had to sail very far along the large rivers Irtysh and Ob in boats. Ershov's father had to often go ashore on business. While his father was busy with business, the boy listened to local fishermen and storytellers. Among the stories there was one that captured Petya’s imagination. It was a story about a huge whale washed ashore. This is where the image of a huge miracle fish is born.

Fourth observation from childhood. Observations of adults: relations between officials

The writer's father was an official. The officials among my acquaintances were different - both good and bad. The writer considered his father to be more of the latter. Peter's father did not use his position for personal gain, although there was such a possibility. He was promoted and demoted several times during his service. He performed his work diligently and responsibly. But there were others, not very honest, not very diligent, not very decent. Pyotr Ershov also saw such people. And then, already at a relatively adult age, he will give their portraits on the pages of his works.

Gymnasium years of Pyotr Ershov

In 1824, his parents sent Peter and his brother Nikolai to Tobolsk to study. And in 1827, brothers Pyotr and Nikolai Ershov entered the gymnasium.

The boys lived in the merchant family of the Pilenkovs - relatives of their mother. They lived with their uncle, Nikolai Stepanovich Pilenkov, who showed great concern about boys. Nikolai Stepanovich was a famous man in the city, a millionaire philanthropist.

The brothers are very lucky! Since 1827, the gymnasium where they began to study had a new director - Ivan Pavlovich Medeleev - the father of the future chemist Dmitry Mendeleev. Ivan Pavlovich created new system training in a gymnasium, which gave its graduates the right to enter Russian universities. He preached a creative approach to teaching children, and he personally organized and conducted “literary Sundays” for high school students. On literary Sundays, students read works by Russian and foreign authors, discussed them, and read their own works. It was Ivan Pavlovich noticed the literary abilities of young Pyotr Ershov and began to purposefully develop them!

Since Pyotr Ershov’s father was constantly traveling and could not study with his son, Ivan Pavlovich, the director of the gymnasium, took upon himself the work of developing the boy’s talent. He invited Petya to his home, gave him good books to read, and talked with him about what he had read. In the future, Pyotr Ershov always spoke of him with gratitude and considered him his first mentor.

Interesting and very important fact: It happens so often in life that goodness comes back to us as goodness in the most unexpected way! And history and biographies famous people They give us a life lesson in this regard. Here's what happened next. Subsequently, there was a change of roles. Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev dies and leaves his 13-year-old son Dmitry Mendeleev, a future chemist. And Pyotr Ershov will become a support for this boy, will become his mentor in life and true friend! It is he who will guide Dmitry in the future to enter the university. This is how a person, by supporting a person, helps life, development, friendship, creation!

Let's continue the biography. In Tobolsk, the Ershov brothers studied quite well, tried and strived to get an education. Upon graduating from college in Tobolsk, Pyotr Ershov was awarded the “New Testament” - a massive book bound in leather with gold embossing. On the first sheet there was a dedicatory inscription:

“Presented at an open test of the Tobolsk District School to a 2nd grade student Pyotr Ershov. For excellent success in science, good behavior and diligence. 1826 5 days.”

But it’s not just studying that makes up the school years, it’s also relationships with peers and interesting people. And young Pyotr Ershov was again very lucky in this regard!

At this time, the famous composer Alexander Aleksandrovich Alyabyev lived in Tobolsk. Alyabyev wrote many musical works. Let us at least recall Alyabiev’s romance “The Nightingale”, well known to all of us, based on the words of Delvig. In Tobolsk Alyabyev created a symphony orchestra.

Ershov became friends with A. Alyabyev and went with him to all orchestra rehearsals. They were best friends. It was Alyabyev who introduced Ershov to the work of A. S. Pushkin more deeply, because the composer wrote music based on his poems.

Subsequently, he recalled a funny prank associated with their friendship:

“Alyabyev once, in an argument with me, jokingly said that I don’t know anything about music. “Well, brother, I’ll prove to you at the first rehearsal that you’re wrong.” ... Here comes the rehearsal. Alyabyev and I sat closer to the orchestra. I gave him my word that I would notice the slightest mistake. At that time, the first violin was a certain I-tkov, an excellent musician; Every time he made a mistake in the orchestra, he made such faces that he wanted to run away. I don’t take my eyes off him, but Alyabyev doesn’t notice anything, for him there is only music in the whole world. As soon as the first violin makes a face, I’ll push Alyabyev. He couldn’t bear it, halfway through the play he stood up and bowed to me... When the matter was explained, we both burst out laughing.”

This is how my school years passed. When the boys Peter and Nikolai Ershov finished their studies at the gymnasium, their father transferred to St. Petersburg, where the brothers entered St. Petersburg University.

The youth of Pyotr Ershov: student years

In 1830, the father of the future poet sought a transfer to St. Petersburg. Having settled in St. Petersburg, the father summons the rest of the family. Thus, the Ershovs found themselves in the capital of cultural life in Russia at that time.

Upon arrival in the capital, Pyotr Ershov submits a request to be enrolled as a student at the Faculty of History and Philology of the St. Petersburg Imperial University. And he goes there to study.

Since Peter lived not far from the university, his comrades began to visit him often. Young people lively discussed new fairy tales by A.S. Pushkin, published “Russian Fairy Tales” in. I. Dahl. Although, it should be noted that the Ershovs lived quite modestly in St. Petersburg. The brothers were somewhat aloof from their rich fellow students.

One of Ershov's friends was Andrei Yaroslavtsev, who subsequently published the first biography of Pyotr Ershov. He was also interested in literature. This is how he described Pyotr Ershov:

“... Pyotr Ershov was especially noticeable: he was a Siberian virgin nature, keeping some kind of jewels in himself... His face was pale, without blush; dark hair curled slightly on the broad forehead and temples; his nose was small, his eyebrows rose in an arch above his good-natured eyes, from which thought and fantasy looked out... Pyotr Ershov, until the end of his life, avoided people who were at least somewhat eager for external brilliance, or who were not entirely frank, or frank in subjects that were not to his liking.” (Yaroslavtsev, classmate and friend of Pyotr Ershov)

How Pyotr Ershov became a writer

Many famous writers and poets, starting their journey, make some attempts at writing. In A.S. Pushkin, for example, these are lyceum poems. But Ershov’s attempt at writing immediately became his mature and most famous work - his main work, the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse”. Here's how it happened.

The first year of life in St. Petersburg was quite difficult not only for Ershov, but also for the entire northern capital. Cholera came, human riots, poverty. All this began to greatly hurt the eyes of a young man walking along the streets of the city at that time. The thought of the plots of a fairy tale, in which the hero would be a poor young man, but honest and fair, began to cling one after another. The form of the tale is not yet clear to Ershov - prose or poetry? So far, Peter was only developing the rudiments of a plot.

His acquaintance with Pyotr Aleksandrovich Pletnev helped Ershov become a writer. Here we find another example of how a talented person can influence the fate of another person!

P. A. Pletnev was one of the young Ershov’s teachers at the university, a professor of Russian literature (since 1832, rector of St. Petersburg University). Pyotr Pletnev is a poet and critic, a friend of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, his closest ally in all matters related to the publication of books. He helped in the printing of more than 20 books by Pushkin. It was to Pletnev that Alexander Sergeevich dedicated the poem “Eugene Onegin” and called him a man of “a beautiful soul, a holy one filled with dreams, lively and clear poetry, lofty thoughts and simplicity.” Pushkin himself called him “breadwinner” and “benefactor.” They were family friends. Pletnev was an active contributor to Pushkin’s Sovremennik magazine and continued publishing the magazine after the poet’s death.

It was Pletnev who introduced the young man Ershov to Pushkin’s fairy tales. At this time, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” was published. And here is a find for the form of young Ershov’s ideas! Yes, it will be a fairy tale. After all, if you write something about the people, it should be in the form of a fairy tale, for this is the people themselves.

P.A. Pletnev and A.V. Nikitenko were Ershov’s university teachers, who subsequently introduced him into literary circles and introduced him to Pushkin personally. Ershov loved literature as a subject of study, and his university certificate showed the highest grade in literature.

Ershov plunges headlong into working on the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” He does it quite quickly, all the storylines line up together, all the characters take their places. As soon as the fairy tale was ready, Peter gives it to his teacher Pletnev, hoping for his favor. His hopes came true.

Where was the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” read for the first time?

One day, Pletnev, having arrived at the university, instead of giving a lecture, begins to read Ershov’s fairy tale to the entire large audience of students. Having finished reading, Pletnev revealed the name of the author, who was sitting right there in the audience. This is how fame comes to the author for the first time, and the work is revealed publicly.

Later, Pyotr Ershov received the blessing of A.S. himself. Pushkin. It is known that Pushkin said about Ershov’s literary gift this way: “This Ershov speaks Russian verse, just like his serf.” And he noted that “Now this type of writing can be left to me.”

Who is the author of the first lines of the fairy tale?A.S. Pushkin or P. Ershov?

The fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Ershov begins with these words:

Behind the mountains, behind the forests,
Across the wide seas
Against the sky - on the ground
An old man lived in a village.

Who wrote these words - Pyotr Ershov or Pushkin himself? This issue is still actively discussed.

“At the apogee of his glory, Pushkin greeted with lively approval Mr. Ershov’s famous Russian fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” now forgotten. The first four verses of this tale<…>belong to Pushkin, who honored it with a thorough revision,” as A. Smirdin states in his memoirs.

Interesting fact: In the 1910-1930s, these lines from the fairy tale were included in the collected works of Pushkin, but later it was decided not to publish them along with Pushkin’s works for the reason that this quote from Smirdin can be interpreted to mean that Pushkin only edited the poems.

There is one more fact. After the death of Pushkin, Ershov replaced one line in his fairy tale - the line “Not in heaven - on earth” with another text, which we read in modern publications of the fairy tale: “Against heaven - on earth.” Doubts were expressed that he would have acted this way if Pushkin had been the author of these lines.

An interesting fact from the life of Pyotr Ershov

In St. Petersburg, Ershov studied the flute with the famous music teacher of that time and composer O.K. Gunke, on whose advice he wrote the libretto for the great magical-heroic opera “The Terrible Sword” in 1836.

When a friend asked him why he chose this particular instrument, he answered with deep seriousness:

So, you can put the flute in your pocket, and amuse yourself on walks, somewhere in remote places.

The further fate of the works of Pyotr Ershov

The first part of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was published in the magazine “Library for Reading”, edited by O.I. Senkovsky. The published part began with the words: “This is a saying, but here the fairy tale will take its course...”

On October 5, 1834, an announcement appeared in the Northern Bee that the fairy tale had been published as a separate book. It is sold in Smirdin's store for 5 rubles per book.

Success comes to Ershov with this fairy tale, he begins to live the life of a writer: he goes to literary meetings, looks for new acquaintances, tries himself in various genres. Ershov is full of plans and hopes!

But... In the world of literature at that time, everything was very difficult. Due to his youth, Ershov could not see this, and it was all carefully hidden. Politics and literature were closely intertwined.

After the publication of the fairy tale, it fell under a publication ban for a long time, and its second edition was published only in 1856 after the reign of Nicholas - censorship did not allow the publication of “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” Reviews of the fairy tale were also mixed.

The Northern Bee magazine was Bulgarin's. This meant that the laudatory speech about Ershov in the magazine was intended to make him “our” writer.

The magazine “Molva” enlists Ershov among the “Smirdin writers” and publishes a negative review of “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” calling this work a fake. The author of the article wrote: “The Little Humpbacked Horse has not only no artistic merit, but even the merit of a funny farce.” This was a blow for the writer. The author of this article, by the way, was the famous critic V. Belinsky.

Ershov could not break with Smirdin because of his difficult financial situation, but Pletnev agreed to publish his poems in Sovremennik exclusively for free.

And although, outwardly, everything seemed successful, Ershov’s poems were published in magazines, the author begins to understand that they cannot be compared with his fairy tale.

Forgeries of Ershov's fairy tales were also published. For example, if in source text Ershov says:

He looks into your eyes with tenderness,
Sweet speech says:
"Peerless girl,
Agree to be a queen!
I barely saw you -
With strong passion boiled.
Your falcon eyes
They won't let me sleep in the middle of the night
And in broad daylight -
Oh! are tormenting me.
Say a kind word!
Everything is ready for the wedding;
Tomorrow morning, my dear,
Let's get married to you
And let’s start living happily ever after.”
And the princess is young,
Without saying anything
She turned away from the king.

then in the revised versions these words were changed during censorship as follows:

"Smiled sweetly
And then she turned to the king.
He says to the king in response:
“I’m yours, there’s no doubt about it...”

Ershov also attempted to return to the folk tale genre; the idea later took shape in the form of the poem “Ivan the Tsarevich.” But the poem was never written, and Ershov burned its manuscripts in a fit of disappointment. He later tried his hand at creating a libretto for Russian opera. In character it was a magical-heroic opera, called “The Terrible Sword”. Some parts of it even turned out to be quite successful. The libretto received approval for publication. But it was never presented. Ershov was ahead of Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar.

What is the reason for the further literary failures of Pyotr Ershov?

Why, having written a brilliant fairy tale in his youth, Pyotr Ershov never created another work so popular? The answer to this question is given by Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky in his book “From Two to Five” in the chapter “Commandments of Children’s Writers. Learn from the people - learn from the children."

He writes very important words for all of us - living in the 21st century, words - a lesson in life:

It often happened to read that this creative tragedy of Ershov occurred because he, soon after The Little Humpbacked Horse, went to his home in Siberia, became an inspector, and later the director of the Tobolsk gymnasium and was drawn headlong into the mire of provincial bureaucratic vulgarity. This is, of course, nonsense. You never know there were officials among the wonderful Russian writers: Krylov, Dal, Goncharov, and Shchedrin, but because of this they did not lose their talents immediately after their first literary experience.

The second oddity of Ershov’s biography seems even more striking to me. Why, when creating his children's book, which is, so to speak, the daily bread for all five-year-old, six-year-old, seven-year-old children, did he never guess that it was a children's book? And none of those around him guessed about it either. Baron Brambeus published the first part of his book in the Reading Library, published exclusively for adult readers. And critics measured it only by the standards by which books for adults are measured. And if Ershov had decided to stick his “Humpbacked Horse” into a children’s magazine, his “Humpbacked Horse” would have been pushed out of there, like a country bumpkin who had found his way to a governor’s ball.

Throughout his long life, he almost never returned to the “common” peasant style in which “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was written, but tried to cultivate the style of the then high poetry, writing messages, eclogues in the spirit of Zhukovsky and even elaborate poems in the Benedictine spirit, although he was unsuccessful and even impersonal in this area , that is, similar to every other middle peasant writer of that time.

And here, it seems to me, is the answer to the first strangeness of his biography. A master of the Russian folk style, which he mastered perfectly, he immediately after “The Little Humpbacked Horse” renounced this style, neglected it and never made an attempt to return to it in his work(except for the “Russian Song,” which he wrote shortly after “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” and two or three more works of the same kind, which showed a tendency towards stylization, which was fashionable at that time).

His biographer very correctly points out:

“Where folk art serves as a spark of inspiration for Ershov, where he remains true to his bright talent as a storyteller and poet, there he finds the right colors, and the expressive beauty of the language, and the naturalness of the course of events, and sincerity, which always receive a response in the reader’s heart. But as soon as he stands on the stilts of romanticism or moves onto the soil of everyday life writing and religious mysticism, which is alien to his poetic talent, his strength betrays him” (V. Utkov, Introductory article to “Works”, P.P. Ershova, Omsk, 1950, p. 27 ).

Hence all his failures and weaknesses: he broke away from his soil, from the people who gave his creativity such powerful juices,- from folk speech, folk humor, folk worldview, folk aesthetics. And here, it seems to me, is the key to the second feature of his tragic biography.

Under Nicholas I, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was for a long time under censorship ban. And then little by little it began to be published as a popular book for the grassroots reader. Ofeni sold it briskly in villages and at fairs - along with chintz, dream books, icons, and gingerbread.

However, thirty years passed, and it entered literature again, but as a book for little ones. The little ones wrested it from the big ones and took possession of it forever, like a precious booty, and then only the big ones managed to see that for children this was really good food - tasty, nutritious, satisfying, contributing to their spiritual growth... Having won this book from adults, the children passed it on as an inheritance to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of great-grandchildren, and it is impossible to imagine a generation of Russian children that could do without it. There is a great lesson here for all of us. In this instructive fate of “The Little Hunchback,” a sign of equality between children and the people was clearly put for everyone. Children's and folk turned out to be synonymous.

Is he a poet who, from the first days of creation
I opened the grain of heaven in my soul,
And as a guarantee of the supreme calling
Did you carefully keep it in your chest?
Who has secluded himself between people with his soul,
Who gathered the whole world around himself;
Who raised his mind to the sky
And before the creator he humbled himself to dust?

Is he a poet who has a wonderful nature?
Concluded a holy alliance from childhood;
Bound himself with reasonable freedom
And have you conquered the world and the spirit of creation?
Who cultivated holy feelings in the soul,
I breathed towards beautiful love;
Who in the field of celestial art
Did you know how to find your bright ideal?

Is he a poet who is everywhere in the universe?
The Spirit of God - life has mysteriously received its sight,
Connected with myself and inspired thought
Have you imprinted a living thought on everything?
Who are the secret creations of the tablet,
Without further ado, I read it with love;
Whom earth and sky inspired,
Who unwittingly combined life with a dream?

Is he a poet who is the thread of living legends?
The charter was watched sympathetically;
Who unraveled the chaos of everyday life
And enriched yourself with experience?
Who is above the river of seething generations,
In the silent struggle of peoples and centuries,
In waves of fire, and blood, and turmoil, -
Did you see the finger of the ruler of the worlds?

Is he a poet who has bright dreams
Magic world revealed in his soul,
Warmed him with feelings and passions,
And revived with high thoughts?
Who was touched by the dream of a baby,
Who looked at her with love;
Who bowed before his creation
And froze with joy and delight?

Is he a poet who with every drop of blood
I received the purest love into myself;
Who lives and breathes for love,
Whose life is a divine vial of love?
Who is ready to give everything without reward,
And the happiness of days is mercilessly broken,
If only under the needles of suffering
To love your beautiful dream?

Is he a poet who is an orphan among people,
Rejected, he did not forget them in his heart;
Who shared the torment of Prometheus,
And for whom was this world a rock?
Who, bound by the chains of insignificance,
He knew how to preserve the crown of his soul;
Who is fate under its sharp claws
Didn't change your calling from the first days?

Is he a poet who is coldly rejected?
He overcame with heavenly love,
He brought beautiful visions to his enemies,
Didn’t you just take a crown of thorns for yourself?
Who did not seek human applause;
I didn’t put a price on my dream
And in the feeling of only sublime creatures
Did you find a reward for yourself and for them?

Let the world judge! Heir of Grace -
Is he a prophet or a wanderer on earth?
Is the sign of the divine seal lit?
On a cloudy, thinking brow?
Let him judge! - But if the world is evil,
Having snatched visions of the best light,
Will deprive him of both name and glory,
Let him decide: who is he, his Poet?

A street was named in honor of P.P. Ershov in Tobolsk, and a monument was erected. The monument says: “Peter Pavlovich Ershov, author of the folk tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” A monument to Ershov was also erected in Nefteyugansk. The village of Bezrukovo, where Pyotr Ershov was born, was renamed “Ershovo”. A street in the city of Ishim and the Ishim State Pedagogical Institute are also named after Ershov. In Ishim there is a cultural center named after P. Ershov, which restores and preserves his heritage.

Ershov’s great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren live and work in Siberia in the fields of medicine, education, and journalism.

In 1960, the village of Bezrukovo, Ishim district, Tyumen region, was renamed into the village. Ershovo. Also, a street in the city of Ishim, Tyumen Region, is named after P. P. Ershov; the Ishim State Pedagogical Institute bears his name. In Ishim there is the P. P. Ershov Cultural Center with the only exhibition in the country that chronologically tells about the life and work of the poet and teacher. In Nefteyugansk on the square. A bust of P. P. Ershov was erected on the Jubilee.

This is interesting to know: about P. Ershov’s fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse”

Turns out, The plot of the fairy tale about the little hunchbacked horse is found among many peoples. P. Ershov's fairy tales are based on folk tales, and, apparently, not only Russian ones, but also fairy tales of other peoples. Or maybe your childhood impressions of listening to fairy tales in a hut in winter?

For example, folklore researchers are familiar with a Norwegian folk tale with a similar storyline. The tale is called "De syv folene" ("The Seven Foals"). A Norwegian fairy tale tells of three sons who were supposed to herd the king's magic horses. And the reward for completing the task was a beautiful princess. In this assignment, the youngest son was helped by a magical foal that spoke human language.

There is also a Mongolian fairy tale with a very similar plot.

There are similar stories in Slovak, Belarusian, Ukrainian (in particular, Transcarpathian), Buryat, Gypsy (Kelderar) folklore.

Since its existence, the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” has been published in huge editions at least 130 times in 27 languages ​​of the world.

About Ivanushka as the main character of the fairy tale by Pyotr Ershov

Very often we think about the question, why the main character of this fairy tale is not just Ivanushka, but... a fool? And is he a fool? You can discuss this issue with your child.

“On the Little Humpbacked Horse,” Ershov said more than once, “the Russian proverb comes true: don’t be born smart or handsome, but be born happy.” All my merit is that I managed to get into the vein of the people.”

It turns out that such fairy tale heroes as Pyotr Ershov’s Ivanushka in “The Little Humpbacked Horse” exist not only in our Russian fairy tales, but also in the fairy tales of other peoples! In our country this hero is called Ivanushka, or Ivanushka - the fool, in Germany it is Stupid Hans, in Polynesia - Mauk, on the islands of Melanesia - Tagaro - Mbiti!

Why in all countries was it the youngest son who was so lucky? Scientists explain that since ancient times the people had a special attitude towards their youngest son. The eldest sons went to explore new lands and started their own families there. And the younger ones stayed with their parents, became the guardians of their father and mother’s home... and adopted ancient legends from their parents. And he grew up as a special son from childhood!

Why is Ivanushka a fool in Pyotr Ershov’s fairy tale? Is he really a fool? No! A friend of Pyotr Ershov, Yaroslavtsev, wrote this: “Ivanushka is called a fool here only in human language: he does not fit the concepts of ordinary people.” If the older brothers sow wheat, then Ivanushka accomplishes feat after feat. Ivanushka is a pure, selfless and open-hearted person, just like Pyotr Ershov himself was.

What other works did Pyotr Ershov write?

In addition to “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” Pyotr Ershov wrote poetry, some of which you found in this article. His ballad “The Siberian Cossack” was also published. He also wrote a dramatic anecdote “Suvorov and the stationmaster”, a cycle of stories “Autumn Evenings”.
Complete list of poems by P. P. Ershov:

• PARBLEU OU POUR LE BLEU (DAMN IT OR FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE)
• TO A.I. DESPOT-ZENOVICH (I RECOGNIZED YOU AS SMART)
• ALEXEY EGOROVICH VIKTOROV (LOBER OF ANCIENTITY AND RUSSIAN ANTIQUES)
• IN THE ALBUM TO V. A. TREBORN
• IN THE ALBUM S.P.J<ИЛИНОЙ>
• V. A. ANDRONIKOV (YOU ASK FOR A MEMORY OF POEMS)
• QUESTION
• MEMORY
• ENTERING THE UNGRATEFUL LIGHT...
• SADNESS
• TWO MUSES
• TO TWO SKINNY PEOPLE, OUR CITY IS SKINNY...
• I WOULD HAVE BEEN REJECTING SO MUCH...
• TO FRIENDS (FRIENDS! LEAVE CONSOLIATIONS)
• HIM WITH MATCHES IN HIS MOUTH...
• WISH
• DESIRE FOR LOVE
• GREEN COLOR
• WINTER EVENING
• TO FRIENDS (FRIENDS, FRIENDS! DON'T REGRACE)
• TO THE MUSE
• TO ONE PHILANTHROPIC (IN PHILANTHROPIC FIT)
• TREASURE OF THE SOUL
• RING WITH TURQUOISE
• THE LITTLE HUMPBACKED HORSE
• WHO IS HE?
• TO THE MERCHANT PLEKHANOV (OUR SIBERIAN KASHCHEY)
• FOR MILITARY LOVERS
• M. Znamensky (THE CAPITAL IS DESTINY)
• MY FEDUL FRIENDS...
• YOUNG EAGLE
• MONOLOGUE OF SVYATOPOLK THE ACCURSED
• MY STAR
• MY TRIP (EXIT. FIELD BEHIND THE OUTPUT. SONG OF A BIRD. FAST RIDE. ROAD. THUNDERSTORM.)
• MUSIC
• FOR DEPARTURE A.P. AND S.P.F<ИЛИНЫХ>
• MOTHER RUSSIA IS NOT FORGOTTEN
• IT IS NOT THE ONE WHO LOVED, THE LOVE WHO FELT SWEET...
• TO SOME PROGRESSIVE
• TO THE NATURAL NIHILIIST
• CHRISTMAS NIGHT
• ALONE, CALM, SILENT...
• LONELINESS
• JUSTIFICATION
• A DONKEY WILL REMAIN A DONKEY...
• OCTASTICS
• EXTRACTS (ALONE, CALM, SILENT..., NATURE IS HIDDEN IN THE ROOM OF THE NIGHT..., FALLS)
• HE IS LEAVING OUR PALESTINE...
• FIRST LOVE
• FIRST SPRING FLOWER
• TURN
• SONG OF THE COSSACK
• SONG OF THE BOY (FROM THE LIBRETTO OF THE OPERA “TERRIBLE SWORD”)
• SONG OF OLD MAN LUKA (FROM THE DRAMATIC STORY “THOMA THE SMITH”)
• OUR DAYS WERE SAD...
• AFTER READING ONE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
• FOR LATIN FANS
• MESSAGE TO A FRIEND
• HOLIDAY OF THE HEART
• EXCELLENCE AND EXCELLENCE…
• NATURE IS HIDDEN IN THE ROOM OF THE NIGHT...
• DRAFT NEW LAW
• FAREWELL TO ST. PETERSBURG
• PUBLICIST-TEACHER
• EARLY MORNING UNDER THE WINDOW...
• RUSSIAN SONG
• RUSSIAN BAYONET
• ROSES FAMILY 1
• SIBERIAN COSSACK
• DEATH OF ERMAK
• DEATH OF SVYATOSLAV
• OLD AND NEW ORDERS
• THE TERRIBLE SWORD (EXTRACTS FROM THE LIBRETTO)
• SUZGE
• THE PEOPLE HERE ARE SO HONEY...
• TIMKOVSKY. FOR HIS DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA
• THREE VIEWS
• THOMAS THE BLACKSMITH. EXCERPT FROM A DRAMATIC STORY
• TEMPLE OF THE HEART
• WHAT IS THERE TO BE ENVYED THAT A SOME LORD...
• CHEREPOSLOV. EXCERPT FROM VAUDEVILLE
• NATURE TENT
• Impromptu (ALIEN BALL FUN)
• Impromptu (EVR_I_KA, EVR_I_KA!..)
• IMPROMTUDES FOR THE NEW YEAR 1842

Films and cartoons based on the works of Pyotr Ershov

Based on the fairy tale by Pyotr Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, a feature film was made in 1941. And later cartoons were made (1947 and 1975).

Ballets based on the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Ershov

The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet Pugni) - 1864

The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet by Shchedrin) - 1958

• Alekseev G. Magician from Siberia: To the 175th anniversary of the birth of P.P. Ershova // Librarian. – 1990. – No. 2. – P.52-53
• Vakurov V. About the fairy tale by P.P. Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” // Preschool education. – 1988. – No. 1. – P.54-55
• Gryaznova A.T. Experience of linguistic analysis of P.P. Ershov’s fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” // Russian language at school. – 1999. - No. 4. - P. 59-66.
• Kasarkin V. “Happy journey to him!...”: To the 175th anniversary of the birth of the writer P.P. Ershova // Family and school. – 1990. No. 3. – P.55-56
• Kolganova A. Metamorphoses of the Little Humpbacked Horse: [Study of P. Ershov’s fairy tale] //Children’s literature. – 1986. – No. 9. – P.43-47
• Lebedev Yu.V. Russian storyteller: To the 175th anniversary of the birth of P. P. Ershov // Literature at school. – 1990. – P. 2-12
• Lupanova I. P. P. P. Ershov / Ershov P. P. The Little Humpbacked Horse. Poems. - Leningrad: Soviet writer, 1976. - P.5-52. - (Poet's Library. Large series. Second edition).
• Makarenya A. Not in heaven, on earth...: Little-known materials about the life and work of the poet and teacher: [To the 175th anniversary of the birth of P.P. Ershova] // Public education. – 1990. No. 3. pp. 172-177
• Mikheeva L.N. About “The Little Humpbacked Horse” and its author / V.N. Vakurov. About the words and expressions of P.P. Ershov’s fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” // Russian speech. – 1990. – No. 2. – P.16-30
• Ovchinnikova S. “All my merit is here...”: To the 175th anniversary of the birth of P.P. Ershov // Preschool education. – 1990. No. 6. – P.58-64
• Ovchinnikova S. Petr Pavlovich Ershov [On the work of the poet] // Preschool education. – 1974. – No. 12. – pp. 40-49
• Savchenkova T. P. Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov (1815-1869): Archival finds and bibliographic research. - Ishim: Publishing house IGPI im. P. P. Ershova, 2011. - 344 p.
• Setin F. History of Russian children's literature. The end of the 10th - first half of the 19th century. – M., 1990. – P. 210-249
• Surat I.Z. The verbal world of a fairy tale: ": To the 150th anniversary of the fairy tale by P.P. Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” // Russian speech. – 1984. – No. 4. – P.3-8
• Utkov V.G. In search of Belovodye. - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1977. - 336 p.
• Utkov V. G. Roads of the Little Humpbacked Horse. - M., 1970. - 112 p.
• Utkov V. G. Born in the depths of bad weather. - Novosibirsk, 1966. - 418 p. (a chronicle story about the childhood and adolescence of P. P. Ershov)
• Utkov V. Citizen of Tobolsk: About the life and work of P.P. Ershov, author of the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse”. – Sverdlovsk: Sredne-Ural. book publishing house, 1979. – 144 p.
• Kharlamova R. “...I came from earthling land”: To the 150th anniversary of the fairy tale by P.P. Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” // Librarian. – 1984. – No. 8. – pp. 55-57
• Sharov A.I. Petr Pavlovich Ershov // Wizards come to people. - M.: Children's literature, 1979. - P. 101-145

Portraits of the writer Pyotr Ershov

Portrait of Pyotr Ershov: lifetime portrait of Nikolai Magzhi(1850s)

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Biography

Ershov spent his childhood in the same Berezovo where Alexander Menshikov and Pyotr Tolstoy spent their last years, and where V. Dolgoruky and A. Osterman also lived.

Ershov's father served as a police captain. He was a versatile educated person and from an early age sought to instill a thirst for knowledge in his two sons - Peter and Nikolai.

He was very weak from birth. When he was 10 years old, his father, a police officer, was transferred to service in Tobolsk. The boy was amazed by the stone houses, the ancient Kremlin, the Chuvash Cape and especially the city fair.

In Tobolsk, Ershov not only studied, but also collected Russian fairy tales, proverbs and sayings. Therefore, after graduating from high school, he already knew who he would be.

In 1830 he graduated from high school with honors and entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law. But he didn’t really want to study. And in general, he graduated from the university only thanks to inexplicable luck: while preparing for the exams, he could only learn one ticket, and it was this one that Ershov got. He himself complained about his laziness and feeling of being undereducated. “Here I am, a university candidate, but I don’t know a single foreign language.”

At the university, Ershov first began to publish, first in A. Maykov’s handwritten magazine “Snowdrop”, and then in the popular literary magazine “Library for Reading”.

In 1833, Professor Pletnev read excerpts from the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” at a lecture to his students, which Ershov presented to him as a course work. The students really liked the fairy tale, and nineteen-year-old Ershov became famous. Pletnev showed it to Pushkin, he also liked it, he even made some changes. In 1834, the fairy tale was published in the magazine "Library for Reading". In total, it went through 7 editions. The reason for the success of the fairy tale was its true nationality.

After graduating from university in 1836, Ershov wanted to become a professional writer. However, the sudden death of his father, and after him his older brother, forced Ershov to go to Tobolsk to his mother.

After the triumph of The Little Humpbacked Horse and praise in newspapers and magazines, a chain of failures and misfortunes befell the young poet (Ershov was not even 20 years old at the time). Almost immediately after graduating from university, in August 1834, brother Nikolai, a talented mathematician, died. Earlier, the Ershovs lost their father... Pyotr Ershov is left alone with his mother without any means of livelihood.

But he believes in himself and is full of energy. He writes poetry, poems, plays, librettos for operas. He has many friends among the capital's writers, musicians, and artists. However, doubts are increasingly beginning to take hold of him. His poems, which are published in magazines, do not evoke the same admiration among his friends. The libretto and plays do not find the stage. The grandiose plan - the tale of fairy tales "Ivan Tsarevich" - in the bustle of the capital does not advance beyond the first lines.

Her mother grieves after heavy losses, blames this city that she now hates for everything, is superstitiously afraid for Peter, whose health is getting worse... She dreams of returning to Tobolsk, where - she believes in this - if she does not return her lost happiness, then , at least he will find peace surrounded by his family. And Ershov himself is inclined to think that on the banks of the Irtysh he will gain new strength and be able to bring his plans to life.

But in Tobolsk you have to serve. You can’t live on the banks of the Irtysh on literary earnings.

That’s when his bright muse appears with a fatal rival in an bureaucratic uniform.

To get a job in Tobolsk, you need to find a patron in St. Petersburg. That's what everyone does.

On the title page of Ershov's skillfully dramatized folk story about the great commander - "Suvorov and the Station Master" - the inscription appears: "... A most zealous offering to Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich Dondukov-Korsakov." The prince is the trustee of the educational district, the future fate of Ershov, the place that he will receive in Tobolsk, depends on him. In addition, he is also the chairman of the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, and “Suvorov...” has not yet received permission to print.

The prince, although he was known as a philanthropist, was in no hurry to provide benefits. Ershov's petition has been wandering around the ministry offices for a long time. Only in March 1835, with the help of A.V. Nikitenko, Ershov sought an audience with Dondukov-Korsakov.

This is how he himself talks about this meeting: “The prince greets me with the question: “Which city do you want to go to?” I answered: Tobolsk, without understanding, however, what it was all about. The prince continues that the minister agrees to give me the title of correspondent. .. I would like to know: is the position of correspondent offered to me alone or together with the teaching position? What is the salary for both? What responsibility should I take upon myself by agreeing to the title of correspondent? As for me, if a correspondent will be given a reasonable salary ", I will gladly accept this position and give up teaching. My health is very upset, doctors advise me to go home, and therefore I must thank this opportunity that I will not make the three-thousandth journey in vain..."

But the prince does not care about who stands in front of him, he sees a future official in front of him and behaves in accordance with the table of ranks, at the highest level of which he is located.

Ershov does not receive an answer to his questions. The humiliating red tape has been going on for more than a year. Life is hard for a young poet in the capital. Literary earnings are small and unstable. The St. Petersburg climate and material deprivation have a detrimental effect on health. His mother is sick, and Ershov himself is sick...

Only in the summer of 1836 he received an appointment to the Tobolsk gymnasium. Pyotr Ershov leaves St. Petersburg with broad creative plans. A grandiose fairy tale poem has already begun, the hero of which, a Russian fellow, defeats all the dark and evil forces on earth. The diary outlines plans: a trip to Siberia, publishing a magazine, studying the history, life, and way of life of the Siberian peoples.

From the very first days he was expected to be disappointed. He realized that it was not the city that had changed, but he himself had become different, and that Tobolsk would never be the same as he saw it in childhood. The path to the personnel room was closed - he came here to serve! My uncle grew old, and his broad plans for trade with the south and east never came to fruition.

Official Tobolsk greeted him coldly. The Governor-General of Western Siberia, Prince P.D. Gorchakov, who had recently been appointed head of the entire provincial education, was known as a mediocre administrator, a martinet to the core, who received true pleasure only from the front. It was him who Ershov came to visit the next day after his arrival. The pompous general greeted him emphatically coldly, greeted the new official of the gymnasium, and did not want to enter into any conversations with a civilian visiting from the capital, who, who. knows him? - maybe already infected with dangerous ideas!..

The director of the gymnasium did not express any particular pleasure when meeting Ershov. A metropolitan teacher, and even a writer, was clearly undesirable for the dilapidated walls of the gymnasium, where routine and scholasticism had long taken root. A week later, Ershov was appointed teacher... of Latin in junior classes!

The official's sword struck the first calculated blow. The author of a wonderful Russian fairy tale, about the language of which Pushkin once said: “This Ershov speaks Russian verse like his own serf!”, a wonderful storyteller, a sensitive connoisseur of the folk poetic word, was imprisoned for dead Latin! It was, as Ershov himself said, “mutual torment” for the teacher and for the students...

Fortunately, this did not last long. In mid-September, Ershov was transferred to teach philosophy and literature in high school. He takes up teaching with ardor and immediately comes into conflict with the existing order. Education at the gymnasium was conducted at that time in accordance with the Charter of the gymnasium of December 8, 1828, which was intended to limit in every possible way the dissemination of knowledge and deprive young people of interest in social issues. Ancient languages ​​were placed at the center of teaching, especially in high school. Since 1833, Koshansky’s textbooks “General Rhetoric” and “Particular Rhetoric”, full of scholasticism and dogmatism, were introduced everywhere to teach the theory of literature in gymnasiums.

Here is how, according to the recollections of one of the pupils of the Tobolsk gymnasium, literature was taught using Koshansky’s textbook: “The first experiments in essays were written on the questions: “Who, what, where, with whose help?”, etc., and we came up with hilarious things, like, for example, the following: Who? - Alexander the Great. What? - Conquered the whole world. Where? ". With whose help? - With the help of your genius... Such was the writing of the gymnasium students, taught by the rhetoric of Koshansky."

Ershov cannot put up with this. In his work as a teacher, he goes far beyond the official gymnasium course. He wants to break the “mental chains” in which the gymnasium officials shackled young heads, and tries to awaken in students independent thinking and interest in the living Russian word.

He reads his subjects from university notes and takes the opportunity to tell young Tobolsk residents about his meetings with Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Pletnev, Senkovsky, Benediktov and other metropolitan writers. Ershov’s teaching “was so interesting that everyone in the literature class did well and looked forward to his lectures with great pleasure,” recalls one of his students. Ershov did not correct the essays himself, but only noted errors in the margins with a pencil, instructing the high school student himself to correct them.

Teaching fascinates him more and more. He sees that his civic energy will be useful here, moreover, necessary, because in the gymnasium they do not teach, but cripple. But by going beyond the “official gymnasium course,” Ershov thereby put himself against the existing education system, which was very clearly defined by the rescript of Nicholas I, sent by him in August 1827 to the Minister of Public Education, Admiral A.S. Shishkov. Nicholas wrote about the need to rebuild the education system so that “everyone, without being lower than his condition, also does not strive to rise beyond measure above that in which, according to the ordinary course of affairs, he is destined to remain.” Ershov's undertakings are met with opposition from the “gymnasium officials.”

Ershov’s letters begin to contain complaints about the difficult atmosphere in which he lives for the head and heart. He is already thinking about returning to St. Petersburg and is trying to use Zhukovsky’s visit to Tobolsk for this purpose. At the same time, he does not stop working on improving the teaching of literature in the gymnasium. Together with young teachers and high school students, he organizes a theater in the gymnasium. In addition to “The Minor”, ​​the vaudevilles “Filatka’s Wedding”, “The Lunch Seeker”, plays written by Ershov himself or his new Decembrist friend N.A. Chizhov are staged.

In 1837 Ershov began working on the “Literature Course Program” for gymnasiums. In it, he outlines new teaching methods that should eliminate “constraints on children’s freedom of imagination.” Ershov proposes to remove “all scholastic details and divisions that fruitlessly burden students.” He considers it a necessary condition proper training acquisition of works by Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Gogol, Karamzin, Marlinsky, Lazhechnikov, Zagoskin, Venevitinov and other Russian writers for the gymnasium. He considers the goal of teaching literature in the gymnasium to be the development in students of independence of thought, love for native language and to native literature...

Ershov enthusiastically developed his course in literature. But the officials have already prepared another blow for him.

In June 1837, E.M. Kachurin, a former gymnasium inspector, became the director of the gymnasium. A poorly educated man - at the beginning of the century he graduated from the Tobolsk gymnasium and that was the extent of his education - Kachurin was a faithful servant of the officialdom. In the person of Prince Gorchakov, he found a like-minded person and ally. At the slightest violation by teachers of numerous rules and regulations, he immediately turned to the Governor-General with a request to give appropriate instructions. Curious correspondence has been preserved characterizing Kachurin and the situation that developed in the gymnasium during his directorship. Some young teachers began to wear non-standard hairstyles. Kachurin immediately reported this to Gorchakov. Having received an answer from the prince, he writes another order to the inspector. Here is this document in all its pristine bureaucratic glory: “Although it was repeatedly confirmed by local authorities that school officials should have hair in uniform, some of the gymnasium teachers (last names follow) to this day stubbornly do not comply with the demands of their superiors, so that this has already attracted attention and Governor-General of Western Siberia. Why, in fulfillment of the will of His Excellency, we propose to Your Highness to reaffirm to all teachers of the gymnasium, if they do not wish to subject themselves to strict liability for disobedience, that their hair in the front should not be longer than one inch, and on the back of the head half as long, with the announcement (last names follow) that if they do not put their hair in the required order by the 1st of this June, then their salaries will be withheld until they fulfill this duty without any deviations and the disobedience will be immediately reported to the directorate His Excellency's information."

An unbearable atmosphere of surveillance, denunciations, and petty, degrading nagging is established in the gymnasium. In Ershov’s letters, phrases appear about “caution of correspondence”, that “paper cannot be trusted with everything.” He is categorically forbidden to conduct classes based on university notes; there is nothing to even think about at the gymnasium theater. “My relationship with the director is not exactly hostile, but not at all friendly... and I know that we will not serve together.” But Ershov’s situation is hopeless - after the death of his mother, which followed in April 1838, he marries the widow of an engineering lieutenant colonel Serafima Leshcheva, “and the dowry is beauty, an angelic character and four lovely children.” It is almost impossible to leave Tobolsk or transfer to another gymnasium with such a family. Ershov becomes completely dependent on Kachurin. “We, brother, are so strict that the teacher should not dare to have his own opinion, otherwise they will be called a bit of a rebel,” he writes to a friend in utter despair. And yet there is a glimmer of hope in him that he can still carry out his plans. In this he is supported by people with whom he became close friends in Tobolsk.

At the gymnasium, Ershov could only be friends with two or three teachers who shared his views on teaching. But outside the work environment, he forms a wide and interesting circle of acquaintances. He finds people who appreciate his talent and are sympathetic to his civic impulses and endeavors.

This is primarily a circle of Tobolsk Decembrists. Comrades in exile gather at the hospitable Fonvizins - P. Bobrishchev-Pushkin, I. Annenkov, A. Muravyov, F. Wolf, P. Svistunov, A. Baryatinsky, V. Shteingel. I. Pushchin, I. Yakushkin, A. Entaltsev, N. Basargin often appear there, who came to Tobolsk illegally from Yalutorovsk and other places in the province.

The Fonvizins have a large library and organize home musical evenings. Ershov often visits them, reads his new poems, poems, and stories. And when V. Kuchelbecker arrived in Tobolsk in March 1846, Ershov became friends with him and visited the sick Decembrist almost every evening. Steingel became his own man in the Ershov house and the constant godfather of the poet’s children.

M. Znamensky, in one of his letters to Yaroslavtsev, spoke about this circle of Ershov’s acquaintances: “Ershov met European educated people, people of whom there were few in St. Petersburg: their attitude towards the environment was serious, they may have been mistaken before, but bitter experience brought them acquaintance with the people. That they appreciated Ershov’s talent is a fact. But they already had a different attitude towards art, they pushed it away from the foreground, replacing it with the desire to help the people in any way they could: by spreading education, improving life, fighting strongmen of the world for the smaller ones. In these circles things were said and discussed that were undreamed of in capital literature at that time.”

Ershov was also friendly with the Mendeleevs at this time. He himself studied with I.P. Mendeleev, the former director of the Tobolsk gymnasium, and now the Mendeleev children (including Dmitry Mendeleev) study with Ershov. The top of the Tobolsk cultural society gathers in the Mendeleevs' house. The owner of the house, Maria Dmitrievna, loves to read, keeps up with news, and knows how to maintain a lively conversation. In this house they talk more about practical things, about the possibility of creating plants and factories in Siberia, about the work of the Aremzyan glass factory, which is managed by Maria Dmitrievna. The Mendeleev children sympathize with the young gymnasium teacher, among them little Mitya - the last one, as Maria Dmitrievna calls him - he has not yet reached the gymnasium, but is already showing rare abilities and enjoys universal love.

In the mid-1840s, Ershov often visited the house of G.P. Kazansky, a junior teacher at the gymnasium, who had recently arrived in Tobolsk from St. Petersburg. There are always a lot of young people in this house, it’s always fun. It was at the Kazanskys that Ershov met the “daughter of a poor widow” O.V. Kuzmina, who became his second wife.

Ershov’s muse was also active during these years. He publishes poetry in magazines, almanacs and collections, writes several one-act plays, sends the libretto of the opera “The Dead Bridegroom” to St. Petersburg... But with “Ivan the Tsarevich” things are not moving forward. At one of the ceremonial acts in the gymnasium, Ershov gives a speech about poetic creativity, then writes a large article “On the changes that have taken place in our language from the half of the 9th century to the present,” all the time maintaining correspondence with St. Petersburg friends.

From the Decembrists, friends of A.S. Pushkin, Ershov received two unpublished poems of the great poet and sent them to Sovremennik to P.A. Pletnev, who published them, indicating that they were received from Ershov. Ershov lives a difficult but active life. He has moments of decline, periods of disappointment and hesitation, sometimes he even falls into despair from Kachurin’s oppression, from lack of money, but this is not the main thing. The main thing is that Ershov is full of consciousness of his civic duty: “... having entered the service and pronounced the sacred words of the oath, it seems to me sinful and dishonest to do, like many, by the way.” So he writes to friends in St. Petersburg.

Ershov, faithful to his youthful oath, begins to write “Thoughts on the Gymnasium Course.” This work, it seems to him, will help break the chains that fetter public education in Russia.

“Thoughts about the gymnasium course” did not reach us completely. But already what is known in the excerpts13 tells us that this work of Ershov was far ahead of the system and teaching methods of that time and was the fruit of thoughtful work.

“Sciences should have the goal of benefiting man” - Ershov begins his essay with this quote from Bacon. “Based on this great truth,” he writes further, “one can say just as decisively that education should have a purpose of benefit. And indeed, everyone is convinced of the indisputable justice of this thought. Despite the fact, this thought still does not have a full application ".

Further, Ershov gives a definition of education: “Education is the development of the spiritual and physical strength of a young man in three respects - as a person, as a citizen and as a Christian. Its direct meaning is to prepare a young man for public service (taking this word in a broad sense) and give him everything possible means to contentment and happiness in earthly life."

This introduction is already unusual. If we put aside the religious motive, which Ershov, for obvious reasons, could not do without, Ershov talks about the harmonious development of a person through education and about raising him as a citizen in the broad sense of the word. This situation was fundamentally contrary to the education system established at that time, which sought to prepare young men not for public service, but for service, to perform the function of an official.

Next, Ershov moves on to criticize the existing education system. He cannot agree that the Latin language is set as the cornerstone of education. “Only scholasticism and imitation are to blame for this,” he writes. At the same time, such necessary subjects as the Russian language, philosophy, history, and geography are studied extremely insufficiently in the gymnasium. The Russian language and literature are limited only to memorizing the rules, philosophy has been turned into some kind of mental technology, Russian history is taught much more briefly than the history of the Greeks and Romans. In his criticism, Ershov does not ignore the teaching of theology.

Education cannot achieve its goal - to develop the spiritual and physical strength of young men, having such serious gaps, says Ershov. Next, he gives a positive program of study in the gymnasium, gives a list of subjects that, in his opinion, should be included in the gymnasium course. Among them, natural sciences come first, then technology and economics, the basics of medicine, the basics of music and singing, gymnastics, and swimming. He justifies the introduction of each subject into the course, indicates within what limits this or that subject should be taught, and divides the subjects into classes according to the seasons.

He proposes finishing the one-year course in April, holding exams in May, and using the summer months for gymnastics and swimming, collecting a herbarium, and walking to study the region. Students, according to Ershov, will be mentally and physically busy all year round. On free days, a theater is set up in the gymnasium by students and teachers. Instead of the useless method of students recording lectures, Ershov proposes the introduction of permanent textbooks.

One cannot help but recall here the generalized description of the matter of education during the reign of Nicholas I, which was given by A.I. Herzen in the article “1860”, published in “Kolokol” on January 1, 1860. Herzen wrote: “One of the most terrible encroachments of the past reign was his persistent desire to break the adolescent soul. The government lay in wait for the child at the first step into life and corrupted the cadet-child, the high school student, the student-boy. Mercilessly, systematically, it eradicated the human embryos in them, weaned them, as if from a vice, from all human feelings, except humility..."

With such an education system, could P. Ershov’s “Thoughts on the Gymnasium Course” find a sympathetic response from those in power? Of course not! They remained the thoughts of the Tobolsk gymnasium teacher, and seditious thoughts at that, which the officials could not forgive him. They were far ahead of the teaching methods and curriculum of that time. Only in 1864, with the introduction of real schools, in Russian pedagogical practice what Pyotr Ershov dreamed of in the forties was partially realized. By the mid-forties, Ershov was finishing his second work - “A Course in Literature” - three voluminous notebooks, the fruit of his experience, love for his native literature and thoughts about the fate of his students. In December 1844 he sent this work to the Ministry of Public Education.

The “Literature Course” has been traveling through the offices of the ministry for about three years. First he falls into the hands of Academician Lobanov. “This is, as they say, a wig academician and a bad poet. Old literature is sacred to him, new literature is heresy and completely abomination.” Every new idea, he says, is a delusion; the French are scoundrels; German philosophy is stupidity, and all together is liberalism,” against which he, Lobanov, has already written a speech.” From Lobanov, Ershov’s work goes to Academician Davydov, a man no less reactionary, envious and petty. Belinsky characterized him as “a vulgarity, a pedant and a scholar.” The result of a three-year “study” of the “Literature Course” was a short, incomprehensible answer, an ugly product of the bureaucratic mind: “The Literature Course” cannot be introduced in gymnasiums because it does not fully correspond to the concepts of the students.”

Thus ended Ershov’s attempts to “break mental chains.” Ershov is depressed by these failures. In his poems written at this time, and in letters to friends and loved ones, notes of melancholy, dissatisfaction with those around him, fatigue from fruitless efforts in the field of civic activity, from the “watery life” to which he is doomed, are increasingly heard.

However, his trials did not end there.

In October 1849 Kachurin resigns. Everyone in the gymnasium breathed more freely. The director's place should now be taken by Ershov, the gymnasium inspector. Ershov himself is counting on this. Two reasons make him want this - the hope to practically implement his plan to improve teaching; the director has more opportunities for this, and the desire to better provide for himself and his large family by that time.

These hopes were not destined to come true. Unexpectedly for everyone, a certain Chigirintsev, a former adviser to the border administration, is appointed director of the gymnasium, a shady person involved in some ugly matters. Chigirtsev has nothing to do with either the gymnasium or public education. His track record speaks of him as a typical servant-official.

Chigirintsev's confirmation as the director of the gymnasium, which followed the introduction of the governor general, was incomprehensible, strange, and offensive for Ershov.

What reason prevented Ershov from being appointed director of the gymnasium? Why did he fall out of favor? Is the reason for this - closeness to the Decembrists? Perhaps his fault is in his attempts to implement gymnasium reforms, contrary to official guidelines, in the free-thinking “Thoughts on the gymnasium course”, “Literature Course”, rejected by academicians and the ministry.

All this to some extent influenced Ershov’s career, but could not be an obstacle to taking the post of director of the gymnasium. The matter was different. Some completely new reasons, unexpected for everyone and for Ershov himself, prompted Gorchakov to change his original intention to appoint Ershov as director of the gymnasium. Even Pletnev, who was invariably kind to the author of The Little Humpbacked Horse, did not want or could not explain to Ershov what had happened. In response to his letters, Pletnev wrote evasively, “...appointment to the director of a gymnasium cannot depend not only on the efforts of a person like me, but also on the closest and highest authorities.” He further hints that everything depends on the trustee or persons close to him, and advises: “... try first of all to enter into good relations with them: otherwise everything will remain unsuccessful.”

This most important period of Ershov’s life is fraught with much that is unclear. Most likely Pletnev knew about the real reason disfavor of the authorities towards Ershov, the hint contained in the letter testifies to this. Yaroslavtsev probably also knew the truth, who in his book dully writes: “We heard that some individuals even used dirty things against Ershov... evil slander.”

The last words reek of the poet’s almost superstitious longing for his forgotten muse. What was the real reason for this professional failure that befell Ershov so unexpectedly and, it seems, so undeservedly? To understand it, you need to temporarily move from the capital city of Siberia to St. Petersburg. Events took place there that served as the reason for Ershov’s sudden disfavor on the part of the official authorities.

In June 1849, the Governor-General of Western Siberia, Gorchakov, received a very secret relationship from the Minister of War. Gorchakov was ordered to personally carry out the strictest inquiry into the harmful actions of retired lieutenant Rafail Chernosvitov in Siberia. The Minister of War was prompted to this by the testimony of those arrested in the Butashevich-Petrashevsky case. Many of them pointed to Chernosvitov as a dangerous rebel, an intelligent and determined person who came to the capital only to join a secret society. It was shown that Chernosvitov was talking about some impending grandiose uprising of the Ural workers and convicts of Siberia.

The seditious lieutenant was no longer in the capital. He left for Siberia. A gendarmerie officer was immediately sent for him with orders to arrest Chernosvitov and take him to Peter and Paul Fortress. The gendarme galloped across Russia in the footsteps of the rebel. At the Kamyshlovsky redoubt, near Omsk, on July 3, 1849, Chernosvitov was arrested.

After the usual investigative procedure, Chernosvitov was confronted with the Petrashevite Speshnev. This is what Snepshev showed: “...he heard from Chernosvitov that the Urals are almost ready to rebel, that it is possible to have 400 thousand armed forces, that this is a terrible force, and whoever has it in his hands can almost be sure of victory, that if “, for example, whoever rushes with such a mass to the Volga region, where the people remember Pugachev, will probably raise everything up, and if he goes to Moscow, then the whole of central Russia will go to Moscow.”

Chernosvitov did not deny that he spoke about the possibility of starting an uprising from Siberia. True, not at all in this form, but Speshnev himself, after listening to his stories about the riots in Orenburg and Perm provinces, in the Kurgan district, and that “the neighborhood of Siberian settlers and convicts at the Perm and Tobolsk distilleries is an unreliable neighborhood,” he said: “This is where the future revolution of Russia should and will begin.”

Speshnev called himself a communist and stood out among the other Petrashevists for his revolutionary views. He saw the future of Russia in a peasant uprising and was a supporter of a violent coup. Naturally, he was interested in Chernosvitov’s colorful stories about the possibility of an uprising from the Urals and Siberia, a new Pugachev rebellion.

A few days earlier than Chernosvitov, another former military man appeared at Petrashevsky’s Fridays. It was Konstantin Ivanovich Timkovsky, a retired naval lieutenant who lived in Reval. He recommended himself as a “pure Fourierist,” but his very first speech made a stunning impression: “...many turned pale, remorse for coming for the evening and fear appeared on their faces.”

“Timkovsky’s speech... was exciting in the spirit of communism,” says Khanynov from Petrashevsky. “Timkovsky expressed... that all the efforts of true champions of progress should be directed at accelerating indignation... that he is ready to be the first to go to the square and, if necessary, sacrifice himself as a cleansing sacrifice to the holy cause of freedom...”, states in Toll's testimony. Some even suspected Timkovsky of being an agent provocateur. But not everyone reacted that way to his performance. Speshnev liked Timkovsky’s ardent speech, full of enthusiasm and faith in the holy cause of freedom, and he said; that “I completely agree with him.” Timkovsky visited Speshnev at his apartment, read there his translations of Cantagrel and Considerian, the leaders of Fourierism, and then in an intimate conversation they decided that nothing worthwhile would come of Petrashevsky’s circle, that it was necessary to form their own circle “for action.”

These three people - Spepshev, Timkovsky, Chernosvitov, who were the most determined, met more than once.

At the end of May 1849, Konstantin Timkovsky was arrested and taken to the Peter and Paul Fortress. After the investigation and sentence, he, along with the rest of the members of Petrashevsky’s circle, survived terrible moments on Semyonovskaya Square. On his index finger, Konstantin Timkovsky wore the same metal ring as Pyotr Ershov, with the same inscription “M.V.”. The friends wore these rings as a sign of the vow they made to each other before parting.

We know that neither Timkovsky nor Ershov succeeded in realizing their youthful plans, and the “noise of the fall” did not shake millions. But the flame of citizenship in the hearts of the young men did not go out. Ershov, having arrived in Tobolsk, did everything he could do, following his civic impulses. Timkovsky, returning from the voyage, remained to serve in the navy. However, the atmosphere of naval service in those years was extremely difficult. P. Balasoglo, the future Petrashevite, described it this way: “Long-distance voyages completely stopped; science was suppressed, killed, scattered... Among the officers... there were only rumors that the sovereign emperor did not tolerate either science or scientists, calling the latter after December 14, parasites and scoundrels..." Timkovsky could not bear this and resigned in 1845. And three years later we see him at Petrashevsky. The thought of the good of nations, of the destruction of the mental and physical chains in which people are chained by the autocracy, excites this mature man who has experienced a lot.

So weren’t the “evil slander” and “dirty things” launched against Ershov connected to some extent with the events of 1849 in St. Petersburg? Let's try to figure this out.

A lot of indirect evidence convinces us of the veracity of this assumption. First of all, this is suggested by a coincidence in time.

Most of the Petrashevites were arrested in April 1849, the investigation but their case ended in October, the sentence was carried out in December 1849. The service failure that befell Ershov fell in the second half of 1849. Before that, the inspector of the Tobolsk gymnasium was in good standing with the provincial authorities, and neither there was no doubt that he would become Kachurin’s successor as director of the gymnasium.

Yaroslavtsov’s attitude towards the plans of Ershov and Timkovsky and towards Timkovsky is also characteristic. Yaroslavtsov was also from Siberia and was a friend of Ershov. Ershov, judging by the above conversation, was frank with Yaroslavtsov and even tried to involve him in the society he and Timkovsky were creating. However, in his memoirs, Yaroslavtsov tries in every possible way to emphasize his non-involvement in Ershov-Timkovsky’s plans and even his condemnation of them. It also cannot be that Yaroslavtsov did not meet Timkovsky at Ershov’s or during Timkovsky’s time at the university. However, he hastens to declare “T-sky I knew little...” And in general Yaroslavtsov speaks about Timkovsky in passing, without citing any of his letters to Ershov or Ershov to him, does not mention any of Ershov’s meetings with Timkovsky and with him ourselves. Meanwhile, upon Timkovsky’s arrival from America to St. Petersburg, Yaroslavtsov could not help but meet with him; Timkovsky had to see Yaroslavtsov, if only to learn more about Ershov. By the way, Ershov asks to report such a meeting in one of his letters to Yaroslavtsov. In all this one feels that the cautious censor of the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee is striving post factum to protect himself and his university friend from a dangerous acquaintance.

There is another connection between Ershov and people involved in the Petrashevsky case. Prof. Azadovsky, in the preface to Ershov’s poems, published in Leningrad in 1936, indicates that those educated in Pushkin House The Maykovs’ papers make it possible to establish Ershov’s close connection with Apollo and Valeriana Maykov and their entire family, in particular, he was an employee of the Maykov family’s handwritten journal “Snowdrop”..." In addition to the fact that Apollo Maykov was also involved in the Petrashevites’ case, and Valerian, who died in 1847, participated in the compilation of the famous dictionary of foreign words, in the Maykov family Ershov could meet another future Petrashevite - A.P. Balasoglo, a close friend of the Maykovs. And in 1834, when Ershov was at the zenith of his fame, Balasoglo - an officer Baltic Fleet attended university. He was a man of versatile talents - a poet, an enthusiast of science and art, a linguist, devoted a lot of strength and energy to studying the history of Siberia and the East, dreamed of travel and research, long-distance sea voyages. The commonality of interests between Balasoglo, Timkovsky and Ershov when they were in St. Petersburg is obvious. Being in the same St. Petersburg circles, they could hear about each other, meet, and become acquaintances.

Who knows, if Ershov, according to Yaroslavtsov, destroyed the diaries and plans for future travels, then Timkovsky could have left them, and during the arrest they could have been found on him. There was no reason to involve Ershov in the process, but he could have been suspected, and this was enough to slow down his career.

It should be borne in mind that many Petrashevites had an interest in Siberia and Siberian connections, including Petrashevsky himself, as well as Speshnev, Chernosvitov, Balasoglo, Timkovsky, Latkin and others. The investigative commission carefully checked these connections. Secret communications were sent to all Siberian governors-general.

And if the Siberian connections of the Petrashevites did not lead directly to Ershov, then the time was such that indirect connections (and, as we see, they were) or a hint of Ershov’s past or present closeness with one of those arrested were enough for him to came under suspicion. Ershov’s Tobolsk ill-wishers could successfully use this.

Finally, in Ershov’s pedagogical works we find the influence of Fourier. Fourier sets the goal of education as the development of social and civic qualities in a person and the development of labor inclinations and skills. Ershov is concerned about the same thing. Much attention Fourier pays attention to the physical and aesthetic education of children. Ershov, in his “Thoughts on the Gymnasium Course,” writes about the need to introduce gymnastics, horse riding, swimming, music, and singing into the curriculum, and in his free time he proposes organizing a student theater (for Fourier, opera). Fourier in his work “On Education in the Order of Harmony” writes about the constant process of learning. Ershov also proposes to educate students all year round without official holidays, which, in his opinion, are harmful. Ershov could get acquainted with the views of Fourier from the Decembrists, in particular from Fonvizin, from books written out from St. Petersburg, as well as from letters from friends, which are not all known.

All this allows us to say with conviction that the official troubles that Ershov had in 1849 were directly related to the events related to the Petrashevsky case. For some period Ershov found himself under suspicion. This became known primarily to Governor-General Gorchakov, who generally had a low opinion of Ershov as an official. Taking advantage of this, he hastens to appoint a person he pleases to the post of director of the gymnasium. It was not difficult for Gorchakov to carry out this appointment through official channels...

The author of "The Little Humpbacked Horse" stood out sharply among the bureaucratic world of Tobolsk. The officials could not forgive him for this. Service failures have a heavy impact on Ershov. Contemporaries recall that under Chigirintsev, “strong irritation appeared in the previously complacent man, which at times manifested itself in a very bad form.” Ershov noticeably deteriorated and began to take his duties as an inspector and teacher worse.

Ershov is again trying to turn to the muse. But the muse is no longer as favorable to the court councilor, the gymnasium inspector, as it once was to the young man just entering life. Ershov writes prose. He tries his hand at stories about Siberia, about its past, about the Cossacks, about the Kuchumov Tatars. The stories are united under the title "Autumn Evenings".

This name is symbolic. There is neither the brilliance of the sun, nor the lively play of colors, nor the joyful humor that made “The Little Humpbacked Horse” and “Suvorov and the Station Warden” so different in these stories. They contain a soft, thoughtful sadness, a kind smile, and a smooth slowness of presentation. This is the autumn of talent.

"Autumn Evenings" were sent to Pletnev. Ershov is waiting for his approval, while at the same time trying to work on “The Siberian Novel” - “Cooper will serve as my director.” But Pletnev’s reviews are restrained, the efforts of his friends are of little success - the stories do not find a home for a long time and appear in print only after seven years, and “The Siberian Novel” remains unwritten.

It’s bad with “Skate” too. Ershov prepared the fourth edition for release, supplemented it, partially restored censorship marks and handed over the manuscript to the capital's publisher Krasheninnikov. But he reported disappointing news - the censors do not allow the release of "The Little Humpbacked Horse".

Only after the death of Nicholas I, in 1856, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” breaks free. Ershov is happy, he writes prophetic words to his friends: “My horse has galloped all over the Russian kingdom again. Happy journey to him!..” The magazine Cerberus are still silent... But the horse itself is not simple. Having heard, already 22 years old, praise for himself from such people as Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Pletnev, and at that time having galloped throughout the entire length and breadth of the Russian land, he thinks very little about the attacks of the ruling school and amuses honest people, old and small, both the Sydney and the experienced and will amuse them until the Russian word finds an echo in the Russian Soul, that is, until the end of the century." But this joy is short-lived. Everyday worries darken it. Ershov constantly needs money. He has not earned anything for himself in years of service, does not even have his own corner, lives in a government apartment. He bitterly admits: “As a citizen, I sit like a broke lobster - in my inspector’s place, as a writer, I am forgotten by the public and out of favor with journalists; as a person, I am bound by double chains - the cold of nature and iron people..."

Tobolsk by this time turns into a forgotten provincial town, with a sleepy life, petty interests, storms in a glass of water. Insignificant whirlpools continually capture Ershov.

Ershov has already earned his full pension, but is not retiring, as he previously dreamed of. He has a family on his shoulders, a meager pension, no hope of earning a literary income, so he pulls the burden of work, although it has already become a burden to him. And then official happiness smiled on him for a short time. In July 1854, the new civil governor V.A. Artsimovich arrived in Tobolsk. He was not a newcomer to the banks of the Irtysh. Back in 1851, he visited Tobolsk as part of a commission to audit the activities of Prince Gorchakov, as a result of which the governor-general, who ruled the vast territory of Western Siberia almost uncontrollably for 15 years, was removed. The Decembrists, in particular the Fonvizins and Annenkov, played a significant role in the fall of Gorchakov.

Artsimovich was a figure of a new formation, who paid least attention to chips and regalia, but sought to surround himself with people who were efficient. He had “the ability to attract people to himself and choose kind and reliable helpers.” In Ershov he saw just such a person. After the death of Chigirchntsev, Artsimovich immediately petitioned for the appointment of Ershov to the post of director of the Tobolsk gymnasium.

The post of director and the general change in the situation in Tobolsk with the arrival of Artsimovich awaken a new surge of civic energy in Ershov. “...I am overwhelmed with work,” he writes to a friend. “According to my Siberian rules, I do not consider service as one means of life, but as its true element. Having left behind literature, I devoted myself entirely to service, but not in the hope of future benefits, which in our humble occupation are not foreseen, but in a clear consciousness of duty."

A lot of work. The directorate and the gymnasium were left in the most neglected state after Chigirintsev. Ershov often goes on inspection trips throughout the vast Tobolsk province. It is difficult for him, with his health failing and aging early, to wander through the Siberian wilderness, to get involved in all the little things and squabbles of provincial towns, where the school is the only cultural institution. A “clear consciousness of duty” supports him. At his insistence, girls’ schools were opened in Kurgan, Tyumen, Ishim, and a course in natural sciences was introduced at the Tobolsk gymnasium. Many schools in the province owe new premises and complete libraries to Ershov’s care. He is actively involved in preparations for the implementation of the project of finding a route between the Ob and Pechora. Up to 2 thousand silver rubles have already been collected by subscription. But the Governor General did not give permission to organize such an expedition. A few years later, when Ershov was already retired, the merchant Sidorov sent his authorized representative Kushelevsky from Tobolsk to search for a route between the Ob and Pechora.

He managed to fulfill another dream during these same years: to go on a business trip to St. Petersburg. He also went on this trip with the direct assistance of Artsimovich. The Tobolsk archive preserved the file “On the summons to St. Petersburg on service matters to familiarize with the structure of the capital’s educational institutions, the director of the Tobolsk schools, collegiate adviser Ershov.” Among the correspondence on this matter, Artsimovich’s review of Ershov is of great interest. Addressing a note to the Minister of Public Education A. Norov about the state of education in the province, Artsimovich gives the most flattering characterization of Ershov and writes that “Ershov’s appointment as director helped improve the state of education in the province, initiating uniform activity in all parts of the educational process.”

All these years, Ershov carefully kept in his memory the Northern Palmyra of his youth - the city of Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Pletnev, the city of plans and hopes, the city where his “Humpbacked Horse” was so happily born, the city consecrated by friendship with Timkovsky.

And in February 1858 he again entered St. Petersburg.

He saw it differently now - a city of ministerial offices and friends who had become important. Timkovsky was not among them. He served in prison companies, participated in the Crimean War, and for his distinction in battles, he was given back his rank and nobility, but he was still not allowed to enter the capital.

Ershov is afraid of the memories that washed over him at the sight of the strict avenues of the capital, the full-flowing Neva, the house on the Sands, where so many happy minutes were spent with family and friends.

Ershov lives in the capital for more than a month, gets acquainted with the gymnasiums and colleges of the city, meets twice with the new Minister of Education E.P. Kovalevsky... St. Petersburg begins to weigh heavily on him. “Having become unaccustomed to crowds, I look with some kind of involuntary surprise at these crowds that are scurrying back and forth along all the streets, especially along Nevsky Prospekt,” he writes to his wife.

Rather, to Tobolsk, to quiet Tobolsk, where you can see at least small fruits of your civic efforts. In a troubled spirit, with an anxious heart, Ershov left the capital on May 1, 1858, forever saying goodbye to the city on the Neva, to his youth.

In 1862 Ershov resigns. But only a year later, and then thanks to the efforts of D.I. Mendeleev, who was married to Ershov’s stepdaughter (Feozva Leshcheva) and who had not forgotten his old teacher, he begins to receive a pension. “Thank you, Dmitry Ivanovich, for your assistance in getting it for me. Without your certificate to the department, and perhaps your insistence, I would still be living with expectations.”

The pension is meager - 1080 rubles per year. Illness and worries about money to support his large family overshadow the last years of Ershov’s life. He is in great need, sometimes he does not even have the most necessary things. In one of his letters to F.N. Mendeleeva in January 1863, he admits: “... I don’t know how to warm my hands, and I can’t even think about writing.” Only occasionally does “The Little Humpbacked Horse” illuminate the darkness of the poet’s life and strengthen the consciousness that life was not lived in vain.

The young artist, student of the Decembrists M.S. Znamensky, also brightens up Ershov’s days in Tobolsk. In 1865, news came to Tobolsk about the production of the ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse” or “The Tsar Maiden” in the capital. Ershov is happy about this, a desire flares up in him to get the old plays and librettos out of hiding, but this desire quickly fades away. Who needs his youthful experiences?

Six months before his death, he receives an invitation card to the 50th anniversary of St. Petersburg University. In joy he exclaimed: “Thank God, they haven’t forgotten me!”

But he was wrong. He has long been forgotten. And when in August 1869 a short message about the poet’s death appeared in the St. Petersburg Gazette, many were puzzled by this news.

"Woe to the people who are condemned to live in such an era when all development mental strength is considered a violation of public order." So wrote in a bitter moment a teacher and a person close to Ershov, who himself knew well the leaden hand of the Nikolaev bureaucracy, A. V. Nikitenko.

Before his death, seriously and painfully ill, Ershov loved to sit by the window and look out onto the street, at the Irtysh, along which fishing boats glided and occasionally steamships passed... He knew that his days were already numbered, and eagerly peered at the course of life as it passed past him, towards targets that he will no longer be able to see. Pictures of the past rose before him. He saw mistakes and wrong steps, cowardice and “petty goals in life” that interfered with his struggle for the ideals of his youth. It was bitter to realize that I would have done many things differently now, given the opportunity, but those days were gone forever. The future century is already powerfully knocking on the door - it is in the whistles of the Irtysh steamships, and in newspaper news about the construction of a railway through the Urals, about the telegraph project that will pass through all of Siberia, Russia and Europe, spread across the ocean and connect the continents, about the preparation of the Paris World Exhibition, about the assassination attempt on the Tsar in the Summer Garden. He tries in vain to find one line o - the line of the future in this stream of news and events. Only the old feeling of trouble in the surrounding life becomes stronger, that holy feeling that in his distant youth helped him create “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

Ershov entered life with an open soul, pure in heart and thoughts, hoping that his youthful oath, like the fabulous “Open Sesame!”, would remove all obstacles on the way and clear the way to selfless and honest service to the people. But before him stood an inexorable rival to living affairs, the Nikolaev officialdom that was killing everything. Out of purity of heart and a deep sense of duty to the Motherland, he first accepted her as his ally, and when he realized that she was a ruthless enemy of all his plans and deeds, it was too late.

Ershov is called "Homo unius libry". Ershov did not like Latin. And there is no point in squeezing a living person into a dead formula. Is the author of Don Quixote also a “Man of One Book” for us? No, although many do not know about his Novellas or plays. We love and appreciate him not because he wrote one book, but because he put the whole world into this book. Huge, colorful, rich, full of life, flesh and blood, hopes and suffering, the insight of a genius. It is impossible to separate the author from his brainchild. From the pages of Don Quixote, Cervantes himself, the impractical quartermaster of the “invincible” armada, who also spent his entire life fighting the windmills of human baseness, cruelty, injustice, and took with him to the grave the stones of unfulfilled hopes, looks at us.

“Born in the depths of bad weather,” Pyotr Ershov from childhood carried within himself “an ineradicable grain of incomprehensible torment” - that eternal, holy dissatisfaction with oneself, with one’s own affairs, the desire to make the world a better place, which distinguishes talent from mediocrity. And in his “Skate” there is a whole world. The world is rich and close to us, a world dear to us from childhood to gray old age, a world in which labor is embodied creative power people, their talent, ability to cope with difficulties, to emerge victorious from the most difficult trials. It is not without reason that even now, more than a century after his birth, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” gallops tirelessly in our country and throughout the world.

Ershov is dear to us not only as a poet, not only as the creator of the immortal “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, we are also dear to his unfulfilled dreams, his quest, in which he was a true patriot, sincerely and deeply loving his Motherland.

Sources:

* All about everyone: T.8: Popular science. ed./ G.P. Shalaeva, L.V. Kashinskaya, T.M. Kolyadich, V.P. Sitnikov; with the participation of Yu.V. Popov, scientific editor. V.V.Slavkin M.: Philol. SLOVO Island, AST, Center humanities at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov 1997 - 480 p.
* Utkov V.G. People, destinies, events. Novosibirsk: West Siberian book publishing house, 1970 - 240 p. - p.111-141.

Biography

Born into the family of an official.

My father often moved on business related to his service. The Ershovs crossed the chain of Cossack settlements, visiting places where legends about the times of Ermak and Pugachev were still fresh. In 1824, his parents sent Peter and his brother Nikolai to Tobolsk to study. The boys lived in the merchant family of the Pilenkovs, relatives of their mother, and when they graduated from high school, their father transferred to St. Petersburg, where the brothers entered St. Petersburg University.

Interesting Facts

* “The Little Humpbacked Horse” is a folk work, almost word for word, according to the author himself, taken from the lips of the storytellers from whom he heard it; Ershov only brought it into a more slender form and supplemented it in places. The unique style, folk humor, successful and artistic paintings (the horse market, the zemstvo fish court, the mayor) made this fairy tale widespread.

Biography

Born into the family of an official.

My father often moved on business related to his service. The Ershovs crossed the chain of Cossack settlements, visiting places where legends about the times of Ermak and Pugachev were still fresh. In 1824, his parents sent Peter and his brother Nikolai to Tobolsk to study. The boys lived in the merchant family of the Pilenkovs, relatives of their mother, and when they graduated from high school, their father transferred to St. Petersburg, where the brothers entered St. Petersburg University.

In 1831-1835 he studied at the philosophical and legal department of St. Petersburg University. During his student years, Ershov became close to the professor of Russian literature Pyotr Pletnev, met Vasil Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin... To their judgment, the nineteen-year-old student submitted his first major work - the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, after reading which Pushkin said with praise to the aspiring poet: “Now this I can leave the type of essays to me.” Pletnev, during one of his lectures from the university department, read an excerpt from “The Little Humpbacked Horse” and introduced to the amazed listeners the author of the wonderful fairy tale - their fellow student Pyotr Ershov, who was sitting in the audience.

An excerpt from “The Little Humpbacked Horse” appeared in the “Library for Reading” (1834, vol. 3), and in mid-1834 Ershov’s tale was published in a separate edition. Success accompanied the young poet: in December of the same year, the first part of “The Siberian Cossack” was approved for publication, and then the second part of this “ancient story.”

The approaching graduation from university was associated with problems for the young Siberian. He could not get the desired position, he had to part with friends, of whom he had few, and break with the literary environment. Conflicting feelings were also caused by saying goodbye to St. Petersburg itself: many things here became dear and merged with the soul of the poet, and on the other hand, Ershov was attracted by Siberia, which he called the “northern beauty,” dreaming of exploring the then little-studied region.

Returning to his homeland in the summer of 1836, he worked as a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium, then as an inspector (from 1844) and director (from 1857) of the gymnasium and the directorate of schools in the Tobolsk province.

He was the initiator of the creation of an amateur gymnasium theater. He worked as a director in the theatre. He wrote several plays for the theater: “Rural Holiday”, “Suvorov and the Station Warden”, the comic opera “Yakut Gods”, “Chereposlov”.

He published his poems in Senkovsky’s Library for Reading and in Pletnev’s Sovremennik.

Literary activity

Ershov became famous thanks to his fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” written by him while still a student and first published as an excerpt in volume 3 of “Library for Reading” in 1834, with a commendable review from Senkovsky.

The first four verses of the fairy tale were sketched by Pushkin, who read it in manuscript. Ershov's fairy tale was published as a separate book in 1834 and went through seven editions during the author's lifetime, with the second edition of 1856 being heavily revised by the author and is today a canonical text.

“The Little Humpbacked Horse” is a folk work, almost word for word, according to the author himself, taken from the lips of the storytellers from whom he heard it; Ershov only brought it into a more slender form and supplemented it in places. The unique style, folk humor, successful and artistic paintings (the horse market, the zemstvo fish court, the mayor) made this fairy tale widespread.

Belinsky saw in the fairy tale a fake, “written in very good verse,” but in which “there are Russian words, but no Russian spirit.”

There is a version that the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was written entirely by Pushkin and published under the name of Ershov.

In addition to “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” Ershov wrote several dozen poems. There are also indications that he published poetry, short stories and dramatic works under pseudonyms.

Possibly known as Prutkov's Father.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov wrote to Alexander Nikolaevich Pypin on February 6 (18), 1883 from Menton (France) about his acquaintance with P. P. Ershov, in 1854 in Tobolsk, where he served as an official of special assignments under a relative - Tobolsk governor V. A. Artsimovich:
“We got along pretty well. He fell in love with Prutkov very much, also introduced me to his previous jokes and gave me his poetic scene of the Skull Apostle, that is, Phrenologist, asking me to place it somewhere, because “he recognizes himself as overweight and outdated.” I promised to use it for Prutkov and subsequently, after the end of the war and upon my return to St. Petersburg, I inserted his scene, with minor additions, into the 2nd act of the operetta Chereposlov, written by me with brother. Alexey and published in Sovremennik in 1860 - on behalf of Prutkov’s father, so as not to spoil the already well-defined image of Kosma Prutkov himself.”

According to other sources, only the authorship of the couplets in Chizhov’s play belongs to Ershov.

From a letter to E. P. Grebenka (prose writer, poet, St. Petersburg friend of Ershov) dated March 5, 1837:
“Chizhov and I are cooking up a vaudeville called Chereposlov, in which Gal will get a wonderful bump. Buyers are addicted! I’ll send them to you after the first performance.”

In a letter of the same date to his friend V. A. Treborn, Ershov mentions vaudeville as Chizhov’s creation:
“My friend Ch-zhov is also preparing a vaudeville show called Chereposlov, where Galya will get a wonderful shot. And the singers in it - well, yes, you’ll want to listen to them in St. Petersburg.”

Pyotr Ershov and Peter's Church in the poet's homeland (Siberian Orthodox newspaper. No. 06 2008 Tatyana Pavlovna SAVCHENKOVA, candidate of philological sciences, deputy director for scientific work of the P. P. Ershov Literary Museum in Ishim)

Peter's Church in the village of Bezrukova (village of Bezrukovsky) in the Ishim district of the Tobolsk province - the birthplace of the author of “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, was built from 1862 to 1876. and was destroyed in July 1969. Its original appearance was preserved only in an engraving in the Niva magazine for 1898.

In the book by A.K. Yaroslavtsov, Ershov’s first biographer, contains quotes from two letters from Pyotr Pavlovich to his relatives in 1858, when he, as the director of schools throughout the Tobolsk province, made long inspection trips across the vast Siberian expanses and did not miss a single opportunity to visit Bezrukova. In a letter dated February 22, he said: “I stopped for about two hours in my homeland, went to see the place where there was a commissar’s house in which I was born. The school caretaker, who accompanied me to Bezrukova, wanted to plant a tree near the place - as a memory, and during the bringing of the icon of the Mother of God to Bezrukova - to serve a prayer service on the site of the house ... "

And in another letter of his, dated November 23, he writes to his wife the following: “Dear Elena. Here I am in Yalutorovsk. This is the last city of my real route, and then to you, hug you and dear children. I left Ishim on Saturday at 5 o’clock. I dined at the caretaker’s place with P.I., who came to see me off. At 6 o'clock the caretaker and I were already in Bezrukova, the place of my birth, and drinking tea. Here several peasants with village heads appeared, asking for my assistance - to build a church in Bezrukova. They want to draw up a sentence - to contribute 1 silver ruble per person for three years (and there are approximately up to 800 souls), which in three years will amount to 2,500 rubles. My job will be to ask for permission to build a church, deliver the plan and help as much as possible. The caretaker said that the church should be built in the name of St. Peter, and the peasants agreed. They themselves chose the place for the church, the same place where the commissary’s house was, that is, exactly where I was born. I confess that I did not sleep the whole night, thinking about whether the Lord would be so merciful that my long-standing desire would be fulfilled and the place of my birth would be sanctified and the name of my Saint would be praised. It is not without reason that this year his name is mentioned in the calendar for the first time. The rapprochement, no matter how you judge it, is prophetic. And how pleasant it was for me to hear unfeigned praise of my father from the old peasants! All this made the 22nd one of the most pleasant days of my life for me.”

A file discovered in the Tobolsk archive in April 2002 entitled: “On permission for the peasants of the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova to build a church again in the village of Bezrukova” made it possible to see how the writer’s intentions expressed in the letter regarding the construction of a temple in his homeland were carried out, and also to present a difficult history “walkings” of peasants from the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova, who intended to organize an independent parish and build a church using their own funds and “willing” donations. The document included petitions, reports, accompanying papers from Ershov, decrees of the Tobolsk Ecclesiastical Consistory and resolutions of the Tobolsk provincial government, sentences of the Cheremshansky volost government and reports of the Ishim Zemstvo Court, personal petitions of peasants to Bishop Feognost, a temple project, etc.

The case began in February 1859, and ended on March 24, 1863, it opened with a petition from state councilor Pyotr Ershov to Bishop Feognost of Tobolsk and Siberia: “The state peasants of the Ishim district of the Cheremshansky volost of the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova authorized me to petition Your Eminence for permission to build for them in the village of Bezrukova there is a single-altar wooden church on a stone foundation. Presenting herewith two genuine verdicts of the peasants of the mentioned villages, I have the honor to most humbly ask Your Eminence for permission to build a church in the village of Bezrukova in the name of the Venerable Father Peter the Stylite and Confessor, whom the Church commemorates on February 22nd, and for assistance in the construction of the church, deign to provide peasants of the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova with a book to collect offerings for the entire time until the final construction and consecration of the church. State Councilor P. Ershov. April 4 days 1859."

From the first “sentence” drawn up on February 27, 1859 at a general meeting, it became known that on that day the peasants listened to “a private letter from Mr. Director of the schools of the Tobolsk province, State Councilor and gentleman Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov, addressed to Marshalov, the correctional officer of the civilian schools of Ishim, in which he, Mr. State Councilor Ershov, due to the sincere desire verbally expressed by us when he was in the village of Bezrukova to build a church in the village of Bezrukova, accepts a petition in this matter.”

And then the peasants made a “judgment” consisting of 6 points: “1st. That although the village of Bezrukova, which has 262 male souls, belongs to the Grado-Ishim Epiphany Church, and the village of Zavyalova, which has 237 male souls, belongs to the Selo-Tobolovskaya Church of the Intercession, perhaps the higher authorities will nobly allow us to form a special one from the said villages an independent parish and build a single-altar wooden church on a stone foundation in the village of Bezrukova; 2nd. We donate the land needed for this church and for its fence; 3rd. Whether it will be built in the name of the Lord, for the glory of His Most Pure Mother, or in honor of one of the saints, as well as the choice of its plan and facade - we leave all this completely to the will of Mr. State Councilor Ershov; 4th. We sacrifice for those who have a priest and two clerics at the church, ninety acres of land following them according to the law, and we undertake to build a house for the priest; 5th. For the construction of a church, according to the number of male souls in the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova, which according to the latest revision consists of 499 souls, they agree to contribute one silver ruble from each soul for three years, which will amount to one thousand four hundred and ninety-seven silver rubles; 6th. We hope to make up for the lack of this amount for the construction of the church with donations from voluntary donors, for which we decided to ask His Eminence Bishop Theognost of Tobolsk and Siberia to supply us with a book for collecting offerings.” And then – signatures.

The second “sentence” of the same year, date and with the same signatures was to “ask for a blessing to build in the village of Bezrukova a wooden one-altar church on a stone foundation from His Eminence the Most Reverend Bishop,” and the peasants instructed P.P to forward this document . Ershov, as well as receiving a book for “willing donors”.

At the meetings of the Tobolsk Ecclesiastical Consistory and the Tobolsk Provincial Board, the Ishim Zemstvo Court was ordered to collect the information necessary to authorize the construction of the church, which was done by the Ishim assessor Dmitriev and the deputy from the spiritual side, the priest of the Epiphany Cathedral, John Vishnevsky. It follows from them that “the place where it is proposed to build a wooden church on a stone foundation in the village of Bezrukova belongs to the peasants Ilya Petrov and Efim Uleev, who have huts in that place that are subject to demolition at the expense of the society according to the obligation given to them; the designated place contains 34 fathoms in diameter,” in addition, a place for a cemetery, plots of arable and hay land for the clergy were allocated, and the conditions for its maintenance and living were determined. However, one unforeseen obstacle emerged: “from among the residents of the village of Bezrukova, 58 souls of peasants do not want to enter the proposed parish, because they joined the Village Tobolovskaya Church by voluntary consent.” Those who disagreed with the decision of the general meeting explained their refusal by the fact that they had already spent money on the construction of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Tobolovskoye.

Despite this, the work to create a new parish did not stop. Not only the peasants, but also their “deputy” P.P. showed persistence. Ershov. The file contains five documents for 1860, written by his hand or with his signature - on the receipt of a book for recording donations, on the submission of a temple project to the diocesan authorities for consideration, and public verdicts of the peasants of the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova on the construction of the church and on their election as church builders peasant Polikarp Zavyalov, as well as a receipt for receiving a blessed letter from Bishop Theognost.

In the same year, Ershov handed Bishop Feognost a peasant verdict, which included a request “with permission to build a church” to assign a priest to the newly created parish. He becomes the deacon of the city-Tobolsk Cemetery Church of the Seven Youths of Ephesus, Nikolai Agafonov, who was ordained a priest on January 15, 1861 in the Church of Saints Anthony and Theodosius (in 1867 this temple was renamed in the name of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos). Nikolai Agafonov, the first priest of the church, which had not yet been built in 1861, and deacon Yevgeny Burov, expressing the desire of the parishioners, sent a report to the Ishim spiritual board with a request to “petition from His Eminence permission to build a stone church in the name of the same St. Peter the Stylite.” The decision to build a stone church instead of a wooden one was explained by the difficulties in delivering timber and the “high cost of onago.”

Thanks to this correspondence, the “temple-created document with a facade” (documents for the construction of a wooden temple that passed through the hands of Ershov and returned from Bezrukova) were preserved in the file. This charter, granted by Bishop Theognostus on October 16, 1860, is a very beautiful example of a document from the mid-nineteenth century on thick colored paper, with an ornament of intertwining stems, leaves, inflorescences, as well as a relief wax seal on transparent pink fabric in the form of a scallop. The printed text of the letter read: BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

By the grace, gift and power of the All-Holy and Life-Giving Spirit, given to us from the Great Hierarch of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, through His Holy Apostles and their Vicars and Successors, we blessed, according to the request of the residents of the villages of Bezrukova and Zavyalova, who were in the parishes of the City. Ishimsky Epiphany Cathedral, and the Ishimsky department of the village of Tobolovsky Intercession Church, build in the village of Bezrukova again a wooden church on a stone foundation in the name of St. Peter the Stylite, with the formation of a separate independent parish. Which church should be founded according to the Church Order, constructed and built in all respects according to the given plan and facade, with proper strength, decency in all parts and accessories. For the sake of authentic testimony, that we blessed the building of a church in the village of Bezrukovsky, this document, signed by our hand and approved for seal, was given in the God-saved city of Tobolsk - in the year of Christ one thousand eight hundred and sixtieth, on the sixteenth day of October. Humble Theognostus, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia .

The same Bishop Feognost, whose six-year reign over the Tobolsk diocese was already ending (on September 27, 1862, he would be transferred to Pskov), again blessed the Bezrukovites. The second letter, or rather its handwritten version, differs from the first only in one phrase: “to build a stone church again in the village of Bezrukova” and the date: “in the summer of Christ one thousand eight hundred and sixty-second, the month of July on the seventeenth day.” The design of the wooden Peter's Church, on which the stone one was subsequently built, was developed by the Tobolsk provincial construction board by the thirty-five-year-old architect Dmitry Stepanovich Chernenko, whose merits as the builder of the Tobolsk prison castle were considered generally recognized back in 1856. On the project there is a resolution “permitting” the construction and certified by several persons, among whom are the signatures of the civil governor Vinogradsky and the architect D. Chernenko himself, and above the drawing of the church the words: “The Lord will bless the construction of the temple according to this drawing!” Theognostus Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia. 1860. October 16." In terms of style, the one-story building of the temple represented an eclectic combination of signs of the so-called “Russian” style, which was formed in Russia in the 30-50s. XIX century with baroque and classic elements. It had a “ship-shaped” type, like most churches in Western Siberia in the 18th-19th centuries, i.e. was organized along the longitudinal axis: the vestibule with an octagonal bell tower in the form of a tent growing out of it and a classic portico with two columns of the Corinthian order was connected to the main volume of a small refectory. The main volume had a five-domed end and an apse with a dome.

When the wooden temple was “translated” into stone, it became somewhat different. The temple acquired a certain squatness and heaviness, but at the same time a special monumentality. It has become a very expressive dominant feature of the endless forest-steppe plain, on which the village of Bezrukovskoye is located with nearby wooden houses.

Confident of obtaining permission to build a stone church, the Bezrukov peasants, on March 26, 1862, decided at a general meeting to have a contract for the construction of a stone church in the name of St. Peter the Stylite. The construction “was unanimously ordered to be entrusted to the contractor of the Siberian Cossack Army of District No. 4 Regiment of the Arkhangelskaya Village, retired Cossack Thaddei Aleksandrov Fedorov, who knows his business.”

Conditions were set for Fedorov: to make a brick “of the best quality, properly calcined, stain-proof”; use Ishim lime for masonry walls, Ekaterinburg lime for plaster; prepare iron bars for the windows, “as many of them will be assigned according to the plan,” three iron doors with external latches, with strong hinges and hooks; inside on the northern and midday sides, make carpentry work, semi-light doors with glass and paint them with white; make double frames of carpentry in all the windows, also paint them with whitewash on the spot and cut glass into them; “to plaster both the outside and the inside of the church”; “for floors and ceilings, pine beams no thinner than 7 inches in thickness”; lay the floors with pine blocks “no thinner than two inches”; “provide roofing iron and nails, as much as the whole church will need”; “paint drainpipes with funnels with black paint,” etc. The society, for its part, accepted obligations to supply timber for the scaffolding, build sheds for storing all kinds of building materials, lime, etc.

In all likelihood, construction of the temple began in the summer of 1862. Name P.P. Ershov in documents for 1861-63. no longer mentioned. But from the book by A.K. Yaroslavtsov knows that “concerns about the organization of the church in the village of Bezrukovo constituted one of the most joyful activities for him until the last minutes of his life”... “He willingly made his mediation to obtain permission from the government to build a church, and he willingly made any donation, even beyond his strength, for the benefit of the church and in possible secrecy: so, to purchase some church needs, he once pawned a gold chain from his watch, which he told his wife only at the end of his last illness.” Yaroslavtsov also tells the touching story of the meeting of the Bezrukovites with the dying poet: “Ershov was already very exhausted; he realized that the peasants needed some kind of help for the church being demolished, but he could no longer help. Ershov shed tears, the peasants cried, and so they parted with him forever.”

The construction of the church was finally completed, according to N.I. Palopezhentsev, only in 1876, that is, seven years after Ershov’s death... But services were performed there already from 1866, that is, the joyful news of the consecration of the temple warmed Ershov’s soul in the last years of his life (he died in 1869). Here, several generations of Bezrukovites and Zavyalovites were baptized, married, and buried, whose names, like the names of the priests, from the first, Father Nikolai Agafonov, to the last, Father Nikifor Serebryansky, can be seen in the metric books of the Peter the Great Church from 1866 to 1919, stored in Tyumen archive.

Until the mid-1930s, services were still held in the temple. Afterwards he shared the fate of thousands of churches throughout Russia. The temple was closed, the bell tower was dismantled and it was turned into a grain warehouse, and then completely abandoned. It began to be used as a quarry for the extraction of bricks for economic needs, and in the summer of 1969, on the centenary of the poet’s death, it was subjected to final destruction.

Shortly before this, the village received a different name - “Ershovo”, which was far from the most successful attempt to remind the writer’s birthplace, because, according to the writer A.I. Vasiliev, whose childhood years were spent in Bezrukovo, “no matter how great the name of the person in whose honor they go to rename cities, villages, streets, it will always carry less historical memory than the previous one carried.” Gone is the toponym that Ershov himself valued, who called himself and his heroes Bezrukovsky: Colonel Bezrukovsky in “Autumn Evenings,” Ataman Bezrukiy in “The Siberian Cossack.”

And the ruined temple itself, which in the 20th century none of the local residents associated with Ershov, began to be remembered less and less often, and even old-timers had great difficulty in indicating its exact location. The Ishim Museum of Local Lore recalled the Ershov church, on whose initiative a memorial wooden cross was erected in the village on March 6, 1998, and archival materials found four years later on the history of its construction and Ershov’s direct participation in this forced the intelligentsia of the village and city to seriously think about restoration shrines. Continuing research activities in this direction brought results: the remains of the foundation of the temple, new photographs of the church from the mid-twentieth century and, finally, a banner depicting the patron saint of this temple, Peter the Stylite, were discovered, which was kept by an 82-year-old resident of the village of Ershovo, Natalya Fedorovna Belova, for almost all of her life.

Apparently, the moment has not yet arrived when a truly national monument to our wonderful fellow countryman, Orthodox poet, writer, teacher Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov will be revived on the old foundation. But big things start from small things. On the site acquired in the center of the village by the Ishim Literary Museum of P. P. Ershov, construction is already underway on the “first stage” of the future museum-ethnographic complex - the Church of St. Peter the Stylite, still a small wooden one. The museum does not have enough funds, construction is proceeding slowly. But if the flame of prayer glimmers, the moral revival of the village will begin. And the descendants of Bezrukovites, who donated their labor rubles a century and a half ago for the construction of a stone church, will bring to the new church a feeling of repentance for their sins and their parents’ and will find in it the joy of meeting Christ.

At P.P. Ershov has many works that testify to his deep religious feeling. They are little known to the general reader, since they were not republished in Soviet times. Among them is the symbolic story “Wonderful Temple”. It belongs to the genre of the Easter story, common, along with the Christmas story, in the literature of the 19th century. Its plot is based on a miracle experienced by the heroes on the day of the greatest Christian holiday. The idea, which is very significant for Ershov, a man of a religious worldview, is expressed here with particular clarity that the temple, like other highest Orthodox values, cannot be destroyed, because they will continue their invisible existence in eternity.

The story “Wonderful Temple” is the second in the prose cycle “Autumn Evenings,” on which Ershov has been working since the early 50s. XIX century It was first published in the “Pictorial Collection of Remarkable Objects from the Sciences, Arts, Industry and Social Life” for 1857 with the signature “P.E.” The publishers of the magazine wrote in their preface that “Autumn Evenings,” “containing a number of stories told with rare talent,” will add “a lot of entertainment to the first issues of the collection.” After a break of one and a half centuries, the story was republished in the book by T.P. Savchenkova “Ishim and Literature. Century XIX" (Ishim, 2004).

Biography (Wed. A. Yaroslavtsev, "P.P.E." (SPb., 1872). Brockhaus)

(1816-1869) - author of the famous fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse", a native of Siberia; received his education at the Tobolsk Seminary and St. Petersburg. university; was a teacher, inspector and, finally, director of the Tobolsk gymnasium. E. published poems in the “Library for Reading” by O. I. Senkovsky and in “Contemporary” by P. A. Pletnev; in the third volume of the “Collection of Literary Articles Dedicated by Russian Writers to the Memory of A.F. Smirdin” he placed “Scenes of Taz-Basha. Blacksmith Bazim, or the Resourcefulness of the Poor Man,” which he adapted from Zhukovsky’s story. E. gained fame from the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” which he wrote while still a student and was first published as an excerpt in the 3rd volume of “Library for Reading” in 1834, with a commendable review from Senkovsky. Subsequently, it was published as a separate book and during E.’s lifetime went through 7 editions; starting from the 4th edition, in 1856, it began to be published with the restoration of those places that were replaced by dots in the first editions. “The Little Humpbacked Horse” is a folk work, almost word for word, according to the author himself, taken from the lips of the storytellers from whom he heard it; E. just brought it into a more slender appearance and supplemented it in places. Simple, sonorous and strong verse, purely folk humor, an abundance of successful and artistic paintings (a horse market, a zemstvo court with fish, a mayor) made this tale widespread, even outside of Russia, for example in Galicia among the Rusyns; it has been translated to Czech(“Konik-hrbounek”) and caused a lot of imitations (for example, “The Little Humpbacked Horse with Golden Bristles”). A.S. Pushkin, having read this fairy tale, said to E.: “Now I can leave this type of writing to me.” Belinsky for some reason saw in it a fake, written, however, “in very good verse,” but in which “there are Russian words, but no Russian spirit.” In 1864, on the St. Petersburg stage, based on E.’s fairy tale, Saint-Leon staged the ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

Biography

Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov, poet, writer and playwright, was born in 1815 in the village of Bezrukovo, Ishim district, Tobolsk province. Now the village is called Ershovo. Ershov's father served as a police officer in Berezovo, where Peter graduated with honors from the district school. In 1827 he began studying at the Tobolsk gymnasium. He is friends with composer A.A. Alyabyev and people who rallied around the Siberian local historian and multi-talented person - P.A. Slovtsova. Ershov traveled a lot around Siberia, communicated with the colorful Tobolsk society, merchants, and exiles.

In 1831, Ershov, in connection with his father’s transfer to serve in St. Petersburg, entered the Faculty of Philosophy and Law of St. Petersburg University. The then young professors of the Department of Russian Literature P.A. Pletnev and A.V. Nikitenko provided their patronage to Ershov. In 1834, the fairy tale in verse “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was written, thanks to which the nineteen-year-old writer became famous, and doors opened to him in the literary world of the capital. Ershov's merit was that he perfected the genre of the literary fairy tale itself, organically combining folklore and author's principles. He publishes his poems in magazines, meets with A.S. Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky, attends the circle of T.N. Granovsky. At this time, the ballad “The Siberian Cossack” (1834), the play “Suvorov and the Station Warden” (1835), the story in verse “Thomas the Blacksmith” (1835), the libretto of the opera “The Terrible Sword” (1836) were written.

After graduating from the university in 1836, Ershov worked as a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium, later becoming its director. In 1837, the romantic poem “Suzge” was written, and in 1857 the cycle of stories “Autumn Evenings” appeared.

Living in Tobolsk, Ershov is friends with D.I. Mendeleev, travels around Siberia, communicates with the Decembrists M.A. Fonvizin, V.K. Kuchelbeker, I.I. Pushchin, writes and publishes a lot.

The creative legacy of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov is small and unequal, but “The Little Humpbacked Horse” brought him true glory and memory of the Russian people.

The language of a fairy tale cannot be called folk in the literal sense of the word. The genre of this tale required a varied and flexible language, the inclusion of common folk vocabulary, a peasant perception of the world - all this emphasized the folk-national flavor of the work. One of the advantages of a fairy tale is that when reading it, you get the impression that you are listening to it from the lips of the narrator.

Biography (Vladimir Korovin)

ERSHOV, PETER PAVLOVICH (1815–1869) - Russian poet, prose writer, playwright. Born on February 22 (March 6), 1815 in the village of Bezrukovo, Ishim district, Tobolsk province.

From the family of a minor official. My childhood was spent in different cities where my father served: the fortress of St. Petra (now Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan), Omsk, Berezov, Tobolsk. After the children graduated from the Tobolsk gymnasium in 1830, the father achieved a transfer to St. Petersburg, where he moved with his family. In 1831–1834 Ershov studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law of St. Petersburg University. At the beginning of 1834, he presented to professor of literature P.A. Pletnev, as a course work, the first part of the fairy tale The Little Humpbacked Horse, which was soon published in the magazine “Library for Reading”. In the same 1834, the entire “Russian fairy tale in three parts” was published in a separate edition (2nd ed. 1840; 3rd ed. 1843; 4th ed. 1856; 5th ed. 1861).

Ershov used many folk fairy tales (about Ivan the Fool, Sivka-Burka, the Firebird, etc.; see, for example, the tale of the Firebird and Vasilisa the Princess from the collection of A.N. Afanasyev), creating on their basis a completely original work, in poetic form (tetrameter trochee with paired rhyme) close to Pushkin’s literary adaptations of Russian fairy tales (A. Yaroslavtsev conveyed the words of A. S. Pushkin, said to the author of The Little Humpbacked Horse: “Now this kind of writing can be left to me” ; there is also an unreliable report by P.V. Annenkov that the first four lines of the tale belong to Pushkin). The image of the Little Humpbacked Horse is quite original. Nevertheless, Ershov’s fairy tale existed as a folk work, giving rise to many imitations and direct fakes (for example, in the 1870s–1890s, about 40 fake Little Humpbacked Horses were published with a total circulation of about 350 thousand copies). The Little Humpbacked Horse has in common with genuine examples of oral folk art not only his special storytelling style - cheerful, with jokes, jokes, appeals to listeners, etc., but also the “cosmism” of the peasant worldview captured in the fairy tale (“against heaven - on earth” ), the juxtaposition of authentically depicted life and customs of peasants with fabulous miracles (for example, on the back of a punished whale there is a village whose inhabitants live their everyday worries and joys) and many others. etc. The image of Ershov’s Ivan the Fool, ironic, hiding real wisdom, selflessness and inner freedom behind his tomfoolery and violations of generally accepted norms of behavior, revealed the semantic possibilities of the “fools” of Russian fairy tales, akin to holy fools in the church tradition.

In 1834–1836, Ershov quite actively participated in the literary life of the capital, entered the circle of V.G. Benediktov, published lyrical poems marked by the influence of the latter (Young Eagle, Desire, etc.). In total, during this period, 10 poems by Ershov appeared in print (mainly in the “Library for Reading”). Among them is the ballad Siberian Cossack (1835) - an original interpretation of the plot of Lenora by G.-A. Burger (the first Russian imitator of it was Lyudmila V.A. Zhukovsky). In the same years, Ershov published the dramatic scene Thomas the Blacksmith (1835) and the play Suvorov and the Station Warden (1836).

In the summer of 1836, Ershov and his mother (his father and brother died in 1833 and 1834) returned to Tobolsk, harboring hopes for extensive educational activities in Siberia (studying the life of local peoples, publishing a magazine, etc.). These plans, formed under the influence of a university friend K.I. Timkovsky (later convicted in the Petrashevsky case), found expression in poems to Timkovsky (On his departure to America) (1835, published 1872) and Message to a friend (1836), but were not realized they were not meant to be. Ershov became a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium, where he served in various positions until his resignation in 1862 (from 1844 inspector, from 1857 director of the gymnasium and the directorate of public schools of the province). (Among his students was D.I. Mendeleev).

In 1844 he sent a Course of Russian Literature for consideration by the Ministry of Education, hoping for its publication (rejected in 1847 on the grounds that “it does not fully correspond to the concepts of the students”).

During his Siberian years, Ershov wrote a little, but did not give up his literary pursuits, although his works, sent to the capital through friends, were no longer successful. In total, from 1837 to the end of his life, 28 of his new poems appeared in print, incl. response to the death of Pushkin Who is he? (1837). The most significant among them is a romantic poem from the time of Ermak’s conquest of Siberia by Suzga. The Siberian Legend (1838), written in “national meter” (rhymeless tetrameter trochee, the so-called “Spanish trochee”). The publication of a cycle of seven stories Autumn Evenings (1857; begun in 1850 under the title Siberian Evenings), with which Ershov pinned his hopes of returning to literature, and the play Merchant Bazim, or the Resourcefulness of a Poor Man (1858) went unnoticed. The grandiose plan of the poem Ivan Tsarevich in 10 volumes and 100 songs, which Ershov reported to A. Yaroslavtsev back in the late 1830s, remained unfulfilled. About 30 poems were published long after the poet’s death (among them the most interesting are the cycle My Journey, 1840, published 1950; Sadness, 1843, published 1872; V.A. Andronnikov, 1860s, published 1940).

Died August 18 (30), 1869 in Tobolsk. He was buried at the Tobolsk Zavalny cemetery. The inscription on the monument reads: “Peter Pavlovich Ershov, author of the folk tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

* Works: Poems / Intro. Art. M.K.Azadovsky. M.; L., 1936 (Poet's Book, MS);
* The Little Humpbacked Horse. Poems / Intro. Art. I.P.Lupanova. L., 1976 (Poet's book, b.s.)

Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov and Orthodoxy (Siberian Orthodox Newspaper. http://www.ihtus.ru/)

The name of Ershov, his work and fate are associated with many well-established and to date not yet revised points of view. The most “tenacious” is the opinion that after the early and most successful artistic experience- the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, Ershov did not create anything more significant, and all his subsequent works are marked with the stamp of imitation and provincialism and are also strongly “spoilt” by religious-monarchical ideas. As a result of this approach to the writer’s heritage, a considerable part of his works has still not been published or is presented in a number of publications in a “truncated” form, with stanzas removed or even several poems in lyrical cycles, as well as cuts in prose and dramatic experiments. Accordingly, our understanding of his spiritual life, in which religious quests were perhaps the most important, turns out to be very incomplete. This also applies to the poet’s biography, many facts of which need new understanding.

P.P. Ershov was born in the village of Bezrukova, Ishim district, Tobolsk province on February 22 (March 6, new style) 1815 in the family of the “commissar of the Cheremshan part” (in those days the Ishim district consisted of five commissariats: Abatsky, Berdyuzhsky, Malyshensky, Petropavlovsky, Cheremshansky) Pavel Alekseevich Ershov and Evfemia Vasilievna Ershova, née Pilenkova (“Tobolsk merchant’s daughter”). Fearing for the life of the child, who was born very weak, the parents decided to baptize him on the same day. In the village of Bezrukova, the place of residence of the commissar’s family, at that time there was no church of its own, and the villagers were assigned to the parish of the city-Ishim Church of the Epiphany. It was there that the seventy-year-old priest John Simonov performed the baptism ceremony.

In accordance with the church calendar-name book (and on this day the memory of a number of saints is honored: Athanasius the Confessor, Mauritius, Theodore, Philip, Limnius, Varadat, etc.) the baby was named in the name of St. Peter, that is, he received, on the one hand , a very common, but on the other hand, a very rare name. Even in our time, with all the abundance of relevant literature, it is difficult to find the life of this saint. From some sources (for example, “The Lives of the Saints” by Demetrius of Rostov) it turns out that February 1 is the day of remembrance of St. Peter of Galatia, who died around 429. He is “remembered” on February 22 and November 25 under the names of Peter the Stylite and the Silent. The life of this saint was marked by feats of seclusion and silence. He could cast out demons and cure illnesses, and his hair shirt, when applied to a sick child, had a healing effect. Perhaps this was taken into account by Priest Simonov, who baptized a very weak, seizure-ridden baby who was screaming incessantly in the name of Peter of Galatia.

Ershov was sensitive to his heavenly patron, as evidenced by the constant mentions in his letters to family and friends of February 22 - his birthday, coinciding with his name day and even the 22nd of other months. For example, in a letter to his wife dated November 23, 1858, Ershov, at that time the director of schools throughout the Tobolsk province, writes the following: “Dear Elena. Here I am in Yalutorovsk. This is the last city of my real route, and then to you, to hug you and your dear children. I left Ishim on Saturday at 5 o’clock. I dined at the caretaker’s place with P.I., who came to see me off. At 6 o'clock the caretaker and I were already in Bezrukova, the place of my birth, and drinking tea. Here several peasants with village heads appeared, asking for my assistance - to build a church in Bezrukova. They want to draw up a sentence - for three years they will contribute 1 silver ruble per person (and their souls are approximately up to 800), which in 3 years will amount to 2500 rubles. My job will be to ask for permission to build a church, deliver the plan and help as much as possible. The caretaker said that the church should be built in the name of St. Peter, and the peasants agreed. They themselves chose the place for the church, the same one where the commissary’s house was, i.e. exactly where I was born. I confess that I did not sleep the whole night, thinking about whether the Lord would really be so merciful that my long-standing desire would be fulfilled and the place of my birth would be sanctified and the name of my Saint would be praised. It’s not for nothing that his name is mentioned in the calendar for the first time this year. The rapprochement, no matter how you judge it, is prophetic. And how pleasant it was for me to hear unfeigned praise of my father from the old peasants! All this made for me the 22nd (remember – the 22nd, and not another) one of the most pleasant days of my life” (emphasis added – T.S.).

It can be assumed that the name of this saint in some mysterious sense determined Ershov’s very character: his shyness, modesty, and penchant for solitude. These character traits of the writer were highlighted by Ershov’s first biographer A.K. Yaroslavtsov, in whose book the concepts of “isolation,” “recluse,” “hermitage,” and “silence” are quite common.

Looking ahead a little, it should be said that the temple in Ershov’s homeland was built from 1862 to 1876 and was consecrated in the name of Peter the Stylite. And it is unlikely that in all of Russia one could find another temple with that name. But its fate turned out to be dramatic: it was destroyed in July 1969.

Ershov was a man of deep religious feeling. Faith in Providence and submission to Providence helped him to withstand all the trials that befell him. And, as you know, there were many of them: the death of his father (1833), brother Nikolai (1834), mother (1838), first-born daughter Seraphima (1840), second daughter, also named Seraphima (1841), wife Seraphima Alexandrovna (1845) , second wife - Olympiada Vasilievna (1853), and a month later, little daughter Seraphima. In July 1856, almost in the same week, son Nikolai and daughter Olga die. But all these troubles, which Ershov experienced hard and “knocked him out of his creative state” for a long time, nevertheless did not shake his faith in God. In one of his letters to his St. Petersburg friends V. Treborn and A. Yaroslavtsov, he reflects: “Whether I fall or be unharmed, I will bless the good Providence for everything. Don’t blame me for fatalism: faith in Providence is not the same word as predestination.”

Ershov’s sensitive, suffering soul is reflected in his never published letter to Anna Petrovna Vilken, née Zhilina, dated July 9, 1845. This message, piercing in its intonation, which reports the death of his wife Serafima Alexandrovna, was preserved in the personal archive of Anna Petrovna’s descendant, St. Petersburg film director K.V. Artyukhov:

“My letter will be short, dear cousin. Only joy speaks, and sadness is silent. And what should I say when I still can’t come to my senses? The blow was so unexpected, so sudden that it took faith and the special help of God not to fall under it. You knew the deceased Angel, and you knew my feelings for her: why would you believe my sadness. Yes, of all the losses that I have experienced (and which ones have I not experienced?), the loss of my beloved wife is the most terrible. It was as if half of myself was gone. With an empty heart, with a heavy thought, with a sad memory - is this really life? Only religion warms a cold soul, only it illuminates the darkness of the grave, and represents it behind the grave even better than it was on earth. And what would happen without this heavenly consolation!

WITH early youth Ershov's interests included spiritual books. According to Yaroslavtsov’s memoirs, Ershov’s St. Petersburg years passed “with an indefatigable thirst for reading.” He, like A.S. Pushkin, used the library of A.F. Smirdin. From here he also took books of religious content, “which he loved to immerse himself in, trying to hide from the curious.” And upon returning to Tobolsk, he forms a personal library, where spiritual literature occupies one of the important places. Ershov's Tobolsk biographer A.I. Mokrousov, in his unpublished work about him, written in 1918, indicated that he had seen many books in the Ershov showcase of the Tobolsk Museum, which Pyotr Pavlovich often re-read. For example, “The New Tablet, or Explanation of the Church, the Liturgy and of all Church Services and Utensils” by Veniamin, Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, in 4 parts, published in 1858 in St. Petersburg; almost all the books of Holy Scripture, some of which were rewritten by the hands of his students and Ershov himself. It is noteworthy that the Book of Job and the Book of Genesis, which he rewrote, are marked with the same date: February 22, 1854.

Ershov worshiped Orthodox shrines, often visited the Ioannovsky Mezhdugorsky and Abalaksky monasteries near Tobolsk, and during his business trip to St. Petersburg in 1858, he stopped by the Sviyazhsky Mother of God Monastery, where the former Archbishop of Tobolsk Evlampy resided, and on the way back, stopping in Moscow, allocated two days for a trip to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He carried with him a cross and an icon of St. Herman. When going out to inspect schools, he always served a prayer service for a safe return to his family.

In his works and especially in his letters, he left a poetic description of Orthodox rituals. Thus, in a letter dated July 18, 1841 from the funds of the Museum-Archive of D.I. Mendeleev in St. Petersburg, he tells his stepdaughter Feozva (in the future she will become the wife of D.I. Mendeleev) about the meeting of the miraculous Abalak Icon of the Mother of God: “The present year, the residents of Tobolsk show great zeal for the Mother of God. Every day they raise the icon and, together with a choir of singers, themselves - especially the girls and ladies - carry it from the mountain to their homes and back. Especially late in the evening, this spectacle makes the most vivid impression. The people, although there are always enough of them, are not visible due to the darkness; Only solemn things can be heard: like an insurmountable wall, etc. And the light of the candle in the lantern, like a star, shines ahead, sometimes reflected on the gold of the robe of the Mother of God. But you yourself have been a spectator of such demonstrations, and therefore it is easy for you to imagine such a picture.”

Religion is one of the main sources of Ershov's creativity. The philosophy and aesthetics of his prose, poetry and even the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” cannot be imagined outside the religious sphere, outside the writer’s attitude towards Orthodoxy. Very significant images of Ershov’s works, especially his lyrics, are the images of the “paradise abode”, “heavenly abode”, “heavenly light”, “bright world of hope”, beautiful angels - cherub and seraphim, God’s temple - “Lord’s house”, “holy cross”, “holy faith”, “warm prayer” and the image of God, for which the poet finds many names and definitions: “All-Good Creator”, “My Creator”, “Heavenly Father”, “Teacher of the Universe”, “King of the Universe”, “Creator of salvation”, “King of ages”, “Loving Father of people”.

The religious feeling in Ershov's lyrics is inseparable from the aesthetic. The hero is delighted with the beauty and perfection of God's world:

The peace of the Lord is so wonderful!
The free path is so gratifying!
How many grains of sonorous songs
Then it will sink into my chest!
I will envelop them with delight,
I will water streams of tears,
I will warm them with a hot feeling,
I’ll pour it out in Russian speech.
(“To Friends”, 1837)

Ershov's spiritual lyrics are marked by special emotional tension. As a rule, there is a sharp change in mood and inviting intonation. The lyrical hero, experiencing despair, exhausted under the “lead chain of passions” and delusions, stops on the edge of the abyss of unbelief and expresses his readiness to overcome all adversities:

But away with the cowardly reproach!
The reward of patience is ready...
A beneficent gaze is upon us!
Above us is the hand of Providence!
The time will come, I believe,
The restless sea will calm down,
And the ice mountain melts,
And my canoe will glide in the open air.
(“In the album to V.A. Andronnikov”, 1851)

And the suffering itself contains a great meaning, testifying to a certain chosenness of the hero:

Oh, rejoice! Judge of the universe
Having seen the priceless treasure in you,
I honored you with suffering.
Eternal love judged
You have to go through the fire of the crucible,
May you be pure and bright...
("Call", 1846)

Not only Ershov's spiritual lyrics, but also his other works - unpublished or lost in old publications - testify to the diversity and depth of his religious and artistic interests. Few people know that in St. Petersburg Ershov studied the flute with the famous music teacher of the time and composer O.K. Gunke, on whose advice he wrote the libretto of the great magical heroic opera in five acts “The Terrible Sword” in 1836. The opera was approved for performance by censor Eustathius Oldekop, but for unknown reasons did not receive a stage adaptation. And its libretto was published only after Ershov’s death in the seventh issue of the St. Petersburg magazine “Illustrated Messenger” for 1876. The content of “The Terrible Sword” is the past of Kievan Rus, the time of the reign of Vladimir, shown in a conventional, fairy-tale-fantastic refraction. Along with the warriors of Prince Vladimir's squad, there is the sorceress Vsemila - the owner of a wonderful ring and the knight - the sorcerer Gromval, who dreams of taking possession of the magic sword of Prince Ratmir, as well as idolatrous priests and peasants.

And in this enchanting world with many miracles and transformations, there is another hero, presented in the text of the libretto as the Unknown. He comes to a peasant village to reveal to people stuck in paganism the image of the Almighty and the beneficial power of prayer:

You, strong and good God!
Your watchful eye!
From the abyss of deep sorrow
We call it earnest prayer.
Hear the faint prayer
Powerless in a painful struggle;
Not in the powers of the world, but in You
Our hope and salvation.

The poems of Ershov the librettist are beautiful in intonation, rich in rhythm and clear in ideological terms. Here the idea of ​​Orthodoxy is affirmed as great power, uniting Russian people. This thought illuminates the final song of the opera - the song of the singer Bayan, which Ershov intended for the best contralto of that era - Anna Yakovlevna Vorobyova-Petrova:

Our second cup for the people
Holy Rus', sovereign!
Yes, in the depths of the Orthodox faith
His greatness will increase.

Ershov was always interested in the problem of translating books of religious content. Even in the first years of his service in Tobolsk, he worked on the article “On the translation of the Holy Books.” And most recently, the fate of Ershov’s manuscript “The Last Supper of Our Lord Jesus Christ” was clarified, which is a translation of one of the parts of the book by the German romantic Clemens Brentano “The Passion of the Lord God Jesus Christ”. Pyotr Pavlovich reported about his translation activities in a letter to A.K. Yaroslavtsov dated March 7, 1842: “You will ask about my current activities. Every day I sit for several hours translating a French book: La douloureuse passion de N.S. Jesus Christ. I don't know if you had this book in your hands. And if not, then I’ll tell you that I haven’t read anything more entertaining. These are the visions of one nun about the suffering of the Savior, written from the words of her by the famous German poet Clementius Brentano. These visions have such a character of truth that you do not dare to doubt their reality. Take it out and read it. I would like to prepare a translation of this book for publication, but I am afraid that our clergy will rebel. However, I exclude or apply to our beliefs everything that could catch the eye of Orthodoxy. I am confident that the success of this book is undeniable. One of these days I’m waiting for the German original: I have a friend who is an expert in the German language, and we’ll check the translation.”

The work that Ershov translated remains to this day one of the most interesting examples of so-called visionary literature. It presents the revelations of the Catholic nun Anna Katharina Emmerich, who saw pictures of the gospel history in all the specifics of psychological and everyday moments. Brentano's book was first published in German in 1833 and was soon translated into French. Ershov turned to editions of 1835 or 1836. The significance of this book for Russian romanticism has not yet been revealed, although it is worth paying attention to the fact that Brentano’s work was in the personal library of V.F. Odoevsky and a copy of the French translation with the owner’s notes and his autograph can be seen today in the Russian State Library (Moscow) , and the German edition of 1842 with notes by V.A. Zhukovsky - in scientific library Tomsk University.

In Tobolsk, Ershov’s friend Pyotr Dmitrievich Zhilin was interested in the book of the German romantic.

The already mentioned biographer of Ershov, A.I. Mokrousov, wrote that he had seen in Ershov’s showcase of the Tobolsk Museum “a thick bound manuscript, where the translation of this book that so occupied the poet was completely rewritten by Ershov’s hand.” This book consisted of chapters with appropriate titles: “The Trial of Caiaphas,” “The Descent from the Cross,” etc. Under the manuscript is the date – March 29, 1842 – the day the translation of the book was completed. This translation was unknown to all subsequent researchers and readers of Ershov, and therefore only chance helped us find out that Ershov’s manuscript had been preserved. It was discovered on March 6, 2005 during the opening of the Ershov Literary Lounge in the Tobolsk Museum, where it was exhibited as a “book rewritten by Ershov,” but without indicating the author of the original source, Clemens Brentano, or the nature of the work, a translation from French.

As already mentioned, in all difficult cases of his long-suffering life, Ershov sought consolation in religion. Not only did he not grumble at God, having experienced the loss of loved ones, but he exclaimed:

But away with the reproach on life, on faith.
The law of the Most High is true.

And his death itself was truly Christian. Before his death, which occurred on August 18, 1869, he fulfilled his sacred duty: he confessed and took communion, blessed his family and said goodbye to everyone. To this it should be added that a few days before his death, he was visited by peasants from the village of Bezrukovo, who were building a temple in his homeland - a temple, the consecration of which he so wanted to attend, wanting this even in the most last minutes own life.

Does everyone know that the author of the beloved fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” from childhood is a native of Tobolsk province? P.P. was born. Ershov in the village of Bezrukovo, Ishim district. The family of the future poet arrived in Tobolsk in the summer of 1825. After graduating from St. Petersburg University P.P. Ershov returned to Tobolsk again, where he served at the Tobolsk gymnasium, and from 1857 he was its director.

Let Ershov himself talk further about his life in correspondence with friends, acquaintances and close relatives. His letters were preserved not for the purpose of printing them, but as friendly memories. We consider this method for our memories of his life to be the most truthful: these letters were written, as we will see, with all possible frankness and seem to be not only in content, but also in their style, the most faithful reflection of his soul and character. They were written without preparation, directly from npucecma. In them he, unconsciously, left his life story. Perhaps they will seem colorless and monotonous to some readers, in them Ershov will sometimes even appear petty, justifying the truth expressed in Pushkin’s verse about the poet: “And among the insignificant sons of the world, perhaps he is the most insignificant of all”... but for the observer, for a psychologist, for a thinker who draws conclusions for some useful purpose, they will be dear and will help resolve the question posed at the beginning of our memories.

In the above extract from Ershov’s first letter, from Tobolsk, it was already noticeable how joyfully he greeted the voice from St. Petersburg, and barely after a four-month stay in Siberia. In the same letter, to satisfy T-born’s curiosity, Ershov speaks about his life: “At least let’s sketch out at least a sketch of a magnificent picture in which I am the main person, and the frame is the spacious city of Tobolsk. Listen, I came to Tobolsk On the 30th of July, exactly at vespers, I stopped at my uncle's house. The next day, having dressed properly, I appeared, according to duty, first to the director, then to the governor, then to the prince. The director received me neither- nor- behold; the prince was rather cold at first, but subsequently solemnly expressed - in front of the entire meeting of local officials and authorities - his pleasure that Ershov was serving in Tobolsk. But the governor treated me extremely kindly. Well, a week later I took up the post of Latin teacher, I tormented both myself and my students with Latin for a whole month" ... This is how Ershov spoke about this teaching, already in the last years of his life, to the same friend Z-sky, from whom we received some of the information we cited about Ershov’s childhood. 3-sky adds that the story he reproduces from memory loses all its flavor: the deceased was an exemplary storyteller; With some original Russian word or an unusual turn of phrase, he was able to give a special humorous flavor to the most ordinary story... “Out of modesty, of course,” Ershov said, “I undertook to teach in the lower grades; in the senior classes there was then the famous Pyotr Kuzmich - a dog ate in Latin. I was preparing for each class, and things were going great. But suddenly, to my misfortune, Pyotr Kuzmich fell ill. Nolens volens, but I had to study in high school. I come. Well, what do you want to do? - Translate Virgil. Well, I think I got caught like chickens in cabbage soup. Hm, Virgil; that’s not bad; but the thing is that we’re taking on Virgil, and sometimes we don’t even know the grammar. Well,” I turn to one, “decline that's it. And, oh, joy! - my little guy was at a dead end. Well, just, I was ready to kiss him. So, - Virgil, we'll put it aside for now, but let's repeat the Latin grammar. And we began; just no matter how we stretched it out , but I see that things are bad; two more classes, and it will be necessary either to take up Virgil, or to conclude with a scandal - avoiding classical wisdom, and submit a real report of illness. Jupiter saved just in time Pyotr Kuzmich recovered, and I retreated with glory.

Another time, I sit with the younger ones and practice my kind grammar. A boy appears from Pyotr Kuzmich with a book. Here Pyotr Kuzmich doubts how to translate this passage. This place? Hm... How does Pyotr Kuzmich himself translate this passage? So that. Yes, it’s impossible to translate it any other way.”... “But just as in all things there is an end,” Ershov continues in the extract from his letter that we began, “or, as Horace of blessed memory says, modus in rebus, then our mutual torment ended to perfection.” to the satisfaction of both parties. And in mid-September I solemnly entered the department of philosophy and literature, in upper classes, and received a bunch of keys from the famous, although not approved by this title, gymnasium library. But the main thing is that I enjoy complete freedom: there are few hours, and there are few students." Mentioning the number of colleagues, he continues: "But of all of them, I got along better with my predecessor - B-Balovsky, whose name M laughed so much at -sky. And I will say from the bottom of my heart that you rarely meet a person with such merits. I spent the best hours with him in Tobolsk; but now he is exactly the same distance from me as I am from you, that is, 3000 versts - in Irkutsk. Of my other acquaintances, I will tell you only two: V-litsky, a student of the Paris Conservatory, and Ch-zhov, a sailor, relative (nephew) of our professor D.S.Ch. I rarely read, and I don’t want to; But I don’t want to listen to the music! Every Wednesday I go to the local orchestra, consisting of sixty people, students of Alyabyev, whom he now conducts. V-litsky. They mostly play overtures of the latest operas and concerts." Is this how a person would respond if he was satisfied with the goal he was striving for? - Attaching at the end of the letter: "Write as often and as much as possible; I won’t hesitate to answer,” he adds: “Mama bows to you. She keeps missing her health." And it should be noted that the old mother was now his only and beloved companion.

It is necessary to find out how easily Ershov got along with people in Tobolsk who knew how to appreciate his talent and himself. At the beginning of his new stay in this city, he met with several very educated and gifted individuals who were accidentally brought to that region. Between them he could refresh himself from everyday provincial life. As an ardent lover of music, he became especially close to one of these people, the famous Russian musician Alyabiev. Ershov later told, and even recalled at the end of his life, what a friendly joke he once played with Alyabyev, which also characterizes the natural playfulness of his mind.

Alyabyev, in a dispute with Ershov, told him, jokingly, that he, Ershov, was a grazer and had no clue about music. “Well, brother, I’ll prove to you at the very first rehearsal that you’re wrong!” I objected,” Ershov said. “Okay, we’ll see,” said Alyabyev... Here is the rehearsal, we sat down closer to the musicians. I gave him my word that I would notice the slightest falsehood. At that time, the first violin was a certain Ts-tkov, an excellent musician; Every time he made a mistake in the orchestra, he made such faces that he wanted to run away. I don’t take my eyes off him: as soon as the first violin makes a face, I’ll push Alyabiev. He couldn’t bear it, halfway through the play he stood up and bowed to me... When the matter was explained, we both burst out laughing.”

But such persons, Ershov’s comrades in talent, did not surround him for long: when they left Tobolsk, Ershov remained almost alone.

IN next letter , dated December 12 of the same 1836, Ershov writes: whatever you say, you, Trebonian, are a glorious fellow, and you not only celebrate the receipt of letters from friends who love you, but also immediately answer them. And this is very rare in modern times - especially in St. Petersburg. Of course, there’s not even a word about us provincials: we can’t wait for the Moscow post office to immediately run to the post office and ask if there are any letters, and if luck favors us, then we sound the general alarm and immediately sit down to write the answer, no matter what it is, will come out with joy. Yes, we don’t care about this, just so as not to slow it down. Therefore, Messrs. residents of the capital, we humbly ask you not to punish us too harshly for our messes, but rather to look more closely at our zeal. Moreover, you live in a world where every hour brings you something new; and our days pass so monotonously that you can calmly sleep for a whole six months and then answer without hesitation - everything is going well. You are asking for my poems, but you need to find out first whether I write poetry, and even whether it is possible to write them here. If you have good legs, you can walk around your vast Tobolsk in three and a half hours, but in a cab, or as they say here, on a coachman, one hour is enough. You can go for a walk, can't you? The only rarity is the weather. And in fact, I cannot understand - what happened to Siberia? Either this is a mystification of nature, or Siberia is beginning to remember its antiquity, i.e. Antediluvian times, when mastodons and peaches were found here. Imagine - December 12, a time in which, for 6 years, it was impossible to stick your nose out, under great fear, now Reaumur's thermometer is at 3 "! It just doesn't melt. But, despite this moderation, the local atmosphere is heavy on the head, and for the heart. Since my very arrival here, that is, almost five months, I not only haven’t been able to do anything decently, but I haven’t had a single cheerful minute. I walk like crazy from corner to corner and almost light up on tobacco and cigars. Apart from my academic position, I absolutely do not go out anywhere, even to my uncle, who loves me very much, and I only appear on Sundays and then in the morning, for no more than half an hour. You might say that I miss lack of acquaintances. I don’t think so. True, my acquaintances here are very limited - two or three people, but look for such people and mention them to my brother and me. And great. - Why aren’t any of my old friends with me now? At least you can I would like, when talking with them, to convey to them both this and that, and at least ease my grief a little. Alone and alone again! .. I'm glad you're cheerful. I can conclude this from your last letter, which was written under the influence of gaiety. And my answer is - don't miss the opportunity:

They pass - days of fun...

A! old friends! poetry! It’s been two years since I’ve written a single one, and about six months since I’ve read a single line. I myself am surprised at my activities. Sometimes it even occurred to me: how to do this, so that from my first debut before the public on the Little Humpbacked Horse to the last poem, published against my will, in some almanac, all this would be erased completely. I would not lose anything here, but would gain the tranquility of the unknown. But at the bottom of these magnanimous dreams, Ivan Tsarevich (remember? the poem in 10 volumes and 100 songs) comes to my mind, and I decide to wait for the time when I turn 24 or better yet 25 years old. This will happen in 1839 or 1840, and then - “In some kingdom, in some state, etc., etc., etc.”

In a letter dated December 9, 1838, Ershov, asking T-boria for participation in applying for a pension for a widow and about the conditions with the bookseller who wanted to publish his fairy tale again, the Little Humpbacked Horse, writes: “My trip to St. Petersburg will be decided no earlier than the new year. And If one circumstance (you will find out about it later) ends, then in the month of January letters are sent to Prince Dondukov-Korsakov and Prince P. A. Pletnev, with a request to transfer me to St. Petersburg. If not, then I will remain in Tobolsk forever, I will serve and write about myself. Fame for peace of mind and, perhaps, for domestic happiness, really, the exchange is not entirely unprofitable. Why aren’t you with me now? I would talk to you about a lot of things. You can’t trust everything on paper. Be content with one confession that I - for several months now I don’t know myself what is happening to me. One thought haunts me relentlessly, and you will guess this thought - you are in exactly the same circumstances as me. But you have hope; I only have obstacles on both sides - both mine and hers... I’m 24 years old and I’m getting a blowjob in February. And should I really bind myself with an eternal vow during these years! - But let it be what pleases God. Just not a word about it! If I don’t make complete frankness to you, it means that I have a reason to remain silent. You yourself, yes, you yourself will be surprised if I ever reveal everything to you. I'll wait to see what January says. Sometimes a thought is born in me: maybe fate, in order to calm my sadness, gave me this toy, and then she herself will break it when there is no need for it. But this is one disease cured by another. Be healthy, my dear, bow to all your relatives and my friends."

“In my life, or, better yet, in my soul, a complete rebirth is taking place, Muse and service - two restless rivals cannot get along and are terribly jealous of each other. The Muse reminds me of a calling, of first successes, of tempting challenges from friends, of a talent buried in the ground , etc., etc., and the service - in full uniform, with a sword and a hat, officially reports on the oath, on the duties of a citizen, on the advantages of the office, etc., etc. From this comes an incessant hustle and bustle in the head, which echoes in the heart. And Mr. reason - Fischer in his way - convincingly proves that the fruits of poetry are a pie in the sky, and the fruits of service are a bird in the hand. - I see what a sour face Mr. Yaroslavtsev is building, holding on to his John. But what should I do? You can’t deceive honest people, especially your friends. It’s better to regret the fate of earthly people!...",

In 1844, the Ministry of Public Education was working on the establishment of a new fifth gymnasium in St. Petersburg, prompted by extreme need. I informed Ershov about this, in case he found it possible to move to us, hinting to him that, judging by the governor’s proposal for the approval of him, Ershov, as an inspector, the governor would not refuse to take part in this matter.

On October 12, 1844, Ershov answered me: “Indeed, your last letter, for all its brevity, contains a lot. You offer me the opportunity to be in St. Petersburg, to be with you - yes, this is such a luxury from which, not jokingly, I slept for two nights. I am not yet so old that my memory cannot imagine my seven-year life in the capital; my imagination has not yet frozen to the point of remaining indifferent to the charms of northern Athens... But, whatever you say, you will get to the end. And why? There are thousands of reasons for this, which have value only for me alone. Feel sorry for me, call me crazy, do whatever comes to your mind, but still the matter is over for now. I say for now, because the future unknown. Maybe I'll still take a walk on the banks of the Neva, have a heart-to-heart talk with friends; only now there's no point in thinking about it. We'll talk through the slow telegraph of the post office, we'll wish, expect, scold, make peace, just so as not to grow cold in our affection. And so atep!.."

Of course, the main reason for the stop in this case was the lack of knowledge of the person to whom one could turn for the so-called petition, and the hope of becoming a director at the Tobolsk gymnasium, in a place already familiar and close to his cradle, which was now becoming especially dear to him. Having evaded my proposal without explaining the reasons, and reproaching me for keeping silent - which episode from the life of Ivan the Terrible I used for my tragedy, he says further in the letter: “...If my premonition did not deceive me, then I fully expect that scene ", where we are talking about Siberia. No matter how boring my homeland is, I am attached to it like a real Swiss. And that work has a double interest for me, where my northern beauty is brought to the stage. - Here you have, by the way, one of the many reasons ", which chain me to Tobolsk. - Now I should talk about my works in the literary part, but, alas! the most desperate talker, who knows how to pour empty into empty, make an elephant out of a molehill, and he must abandon such a plot. Literary "My activity is limited for now to theory, and practice exists only in the imagination. I will say more clearly. For six months now I have been preparing my notes, or, better yet, a gymnasium course in literature. I want to send it to your department for review. If I succeed, I will ask for the introduction of my course, at least in our gymnasium, but if it doesn’t succeed, then sic transit gloria mundi! - and the matter is over. - In any case, with the new year of 1845 my theoretical work will end, and whether practical work will begin - my grandmother said about this in two ways: either it will rain or it will snow, either there will be or there will not be. Everything will depend on what the weather is like - if it’s favorable, then we’ll turn our sail,

Let's sail on a long journey;... and if it's nasty, then - goodbye, whatever is dear to the heart! We will live like everyone else lives.

When meeting with the most respectable Vlad. Al., tell him that I am waiting for books and, by the way, the rest of the “Bulletin of Europe”, which is in Smirdin’s reserved storerooms. I need it all the more because I sold the “Bulletin”, and in order to receive the money, I must only deliver the missing parts. - By the way. T-born writes that you often walk around the outskirts of St. Petersburg. In this case, I not only keep up with you, but I take a few more fathoms in front. What's your neighborhood like? - the same city, with the addition of gardens. No, our surroundings are truly Homeric nature. One of them so seduces your humble servant that he wants to shake his light pocket and buy it from the owners. Real Switzerland, as one of my acquaintances, who has been hustling around the world, says. A wonderful miracle, I will add, knowing Switzerland only from paintings. If God orders me to acquire such a curiosity of nature, then I will send you two paintings: one - a landscape, in its present form, and a tight one - in the form that my Siberian imagination wants to give it ... "

Meanwhile, how much distance from the capital prevented Ershov from satisfying his spiritual needs can often be seen from his desires: thus, with a short note dated November 3 of the same year, he asks T-boria to purchase for him a copy of the lithographed Imperial Hermitage Gallery then started in St. Petersburg, - and out of his anxious fears: he ends the note: “You (i.e. T-born and I) have completely forgotten me. I am afraid that a revolution may take place in your souls, as in others who were once called friends. May he preserve The Lord God will stop you from this!"

In a letter dated January 7, 1845, from which one can see, among other things, the poor festive life of Ershov’s Tobolsk life and his indifference to folk customs, he says: “... As for me, I have never spent holidays more boring than these. Besides, visits on the second day of Christmas gave me a fever, and when others were shaking in dances, I was shaking in bed. I was hoping for the days after the New Year: at least, I tell myself, at least I’ll admire the masked ones. And you need to know that In Tobolsk, from time immemorial, there has been a custom - from New Year's Eve to Christmas Eve, to get dressed and go home. But even here my hope deceived me. Either the government apartment, or the corner in which it was abandoned, was the reason that in During the masquerade evenings, I only had up to thirty masks. While in our old house I counted hundreds of them. One joy was gathering my boarders and laughing at their antics in Christmas games. Add to all of the above the end of the year and, consequently, the beginning of annual reports, scattered papers, scattered books, jangling accounts, searching for the missing one-fourth of a penny - and you will have, albeit in miniature, my Christmas activities. You can’t help but sigh about your former profession as a literature teacher..."

But even with such a life, a poetic principle was constantly beating in Ershov’s soul. Addressing me in the same letter and wishing success to the literary work I have undertaken, he says: “...Woe to you if you deceive our hopes, if you indulge in sad inaction, in which, alas, like an oyster in its shell, your benevolent brother. And it would be good if this inaction were only external, if in silence, in the depths of the crust, a precious pearl was being prepared... And why not so? Inaction is often a sign of future strong activity - the silence before the storm. - Soon, soon ", maybe, instead of this letter, you will receive a whole book. Not a word more..." Such an outburst again reinforces our guesses about the impending creation of the poem: Ivan Tsarevich.

On the 18th of January, he again sent another 25 rubles to T-born and asked for the immediate delivery of issues of the Hermitage gallery, as well as for the purchase of pictures for the novel “The Eternal Jew” and a collection of Gogarth’s cartoons, saying jokingly: “I received today picture madness." - On the margin of this letter it is written: “I have just received the pleasant news that I have been promoted to court councilor, with a seniority of two years.”

We have already seen more than once that Ershov, in his intelligent pedagogical activities, diligently cared about the education of his pupils, even through theatrical performances that he organized from the pupils themselves. We can point to several persons who were under his leadership, who now honorably occupy places in the service in the educational and civilian units. Such activity did not stop during his inspection, although again, due to the distance from St. Petersburg, it cost him new troubles. In a letter dated April 12 of the same year, Ershov, among other commissions to T-born, writes: “... and if you want to make me extremely friendly, then try, through your friends, to get me light and good notes of the whole mass, from the court singers I think it won’t be too difficult, and you’ll console me... The fact is that I’ve formed a choir from my high school students and already have the pleasure of hearing them sing. One of the teachers is conducting them, and things are going very, very well. Well, if you include a page of church music with each letter (in the score - written, of course), then I will value this as evidence, etc. Dear Andrei Konstantinovich, will probably help in this case as well. from all this you can conclude that I have become a lover of the arts, having ceased to be their priest, and say it in your ear, and I did well.- Ugh, how angry Yaroslavtsev will be after reading the last lines. I see his angry look, I hear the thundering word - and I hide behind yours protection..." In the same letter he speaks about the inevitable troubles in Tobolsk customs. "...What's Easter like for you? And here we have knee-deep mud. You'll have to stay at home. And you're also happy that you don't know stupid visits. And here you'll be considered proud before the poor, ignorant before your superiors and unsociable before your equals if on big holidays you can't stick cards to the doors. Oh, Siberia! - you will say. Oh, Siberia! - I will repeat, but still I will have to knead the mud for six hours straight..."

Biography

The author of the famous "The Little Humpbacked Horse" is an example of literary modesty, worthy of all respect and unique in its kind. Ershov sincerely did not like his fame: “Belonging to for a long time not to the figures, but to the observers of literature, I have learned to look at things impartially, and literary fame at the present time is not too flattering even for a wretched talent,” he wrote.

The future writer was born on February 22, 1815 in the village of Bezrukova, Ishim district, Tobolsk province, in the family of the “commissar of the Cheremshan part” Pavel Alekseevich Ershov and Evfemia Vasilievna, née Pilenkova. In accordance with the church naming calendar, the baby was named in the name of St. Peter. The boy, like all the Ershov children - only two out of twelve survived, was in very poor health.

Petya spent her childhood in different cities where her father served: the fortress of St. Peter (now the city of Petropavlovsk in Kazakhstan), Omsk, Berezov, Tobolsk. The boy owes a lot of his knowledge to his father, spiritual books and fairy tales of Siberian peasants. At the Tobolsk gymnasium, Peter collected Russian fairy tales, proverbs and sayings.

In 1830, Pyotr Ershov graduated from high school with honors and entered the Faculty of Philosophy and Law at St. Petersburg University. The student did not show particular diligence in his studies, he even complained about his laziness, but he worked a lot on his own compositions, publishing them in the handwritten journal of the Maykov family, “Snowdrop,” in which all the Maykovs, Goncharov and Dostoevsky started.

In 1833, the rector of the university, professor of literature P. Pletnev, read Ershov’s course work, the first part of “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” to students at a lecture. Soon the fairy tale became known throughout St. Petersburg. “Now I can leave this type of writing to me,” Pushkin told his descendants of his decision. “This Ershov controls his poetry like a serf.” In 1834, “a Russian fairy tale in three parts” was published in the magazine “Library for Reading” and released as a separate book. The 19-year-old student became more famous than many literary masters. Belinsky treated “The Horse” with contempt; however, the people were not particularly interested in his opinion. The people liked Ivan the Fool, wise, selfless and internally free. The fairy tale was passed on “from mouth to mouth” until it ended up in a collection of Russian folk tales compiled by A. Afanasyev and D. Sadovnikov.

In 1834-1836, Ershov published a dozen of his poems, the drama “Thomas the Blacksmith,” and the play “Suvorov and the Station Warden.” On the advice of the composer O. Gunke, from whom he studied to play the flute, Peter wrote the libretto of the great magical-heroic opera “The Terrible Sword”. The opera was approved for performance, but for some reason was not staged. The libretto was published after Ershov's death.

After graduating from the university, Pyotr Ershov was unable to become a professional writer, as he wanted: the sudden death of his father and older brother left him alone with his sick mother without a livelihood. Ershov submitted a request to be sent as a teacher to Tobolsk. A year later, permission was received. At the gymnasium, the magician of the Russian word was appointed a Latin teacher and only a few months later he was transferred to a teacher of philosophy and literature in the senior classes.

A new period in the writer’s life began, which he devoted to teaching, family, and work for a piece of bread. It is generally accepted that during this period Ershov did not create anything “worthwhile” in literature. There are even statements that “all his subsequent works are marked with the stamp of imitation and provincialism, and are even strongly “damaged” by religious-monarchist ideas.” As a result, many of the writer’s works are not known to the reader at all, since they have never been published. And Ershov has enough of them to make even a famous writer famous. Religion was definitely one of the main sources of his creativity. The clergy noted that the philosophy and aesthetics of his works cannot be imagined outside the religious sphere, outside the writer’s attitude to Orthodoxy.

Ershov Pyotr Pavlovich was a man of deep religious feeling. Faith in Providence helped him to withstand all the trials that befell him. Few people get so many of them. In addition to the fact that he was constantly in need of money, he did not earn anything for himself during the years of service and did not even have his own corner, living in a government-owned apartment, one after another he carried away his parents, brother, two wives (he was married three times), four daughters, son. What kind of creativity could we be talking about here! However, the poet found the strength to write: “But away from the reproach on life, on faith. / The law of the Almighty is true.”

In his pedagogical work, Ershov was a supporter of progressive teaching methods; he organized a gymnasium theater for which he wrote plays; wrote a research work, “Thoughts on the Gymnasium Course.” In 1844, as a school inspector, he sent the “Course of Russian Literature” to the Ministry of Education (with the expectation of its publication); After three years of “review,” the course was rejected as not meeting the “concepts of the students.”

In 1857 Ershova P.P. appointed head of the directorate of schools in the Tobolsk province. On his initiative, the first women's schools and colleges were opened in Tyumen, Kurgan and Ishim, and a natural science course was introduced at the Tobolsk gymnasium. Many schools in the province were indebted to Ershov’s care for new premises and complete libraries.

In 1862, Ershov resigned without a pension. A year later (thanks to the efforts of his former student D.I. Mendeleev, who was married to his stepdaughter Leshcheva), he began to receive a modest pension - 1080 rubles a year.

In Tobolsk, the poet became close friends with the composer Alyabiev, met with the Decembrists and disgraced celebrities exiled there - I. Annenkov, A. Muravyov, I. Pushchin, I. Yakushkin, V. Kuchelbecker and others, and forwarded Odoevsky’s poetic response to Pushkin’s message to St. Petersburg.

The writer did not stop his literary activity until his death. 28 of his new poems appeared in print. The most significant among them is the romantic poem from the time of Ermak’s conquest of Siberia “Suzge. Siberian Legend.” The publication of the cycle of seven stories “Autumn Evenings” and the play “Merchant Bazim, or the Cunning of the Poor Man” went unnoticed. About thirty poems were published long after the poet’s death.

In 1854, Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov met one of the creators of “Kozma Prutkov” V. Zhemchuzhnikov. He gave him a poetic scene: “Chereposlov, that is, Phrenologist” with the words: “Let Kozma Prutkov use them, because I myself don’t write anything anymore.” The operetta “Chereposlov, that is, Phrenologist” was successfully performed on the comedy theater stage.

The fourth edition of “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” supplemented and partially restored after censorship erasures, was published as a separate book in 1856 and went through three more editions during Ershova’s lifetime. There have been attempts at “cloning” by various authors of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” for many years. In the 1870-1890s alone, about 40 fakes were published with a total circulation of 350 thousand copies.

For a long time the writer was going to write a great Siberian novel, modeled on Fenimore Cooper; conceived a huge fairy-tale epic "Ivan Tsarevich - a tale of tales in ten books and a hundred songs." Some of these plans were probably realized, but so far seven handwritten volumes of his works have not been found.

In 1865, the ballet “The Little Humpbacked Horse” or “The Tsar Maiden” (composer Ts. Puni) was staged in the capital. Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov died on August 18, 1869 in Tobolsk. The inscription on the monument reads: “Peter Pavlovich Ershov, author of the folk tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.”

Biography

Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov was born in the village of Bezrukovo, Ishim district, Tobolsk province, into the family of a minor official. The writer's father often moved for work and P. Ershov spent his childhood in various cities: the fortress of St. Petra (now Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan), Omsk, Berezov, Tobolsk. Graduated from the Tobolsk gymnasium. In 1830, my father achieved a transfer to St. Petersburg, where he moved with his family. In 1831–1834 Ershov studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law of St. Petersburg University. During his student years, Ershov became close to the professor of Russian literature Pyotr Pletnev, met Vasil Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin. During his student years, Ershov wrote his most famous work: the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” The tale was highly appreciated by A.S. Pushkin and P. Pletnev, and in 1834 it was published first in part and then in full. Ershov used many folk fairy tales (about Ivan the Fool, Sivka-Burka, the Firebird, etc.), creating on their basis a completely original work, close in poetic form to Pushkin’s literary adaptations of Russian fairy tales.

In 1834–1836 Ershov quite actively participated in the literary life of the capital, entered the circle of V.G. Benediktov, published lyrical poems marked by the influence of the latter. In the same years, Ershov published the dramatic scene Thomas the Blacksmith (1835) and the play Suvorov and the Station Warden (1836).

In the summer of 1836, P. Ershov and his mother (his father and brother died in 1833 and 1834) returned to Tobolsk, harboring hopes for extensive educational activities in Siberia. Ershov became a teacher at the Tobolsk gymnasium, where he served in various positions until his resignation in 1862 (from 1844 inspector, from 1857 director of the gymnasium and the directorate of public schools of the province). In 1844 he sent the “Course of Russian Literature” to the Ministry of Education for consideration, but the book was rejected on the grounds that “it does not fully correspond to the concepts of the students.” During this period, Ershov wrote little, and his works, sent to the capital through friends, were no longer successful. The publication of the cycle of seven stories “Autumn Evenings” (1857), with which Ershov pinned his hopes of returning to literature, and the play “Merchant Bazim, or the Cunning of the Poor Man” (1858) went unnoticed. The grandiose plan of the poem Ivan Tsarevich in 10 volumes and 100 songs remained unfulfilled. Ershov died on August 18, 1869 in Tobolsk. He was buried at the Tobolsk Zavalny cemetery. The inscription on the monument reads: “Peter Pavlovich Ershov, author of the folk tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” The P. P. Ershov Cultural Center is now open in Ishim.

Interesting facts from life

A. Yaroslavtsev conveyed the words of A. S. Pushkin, said to the author of The Little Humpbacked Horse: “Now I can leave this type of writing to me.” There is also an unreliable report by P. V. Annenkov that the first four lines of the tale belong to Pushkin.

Ershov's fairy tale circulated as a folk work, giving rise to many imitations and direct fakes (in the 1870s–1890s, about 40 fake Little Humpbacked Horses were published with a total circulation of about 350 thousand copies).

In 1996, an article by literary critic Alexander Latsis appeared, in which he argued that the author of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was not P. Ershov, but A. S. Pushkin. This point of view had a number of supporters who pointed to the following arguments: P. Ershov’s youth and lack of literary experience, the proximity of the tale’s style to Pushkin’s, the absence of the first manuscript of the tale. They also drew attention to the fact that P. Ershov was no longer able to write anything that would approach the artistic merits of his first major work. Most researchers of the works of P. Ershov and A. S. Pushkin do not adhere to this version, considering P. Ershov the sole author of “The Little Humpbacked Horse”.

There have been repeated attempts to ban Ershov's fairy tale. From the first edition of 1834, at the request of the censor, everything that could be interpreted as satire against the tsar or the church was excluded. In 1922, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was declared “inadmissible for release,” on the contrary, because of the scenes of admiration for the Tsar. In 1934, at the height of collectivization, censors saw in the book “the story of one remarkable career of the son of a village kulak.” In 2007, activists of the Public Movement “Bulgarian National Congress” demanded that the book be checked for extremism because of the tsar’s statements in which the word “Tatar” is used as a dirty word. The prosecutor's office refused to conduct an inspection, since the work belongs to the “classics of Russian literature.”

In 1986-1988, the video game “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was created in the USSR, which could be played on Soviet slot machines.

Bibliography

* Apart from the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” P. Ershov’s works were not popular and did not receive positive reviews from critics. Only in 2005 a collection of his works appeared, edited by V.P. Zverev.

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

Ballets
* The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet Pugni) (1864)
* The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet by Shchedrin) (1958)

Film adaptations
* The Little Humpbacked Horse (1941, USSR), dir. Alexander Rowe
* The Little Humpbacked Horse [cartoon] (USSR, 1947), dir. Ivan Ivanov-Vano - Special Jury Prize of the IV IFF in Cannes, 1950
* The Little Humpbacked Horse [cartoon] (USSR, 1975), the cartoon was drawn anew based on sketches from 1947.