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Today is a tragic date in Russian history: the 19th anniversary of the mass extermination of the defenders of the White House
Tonight, three streets in the center of Moscow adjacent to the White House will be closed to vehicle traffic. And there will probably be drivers who will be, literally speaking, very unhappy with this. Again, they say, they are holding a rally - it would be better if they got down to something...
But the reason for the mass “festival” (by the way, very modest in size: the authorities allowed two public events with a maximum number of 1,000 and 300 people, respectively) is still special. After all, these rallies are timed to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the events that took place in Moscow in September-October 1993. Events that, without any exaggeration, determined the entire further course Russian history.
Meanwhile, these events remain one of the most poorly studied pages of our history. Television and the central press annually limit themselves to reading official information and brief news stories. Most of the documents that could shed light on what really happened are still classified. Moreover, many of the documents appear to have already been destroyed. And after 19 years, we don’t even know how many lives of our fellow tribesmen were claimed by that “Black October”.
True, relatively recently (on the 16th anniversary of those tragic events), historian Valery Shevchenko prepared, in fact, the first study that systematized scattered media publications of those years and eyewitness accounts. And the picture that appeared in the end, as they say, makes your hair stand on end. Full text Those interested can find his work “Forgotten Victims of October 1993” on the Internet. We will reproduce only some excerpts.
“September 21 - October 5, 1993,” writes the historian, “the tragic events of modern Russian history took place: the dissolution of the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of Russia by presidential decree No. 1400, in violation of the Constitution in force at that time, an almost two-week confrontation that ended with mass executions defenders of the Supreme Council on October 3-5 at the television center in Ostankino and in the White House area. More than 15 years have passed since then memorable days, but the main question still remains unanswered - how much human lives carried away by the October tragedy.
The official list of the dead, announced by the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, includes 147 people: in Ostankino - 45 civilians and 1 military personnel, in the "White House area" - 77 civilians and 24 military personnel of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs...
The list, compiled based on materials from parliamentary hearings in the State Duma of Russia on October 31, 1995, includes 160 names. Of the 160 people, 45 were killed in the area of the Ostankino television center, 75 in the White House area, 12 were “citizens who died in other areas of Moscow and the Moscow region,” 28 were killed military personnel and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, the 12 “citizens who died in other areas of Moscow and the Moscow region” included Pavel Vladimirovich Alferov with the indication “burnt down on the 13th floor of the House of Soviets” and Vasily Anatolyevich Tarasov, according to statements from relatives, who participated in the defense of the Supreme Council and went missing.
But in the list published in the collection of documents of the State Duma Commission for additional study and analysis of the events that took place in Moscow from September 21 to October 5, 1993, which worked from May 28, 1998 to December 1999, the names of only 158 victims are named. P.V. was deleted from the list. Alferov and V.A. Tarasova. Meanwhile, the commission’s conclusion stated: “According to a rough estimate, in the events of September 21 - October 5, 1993, about 200 people were killed or died from their injuries.”
The published lists, even when examined superficially, raise a number of questions. Of the 122 civilians officially recognized as dead, only 17 are residents of other regions of Russia and neighboring countries, the rest, not counting several dead citizens from far abroad, are residents of the Moscow region. It is known that many out-of-towners came to defend the parliament, including from rallies at which lists of volunteers were drawn up. But loners prevailed, some of them came to Moscow secretly...
Many Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region, who remained near the parliament building behind barbed wire during the days of the blockade, went home to spend the night after it was broken on October 3. Out-of-towners had nowhere to go. Parliament defender Vladimir Glinsky recalls: “In my detachment that held the barricade on the Kalininsky Bridge near the city hall, there were only 30 percent Muscovites. And by the morning of October 4, there were even fewer of them left, because many had gone home to spend the night.” In addition, with the breakthrough, other visitors joined the defenders of the House of Soviets. Deputy of the Supreme Council, surgeon N.G. Grigoriev recorded the arrival of a civil column, consisting mainly of middle-aged men, at the parliament building at 22:15 on October 3...
In order to establish the true number of those killed in the House of Soviets, continues Valery Shevchenko, it is necessary to know how many people were there during its assault on October 4, 1993. Some researchers claim that there were a maximum of 2,500 people in the parliament building at that time. But while it is still possible to determine a relatively accurate number of people who were in and around the White House before the blockade was broken, difficulties arise in relation to October 4th.
Svetlana Timofeevna Sinyavskaya was involved in the distribution of food coupons for people who were in the defense ring of the House of Soviets. Svetlana Timofeevna testifies that before the blockade was broken, coupons were issued for 4,362 people. However, the defender of parliament from the 11th detachment, which consisted of 25 people, told the author of these lines that their detachment did not receive coupons.
To the question of how many people were in and around the White House in the early morning of October 4, only an approximate answer can be given. As a parliamentary defender who came from Tyumen testifies, on the night of October 3-4, many people, more than a thousand, slept in the basement of the House of Soviets. According to P.Yu. Bobryashov, no more than a thousand people remained in the square, mostly around fires and tents. According to ecologist M.R. approximately 1,500 people were scattered in small groups around the area in front of the White House."
Thus, the following picture emerges: there were about 5,000 people inside the White House on the night of October 4, 1993, and another 1,000-1,500 on the street around the Supreme Council building. And so the “valiant” government troops (the order was given by the then Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev) began storming the building and firing at it from tank guns. Here is what Valery Shevchenko writes further:
“When the shelling of the square began, many people fleeing the massive fire of armored personnel carriers took refuge in the basement shelter of a two-story building located not far from the House of Soviets. According to military journalist I.V. Varfolomeev, up to 1,500 people crammed into the bunker. Marina Nikolaevna Rostovskaya also names the same number of people gathered in the bunker. Then they walked along an underground passage to the parliament building. Many people were taken to different floors. According to Moscow businessman Andrei (name changed), some of the women and children taken from the dungeon were taken to the fourth floor of the House of Soviets. “They began to take us up the stairs, to the third, fourth, fifth floors and into the corridors,” recalled Alexander Strakhov. Another eyewitness testifies that 800 people who came out of the basement were captured in the hall of the 20th entrance to the paratroopers of the 119th Naro-Fominsk regiment and at about 14:30 they were “released.” A group of about 300 people, whom the paratroopers sent to the basement when the shelling intensified, left the parliament building at 15:00.
Deputies, staff members, journalists and many unarmed defenders of parliament gathered in the hall of the Council of Nationalities. From time to time there were proposals to remove women, children, and journalists from the building. The list of journalists to be removed from the House of Soviets consisted of 103 names. There were about 2,000 deputies, staff members, and civilians (including refugees who found themselves in the hall).
It remains unclear how many people were on the upper (above the seventh) floors of the White House during the assault. It should be noted that in the first hours of the assault, people were primarily afraid of the capture of the lower floors by special forces. In addition, some of them survived the attack by armored personnel carriers. Many, when intense shelling began, went to the upper floors, “because it seemed that it was safer there.” This is evidenced by Captain 3rd Rank Sergei Mozgovoy and Professor of the Russian State Trade and Economic University Marat Mazitovich Musin (published under the pseudonym Ivan Ivanov). But it was on the upper floors that tanks fired, which significantly reduced the chance of survival for the people there...
Throughout the day, despite the ongoing shelling, people broke into the parliament building. “And already, when there was no hope,” recalled deputy V.I. Kotelnikov, - 200 people broke through to us: men, women, girls, teenagers, actually children, eighth-tenth grade schoolchildren, several Suvorov officers. As they ran, they were shot in the back. The dead fell, leaving bloody footprints on the asphalt, but the living continued to run.”
Thus, Shevchenko concludes, many hundreds of mostly unarmed people found themselves in the House of Soviets and in the immediate vicinity of it on October 4, 1993. And starting at approximately 6:40 am, their mass destruction began.
The first casualties near parliament appeared when the symbolic barricades of the defenders were broken through by armored personnel carriers, opening fire to kill. Galina N. testifies: “At 6:45 in the morning on October 4, we were alerted. We ran out into the street, sleepy, and immediately came under machine-gun fire... Then we lay on the ground for several hours, and armored personnel carriers were firing ten meters away from us... There were about three hundred of us. Few survived. And then we ran to the fourth entrance... I saw on the street that those who were moving on the ground were being shot.”
“Before our eyes, armored personnel carriers shot unarmed old women and young people who were in and near the tents,” recalled Lieutenant V.P. Shubochkin. “We saw a group of orderlies run to the wounded colonel, but two of them were killed. A few minutes later the sniper finished off the colonel too.” Deputy R.S. Mukhamadiev saw women in white coats running out of the parliament building. They held white scarves in their hands. But as soon as they bent down to help the man lying in the blood, they were cut off by bullets from a heavy machine gun.
Journalist Irina Taneyeva, not yet fully realizing that the assault was beginning, observed the following from the window of the House of Soviets: “People were running into a bus standing opposite that had been abandoned by riot police the day before, climbing inside, hiding from the bullets. Three infantry fighting vehicles drove at the bus from three sides at breakneck speed and shot it. The bus lit up with a candle. People tried to get out of there and immediately fell dead, struck by dense BMD fire. Blood. The nearby Zhiguli cars, packed with people, were also shot and burned. Everyone died."
The shooting also took place from the direction of Druzhinnikovskaya Street. People's Deputy of Russia A.M. remembers Leontyev: “In the alley opposite the White House there were 6 armored personnel carriers, and between them and the White House behind barbed wire... lay Cossacks from the Kuban - about 100 people. They were not armed. They were simply in Cossack uniforms... Out of hundreds of Cossacks, no more than 5-6 people reached the entrances, and the rest all died.”
According to a minimum estimate, several dozen people became victims of the armored vehicle attack. According to Evgeniy O., there were many killed in the square from those who came to the barricades or lived in tents near the building of the Supreme Council. Among them were young women. One lay with her face completely covered in bloody wounds...
In the parliament building itself, the death toll increased several times with every hour of the assault. Deputy from Chuvashia, surgeon N.G. Grigoriev at 7:45 am on October 4 went down to the first floor into the hall of the 20th entrance. “I noticed,” he recalls, “that on the floor of the hall (and the hall was the largest in the House of Soviets) lay in rows of more than fifty wounded, possibly killed, since the first two and a half rows of lying people were covered over the head."
After a few hours of the assault, the number of dead increased noticeably. In the transition from the 20th to the 8th entrance, more than 20 dead were piled up. According to the testimony of Moscow businessman Andrei (name changed), in their sector alone there were about a hundred killed and seriously wounded.
“I left the reception area on the third floor and began to go down to the first floor,” testifies a person from A.V.’s entourage. Rutskogo. - On the first floor there is a terrible picture. All on the floor, side by side - dead... There were mountains of them piled up. Women, old people, two murdered doctors in white coats. And the blood on the floor is half a glass high: it has nowhere to drain”...
According to the testimony of the artist Anatoly Leonidovich Nabatov, in the hall of the 8th entrance, from 100 to 200 corpses were stacked. Anatoly Leonidovich climbed to the 16th floor, saw corpses in the corridors, brains on the walls. On the 16th floor, he noticed a journalist using a radio to coordinate fire on the building, reporting a crowd of people. Anatoly Leonidovich handed him over to the Cossacks.
After the events, the President of Kalmykia K.N. Ilyumzhinov said in an interview: “I saw that in the White House there were not 50 or 70 killed, but hundreds. At first they tried to collect them in one place, then they abandoned this idea: it was dangerous to move around too much. Most of them were random people - without weapons. By the time we arrived, there were more than 500 dead. By the end of the day, I think that number grew to a thousand.” R.S. Mukhamadiev, at the height of the assault, heard from his colleague, a deputy, a professional doctor elected from Murmansk region, the following: “Already five offices are filled with the dead. And the wounded are countless. More than a hundred people lie in blood. But we have nothing. There are no bandages, not even iodine...” The President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, told Stanislav Govorukhin on the evening of October 4 that under his watch, 127 corpses were taken out of the White House, but many still remained in the building.
The number of dead was significantly increased by the shelling of the House of Soviets by tank shells. You can hear from the direct organizers and leaders of the shelling that they fired at the building with harmless blanks. For example, former Russian Defense Minister P.S. Grachev stated the following: “We fired six blanks from one tank at the White House at one pre-selected window in order to force the conspirators to leave the building. We knew there was no one outside the window."
However, statements this kind completely refuted testimony. As correspondents of the Moscow News newspaper reported, at about 11:30 in the morning, shells, apparently of cumulative action, pierced the White House: from the opposite side of the building, simultaneously with the shell hitting, 5-10 windows and thousands of sheets of stationery flew out.
Here are some testimonies from eyewitnesses of the deaths of people in the parliament building as a result of shells hitting it. This is what, for example, deputy V.I. said in an interview with the newspaper “Omsk Time” (1993, No. 40). Kotelnikov: “At first, when I ran through the building on some mission, the amount of blood, corpses, and torn bodies was terrifying. Severed arms, heads. A shell hits, part of the person here, part of the person there... And then you get used to it. You have a task, you need to complete it.” “When we were fired upon by tanks,” recalled another eyewitness, “I was on the sixth floor. There were many civilians here. We didn't have any weapons. I thought that after the shelling the soldiers would burst into the building, and decided that I needed to find a pistol or a machine gun. He opened the door to the room where a shell had recently exploded. I couldn't get in. There was a bloody mess there." Former police officer Ya., who went over to the side of parliament, saw how shells in the offices of the House of Soviets “literally tore people apart.” There were many casualties in the second entrance of the White House (one of the tank shells hit the ground floor)…
In addition to the shelling of the parliament building from tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, machine gun and sniper fire, which lasted all day, both the direct defenders of parliament and citizens who accidentally found themselves in the combat zone were shot in the White House and around it. Doctor Nikolai Burns provided assistance to the wounded in the “medical battalion” not far from the city hall (“book”). Before his eyes, a riot policeman shot two boys 12-13 years old.
According to one of the defense officers, who moved with other people from the bunker to the basement of the White House on the morning of October 4, “young guys and girls were grabbed and taken around the corner into one of the niches,” then “short bursts of machine gun fire were heard from there.” ON THE. Bryuzgina, who helped the wounded in the makeshift “hospital” on the first floor in the 20th entrance, subsequently told O.A. Lebedev that when the soldiers burst in and began dragging the wounded into the corridor, muffled sounds began to be heard from there. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna, opening the toilet door, saw that the entire floor was covered in blood. There were also piles of corpses of people who had just been shot. Engineer N. Misin on the morning of October 4 took refuge from the shooting along with other unarmed people in the basement of the House of Soviets. When the first floor of the 20th entrance was captured by the military, people were taken out of the basement and placed in the lobby. The wounded were taken on stretchers to the guard room on duty. After some time, Misin was released to the toilet, where he saw the following picture: “There, neatly, in a stack, lay corpses in civilian clothes.” I looked closer: on top - those whom we carried out of the basement. There was ankle-deep blood... An hour later they began to carry out the corpses”...
Captain 1st Rank V.K. testifies. Kashintsev: “At about 2:30 p.m., a guy from the third floor made his way to us, covered in blood, and squeezed out through sobs: “They are opening the rooms down there with grenades and shooting everyone. He survived because he was unconscious, apparently they took him for dead.” One can only guess about the fate of most of the wounded left in the White House...
Many people were shot or beaten to death after they left the White House. People who came out to “surrender” on the afternoon of October 4 from the 20th entrance witnessed how stormtroopers finished off the wounded. On the deputy Yu.K. walking behind. Chapkovsky young man Riot policemen in camouflage attacked, started beating, trampling, and then shooting.
They tried to drive those who came out from the embankment through the courtyard and entrances of the house along Glubokoye Lane. “In the entrance where they pushed us,” recalls I.V. Savelyev, - it was full of people. Screams were heard from the upper floors. They searched everyone, tore off their jackets and coats - they were looking for military personnel and policemen (those who were on the side of the defenders of the House of Soviets), they were immediately taken away somewhere... In our presence, a policeman - the defender of the House of Soviets - was wounded by a shot. Over the riot police radio, someone shouted: “Don’t shoot in the entrances! Who will clean up the corpses?!” The shooting did not stop on the street.” Another eyewitness testifies: “We were searched and moved to the next entrance. Riot police stood in two rows and tortured us... In the darkened corridor below, I saw half-naked people with bruises. Swearing, screams of those being beaten, fumes. The crunch of breaking bones is heard.” Police Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Vladimirovich Rutskoi saw three people stripped to the waist pulled out of the entrance and immediately shot at the wall. He also heard the screams of a woman being raped.
The riot police were especially fierce in one of the entrances of this house. An eyewitness who miraculously survived: “They led me into the front door. There is light, and on the floor there are corpses, naked to the waist. For some reason, naked and for some reason up to the waist.” As established by Yu.P. Vlasov, everyone who got into the first entrance was killed after torture, the women were stripped naked and raped en masse, after which they were shot. A group of 60-70 civilians who left the White House after 19:00 were led by riot police along the embankment to Nikolaev Street and, taken into the courtyards, were brutally beaten, and then finished off with machine gun fire. Four managed to run into the entrance of one of the houses, where they hid for about a day.
And again excerpts from the story of V.I. Kotelnikova: “They ran into the courtyard, a huge old courtyard, square. There were about 15 people in my group... When we reached the last entrance, there were only three of us left... We ran to the attic - the doors there, fortunately for us, had been broken open. We fell among the rubbish behind some pipe and froze... We decided to lie down. A curfew was declared, everything was cordoned off by riot police, and we were practically in their camp. There was shooting there all night. When it was already dawn, from half past six to half past eight we were putting ourselves in order... We began to slowly descend. When I opened the door a crack, I almost lost consciousness. The entire yard was littered with corpses, not very often, sort of in a checkerboard pattern. The corpses are all in some unusual positions: some are sitting, some are on their sides, some have a leg, some have a raised arm, and all are blue and yellow. I think, what is unusual in this picture? And they are all undressed, all naked.”
On the morning of October 5, local residents saw many people killed in their yards. A few days after the events, Vladimir Koval, a correspondent for the Italian newspaper L` Unione Sarda, examined these entrances. I found knocked out teeth and strands of hair, although, as he writes, “they seemed to have cleaned it up, even sprinkled sand here and there.”
A tragic fate befell many of those who on the evening of October 4 came out from the direction of the back side House of Soviets at the Asmaral stadium (Krasnaya Presnya). On October 6, the media reported that, according to preliminary estimates, about 1,200 people were detained during the “voluntary surrender” during the final phase of the storming of the White House, of which about 600 were at the Krasnaya Presnya stadium. It was reported that curfew violators were also detained among the latter.
The shootings at the stadium began in the early evening of October 4. According to residents of the houses adjacent to it, who saw how the detainees were shot, “this bloody orgy continued all night.” The first group was driven to the concrete fence of the stadium by machine gunners in spotted camouflage. An armored personnel carrier drove up and tore apart the prisoners with machine-gun fire. There, at dusk, the second group was shot...
Alexander Aleksandrovich Lapin, who spent three days, from the evening of October 4 to October 7, at the stadium “on death row” testifies: “After the House of Soviets fell, its defenders were taken to the wall of the stadium. Those who were in Cossack uniform, police uniform, camouflage uniform, military uniform, or who had any party documents were separated. Those who had nothing, like me... were leaned against a tall tree... And we saw our comrades being shot in the back... Then we were driven into the locker room... We were held for three days. No food, no water, most importantly - no tobacco. Twenty people...
Yu.E. Petukhov, the father of Natasha Petukhova, who was shot on the night of October 3-4 in Ostankino, testifies: “Early in the morning of October 5, still dark, I drove up to the burning White House from the park... I approached the cordon of very young tank guys with a photograph of my Natasha, and they told me that there were many corpses at the stadium, there were also in the building and in the basement of the White House... I returned to the stadium and entered it from the side of the monument to the victims of 1905. There were a lot of people shot at the stadium. Some of them were without shoes and belts, some were crushed. I was looking for my daughter and walked around all the shot and tortured heroes."
When the House of Soviets had not yet burned down, continues Valery Shevchenko, the authorities had already begun to falsify the number of deaths in the October tragedy. Late in the evening of October 4, 1993, an information message was broadcast in the media: “Europe hopes that the number of victims will be kept to a minimum.” The Kremlin heard the West's recommendation.
Early in the morning of October 5, 1993, the head of the presidential administration S.A. Filatov received a call from B.N. Yeltsin. The following conversation took place between them:
Sergei Alexandrovich... for your information, during all the days of the rebellion, 146 people died.
It’s good that you said it, Boris Nikolaevich, otherwise it felt like 700-1500 people died. It would be necessary to print lists of the dead.
Agree. Please arrange...
How many dead were delivered to Moscow morgues on October 3-4? In the first days after the October massacre, morgue and hospital staff refused to answer questions about the number of deaths, citing orders from the headquarters. “I spent two days calling dozens of Moscow hospitals and morgues, trying to find out,” Yu. Igonin testifies. - They answered openly: “We were forbidden to give out this information.”
Moscow doctors claimed that as of October 12, 179 corpses of victims of the October massacre had been processed through Moscow morgues. Press Secretary of GMUM I.F. On October 5, Nadezhdin, along with the official data on 108 dead, excluding the corpses still in the White House, also named another figure - about 450 dead, which needed to be clarified.
However, a considerable part of the corpses that arrived at Moscow morgues soon disappeared from there. Doctor of the MMA Rescue Center named after. THEM. Sechenova A.V. Dalnov, who worked in the parliament building during the assault, stated some time after the events: “Traces are being covered as to the exact number of victims. All materials from 09.21 to 10.04.93 located in the CEMP are classified. Some medical histories of the wounded and dead are being rewritten, and the dates of admission to morgues and hospitals are being changed. Some of the victims, in agreement with the leadership of the State Medical University, are transported to morgues in other cities.” According to Dalnov, the death toll is underestimated by at least an order of magnitude. On October 9, I.F. contacted the coordinator of the medical team of the House of Soviets. Nadezhdin, offering to appear on television together with doctors from the Center for Emergency Medicine and State Medical University to reassure the public about the number of victims. Dalnov refused to participate in the falsification...
Starting from October 5 A.V. Dalnov and his colleagues toured hospitals and morgues of the ministries of defense, internal affairs and state security. They managed to find out that the corpses of the victims of the October tragedy that were there were not included in the official reports.
The same was stated in the report of the Commission of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly Russian Federation for additional study and analysis of the events that took place in Moscow on September 21 - October 5, 1993: “The secret removal and burial of the corpses of those killed in the events of September 21 - October 5, 1993, which was repeatedly reported in some printed publications and media mass media, if they did take place, they were carried out... perhaps through morgues in other cities, some departmental morgues or some other structures associated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation"...
But in the building of the former parliament there were many corpses that did not even end up in the morgues. The doctors of Yu. Kholkin’s brigade testify: “We went through the entire database up to the 7th (“basement”) floor... But the military didn’t let us go above the 7th, citing the fact that everything was on fire there and you could simply get gas poisoned, although from there shots and screams were heard."
According to L.G. Proshkin, investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office were allowed into the building only on October 6. Before that, according to him, internal troops and the Leningrad riot police were in charge there for several days. But in a personal conversation with I.I. Andronov Proshkin said that investigators were allowed into the building later than in the evening of October 6, that is, only in the morning of October 7.
In investigative case No. 18/123669-93, which was conducted by General Prosecutor's Office, it is indicated that no bodies of the dead were found in the White House itself. Prosecutor General V.G. Stepankov, who visited the building of the former parliament the day after the assault, stated: “The most difficult thing in the investigation of this case is the fact that on October 5 we did not find a single corpse in the White House. No one. Therefore, the investigation is deprived of the opportunity to fully establish the causes of death of each of those people who were taken from the building before us.” A.I. Kazannik, who was appointed to replace Stepankov as prosecutor general, also visited the building of the former parliament, saw the destruction, and noticed blood stains. According to his visual assessment, the picture inside the White House did not correspond to the rumors “of many thousands of victims”...
The Main Military Prosecutor's Office also conducted its own investigation. Moscow City Prosecutor G.S. Ponomarev, leaving the House of Soviets, said that the number of those killed there was in the hundreds.
How many people died during the storming of the House of Soviets, were shot at the stadium and in the courtyards, and how were their bodies taken out? On the first day, various sources cited figures from 200 to 600 killed during the assault. According to preliminary estimates by experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there could be up to 300 corpses in the parliament building. “In those nooks and crannies of the White House that I visited,” one serviceman claimed, “I counted 300 corpses.” Another serviceman heard "some military people talking about how there were 415 dead bodies in the White House."
A correspondent of Nezavisimaya Gazeta learned from a confidential source that the number of victims inside the House of Soviets amounted to hundreds of people. About 400 corpses from the upper floors, which were shelled by tanks, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. According to an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after the end of the storming of the White House, approximately 474 bodies of the dead were found there (without examining all the premises and clearing away the rubble). Many of them had numerous shrapnel damage. There were corpses damaged by the fire. They are characterized by a “boxer” pose.
S.N. Baburin was given the number of deaths - 762 people. Another source called over 750 dead. Journalists from the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” found out that soldiers and officers of the internal troops spent several days collecting the “charred and torn apart by tank shells” remains of almost 800 of its defenders throughout the building. Among the dead, bodies were also found of those who had drowned in the flooded dungeons of the White House. According to information from the former deputy of the Supreme Council from the Chelyabinsk region A.S. Baronenko, about 900 people died in the House of Soviets.
According to some reports, the punitive forces shot up to 160 people at the stadium. Moreover, until two o’clock in the morning on October 5, they shot in batches, having previously beaten their victims. Local residents saw that about 100 people were shot just near the pool. According to Baronenko, about 300 people were shot at the stadium...
How many human lives did the October tragedy claim? There is a list of the dead, in which 978 people are named (according to other sources - 981). Three various sources(in the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Defense, the Council of Ministers) told NEG correspondents about a certificate prepared only for senior officials of Russia. The certificate, signed by three security ministers, indicated the number of deaths - 948 people (according to other sources, 1052). According to informants, at first there was only a certificate from the MB sent to V.S. Chernomyrdin. This was followed by an order to make a consolidated document of all three ministries. The information has been confirmed and former president USSR M.S. Gorbachev. “According to my information,” he said in an interview with NEG, “one Western television company purchased for a certain amount a certificate prepared for the government, indicating the number of victims. But it won’t be made public yet.”
Radio Liberty on October 7, 1993, when all the premises in the House of Soviets had not yet been inspected, reported the death of 1,032 people. Employees of institutions where hidden statistics were kept cited the figure as 1,600 dead. Internal statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs recorded 1,700 deaths. On the 15th anniversary of the shooting of parliament by R.I. Khasbulatov, in an interview with MK journalist K. Novikov, said that a high-ranking police general swore and swore, citing the death toll as 1,500 people. At the same time, in an interview with the press service of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Khasbulatov said: “As many military and police officials told me - many said - that total Somewhere even more than 2,000 people died.”
Today it can be said that at least 1,000 people died in the tragic events of September-October 1993 in Moscow. How many more victims there were can only be shown by a special investigation at a high state level,” concludes Valery Shevchenko. The authorities, however, have no intention of conducting such an investigation.
But just the other day, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Ivanov, speaking on behalf of the highest Russian authorities at the World Russian People's Council, called for “restoring the continuity and continuity of Russian history, freeing it from myths and opportunistic assessments, integrating into the fabric of a single political fabric both outstanding victories and bitter defeats that throw the country back decades.”
So what prevents us from starting with the investigation of the events of bloody October 1993? The souls of our fallen brothers and sisters, who came to defend the legitimate, supreme power of Russia at that time - the Supreme Council, cry out for this. Here is the text of the Testament of the unsurrendered defenders of the House of Soviets that has accidentally reached us:
“Brothers, when you read these lines, we will no longer be alive. Our bodies, shot through, will burn out within these walls. We appeal to you who were lucky to come out of this bloody massacre alive.
We loved Russia. We wanted the order that God had determined for it to finally be restored on this earth. Its name is conciliarity; inside it every person has equal rights and duties, and no one is allowed to break the law, no matter how high his rank.
Of course, we were naive simpletons, we were punished for our gullibility, we were shot and in the end betrayed. We were just pawns in someone's well-thought-out game. But our spirit is not broken. Yes, dying is scary. However, something supports, someone invisible says: “You cleanse your soul with blood, and now Satan will not get it. And, having died, you will be much stronger than the living.”
In our last moments, we turn to you, citizens of Russia. Remember these days. Don't look away when our disfigured bodies are shown laughing on television. Remember everything and don’t fall into the same traps that we fell into.
Forgive us. We also forgive those who are sent to kill us. They are not to blame... But we do not forgive, we curse the demonic gang that has settled on Russia’s neck.
Don’t let the great Orthodox faith be trampled, don’t let Russia be trampled.
RENAISSANCE. The period of high renaissance.
The Renaissance period made contributions of enormous importance to world artistic culture. It was a period of wars and economic weakening, but despite this, creative creation was the tireless need of the people of that time. Artistic life experienced a rise in drawing, engraving, sculpture and in all its other manifestations.
Period High Renaissance represents the apogee of the Renaissance. It was a short period, lasting about 30 years, but in terms of quantity and quality, this period of time was like centuries. The art of the High Renaissance is a summation of the achievements of the 15th century, but at the same time it is a new qualitative leap both in the theory of art and in its implementation. The extraordinary “density” of this period can be explained by the fact that the amount at the same time (in one historical period) working brilliant artists is a kind of record even for the entire history of art. It is enough to name such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. It is the latter that today’s story will be about.
INTRODUCTION
One can say about many masters that their creativity
existence constituted an era. These words, which have long since become commonplace, when spoken to Michelangelo, acquire the true fullness of their meaning. Besides that creative path Michelangelo was distinguished by his extraordinary chronological length; what is important is that he completely covers two important stages of development Italian Renaissance: the period of the High Renaissance and the period of the Late Renaissance.
Michelangelo's activity turned out to be equally grandiose in scale and fruitful in results in the three main types of plastic arts - sculpture, painting and architecture. Throughout his entire career, Michelangelo remained a bright reformer and the founder of the avant-garde art of the Renaissance. All this creates a special mark on world artistic culture, distinguishing Michelangelo even among many other great masters with whom Italy was so rich in the era of the highest flowering of its art.
This special position of Michelangelo in the art of his time is perceived with extraordinary palpability in those two main centers of Italy that were the arena of his activity - Florence and Rome. In each of these cities, in which a huge number of magnificent monuments have formed a kind of integral artistic organism, Michelangelo's main creations give rise to a feeling of indisputable dominance.
Michelangelo, in light of his tragic fate, is similar to his heroes and it is not without reason that his life attracted the attention of writers and poets. He was not a textbook ideal. Acting in his art as a creator of images of monolithic integrity, as a person he may seem full of weaknesses and contradictions. Actions marked by extraordinary courage are replaced by attacks of weakness. The highest creative ups alternate with periods of uncertainty and doubt, with countless interruptions in work on works of much more modest scale. Inexhaustible strength, unparalleled creative energy - and so much unfinished work.
Ethical and civic ideals were not something external and transitory for Michelangelo - it was like a part of his soul. Representing the embodiment of the teachings of Italian humanists about the perfect man, who combines physical beauty and strength of spirit, the images of Michelangelo, more than the works of any other artist, carry a visual expression of such an important quality of this ideal as the concept of virtu. This
the concept acts as the personification of the active principle in a person, the purposefulness of his will, the ability to realize his lofty thoughts in spite of all obstacles. That is why Michelangelo, unlike other masters, depicts his heroes at a decisive moment in their lives.
Equally gifted in all areas of the plastic arts, Michelangelo was still first and foremost a sculptor, as he himself repeatedly emphasized. In addition to the fact that sculpture, like no other type of fine art, opens up favorable opportunities for creating monumental heroic images, it requires especially high degree artistic generalization, due to which the creative volitional principle finds extremely vivid expression in it.
FIRST PERIOD: YOUTH YEARS
Let us turn to one of the stages covering teenage years Michelangelo - from the early 1490s to his first trip to Rome in 1496.
The first years of the master’s formation passed for him in fairly favorable conditions. After Michelangelo, a thirteen-year-old boy, set out on the path of an artist and was sent to study with Ghirlandaio, a year later he moved to art school in the Medici gardens of Florence
monastery of San Marco. The "Academy" in the Medici Gardens was a higher level school. Not associated with the execution of official and private orders, it was deprived of a specific workshop environment. The spirit of the craft workshop gave way here to a more free and artistic atmosphere. The leadership of the workshop by the experienced sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni ensured that the students not only acquired deep professional knowledge, but also the perception best traditions Florentine sculpture of the 15th century. Finally, the attention from Lorenzo Medici and the figures of Florentine culture grouped around him meant a lot to the school.
Already at the age of fifteen, Michelangelo apparently stood out so much for his talent that Lorenzo took him under his special protection. Having settled him in his palace, he introduced him to his circle, among which the head of the Neoplatonist school, the philosopher Marsilio Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, stood out.
Both of the first sculptural works of Michelangelo that have come down to us are
reliefs. Perhaps this is the result of the influence of Bertoldo, who felt more at home in relief than in a round statue, and at the same time a tribute to tradition: for the 15th century, relief was one of the most important sections of sculpture. About one of these reliefs - about the “Battle of the Centaurs” - we can say with confidence that this is an example of the “purest” sculpture that the 15th century, so rich in monuments of plastic art, has ever known. The subject for this work was proposed to the sculptor by the poet Angelo Poliziano; as its primary sources in plastic art, researchers name the “Battle” of Bertoldo in the Florentine National Museum and relief compositions antique sarcophagi. Michelangelo's “Battle of the Centaurs” essentially ushered in a new era in Renaissance art, and for the history of sculpture it was a harbinger of a true revolution. Special meaning“Battles of the Centaurs” also lies in the fact that this relief already contains a unique program for Michelangelo’s future work. Not only did it express the leading theme of his art - the theme of struggle and heroic deeds - it also determined to a large extent the type and appearance of his heroes, and brought to life new means of sculptural language.
As for the first of these two works, “Madonna of the Stairs” (Florence, Casa Buonarroti), Michelangelo is close in it to the sculptures of the 15th century, except in the very technique of low, extremely finely nuanced relief, which requires the master to masterly mastery of spatial plans within a very slight elevation of the plastic masses above the background plane.
The significance of Michelangelo's first two works must also be assessed in
as an important milestone in the evolution of Renaissance art in general, in particular in the formation of the principles of art High Renaissance.
Michelangelo did not have time to complete his work on “The Battle of the Centaurs” when the death of Lorenzo Medici marked the beginning of decisive changes not only in the fate of the young master, who was now left to his own devices.
The four years that separated Michelangelo's departure from the Medici gardens from his first trip to Rome were a period of his further spiritual growth.
But the development of his talent was not as rapid as it could have been
would be expected after Michelangelo's first experiments in sculpture. Unfortunately,
information about the works of these years is incomplete, since most of them, and the most interesting ones, have not survived. Among them is the statue of Hercules, already
in the 16th century, it came to France and was installed in front of the Fontainebleau castle.
Both “Giovannino” (the statue of the young John the Baptist) and “Sleeping” have disappeared
Cupid", the acquisition of which by the Roman Cardinal Riario was the reason
for Michelangelo's departure to Rome in 1496.
SECOND PERIOD: FROM THE ROMAN “LAMATION” TO “MATTHEW”
The First Roman Period, which began in 1496, ushered in a new stage in the work of Michelangelo.
Perhaps for no one Rome meant as much as for Michelangelo, the scale creative imagination of which I found an inspiring example in the majestic monuments of the Eternal City. Michelangelo's passion antique sculpture was so great that at first it obscured the clearly expressed personal imprint inherent in his work. An example of this is the statue of Bacchus created in 1496-1497 (Florence, National Museum).
The real Michelangelo begins in Rome with his first capital
works that glorified the name of the master throughout Italy - from “Lamentation
Christ" ("Pieta") in the Cathedral of St. Petra. This group was created in 1497-1501; some researchers connect the theme and idea of this work with the tragic death of Savonarola, which made a deep impression on Michelangelo.
In principle, Michelangelo's Lamentation in the Cathedral
St. Peter, being one of the characteristic works of the first, “classical” phase of the High Renaissance, occupies in Renaissance sculpture approximately the same place as Leonard’s Madonna in the Grotto, completed between 1490 and 1494, occupied in painting. Both of these works are similar in their purpose: both the painting by Leonardo and the group by Michelangelo are compositions intended to decorate the altar of a church or chapel. As always, Michelangelo’s typical deviations from the traditional interpretation of the theme and bold violations of iconographic canons attract attention. An unusual motif for Italian Renaissance sculpture - the image of the Mother of God with the body of the dead Christ on her knees - dates back to examples of Northern European sculpture of the 14th century.
Michelangelo's Pieta is the first detailed programmatic work of the High Renaissance in sculpture, representing a truly new word both in the content of its images and in their plastic embodiment. Here you can feel the connection with the images of Leonardo, but still Michelangelo went his own way. In contrast to the calmness of the closed and ideal images Leonardo and Michelangelo, by the nature of their dramatic talent, gravitated towards a vivid expression of feelings.
True, the example of the harmonious balance of Leonardo’s images was obviously so irresistible that in the Roman “Pieta” Michelangelo gave an unusually restrained solution for himself. However, this did not stop him from doing here important step forward. Unlike Leonardo, in the appearance of whose characters one can see the features of a certain general ideal type, Michelangelo introduces into his images a shade of specific individualization, so his heroes, with all the ideal height and scale of their images, acquire a special imprint of a unique, almost personal characteristic.
"Pieta" belongs to the most finished works of Michelangelo - it is not only completed in all its smallest details, but also completely polished. But this was a traditional technique from which Michelangelo in this case I haven’t decided to leave yet. The Roman Pieta made Michelangelo the first sculptor of Italy. She not only brought him fame - she helped him truly appreciate his creative forces, whose growth was so rapid that this work very soon turned out to be a passed stage for him; for this, only a reason was needed.
Such a reason was found when in 1501, upon Michelangelo’s return from Rome to Florence, official representatives of the guild circles approached him with a request regarding the possibility of using a huge block of marble, which had been unsuccessfully begun by the sculptor Agostino di Duccio. No matter how disfigured this marble block was, Michelangelo immediately saw his “David” in it. Despite the unusual dimensions of the statue (about five and a half meters) and the very great compositional difficulties associated with the need to fit the figure into the extremely inconvenient dimensions of the marble block, the work proceeded without delay, and after two small year, in 1504, was completed.
The very idea of Michelangelo to embody in a colossal statue the image of David, who, according to generally accepted tradition (as evidenced by the famous works of Donatello and Verrocchio) was depicted in the guise of a fragile boy, is perceived in this case not just as a violation of some canonical rules, but as the master’s acquisition of complete creative freedom in the interpretation of motifs consecrated by centuries-old traditions.
Michelangelo, already in the initial phase of the High Renaissance, in his “David,” gives an example of the merging into an inextricable whole of the appearance of ideal beauty and human character, in which the main thing is the unusually bright embodiment of courage and concentrated will. The statue expresses not only a readiness for cruelty and dangerous fight, but also unshakable confidence in victory.
The place that Michelangelo’s “David” occupied in sculpture should have been occupied in painting by his “Battle of Cascina,” on which he worked in 1504-1506. The very scale of this fresco composition predisposed, if this plan were realized, to the creation of an outstanding image of monumental mural painting. Unfortunately, Michelangelo, like his rival Leonardo, who was working on the “Battle of Anghiari” at that time, did not go beyond cardboard.
Vasari testifies to how the cardboard itself looked, noting that the figures in it were executed “in different manners: one outlined in charcoal, another drawn with strokes, and the other shaded and highlighted with white - so he [Michelangelo] wanted to show everything that he could in this art."
In 1505, Michelangelo was summoned by Julius II to Rome, where he designed the papal tomb. After the pope lost interest in this plan, Michelangelo, unable to bear the insulting treatment, voluntarily left Rome in April 1506 and returned to Florence, where he remained until the beginning of November of this year. Michelangelo began to carry out a very large order, which he received here back in 1503, when he undertook to complete twelve large statues Apostles for the Florence Cathedral. But later, without having time to finish work on the first of the statues - “Matthew”, Michelangelo was forced to make reconciliation with the pope. This was followed by work in Bologna on bronze statue Julius II, and then departure to Rome, as a result of which work on the statues of the apostles for the Florence Cathedral was no longer resumed.
“Matthew” attracts attention by its sheer scale. Its height (2.62 m) significantly exceeds the size of life - this is the usual standard of Renaissance sculptures. This scale, combined with the large plasticity of forms characteristic of Michelangelo, gives “Matthew” a very great monumental expressiveness. But the main thing in it is a new understanding of the image and the associated features of a new plastic language, which allows us to consider this sculpture a huge step forward compared to the Roman “Pieta” and “David”.
Speaking from “Matthew,” which was not even half finished, we can say that it captures the viewer with some new, furious drama. If in “David” the dramatic intensity of the image was justified by the plot - the mobilization of all the hero’s forces for a mortal battle, then in “Matthew” it is the idea of internal tragic conflict. For the first time in Renaissance art, the master depicts a hero whose spiritual impulses escape the power of human will.
THIRD PERIOD: SISTINE PLAFOND
The task that Michelangelo had to solve in painting the Sistine ceiling was very difficult. Firstly, it was ceiling painting, and here the experience of the Renaissance masters was less than in ordinary mural painting. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, together with the adjacent lunettes, is about six hundred square meters! The development of a general compositional design for the painting alone presented a very difficult problem.
Here, a simple sparse composition with a few isolated figures (as was previously customary) was replaced by a painting that was very complex in its construction, consisting of many episodes and individual images, including great amount figures. Michelangelo solved the problem posed to him fully armed with his mastery of the fundamentals of all plastic arts. In this first major painting work Essentially, his talent as an architect was revealed for the first time. Since the rejection of the first version of the painting also meant a rejection of subordination architectural forms The Sistine Chapel is an elongated room with
vaulted ceiling of unfavorable proportions for painting, Michelangelo had to use painting to create his own architectural basis for his painting, on which the main organizing function was assigned. This architecture divides the painting into separate component parts, each of which has independent completeness, and in interaction with other parts forms a whole that is rare in its clear structure and logic. Michelangelo used both means of planimetric division of painting and means of plastic expressiveness, in particular, varying degrees of relief or depth of a particular image.
In the painting of the Sistine ceiling we find a vivid manifestation of the “ethical maximalism” characteristic of Michelangelo. Filled with high humanistic pathos, the master is least inclined to make any even external compromises with official churchliness.
In close connection with the evolution of the ideological and content principles of painting was the evolution of its visual language. It is known that the compositional structure of the main scenes - “stories” - was not found by the artist immediately, but in the process of work itself. Having completed the first three scenes in time - “The Drunkenness of Noah”, “The Flood” and “The Sacrifice of Noah” - Michelangelo dismantled the scaffolding, which allowed him to check the conditions for the viewer’s perception of the frescoes. At the same time, he became convinced that he had chosen an insufficiently large scale for the figures, and in “The Flood” and “The Sacrifice of Noah” he oversaturated the compositions with figures - given the high height of the vault, this impaired their visibility. In subsequent episodes, he avoided this drawback by enlarging the figures and reducing their number, as well as introducing important changes in the stylistic techniques of painting.
The Sistine ceiling became the comprehensive embodiment of the High Renaissance - its harmonious beginning and its conflicts, ideal human types and bright characters merging with this ideal basis. In subsequent works, Michelangelo will have to observe the process of a steady increase in the contradictions of the time, the realization of the impracticability of Renaissance ideals, and subsequently their tragic collapse.
FOURTH PERIOD: TOMB OF JULIUS II
The place that the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel occupied in Michelangelo's painting, in his sculpture could be occupied by the tomb of Julius II. However, a number of different circumstances were the reason that this monument was not realized in its original plan. Many decades of work on the tombstone led to the creation of several essentially heterogeneous sculptural cycles, which are in many ways of independent value.
The original plan, dating back to 1505, was characterized by such an excessive amount of sculptural work that it could hardly be realized. Michelangelo conceived it as a two-tiered mausoleum, decorated with statues and reliefs, and he intended to carry out all the work with his own hands. However, subsequently he decided to reduce the number of sculptures and reduce the size of the tomb, which was a necessary measure.
In 1513, having completed the painting of the Sistine ceiling, Michelangelo began work on the sculptures of the second version of the tomb - the statues of the “Prisoners”. These works, together with the “Moses” dating back to 1515-1516, indicate a new important stage in the works of Michelangelo.
Michelangelo outstanding of the Renaissance, his contribution to culture is so great that today his name has become a household name and is used as a synonym for talent. He was truly a great architect. His works laid the vector for the development of European culture, and his masterpieces still shock people today. Our hero was born in 1457 in Caprese, a town in Italy, which is located near famous Florence. He was born into the family of a bankrupt nobleman, Lodovico Buonarroti.
Already in childhood, adults could see the boy’s extraordinary talents. When the boy was 13 years old, he became a student of the famous artist Ghirlandaio. Two years later, the boy falls under the patronage of the Medici, who was actually the owner of the city. The young talent studies at his school, where he continues to improve his talent as an artist. Michelangelo quickly became a great master. His talent was so obvious that everyone recognized him. He was a frequent guest of the Pope and others high rank and rulers. Everyone wanted their home or office to be decorated with the works of the great master. The genius traveled a lot, but most of his life was spent in Florence and Rome. Michelangelo is the author of such sculptures as: “St. Johannes” and “Sleeping Cupid”, “David”, “Twelve Apostles”, “St. Matthew”, “Moses”, “Bound Slave”, “Dying Slave”, “Leah”, “ Christ with the Cross" and others. Michelangelo Buonarroti died in Rome at the age of 89. Great sculptor He was never married and, unfortunately, left no children behind.
The man lived amazing life, several centuries have already passed, but humanity still admires his talents and versatility. Michelangelo was not such a universal genius as Leonardo da Vinci, but his success in different areas creativity is still amazing. Let us note that as an artist the Italian stands at the very pinnacle of this skill, or somewhere close to it. The quality of his work is amazing, and his creativity itself has had big influence on its masters who will take their first steps in art. A huge number of frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, painted by Michelangelo, testify not in words, but in deeds, to the scale of his personality. However, the author himself is modest about his artistic talents; first of all, he considers himself a sculptor. He is not only a talented artist and sculptor, but also an excellent architect. He is the author of the project of the Medici Chapel in Florence, also for a long time he was the chief architect on the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. Don't be surprised to learn that Michelangelo is also beautiful
Discipline: Foreign languages
Kind of work: Essay
Theme: Michelangelo
RENAISSANCE. The period of high renaissance.
The Renaissance period made contributions of great importance to the world artistic culture. It was a period of wars and economic weakening, but despite this creative
creation was the tireless need of the people of that time. Artistic life experienced a rise in drawing, engraving, sculpture and in all its other manifestations.
The High Renaissance period represents the apogee of the Renaissance. It was a short period that lasted about 30 years, but on a quantitative and qualitative level, this
the length of time is like centuries. The art of the High Renaissance is a summation of the achievements of the 15th century, but at the same time it is a new qualitative leap in both the theory of art and
its incarnation. The extraordinary "density" of this period can be explained by the fact that the number of brilliant artists working simultaneously (in one historical period) is a certain
a record even for the entire history of art. It is enough to name such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. It is the latter that today’s story will be about.
INTRODUCTION
It can be said about many masters that their work constituted an era. These words, which have long since become commonplace, when spoken to Michelangelo, take on real meaning.
the fullness of its meaning. In addition to the fact that Michelangelo’s creative path was distinguished by its extraordinary chronological length, what is important is that it entirely covers two important stages of development
Italian Renaissance: the High Renaissance period and the Late Renaissance period.
Michelangelo's activity turned out to be equally grandiose in scale and fruitful in results in three main types of plastic arts - sculpture, painting and
architecture. Throughout his creative career, Michelangelo remained a bright reformer and founder of the avant-garde art of the Renaissance. All this creates a special mark on
world artistic culture, distinguishing Michelangelo even among many other great masters with whom Italy was so rich in the era of the highest flowering of its art.
This special position of Michelangelo in the art of his time is perceived with extraordinary palpability in those two main centers of Italy that were the arena of his activity - in
Florence and Rome. In each of these cities, in which a huge number of magnificent monuments have formed into a kind of integral artistic organism, the main creations of Michelangelo
give rise to a feeling of indisputable dominance.
Michelangelo, in light of his tragic fate, is similar to his heroes and it is not without reason that his life attracted the attention of writers and poets. He was not a textbook ideal. Speaking in
in his art as a creator of images of monolithic integrity, as a person he may seem full of weaknesses and contradictions. Actions marked by extraordinary courage
are replaced by attacks of weakness. The highest creative upsurges alternate with periods of uncertainty and doubt, with countless breaks in work on works of much more
modest scale. Inexhaustible strength, unparalleled creative energy - and so much unfinished work.
Ethical and civic ideals were not something external and transitory for Michelangelo - it was like a part of his soul. Representing the embodiment of the teachings of Italian humanists about
the perfect man, in whom physical beauty and strength of spirit are combined, the images of Michelangelo, more than the works of any other artist, carry a visual expression
such an important quality of this ideal as the concept of virtu. This
the concept acts as the personification of the active principle in a person, the purposefulness of his will, the ability to realize his lofty thoughts in spite of all obstacles. Exactly
Therefore, Michelangelo, unlike other masters, depicts his heroes at a decisive moment in their lives.
Equally gifted in all areas of the plastic arts, Michelangelo was still first and foremost a sculptor, as he himself repeatedly emphasized. Besides that...
Pick up fileRENAISSANCE. The period of high renaissance.
The Renaissance period made a contribution of great importance to world artistic culture. It was a period of wars and economic weakening, but despite this, creative creation was an indefatigable need of the people of that time. Artistic life experienced an upsurge in drawing, engraving, sculpture and in all its other manifestations.
The High Renaissance period represents the apogee of the Renaissance. It was a short period that lasted about 30 years, but in terms of quantity and quality, this period of time was like centuries. The art of the High Renaissance is a summation of the achievements of the 15th century, but at the same time it is a new qualitative leap both in the theory of art and in its implementation. The extraordinary “density” of this period can be explained by the fact that the number of brilliant artists working simultaneously (in one historical period) is a kind of record even for the entire history of art. It is enough to name such names as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. It is the latter that today’s story will be about.
INTRODUCTION
It can be said about many masters that their work constituted an era. These words, which have long since become commonplace, when spoken to Michelangelo, acquire the true fullness of their meaning. In addition to the fact that Michelangelo's creative path was distinguished by its extraordinary chronological length, it is important that it entirely covered two important stages in the development of the Italian Renaissance: the period of the High Renaissance and the period of the Late Renaissance.
Michelangelo's activity turned out to be equally grandiose in scale and fruitful in results in three main types of plastic arts - sculpture, painting and architecture. Throughout his creative career, Michelangelo remained a bright reformer and founder of the avant-garde art of the Renaissance. All this creates a special mark on world artistic culture, distinguishing Michelangelo even among many other great masters with whom Italy was so rich in the era of the highest flowering of its art.
This special position of Michelangelo in the art of his time is perceived with extraordinary palpability in the two main centers of Italy that were the arena of his activity - Florence and Rome. In each of these cities, in which a huge number of magnificent monuments have developed into a kind of integral artistic organism, Michelangelo’s main creations give rise to a feeling of indisputable dominance.
Michelangelo, in light of his tragic fate, is similar to his heroes and it is not without reason that his life attracted the attention of writers and poets. He was not a textbook ideal. Acting in his art as a creator of images of monolithic integrity, as a person he may seem full of weaknesses and contradictions. Actions marked by extraordinary courage are replaced by attacks of weakness. The highest creative upsurges alternate with periods of uncertainty and doubt, with countless breaks in work on works of a much more modest scale. Inexhaustible strength, unparalleled creative energy - and so much unfinished work.
Ethical and civic ideals were not something external and transitory for Michelangelo - it was like a part of his soul. Representing the embodiment of the teachings of the Italian humanist perfect man, who combines physical beauty and strength of spirit, the images of Michelangelo, more than the works of any other artist, carry a visual expression of such an important quality of this ideal as the concept of virtu. This
the concept acts as the personification of the active principle in a person, the purposefulness of his will, the ability to realize his lofty thoughts in spite of all obstacles. That is why Michelangelo, unlike other masters, depicts his heroes at a decisive moment in their lives.
Equally gifted in all areas of the plastic arts, Michelangelo was still first and foremost a sculptor, as he himself repeatedly emphasized. In addition to the fact that sculpture, like no other type of fine art, opens up favorable opportunities for the creation of monumental heroic images, it requires a particularly high degree of artistic generalization, due to which the creative volitional principle finds extremely vivid expression in it.
FIRST PERIOD: YOUTH YEARS
Let us turn to one of the stages covering Michelangelo's youth - from the early 1490s to his first trip to Rome in 1496.
The first years of matser's formation were quite enjoyable for him. favorable conditions. After Michelangelo set out on the path of an artist as a thirteen-year-old boy and was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio, a year later he moved to an art school in the Medici gardens of the Florentine
monastery of San Marco. The "Academy" in the Medici Gardens was a higher level school. Not associated with the execution of official and private orders, it was deprived of a specific workshop environment. The spirit of the craft workshop gave way here to a more free and artistic atmosphere. The leadership of the workshop by the experienced sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni ensured that the students not only acquired deep professional knowledge, but also the perception of the best traditions of Florentine sculpture of the 15th century. Finally, the attention from Lorenzo Medici and the figures of Florentine culture who grouped around him meant a lot to the school.
Already at the age of fifteen, Michelangelo was obviously so
stood out for his talent that Lorenzo took him under his special protection
government Having settled him in his palace, he introduced him to his circle, among which the head of the Neoplatonist school, the philosopher Marsilio Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, stood out.
Both of the first sculptural works of Michelangelo that have come down to us are
reliefs. Perhaps this is the result of the influence of Bertoldo, stronger feelings
depicted himself in relief rather than in a round statue, and at the same time a tribute
traditions: for the 15th century, relief was one of the most important sections of sculpture. About one of these reliefs - about the “Battle of the Centaurs” - we can confidently say that this is an example of the most “pure” sculpture that only the 15th century, so rich in monuments of plastic art, knows. The subject for this work was suggested to the sculptor by the poet Angelo Poliziano; As its primary sources in plastic art, researchers name Bertoldo’s “Battle” in the Florentine National Museum and relief compositions of ancient sarcophagi. Michelangelo’s “Battle of the Centaurs” essentially opened a new era in Renaissance art, and for the history of sculpture it was a harbinger of a genuine revolution. The special significance of “The Battle of the Centaurs” also lies in the fact that this relief already contains a unique program for Michelangelo’s future work. Not only did it express the leading theme of his art - the theme of struggle and heroic deed - here the type and appearance of his heroes were already determined to a large extent, and new means of sculptural language were brought to life.
As for the first of these two works in time - “Madonna at the Staircase” (Florence, Casa Buonarroti), Michelangelo is close in style to the sculptures of the 15th century, except in the very technique of low, extremely finely nuanced relief, requiring the master to masterly mastery of spatial plans within very slight elevation of plastic masses above the background plane.
The significance of Michelangelo's first two works must also be appreciated in
as an important milestone in the evolution of Renaissance art in general, in particular, in the formation of the principles of High Renaissance art.
Michelangelo did not have time to complete his work on “Battle of the Centaurs”,
how the death of Lorenzo de' Medici marked the beginning of decisive changes not
only in the fate of the young master, who from now on found himself
Four years separating Michelangelo's departure from the Medici gardens
his first trip to Rome were a period of his further spiritual growth.
But the development of his talent was not as rapid as it could have been
would be expected after Michelangelo's first experiments in sculpture. Unfortunately,
information about the works of these years is incomplete, so most of them, moreover, the most interesting ones, have not been preserved. Among them is the statue of Hercules, already
in the 16th century, it came to France and was installed in front of the castle of Fontainebleau.
Both “Giovannino” (the statue of the young John the Baptist) and “Sleeping” have disappeared
Cupid", the acquisition of which by the Roman Cardinal Riario was the reason
for Michelangelo's departure to Rome in 1496.
SECOND PERIOD: FROM THE ROMAN “LAMATION” TO “MATTHEW”
The first Roman period, which began in 1496, ushered in a new stage
in the works of Michelangelo.
Perhaps Rome did not mean as much to anyone as it did to Mi-
Kelangelo, the scale of whose creative imagination was found in great
The high-quality monuments of the Eternal City are an inspiring example. Enthusiasm
Michelangelo was so great in ancient sculpture that at first
at times it overshadowed in his works the pronounced personal character inherent in him.
ny imprint. An example of this is the statue of Bacchus created in 1496-1497
(Florence, National Museum).
The real Michelangelo begins in Rome with his first capital
works that glorified the name of the master throughout Italy, with “Lamentation
Christ" ("Pieta") in the Cathedral of St. Petra. This group was created in 1497-1501; Some researchers associate the theme and idea of this work with tragic death Savonarola, who made a deep impression on Michelangelo.
In principle, Michelangelo’s “Lamentation” in the cathedral
St. Peter, being one of the characteristic works of the first, “classical” phase of the High Renaissance, occupies in Renaissance sculpture approximately the same place as Leonard’s Madonna in the Grotto, completed between 1490 and 1494, occupied in painting. Both of these works are similar in their purpose: both the painting by Leonardo and the group by Michelangelo are compositions intended to decorate the altar of a church or chapel. As always, Michelangelo's typical deviations from the traditional interpretation of the theme and bold violations of iconographic canons attract attention. An unusual motif for Italian Renaissance sculpture - the image of the Mother of God with the body of the dead Christ on her knees - goes back to examples of North European sculpture of the 14th century.
Michelangelo's “Pieta” is the first detailed and programmatic work of the High Renaissance in sculpture, representing a truly new word both in the content of its images and in their plastic embodiment. Here you can feel the connection with the images of Leonardo, but still Michelangelo went his own way. In contrast to the calmness of the closed and ideal images of Leonardo, Michelangelo, by the nature of his dramatic talent, gravitated towards a vivid expression of feelings.
True, there was an example of the harmonious balance of Leonardo’s images,
apparently so irresistible that in the Roman Pietà Michelangelo gave
an unusually restrained decision for oneself. However, this did not prevent him from doing
This is an important step forward. Unlike Leonardo, in the persona-
whose pressure reveals the features of a certain general ideal type, Michelangelo introduces into his images a shade of specific individualization, so his heroes, with all the ideal height and scale of their images, acquire a special imprint of a unique, almost personal character.
"Pieta" belongs to the most completed works of Michelangelo - it
not only completed in all its smallest details, but also completely brilliant
polished. But this was a traditional technique, from which Michelangelo in this case had not yet decided to move away.
The Roman Pieta made Michelangelo the first sculptor of Italy. She doesn't
only brought him fame - she helped him truly appreciate his
creative forces, the growth of which was so rapid that this work very soon turned out to be a passed stage for him; for this, only a reason was needed.
Such a reason was found when in 1501, upon the return of Michelangelo
from Rome to Florence, official representatives of the guild circles approached him with a request regarding the possibility of using a huge block of marble, which had been unsuccessfully started by the sculptor Agostino di Duccio. No matter how mutilated this marble block was, Michelangelo immediately saw his “David” in it. Despite the unusual dimensions of the statue (about five and a half meters) and the very great compositional difficulties associated with the need to fit the figure into the extremely inconvenient dimensions of the marble block, the work proceeded without delay, and a little over two years later, in 1504, it was completed.
The very idea of Michelangelo to embody in a colossal statue the image
David, who, according to generally accepted tradition (as evidenced by
famous works Donatello and Verrocchio) portrayed as a fragile boy, is perceived in this case not just as a violation of some canonical rules, but as the master gaining complete creative freedom in the interpretation of motifs consecrated by centuries-old traditions.
Michelangelo already in the initial phase of the High Renaissance in his “David” gives an example of the merging of an inseparable whole of the appearance of ideal beauty and human character, in which the main thing is an unusually bright embodiment of courage and concentrated will. The statue expresses not only a readiness for a cruel and dangerous struggle, but also an unshakable confidence in victory
The place that Michelangelo’s “David” occupied in sculpture should have been occupied in painting by his “Battle of Cascina,” on which he worked in 1504-1506. The very scale of this fresco composition predisposed, if this plan were realized, to the creation of an outstanding image of monumental mural painting. Unfortunately, Michelangelo, like his rival Leonardo, who was working on the “Battle of Anghiari” at that time, did not go further than cardboard.
Vasari testifies to how the cardboard itself looked, noting that the figures in it were executed “in different manners: one outlined with charcoal, another drawn with strokes, and the other shaded and highlighted with white - so he [Michelangelo] wanted to show everything that he could do in this art "
In 1505, Michelangelo was summoned by Julius II to Rome, where he created a design for the papal tomb. After the pope lost interest in this plan, Michelangelo, unable to bear the insulting treatment, voluntarily left Rome in April 1506 and returned to Florence, where he remained until the beginning of November of this year . Michelangelo began to carry out a very large order, which he received here back in 1503, when he undertook to create twelve large statues of the apostles for the Florence Cathedral. But later, not having time to finish work on the first of the statues - “Matthew”, Michelangelo was forced to make reconciliation with the pope. This was followed by work in Bologna on the bronze statue of Julius II, and then departure to Rome, as a result of which work on the statues of the apostles for the Florence Cathedral was no longer resumed.
“Matthew” attracts attention by its sheer scale. Height
(2.62 m) it significantly exceeds the size of life - this is the usual standard
Renaissance sculptures. This scale, combined with the large plastic forms characteristic of Michelangelo, gives “Matthew” a very large monumental expressiveness. But the main thing in it is a new understanding of the image and the associated features of a new plastic language, which allows us to consider this sculpture a huge step forward compared to the Roman “Pieta” and “David”.
Speaking from “Matthew,” which was not even half finished, we can say that it captures the viewer with some new, furious drama. If in “David” the dramatic intensity of the image was justified by the plot - the mobilization of all the hero’s forces for a mortal battle, then in “Matthew” it is the idea of an internal tragic conflict. For the first time in Renaissance art, a master depicts a hero whose spiritual impulses escape the power of human will.
THIRD PERIOD: SISTINE PLAFOND
The task that Michelangelo had to solve in painting the Sistine ceiling was very difficult. Firstly, it was ceiling painting, and here the experience of the Renaissance masters was less than in ordinary mural painting. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, together with the adjacent lunettes, is about six hundred square meters! The development of a general compositional design for the painting alone presented a very difficult problem.
Here a simple sparse composition with a few isolated figures (as was previously customary) was replaced by a very complex one in its construction
painting, consisting of many episodes and individual images, including
expecting a huge number of figures. Michelangelo solved the problem posed to him fully armed with his mastery of the fundamentals of all plastic arts. In this first major painting of his, his talent as an architect was essentially revealed for the first time. Because failure
from the first version of the painting also meant a refusal to subordinate the architectural
tour forms of the Sistine Chapel - an elongated room with
vaulted ceiling of unfavorable proportions for painting, to the extent
Michelangelo had to create by means of painting for his painting
its own architectural basis, which is entrusted with the main organizing function. This architecture divides the painting into separate component parts, each of which has independent completeness, and in interaction with other parts it forms a whole that is rare in its clear structure and logic. Michelangelo used both means of planimetric division of painting and means of plastic expressiveness, in particular, different degrees of relief or depth of a particular image.
In the painting of the Sistine ceiling we find a vivid manifestation
“ethical maximalism” characteristic of Michelangelo. Filled with high humanistic pathos, the master is least inclined to make any even external compromises with official churchliness.
In close connection with the evolution of the ideological and content principles of painting was the evolution of its visual language. It is known that the compositional structure of the main scenes - “stories” - was not found by the artist immediately, but in the process of work itself. Having completed the first three scenes in time - “The Intoxication of Noah”, “The Flood” and “The Sacrifice of Noah” - Michelangelo dismantled the scaffolding, which allowed him to check the conditions for the viewer’s perception of the frescoes. At the same time, he became convinced that he had chosen an insufficiently large scale for the figures, and in “The Flood” and “The Sacrifice of Noah” he oversaturated the compositions with figures - given the high height of the vault, this worsened their visibility. In subsequent episodes, he avoided such a drawback by enlarging the figures and reducing their number, as well as introducing important changes in the stylistic techniques of painting.
The Sistine ceiling became the comprehensive embodiment of the High Renaissance - its harmonious beginning and its conflicts, ideal human types and bright characters merging with this ideal basis. In subsequent works, Michelangelo will have to observe the process of a steady increase in the contradictions of the time, the awareness of the impracticability of Renaissance ideals, and subsequently their tragic collapse.
FOURTH PERIOD: TOMB OF JULIUS II
The place that the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel occupied in Michelangelo's painting, in his sculpture could be occupied by the tomb of Julius II. However whole line Various circumstances were the reason that this monument was not realized in its original plan. Many decades of work on the tombstone led to the creation of several essentially heterogeneous sculptural cycles, which are of independent value.
The original plan, dating back to 1505, was characterized by such an excessive amount of sculptural work that it could hardly be realized. Michelangelo conceived it as a two-tiered mausoleum, decorated with statues and reliefs, and he intended to carry out all the work with his own hands. However, subsequently they decided to reduce the number of sculptures and reduce the size of the tomb, which was a forced measure.
In 1513, having completed the painting of the Sistine ceiling, Michelangelo began work on the sculptures of the second version of the tomb - the statues of the “Prisoners”. These works, together with the “Moses” dating back to 1515-1516, mark a new important stage in Michelangelo’s work.
