Famous Russian writers of the 19th century. Naturalistic works of Russian writers of the late 19th century
Mamin-Sibiryak was not the opener of the working topic in native literature. Reshetnikov's novels about the mining Urals, about the troubles, poverty and hopeless life of workers, about their search better life were the foundation on which Mamin’s “mining” novels arose (“Privalov’s Millions”, 1883; “Mountain Nest”, 1884; “Three Ends”, 1890), and novels in which the action develops in the gold mines of the Urals ("Wild happiness", 1884; "Gold", 1892).
For Reshetnikov, the main problem came down to depicting the whole “sober truth” about the working people. Mamin-Sibiryak, reproducing this truth, places a certain social mechanism (factory, mine) at the center of his novels.
The analysis of such a mechanism and the capitalist relations that have developed and developed in it is the main task of the author. This principle of depiction is partly reminiscent of some of Zola’s novels (“The Belly of Paris”, “Ladies’ Happiness”). But the similarity here is purely external.
In Mamin-Sibiryak’s novels, social issues overshadow biological problems, and criticism of capitalist relations and serfdom remnants leads to the idea of the urgent need for the reconstruction of life, which contradicts the principles of strict determinism, accepted as an unshakable postulate in the aesthetics of French naturalists. Pathos, criticism, and emphasized sociality - all this firmly connects the work of the “singer of the Urals” with the traditions of Russian revolutionary-democratic literature.
Mamin-Sibiryak did not escape the influence of populism (evidence of this in the novel “Bread”, 1895). However, an analysis of the facts of reality itself gradually convinced the writer that capitalism is a natural phenomenon and already established in Russian life, and therefore his novels are opposed to populist ideas.
Polemics with populist concepts are organically included in the novels “Privalov’s Millions”, “Three Ends” and other works. The main thing, however, is not polemics, but comprehension of complex socio-economic issues related to the problem modern development Russia.
Sergey Privalov, main character“Privalov’s millions,” “does not like factory work and considers it an artificially created branch of industry.” Privalov dreams of a rational organization of the grain trade, which would be useful to both the peasant community and the working people, but his endeavor fails, as he finds himself in the circle of the same inhumane capitalist relations.
The depiction of the struggle for Privalov's millions makes it possible to introduce into the novel many people who embody various features of a rapidly capitalizing life. A kind of landmark in this complex world Human passions, vanity and contradictory motives are served by numerous journalistic digressions and historical excursions that characterize the life of the Urals.
In the writer's subsequent novels, the emphasis gradually shifts to depicting the life of the people. In “The Mountain Nest” the main question becomes about the incompatibility of the interests of capitalists and workers, and in the “Ural Chronicle”, the novel “Three Ends”, it receives its greatest expression. This novel is interesting as Mamin-Sibiryak’s attempt to create a modern “folk novel”.
In the 80s the same attempt was made by Ertel, who recreated big picture folk life south of Russia (“Gardeniny”). Both writers strive to talk about the results of the post-reform development of the country and, recreating the history of their region, try to capture in the peculiar folk life of a particular region those patterns of the historical process that are characteristic of Russia as a whole.
In the novel by Mamin-Sibiryak, three generations succeed each other, the fate, thoughts and moods of which embody the transition from feudal Russia to capitalist Russia. The writer talks about the various intelligentsia, and about strikes, in which spontaneous protest against lawlessness and exploitation is expressed.
“Whoever wants to know the history of the existing relations in the Urals between two classes,” wrote the Bolshevik “Pravda” in 1912, “the mining working population and the predators of the Urals, possessionists and others, will find in the works of Mamin-Sibiryak bright illustration to the dry pages of history."
His general trend Mamin-Sibiryak’s novels are opposed to Boborykin’s novels. His work developed in the general mainstream of democratic literature of the second half of the 19th century c.: it accepted her critical pathos and desire for the transformation of life. The concept of naturalism did not find its follower in the person of Mamin-Sibiryak.
At the same time, one cannot, of course, assume that acquaintance with the theory and work of Zola and his followers passed without a trace for Russian literature. In articles, letters, and statements recorded by memoirists, major writers responded to one degree or another to the propositions put forward by Zola, which undoubtedly had a creative impact on them.
The younger generation of writers decisively advocated expanding the scope of literature. All life, with its light and dark sides, had to be included in the writer’s field of vision. Chekhov’s 1886 response to a letter from a reader complaining about the “dirtiness of the situation” in the story “Tina” and the fact that the author did not find or extract a “pearl grain” from the dung heap that attracted his attention is very characteristic.
Chekhov replied: “Fiction is called fiction because it depicts life as it really is. Its purpose is unconditional and honest. To narrow its functions to such a specialty as obtaining “grains” is as deadly for it as if you forced Levitan to draw a tree, ordering him not to touch the dirty bark and yellowed foliage<...>For chemists, there is nothing unclean on earth.
A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must renounce everyday subjectivity and know that dung heaps in the landscape play a very respectable role, and evil passions are just as inherent in life as good ones.”
Chekhov talks about the right of a writer to depict the dark and dirty sides of life; this right was persistently defended by fiction writers of the 80s. This was drawn to the attention of R. Disterlo, who, characterizing the main tendency of the creativity of representatives of the new literary generation, wrote that they strive to paint reality “as it is, in the form as it manifests itself in a specific person and in specific cases of life.” The critic correlated this tendency with Zola's naturalism.
Fiction writers really turned to such themes and plots, to those aspects of life that Russian literature had not previously touched upon or hardly touched upon. At the same time, some writers became interested in reproducing the “wrong side of life”, its purely intimate parts, and this is what served as the basis for their rapprochement with naturalist writers.
Disterlo stipulated in his review that “the similarity is purely external,”106 other critics were more categorical in their judgments and spoke about the emergence of Russian naturalists. Most often, such judgments applied to works of a certain kind - to novels like “Stolen Happiness” (1881) by Vas. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko or “Sodom” (1880) by N. Morsky (N. K. Lebedeva).
In the article “On Pornography,” Mikhailovsky viewed both of these novels as a slavish imitation of Zola, as works that pandered to the base tastes of the philistinism.
However, the novels of Morsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko have nothing to do with naturalism as a literary movement and can be called naturalistic only in the most ordinary, vulgar sense of the word. This is the naturalism of piquant scenes and situations, which contain the main meaning of what is depicted.
Among the authors who devoted great attention“life of the flesh”, there were also writers who were not devoid of talent. In this regard, criticism began to talk about “moral indifference”, which arose on the basis of “refined and depraved sensations”, as characteristic feature eras of timelessness. S. A. Vengerov, to whom these words belong, had in mind the work of I. Yasinsky and V. Bibikov. The latter’s novel “Pure Love” (1887) is most interesting in this sense.
In theme it is close to Garshin’s “Incident”: provincial cocotte Maria Ivanovna Vilenskaya, main character novel, she herself establishes her spiritual kinship with Garshin’s heroine, but the kinship is purely external. Roman Bibikova is devoid of that acute protest against social order, which forms the basis of “The Happening.”
The fate of Vilenskaya is depicted by the author as the result of a combination of special circumstances and upbringing. The father was not interested in his daughter, and the governess, one of the Parisian singers, aroused unhealthy feelings in the young girl; she fell in love with an assistant accountant, Milevsky, who seduced her and abandoned her, and her father kicked her out of the house. The heroine Bibikova has many rich and charming patrons, but she dreams of pure love. She fails to find her and commits suicide.
Bibikov is not interested in moral problems traditionally associated with the theme of “fall” in Russian literature. His heroes are people attracted by natural natural feeling, and therefore, according to the author, can neither be condemned nor acquitted. Sexual attraction, debauchery and love can be both “pure” and “dirty”, but in both cases they are moral for him.
It was no coincidence that “Pure Love” was dedicated to Yasinsky, who also paid tribute to similar views. Yasinsky also explores love and passion as natural natural attractions, not burdened with a “moral burden”; his numerous novels are often built on precisely this motive.
Bibikov and Yasinsky can be considered the direct predecessors of decadent literature of the early 20th century. Art, according to their concepts, should be free from any “tendentious” issues; both proclaimed the cult of beauty as a cult of feeling, free from traditional moral “conventions.”
As already mentioned, Yasinsky stood at the origins of Russian decadence; Let's add to this that he was one of the first to aestheticize the ugly in Russian literature. Motives of this kind can be found in the novel “The Light Has Gone Out,” the hero of which paints the painting “Feast of Freaks.” Yasinsky wrote a novel with the characteristic title “Beautiful Freaks” (1900). But these processes also have no direct relation to naturalism as a movement.
Naturalism is a special literary and aesthetic movement that organically developed into a certain historical period and exhausted itself as a system, as creative method by the beginning of the 20th century. Its emergence in France was due to the crisis of the Second Empire, and its development was associated with the defeat of the Paris Commune and the birth of the Third Republic, this “republic without republicans.”
Conditions and features of the historical development of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. were significantly different. The fate of the bourgeoisie and the search for ways to renew the world were different. This created the preconditions for the negative attitude of Russian progressive aesthetic thought to the theory and practice of naturalism.
It is no coincidence that Russian criticism was almost unanimous in its rejection of naturalism. When Mikhailovsky wrote that in Zola’s critical articles “there was something good and something new, but everything good was not new for us Russians, and everything new was not good,” he expressed precisely this general idea. The fact that in Russia naturalism did not find the ground for its rooting and development was one of the evidence of the deep national identity her literature.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
1. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
Roman about tragic love married lady Anna Karenina and the brilliant officer Vronsky against the background of a happy family life noblemen Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. A large-scale picture of the morals and life of the noble environment of St. Petersburg and Moscow in the second half of the 19th century, combining philosophical reflections author's alter ego Levin with advanced psychological sketches in Russian literature, as well as scenes from the life of peasants.
2. “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert
The main character of the novel is Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife who lives beyond her means and starts extramarital affairs in the hope of getting rid of the emptiness and ordinariness of provincial life. Although the plot of the novel is quite simple and even banal, the true value of the novel lies in the details and forms of presentation of the plot. Flaubert as a writer was known for his desire to bring each work to perfection, always trying to find the right words.
3. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
An epic novel by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, describing Russian society during the era of the wars against Napoleon in 1805-1812.
4. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn, who escaped from his cruel father, and the runaway black man Jim raft on the Mississippi River. After some time, they are joined by the rogues Duke and King, who eventually sell Jim into slavery. Huck and Tom Sawyer, who has joined him, organize the release of the prisoner. Nevertheless, Huck frees Jim from captivity in earnest, and Tom does it simply out of interest - he knows that Jim’s mistress has already given him freedom.
5. Stories by A.P. Chekhov
Over 25 years of creativity, Chekhov created about 900 different works (short humorous stories, serious stories, plays), many of which became classics of world literature. Particular attention was paid to “The Steppe”, “A Boring Story”, “Duel”, “Ward No. 6”, “The Story of an Unknown Man”, “Men” (1897), “The Man in a Case” (1898), “In the Ravine” , “Children”, “Drama on the Hunt”; from the plays: “Ivanov”, “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard”.
6. "Middlemarch" George Eliot
Middlemarch is the name of the provincial town in and around which the novel takes place. Many characters inhabit its pages, and their destinies are intertwined by the will of the author: these are the bigot and pedant Casaubon and Dorothea Brooke, the talented doctor and scientist Lydgate and the bourgeois Rosamond Vincey, the bigot and hypocrite banker Bulstrode, Pastor Farebrother, the talented but poor Will Ladislav and many, a lot others. Failed marriages and happy marital unions, dubious enrichment and fuss over inheritance, political ambitions and ambitious intrigues. Middlemarch is a town where many human vices and virtues are manifested.
7. "Moby Dick" Herman Melville
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville is considered the greatest American novel XIX century. At the center of this unique work, written contrary to the laws of the genre, is the pursuit of the White Whale. A fascinating plot, epic sea scenes, descriptions of bright human characters in harmonious combination with the most universal philosophical generalizations make this book a true masterpiece of world literature.
8. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
“In the novel” Big hopes"" - one of latest works Dickens, the pearl of his work, tells the story of the life of young Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip in childhood. Pip's dreams of a career, love and prosperity in the “world of gentlemen” are shattered in an instant, as soon as he learns the terrible secret of his unknown patron, who is being pursued by the police. Money, stained with blood and marked with the seal of crime, as Pip is convinced, cannot bring happiness. And what is it, this happiness? And where will his dreams and great hopes lead the hero?
9. “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoevsky
The plot revolves around the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, in whose head a theory of the crime is ripening. Raskolnikov himself is very poor; he cannot pay not only for his studies at the university, but also for his own accommodation. His mother and sister are also poor; he soon learns that his sister (Dunya Raskolnikova) is ready to marry a man she does not love for money to help her family. This was the last straw, and Raskolnikov commits the deliberate murder of the old pawnbroker and the forced murder of her sister, a witness. But Raskolnikov cannot use the stolen goods, he hides them. From now on it begins terrible life criminal.
The daughter of a wealthy landowner and a big dreamer, Emma tries to diversify her leisure time by organizing someone else's personal life. Confident that she will never get married, she acts as a matchmaker for her friends and acquaintances, but life gives her surprise after surprise.
The ideas of great Russian literature and its humanistic pathos are close and understandable to the broad masses of readers in all corners of the globe.
Realizing the importance of poetic form, Russian writers of the 19th century. strived to enhance the artistic expressiveness of the techniques used, but this did not become the end in itself of their creativity. Intensive cultivation artistic forms was carried out by writers on the basis of deep insight into the essence of the socio-economic and spiritual processes of life. This is the source of the creative insights of the leading writers of Russian literature. Hence its deep historicism, due primarily to the truthful depiction social contradictions, broadly revealing the role of the masses in historical process, the ability of writers to show the relationship social phenomena. Thanks to this, in the literature there are actually historical genres- a novel, drama, story - in which the historical past receives as truthful a reflection as the present. All this became possible on the basis of the widespread development of realistic trends dominant in Russian XIX literature V.
Realistic creativity of Russian writers of the 19th century. received high praise from the largest representatives of Western European culture and art. Laconism Pushkin's prose admired P. Merimee; G. Maupassant called himself a student of I. S. Turgenev; L. N. Tolstoy's novels produced strong impression on G. Flaubert, influenced the work of B. Shaw, S. Zweig, A. France, D. Galsworthy, T. Dreiser and other writers Western Europe. F. M. Dostoevsky was called the greatest anatomist" (S. Zweig) human soul, stung by suffering; the structure of a polyphonic narrative, characteristic of Dostoevsky’s novels, is used in many Western European prose and dramatic works XX century Widespread abroad (especially in Scandinavian countries and in Japan) received the dramaturgy of A.P. Chekhov with its gentle humor, subtle lyricism, and psychological overtones.
Understanding the laws of life processes, advanced Russian writers of the 19th century. placed great demands on themselves. They are characterized by intense, sometimes painful thoughts about the meaning human activity, about the relationship of surrounding phenomena with the spiritual impulses of the individual, about the secrets of the universe, about the purpose of the artist. Works of writers of the 19th century. is distinguished by its extreme saturation with socio-philosophical and moral problems. Writers sought to answer questions about how to live, what to do to bring the future closer, which was thought of as a kingdom of goodness and justice. Moreover, all major writers of Russian literature, despite individual differences in political and aesthetic views, they were united by a decisive denial, sometimes sharp criticism of property, landownership and capitalist slavery.
Thus, the works of Russian literature of the 19th century, which captured “great impulses of the spirit” (M. Gorky), even today help to form an ideologically steadfast person who loves his Motherland, distinguished by nobility of moral motives, the absence of nationalistic prejudices, and a thirst for truth and goodness.
The rich experience of Russian literature of the 19th century in depicting man and social life formed the enduring basis on which the achievements of Soviet art in the formation of new ideals and the communist consciousness of the working masses were possible. The best works of Russian literature of the 19th century, distinguished by deep ideology, nationality, social activity, and the desire to reveal life in its typical manifestations, contributed to the emergence of realism, which became the main creative method of literature.
The development of Russian literature took place in difficult conditions, in the struggle against the autocracy and the forces of reaction. However, the uncontrollable craving for freedom and the bright ideals of humanity gave her such impetuosity that already from mid-19th V. Russian writers were able to occupy one of the leading places in European literature. A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov received global recognition as artists of the first magnitude. And the point here is not only in the perfection of artistic forms or the unparalleled brightness of the depiction of human experiences, but also in the fact that socio-historical and moral problems, put forward by Russian writers, worried all progressive humanity. These are the problems of rebuilding life on new, democratic principles, liberating workers from suffering, and the despotism of the exploiting elite. Standing up for justice and freedom in all spheres of human relations, Russian literature thereby became the herald of the highest and most humane social ideals.
It is characteristic that some literary figures in the West have already emphasized in our time that “along with Tolstoy, Chekhov is, perhaps, precisely that pre-revolutionary writer, thanks to whom his people everywhere in the world began to better understand and love him more. Chekhov... helps us understand and modern Russia. In the ways of the heart, Chekhov makes us feel how necessary the revolution was, that all living, suffering, thinking Russia called for it...”
When determining the global significance of the works of the greatest Russian writers of the 19th century, we must remember that their work has always been a reflection of the struggle and clashes of progressive and conservative social forces. Russian literature of the 19th century. is one of the most authoritative literatures in the world. Interest in it grows as interest in the creative activities of the Soviet people building communism increases. In the hearts of simple people, the feeling of the beauty and grandeur of nature is stronger, a hundred times more vivid, than in us, enthusiastic storytellers in words and on paper. But others are not an example to me,
The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later. "Dead Souls"
For what? It's like inspiration
Love the given subject!
Like a true poet
Sell your imagination!
I am a slave, a day laborer, I am a tradesman!
I owe you, sinner, for gold,
For your worthless piece of silver
Pay with divine payment!
"Improvisation I"
Literature is a language that expresses everything a country thinks, wants, knows, wants and needs to know. 
"Hero of our time"
And everywhere there is sound, and everywhere there is light,
And all the worlds have one beginning,
And there is nothing in nature
Whatever breathes love.
In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how can one not fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home? But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
Poems in prose, "Russian language"
So, I complete my dissolute escape,
Prickly snow flies from the naked fields,
Driven by an early, violent snowstorm,
And, stopping in the wilderness of the forest,
Gathers in silver silence
A deep and cold bed. 
Listen: shame on you!
It's time to get up! You know yourself
What time has come;
In whom the sense of duty has not cooled,
Who is incorruptibly straight in heart,
Who has talent, strength, accuracy,
Tom shouldn't sleep now...
"Poet and Citizen"
Is it really possible that even here they will not and will not allow the Russian organism to develop nationally, with its own organic strength, and certainly impersonally, servilely imitating Europe? But what should one do with the Russian organism then? Do these gentlemen understand what an organism is? Separation, “detachment” from their country leads to hatred, these people hate Russia, so to speak, naturally, physically: for the climate, for the fields, for the forests, for the order, for the liberation of the peasant, for Russian history, in a word, for everything, They hate me for everything. 
Spring! the first frame is exposed -
And noise burst into the room,
And the good news of the nearby temple,
And the talk of the people, and the sound of the wheel... 
Well, what are you afraid of, pray tell! Now every grass, every flower is rejoicing, but we are hiding, afraid, as if some kind of misfortune is coming! The thunderstorm will kill! This is not a thunderstorm, but grace! Yes, grace! It's all stormy! The northern lights will light up, you should admire and marvel at the wisdom: “from the midnight lands the dawn rises”! And you are horrified and come up with ideas: this means war or pestilence. Is there a comet coming? I wouldn’t look away! Beauty! The stars have already taken a closer look, they are all the same, but this is a new thing; Well, I should have looked and admired it! And you are afraid to even look at the sky, you are trembling! Out of everything, you have created a scare for yourself. Eh, people! "Storm"
There is no more enlightening, soul-cleansing feeling than that which a person feels when acquainted with a great work of art. 
We know that loaded guns must be handled with care. But we don’t want to know that we must treat words in the same way. The word can kill and make evil worse than death. 
There is a well-known trick of an American journalist who, in order to increase subscriptions to his magazine, began to publish in other publications the most harsh, arrogant attacks on himself from fictitious persons: some in print exposed him as a swindler and perjurer, others as a thief and murderer, and still others as a debauchee on a colossal scale. He didn’t skimp on paying for such friendly advertisements until everyone started thinking - it’s obvious he’s a curious and remarkable person when everyone is shouting about him like that! - and they began to buy up his own newspaper.
"Life in a Hundred Years"
I... think that I know the Russian person to his very depths, and I do not take any credit for this. I didn’t study the people from conversations with St. Petersburg cab drivers, but I grew up among the people, on the Gostomel pasture, with a cauldron in my hand, I slept with it on the dewy grass of the night, under a warm sheepskin coat, and on Panin’s fancy crowd behind the circles of dusty habits... 
Between these two clashing titans - science and theology - there is a stunned public, quickly losing faith in the immortality of man and in any deity, quickly descending to the level of a purely animal existence. Such is the picture of the hour illuminated by the brilliant noonday sun of the Christian and scientific era!
"Isis Unveiled"
Sit down, I'm glad to see you. Throw away all fear
And you can keep yourself free
I give you permission. You know, the other day
I was elected king by everyone,
But it doesn't matter. They confuse my thoughts
All these honors, greetings, bows...
"Crazy"
- What do you want abroad? - I asked him while in his room, with the help of the servants, his things were being laid out and packed for sending to the Warsaw station.
- Yes, just... to feel it! - he said confusedly and with a kind of dull expression on his face.
"Letters from the Road"
Is the point to get through life in such a way as not to offend anyone? This is not happiness. Touch, break, break, so that life boils. I am not afraid of any accusations, but I am a hundred times more afraid of colorlessness than death. 
Poetry is the same music, only combined with words, and it also requires a natural ear, a sense of harmony and rhythm. 
You experience a strange feeling when, with a light pressure of your hand, you force such a mass to rise and fall at will. When such a mass obeys you, you feel the power of man...
"Meeting"
The feeling of the Motherland should be strict, restrained in words, not eloquent, not talkative, not “waving your arms” and not running forward (to appear). The feeling of the Motherland should be a great ardent silence.
"Secluded"
And what is the secret of beauty, what is the secret and charm of art: in the conscious, inspired victory over torment or in the unconscious melancholy of the human spirit, which does not see a way out of the circle of vulgarity, squalor or thoughtlessness and is tragically condemned to appear complacent or hopelessly false.
"Sentimental Memory"
Since birth I have lived in Moscow, but by God I don’t know where Moscow came from, what it is for, why, what it needs. In the Duma, at meetings, I, together with others, talk about the city economy, but I don’t know how many miles there are in Moscow, how many people there are, how many are born and die, how much we receive and spend, how much and with whom we trade... Which city is richer: Moscow or London? If London is richer, why? And the jester knows him! And when some issue is raised in the Duma, I shudder and be the first to start shouting: “Pass it over to the commission!” To the commission! 
Everything new in an old way:
From a modern poet
In a metaphorical outfit
The speech is poetic.
And my charter is simple and strict.
My verse is a pioneer boy,
Lightly dressed, barefoot.
1926
Under the influence of Dostoevsky, as well as foreign literature, Baudelaire and Edgar Poe, my fascination began not with decadence, but with symbolism (even then I already understood their difference). I entitled the collection of poems, published at the very beginning of the 90s, “Symbols”. It seems that I was the first to use this word in Russian literature. 
The running of changeable phenomena,
Past the howling ones, speed up:
Merge the sunset of achievements into one
With the first shine of tender dawns.
From the lower reaches of life to the origins
In a moment, a single overview:
In one face with a smart eye
Collect your doubles.
Unchanging and wonderful
Gift of the Blessed Muse:
In the spirit the form of harmonious songs,
There is life and heat in the heart of the songs.
"Thoughts on Poetry"
I have a lot of news. And all are good. I'm lucky". It's written to me. I want to live, live, live forever. If you only knew how many new poems I wrote! More than a hundred. It was crazy, a fairy tale, new. Publishing new book, not at all similar to the previous ones. She will surprise many. I changed my understanding of the world. No matter how funny my phrase may sound, I will say: I understand the world. For many years, perhaps forever.
K. Balmont - L. Vilkina
Man - that's the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds... proud!
"At the bottom"
I feel sorry for creating something useless and no one needs right now. Collection, book of poems in given time- the most useless, unnecessary thing... I don’t want to say that poetry is not needed. On the contrary, I maintain that poetry is necessary, even necessary, natural and eternal. There was a time when everyone seemed to need entire books of poetry, when they were read in bulk, understood and accepted by everyone. This time is the past, not ours. For the modern reader no need for a collection of poems!
Language is the history of a people. Language is the path of civilization and culture. That is why studying and preserving the Russian language is not an idle activity because there is nothing to do, but an urgent necessity.
What nationalists and patriots these internationalists become when they need it! And with what arrogance they mock the “frightened intellectuals” - as if there is absolutely no reason to be afraid - or at the “frightened ordinary people”, as if they have some great advantages over the “philistines”. And who, exactly, are these ordinary people, the “prosperous townsfolk”? And who and what do revolutionaries care about, in general, if they so despise the average person and his well-being?
"Cursed Days"
In the struggle for their ideal, which is “liberty, equality and fraternity,” citizens must use means that do not contradict this ideal.
"Governor"
“Let your soul be whole or split, let your worldview be mystical, realistic, skeptical, or even idealistic (if you are so unhappy), let creative techniques be impressionistic, realistic, naturalistic, let the content be lyrical or fabulistic, let there be a mood, an impression - whatever you want, but I beg you, be logical - may this cry of the heart be forgiven me! – are logical in concept, in the structure of the work, in syntax.”
Art is born in homelessness. I wrote letters and stories addressed to a distant, unknown friend, but when the friend came, art gave way to life. I'm talking, of course, not about home comfort, but about life, which means more than art.
"You and I. Love Diary"
An artist can do no more than open his soul to others. You cannot present him with pre-made rules. It is a still unknown world, where everything is new. We must forget what captivated others; here it is different. Otherwise, you will listen and not hear, you will look without understanding.
From Valery Bryusov's treatise "On Art"
Well, let her rest, she was exhausted - they tormented her, alarmed her. And as soon as it’s light, the shopkeeper gets up, starts folding her goods, grabs a blanket, goes and pulls out this soft bedding from under the old woman: wakes the old woman up, gets her on her feet: it’s not dawn, please get up. It's nothing you can do. In the meantime - grandmother, our Kostroma, our mother, Russia! "
"Whirlwind Rus'"
Art never addresses the crowd, the masses, it speaks to an individual, in the deep and hidden recesses of his soul.
Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin (Ilyin) (1878 - 1942)
How strange /.../ There are so many cheerful and cheerful books, so many brilliant and witty philosophical truths, but there is nothing more comforting than Ecclesiastes.
Babkin was brave, read Seneca
And, whistling carcasses,
Took it to the library
Noting in the margin: “Nonsense!”
Babkin, friend, is a harsh critic,
Have you ever thought
What a legless paralytic
A light chamois is not a decree?..
"Reader"
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The critic's word about the poet must be objectively concrete and creative; the critic, while remaining a scientist, is a poet.
"Poetry of the Word"
Only great things should be thought about, only great tasks should a writer set himself; put it boldly, without being embarrassed by your personal small strengths.
“It’s true that there are goblins and water creatures here,” I thought, looking in front of me, “and maybe some other spirit lives here... A powerful, northern spirit that enjoys this wildness; maybe real northern fauns and healthy, blond women wander in these forests, eat cloudberries and lingonberries, laugh and chase each other.”
"North"
You need to be able to close a boring book...leave a bad movie...and part with people who don't value you!
Out of modesty, I will be careful not to point out the fact that on my birthday the bells were rung and there was general popular rejoicing. Evil tongues connected this rejoicing with some great holiday that coincided with the day of my birth, but I still don’t understand what another holiday has to do with it?
That was the time when love, good and healthy feelings were considered vulgarity and a relic; no one loved, but everyone thirsted and, as if poisoned, fell for everything sharp, tearing apart the insides.
"The Road to Calvary"
“Well, what’s wrong,” I say to myself, “at least in a short word for now?” After all, exactly the same form of saying goodbye to friends exists in other languages, and there it does not shock anyone. The great poet Walt Whitman, shortly before his death, said goodbye to his readers with a touching poem “So long!”, which in English means “Bye!” The French a bientot has the same meaning. There is no rudeness here. On the contrary, this form is filled with the most gracious courtesy, because the following (approximately) meaning is compressed here: be prosperous and happy until we see each other again.
"Alive as Life"
Switzerland? This is a mountain pasture for tourists. I myself have traveled all over the world, but I hate these ruminant bipeds with Badaker for a tail. They devoured all the beauty of nature with their eyes.
"Island of Lost Ships"
Everything that I have written and will write, I consider only mental rubbish and I do not regard my merits as a writer as anything. And I’m surprised and perplexed why by appearance smart people find some meaning and value in my poems. Thousands of poems, whether mine or those of the poets I know in Russia, are not worth one singer from my bright mother.
I am afraid that Russian literature has only one future: its past.
Article "I'm afraid"
We have been looking for a long time for a task similar to a lentil, so that the united rays of the work of artists and the work of thinkers, directed by it to a common point, would meet in a common work and would be able to ignite and turn even the cold substance of ice into a fire. Now such a task - the lentil that guides together your stormy courage and the cold mind of thinkers - has been found. This goal is to create a common written language...
"Artists of the World"
He adored poetry and tried to be impartial in his judgments. He was surprisingly young at heart, and perhaps also in mind. He always seemed like a child to me. There was something childish in his buzz cut head, in his bearing, more like a gymnasium than a military one. He liked to pretend to be an adult, like all children. He loved to play “master”, the literary superiors of his “gumilets,” that is, the little poets and poetesses who surrounded him. The poetic children loved him very much.
Khodasevich, "Necropolis"
Me, me, me. What a wild word!
Is that guy over there really me?
Did mom love someone like that?
Yellow-gray, half-gray
And all-knowing, like a snake?
You have lost your Russia.
Did you resist the elements?
Good elements of dark evil?
No? So shut up: you took me away
You are destined for a reason
To the edges of an unkind foreign land.
What's the use of moaning and groaning -
Russia must be earned!
"What you need to know"
I didn't stop writing poetry. For me, they contain my connection with time, with the new life of my people. When I wrote them, I lived by the rhythms that sounded in heroic story my country. I am happy that I lived during these years and saw events that had no equal.
All the people sent to us are our reflection. And they were sent so that we, looking at these people, correct our mistakes, and when we correct them, these people either change too or leave our lives.
In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only one literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether a wolf is dyed or shorn, it still does not look like a poodle. They treated me like a wolf. And for several years they persecuted me according to the rules of a literary cage in a fenced yard. I have no malice, but I am very tired...
From a letter from M.A. Bulgakov to I.V. Stalin, May 30, 1931.
When I die, my descendants will ask my contemporaries: “Did you understand Mandelstam’s poems?” - “No, we didn’t understand his poems.” “Did you feed Mandelstam, did you give him shelter?” - “Yes, we fed Mandelstam, we gave him shelter.” - “Then you are forgiven.”
Maybe go to the House of Press - there will be one sandwich with chum caviar and a debate - “about proletarian choral reading”, or in Museum of Science and Industry– there are no sandwiches, but twenty-six young poets read their poems about the “locomotive mass.” No, I will sit on the stairs, shiver from the cold and dream that all this is not in vain, that, sitting here on the step, I am preparing the distant sunrise of the Renaissance. I dreamed both simply and in verse, and the results turned out to be rather boring iambics.
"The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Students"
"Truly, this was the Golden Age of our literature,
the period of her innocence and bliss!.."
M. A. Antonovich
M. Antonovich in his article called the beginning of the 19th century, the period of creativity of A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol, the “golden age of literature.” Subsequently, this definition began to characterize the literature of the entire 19th century - right up to the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.
What are the main features of Russian classical literature this period?
Sentimentalism, fashionable at the beginning of the century, gradually fades into the background - the formation of romanticism begins, and from the middle of the century realism rules the roost.
New types of heroes appear in literature: " small man", who most often dies under the pressure of the accepted principles of society and the "superfluous person" - this is a string of images, starting with Onegin and Pechorin.
Continuing the traditions of satirical depiction, proposed by M. Fonvizin, in the literature of the 19th century satirical image vices modern society becomes one of the central motives. Satire often takes grotesque forms. Vivid examples— Gogol’s “The Nose” or “The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Another one distinguishing feature literature of this period had an acute social orientation. Writers and poets are increasingly turning to socio-political topics, often plunging into the field of psychology. This leitmotif permeates the works of I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy. Appears new form- Russian realistic novel, with its deep psychologism, severe criticism of reality, irreconcilable hostility with existing foundations and loud calls for renewal.
Well main reason, which prompted many critics to call the 19th century the golden age of Russian culture: the literature of this period, despite a number of unfavorable factors, had a powerful influence on the development of world culture as a whole. Absorbing all the best that was offered world literature, Russian literature was able to remain original and unique.
Russian writers of the 19th century
V.A. Zhukovsky- Pushkin’s mentor and his Teacher. It is Vasily Andreevich who is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. We can say that Zhukovsky “prepared” the ground for Pushkin’s bold experiments, since he was the first to expand the scope poetic word. After Zhukovsky, the era of democratization of the Russian language began, which Pushkin so brilliantly continued.
Selected poems:
A.S. Griboyedov went down in history as the author of one work. But what! Masterpiece! Phrases and quotes from the comedy “Woe from Wit” have long become popular, and the work itself is considered the first realistic comedy in the history of Russian literature.
Analysis of the work:
A.S. Pushkin. He was called differently: A. Grigoriev argued that “Pushkin is our everything!”, F. Dostoevsky “a great and still incomprehensible Forerunner,” and Emperor Nicholas I admitted that, in his opinion, Pushkin is “the most clever man in Russia." Simply put, this is a Genius.
Pushkin's greatest merit is that he radically changed Russian literary language, freeing him from pretentious abbreviations like “mlad, breg, sweet”, from the absurd “zephyrs”, “Psyches”, “Cupids”, so revered in pompous elegies, from the borrowings that then abounded in Russian poetry. Pushkin brought to the pages printed publications colloquial vocabulary, craft slang, elements of Russian folklore.
A. N. Ostrovsky pointed out another important achievement of this brilliant poet. Before Pushkin, Russian literature was imitative, stubbornly imposing traditions and ideals alien to our people. Pushkin “gave the Russian writer the courage to be Russian,” “revealed the Russian soul.” In his stories and novels, for the first time the theme of the morality of social ideals of that time is raised so clearly. And the main character with light hand Pushkin now becomes an ordinary “little man” - with his thoughts and hopes, desires and character.
Analysis of works:
M.Yu. Lermontov- bright, mysterious, with a touch of mysticism and an incredible thirst for will. All his work is a unique fusion of romanticism and realism. Moreover, both directions do not oppose at all, but rather complement each other. This man went down in history as a poet, writer, playwright and artist. He wrote 5 plays: the most famous is the drama “Masquerade”.
And among prose works a real diamond of creativity was the novel “A Hero of Our Time” - the first realistic novel in prose in the history of Russian literature, where for the first time the writer tries to trace the “dialectics of the soul” of his hero, mercilessly subjecting him psychological analysis. This innovative creative method of Lermontov will be used in the future by many Russian and foreign writers.
Selected works:
N.V. Gogol known as a writer and playwright, but it is no coincidence that one of his most famous works is " Dead Souls"is considered a poem. There is no other such Master of Words in world literature. Gogol's language is melodious, incredibly bright and imaginative. This was most clearly manifested in his collection "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka."
On the other hand, N.V. Gogol is considered the founder of " natural school", with its satire bordering on the grotesque, accusatory motives and ridicule of human vices.
Selected works:
I.S. Turgenev- the greatest Russian novelist who established the canons classic novel. He continues the traditions established by Pushkin and Gogol. He often refers to the topic " extra person", trying to convey the relevance and significance of social ideas through the fate of his hero.
Turgenev’s merit also lies in the fact that he became the first propagandist of Russian culture in Europe. This is a prose writer who opened the world of the Russian peasantry, intelligentsia and revolutionaries to foreign countries. And the string of female characters in his novels became the pinnacle of the writer’s skill.
Selected works:
A.N. Ostrovsky- outstanding Russian playwright. Most precisely, Ostrovsky’s merits were expressed by I. Goncharov, recognizing him as the creator of the Russian folk theater. The plays of this writer became a “school of life” for playwrights of the next generation. And the Moscow Maly Theater, where most of the plays of this talented writer were staged, proudly calls itself the “House of Ostrovsky.”
Selected works:
I.A. Goncharov continued to develop the traditions of Russian realistic novel. The author of the famous trilogy, who was able to describe like no other major vice Russian people are lazy. With the light hand of the writer, the term “Oblomovism” appeared.
Selected works:
L.N. Tolstoy- a real block of Russian literature. His novels are recognized as the pinnacle of the art of writing novels. L. Tolstoy's style of presentation and creative method are still considered the standard of the writer's skill. And his ideas of humanism had a huge influence on the development humanistic ideas worldwide.
Selected works:
N.S. Leskov- a talented successor to the traditions of N. Gogol. Made a huge contribution to the development of new genre forms in literature, such as pictures from life, rhapsodies, incredible events.
Selected works:
N.G. Chernyshevsky — outstanding writer And literary critic, who proposed his theory about the aesthetics of the relationship between art and reality. This theory became the standard for the literature of the next several generations.
Selected works:
F.M. Dostoevsky — brilliant writer, whose psychological novels known all over the world. Dostoevsky is often called the forerunner of such cultural movements as existentialism and surrealism.
Selected works:
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin — greatest satirist, who brought the art of denunciation, ridicule and parody to the heights of mastery.
Selected works:
A.P. Chekhov. With this name, historians traditionally end the era of the golden age of Russian literature. Chekhov was recognized throughout the world during his lifetime. His stories have become the standard for short story writers. A Chekhov's plays had a huge influence on the development of world drama.
Selected works:
By the end of the 19th century, traditions critical realism began to gradually fade away. In a society thoroughly permeated with pre-revolutionary sentiments, mystical, partly even decadent, sentiments came into fashion. They became the forerunner of the emergence of a new literary movement - symbolism and marked the beginning of a new period in the history of Russian literature - silver age poetry.
