The “Golden Age” was prepared by the entire previous development of Russian culture. Since the beginning of the 19th century, an unprecedentedly high patriotic upsurge has been observed in Russian society, which intensified even more with the outbreak of the Patriotic War of 1812. It contributed to a deepening of understanding of national characteristics and the development of citizenship. Art actively interacted with public consciousness, shaping it into a national one. The development of realistic tendencies and national cultural traits intensified.
A cultural event of colossal importance, contributing to the growth of national self-awareness, was the appearance of “The History of the Russian State” by N.M. Karamzin. Karamzin was the first who, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, felt that the most important problem in Russian culture of the coming 19th century would be the definition of its national self-identity.
Following Karamzin was Pushkin, who was solving the problem of correlating his national culture with other cultures. This was followed by the “philosophical letter” of P.Ya. Chaadaev – philosophy of Russian history, who initiated the discussion between Slavophiles and Westerners. One of them is culturally original, focused on identifying the deep mechanisms of national culture and consolidating the most stable, unchanging values. And the other opinion is modernization, aimed at changing the content of national culture, including it in the global cultural process.
Literature occupied a special place in the culture of the “golden age”. Literature has become a synthetic cultural phenomenon and turned out to be a universal form of social consciousness, fulfilling the mission of the social sciences.
By the middle of the 19th century, Russian culture became increasingly known in the West. N.I. Lobachevsky, who laid the foundation for modern ideas about the structure of the universe, became the first scientist to become famous abroad. P. Merimee discovered Pushkin to Europe. Gogol's auditor was appointed in Paris. In the second half of the 19th century, the European and world fame of Russian culture increased, primarily thanks to the works of Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky.
In addition, painting, architecture and music developed in the 19th century.
Painting: Repin, Savrasov, Polenov, Vrubel, Surikov, Levitan, Serov.
Architecture: Rossi, Beauvais, Gilardi, Ton, Vasnetsov.
Music: Mussorgsky, Rimsky - Korsakov, Tchaikovsky.
It is impossible not to note the period of the “Silver Age”, which also captured the beginning of the 20th century. This is a historical time since the 90s. XIX century until 1922, when the “philosophical ship” with the most prominent representatives of the creative intelligentsia of Russia left for Europe. The culture of the “Silver Age” was influenced by Western culture, Shakespeare and Goethe, ancient and Orthodox mythology, French symbolism, Christian and Asian religion. At the same time, the culture of the “Silver Age” is a unique Russian culture, manifested in the creativity of its talented representatives.
What new did this period give to Russian world culture?
Firstly, this is the mentality of a sociocultural person, liberating from thinking permeated with politics, sociality as a cliché canon that prevents one from thinking and feeling freely, individually. The concept of the philosopher V. Solovyov, calling for the need for active cooperation between Man and God, becomes the basis of a new worldview of part of the intelligentsia. This aspiration is towards the God-man, seeking inner integrity, unity, Good, Beauty, Truth.
Secondly, the “Silver Age” of Russian philosophy is a time of rejection of “social man”, an era of individualism, interest in the secrets of the psyche, and the dominance of the mystical principle in culture.
Thirdly, the “Silver Age” is distinguished by the cult of creativity as the only possibility of a breakthrough to new transcendental realities, overcoming the eternal Russian “binary” - the holy and the bestial, Christ and Antichrist.
Fourthly, Renaissance is a non-random term for this sociocultural era. History has highlighted its “core” significance for the mentality of the time, its insights and predictions. The “Silver Age” became the most fruitful stage for philosophy and cultural studies.
This is a literally sparkling cascade of names, ideas, characters: N. Berdyaev, V. Rozanov, S. Bulgakov, L. Karsavin, A. Losev and others.
Fifthly, the “Silver Age” is an era of outstanding artistic discoveries, new directions that gave an unprecedented variety of names of poets, prose writers, painters, composers, and actors. A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Mayakovsky, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Akhmatova, I. Stravinsky, A. Scriabin, M. Chagall and many more names.
The Russian intelligentsia played a special role in the culture of the “Silver Age”, in fact being its focus, embodiment and meaning. In the well-known collections “Milestones”, “Change of Milestones”, “From the Depths” and others, the question of her tragic fate as a socio-cultural problem of Russia was raised. “We are dealing with one of the fatal topics that holds the key to understanding Russia and its future,” G. Fedotov insightfully wrote in his treatise “The Tragedy of the Intelligentsia.”
The artistic level, discoveries and discoveries in Russian philosophical thought, literature and art of the “Silver Age” gave a creative impetus to the development of domestic and world culture. According to D.S. Likhachev, “we gave the West the beginning of our century”...
Understanding the role of man in the world around him as a “divine” mission laid the foundation for a fundamentally new humanism, where the tragedy of existence is essentially overcome through the acquisition of a new meaning in life, a new goal setting. The cultural treasury of the “Silver Age” has invaluable potential in the path of Russia today and tomorrow.
Glossary:
Worldliness– the departure of culture from church traditions and giving it a secular, civil character.
Questions for control:
1. What and how were the tendencies of secularization expressed in Russian culture of the 17th century?
2. What positive and negative consequences did the reforms of Peter I bring to Russian culture?
3. What cultural events of enormous importance contributed to the growth of national consciousness in the 19th century?
4. List the main representatives of the art of the “golden age”.
5. What new did the “Silver Age” period give to Russian and world culture?
“Champions in the hundred and ten thousand meters are always different People. You can't be the strongest and the most graceful at the same time.
The giants of the Golden Age turned up mountains and paved roads: they created a literary landscape. And the descendants will live in it. Sighs make mother-of-pearl buttons fly off cambric shirts. Following the classics, you are an epigone. Stung by the comparison, geniuses turned to park art. You build your plot, plan a terrace, a lake spills over the dam of a stream, and the banks are planted with rose bushes. The Silver Age is coming.
The aristocratic ancestors were hefty bandits, they blew their noses on the floor, ate with their hands, did not know how to read, but knew how to instantly turn to one side any snout they didn’t like and take away a lot of money from everyone who was weaker. The descendants, proud of their knightly pedigree, valued grace of manners, mastery of etiquette and the white skin of small hands and feet - in contrast to the louts.
The aristocrats of the Silver Age are proud of the aesthetics of a refined style, the non-banality of linguistic figures, and a polished slice of psychological analysis: the mind is edible, the education is sophisticated, the skill is brought to the balancing act. This is reminiscent of the first and satiated lover of the world in comparison with the first lunatic stallion of the village: it smells fragrant, inflames with a subtle game and knows a hundred ways, but he himself knows that he cannot pull it out six times in a row and with a ringing sound.
The Golden Age values creativity more - Silver Shine.
A funny thing: Silver recognizes the superiority of Gold, moreover, he declares it as already unattainable, Olympic, affirming his involvement and loyalty to great peaks. But he strives to measure these peaks with his own ruler, looking for and declaring the brilliance of the form where it was not required or implied. Nauseating clumsiness of the tongue Dostoevsky They strive to declare it a style: since a great writer means a brilliant stylist. They want to see the first Russian novel “Eugene Onegin” as the pinnacle of poetic form - the Great National Poet could not help but write exceptionally brilliant poetry.
It doesn't matter that these poems are intentionally simple and grounded, that Pushkin created normal human intonation in Russian poetry - in the negation and opposition of “high and poetic” intonation: pathetic, pathetic, “highly romantic”, ponderous classicist. "Brilliant simplicity"? We put emphasis on “brilliant,” which means look for a hundred secret bottoms. The genius was to think of this, to decide on this, to go against tradition, earning the unanimous censure of contemporary criticism: alas, they say, a fall, an example of a low style, a primitive, where-where it is, the romantic charm of the early poems. The form is simple, but it was not easy to enter it or approve it. No, says Serebryany: if you are a genius, look for genius in the form itself. And generations of schoolchildren angrily learn hypocrisy and conformism, racking their brains: what’s so brilliant about Onegin’s stanza?
Never mind. Regular meter, regular words in regular combinations, regular rhyme system, and the rhymes are mostly primitive. And there is, strictly speaking, no poetry in Onegin, but there is prose, presented in a “poetry” form. And it was considered Pushkin contemporaries not the first, but the third poet of the era - after Krylova And Zhukovsky.
It was only after Pushkin that it became impossible to write as before: unnaturally, pompously, heavily, with romantic beauty. A standard was presented and driven into the road like a milestone: measure the movement from here.
And a Frenchman, a Spaniard, a German, an Englishman will never understand: what is brilliant in this story about the love and unluckiness of a bored aristocrat? And where is the depth of thought, and where is the originality of anything? Well, a banal story told in ordinary verse. And they will present samples from their literature - which were before Onegin, and were more original, and deeper, and with brilliance. And, mind you, they will be almost completely right.
Any normal poet can now write a second “Eugene Onegin”. And he will not gain fame. And no one will call him a genius. Because even the second one is no longer the second one, but one of many, and only the first one matters. Any fool learned the theorem at school Pythagoras, but a genius created it.
That is. Do not look for a genius of form or even a genius of thought in a giant. The genius of the giant is that many, it seems, could do this - but he did something that had not been done before, and he alone did it. And after that it was not the same as before. In literature - so.
Gold - melts ore and forges a blade. Silver - polishes and applies a pattern. Don't try to declare Golden a grinding genius! He's had enough of his achievements.
The Golden Ones remain throughout the centuries - whether they master polishing or not. Creativity, the creation of new worlds, is the basic essence of Art. Clumsiness will be forgiven and they may even learn not to see it, and even declare it “so polished.” But creative low-potency cannot be compensated for by any amount of polishing.
Thought, image, nerve, world - the essence of literature.”
Weller M.I., Aesthetics of energy evolutionism, M., “Ast”, 2010, p. 369-371.
The “Golden Age” was also mentioned by ancient poets and philosophers: Hesiod classified the periods of human development, Ovid spoke ironically about the passion of his contemporaries for money. Subsequently, the heyday of Roman literature and culture, which occurred in the 1st century BC, was associated with the noble metal. e.
In modern history, this metaphor was first found by Pyotr Aleksandrovich Pletnev, speaking about the golden age of Russian poetry, represented by Zhukovsky, Baratynsky, Batyushkov and Pushkin. Subsequently, this definition began to be used in relation to all Russian literature of the 19th century, excluding its last 10 years. They also show the first quarter of the 20th century. It was the “Silver Age”.
How does the Silver Age differ from the Golden Age, besides chronology and, accordingly, the defining work of different authors? Modern cultural studies strives to bring these concepts onto a single plane, but the literary tradition still differentiates them: poetry is marked with silver, and the literature of the era as a whole is marked with gold. Therefore, encyclopedias and textbooks previously spoke about the golden age of Russian literature and the silver age of Russian poetry. Today, both periods can be viewed through the prism of culture as a whole, but it is worth recognizing: prose fell into decline at the beginning of the 20th century, so the galaxy of stars of this time was almost exclusively poetic.
Comparison
For those who have mastered the school curriculum in literature, it is enough to name some of the names of writers representing one or another literary era:
This list, of course, is far from complete, because the definitions under consideration relate specifically to time periods and have long lost their evaluative nature, so the work of any author of the Pushkin era belongs to the golden age, the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. - silver. But the school curriculum makes us hope that there will be no unfamiliar names among those listed.
Rewarding a period of time with precious metal is the prerogative of the heirs. Pushkin and his contemporaries-poets did not know that Pletnev would call their time the “golden age”; Tolstoy and Dostoevsky did not imagine that it was possible to put such different works and such different authors on the same level. It was the grateful descendants who paid tribute.
With the “Silver Age” it is more complicated: this is how Ivanov-Razumnik defined his own era, and his terminology was clearly derogatory in nature - in comparison with the Golden Age, he spoke about the degradation of poetry and the weakness of new authors. Other philosophers, Berdyaev, for example, considered this time a period of cultural renaissance, the Russian literary revival. The poets themselves did not perceive second place on the pedestal positively: the turn of the century bore a touch of modernity, which outgrew the classics and sought completely new sources of inspiration and forms of self-expression. Subsequently, emigrant Nikolai Otsup introduced the definition of “Silver Age” into literary criticism, uniting 30 years of Russian modernism.
The Golden Age coincided with the formation of a literary tradition, the creation and development of a literary language and cultural landscape. Derzhavin's pathos and pathos, the "high spheres of versification" of classicism were replaced by Pushkin's simplicity of style and "biography." Sentimentalism and romanticism flourished in poetry, by the middle of the century realistic prose was rapidly developing, and social and philosophical issues occupied the foreground.
The Silver Age honed the mastery of words and created intricate patterns: before the 1917 revolution, trends, directions, and styles in literature only multiplied, as did the number of recognized, published authors. Acmeism, symbolism, imagism, futurism, and the avant-garde brought new characters to the stage.
Cultural and literary processes do not occur outside of historical processes. What is the difference between the Silver and Golden Ages? First of all, it is worth keeping in mind that the change of centuries is always a turning point. The beginning of the 20th century was accompanied by the formation and development of the revolutionary movement, so the feeling of the imminent collapse of the Russian Empire intensified proportionally. Technological progress has gained unprecedented speed, the development of science and industry has caused economic growth and a crisis of faith. In literature (and art in general) there has been a kind of revaluation of values: the poet-citizen has given way to the poet-person.
The difference between the Silver Age and the Golden Age can also be found in the social plane. The latter, despite populism, the abolition of serfdom, the consequences of Herzen's awakening and the growth of public consciousness, was a century of nobility. Accordingly, the vast majority of authors of that era belonged to the aristocratic elite. The Silver Age was carved out by the hands of the intelligentsia from different social strata, including the “new peasants”. Education became more accessible, the cultural movement embraced all classes and regions, and provincialism ceased to be an obstacle to fame.
The Golden Age ended with predictable decline and creative stagnation. The time has come for publicists: education required high-quality informative periodicals, fiction temporarily ceased to dominate minds. Silver turned out to be a very difficult and ambiguous thirtieth anniversary, extremely eventful. Its heyday was first rudely interrupted by the revolution of 1917, and then interrupted by the first wave of emigration. In the chaos of the formation of a new state, art and literature underwent dramatic changes.
Table
| silver Age | Golden age |
| Includes the period of the history of Russian literature from XIX – AD. XX centuries (until the 20s) | Includes all Russian literature of the 19th century. |
| Generally speaking, it can be described as the era of modernity | Determined by the work of poets of Pushkin’s era, the prose of Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky |
| The flourishing of poetic creativity | Prose replaces poetry by the middle of the period |
| Initially, the definition of “Silver Age” was given by contemporaries in a negative assessment of literary processes | The period was called the “Golden Age” by critics from the next generation |
| Represented by acmeism, symbolism, imagism, futurism and other literary movements united by modernity | Represented by sentimentalism, romanticism and realism |
| United the creative intelligentsia of different social strata | Included the creativity of the aristocracy (nobility) |
| Interrupted by the 1917 revolution, the Civil War and mass emigration | Ended in gradual decline, fiction gave way to journalism |
Poetry about poetry: Golden and Silver centuries of Russian culture Plan Introduction. Two eras The theme of poetry in the works of some authors: Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin Valery Bryusov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov Anna Akhmatova Vladimir Solovyov Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky Conclusion Sources Disclaimer (Renunciation)
In general, I believe that any analysis of a literary work, including (and even more so!) a poem, is a destruction, a coarsening of the original figurative content, which not only does not help to feel what the author put into it, but, on the contrary, prevents one from doing so. Such methods are more suitable for history, but literature must be felt. This, of course, is just my opinion, but still in this work I will try to make sure that there is as little analysis as possible, but there will be poems themselves, poems, poems again and a little of my near-historical and near-literary comments.
Introduction. Two eras
The study and comparison of poetry from two different eras is unthinkable without connection with history - with those events that, at times, decisively influenced the destinies and worldviews of poets.
So, the Golden and Silver centuries, two “Russian renaissances”, two flashes of light among millennia of darkness and greyness.…
The nineteenth century is, of course, the Patriotic War of 1812, which could be called “World War Zero,” the Battle of Borodino, the confrontation between Westerners and Slavophiles, the Decembrist uprising, the reforms of Alexander II, the abolition of serfdom, the Crimean War, the defense of Sevastopol, populism. .. These are the names of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Solovyov...
The twentieth century, or rather its beginning, is completely different, but equally contradictory. The main events here: two revolutions that turned all of Russia upside down, which can be compared not even to a storm, but to the fall of a huge meteorite or comet. Many trends are emerging in literature, and primarily in poetry: from symbolism, which took a lot from the Golden Age, to futurism, which demands “Abandon Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. and so on. from the Steamboat of Modernity” (from the almanac “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste”).
There were different directions and schools, they differed in many ways, but some themes attracted the attention of all poets. One of them is about the purpose of creativity, and indeed the life of the Poet himself... One might say, poetry is about poetry...
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799–1836)
Perhaps Pushkin’s attitude to our topic can be most clearly seen in his poems “Echo”, “Prophet” and “Monument”. Without adhering to chronology, let's start with “Echo”:
Does the beast roar in the deep forest,
Is the horn blowing, is the thunder roaring,
Is the maiden behind the hill singing?
For every sound...
Your response in the empty air
You'll suddenly give birth
You listen to the roar of thunder,
And the voice of the storm and the waves,
And the cry of rural shepherds -
And you send an answer;
You don’t have any feedback... That’s it
And you, poet!
Here we are talking about the “technical” side of the issue: the poet’s task is to reflect this world, with all its beauty and ugliness, with all its paradoxes and contradictions, without inventing anything, but only refracting reality through himself. There is a certain hint of the tragic fate of the poet: this theme, then developed by Lermontov, is represented by just one line: “You don’t have a response...”
There is not a word here about the social significance of art... This topic will appear later, in “Monument,” but more on that below. Now I would like to recall the poem “Prophet”, which is close in concept to “Echo”:
Prophet
We are tormented by spiritual thirst,
In the dark desert I dragged myself, -
And the six-armed seraph
He appeared to me at a crossroads.
With fingers as light as a dream,
He touched my eyes.
The prophetic eyes have opened,
Like a frightened eagle.
He touched my ears,
And they were filled with noise and ringing:
And I heard the sky tremble,
And the heavenly flight of angels,
And the reptile of the sea underwater,
And the vegetation of the distant vine,
And he came to my lips
And my sinner tore out my tongue,
And idle and crafty,
And the sting of the wise snake
My frozen lips
He put it with his bloody right hand.
And he cut my chest with a sword,
And took out my trembling heart
And coal blazing with fire,
I pushed the hole into my chest.
I lay like a corpse in the desert.
And God’s voice called to me:
“Rise up, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb
The identification of the poet with the prophet somewhat changes the classical ideas: there is no muse, but there is a “voice of God,” calling with a “verb” to burn “the hearts of people,” the source of inspiration is God, and the poet answers only to God. Another feeling: the pain, the incredible complexity of becoming a Poet is also very characteristic of this topic.
The poem “Monument” occupies a special place in Pushkin’s work, and in general in the topic “poet and poetry”
Monument
Exegi monumentum
I erected a monument to myself, not made by hands,
The people's path to him will not be overgrown,
He ascended higher with his rebellious head
Alexandrian Pillar.
No, all of me will not die - the soul is in the treasured lyre
My ashes will survive and decay will escape -
And I will be glorious as long as I am in the sublunary world
At least one piit will be alive.
Rumors about me will spread throughout Great Rus',
And every tongue that is in it will call me,
And the proud grandson of the Slavs, and the Finn, and now wild
Tunguz, and friend of the steppes Kalmyk.
And for a long time I will be so kind to the people,
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That in my cruel age I glorified freedom
And he called for mercy for the fallen.
By the command of God, O muse, be obedient,
Without fear of insult, without demanding a crown,
Praise and slander were accepted indifferently,
And don't challenge a fool
Why does this poem deserve our special attention? For several reasons: firstly, it was written in 1836 and, in fact, sums up the poet’s entire life. A lot is said here: about the immortality of art, about its goals (“And for a long time I will be so kind to the people / That feelings kind I awakened with the lyre…”), the theme of the Divine gift touched upon in “The Prophet” (“By the command of God, O muse, be obedient”) is repeated, and not only that.
Secondly, this one of translations of “Ad Melpomena” (“To Melpomene”) by Horace, therefore there are many similar poems in Russian literature, and comparisons can be easily made using their example. So, having thrown “Monument” like a bridge (pardon the pun), we move on to the Silver Age: Valery Bryusov.
Valery Bryusov (1873–1924) Monument
My monument stands, composed of consonant stanzas.
Already from the first line, one can feel the difference from Pushkin’s poem: here the monument is “composed of consonant stanzas” - this is the legacy of the poet, his poems. Pushkin was closer to the original meaning of this word: his monument is a memory of the poet’s merits, that is, the consequences of his poems, and not the poems themselves.
Scream, go on a rampage - you won’t be able to bring him down!
The note of struggle, of opposing something, as we will see later, is very characteristic of the Silver Age. This is not surprising - although Pushkin wrote about his time as “cruel,” in terms of its turbulence it cannot be compared with the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Apparently, even then the atmosphere of “unfreedom of speech” was felt, when a poet is the most dangerous profession for a person...
The following lines are characteristic of symbolism:
And all camps are fighters, and people of different tastes,
In the poor man's closet and in the king's palace,
Here we are talking about the fact that poetry (will/should be) understandable to all people, regardless of nationality, social status and other artificial attributes.
Rejoicing, they will call me Valery Bryusov,
Talking about friendship with a friend.
Personification, individuality, expressed in the direct mention of the author’s name is also characteristic of symbolism.
Here is another poem by Bryusov, characteristic of his time:
To the young poet
A pale young man with a burning gaze,
Now I give you three covenants:
First accept: don’t live in the present,
Only the future is the domain of the poet.
Remember the second: don’t sympathize with anyone,
Love yourself infinitely.
Third keep: worship art
Only to him, thoughtlessly, aimlessly.
A pale young man with a confused look!
If you accept my three covenants,
Silently I will fall as a defeated fighter,
Knowing that I will leave the poet in the world.
Somewhat strange, at first glance (?), statements: “don’t live in the present”, “don’t sympathize with anyone”, “love yourself... love yourself infinitely”... The third testament, about worshiping art (maybe Truth? Then “no one” seems more logical). don’t sympathize” - be impartial, but in any case, just a guess...). The last two lines: “Silently I will fall as a defeated fighter / Knowing that I will leave the poet in the world.” draw a parallel between art and... war, strange as it may sound...
I’ll try to explain the first “testament”, as I understand it: it was not by chance that the time of the Silver Age gave birth to so many great people. The fact is that at that moment the fate of Russia, its future, was being decided, and any influence, any indignation could change it in one direction or another. This is the influence the Poet must have, trying to direct the process of natural development; it is because of this that he must “not live in the present” and that is why at such a point of bifurcation, a break, as the beginning of the twentieth century, a poetic surge occurred.
Lermontov described a very difficult time, somewhat similar to the time of Bryusov. Let's move on to it...
Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov (1814–1841)
Both life and work of Lermontov are permeated with tragedy. It is enough to take at least one of his poems, and we will see pain, torment, suffering there. Poems about poetry are no exception. For example, “Prophet”:
Prophet
Since the eternal judge
The prophet gave me omniscience,
I read in people's eyes
Pages of malice and vice.
I began to proclaim love
And the truth is pure teachings:
All my neighbors are in me
They threw stones wildly.
I sprinkled ashes on my head,
I fled the cities as a beggar,
And so, I live in the desert,
Like birds, God's gift of food;
Keeping the Eternal Covenant
The earthly creature is submissive to me;
And the stars listen to me
Joyfully playing with rays.
When through the noisy hail
I'm making my way in a hurry
That's what the elders tell their children
With a proud smile:
“Look: here is an example for you!
He was proud and did not get along with us:
Fool, he wanted to assure us,
What God says through his lips!
Look, children, at him:
How gloomy and thin and pale he is!
Look how naked and poor he is,
How everyone despises him!”
Judging by the title and beginning (“Since the eternal judge /
He gave me the omniscience of the prophet...”), this poem is a continuation of Pushkin’s “The Prophet,” but the theme here is completely different, purely Lermontovian: Pushkin’s lack of response from the reader (“You have no response...”) here turns into open hostility, contempt, even hatred . Alas, apparently, this was really what Lermontov’s time was like. But this is not the main thing, the problem of the lack of a Reader capable of understanding creativity was, most likely, for all Poets: the worst thing is that if Pushkin and Bryusov could try to change something, change their time with their own creativity, and we see this in their poems, then Lermontov does not have this. Probably, his mission was to carry art through this darkness, to pass on the cultural heritage further, so that later the poems of Tyutchev, Fet and then Solovyov, Akhmatova, even the futurists appeared: although they called for renouncing the classics, they stood, one way or another, on it foundation. (The question may arise: what if Lermontov had not existed, then Pushkin’s poems would not have reached Akhmatova? No, they would have, but... The fact is that art cannot exist only in the form of books or, say, paintings. More Moreover, art has nothing to do with books! Art is people, and a book is only a means of communication between them, allowing us to communicate with those who lived 2 centuries (or even millennia) before us, and for them - with us Besides, art cannot stand still, it cannot be “frozen” - it must live and develop, otherwise it will die...)
Well, since we remembered Akhmatova, this great poetess...
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889–1966)
Continuing the chosen topic, one cannot fail to mention Akhmatova’s work. Despite the fact that the task of poetry is not central to her work, she brought something new here too. Eg:
Creation
It happens like this: some kind of languor;
The clock does not ring in your ears;
In the distance, the rumble of fading thunder.
Unrecognized and captive voices
I imagine both complaints and groans,
Some secret circle is narrowing,
But in this abyss of whispers and ringings
One, all-conquering sound rises.
It’s so incredibly quiet around him,
You can hear the grass growing in the forest,
How he walks dashingly on the ground with a knapsack.
But now the words are heard
And light rhymes signal bells, -
Then I begin to understand
And just dictated lines
They go into a snow-white notebook.
(a few seconds of silence)
No, I cannot, I simply have no right, to comment on this wonderful poem: it does not deserve such a fate, it would be too cruel. But if comments are absolutely necessary, then it is better to take another verse:
* * *We have freshness of words and feelings of simplicity
Losing is not like a painter losing his sight,
Or an actor - voice and movement,
And what about beauty for a beautiful woman?
But don't try to keep it for yourself
Given to you by heaven:
Convicted - and we know it ourselves -
We spend, not save.
Go alone and heal the blind,
To find out in a difficult hour of doubt
Students' malicious mockery
And the indifference of the crowd.
Yes, indeed, we see here echoes of both Pushkin and Lermontov, especially in the last stanza (the line “Go alone and heal the blind” is very typical - a poet “healing” a blind society, opening its eyes to its own mistakes and possible ways to correct them... ), but we see the same problem with different eyes, or rather, we even feel it with a different heart... The second stanza says that poetry and creativity are always a sacrifice, and those who have talent are already “condemned” to sacrifice it. I remember the words from Tarkovsky’s film “Andrei Rublev”: “it is a great sin not to use the gift given by God” (not literally). But why this sacrifice? Unfortunately or fortunately, we cannot verify what would have happened at the moment if Akhmatova had not existed. But if, as a result of her (and, in general, anyone’s poems), someone’s life became better by even a milligram, even a thousandth of a percent (not in the physical, but in the emotional sense), then this sacrifice was not in vain. However, in this world nothing happens in vain...
Jumping, following our associations, from the nineteenth century to the twentieth and back, we almost forgot the one who is considered the harbinger of the Silver Age: Vladimir Solovyov.
Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900)
Here I would like to take one poem that reflects the future of poetry:
* * *Dear friend, don’t you see,
That everything we see is
Only a reflection, only shadows
From the invisible with your eyes?
Dear friend, don’t you hear?
That everyday noise is crackling -
Only the response is distorted
Triumphant harmonies?
Dear friend, don’t you hear,
What is one thing in the whole world -
Only what is heart to heart
Says in a silent hello?
Indeed, the first stanza very clearly expresses the idealistic idea of symbolism, the second - the beginning of Acmeism. I think I shouldn’t dwell on this for long: both ideas do not need special comments, but it is impossible not to remember this poem and its author when considering our topic.
Those poets whom we examined earlier were close to Pushkin in their attitude to the topic of poetry: they set themselves the task of reflecting this world and their time. However, not all poets of the Silver Age adhered to this point of view:
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Here I don’t want to cite Mayakovsky’s poems, but only a small quote from his article “How to Make Poems”:
“What data is needed to begin poetic work?
First. The presence of a problem in society, the solution of which is conceivable only through a poetic work. Social order.
Second. Accurate knowledge, or rather a sense of the desires of your class (or the group you represent) in this matter, that is, a goal setting.”
All. Perhaps I am too categorical, but from this moment Mayakovsky as a poet ceases to exist for me. Yes, you can say as much as you like that he believed in a bright communist future and did everything to bring it closer, etc. Most likely, similar thoughts have been wandering from essay to essay on this topic by all schoolchildren since 1991. But this does not change the question: Bryusov’s second behest is not fulfilled, and the poet really becomes “a wheel and a cog” (V. Lenin). But this shouldn't happen! The poet must express his feelings, he must be truly free, his only “customer” is not society, not the party, not even the people, but only the heart and God! For example, why were they unable to “convince” Akhmatova through repression to write not as she wrote, but as “should”? The point is in internal freedom - indeed, if a person is Free, it is impossible to intimidate him or influence him in any way. Freedom is probably the most important condition for a person to bear the name of a Poet, otherwise he ceases to be one and becomes an agitator, a professional, talented one, but an agitator. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my opinion.
Conclusion
We conducted a short review of Russian poetry in the context of the topic “poet and poetry” using the example of the Golden and Silver Ages of Russian culture. Of course, there is no “true”, “real” opinion about this topic - everyone is right in their own way, but we see that the thoughts of some poets affect others, from a completely different era, affect us, readers, giving birth (or not giving birth) ) response in our hearts, change our lives, change history. Everything here is interconnected, and it is impossible to consider one in isolation from the other, the Silver Age without the legacy of the Golden, and the Golden Age without its continuation in the Silver, or history without art. Associative connections threw us from Pushkin to Bryusov, and from him to Lermontov, through time to which real Poetry is not subject.
Sources Russian literature of the 20th century. Reader for 11th grade. Comp. Barannikov et al. M., “Enlightenment”, 1993. A. S. Pushkin. Collected works in six volumes. Volume 1: “Selected Poems”. Supplement to the magazine “Young Collective Farmer”. M., 1949 Elementary textbook of physics, edited by Academician Landsberg. (nobody will read this far anyway...) The website “Element” (http://www.litera.ru/stixiya/) - texts of some poems and biographies of some poets. Ready-made abstracts and essays. Not used. Own thoughts
All poems used in the work are the intellectual property of their authors.
On April 23, the “House of Antique Books in Nikitsky” held the first part of a grand sale of a private collection of rare books, manuscripts, autographs, documents and photographs
On April 23, the “House of Antiquarian Books in Nikitsky” held the first part of the auction “Golden and Silver Ages of Russian Literature. Rare books, manuscripts, autographs, documents and photographs from a private collection." The catalog, containing 473 lots, covered publications of Russian classical literature from the beginning of the 19th to the first half of the 20th century. Particularly noteworthy are the numerous lifetime editions and autographs of A. Akhmatova, A. Bely, S. Yesenin and others. In general, this time the auction organizers seem to have managed to collect for this auction rare editions of almost all authors whose names we know from school and their works which is a calling card and proof of the greatness of Russian culture. Just think about the string of books by A. S. Pushkin from 18 lots, which includes rare lifetime editions. Or 6 lots related to the life and work of V. A. Zhukovsky, including a check for ten thousand francs with Zhukovsky’s autograph dated February 28, 1848 from the Rothschild bank, issued to receive funds for the publication of the collected works of A. S. Pushkin (lot 9).
Among the top lots of the auction, the organizers also named the first illustrated edition of I. A. Krylov’s fables from 1815, in convolution with the book “New Fables of I. Krylov” from 1816 (lot 4).
And also - 30 lots of Yesenian, 24 - publications and Akhmatova's autographs, 29 lots of Blok, 23 - A. Bely, Bunin, Balmont, Bulgakov and further on the list (the catalog ends with publications of authors whose last name begins with the letter “K”).
Standing out from this series are lots related to the life and work of not only writers, but also artists - D. Burliuk, M. Voloshin, N. Goncharova.
Naturally, such a selection could not go unnoticed, and people began to gather in the auction hall of the auction house building on Nikitsky Lane half an hour before the start of the auction. And by the start, at seven o’clock in the evening, the hall was sold out - more than four dozen people. More than 20 potential buyers have registered to participate in the online auction. There were also an unusually high number of phone bidders and a large number (183) of absentee bids. As a result, 291 (61.65%) of the 472 catalog lots were sold for more than 9 million rubles (60.59% of the average estimate). Great result for this spring! The hall showed the greatest activity, taking 137 lots, in second place were absentee bids, which were successful 119 times, 27 lots were sold by phone, 8 went to online buyers.
The first serious purchase (also a record purchase for the evening) took place at the very beginning of trading. Three participants traded for a convolute of two editions of I. A. Krylov’s fables (lot 4) - from the audience, by telephone and in absentia. The auction started at 100,000 rubles; It took the applicants more than ten steps to decide who would get the fables and at what price. The most stubborn participant in the hall turned out to be the one who received the coveted convolute for 440,000 rubles.
After Krylov's fables and a string of documents and publications by V. A. Zhukovsky, in which 3 out of 6 lots were sold, it was the turn to bargain for the books of A. S. Pushkin. Of the 18 lots in the Pushkin section, 15 books found new owners. The most expensive were lots 21 - the first and only edition of Pushkin's poem "Poltava" from 1829 and 24 - the third and last lifetime miniature edition of "Eugene Onegin" from 1837. Both books started at 350,000 rubles each at an absentee rate.
The real battle unfolded over “Poems of Baron Delvig” of 1829 (lot 36) - the first and only book published during the poet’s lifetime, compiled and prepared for printing by the author personally. The buyer in the hall began bidding with an absentee bid of 80,000 rubles. It became clear quite quickly that the participant in the hall would not give up so easily, but the absentee bet, as it turned out, was also designed not for chance, but for a serious fight. The bids briskly followed one after another, and yet the owner of the absentee bid had to give in when a participant in the hall offered 420,000 rubles for the book, more than five times more than the starting price. I wonder how this “showdown” would have ended if the losing participant had not relied on an absentee bid, but had bargained in person?
One of the most successful, when the sale price exceeded the starting price exactly ten times, was the auction for the book by A. M. Poltoratsky “Provincial nonsense and notes of Dormedont Vasilyevich Prutikov” published in 1836 (lot 46). An absentee bid, a telephone and three participants in the hall competed for the lot. The book went to the winner in the hall for 300,000 rubles from an absentee start of 30,000.
Small (5 lots each) selections of publications by N. A. Nekrasov and S. Nadson went under the hammer in full. (Back in 1912, 25 years after Nadson’s death, Igor Severyanin wrote about him rather offensively: “ I’m afraid to admit to myself, / That I live in such a country, / Where Nadson has been centered for a quarter of a century...“It means that he still has fans today!) Almost all of these lots were sold with a multi-stage auction and most of them went to the hall.
“The greatest rarity - published “not for sale” in an edition of 50 copies” - a book of poems by Apollo Maykov “April 30”, 1888 edition (lot 62). From a starting price of 120,000 rubles at an absentee bid, the lot went to the winner in the hall for 360,000 rubles.
The sections of publications and autographs of Anna Akhmatova were met with interest and even enthusiasm, in which 16 out of 24 lots were sold, Sergei Yesenin - 18 out of 30 lots, Valery Bryusov - 7 out of 9. In full - 15 out of 15 lots (from 265- th to 278th) - the publications of I. A. Bunin sold out.
All seven lots (279–285) related to the life and work of David Burliuk went under the hammer with 3–5 times higher starting prices.
For 160,000 rubles from a starting price of 100,000 at an absentee bid, M. Tsetlin’s 1920 book “Transparent Shadows” with illustrations by N. Goncharova and her autograph on the cover was sold to the hall.
They actively bargained for the publications of Kruchenykh, Zoshchenko, Kuprin and others.
The auction took place at a clear, vigorous pace: the presenter took only 2 hours and 20 minutes for almost 500 (!) lots. The house “In Nikitskoye” managed to carry out everything without organizational complications and communication channel failures (except for a couple of small pauses when the online bidding system froze).
People left smiling, feeling quite satisfied. It seems that the organizers, who organized a real literary festival for themselves and all those present, should feel no less pleased.
Yesterday, on April 24, in the auction hall of the House of Antique Books in Nikitsky, lovers of Russian literature and unique publications were treated to a “continuation of the banquet” - more than 400 lots of bibliographic rarities associated with the names of Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak and many other leading names in Russian literature. The auction has already taken place and, looking ahead, I can sympathize with those who spent yesterday evening not in Nikitsky Lane. We've lost a lot, gentlemen!
Maria Kuznetsova,A.I.
Attention! All materials on the site and the database of auction results on the site, including illustrated reference information about works sold at auction, are intended for use exclusively in accordance with Art. 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Use for commercial purposes or in violation of the rules established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is not permitted. the site is not responsible for the content of materials provided by third parties. In case of violation of the rights of third parties, the site administration reserves the right to remove them from the site and from the database based on a request from the authorized body.
- 26.12.2019 Within a few hours of each other, the authorities of Great Britain and France announced a ban on the export from the country of works of art sold at auction to foreign buyers this year.
- 25.12.2019 What the artist himself is inclined to call the art of appropriation, the French court called the illegal use of an image created by another author
- 23.12.2019 Works dating back to the early period of the artist’s work were found during the analysis of archives. They were simply forgotten
- 23.12.2019 Belgian collectors of Russian origin are accused of possession of stolen items, fraud and money laundering
- 23.12.2019 On December 24, more than 800 lots will be put up for auction with low starts and no reserves. Auction starts at 13:00
- 20.12.2019 The catalog of the final auctions for the outgoing year includes 389 lots.
- 20.12.2019 The catalog contains 661 lots: paintings and graphics, antique porcelain and glass, silver and bronze objects, jewelry, etc.
- 20.12.2019 Buyers - Moscow, St. Petersburg and Minsk. The results for individual lots were published on an unofficial private Instagram account.
- 17.12.2019 The AI auction catalog contains twenty-six lots: seven paintings, eleven sheets of original and four printed graphics, three works in mixed media and one porcelain plate
- 11.12.2019 At the auction on December 14, more than 700 lots of Russian, Soviet and Western European art will be presented; one of the sections of the auction will be devoted to second-hand books and photography. Auction starts at 15:00
- 28.11.2019 A visit to an artist’s studio is an event that can potentially change the lives of both the studio owner and his guest. Not quite a business meeting, but certainly not an ordinary friendly visit. Following a few simple rules will help you avoid getting into trouble in this situation.
- 19.11.2019 AI publishes opinions and forecasts on the outcome of the struggle for lots at the “Russian auction” on November 25–27, 2019. Specialized auctions of Russian art these days will be held by Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams
- 28.10.2019 Art, art market, economics of culture in quotes from interviews with famous people and fragments of resonant publications
- 21.10.2019 The three-meter painting “Parc des Princes Stadium” (“Big Football Players”) was sold at Christie’s on October 17, 2019 for $22,248,000. With this result, Nikolai de Staël moved to 6th place in the top Russian artists - between Soutine and Jawlensky
- 18.10.2019 On the occasion of the opening of the long-awaited exhibition “Vasily Polenov” at the New Tretyakov Gallery, AI repeats the article from the “Artist of the Week” section, published on June 27, 2019 11.12.2019 The exhibition dedicated to the artist’s 100th anniversary will be held from December 11, 2019 to March 9, 2020. Besides Soulages, only two artists have received such an honor - a retrospective at the Louvre dedicated to the anniversary - over the past hundred years: Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall
- 29.11.2019 Next Tuesday, December 3, an exhibition of one of the best English artists of the 18th century will open at the Pushkin Museum
- 29.11.2019 December 5, 2019, Vellum Gallery, with the participation of the Foundation. K. A. Korovin “Let’s Save Together” and the “Daev 33” galleries open a traditional exhibition dedicated to the birthday of the wonderful Russian artist Konstantin Korovin
