Does Pechorin understand the complexity of his character? Essay “What is the complexity and contradictory nature of Pechorin
The sculpture appeared on this site more than two hundred years ago, but the interest in it is so lively and enduring, as if the legendary statesman embodied in this creation had recently become part of our history. However, this should not be surprising: modern Russia is experiencing such a rise and at the same time is facing such global challenges that many often compare the present time with the era of Peter the Great.
The Bronze Horseman also has his own history - full of events and facts, myths and legends. The search for foundries, the skepticism of many craftsmen that such a monument is even possible to create, the difficulties with delivering a huge stone as a pedestal and other points leave no doubt - it was erected, so to speak, in vanity and difficulties. However, Peter the Great, cast in metal, adequately overcame them, reaching our days in its original form, symbolizing the greatness and power of the Fatherland.
Instead of a monument to Catherine II
Monument Bronze Horseman might not have seen the light if not for good will Empress Catherine II. More precisely, her wise and far-sighted calculation.
For Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst, the great predecessor on the Russian throne was the unconditional authority in everything. Initiating various reforms or inviting the most talented writers, artists and sculptors to St. Petersburg, the autocrat imitated Peter I. She was a progressive person and readily absorbed everything new in science and philosophy. It is not for nothing that the era of Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna entered into national history called “the age of enlightened absolutism”, and also as “the union of philosophers and monarchs”.
Merits great empress were appreciated during his lifetime. Contemporaries even started talking about erecting a monument in her honor. The idea of being immortalized in bronze or any other metal, of course, flattered the former Prussian princess who became the head largest country peace. But in the end, she decided to immortalize for posterity not herself, but Peter, who went down in history as the reforming king. Thus, she intended to consolidate public consciousness the idea that her transformations are a continuation of Peter’s reforms, and that she is a worthy successor of them. The calendar also spoke in favor of this decision: the 100th anniversary of Peter I’s accession to the throne was just approaching, and a better date for the implementation of this idea could not be found.
Having suppressed the self-indulgent dreams of her own monument, Catherine the Great ordered the casting of a monument to her predecessor. The task was entrusted to the Russian sculptor, architect and artist Bartolomeo Rastrelli, but the empress did not like the version he prepared. What to do? They came to the rescue French philosophers Voltaire and Denis Diderot, with whom the enlightened queen maintained an active correspondence, and whose opinion was especially valuable to her. They advised us to turn to the services of the famous French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet. In 1766, Dmitry Alekseevich Golitsyn, who served as minister plenipotentiary at the court of Louis XV, presented the 50-year-old Master with an official invitation to Russia.
Falcone was known as an intelligent, delicate, sophisticated and selfless man, who dreamed all his life of showing his talent in monumental art. He understood that he might not have such a chance again and therefore unconditionally accepted the offer. Russian diplomat, who promised only 200 thousand livres for the work - the reward for such a grandiose project is more than modest. In August 1766, all formalities were settled: they signed a contract in which they discussed general form and the size of the monument, the amount of the fee and the timing of the order, as well as the sculptor’s obligation not to be distracted by other orders while he is working on the monument to Peter the Great.
How the Bronze Horseman was created
Suggestions about what an emperor cast in metal should look like were varied. Ivan Ivanovich Belskoy, who headed the Russian Academy of Arts, proposed sculpting him with a staff in his hand and at full height. State Councilor Shtelin saw Peter surrounded by other statues, allegorically depicting Victory, Justice, Prudence and Diligence, and which would support the worst with their feet human qualities– Deception, Envy, Laziness and Ignorance. Catherine II also submitted her idea: she believed that Peter must certainly be with a staff and a scepter and sit on a horse.
Falconet did not want to embody in the monument either the image of a victorious monarch or images of allegories. He believed that his work should show Peter I, first of all, how outstanding personality- the personality of a benefactor and creator of his country. He worked on a plaster model of the Bronze Horseman on the territory of the former temporary Winter Palace Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, located on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the Moika embankment (the residence has not survived to this day). A guards officer, as well as Brilliant and Caprice, two stately horses of the Oryol breed, “posed” for the master. The Frenchman carefully watched as the guard literally took off on one of them onto the platform, rearing his horse, and made numerous sketches along the way. The Empress was especially picky about the model of the head of Peter I, which is why the sculptor remade it several times.
17-year-old Marie-Anne Collot, Falconet’s student, whom he brought with him to Russia as an apprentice, also proposed her design for the head. This solved the problem: Catherine liked the sketch. And so much so that for the work done, the girl was given a lifetime salary of 10 thousand livres and accepted into Russian Academy arts In her performance, the emperor’s face, illuminated with deep thought, with a wide with open eyes, expressed courage and will. But the Russian sculptor Fyodor Gordeev worked on the snake that is under the horse’s feet.
So, plaster model The Bronze Horseman was made, not without difficulties and heated debate, by 1769. It would seem that all the difficulties are behind us. But new challenges lay ahead. Firstly, the empress did not like the model as a whole, since the Frenchman did not listen to her suggestions and arbitrarily chose the appearance of the monument. Secondly, the monument had to be cast in bronze. Falcone calculated that it would maintain balance only if its front walls were made very thin, no more than a centimeter. Domestic foundry workers did not agree with such calculations. They also did not want to take on the work because of the colossal size of the sculpture. Foreign craftsmen were not afraid of anything, but they demanded quite a lot of money for their services.
After some time, the foundry worker was finally found. It turned out to be Emelyan Khailov, a cannon master. Together with a French sculptor, he selected the alloy the required composition and did tests. The actual casting of the monument began in 1774 and was carried out using incredibly complex technology. It was necessary to ensure that the front walls were necessarily inferior in thickness to the rear ones, which would give the composition the necessary stability. But here’s the bad luck: the pipe through which the molten bronze entered the mold suddenly burst, ruining the upper part of the monument. It had to be removed and another three years spent preparing for the second filling. This time fortune smiled on them, and everything was ready on time and without incident.
In memory of the successful completion of the work, Falcone wrote on the fold of Peter’s cloak that it was he who “sculpted and cast” this sculpture in 1788. At the same time, his relationship with Catherine II completely went wrong, and the sculptor was forced to leave Russia along with his student. From that moment on, the work to complete the monument was led by Academician Yuri Matveevich Felten. It was according to his drawings that the machine that delighted everyone was made, with the help of which the “Thunder Stone” was transported, which formed the basis of the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman.
By the way, about the “Thunder Stone”. He was found in the vicinity of the village of Konnaya Lakhta by the peasant Semyon Vishnyakov, who responded to an appeal in the St. Petersburg Gazette. The megalith weighed 1,600 tons and when it was pulled out of the ground, it left behind a huge pit. It filled with water and a reservoir was formed, called the Petrovsky Pond, which has survived to this day. To deliver the stone to the loading site, it was necessary to cover almost 8 kilometers. But how? We decided to wait until winter so that the frozen soil would not sag under its weight. Transportation began on November 15, 1769 and ended on March 27, 1770 (old style) on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. By that time, a pier for shipping the giant had been built here. In order not to waste precious time, they began to cut the stone as they moved. However, the Empress forbade touching it: the future pedestal must arrive in the capital in its natural form! “Thunder-Stone” acquired its current appearance already in Senate Square, significantly “losing weight” after treatment.
Monument to the Bronze Horseman, main symbol Northern Palmyra, which immortalized Peter the Great on a rearing horse, was opened on August 7, 1782. In honor of the long-awaited event, a military parade was held, led by Prince Alexander Golitsyn. Catherine II arrived for the celebrations in a boat along the Neva. Climbing onto the balcony of the Senate building, she put on a crown and dressed in purple and gave a sign that the holiday could begin. In a bitter irony of fate, Falcone himself was not even deigned to be invited to this event.
The monumental creation of the French sculptor impressed those present at the ceremony with its majesty and amazing completeness of the image. It seems that even the empress herself, who ordered the inscription “Catherine II to Peter I” to be left on the pedestal, managed to forget that she initially saw the monument as completely different. And even more so, it never occurred to anyone that the Bronze Horseman would be followed by a trail of myths and legends, not to mention facts that simply deserve attention. And almost from the day of installation.
If supporters of the reformer king said that the monument embodies power and greatness Russian Empire, and not a single enemy, while the horseman is on his pedestal, will be able to crush it, then Peter’s opponents held the opposite point of view. They did not fail to declare that the monument is very reminiscent of the horseman of the Apocalypse predicted in the Bible, and that its appearance in the very heart of the capital is a harbinger of suffering and death throughout the country.
Glory about amazing monument soon spread far beyond the borders of St. Petersburg. In the outback even their own version of his appearance arose. Allegedly, Tsar Peter somehow came up with some entertainment for himself: he sat on a horse and jumped on it from one bank of the river to the other. “Everything is God’s and mine!” – he exclaimed before the first jump. He said the same phrase before the second, also successful. For the third time, the sovereign, mixing up the words, said: “Everything is mine and God’s!” For such “insolence,” the Almighty punished him by turning him to stone, and he forever remained a monument to himself.
And here is another legend - about a certain Major Baturin. It was during the Patriotic War of 1812, when our troops were forced to retreat and the French were about to capture the capital. To prevent the enemy from getting the most valuable works of art, Emperor Alexander I ordered their removal from the city. The Bronze Horseman monument was also subject to transportation. But then it becomes known that Major Baturin is having the same dream, in which he sees himself on Senate Square, next to the monument. Peter I allegedly rides off the pedestal on a horse and heads to Kamenny Island, where the residence of the sovereign was located. During the meeting, he scolded Alexander: “What have you, young man, brought my Russia to? But while I’m here, my city has nothing to fear!” The unusual dream was first reported to the Tsar’s friend, Prince Golitsyn, who retold it to the Emperor. The evacuation was canceled and the monument remained in place. There is an opinion - however, not confirmed by anything - that A. S. Pushkin based the plot of the poem “The Bronze Horseman” on this very legend. The same motive can be traced in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Teenager”.
The myth about the ghost of Peter the Great, which was seen by Catherine II’s son Paul I, was also widespread in local folklore while he was not yet emperor. The Crown Prince, together with his friend Prince Kurakin, was walking in the very place where the monument is now located. And then they saw a man wrapped in a wide cloak, as if waiting for them. Having spoken to them, the ghost headed to the middle of the square, pointed to the place of the future Bronze Horseman and said that he would be seen here again. Saying goodbye, he raised his hat, and the young people were almost speechless with horror: mysterious stranger was none other than Peter I.
The Bronze Horseman points his hand in the direction of Sweden. It is interesting that in the center of Stockholm, the capital of this Scandinavian monarchy, there is a monument to Peter’s opponent in the Northern War - King Charles XII, left hand which is a coincidence? – points towards Russia. More interesting fact, as if confirming the dream of the mentioned Major Baturin. The monument remained in its place not only during the Patriotic War of 1812, but also during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. During the terrible days of the siege of Leningrad, it was lined with boards and logs and covered with sandbags. Our country, as you know, survived both of these wars...
During its entire existence, the bronze emperor and his horse were restored only twice - in 1909 and 1976. At the same time, an analysis was carried out using gamma rays to determine the condition of the frame. sculptural composition. He showed that everything was fine. A capsule was even placed inside the monument: it contains a message about the restoration carried out and a newspaper dated September 3, 1976. In Soviet times (1988), the State Bank issued a commemorative 5-ruble coin made of copper-nickel alloy, on which the Bronze Horseman was depicted. It weighed 19.8 grams, the total circulation of the banknote was 2 million copies. Two years later, another commemorative coin saw the light, this time with a denomination of 100 rubles and gold, 900-carat - from the historical series on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the unified Russian state. An image of the monument to Peter I was also placed on it.
How to get there
You can get to the Bronze Horseman by metro. Get off at the Admiralteyskaya station and, once on Malaya Morskaya Street, turn left and walk past St. Isaac's Cathedral. Then turn right from it and go to the Alexander Garden. Senate Square with the monument installed on it is located behind the garden.
Another option: take the metro to one of two stations – “Nevsky Prospekt” or “ Gostiny Dvor", go out to the Admiralty and Palace Square and, having passed by, find yourself on Admiralteysky Prospekt. Turning left, reach Senate Square.
Or, if you don’t want to walk, at the exit at the Nevsky Prospekt station, change to a trolleybus (route numbers: 1, 5, 10, 11 and 22), get off at the Pochtamtsky Lane stop and return back to Konnogvardeisky Boulevard, crossing on foot running about 500 meters.
· 02/15/2016
The Bronze Horseman is a monument to Peter the Great (Great) in St. Petersburg, located on Senate Square. If you ask native St. Petersburg residents what place they consider the heart of the city, many, without hesitation, will name this particular landmark of St. Petersburg. The monument to Peter the Great stands surrounded by the buildings of the Synod and Senate, the Admiralty and St. Isaac's Cathedral. Tens of thousands of tourists coming to the city consider it their duty to take pictures against the backdrop of this monument, so it is almost always crowded here.
Monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg - history of creation.
In the early sixties XVIII century Catherine II, wanting to emphasize her devotion to Peter's covenants, ordered the erection of a monument to the great reformer Peter I. To carry out the work, she, on the advice of her friend D. Diderot, invited the French sculptor Etienne Falconet. In mid-autumn 1766, he arrived in St. Petersburg, and work began to boil.
At the very beginning of the project, disagreements arose in the vision of the future monument to Peter the Great. His appearance the empress discussed with the great philosophers and thinkers of the time, Voltaire and Diderot. Everyone had different presentation about building a composition. But the sculptor Etienne Falconet managed to convince the powerful ruler and defended his point of view. According to the sculptor, Peter the Great will symbolize not only the great strategist who won many victories, but also greatest creator, reformer and legislator.
Monument to Peter the Great Bronze Horseman - description.
The sculptor Etienne Falconet depicted Peter the Great as a horseman, dressed in simple robes, characteristic of all heroes. Peter 1 sits on a rearing horse, covered with a bearskin instead of a saddle. This symbolizes Russia’s victory over dense barbarism and its establishment as a civilized state, and the palm spread over it indicates under whose protection it is. The pedestal depicting a rock on which a bronze horseman is climbing speaks of the difficulties that had to be overcome along this path. A snake tangling under the horse's hind legs represents enemies trying to prevent him from moving forward. While working on the model, the sculptor couldn’t figure out Peter’s head; his student coped with this task brilliantly. Falconet entrusted the work on the snake to the Russian sculptor Fyodor Gordeev.
Pedestal for the Bronze Horseman monument in St. Petersburg.
To do so grand plan an appropriate pedestal was needed. For a long time The search for a stone suitable for this purpose did not bring results. I had to turn to the population through the newspaper “St. Petersburg Vedomosti” for help in the search. The result was not long in coming. Not far from the village of Konnaya Lakhta, which is only 13 kilometers from St. Petersburg, peasant Semyon Vishnyakov discovered such a block long ago and intended to use it for his own purposes. It was called "Thunder Stone" because it was repeatedly struck by lightning.
The found granite monolith, weighing about 1,500 tons, delighted the sculptor Etienne Falconet, but now he was faced with the difficult task of moving the stone to St. Petersburg. Having promised a reward for a successful solution, Falcone received a lot of projects, from which the best was chosen. Movable trough-shaped rails were constructed, in which there were balls made of copper alloy. It was along them that a granite block moved, loaded onto a wooden platform. It is noteworthy that in the pit that remained after the removal of the “Thunder Stone”, soil water accumulated, forming a reservoir that has survived to this day.
After waiting for the cold weather, we began transporting the future pedestal. In mid-autumn 1769, the procession moved forward. Hundreds of people were recruited to complete the task. Among them were stonemasons who wasted no time in processing the stone block. At the end of March 1770, the pedestal was delivered to the place of loading onto the ship, and six months later it arrived in the capital.
Creation of the Bronze Horseman monument.
The Bronze Horseman, a monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, conceived by the sculptor Falconet, was of such enormous proportions that the master B. Ersman, invited from France, refused to cast it. The difficulty was that the sculpture, which has only three points of support, had to be cast in such a way as to make the front part as light as possible. To achieve this, the thickness of the bronze walls should not exceed 10 mm. Russian foundry worker Emelyan Khailov came to the sculptor’s aid. During casting, the unexpected happened: the pipe through which the hot bronze entered the mold burst. Despite the threat to his life, Emelyan did not quit his job and saved most statues. The only thing that was damaged was top part monument to Peter the Great.
After three years of preparation, re-casting was carried out, which turned out to be completely successful. To commemorate the success, the French master left an inscription among the numerous folds of the cloak that read “Modeled and cast by Etienne Falconet, Parisian 1778.” For unknown reasons, the relationship between the empress and the master went wrong, and he, without waiting for the installation of the bronze horseman, left Russia. Fyodor Gordeev, who participated in the creation of the sculpture from the very beginning, took over the leadership, and on August 7, 1782, the monument to Peter the Great in the city of St. Petersburg was inaugurated. The height of the monument was 10.4 meters.
Why is the monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg called “The Bronze Horseman”?
The monument to Peter the Great “Bronze Horseman” immediately fell in love with St. Petersburg residents, acquiring legends and funny stories, becoming a popular subject in literature and poetry. One of poetic works it owes its current name. It was “The Bronze Horseman” by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. There is a belief among the townspeople that during the war with Napoleon, one major had a dream in which Peter the Great addressed him and said that as long as the monument stood in its place, no misfortunes would threaten St. Petersburg. Having listened to this dream, Emperor Alexander I canceled the upcoming evacuation of the monument. During the difficult years of the blockade, the monument was carefully protected from bombing.
Over the years of existence of the Bronze Horseman monument in St. Petersburg, restoration work has been carried out several times. The first time I had to release more than a ton of water that had accumulated in the horse’s stomach. Later, to prevent this from happening, special drainage holes were made. Already in Soviet time minor defects were eliminated and the pedestal was cleaned. Last works with the involvement of scientific specialists were produced in 1976. The originally conceived statue did not have a fence. But perhaps soon the Bronze Horseman monument to Peter the Great will have to be protected from vandals who desecrate it for fun.
The French sculptor E.M. Falconet arrived in Russia at the invitation of Catherine II in the fall of 1766. His student Marie-Anne Collot arrived with Falconet. Falconet thought out in advance the program of the monument to the “benefactor, transformer and legislator” of Russia, executed in an innovative way for its time, extremely laconic and global in design. symbolic meaning form. Work on the equestrian sculpture lasted 12 years. M.-A. took part in the creation of the statue of Peter I. Collo, who painted the portrait of the emperor. At the same time, the issue of choosing a place to install the monument was being decided, and a search was underway for a gigantic stone for the pedestal. The so-called “thunder stone” was found in the vicinity of the village of Lakhta. To transport the stone weighing more than 1000 tons, original designs and devices were used, a special barge and ships were built.
Under the direction and participation of Falcone, the casting equestrian statue in bronze was carried out by foundry master E.M. Khailov. In August 1775, the first, not entirely successful, casting of the sculpture took place. Due to a break in the mold and a fire in the workshop, the upper part of the bronze casting was damaged and it was “cut off.” The final casting of the missing upper part of the statue was carried out by Falcone in 1777. In the summer of 1778, the work of casting and chasing the sculpture was completely completed. In memory of this, the author engraved an inscription in Latin on the fold of the rider’s cloak, which, translated, reads: “Sculpted and cast by Etienne Falconet, Parisian, 1778.” In September of the same year, the sculptor left St. Petersburg. The sculptor F.G. Gordeev took part in the creation of the monument, according to whose model the snake under the horse’s hooves was cast. The progress of work on the construction of the monument after E. Falcone’s departure from Russia was monitored by the architect Yu. M. Felten.
In 1872, on the initiative of the St. Petersburg City Duma, on the occasion of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter I, 4 lamp posts with candelabra, made at the Chopin factory, were installed at the monument.
According to E. Falconet's plan, there was no fence around the monument. In a letter to D. Diderot, the sculptor wrote the following about this: “There will be no bars around Peter the Great, why put him in a cage?” Contrary to the author’s idea, a fence made by master Stefan Weber was installed for the opening of the monument. In 1903, in connection with the 200th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, the fence, as distorting the original author’s plan, was removed, “thanks to which the monument, the idea of which was embedded in the idea of unrestrained movement forward, appeared for the first time in all its beauty.”
In 1908, the Academy of Arts created a special commission to study the condition of the monument, and the following year, 1909, the monument underwent serious restoration for the first time, including opening the hatch in the horse’s rump, when over 150 buckets of water that had penetrated inside through numerous cracks were removed. Under the leadership of sculptor I.V. Krestovsky in 1935-1936. Research and restoration work was carried out on the monument.
Modern studies of the monument and complex restoration work carried out by the State Museum of Urban Sculpture in 1976. By this time, serious concerns were caused by cracks in the horse’s supporting legs, the cause of which had to be determined. For the first time in the history of the monument, an extensive research program was developed and carried out on the composition of bronze, the state of the protective oxide film - patina, and the strength of the internal frame of the equestrian statue. The study involved scientists from the Polytechnic Institute, laboratories of the Kirov and Izhora plants, and the Research Institute named after. Efremov and other enterprises. Using special equipment, gammagraphy was carried out, as a result of which it became clear that the cause of the cracks was the “overburning” of the metal when, to re-cast the top of the sculpture, Falcone heated its bottom to a high temperature. The composition of bronze has been determined, which contains more than 90 percent copper. The cracks were sealed with inserts cast from specially smelted bronze. The supporting frame was examined and strengthened. Research has shown full picture design features of the monument. The height of the sculpture is 5.35 m, the height of the pedestal is 5.1 m, the length of the pedestal is 8.5 m.
Having studied and analyzed the sources, we can say with certainty that the history of the appearance of the “Bronze Horseman” is not clear-cut. There are many versions and assumptions on this topic. In this work we will consider some aspects of the origin and, in the future, the chronology of writing of this work. Mention of one literary history this story, which begins with the message “Where did Pushkin get the plot of The Bronze Horseman,” published by critic and teacher A.P. Miliukov in the newspaper “Son of the Fatherland” in 1869; this text, subjected to stylistic corrections, was included in the author’s memoirs, which appeared in 1872. According to Miliukov, once, during an exam in a women’s college, educational institution, Count Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky told him the following: “In 1812, when Napoleon was marching towards Moscow, the French corps of Marshal Oudinot, moving towards Polotsk, aroused fears for St. Petersburg. An alarm was raised in the capital. Knowing, among other things, that Napoleon loved to remove monuments from capitals, we began to fear that he might take the monument to Peter the Great to Paris. Someone suggested, in case of serious danger, to remove Falconev’s statue from its pedestal, put it on a ship and send it to one of the remote provinces. The Emperor approved this idea.
At this time, Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn dreamed that he was going “with a report to the sovereign on Elagin Island, along Bolshaya Millionnaya, in the direction from the Winter Palace.” Suddenly, behind, “as if on Admiralty Square, there was a rumble, like the distant tramp of a horse. And then in the houses I passed, the glass began to clink, and the pavement itself seemed to be shaking. Then I turned around in horror. A few fathoms away from me, in the gloomy light of the early morning, a huge rider was galloping on a gigantic horse, shaking the entire neighborhood with the tramp of its heavy hooves. I recognized this figure by the majestically raised head and hand imperiously outstretched in the air. That was our bronze Peter on his bronze horse.” Bronze Peter rode across the Trinity Bridge and Kamennoostrovsky Avenue into the palace, and Golitsyn, hurrying after him, sees how Emperor Alexander (his face “was sad and worried”) quickly approached the “royal horseman.” Having exclaimed: “You sympathize with Russia!”, Peter further said: “Don’t be afraid! While I stand on a granite rock in front of the Neva, my beloved city has nothing to fear. Don’t touch me - not a single enemy will touch me.” And after these words the Horseman left. “Count Vielgorsky added that Prince Golitsyn, at the next report to the sovereign, told him his wonderful dream. This story had such an effect on the emperor that he ordered the cancellation of all orders for the dispatch of the monument to Peter the Great from St. Petersburg. When they subsequently retold this dream to Pushkin, he was delighted and repeated for a long time: “... what poetry! What poetry!” He admitted to Count Vielgorsky that at the same time he began to think about the content of his “Bronze Horseman,” and although he later gave the poem a different idea and furnished it with other details, it is clear that interesting dream Prince Golitsyn served as the main basis for the story" [Ospovat, 1984: 238-239].
This story was reprinted several times in publications of those years. The authors, narrators, eyewitnesses and even the text changed. But the essence remained the same. Whether this story is reliable is also difficult to say. But many believe that if the events were actually true, then the legend has a right to exist.
According to many critics and literary scholars, Pushkin’s idea was inspired by the flood that occurred in St. Petersburg on November 7, 1824 - the worst flood in the history of the city.
Pushkin lived for three months in Mikhailovskoye, exiled from Odessa “to the distant northern district.” He really wants to return to St. Petersburg, as evidenced by numerous correspondence with his brother. Therefore, having not witnessed such a tragic moment in the city, he gets a little angry and immediately jokes frivolously on this topic when addressing the ladies of St. Petersburg. Somewhat later, obviously having read more detailed descriptions floods in St. Petersburg newspapers and in letters from family and friends, after hearing the stories of eyewitnesses, Pushkin changed his initial opinion.
Probably, soon after returning from exile to Moscow, and then to St. Petersburg, he acquired a book by the historian V.N., published in 1826. Berkha Berkh V.N. Detailed historical information about all the floods that occurred in St. Petersburg. - St. Petersburg, 1826; see this edition, p. 107., mentioned as the most important and first source of information in the “Preface” to the “Petersburg Tale”. “Berkh in his book reprinted an article published in Literary Sheets as an eyewitness account. Pushkin obviously did not want to refer directly to the source in his poem, and Berkh’s reprint gave him a legal opportunity to do so; he limited himself to a vague reference to the “journals of that time”, from which the “details of the flood” were borrowed, thereby deflecting possible reproaches of inaccuracies, that he, without having witnessed the “flood”, was inventing its details” [Izmailov, 1930: 151-152].
Berkh's book was undoubtedly taken with him by Pushkin on his 1833 trip to the “Pugachev” places and was before his eyes while working on the poem in Boldin.
At the very moment of Pushkin’s departure on his journey, “on August 17, 1833, when he, having left his dacha on the Chernaya Rechka, was supposed to cross the Neva, he witnessed the beginning of a flood, which almost forced him to return back and postpone the trip. Flooding in St. Petersburg that day did not occur due to a change in the wind, but in those hours when Pushkin saw the swelling Neva, there was a fear that there would be a disaster no less than in 1824. What is important, however, is the poet’s close attention to the rise of water in the river and his fear, his annoyance at the thought that he missed this flood too. This is another indicator that the flood theme has already been determined in its creative consciousness long before the start of work on “The Bronze Horseman”” [Izmailov, 1930: 152].
There is no doubt that the impression of the “St. Petersburg flood” and the reflections caused by it, its definition as a “social disaster”, which hit with all its weight the “people”, the poorest layer of the capital’s population - all this sank deeply into the consciousness and feeling of the poet, sank , to be reflected nine years later in The Bronze Horseman.
On way back from Orenburg and Uralsk, arriving in Boldino on October 1, 1833, he immediately began processing all the material he had written, as well as the material collected during the trip, while simultaneously working on many other creative endeavors, but primarily the poem “The Bronze Horseman.”
Also big influence The Petrine theme had an impact on Pushkin. However, Pushkin became interested in it only from the end of 1826. The reasons for this are manifold. During the Lyceum years, interest in Peter was overshadowed modern events - Patriotic War 1812 and European campaigns. Later, Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State,” published in 1818, determined for a long time the themes of poetry of the Decembrist movement. It was also reflected in the works of Pushkin. Much was written almost on the eve of the Decembrist uprising - an event that caused a deep reflection in the worldview and work of the poet. The events of December 14, 1825 and the investigation, trial and verdict of the Decembrist nobles that followed the defeat of the uprising, and finally the poet’s return from exile and his meeting with Nicholas I on September 8, 1826, forced Pushkin to reconsider much in his views on the past and present Russia. From this moment on, the theme of Peter can be traced in lyrics, poems, prose novels, journalism and criticism, memoirs, historical research, and occupies his thoughts more and more.
However, Pushkin’s attitude towards Peter was not clear-cut. “He outlined a conclusion about the two sides of Peter’s activity, which fully expresses his thought, his concept of Peter’s reign. For some, this is great and creative for those entering new era state, for others - difficult and even painful, who had to bear the brunt new empire, including here not only peasants, but also other “tax-paying” classes. In Pushkin’s view, this part includes the scions of the ancient nobility, humiliated and, ultimately, ruined by Peter’s reforms, which brought forward new people. The same phenomenon is represented by the hero of his poem Eugene in The Bronze Horseman.
"For understanding last work one cannot help but keep in mind the above maxim, which expresses with complete clarity Pushkin’s dual perception of the personality and activities of Peter - a great creator and at the same time a merciless despot, who, according to young Pushkin, expressed many years before the work, “he despised humanity, perhaps more than Napoleon.” [Izmailov, 1930: 164].
Pushkin seemed to try on the image of his hero Eugene for himself, because he himself was from an impoverished family with a large family that had to be supported. He himself writes about this: “Besides the salary determined for me by the generosity of His Majesty, I have no permanent income; Meanwhile, life in the capital is expensive and as my family multiplies, so do my expenses...” Pushkin. Letters, vol. III, p. 594-597.
In December 1833, he submitted “The Bronze Horseman” to Nicholas I for censorship. The Tsar returned the poem indicating the amendments that needed to be corrected (he crossed out all definitions like “idol”, “idol” in relation to the monument to Peter), but Pushkin edited He refused the poem, but he also didn’t dare print it without permission. That is why, until the end of 1833, the “Petersburg Tale” was not known to anyone.
The severity of the censor was probably due to the coincidence of the appearance of Pushkin’s poem and important event, which took place in St. Petersburg and was directly related to the monument to Peter I. “In 1834, work on the opening of the famous monument was completed - “ alexandrian pillar" Back in August 1832 palace square a huge rock appeared, brought from Finland, from which the column was to be made. On August 30, 1834, that is, on the name day of Alexander I, the opening of a monument to the emperor, the Alexander Column, the tallest structure in the world (47.5 meters versus 46.5 meters of the Vendôme Column in Paris), took place. This event was given great ideological significance, most fully and clearly expressed by Zhukovsky: “What had to happen in Russia so that in such a city, such a meeting of the people, such an army could unite at the foot of such a column?.. There, on the banks of the Neva, a rock rises, wild and ugly, and on that rock a rider as almost as huge as she herself; and this horseman, having reached the height, reined in his mighty horse at the edge of the rapids; and on this rock it is written Peter, and next to him Catherine; and in view of this rock, another, incomparably larger, has now been erected, but no longer a wild mass scattered from ugly stones, but a slender, majestic, artistically rounded column<…>and at its height it is no longer a transient man, but an ever-shining angel, and under the cross of this angel that monster expires, which there, on the rock, half-crushed, writhes under the horse’s hooves<…>. And the angel crowning this column, doesn’t it mean that the days of being a fighting creature are over for us?<…>that the time has come to create peace; that Russia, which has taken everything it owns, is safe from the outside. Inaccessible or disastrous to the enemy, not fear, but the guardian of Europe, which has become related to it, has now entered a new great period of his existence, during the period of development of internal, firm legality, serene acquisition of all the treasures of the community...” Zhukovsky V.A. “Memories of the celebration of August 30, 1834” - M.: Book on Demand, 2012. - 18 p. (reprint St. Petersburg: typ. N. Grech, cens. 1834). The monument to Peter I with a monument in the form of a wild rock and the monument to Alexander I with a monument in the form of a geometrically correct and even perfect column were contrasted as symbols of two eras Russian life"[Abromovich, 1984: 112].
Nicholas I was familiar with Zhukovsky's thoughts and agreed with the idea that in modern Russian history a clear line was drawn between two periods: war and peace.
Pushkin did not share these views, considered them far-fetched, and he was right. “Very soon it was discovered that the Alexander Column was just a new monument that adorned the capital, and the Bronze Horseman was still its symbol, “the most wonderful miracle of wonderful St. Petersburg”<…>The Alexander Column became an object of ridicule" [Makogonenko, 1982: 157].
Not wanting to edit the poem, Pushkin published the Introduction to The Bronze Horseman in 1834. This is the only lifetime edition of the text of the poem; it did not attract the attention of readers, as it looked like a hymn to the “military capital”. But rumors began about some unpublished poem by Pushkin about St. Petersburg.
“In August 1836, Pushkin decided to publish The Bronze Horseman and made the necessary amendments for this. Why did he not allow the thought of editing before, but now he does it? Apparently, because he considered it necessary to make himself known to readers, among whom an opinion arose about the end of the Pushkin period of Russian literature" [Kunin, 1990: 543]
Contrary to this opinion, the decision to publish The Bronze Horseman was obvious. Leaned family problems, lack of money, dependence on the mercy of the sovereign - all this affected Pushkin’s morale. Therefore, “The Bronze Horseman” became a kind of challenge state system and to all “well-wishers”.
The Bronze Horseman was published in full after Pushkin’s death in 1837 in the Sovremennik magazine.
