Literature of the late 19th - early 20th centuries - general characteristics. The main directions of Russian literature of the 20th century

Story

Imagism as a poetic movement arose in 1918, when the “Order of Imagists” was founded in Moscow. The founders of the “Order” were those who came from Penza Anatoly Mariengof, former Futurist Vadim Shershenevich and was previously part of the group of new peasant poets Sergey Yesenin. Features of a characteristic metaphorical style were also contained in more early work Shershenevich and Yesenin, and Mariengof organized literary group Imagists still in their hometown. The Imagist "Declaration" published January 30 1919 in the Voronezh magazine "Sirena" (and February 10 also in the newspaper “Soviet Country”, on whose editorial board Yesenin was included), in addition to them signed by the poet Rurik Ivnev and artists Boris Erdman And Georgy Yakulov. Poets also joined imagism Ivan Gruzinov , Matvey Roizman , Alexander Kusikov , Nikolay Erdman .

Organizationally, imagism actually collapsed to 1925: Alexander Kusikov emigrated in 1922, to 1924 Sergei Yesenin and Ivan Gruzinov announced the dissolution of the “Order”; other imagists moved away from poetry, turning to prose, drama, and cinema. The activities of the Order of Militant Imagists ceased in 1926, and in the summer of 1927 the liquidation of the Order of Imagists was announced. The relationships and actions of the Imagists were then described in detail in the memoirs of Mariengof, Shershenevich, and Roizman.

General characteristics of the literature of the beginning of the century (trends, publishing houses, problems of prose, motives in poetry).

Late XIX - early XX centuries. became a time of bright flourishing of Russian culture, its “silver age” (the “golden age” was called Pushkin’s time). In science, literature, and art, new talents appeared one after another, bold innovations were born, and different directions, groups, and styles competed. At the same time, the culture of the “Silver Age” was characterized by deep contradictions that were characteristic of all Russian life of that time.

Russia's rapid breakthrough in development and the clash of different ways of life and cultures changed the self-awareness of the creative intelligentsia. Many were no longer satisfied with the description and study of visible reality, analysis social problems. I was attracted by deep, eternal questions - about the essence of life and death, good and evil, human nature. Interest in religion revived; religious theme had a strong influence on the development of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

However, the turning point not only enriched literature and art: it constantly reminded writers, artists and poets of impending social explosions, of the fact that the entire familiar way of life, the entire old culture, could perish. Some awaited these changes with joy, others with melancholy and horror, which brought pessimism and anguish into their work.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. literature developed under different historical conditions than before. If you look for a word that characterizes the most important features of the period under consideration, it will be the word “crisis”. Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world and led to the paradoxical conclusion: “matter has disappeared.” A new vision of the world, thus, will determine the new face of realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors. The crisis of faith also had devastating consequences for the human spirit (“God is dead!” exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that the person of the 20th century began to increasingly experience the influence of irreligious ideas. The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology for evil and death, the glorification of the self-will of the individual, the recognition of the right to violence, which turned into terror - all these features indicate a deep crisis of consciousness.

In Russian literature of the early 20th century, a crisis of old ideas about art and a feeling of exhaustion of past development will be felt, and a revaluation of values ​​will take shape.

The renewal of literature and its modernization will cause the emergence of new trends and schools. The rethinking of old means of expression and the revival of poetry will mark the advent of the “Silver Age” of Russian literature. This term is associated with the name of N. Berdyaev, who used it in one of his speeches in the salon of D. Merezhkovsky. Later, the art critic and editor of Apollo S. Makovsky consolidated this phrase, calling his book about Russian culture at the turn of the century “On Parnassus of the Silver Age.” Several decades will pass and A. Akhmatova will write “...the silver month is bright / Cold over the silver age.”

The chronological framework of the period defined by this metaphor can be designated as follows: 1892 - exit from the era of timelessness, the beginning of social upsurge in the country, manifesto and collection "Symbols" by D. Merezhkovsky, the first stories of M. Gorky, etc.) - 1917. According to another point of view, the chronological end of this period can be considered 1921-1922 (the collapse of former illusions, the mass emigration of Russian cultural figures from Russia that began after the death of A. Blok and N. Gumilyov, the expulsion of a group of writers, philosophers and historians from the country).

Russian literature of the 20th century was represented by three main literary movements: realism, modernism, and the literary avant-garde.

Representatives of literary movements

Senior Symbolists: V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Z. N. Gippius, F. K. Sologub and others.

God-seeking mystics: D. S. Merezhkovsky, Z. N. Gippius, N. Minsky.

Decadent individualists: V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, F. K. Sologub.

Junior Symbolists: A. A. Blok, Andrey Bely (B. N. Bugaev), V. I. Ivanov and others.

Acmeism: N. S. Gumilev, A. A. Akhmatova, S. M. Gorodetsky, O. E. Mandelstam, M. A. Zenkevich, V. I. Narbut.

Cubo-futurists(poets of "Gilea"): D. D. Burlyuk, V. V. Khlebnikov, V. V. Kamensky, V. V. Mayakovsky, A. E. Kruchenykh.

Egofuturists: I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev, K. Olimpov, V. Gnedov.

Group“Mezzanine of Poetry”: V. Shershenevich, Chrysanf, R. Ivnev and others.

Association "Centrifuge": B. L. Pasternak, N. N. Aseev, S. P. Bobrov and others.

One of the most interesting phenomena in the art of the first decades of the 20th century was the revival of romantic forms, largely forgotten since the beginning of the last century. One of these forms was proposed by V. G. Korolenko, whose work continues to develop at the end of the 19th and the first decades of the new century. Another expression of the romantic was the work of A. Green, whose works are unusual for their exoticism, flights of fancy, and ineradicable dreaminess. The third form of the romantic was the work of revolutionary worker poets (N. Nechaev, E. Tarasov, I. Privalov, A. Belozerov, F. Shkulev). Turning to marches, fables, calls, songs, these authors poeticize the heroic feat, use romantic images of glow, fire, crimson dawn, thunderstorm, sunset, limitlessly expand the range of revolutionary vocabulary, and resort to cosmic scales.

Writers such as Maxim Gorky and L.N. Andreev played a special role in the development of literature of the 20th century. The twenties are a difficult, but dynamic and creatively fruitful period in the development of literature. Although many Russian cultural figures found themselves expelled from the country in 1922, while others went into voluntary emigration, artistic life does not freeze in Russia. On the contrary, many talented young writers appear, recent participants in the Civil War: L. Leonov, M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, Yu. Libedinsky, A. Vesely and others.

The thirties began with the “year of the great turning point,” when the foundations of the previous Russian way of life were sharply deformed, and the party began to actively intervene in the sphere of culture. P. Florensky, A. Losev, A. Voronsky and D. Kharms were arrested, repressions against the intelligentsia intensified, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of cultural figures, two thousand writers died, in particular N. Klyuev, O. Mandelstam, I. Kataev, I. Babel, B. Pilnyak, P. Vasiliev, A. Voronsky, B. Kornilov. Under these conditions, the development of literature was extremely difficult, tense and ambiguous.

The work of such writers and poets as V.V. Mayakovsky, S.A. Yesenin, A.A. Akhmatova, A.N. Tolstoy, E.I. Zamyatin, M.M. Zoshchenko, M.A. deserves special consideration. Sholokhov, M. A. Bulgakov, A. P. Platonov, O. E. Mandelstam, M. I. Tsvetaeva.

The Holy War, which began in June 1941, put forward new tasks for literature, to which the country's writers immediately responded. Most of them ended up on the battlefields. More than a thousand poets and prose writers joined the ranks of the active army, becoming famous war correspondents (M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, N. Tikhonov, I. Erenburg, Vs. Vishnevsky, E. Petrov, A. Surkov, A. Platonov). Works of various kinds and genres joined the fight against fascism. First among them was poetry. Here it is necessary to highlight the patriotic lyrics of A. Akhmatova, K. Simonov, N. Tikhonov, A. Tvardovsky, V. Sayanov. Prose writers cultivated their most operative genres: journalistic essays, reports, pamphlets, stories.

Realistic publishing houses:

Knowledge (production of general education literature - Kuprin, Bunin, Andreev, Veresaev); collections; social Issues

Rosehip (St. Petersburg) collections and almaci

Slovo (Moscow) collections and almanacs

Gorky publishes the literary and political magazine “Chronicle” (Parus Publishing House)

“World of Art” (modernist. Art; magazine of the same name) – Diaghilev founder

“New Path”, “Scorpio”, “Vulture” - symbolist.

“Satyricon”, “New Satyricon” - satire (Averchenko, S. Cherny)

*The most significant movement in Russian modernism was symbolism. It arose in the early 90s of the 19th century and existed for two decades. The artistic and journalistic organ of the Symbolists was the magazine “Scales” (1904-1909).

The senior symbolists (90s), who approved the name and principles of the new art, included V. Bryusov, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, K. Balmont. The second generation of symbolists came to literature at the beginning of the 20th century - A. Blok, A. Bely, S. Solovyov, Ellis.

The ideologist and inspirer of the Symbolists was the poet and philosopher V. Solovyov (1853-1900). The symbolists were close to his idea of ​​the Soul of the World, Eternal Femininity, and the Spirit of Music. The younger generation of symbolists also focused on the position of I. Annensky
(1856-1909), his “torment of the ideal.”

At the heart of the world, the symbolists saw not a material, but an ideal essence. In the surrounding reality there are only signs, symbols of this essence. They found the origins of this perception in philosophy. Thus, Plato compared reality to a cave, into which only reflections and shadows of the true unreal world penetrate. A person can only guess from these shadow symbols about what happened outside the cave. I. Kant’s reasoning sounded in the same vein.

Existing in the everyday, real world, a person feels his connection with the existential, unreal world, tries to penetrate into it, to go beyond the “cave”. Let us emphasize in this position the recognition of the primary role of the spiritual world of man.

The concept of symbol requires clarification. We quite often encounter the symbolic meaning of images in the realistic literature of the past. Folklore is permeated with symbolism. Modernists put a new semantic connotation into this word. The symbol was opposed to allegory and allegory. The main thing in the symbol was its polysemy, the variety of associative connections, and the whole system of correspondences.

Symbolists saw in music higher form creativity, special attention was paid to melody. The nature of the sound of the work was no less important than its meaning. And in comprehending the meaning, an attitude towards reticence is essential. The text had to remain a mystery, and the artist felt like a creator, a theurgist.

The work of the Symbolists was initially addressed to the elite, the initiated. The poet counted on the reader-co-author, not trying to be understood by everyone. In one of the lyrical poems of Z. Gippius, the refrain was recognition of the uncertainty of desires, the desire for something “that is not in the world.” This was a certain programmatic attitude, a refusal to pay attention to real, “real” life.

Refusing to depict the concrete world, the symbolists turned to the problems of existence. However, it was real life that made its own adjustments. Dissatisfaction with modernity gave rise to the motive of the end of the world and was the impetus for the poeticization of death.

In the works of literary scholars of past years, these motives, as already mentioned, were explained by confusion before the impending revolution. At the same time, many symbolists perceived the revolutionary events of 1905 as the beginning of renewal. While welcoming the destruction of the old world, the Symbolists did not fill their confessions with specific social content. “I will break with you, but not build!” - V. Bryusov stated in poetry. The element of revolution was accepted as a symbol of freedom; what followed seemed to be a limitation of it and was therefore rejected.*

Senior Symbolists:

Priority of spiritual idealistic values ​​(Merezhkovsky)

The spontaneous nature of creativity (Balmont)

Art as the most reliable form of knowledge (Bryusov)

Junior Symbolists:

The need to combine art and religion (White) – mystical and religious sentiments

- “trilogy of humanization” (Blok) – movement from the music of the beyond through the underworld of the material world and the whirlwind of the elements to the “elementary simplicity” of human experiences

The poetry of the Symbolists is poetry for the elite, for the aristocrats of the spirit. “While realist poets view the world naively, like simple observers, submitting to its material basis, symbolist poets, re-creating materiality with a complex impressionability, dominate the world and penetrate into its mysteries.”

Philosophy of symbolism:

The perception of dual worlds is given only to a select few

Sophia, femininity, conciliarity

New religion – neo-Christianity (union of the soul with God without the mediation of the church)

Features of the verse:

Solemnity, high style

Music of verse, emotional value of sounds

Complex abstract irrational metaphor

“Symbolism makes the very style, the most artistic substance of poetry spiritual, transparent, translucent through and through, like the thin walls of an alabaster amphora in which a flame is lit.”

From the 40s of the last century until the very end, realism dominated Russian literature. New qualities arose in active contact with tradition. The need for radical renewal prompted a broad summing up of what to accept and what to reject in the artistic past. His perception in the literature of that time was particularly intense.

The transformation of realism occurs at the turn of the century throughout Europe. But the role of traditions in this process was especially great in Russia, because here classical realism not only did not weaken by the end of the century, but became enriched. In the 90s, a young generation of realistic artists entered Russian literature. However, the beginning of the renewal of realism was laid by the greatest masters of older generations - those who directly connected the present century with the past century. This is the late L. Tolstoy and Chekhov.

By the end of the 19th century, the global significance of Tolstoy’s activities was fully realized abroad. Of paramount importance for literary process turned out to be the achievements of Chekhov's creativity, who created, according to L. Tolstoy, completely new forms of writing both in prose and drama.

The realistic literature of the transitional era as a whole did not rise to the level of its great predecessors. One of the explanations for this is the special difficulties of creative self-determination at a time of radical change in values ​​and guidelines in the country. But despite the contradictions and difficulties, the direction continued to develop intensively, giving rise to a special typological quality that arose on the basis of a renewed perception of the traditions of classical realism and the gradual overcoming of the concept of determinism in a naturalistic spirit. The actual artistic renewal of realism at the turn of the century is also fundamentally important: stylistic searches, expressed in decisive genre restructuring, in significant modifications of the poetic language.

(FROM THE TEXTBOOK)

Statements about the crisis of realism at the turn of the 20th century are a thing of the past. Arguments against such statements were the works of L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov and talented writers next generation who performed realistic works (A. Kuprin, I. Bunin, etc.).

Obviously, when characterizing the literature of the beginning of the century, we must talk not about the crisis of realism, but about expanding the ways in which the crisis phenomena of life, the crisis of consciousness, are embodied in literature.

Researchers consider the works of A. Chekhov and the late L. Tolstoy as highest stage in the development of classical realism. Both writers were not looking for an answer to the traditional questions “who is to blame?” and “what to do?”, but showed how modern life deviates from the norm. L. Tolstoy, completed at the turn of the 20th century, gave artistic image those state institutions - courts, churches, prisons - that allowed him to reveal the hostility of the entire social system to man. Similar artistic task Tolstoy decided in the drama “The Living Corpse” (1900). In the story “Hadji Murat” (1904), the tragic fate of the central hero - a strong, integral man - is revealed in confrontation with the same system, indifferent to man and his national mentality. Tolstoy gave the reader the opportunity to see and feel not the individual shortcomings and vices of specific people, but the foundations, the roots of false morality, corrupt politics, and a criminal state.

In Chekhov's works the reader was immersed in an everyday, philistine atmosphere. Showing everyday awkwardness, the writer recreated the complexity of life, in which evil is present dispersedly and silently, permeating everyday life. Chekhov is not engaged in a “moral investigation”, but in identifying the reasons for the mutual misunderstanding of people, distant and close.

The author led the characters and readers to abandon categorical judgments and to understand the complexity of each person. In Chekhov's stories and stories, it is important not only what happens, but also what never happens - Moscow remains in the dreams of the Prozorov sisters, the heroes of “The Lady with the Dog” do not take decisive steps, etc. Plot situations help to discover the degree of delusion of each of the characters. At the same time, Chekhov believed in a person’s ability to change his life, he even believed in such weak ones as Laevsky (“Duel”).

Researchers have emphasized the meaningful significance of the structure of Chekhov's works. Plots of “epiphany” - the hero discovers the meaning of his existence, the inner need to resist vulgarity (“A Boring Story”, “Literature Teacher”). The plots of “leaving” are the necessity and implementation of an act, a step into the unknown, a turn of fate (“My Life”, “The Bride”). The misunderstanding that separates the characters is recognized by readers not only as a confirmation of the disunity of people, but also as an impetus for the development of self-awareness.

The collision of concepts, ideas about man and the world with real life resulted in disappointment, but did not stop the search. The literature of the beginning of the century is characterized by various forms of expression of the author's position. The writers counted on a thinking reader, but also openly analyzed his perception. It is no coincidence that there are an abundance of questions that organize and push the development of the plot: “Why does life work this way?”; "Who am I?"; “What to do if that dream, like every dream, deceived you?”

HAJI MURAT, RETELLING

On a cold November evening in 1851, Hadji Murat, the famous Naib of Imam Shamil, enters the peaceful Chechen village of Makhket. The Chechen Sado receives a guest in his hut, despite Shamil’s recent order to detain or kill the rebellious naib,

On the same night, from the Russian fortress of Vozdvizhenskaya, fifteen versts from the village of Makhket, three soldiers with non-commissioned officer Panov go out to the front guard. One of them, the cheerful Avdeev, remembers how he once drank away his company money out of homesickness, and once again says that he became a soldier at the request of his mother, instead of his family brother.

The envoys of Hadji Murad go out on this guard. Accompanying the Chechens to the fortress, to Prince Vorontsov, the cheerful Avdeev asks about their wives and children and concludes: “And what kind of good guys are these, my brother?”

The regimental commander of the Kurinsky Regiment, the son of the commander-in-chief, adjutant outhouse Prince Vorontsov lives in one of the best houses in the fortress with his wife Marya Vasilievna, the famous St. Petersburg beauty, and her little son from her first marriage. Despite the fact that the prince’s life amazes the inhabitants of the small Caucasian fortress with its luxury, it seems to the Vorontsov spouses that they are suffering great hardships here. The news of Hadji Murad's exit finds them playing cards with the regimental officers.

That same night, the residents of the village of Makhket, in order to clear themselves before Shamil, try to detain Hadji Murad. Firing back, he breaks through with his murid Eldar into the forest, where the rest of the murids are waiting for him - the Avar Khanefi and the Chechen Gamzalo. Here Hadji Murat expects Prince Vorontsov to respond to his proposal to go out to the Russians and start fighting on their side against Shamil. He, as always, believes in his happiness and that this time everything is working out for him, as it always happened before. The returning envoy of Khan-Magom reports that the prince promised to receive Hadji Murad as a dear guest.

Early in the morning, two companies of the Kurinsky regiment go out to cut wood. Company officers over drinks discuss the recent death in battle of General Sleptsov. During this conversation, none of them sees the most important thing - the ending. human life and returning it to the source from which it came - but they see only the military valor of the young general. During Hadji Murad's exit, the Chechens pursuing him casually mortally wound the cheerful soldier Avdeev; he dies in the hospital, not having time to receive a letter from his mother saying that his wife had left home.

All Russians who see the “terrible mountaineer” for the first time are struck by his kind, almost childish smile, self-esteem and the attention, insight and calm with which he looks at those around him. The reception of Prince Vorontsov at the Vozdvizhenskaya fortress turns out to be better than Hadji Murat expected; but the less he trusts the prince. He demands to be sent to the commander-in-chief himself, old Prince Vorontsov, in Tiflis.

During the meeting in Tiflis, Vorontsov the father understands perfectly well that he should not believe a single word of Hadji Murad, because he will always remain an enemy of everything Russian, and now he is just submitting to circumstances. Hadji Murat, in turn, understands that the cunning prince sees right through him. At the same time, both tell each other exactly the opposite of their understanding - what is necessary for the success of the negotiations. Hadji Murat assures that he will faithfully serve the Russian Tsar in order to take revenge on Shamil, and guarantees that he will be able to raise all of Dagestan against the imam. But for this it is necessary that the Russians ransom Hadji Murad’s family from captivity, the Commander-in-Chief promises to think about it.

Hadji Murat lives in Tiflis, attends the theater and the ball, increasingly rejecting the Russian way of life in his soul. He tells Loris-Melikov, Vorontsov’s adjutant assigned to him, the story of his life and enmity with Shamil. The listener sees a series of brutal murders committed according to the law of blood feud and the right of the strong. Loris-Melikov also observes the murids of Hadji Murat. One of them, Gamzalo, continues to consider Shamil a saint and hates all Russians. Another, Khan Magoma, came out to the Russians only because he easily plays with his own and other people’s lives; he can just as easily return to Shamil at any time. Eldar and Hanefi obey Hadji Murat without reasoning.

While Hadji Murad was in Tiflis, by order of Emperor Nicholas I, in January 1852, a raid was launched into Chechnya. The young officer Butler, who recently transferred from the guard, also takes part in it. He left the guard because of a gambling loss and is now enjoying a good, brave life in the Caucasus, trying to preserve his poetic idea of ​​the war. During the raid, the village of Makhket was destroyed, a teenager was killed with a bayonet in the back, a mosque and a fountain were senselessly polluted. Seeing all this, the Chechens do not even feel hatred towards the Russians, but only disgust, bewilderment and a desire to exterminate them like rats or poisonous spiders. Residents of the village ask Shamil for help,

Hadji Murat moves to the Grozny fortress. Here he is allowed to have relations with the mountaineers through spies, but he cannot leave the fortress except with a convoy of Cossacks. His family is being held at this time in custody in the village of Vedeno, awaiting Shamil’s decision on their fate. Shamil demands that Hadji Murat come back to him before the Bayram holiday, on otherwise threatens to hand over his mother, the old woman Patimat, to the villages and blind his beloved son Yusuf.

For a week Hadji Murat lives in the fortress, in the house of Major Petrov. The major's partner, Marya Dmitrievna, develops respect for Hadji Murad, whose behavior differs markedly from the rudeness and drunkenness common among regimental officers. A friendship begins between officer Butler and Hadji Murat. Butler is embraced by the “poetry of a special, energetic mountain life”, palpable in the mountain songs that Hanefi sings. The Russian officer is especially struck by Hadji Murad's favorite song - about the inevitability of blood feud. Soon Butler witnesses how calmly Hadji Murat accepts the attempt at blood revenge on himself by the Kumyk prince Arslan Khan,

Negotiations for the ransom of the family, which Hadji Murat is conducting in Chechnya, are unsuccessful. He returns to Tiflis, then moves to the small town of Nukha, hoping to snatch his family away from Shamil by cunning or force. He is in the service of the Russian Tsar and receives five gold pieces a day. But now, when he sees that the Russians are in no hurry to free his family, Hadji Murat perceives his exit as a terrible turn in life. He increasingly remembers his childhood, his mother, grandfather and his son. Finally, he decides to flee to the mountains, break into Vedeno with loyal people in order to die or free his family.

During a horseback ride, Hadji Murat, together with his murids, mercilessly kills the Cossack escort. He hopes to cross the Alazan River and thus escape pursuit, but he fails to cross the rice field flooded with spring water on horseback. The chase overtakes him, and in an unequal battle Hadji Murat is mortally wounded.

The last memories of his family run through his imagination, no longer arousing any feeling; but he fights until his last breath.

Hadji Murad's head, cut off from his mutilated body, is carried around the fortresses. In Grozny, she is shown to Butler and Marya Dmitrievna, and they see that the blue lips of the death’s head retain a childish, kind expression. Marya Dmitrievna is especially shocked by the cruelty of the “life cutters” who killed her recent guest and did not interred his body.

The story of Hadji Murad, his inherent strength of life and inflexibility are recalled when looking at a burdock flower, in full bloom, crushed by people in the middle of a plowed field.

DUEL, RETELLING

In a town on the Black Sea coast, two friends are talking while swimming. Ivan Andreevich Laevsky, a young man of about twenty-eight, shares the secrets of his personal life with military doctor Samoilenko. Two years ago he became involved with a married woman; they fled from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus, telling themselves that they would start a new life there. working life. But the town turned out to be boring, the people were uninteresting, Laevsky did not know how and did not want to work hard on the land, and therefore from the first day he felt bankrupt. In his relationship with Nadezhda Fedorovna, he no longer sees anything but lies; living with her is now beyond his strength. He dreams of running back to the north. But it’s impossible to break up with her: she has no relatives, no money, and she doesn’t know how to work. There is one more difficulty: news has arrived about the death of her husband, which means for Laevsky and Nadezhda Fedorovna the opportunity to get married. Good Samoilenko advises his friend to do exactly this.

Everything that Nadezhda Fedorovna says and does seems to Laevsky to be a lie or similar to a lie. At breakfast, he can barely contain his irritation; even the way she swallows milk evokes heavy hatred in him. The desire to quickly sort things out and run away now does not let him go. Laevsky was accustomed to finding explanations and justifications for his life in someone’s theories, in literary types, compares himself with Onegin and Pechorin, with Anna Karenina, with Hamlet. He is ready either to blame himself for the lack of a guiding idea, to admit that he is a loser and an extra person, or to justify himself to himself. But just as he previously believed in salvation from the emptiness of life in the Caucasus, he now believes that as soon as he leaves Nadezhda Fedorovna and goes to St. Petersburg, he will live a cultured, intelligent, cheerful life.

Samoilenko keeps something like a table d'hôte; the young zoologist von Koren and Pobedov, who has just graduated from the seminary, dine with him. Over dinner the conversation turns to Laevsky. Von Koren says that Laevsky is as dangerous to society as the cholera germ. He corrupts the residents of the town by living openly with someone else’s wife, drinking and getting others drunk, playing cards, increasing debts, doing nothing, and, moreover, justifying himself with fashionable theories about heredity, degeneration, and so on. If people like him multiply, humanity and civilization are in serious danger. Therefore, for his own benefit, Laevsky should be neutralized. “In the name of saving humanity, we ourselves must take care of the destruction of the frail and worthless,” says the zoologist coldly.

The laughing deacon laughs, but the stunned Samoilenko can only say: “If you drown and hang people, then to hell with your civilization, to hell with humanity! To hell!"

On Sunday morning Nadezhda Feodorovna goes swimming in the most festive mood. She likes herself, she is sure that all the men she meets admire her. She feels guilty before Laevsky. During these two years, she incurred debts in Achmianov’s shop for three hundred rubles and still did not intend to say about it. In addition, she has already hosted police bailiff Kirilin twice. But Nadezhda Fedorovna happily thinks that her soul did not participate in her betrayal, she continues to love Laevsky, and everything is already broken with Kirilin. In the bathhouse, she talks with the elderly lady Marya Konstantinovna Bityugova and learns that in the evening the local society is having a picnic on the bank of a mountain river. On the way to the picnic, von Koren tells the deacon about his plans to go on an expedition along the coast of the Pacific and Arctic oceans; Laevsky, riding in another carriage, scolds the Caucasian landscapes. He constantly feels von Koren's dislike for himself and regrets going on the picnic. The company stops at the mountain dukhan of the Tatar Kerbalai.

Nadezhda Fedorovna is in a playful mood, she wants to laugh, tease, flirt. But Kirilin’s persecution and young Achmianov’s advice to beware of him darken her joy. Laevsky, tired of the picnic and von Koren’s undisguised hatred, takes out his irritation on Nadezhda Fedorovna and calls her a cocotte. On the way back, von Koren admits to Samoilenko that his hand would not have wavered if the state or society had entrusted him with destroying Laevsky.

At home, after a picnic, Laevsky informs Nadezhda Fedorovna about the death of her husband and, feeling at home as if in prison, goes to Samoilenko. He begs his friend to help, to lend three hundred rubles, promises to arrange everything with Nadezhda Fedorovna, to make peace with his mother. Samoilenko offers to make peace with von Koren, but Laevsky says that this is impossible. Perhaps he would have extended his hand to him, but von Koren would have turned away with contempt. After all, this is a hard, despotic nature. And his ideals are despotic. People for him are puppies and nonentities, too small to be the goal of his life. He works, goes on an expedition, breaks his neck there, not in the name of love for his neighbor, but in the name of such abstractions as humanity, future generations, the ideal breed of people... He would order to shoot at anyone who steps outside the circle of our narrow conservative morality, and all this in the name of improving the human race... Despots have always been illusionists. With enthusiasm, Laevsky says that he clearly sees his shortcomings and is aware of them. This will help him resurrect and become a different person, and he passionately awaits this revival and renewal.

Three days after the picnic, an excited Marya Konstantinovna comes to Nadezhda Fedorovna and invites her to be her matchmaker. But a wedding with Laevsky, Nadezhda Fedorovna feels, is now impossible. She cannot tell Marya Konstantinov everything: how confused her relationship with Kirilin, with young Achmianov is. She develops a high fever from all the stress.

Laevsky feels guilty before Nadezhda Fedorovna. But the thoughts of leaving next Saturday took over him so much that he only asked Samoilenko, who came to visit the sick woman, whether he was able to get money. But there is no money yet. Samoilenko decides to ask von Koren for a hundred rubles. He, after an argument, agrees to give money for Laevsky, but only on the condition that he leaves not alone, but together with Nadezhda Fedorovna.

The next day, Thursday, visiting Marya Konstantinovna, Samoilenko tells Laevsky about the condition set by von Koren. The guests, including von Koren, play mail. Laevsky, automatically participating in the game, thinks about how much he has and will have to lie, what a mountain of lies prevents him from starting new life. In order to jump over it at once, and not lie in parts, he needs to decide on some drastic measure, but he feels that this is impossible for him. The malicious note, apparently sent by von Koren, causes him to have a hysterical fit. Having come to his senses, in the evening, as usual, he goes off to play cards.

On the way from the guests to the house, Nadezhda Fedorovna is pursued by Kirilin. He threatens her with a scandal if she doesn’t give him a date today. Nadezhda Fedorovna is disgusted with him, she begs to let her go, but in the end she gives in. Young Achmianov is watching them, unnoticed.

The next day, Laevsky goes to Samoilenko to take money from him, since staying in the city after a hysteria is shameful and impossible. He finds only von Koren. A short conversation ensues; Laevsky understands that he knows about his plans. He acutely feels that the zoologist hates him, despises and mocks him, and that he is his most bitter and implacable enemy. When Samoilenko arrives, Laevsky, in a nervous fit, accuses him of not knowing how to keep other people's secrets and insults von Koren. Von Koren seemed to be waiting for this attack; he challenges Laevsky to a duel. Samoilenko unsuccessfully tries to reconcile them.

On the evening before the duel, Laevsky is first possessed by hatred of von Koren, then, over wine and cards, he becomes careless, then he is overcome by anxiety. When young Achmianov leads him to some house and there he sees Kirilin, and next to him Nadezhda Fedorovna, all feelings seem to disappear from his soul.

That evening, on the embankment, Von Koren talks with the deacon about different understandings of the teachings of Christ. What should love for one's neighbor consist of? In eliminating everything that in one way or another harms people and threatens them with danger in the present or future, the zoologist believes. Danger to humanity comes from the morally and physically abnormal, and they must be neutralized, that is, destroyed. But where are the criteria for differentiation, since mistakes are possible? - asks the deacon. There is no need to be afraid to get your feet wet when a flood threatens, answers the zoologist.

The night before the duel, Laevsky listens to the thunderstorm outside the window, goes over his past in his memory, sees only lies in it, feels guilty in the fall of Nadezhda Fedorovna and is ready to beg her for forgiveness. If it were possible to return the past, he would find God and justice, but this is as impossible as returning a sunset star to the sky again. Before going to the duel, he goes to Nadezhda Fedorovna’s bedroom. She looks at Laevsky with horror, but he, hugging her, understands that this unfortunate, vicious woman is the only close, dear and irreplaceable person for him. Getting into the carriage, he wants to return home alive.

The deacon, coming out early in the morning to see the duel, wonders why Laevsky and von Koren could hate each other and fight a duel? Wouldn't it be better for them to go down lower and direct their hatred and anger to where entire streets are groaning with gross ignorance, greed, reproaches, uncleanness... Sitting in a strip of corn, he sees how opponents and seconds have arrived. Two green rays stretch out from behind the mountains, the sun rises. No one knows exactly the rules of a duel; they recall descriptions of duels by Lermontov and Turgenev... Laevsky shoots first; fearing that the bullet might hit von Koren, he fires a shot into the air. Von Koren points the barrel of the pistol directly at Laevsky's face. "He'll kill him!" - the deacon’s desperate cry makes him miss.

Three months pass. On the day of his departure for the expedition, von Koren, accompanied by Samoilenko and the deacon, goes to the pier. Passing by Laevsky's house, they talk about the change that has happened to him. He married Nadezhda Fedorovna, works from morning to evening to pay off his debts... Deciding to enter the house, von Koren extends his hand to Laevsky. He has not changed his beliefs, but admits that he was mistaken about his former opponent. No one knows real truth, he says. Yes, no one knows the truth, agrees Laevsky.

He watches the boat with von Koren overcome the waves and thinks: it’s the same in life... In search of the truth, people take two steps forward, one step back... And who knows? Perhaps they will reach the real truth...

(FROM THE TEXTBOOK)

The literature of the 20s is characterized not only by the difference in the approaches of writers to life’s problems, to the hero of the time, but also stylistic diversity. The artistic searches of writers from the beginning of the century continued. A realistic representation of reality seemed clearly insufficient. E. Zamyatin, writer-theorist, speaking about new literature, coined the term “synthetism”: the coexistence of “the microscope of realism with the telescopic glass of symbolism.”

The increased subjectivity of the artist’s perception made it possible to move away from life-likeness, present an “outline” picture of reality, highlight leitmotifs, and “shift” plans. As an example of such impressionistic prose of the 20s, M. Golubkov considers the works of B. Pilnyak in prose, and the poems of O. Mandelstam in poetry. The main thing in the work, the researcher emphasizes, is not the explanation of a person by circumstances or environment, but the peculiarities of the perception of reality by the writer and his characters. Of particular value in such a text is the moment, today, its significance, its uniqueness. Fiction coexists with everyday life, generalization with concreteness.

Another feature of the new prose was manifested in increased expressiveness, expressive form of phrases, rhythm, and deformation outside world for the sake of understanding the deepest questions of existence. M. Golubkov classifies “We” by E. Zamyatin and “The Pit” by A. Platonov as works created on the basis of expressionistic aesthetics. The grotesque and fantasy of these works help writers to identify the illogicality and absurdity in their contemporary reality.

Many prose works of the 20s were built according to the laws poetic speech. A significant layer of this prose was called “ornamental”. Metaphors, the rhythmic organization of the text, and the narrator’s spoken word—“skaz”—were used interestingly. These features are characteristic of the works of I. Babel.

A stream of colloquial words, dialectisms, neologisms, and speech structures with colloquial syntax and a variety of lively intonations poured into literature.

L. Leonov, for example, turned to the most ancient form of folklore - conspiracies, folk beliefs, fairy-tale and mythological images Ancient Rus', magic spells. “Don’t go into the midnight forests, girls, for berries, men, for firewood, rotten old women, for mushrooms: you will meet a diva, he is a lot of swagger, barks - you will become a stump...”

In the early 20s, there were many officially formed literary organizations and associations with their own press organs. The question of the difference between the intelligentsia and the people. Attempts to form are a failure. Proletkult, founded by Bogdanov. But it emphasizes the independence of literature from the state. Therefore, he conflicted with the authorities. In 1920, Proletkult was deprived of its independence and was included in the People's Commissariat for Education. One of the first groups of proletarian poets was “Forge” (until 1921). The peculiarity of their poetry is posterity and sloganism. Titles of the poems: “Close the ranks!”, “To arms!”, “Behind us!”. The genres also corresponded to the general mood of appeal and praise: hymns, marches, fight songs. The poems contained aphoristic orders, rally expressions, and political formulas. A. Gastev “Poetry of the worker’s blow.” Mechanization.

The poets who left the “Forge” - A. Bezymensky, A. Zharov, N. Kuznetsov - created the group “October” in 1922. The history of the most massive and radical group, RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), begins with it. Goals: strengthening the communist line in proletarian literature, i.e., capable of influencing the psyche and consciousness of the working class and the working masses. A. Bezymensky and D. Bedny. Magazines "On duty". 1928 – the first congress of proletarian writers. L. Averbakh, G. Lelevich, V. Ermilov.

1921-1932 group of peasant writers. 1929 – first congress. Magazines “Trudovaya Niva”, “Zhernov”, “Soviet Land”. Klyuev, Oreshin, Yesenin teamed up with former symbolists Blok and Bely in the group “Scythians”. Peasant poets associated dreams of national identity and the creation of an agricultural paradise with the revolution. The revolution seemed to be a bridge between the past and the future, a “transformation.” Peasant poets polemicized with the slogans of technization, with those who idealized the machine and iron. In iron N. Klyuev saw only an evil force that brings death to man and nature. S. Yesenin also felt something similar. His thin-legged foal (“Sorokoust”) was perceived as a symbol of the unequal dispute between the living beauty of the village and the dead mechanical force of technical progress - the steam locomotive.

The ideas of revolutionary art, understood in their own way, were the main ones for the futurists. As before the revolution, V. Mayakovsky was associated with the futurists. In his “Letter on Futurism” in 1922, he formulated the following objectives:

1. To establish verbal art as the mastery of words, but not as aesthetic stylization.

2. Answer any task posed by modernity. The name of the futuristic magazine "LEF" (Left Front

Arts) is similar to the name of the group united around V. Mayakovsky and O. Brik. Since its members, in addition to poets, included artists, the goal was broadly defined - “to contribute to finding a communist path for all types of art.”

At the end of the 20s, the magazine began to be called “New LEF”, and in the name of the group “left” was replaced by “revolutionary” (REF). But the “front” remained a “front” - the attitude towards struggle remained. After Mayakovsky left this group in 1929, it disbanded.

Compared to the background of politically active organizations, the community of young writers who united in the St. Petersburg House of Arts in the group “Serapion Brothers” at the beginning of 1921 looked like a black sheep: V. Kaverin, M. Zoshchenko, L. Lunts, Vs. Ivanov, N. Nikitin, E. Polonskaya, M. Slonimsky, N. Tikhonov, K. Fedin. E. Zamyatin became their spiritual leader, and M. Gorky became their “patron”. The “Serapies” proclaimed the principle of independence of creativity from the political situation, the principle of the artist’s freedom. Their first joint performance took place in the “Petersburg Collection” (1922) in the almanac “Serapion’s Brothers”. The name was taken from Hoffmann. The alliance with the “hermit Serapion” emphasized the lack of connection with specific revolutionary reality. The main thing was not themes, but images, not revolutionary content, but valuable art in its own right.

Defending the artist’s rights to independence of views and judgments, the “Serapions” were assessed in the official press as “internal emigrants.” The group held on until 1927.

Among the literary groups of the 20s, in which the main attention was paid artistic form, there were imagists. The leader and author of the manifestos was the former futurist V. Shershenevich. This group included R. Ivnev, A. Mariengof, S. Yesenin. From the novels of A. Mariengof and the articles of S. Yesenin, the modern reader can get an idea of ​​the nature of the Imagists’ passion for images, the disputes among them, and the reasons for the departure of S. Yesenin.

The Pereval group arose under the Krasnaya Nov magazine in 1924 and existed, despite criticism, until 1932. Its organizer was the editor-in-chief of this first Soviet Russia thick magazine A. Voronsky; the group included I. Kataev, N. Zarudin, M. Prishvin, N. Ognev, M. Golodny, I. Kasatkin, D. Altauzen, D. Vetrov, D. Kedrin, A. Karavaeva. The task of “Pereval”, formulated by Voronsky, is to resist the “tendentious dullness in prose and superficial whimsicalism in poetry” of proletarian authors.

This attitude did not contradict the unconditional devotion to the revolution. “The good of the revolution is above all, and I have no other postulates,” said A. Voronsky. He, as G. Belaya emphasizes in her book about “The Pass” (“Don Quixotes” of the 20s - M., 1989), protested against turning the theory of class struggle into “a butt with which nails are nailed right and left without any sense and analysis.” The “Perevaltsy” strove in their works to combine depictions of everyday life with fiction, realism with romanticism.

Rappovite critics blamed A. Voronsky for increased attention to “fellow travelers” and neglect of truly revolutionary authors. And he complained about the “revolutionary assurances of quick and quick people”; he said more than once that the distance from a good ideology to a good artistic embodiment of it is quite decent: “Honor and place for communist writers, proletarian writers, but to the extent of their talent. The measure of their creative abilities. A party card is a great thing, but it shouldn’t be waved around inappropriately.”

A fundamentally different understanding of the tasks of art between the Pereval residents and the ideologists of RAPP emerged during the discussion about the “social order”. A. Voronsky’s position was supported by B. Pilnyak: “From the moment when a writer begins to think about how to sew a story onto an idea in order to dress it up, there can be no story... The order for a writer of our era is first of all a social order, for the era extremely tense socially; but in no way is description and system development a mandate.”

A. Voronsky, like B. Pilnyak, was not forgiven for independence. The fight against the “Voronism”, against the “Pilnyakovism” ended with the physical destruction of these and many other writers close to their views in the 30s. And the dispute about the “social order” continued for decades, its echoes were manifested in attempts to connect the pointer of the “party” with the “dictations of the heart.”

A union of several poets in the late 20s was formed under the name OBERIU (Union of Real Art). It included D. Kharms, N. Zabolotsky, K. Vaginov, A. Vvedensky and others. Initially, they called themselves the “school of plane trees.” This was the last literary association in line with the Russian avant-garde, inheriting futurism. It was from the futurists that the Oberiuts borrowed destructive and shocking principles, a passion for phonetic and semantic “absurdity.” The basis of them artistic method was a mockery of the generally accepted, an ironic highlighting of the obvious absurdities of modernity.

The continuator of the Khlebnikov tradition of creating the “self-made word” was Konstantin Vaginov (Wagenheim, 1899-1934). He was a member of many little-known groups, the “Workshop of Poets” of the Acmeists. In the 20s, K. Vaginov published the collection “Journey into Chaos,” and in the early 30s, “Experiments in connecting words through rhythm.”

Proletarian and peasant authors were grouped based on class. The commonality of creative principles united the “Serapions” and “Perevalets”. There were also groups focused on a specific genre. One of these associations of the 20s was the Red Selenites group, which included science fiction writers. The first Soviet science fiction work was A. Obolyaninov’s novel “Red Moon,” published in Berlin in 1920. At the beginning of 1921, A. Lezhnev came up with a program for a new association.

Literary scholars and linguists, participants in S. Vengerov’s university seminar, united into a group, and in 1923 they established the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OSPOYAZ). It included Y. Tynyanov, B. Tomashevsky, V. Shklovsky, B. Eikhenbaum. Members of the society published collections on the theory of poetic language. The method of studying literature that was born out of controversy was dubbed “formalism” by the ideologists of RAPP and for several years was denounced as “alien to Soviet literary science.”

The magazine “Print and Revolution” declared “a war of destruction on formalism.” Of course, the Opoyazovites had mistakes and excesses, but in history Russian literature The importance of the literary books of B. Eikhenbaum, the memoirs of V. Shklovsky, and the historical novels of Yu. Tynyanov is undeniable. Much of the theoretical research of the “formal school” has been adopted by modern scientists.

The October Revolution was perceived differently by cultural and artistic figures. For many it was the greatest event of the century. For others - and among them there was a significant part of the old intelligentsia - the Bolshevik coup was a tragedy leading to the death of Russia.

The poets were the first to respond. Proletarian poets performed hymns in honor of the revolution, assessing it as a holiday of emancipation (V. Kirillov). The concept of remaking the world justified cruelty. The pathos of remaking the world was internally close to the futurists, but the very content of the remaking was perceived by the mime in different ways (from the dream of harmony and universal brotherhood to the desire to destroy order in life and grammar). Peasant poets were the first to express concern about the attitude of the revolution towards people (N. Klyuev). Klychkov predicted the prospects of brutality. Mayakovsky tried to stay on the pathetic wave. In the poems of Akhmatova and Gippius, the theme of robbery and robbery sounded. The death of freedom. Blok saw in the revolution that lofty, sacrificial and pure thing that was close to him. He did not idealize the popular element, he saw its destructive power, but for now he accepted it. Voloshin saw the tragedy of the bloody revolution, the confrontation within the nation, and refused to choose between the whites and the reds.

Voluntary and forced emigrants blamed the Bolsheviks for the death of Russia. The break with the Motherland was perceived as a personal tragedy (A. Remizov)

Journalism often expressed intransigence towards cruelty, repression, and extrajudicial executions. “Untimely Thoughts” by Gorky, letters from Korolenko to Lunacharsky. The incompatibility of politics and morality, the bloody ways of fighting dissent.

Attempts satirical image achievements of the revolutionary order (Zamiatin, Erenburg, Averchenko).

Features of the concept of personality, the idea of ​​the heroes of the time. Increasing the image of the masses, asserting collectivism. Refusal of I in favor of we. The hero was not in himself, but a representative. The lifelessness of the characters gave impetus to the promotion of the slogan “For a living person!” The heroes of early Soviet prose emphasized sacrifice and the ability to abandon the personal. Yu. Libedinsky “Week”. D. Furmanov “Chapaev” (the spontaneous, unbridled in Chapaev is increasingly subordinate to consciousness, idea). A reference work about the working class by F. Gladkov “Cement”. Excessive ideologization, although an attractive hero.

Hero-intellectual. Either he accepted the revolution, or he turned out to be a man of unfulfilled destiny. In “Cities and Years,” Fedin, with the help of Kurt Van, kills Andrei Startsov, because he is capable of betrayal. In Brothers, composer Nikita Karev writes revolutionary music at the end.

A. Fadeev fulfilled the order on time. Having overcome physical weakness, Levinson gains strength to serve the idea. The confrontation between Morozka and Mechik shows the superiority of the working man over the intellectual.

Intellectuals are most often the enemies of the new life. Anxiety about the new person’s attitude.

Among the prose of the 20s, the heroes of Zoshchenko and Romanov stand out. A lot of small people, poorly educated, uncultured. It was the little people who were enthusiastic about destroying the bad old and building the good new. They are immersed in everyday life.

Platonov saw the man thinking hidden person trying to understand the meaning of life, work, death. Vsevolod Ivanov portrayed a man of the masses.

The nature of conflicts. The struggle between the old and new worlds. The NEP is a period of understanding the contradictions between the ideal and real life. Bagritsky, Aseev, Mayakovsky. It seemed to them that ordinary people were becoming masters of life. Zabolotsky (eating man in the street). Babel "Cavalry". Serafimovich’s “Iron Stream” is overcoming spontaneity in favor of conscious participation in the revolution.

The centers of literary emigration first became Berlin, Belgrade, then Paris; in the East - Harbin. Societies were organized; one of the largest is the “Union of Russian Writers and Journalists” in Paris, chaired by I. Bunin. Russian newspapers and magazines were published abroad: in the 1920s - 138 Russian newspapers; in 1924 - 665 books, magazines and collections. Historians of literature from abroad highlight the journal “Modern Notes” (Paris, 1920-1940) as the most significant. The 70 issues of this magazine feature works by I. Bunin and Z. Gippius, K. Balmont and M. Aldanov, A. Remizov and V. Khodasevich, M. Tsvetaeva and I. Shmelev.

The All-Emigrant Congress of Writers took place in 1928 in Belgrade.

In the absence of a general reader main theme emigrant literature was still Russia.

The historical novel, biographical and autobiographical genres were widely represented in emigration. A number of writers acted as critics.

Vladislav Khodasevich(1886-1939) was ready to accept the revolution. However, he very quickly became convinced that the artist was required to adapt to power, regardless of his beliefs. Defending his independence in 1922, Khodasevich left the country of the revolutionary experiment, remaining its citizen. Russia is the main theme of his book of poetry “Heavy Lyre” (1922). The last collection of poetry is “European Night” (1923). The poems conveyed a feeling of emptiness, reflecting the heavy consciousness of the reader's lack of demand. There was no one to write for.

After 1928, V. Khodasevich stopped writing poetry. He creates a book about Derzhavin. In its own way, it was autobiographical - in the fate of Derzhavin and his era, V. Khodasevich saw a lot of “his own”, “today’s”. The most significant thing created by V. Khodasevich in last years life is a collection of articles “About Pushkin” (1937) and the book “Necropolis” (1939), including chapters about remarkable contemporary writers.

Igor Severyanin ( 1887-1942) was elected “King of Poets” in 1918. He was accompanied by the glory of a philistine idol. A. Blok and V. Mayakovsky wrote about I. Severyanin’s poems.

In his poetry, Russia became the main character.

During the years of exile, the northerner wrote ten thematic book-cycles and poetic memoirs.

Georgy Ivanov(1894-1958). In exile, G. Ivanov wrote about love and death, about Russia. A researcher of his poetry, V. Ermilova, notes the complexity of interpreting G. Ivanov’s lyrics, the poet’s refusal of any embellishment. Often his poems, written in exile, are perceived as “the last”, created “at the limit and even beyond the limit of despair.” The poet also refuses religious consolation.

Often, emigrant writers performed journalistic works. Diaries, notes, and memoirs reflected the last impressions received at home, recorded the process or moment of separation, accompanied by thoughts about the prospects of Russia and one’s own destiny: “St. Petersburg Diaries” 3. Gippius, “ Damn days"I. Bunin, "The Word of the Destruction of the Russian Land" by A. Remizov, "The Sun of the Dead" by I. Shmelev.

Poets and prose writers wrote about lost Russia with sadness and tenderness. F. Stepun called this motif “the cult of the Russian birch tree.”

Boris Zaitsev(1884-1972). In the first years after the revolution, he not only witnessed the Red Terror, but also experienced the murder of loved ones. Despite this, he tried to work - he prepared a three-volume collection of his works for publication, translated, organized trade in the Moscow Bookstore, and participated in the activities of the famine relief committee. The latter was the reason for his arrest and imprisonment. After his release, B. Zaitsev left his homeland in 1922. Having lived in exile for half a century, he created whole line works of different genres. Among them are novels, the autobiographical tetralogy “The Journey of Gleb” (1937-1954), the hagiographic narrative “Reverend Sergius of Radonezh” (1925), and biographies of Russian classic writers - Zhukovsky, Turgenev, Chekhov. The main pathos of his books is the comprehension of spirituality.

The literary process of 1917-1929 can be divided into three stages. The first years after the October Revolution are a time of comprehension of the changes that have taken place, orientation in the new reality. This stage ends with the “great exodus” into emigration, and Russian literature turns out to be divided not only territorially. The further we go, the more we realize the loss of our homeland for those who left it and the lack of freedom for those who remained in the fatherland.

The next stage is the years of the NEP, the crisis nature of the perception of reality. At the same time, deepening the analysis and expanding the topic. Turning to history in search of analogies and correspondences. In emigration during these years, the first books about Russia were created. different genres, the finality of the break with her is realized.

In the second half of the 20s, the attack on freedom of creative pursuits became more and more active. Any discrepancy with ideological principles is declared hostile to socialist ideals.

*Now there is an opportunity to look at those events from different perspectives. Books about the civil war: stories by M. Sholokhov, stories by A. Malyshkin, A. Serafimovich, novel by Fadeev. Belonging to one camp or another determined the author’s approach to events. Participants white movement They created their books about Russia while in exile. In the 20s, the series “Revolution and Civil War in Descriptions of the White Guards” was published. Among them are “Essays on Russian Troubles” by Denikin, “From the Double-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner” by Krasnov. Thoughts about the fate of Russia.

Bunin (“Cursed Days”), Gippius “Petersburg Diaries”, Remizov “The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land” wrote about Russia and the revolution. Sarcastic irony was interspersed with a feeling of shame and bitterness. Thoughts of repentance and faith in higher justice helped to overcome apocalyptic moods.

In 1923, V. Zazubrin wrote the story “Sliver”. Its hero Srubov is a man with strong convictions, who considers himself a “scavenger of history.” The subtitle of “Slivers” is “The Tale of Her and Her.” “She” is the heroine of the soul. Revolution. She is a powerful stream carrying splinter people. “Let the taiga be scorched, let the steppes be trampled... After all, only on cement and on iron will the iron brotherhood be built - the union of all people.”

Srubov's willingness to do anything for the sake of an idea turns him into an executioner. This readiness is emphasized by the attitude towards the father. The son did not hear his warnings: “Bolshevism is a temporary, painful phenomenon, a fit of rage into which the majority of the Russian people have fallen.” The endings of “Two Worlds” and “Slivers” have something in common. The first ended with a fire in the church, started by fanatics of the revolutionary idea. The events of the second take place during Easter. “It seems to Srubov that he is floating along a bloody river. Just not on the raft. He has broken away and is swinging on the waves like a lonely sliver.”

Y. Libedinsky (“Week”, 1923), and A. Tarasov-Rodionov (“Chocolate”, 1922) included the motive of doubt and delirium in the story about the uncompromising firmness of adherents of the revolutionary idea.

In a number of works of the early 20s, the hero was the new army itself - the revolutionary crowd, the “multitudes,” heroically minded, striving for victory. The fact that this path was bloody and involved the death of thousands of people was relegated to the background

A. Malyshkin was not an ordinary participant in the fighting in the Crimea region, but a member of the Headquarters. Accordingly, he knew about the losses on both sides, he knew about the mass execution of white officers who were promised life if they surrendered their weapons. But “The Fall of Dire” (1921) is “not about that.” This is a romantic book, stylized as ancient historical stories. “And in the black night, ahead, they saw - not their eyes, but something else - a raised massif, dark from centuries, fierce and prickly, and behind it the wonderful Dair - the blue mists of the valleys, flowering cities, the starry sea.”

In “Cavalry” by I. Babel (1923-1925) they were faced with the reality of the revolutionary dream. The main character of the book (K. Lyutov) occupied a seemingly contemplative position, but was endowed with the right to judge. Lyutov's overwhelming loneliness does not interfere with his sincere desire to understand, if not justify, then try to explain the unpredictable actions of the cavalrymen. Murder is perceived as a punishment coming from all of Russia.

For many writers, both those who accepted the revolution and its opponents, the main motive was the unjustification of the shed rivers of blood.

B. Pilnyak portrayed a man connected with the revolution with ideas and actions, his own and others’ blood. In 1926, The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon was published in Novy Mir and immediately banned. The non-hunching man personifying totalitarian power sent the army commander to his death. Gavrilov, dying on the operating table, also bore the guilt for the shed blood of people. The icy light of the moon illuminated the city.

And at night the moon will emerge. She was not devoured by dogs: She was only not visible because of the bloody fight of people.

These poems by S. Yesenin were written in 1924. The moon appeared in many works of the Techlet; not a single science fiction book could do without it. B. Pilnyak’s unextinguished moon seemed to provide additional light real world- the light is disturbing, alarming.

A historian and observer of the revolution, B. Pilnyak was not delighted with the scale of destruction, but made one feel the threat to all living things, especially to the individual, from the new state machine

Genre diversity and style originality. Memoirs and diaries, chronicles and confessions, novels and stories. Some authors strived for maximum objectivity. Others are characterized by increased subjectivity, emphasized imagery, and expressiveness.*

B. Pasternak philosophically comprehended the essence of events in Russia at the beginning of the century in the novel “Doctor Zhivago.” The hero of the novel finds himself hostage to history, which mercilessly interferes with his life and destroys it. The fate of Zhivago is the fate of the Russian intelligentsia in the 20th century.

Fadeev’s heroes are “ordinary”. The most impressive thing about “Destruction” is its deep analysis of the changes caused by the civil war in spiritual world ordinary person. The image of Morozka clearly demonstrates this. Ivan Morozka was a second generation miner. His grandfather plowed the land, and his father mined coal. From the age of twenty, Ivan rolled trolleys, swore, and drank vodka. He did not look for new paths, he followed the old ones: he bought a satin shirt, chrome boots, played the accordion, fought, walked, stole vegetables for mischief. He was in prison during the strike, but did not extradite any of the instigators. He was at the front in the cavalry, received six wounds and two shell shocks. He is married, but a bad family man, he does everything thoughtlessly, and life seems simple and uncomplicated to him. Morozka did not like clean people; they seemed unreal to him. He believed that they could not be trusted. He himself strove for easy, monotonous work, which is why he did not remain an orderly with Levinson. His comrades sometimes call him “stupid”, “fool”, “sweating devil”, but he is not offended, the matter is most important to him. Morozka knows how to think: she thinks that life is becoming “cunning” and that she must choose the path herself. Having done some mischief in the melon fields, he cowardly ran away, but later he repents and is very worried. Goncharenko defended Morozka at the meeting, called him a “fighting guy” and vouched for him. Morozka swore that he would give his blood, one vein at a time, for each of the miners, that he was ready for any punishment. He was forgiven. When Morozka manages to calm people down at the crossing, he felt like a responsible person. He was able to organize the men, and this pleased him. In the miner's detachment, Morozka was a serviceable soldier and was considered good, the right person. He even tries to fight the terrible desire to drink, he understands that there is external beauty, and there is genuine, spiritual beauty. And when I thought about it, I realized that he had been deceived in his previous life. Party and work, blood and sweat, and nothing good was visible ahead, and it seemed to him that all his life he had been trying to get out on a straight, clear and correct road, but he did not notice the enemy who sat within himself. People like Morozka are reliable, they can make their own decisions and are capable of repentance. And although they Weak Will, they will never commit meanness. They will be able to find a way out of any, even the most hopeless situation. Only before Morozka’s heroic death did he realize that Mechik was a bastard, a cowardly bastard, a traitor who thought only of himself, and the memory of close, dear people who were riding behind him forced him to make self-sacrifice. In works about the civil war, the important idea is that the winner is often not the one who is more conscientious, softer, more sympathetic, but the one who is more fanatical, who is more insensitive to suffering, who is more susceptible to his own doctrine. These works raise the theme of humanism, which is inextricably linked with a sense of civic duty. Commander Levinson took the only pig from a poor Korean man, using weapons, forced the red-haired guy to go into the water for fish, and gave the go-ahead for Frolov’s forced death. All this for the sake of saving the common cause. People suppressed personal interests, subordinating them to duty. This debt crippled many, making them tools in the hands of the party. As a result, people became callous and crossed the line of what was permitted. The “selection of human material” is carried out by the war itself. More often the best die in battle - Metelitsa, Baklanov, Morozka, who managed to realize the importance of the team and suppress his selfish aspirations, and those who remain are Chizh, Pika and the traitor Mechik.

LITERATURE OF THE END OF THE XIX - BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY

More than eighty years ago, Alexander Blok expressed hope for the attention and understanding of his future readers. Fifteen years later, another poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, summing up the results of his literary work, directly addressed his “dear comrades and descendants.” Poets entrust the people of the future with the most important thing: their books, and in them - everything that they strived for, what they thought about, what people who lived in the “beautiful and furious” 20th century felt. And today, when we stand on the threshold of a new millennium, “you, from another generation,” history itself has given the opportunity to see the passing century in a historical perspective and discover Russian literature of the 20th century.

One of the most striking and mysterious pages of Russian culture is the beginning of the century. Today this period is called the “silver age” of Russian literature, following the “golden” XIX, when Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy reigned. But it would be more correct to call the “Silver Age” not all literature, but primarily poetry, as the participants in the literary movement of that era did. Poetry, which was actively looking for new ways of development, for the first time after Pushkin’s era at the beginning of the 20th century. came to the forefront of the literary process. We must remember that the term “Silver Age” is conventional, but it is significant that the very choice of this characteristic paid tribute to its predecessors, primarily A.S. Pushkin (more about this in the chapters on poetry).

However, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. literature developed under different historical conditions than before. If you look for a word that characterizes the most important features of the period under consideration, it will be the word crisis. Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world and led to the paradoxical conclusion: “matter has disappeared.” As E. Zamyatin wrote in the early 20s, “exact science blew up the very reality of matter,” “life itself today has ceased to be flat-real: it is projected not onto the previous fixed, but into dynamic coordinates,” and the most famous things in this new projection seems strangely familiar, fantastic. This means, the writer continues, that new beacons have loomed before literature: from the depiction of everyday life - to existence, to philosophy, to the fusion of reality and fiction, from the analysis of phenomena - to their synthesis. Zamyatin’s conclusion that “realism has no roots” is fair, although unusual at first glance, if by realism we mean “one bare image of everyday life.” A new vision of the world, thus, will determine the new face of realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors in its “modernity” (definition by I. Bunin). The emerging trend towards the renewal of realism at the end of the 19th century. V.V. astutely noted Rozanov. “...After naturalism, a reflection of reality, it is natural to expect idealism, insight into its meaning... The centuries-old trends of history and philosophy - this is what will probably become in the near future the favorite subject of our study... Politics in in a high sense this word, in the sense of penetration into the course of history and influence on it, and Philosophy as the need of a perishing soul greedily grasping for salvation - this is the goal that irresistibly attracts us to itself...” wrote V.V. Rozanov (my italics - L. T.).

The crisis of faith had devastating consequences for the human spirit (“God is dead!” exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that a person of the 20th century. He began to increasingly experience the influence of irreligious and, what is truly scary, immoral ideas, for, as Dostoevsky predicted, if there is no God, then “everything is permissible.” The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology of Evil and death, the glorification of the self-will of the individual, the recognition of the right to violence, which turned into terror - all these features, testifying to the deepest crisis of consciousness, will be characteristic not only of the poetry of modernists.

At the beginning of the 20th century. Russia was shaken by acute social conflicts: the war with Japan, the first World War, internal contradictions and, as a result, the scope of the popular movement and revolution. The clash of ideas intensified, political movements and parties were formed that sought to influence the minds of people and the development of the country. All this could not but cause a feeling of instability, the fragility of existence, a tragic discord between a person and himself. “Atlantis” - such a prophetic name will be given to the ship on which the drama of life and death will unfold, I. Bunin in the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, emphasizing the tragic overtones of the work with a description of the Devil watching over people's destinies.

Each literary era has its own system of values, a center (philosophers call it axiological, value-centered), to which all paths of artistic creativity one way or another converge. Such a center, which determined many of the distinctive features of Russian literature of the 20th century, was History with its unprecedented socio-historical and spiritual cataclysms, which drew everyone into its orbit - from a specific person to the people and the state. If V.G. Belinsky called his 19th century primarily historical; this definition is even more true in relation to the 20th century with its new worldview, the basis of which was the idea of ​​an ever-accelerating historical movement. Time itself once again brought to the fore the problem of Russia's historical path and forced us to look for an answer to the prophetic Pushkin's question: “Where are you galloping, proud horse, and where will you put your hooves down?” The beginning of the 20th century was filled with predictions of “unprecedented riots” and “unheard of fires”, a premonition of “retribution,” as A. Blok prophetically said in his unfinished poem of the same name. B. Zaitsev’s idea is well known that everyone was hurt (“wounded”) by revolutionism, regardless of their political attitude to the events. “Through the revolution as a state of mind” - this is how he defined modern explorer one of the characteristic features of a person’s “well-being” of that time. The future of Russia and the Russian people, the fate of moral values ​​in a turning point in history, the connection of man with real history, the incomprehensible “variegation” national character- not a single artist could escape answering these “damned questions” of Russian thought. Thus, in the literature of the beginning of the century, not only did the traditional interest in history for Russian art manifest itself, but a special quality of artistic consciousness was formed, which can be defined as historical consciousness. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to look for direct references to specific events, problems, conflicts, and heroes in all works. History for literature is, first of all, its “secret thought”; it is important for writers as an impetus for thinking about the mysteries of existence, for comprehending the psychology and life of the spirit of “historical man”.

But the Russian writer would hardly have considered himself to have fulfilled his destiny if he had not searched for himself (sometimes difficultly, even painfully) and offered his understanding of a way out to a person in a crisis era.

Without the sun we would be dark slaves,

It is beyond understanding that there is a radiant day.

K. Balmont

A person who has lost integrity, in a situation of a global crisis of spirit, consciousness, culture, social order, and the search for a way out of this crisis, the desire for an ideal, harmony - this is how one can define the most important directions of artistic thought of the border era.

Literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries. - a phenomenon that is extremely complex, acutely conflicting, but also fundamentally united, since all directions Russian art developed in a common social and cultural atmosphere and answered in their own way the same difficult questions raised by time. For example, not only the works of V. Mayakovsky or M. Gorky, who saw a way out of the crisis in social transformations, are imbued with the idea of ​​​​rejection of the surrounding world, but also the poems of one of the founders of Russian symbolism, D. Merezhkovsky:

So life as a nothingness is terrible,

And not even struggle, not torment,

But only endless boredom and quiet horror.

The lyrical hero of A. Blok expressed the confusion of a person leaving the world of familiar, established values ​​“into the damp night”, having lost faith in life itself:

Night, street, lantern, pharmacy,

Pointless and dim light.

Live for at least another quarter of a century -

Everything will be like this. There is no outcome.

How scary everything is! How wild! - Give me your hand, Comrade, friend! Let's forget ourselves again!

If the artists were mostly unanimous in their assessment of the present, contemporary writers answered the question about the future and ways to achieve it differently. The symbolists went into the “Palace of Beauty” created by the creative imagination, into mystical “other worlds”, into the music of verse. M. Gorky placed hope in the mind, talent, and active principles of man, who sang the power of Man in his works. The dream of human harmony with the natural world, of the healing power of art, religion, love and doubts about the possibility of realizing this dream permeate the books of I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, L. Andreev. I felt like the “voice of the street without language” lyrical hero V. Mayakovsky, who took on his shoulders the entire burden of rebellion against the foundations of the universe (“down with it!”). The ideal of Rus' is “the country of birch chintz”, the idea of ​​​​the unity of all living things is heard in the poems of S. Yesenin. With faith in the possibility of social reconstruction of life and a call with my own hands Proletarian poets began to forge the “keys of happiness.” Naturally, literature did not give its answers in a logical form, although the journalistic statements of writers, their diaries, and memoirs are also extremely interesting, without which it is impossible to imagine Russian culture at the beginning of the century. A feature of the era was the parallel existence and struggle of literary trends, uniting writers with similar ideas about the role of creativity, the most important principles of understanding the world, approaches to depicting personality, preferences in the choice of genres, styles, and forms of storytelling. Aesthetic diversity and a sharp demarcation of literary forces became a characteristic feature of the literature of the beginning of the century.

1. The central place is given to the symbol*
2. The desire for a higher ideal prevails
3. A poetic image is intended to express the essence of a phenomenon
4. Characteristic reflection of the world in two planes: real and mystical
5. Sophistication and musicality of verse

Main literary trends

Literature of the 20th century

Literature of the 20th century

Periodization of 20th century literature

silver Age

Historical situation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century

The most important historical events in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century

"Cultural Renaissance"

Main literary movements of the 20th century

Critical realism (XIX century - early XX century)

Realist writers

Writers are realists

Decadence (late 19th - early 20th centuries)

Decadent lyrics

Decadent lyrics

Modernism (from French moderne - modern)

Silver Age - poetry of the early 20th century.

Symbolism (1870-1910)

Senior Symbolists

Young Symbolists

What is the difference?

Valery Bryusov “Woman”

Acmeism (formed in 1910)

Acmeists

Anna Akhmatova “Before spring there are days like this”

Futurism (early 1910)

Futurists

Velimir Khlebnikov "The Spell of Laughter"

Socialist realism (October 1917)

Beyond literary styles and trends

Beyond literary styles and trends

Beyond literary styles and trends

Literature of the early 20th century

Literature of the early 20th century

The literature of the Silver Age is a worthy successor of the Golden Age, its classical directions and traditions. It also opens up many new literary movements, artistic techniques, but most importantly, it gave talented writers and poets the opportunity to show their capabilities and demonstrate their talent. The change from one era to another presupposes not only the inheritance of previous achievements, but also, to some extent, the negation of the old, its rethinking. XX gives birth to completely new literary trends, which, in particular, include: avant-garde, socialist realism and modernism. Previous art systems– somehow realism and romanticism still remained popular and in demand among readers.

The development of literature of the 20th century was significantly influenced by political situation in the country, the established culture, as well as various philosophical trends - on the one hand, these were the ideas of Russian religious philosophy, on the other, the works of Marxist ideology in close connection with Bolshevik politics.

The new political system and the idea of ​​Marxism embedded in it led to strict censorship in all spheres of cultural life, including literature. In this regard, it ceases to be a single whole and is divided into several streams: Soviet literature, emigrant literature, prohibited literature. The reader of that time could not even imagine all the scale national literature, the directions of which were completely isolated from each other. Fortunately, today there is an opportunity to get acquainted and thoroughly study all the richness and great diversity of Russian literature of the 20th century.

In the process of formation and development of Silver Age literature, it is customary to distinguish the following four periods:

1. end of the 19th century – beginning of the 20th century
2. 20-30s of the XX century
3. 1940s – mid-1950s
4. mid 50s – 1990s.

One of the central themes of literary works of that time is the theme of the Motherland, the fate of Russia, which found itself at the crossroads of eras. Particular interest arises in the problem of human nature, the question of national life and national character. Solutions to these problems are presented by writers of different directions in different ways. Realists adhere to social aspects, and also actively use concrete historical techniques to study the subject of interest to them. This approach was followed by such famous figures as I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev and others.

Modernist writers solved the problem differently - using philosophical laws and elements of fantasy, thereby moving as far as possible from the realities of simple life. Symbolists represented by F. Sologub and A. Bely also offered their own answers to the questions posed in the literature of the 20th century. Representatives of expressionism in the person of L. Andreev and other famous authors were also engaged in the same thing.

In a young and seething stream artistic images and the brilliant ideas of the writer’s thought, a completely new hero is born, a “continuously growing” man, forced to fight and win in an ongoing war with his oppressive and overwhelming environment. This is the very classic character of Maxim Gorky - the hero of socialist realism.

The 20th century marked the peak of the rise of social literature, in which almost every aspect of social life has a deep philosophical meaning and is of a global spiritual nature.

The main characteristic features of Silver Age literature are the following:

Addressing eternal questions: discussions about the meaning of life, the place of each person in society and all humanity as a whole; the essence of national character; religion; relationship between man and nature.

Search and discovery of new artistic means and techniques;

The emergence of new literary movements, far from realism: modernism, avant-garde;

Movement towards maximum proximity literary families, rethinking the classic types of the genre, giving them new meaning and content.

• Jumping - report on physical education

  A jump can be called a whole process that proceeds in the following order: the animal, using the strength of its lower limbs, pushes off from the ground, then moves in the air for some distance. Life and creativity of Daniil Granina

  Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin is a famous Soviet writer and screenwriter. In addition to his creative activities, Granin was public figure, was awarded both State awards of the USSR