How to decide which genre this work of Paustovsky belongs to: is it a sketch, an article or an essay? Try to prove yourself that you have defined its genre very accurately.
Paustovsky’s work “The Joy of Creativity” is an essay, since it combines all the most important features of this genre. It is small in size, free in composition, and it conveys the author’s impressions from his own specific observations.
What problems, judging by this work, were of particular concern to the writer?
The author identified the problem that worries him already in the title as the problem of creativity. But it is also associated with many other problems that accompany its solution. This is a person’s ability to be happy, and the joy of contemplation, and the joy of working on a book, and the feeling of belonging to everything that surrounds us. The author, like many of us, is concerned about numerous problems.
What genres could be used to solve these problems? Are there any signs in each specific problem that make it possible to choose a specific genre, or does the choice depend only on desire?
The author is free both in choosing the problem and in choosing the genre. However, when determining the genre, one cannot ignore the nature of the material used and the purpose pursued by the creation of a particular work. So, for example, you cannot use satire when you want to glorify a feat, or a novel when you want to talk about a tiny episode that you just observed. So the genre is always associated with solving many problems.
Which of the distinctive features of the essay is most represented in this work:
a) aphorism;
b) emphasized subjectivity;
c) setting to reproduce spoken language?
The essay “The Joy of Creativity” presents all the signs of the genre, but it can be considered that it most actively represents the subjectivity, personal position of the author and his attitude to various aspects of creativity precisely in his own destiny.
Glossary:
- genres of Paustovsky's works
- Paustovsky the joy of creativity
- what problems, judging by this work, particularly worried the writer
- genre works joy of creativity
- the joy of creativity Paustovsky
Other works on this topic:
- The description of events in novels and other works can be different - this includes painting, music, architecture, and science. But any creativity has...
- Creative success– this is undoubtedly a great joy. But to achieve it, you have to experience so much torment - physical and mental! Whether it's music, painting or...
- The textbook's question is not formulated clearly enough. It can be understood this way: what features of Bunin’s work are important for every writer. Or this: what features of creativity are characteristic specifically for...
- Create a story plan. At what point does the “birth of a story” occur? Rough plan story. – On the way to the dacha (writer on the train). – The writer’s reflection on work...
- Special educational institution for students, pupils with disabilities health “special secondary school No. 13 VIII type” Orenburg. Summary of a reading lesson in 8th grade...
- “My friend, there is joy and love...” In the poem, the lyrical hero fights for the beauty of the Universe and for his place in the universe. Characteristic feature works are deep...
- In “The Golden Rose” the writer promulgated the idea that among all the creations of the mind and hands of man, it is the art of words that is immortal. But it is immortal only when it is selfless...
IV. Arguments
1) Scientists and psychologists have long argued that music can have different effects on nervous system, on human tone. Generally accepted
It is known that Bach's works enhance and develop the intellect. Beethoven's music arouses compassion, purifies a person's thoughts and feelings
from negativity. Schumann helps to understand the soul of a child.
2) Can art change a person’s life? Actress Vera Alentova recalls such an incident. One day she received a letter from an unknown
Noah woman who said that she was left alone, she did not want to live. But after watching the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” she became a friend.
one person: “You won’t believe it, I suddenly saw that people were smiling and they weren’t as bad as I thought all these years. And the grass, oka-
It’s called green, and the sun is shining... I have recovered, for which I thank you very much.”
Many front-line soldiers talk about how soldiers exchanged smokes and bread for clippings from a front-line newspaper, which published chapters from the
emy by A. Tvardovsky __________ “Vasily Terkin”. This means that an encouraging word was sometimes more important to the soldiers than food.
4) The outstanding Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky, talking about his impressions of Raphael’s painting “The Sistine Madonna,” said that
The hour he spent in front of her belongs to happiest hour his life, and it seemed to him that this picture was born in a moment of miracle.
Famous children's writer N. Nosov told an incident that happened to him in childhood. One day he missed the train and stayed overnight.
Hanging out on the station square with street children. They saw a book in his bag and asked him to read it. Nosov agreed, and the guys
Shens of parental warmth, with bated breath, began to listen to the story about the lonely old man, mentally comparing his bitter, homeless
Life with your destiny.
When the Nazis laid siege to Leningrad, Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th Symphony had a huge impact on the city's residents. which, as evidenced
Eyewitnesses say it gave people new strength to fight the enemy.
7) In the history of literature, a lot of evidence related to stage history"Undergrown." They say that many noble children, having learned
themselves in the image of the slacker Mitrofanushka, experienced a true rebirth: they began to study diligently, read a lot and grew up worthy sons
Fatherland.
A gang operated in Moscow for a long time, which was particularly cruel. When the criminals were captured, they admitted that they
behavior, their attitude to the world was greatly influenced by the American film “Natural Born Killers,” which they watched almost
Every day. They tried to copy the habits of the characters in this picture in real life.
The artist serves eternity. Today we imagine this or that historical figure exactly as he is depicted in art.
Venom work. Even tyrants trembled before this truly regal power of the artist. Here is an example from the Renaissance. Young
Michelangelo fulfills the Medici's order and behaves quite boldly. When one of the Medici expressed displeasure about the lack of
Given his great resemblance to the portrait, Michelangelo said: “Don’t worry, Your Holiness, in a hundred years he will look like you.”
10) As children, many of us read the novel by A. Dumas “The Three Musketeers”. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, d'Artagnan - these heroes seemed to us
A champion of nobility and chivalry, and Cardinal Richelieu, their opponent, is the personification of treachery and cruelty. But the image of a novel villain
looks a little like the real thing historical figure. After all, it was Richelieu who introduced the words “French”, “born”, almost forgotten during the religious wars.
on". He banned duels, believing that young people strong men must shed blood not because of petty quarrels, but for the sake of their homeland. But under
With the pen of the novelist, Richelieu acquired a completely different appearance, and Dumas’s invention affects the reader much more powerfully and vividly than the historical truth.
The work was carried out by a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Yantikovskaya Secondary School, Lyudmila Mikhailovna Terentyeva. An essay is a way to talk about the world through oneself and about oneself with the help of the world. A.A. Elyashevich Essay is a genre of literary criticism, characterized by a free interpretation of any problem. The author of the essay analyzes the chosen problem (literary, aesthetic, philosophical), without worrying about the systematic presentation, well-reasoned conclusions, or the generally accepted nature of the issue. (Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1984). An essay is a type of sketch in which the main role is played not by the reproduction of a fact, but by the depiction of impressions, thoughts, and associations. (A brief dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1987). History of the term The founder of the essay genre is the French philosopher Michel Montaigne (1533 – 1593). A humanist writer, in 1580 he published his book “Essais”, the title of which was translated into Russian as “Experiences”. It is from the publication of his “Experiences” that this genre has existed and exists in European verbal culture. It is no coincidence that the essay genre appears during the Renaissance, when human will, freedom, human dignity, and personal responsibility were affirmed. It is probably quite natural that the essay genre has an individual creator. The essay genre has attracted many thinker writers. In 1697, Francis Bacon created his “Essais,” and then John Locke (English philosopher), Joseph Addison (English poet, scientist and philosopher), and Henry Fielding (English novelist) turned to this genre. They understood the essay as the author's experience in developing a particular problem. Development of genre B XVIII-XIX centuries essay is one of the leading genres of English and French journalism. The development of essayism was promoted in England by J. Addison, Richard Steele, and Henry Fielding, in France by Diderot and Voltaire, and in Germany by Lessing and Herder. The essay was the main form of philosophical and aesthetic polemics among the romantics and romantic philosophers (H. Heine, R. W. Emerson, G. D. Thoreau). The essay genre is deeply rooted in English literature: T. Carlyle, W. Hazlitt, M. Arnold (19th century); M. Beerbohm, G. K. Chesterton (XX century). In the 20th century, essayism experienced its heyday: major philosophers, prose writers, and poets turned to the essay genre (R. Rolland, B. Shaw, G. Wells, J. Orwell, T. Mann, A. Maurois, J. P. Sartre, N. Hikmet). Essays in Russian literature The essay genre was not typical for Russian literature. Examples of essayistic style are found in A.N. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”), A. I. Herzen (“From the Other Shore”), F. M. Dostoevsky (“Diary of a Writer”). At the beginning of the 20th century, V. I. Ivanov, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Andrei Bely, Lev Shestov, V. V. Rozanov turned to the essay genre, and later - Ilya Erenburg, Yuri Olesha, Viktor Shklovsky, Konstantin Paustovsky. Literary critical assessments of modern critics, as a rule, are embodied in a variation of the essay genre. Essay by K. G. Paustovsky “The Joy of Creativity” The artist’s job is to give birth to joy. (K. Paustovsky) Analysis plan. The author titled his essay “The Joy of Creation.” What other feelings, experiences, doubts accompany the writer’s work? Why does Paustovsky include the word “joy” in the title of his work? Justify your point of view. A favorite essay technique is comparison and juxtaposition. Find examples of comparisons in the text. What is their meaning? What types of speech are combined in this text? Is it possible, based only on the first part of the essay, to guess what will be discussed next? What means of artistic expression used by the author enhance the aesthetic impression of the depth of the statement and make the writer’s style unforgettable? Draw a conclusion about the merits of the essay genre. Features of the essay genre - addressing significant issues; - subjectivity, a clearly expressed position of the author; - lack of a given composition, free form of presentation; - composition of an essay - the writer walks in circles around a specific topic, with words weaves lace or a web of storytelling; - relatively small volume. Features of the essay language: - aphoristic, sometimes paradoxical speech; - use of polemically pointed statements; - emotionality of speech; - mixing of heterogeneous layers of vocabulary; - use of artistic techniques; - stylistic figures: anaphora, antithesis and others. Assignment Try to create a fragment of an essay about school, write that for you school is a change, friends, a subject, a lesson, knowledge, a teacher. Remember, you need to find an analogy, an association. The main thing is to express your view of the world, to surprise, to make the reader think. Conclusion from the lesson - What is characteristic of the essay genre? - What is the difficulty of this genre? - Why is it popular nowadays? Our school. (Essay for the competition “Best School in Russia”). Fair teachers, a wise director, attentive librarians, sedate 11th graders and noisy 5th graders... Interesting lessons and fun breaks, magical bells... What is this? This is the fortieth! What kind of school is this? Where does it start? From the director? Yes! Kuznetsova Olga Petrovna is a wonderful soul, a second mother, a strict administrator. In short, the head of the school. What about the teachers? Masters, professionals, masters – Misheneva S.A., Fedulova N.A., Levicheva L.N., Serova N.A. Creators who captivate students with energy and deep knowledge of the subject in amazing trip, knowledge of the world and oneself, - Vanyushova L.N., Ruleva G.P., Malyuchkov O.V., Pavlenko S.G. Young, smart, inspired, and therefore adored by graduates - Berezina Yu.B., Chebaritsyna E.N., Soshnikova O.A. Everyone in the 40th is knowledgeable, talented, strict, loving and... of course, loved. Favorite by students! Both those who have already graduated from school and those who are studying. Students... They are very different: mischievous and naughty, conscientious and responsible, frivolous and serious. They occupy prizes in competitions and win city and regional Olympiads. These are Olga Pikelnik, Alena Spirina, Anna Smirnova, Ilya Troegubov, Maxim Agapov, Alexander Makhov. They adequately prove their knowledge when passing state exams, determining the school’s place in the top ten best schools city, gaining the maximum number of points: 100 out of 100 - Alexey Komarov, 99 out of 100 - Andrey Gubichev. They are our graduates. successfully enter universities and work in enterprises. The 40th is strong in traditions: the ritual of initiation into 10th graders, Lyceum Day, New Year's masquerade ball, Memorial Day of Ruslan Tryanichev, who died on the sunken submarine missile cruiser "Kursk". We are together in joy and sorrow. In the 40th, everyone will find something to their liking. This is a house where kind and smart people live. How old is the school? According to what has been achieved - there are already 12, according to plans there are only 12 more!
Interview with a classic. Konstantin Paustovsky: “The job of an artist is to create joy”
Anton Pavlovich answered questions from the Russian Planet about love, family, lazy people, war and death
2015 has been declared the Year of Literature in Russia. "Russian Planet" begins new project“Interview with a classic” - interviews with famous people Russian writers who worked in different times. Answers to questions will be quotes from their works, letters and diaries. Other interviews with classics
Konstantin Paustovsky on vacation in Tarusa / Photo: Alexander Less
Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky- one of the main lyricists in Soviet literature. The author of stories and novellas of various themes is interesting not only for his observations of people’s lives and nature, but also for his reflections on the nature of inspiration and writing. And he is also a worthy citizen. Journalist Valery Druzhbinsky, who worked as Paustovsky’s literary secretary in 1965–1968, wrote in his memoirs about the writer (“Paustovsky as I remember him”): “Surprisingly, Paustovsky managed to live through the time of insane praise of Stalin and not write a word about the leader of all times and peoples. He managed not to join the party, not to sign a single letter or appeal stigmatizing anyone. He tried his best to stay and so he remained himself.”
- Konstantin Georgievich, what is inspiration for you, is it constantly necessary in your work?
Inspiration is strict working condition person. It’s like first love, when the heart beats loudly in anticipation of amazing meetings, unimaginable beautiful eyes, smiles and omissions. Every person, at least several times in his life, has experienced a state of inspiration - elation, freshness, a vivid perception of reality, fullness of thought and awareness of his creative power. Inspiration enters us like a radiant summer morning, just cast off from the mists of a quiet night, splashed with dew, with thickets of damp foliage. It gently breathes its healing coolness into our faces.
- Only a person who is deeply in love with nature can say this.
Nature will act on us with all its strength only when we bring our human beginning into the feeling of it, when our state of mind, our love, our joy or sadness will come into full harmony with nature and it will no longer be possible to separate the freshness of the morning from the light of beloved eyes and the measured sound of the forest from reflections on the life we have lived. We still stubbornly neglect the beauty of nature and do not know the full power of its cultural and moral impact on humans.
- The way you speak sounds like a prose poem. How do you feel about poetry?
Poetry has one amazing property. She returns the word to its original, virgin freshness. The most erased, completely “spoken” words by us, which have completely lost their figurative qualities for us, living only as a verbal shell, begin to sparkle, ring, and smell fragrant in poetry!
- Let's talk about creative writing. What goals should writers set for themselves?
A writer who loves the perfection of classical architectural forms will not allow ponderous and clumsy composition in his prose. He will strive for proportionality of parts and rigor of the verbal drawing. He will avoid an abundance of decorations that dilute the prose - the so-called ornamental style. And the weariness and colorlessness of prose are often the result of the writer’s cold blood, a formidable sign of his death. But sometimes this is simply inability, indicating a lack of culture. The writer’s job is to convey or, as they say, convey his associations to the reader and evoke similar associations in him.
Writers cannot give up for a minute in the face of adversity or retreat in the face of obstacles. Whatever happens, they must continuously do their job, bequeathed to them by their predecessors and entrusted to them by their contemporaries. Writing is not a craft or an occupation. Writing is a calling. And in the true calling of a writer there are absolutely no qualities that cheap skeptics attribute to him - neither false pathos, nor the writer’s pompous awareness of his exceptional role.
Konstantin Paustovsky at work. Photo: Alexander Less
- How important is education for a writer?
Knowledge of all related fields of art - poetry, painting, architecture, sculpture and music - unusually enriches the inner world of a prose writer and gives special expressiveness to his prose. The latter is filled with the light and colors of painting, the capacity and freshness of words characteristic of poetry, the proportionality of architecture, the convexity and clarity of the lines of sculpture and the rhythm and melody of music. All these are additional riches of prose, like its additional colors. Knowledge is organically connected with human imagination. This seemingly paradoxical law can be expressed as follows: the power of imagination increases as knowledge grows. And one more thing: one of the foundations of writing is a good memory.
It would seem that thousands of writers have already told us everything about life, and it’s simply impossible to find fundamentally new stories...
No, the feeling of life as continuous novelty is the fertile soil on which art blossoms and matures. You need to give your freedom inner world, open all the floodgates for him and suddenly see with amazement that in your mind there are much more thoughts, feelings and poetic power than you imagined.
-Have you often experienced the state of falling in love?
Let's not talk about love, because we still don't know what it is. The only thing I can say is: take care of love like a precious thing. If you treat love badly once, the next one will definitely be flawed.
-Are you happy more often than sad?
Anyone who is deprived of the feeling of sadness is as pitiful as a person who does not know what joy is or who has lost the sense of the funny. The loss of at least one of these properties indicates irreparable spiritual limitation. In general, the job of an artist is to create joy.
- But what do you regret most?
The greatest regret is the excessive and unjustified speed of time. Before you know it, your youth is fading and your eyes are becoming dull. And yet you have not yet seen even a hundredth part of the charm that life has scattered around.
The material uses quotes from the books of Konstantin Paustovsky “ golden rose" and "The Tale of Life"
In the courtyard of the Pozhalostina estate there is a small bathhouse, to which the museum keeper took us. And - again Paustovsky, again - Paustovsky, because his amazing prose is thoroughly saturated with Solotcha with its morning fogs over the oxbow Oka, with the quiet noise of pine trees steaming in the sun and desperate cock-cat battles for a place under the Solotchinsky sun. While we are looking at the three tiny rooms in which Paustovsky lived, let’s look into the time period of Konstantin Georgievich’s life, main theme which was Solotcha.
Paustovsky’s acquaintance with Meshchera began with studying a piece of a map in which bread was wrapped for him in a bakery. One of the writer's favorite pastimes was studying geographical maps and reading directions. Forgetting about bread, Konstantin Georgievich plunged into the map, on which the sea of forests was temptingly green: “I looked at the map, trying to find a familiar city or railway on it to determine where this region was located... But there were no trains or roads , except for a barely noticeable narrow-gauge railway that ran along the edge of the forests. Finally, I came across the familiar name "Oka". This means that this region lay somewhere nearby, not far from Moscow. So, using the map, I discovered the Meshchera region. It stretched from Ryazan almost to Vladimir.”
Here is what Paustovsky says about this small bathhouse: “The small house where I live in Meshchera deserves a description. This is a former bathhouse, a log hut covered with gray planks. The house is located in a dense garden, but for some reason it is fenced off from the garden by a high palisade. This stockade is a trap for the village cats who love fish."
There are three tiny rooms in the bathhouse. To the right is a living room, with a trestle bed for sleeping, a table - on which are books and a manuscript of Konstantin Georgievich. On the wall - above the table - is a shelf with Paustovsky's books.
Just a tiny kitchen.
“I go to an empty bathhouse, boil tea. A cricket starts its song on the stove. He sings very loudly and does not pay attention to my steps or the clinking of cups.”
In the room on the left there is an exhibition dedicated to the life of Paustovsky in Solotch, which I did not photograph, except for this photograph in which Konstantin Georgievich is next to Fraerman. All further photographs illustrating the story are taken from the Internet.
Well, now in detail, in chronological order Let's go through the Solotchi period of Paustovsky's life.
1930
In the second half of August, early September, Paustovsky found himself in Solotch, where he arrived from the north by train: Moscow - Vladimir - village. Tuma, and then along the narrow-gauge railway on the train of the “Stephenson era” to Solotcha. He settled in a house (now 74 Revolyutsii Street) with the “vekovushka”, the village dressmaker Maria Mikhailovna Kostina. Thus began the Meshchersky, the most fruitful period of the life and work of K.G. Paustovsky.
“The first summer in Solotch (Paustovsky’s son Vadim recalls) we did not live in Pozhalostin’s house (my father was just looking at him), but nearby, with a lonely old woman, Maria Mikhailovna. They occupied a one-room outbuilding at the back of the site. Maria Mikhailovna was very religious, had some kind of “organizational” relationship with the Solotchinsk church - either she performed the duties of an elder (if this is permissible for a woman), or she was a member of the church council. In any case, the teenage bell ringers, who did not recognize strangers in the bell tower, obeyed her unquestioningly. Thanks to this, my father and I visited the bell tower of the Solotchyn church on the day of the big holiday. It was Trinity.
High worn out steps led to the bell tower (the bell tower of the Kazan Church was blown up in 1941 and restored in 2004). I was a coward and afraid to stumble. My father joked with me and recalled how, as a teenager, he himself ran up the same steep stairs in churches in Kyiv. This happened in Easter weeks, when high school students, like everyone else, were allowed to ring all the bells without hindrance.”
1931
“After Meshchera, I began to write differently - simpler, more restrained, I began to avoid flashy things and understood the strength and poetry of the most unassuming souls and the most seemingly inconspicuous things...” (from “The Book of Wanderings”).
Already in 1931, in the April issue of the Gorky magazine “Our Achievements”, Paustovsky’s essay “The Meshchersky Region” was published, where he first writes about Meshchera, Solotch, about the house of Pozhalostin and about the famous Solotchinsky “bogomaz” artists.
“... One night I woke up from a strange feeling. It seemed to me that I had gone deaf in my sleep. I lay with my eyes closed, listened for a long time and finally realized that I had not gone deaf, but that there was simply an extraordinary silence outside the walls of the house. This kind of silence is called “dead”. The rain died, the wind died, died
noisy, restless garden. You could only hear the cat snoring in its sleep...” Story “Farewell to Summer”
Konstantin Paustovsky. 1930s
1932 Autumn.
Second visit to Solotcha with my wife and son Vadim. Settled in the bathhouse of the estate of the engraver I.P. I'm sorry. Here he wrote the story “Copper Boards” (about the engraver’s legacy), the story “The Fate of Charles Lonseville” and the essay “The Onega Plant”.
“September 9, 1932, Solotcha. Fraerman
Reuben, dear! ...They're worth it wonderful days. Everything turns yellow. The Pozhalostipsky garden, willows, grasses, algae, and even the eyes of the thieving cats exude a special autumn yellowness. Autumn has entered Solotcha and, it seems, firmly... Everything is in the web and in the sun. There is a calmness that has not been experienced even in summer—the floats stand as if enchanted—and the subtlest bite is visible.
K.G. Paustovsky with his son Vadim. 1932
1933-1940
Constantly in the summer-autumn period, Paustovsky lives with his friend - writer R.I. Fraerman in Meshchera, in the Solotchinsky estate of Pozhalostin (the heirs chose to sell the estate to Paustovsky in 1943)). http://vittasim.livejournal.com/51246.html#cutid1 The house in Solotch went to the new owners with all its contents - carved furniture, an artist’s workshop with engraving machines and an archive stored in a special basement, which turned out to be a real treasury. There were sketches of many of the academician’s works, books with dedicatory inscriptions from his friends and contemporaries, and most importantly, correspondence with Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev.
Perhaps acquaintance with this repository gave Ruvim Isaevich and Konstantin Georgievich the idea of transporting part of their archives to Solotcha in the ill-fated 1937, and first of all, what might attract the unkind attention of art critics from Lubyanka. And to Turgenev’s were added letters from Maxim Gorky and Alexander Fadeev, Boris Pilnyak and Evgeny Tarle, Lev Kuleshov and many other equally famous figures of culture and science. There was hope that here, in the wilderness of the village, they would be safer. Perhaps this would have happened if something unexpected had not happened. This was after the war. The hunt for rootless cosmopolitans subsided, the winds of the notorious thaw began to blow with deceptive warmth, and fellow writers began to think about returning the archives to their Moscow apartments. That memorable summer, business kept them in the capital. And at this time the following happened in Solotch. Local teenagers made a tunnel from the garden and entered the basement of the house. They rummaged through everything there, but did not find anything worthwhile and, in order to cover their tracks, they set fire to all this paper junk. The archive burned to the ground...
During these years he created a cycle of Meshchera stories - the book “ Summer days", stories "Lenka from Small Lake", "Australian from Pilevo Station", "Second Motherland", "Zuev Family", stories "Isaak Levitan" and " Meshcherskaya side", stories "The Glass Master" and "The Old Boat".
Friends come to Paustovsky in Solotcha - A.P. Gaidar, A.I. Roskin, G.P. Storm, K.M. Simonov.
On the gate of the house we will see a shield with a schematic representation of a map of the area. This is the famous Paustovsky trail. It was Paustovsky who laid his famous “path” in these places - a route for hiking.
For some reason, Paustovsky accommodated his friends Arkady Gaidar and Reuben Fraerman in the bathhouse when they came to visit, but Gaidar was not offended and even planted an apple tree in the garden and simultaneously wrote the story “The Fate of the Drummer” and the story “Chuk and Gek.” Somewhere in Solotch, in the hollow of an old tree, perhaps the “Gaidar treasure” is stored - a sealed bottle in which the writer’s appeal to descendants is enclosed. The “treasure” has not yet been found.
1936
Marries the artist Valeria Vladimirovna Navashina (nee Valishevskaya)
September 17, 1936 Valeria Valishevskaya.
“... Outwardly we live wonderfully. Reuben is cheerful and calm, although he complains of a bad conscience - he does not work at all. He’s wonderful, Reuben... I hear squads of airplanes flying over the forests towards Moscow - this is already the second night. Yesterday afternoon about forty planes passed by. At night, the drone of airplanes is very strange, Reuben is worried and thinks that it is gathering forces before the war...”
K.G. Paustovsky with Valeria Vladimirovna. Solotcha. Late 1930s ..
Solotcha<3 или 4>July 1936 to S.M. Navashin
“...The tenth day has been so scorchingly hot that all of us, and especially the old women, have begun to liquefy our brains - it is impossible to write or read. All that remains is to fish, swim and drink cold Borzhom (they sell it in the pharmacy here). The forests behind Laskovo are burning, the trees in the garden are drying up, and I, on the sly from the old women, water them with water from the well (the old women regret the water more than the trees). The fish are gradually “caught”, but from the heat it has become completely dazed and bites as if from sleep - rarely and sluggishly. The rubber boat turned out to be wonderful, and Ruvim Isaevich will probably no longer see it as his own back, because I will buy it from him by force...” (The old women are the mistresses of the house with whom K. Paustovsky lived. One of them is the daughter artist-engraver I.P. Pozhalostin).
K.G. Paustovsky and V.V. Navashina-Paustovskaya. Solotcha. Late 1930s
13/IX to Sergei Navashin “...Matryona Dove. smokes caught fish for Moscow, I work and “study” the wonderful autumn. The old women hid for the winter and don’t show themselves at all. Lombards wear sheepskin coats and felt boots. There are a lot of worms and yellow leaves in the garden. .."
K.G. Paustovsky on Prorva near Solotcha. 1937. Photo from the archive of V.K. Paustovsky.
In 1939, the writer’s short poetic story “Meshcherskaya Side” was published - best work Paustovsky about his beloved land.
“Behind Gus-Khrustalny, at the quiet Tuma station, I changed to a narrow-gauge train. This was a train from Stephenson's time. The locomotive, similar to a samovar, whistled in a child's falsetto. The locomotive had an offensive nickname: “gelding.” He really looked like an old gelding. At the corners he groaned and stopped. Passengers got out to smoke. The silence of the forest stood around the gasping gelding. The smell of wild cloves, warmed by the sun, filled the carriages. Passengers with things sat on the platforms - things did not fit into the carriage. Occasionally, along the way, bags, baskets, and carpenter's saws began to fly out from the platform onto the canvas, and their owner, often a rather ancient old woman, jumped out to get the things. Inexperienced passengers were frightened, but experienced ones, twisting goat legs and spitting, explained that this was the most convenient way get off the train closer to your village. The narrow-gauge railway in the Meshchera forests is the slowest railway in the Union."
K.G. Paustovsky in Solotch. At his favorite “steam locomotive-samovar” on the Ryazan-Tuma narrow-gauge railway. Late 1930s
In the last pre-war year, he wrote a second book of stories about Solotch, “Tenants of the Old House,” and a play, “Lieutenant Lermontov.”
Solotcha 24/IX-<19>40 V.V.Navashina-Paustovskaya
“...We arrived very calmly - even the bus from Ryazan, which did not run for several days, left just on the day of our arrival. Funtik was looking for you all the time on the road, but in Solotch he immediately recognized everything, began to dig the ground with his hind paws with a growl, started racing around the garden, and went to bed himself in his old place by the stove... The house and estate are spacious, clean and so the silence that the first day my ears were ringing all the time. The nasturtium is blooming very luxuriantly, all the sunflowers and purslanes are blooming. The garden arbor has turned completely purple with autumn grapes. The days are extraordinary - golden and quiet. Yesterday the cranes were already flying. The old women were delighted with our arrival and, it seems, sincerely, Al<ександра>Yves<ановна>she even gave us her samovar. She was very flattered that there was, it turns out, a note in the local newspaper that we lived in her house in the summer... An ancient beggar monk came. He told me in a whisper that he was a “temporary beggar” and dreamed of becoming an “underground priest”, although he had already served five years in exile for this... Food is still poorly worn, because... They celebrated the patronal feast for three days and all Solotcha got drunk..."
1 Oct<ября> <19>40 Solotch V.V.Navashina-Paustovskaya
"...It's very quiet here and very lonely at times. I'm working, Al<ександра>You<ильевна>(unidentified person) reads a lot (Al<ександра>Yves<ановна>brought her terrible historical novels, supplement to the newspaper "Svet"). Al<ександра>You<ильевна лечит Полину от бородавок каким-то знахарским способом - приказала ей натирать бородавки обрывками старой кожи от обуви, если такой обрывок случайно попадется на дороге. И потом обязательно класть обрывок на то же место на дороге. Полина охала и ахала от восхищенья..."
1941-1942
Work as a TASS correspondent on the Southern Front; in October, evacuation with my family to Alma-Ata.
1943
In February he returned to Moscow. At the end of March - beginning of April, he goes with R. Fraerman to Solotcha, where, at the suggestion of the last owner A.I. Upon request, documents were drawn up for ownership of the house and estate. He wrote the stories “Traffic Conversations” and “Buyer Man”. I started working on the novel “Smoke of the Fatherland.”
Vadim Paustovsky recalls: “In May 1943, my father and I saw each other in Moscow - we both returned from evacuation almost simultaneously. Two months later we met in Solotch (I came there for the summer holidays). The war also left its mark on Solotcha, whom I had not seen for several years. The meadows were deserted. In place of some familiar trees, craters from aerial bombs gaped. My father, who arrived a few weeks earlier, told how he would go out into the garden at night and listen to the roar of German bombers flying towards Gorky. When they returned, they dropped bombs wherever they had to.”
17 / VIII-43 From Solotcha to S.M. Navashin
"...Seryachok, - I just can’t get around to writing you a long letter, but I have to write about a lot - farming takes up all the time, and the idea of a leisurely rural life is nonsense. We have to rush all the time, and there’s not enough time. Now there’s a very large harvest of tomatoes , he breaks the bushes, and for two days we had to put up sticks and tie everything up again. Everything in our room is littered with tomatoes - there are hundreds of them. Tomorrow Zvera (home name of Valeria Vladimirovna Navashina-Paustovskaya) is going to Tuma to get a cow - this is a rather complicated undertaking. The chickens are growing up. They are completely tame, running in droves after Zvera and me, flying up onto our shoulders and even onto our heads..."
Solotcha 30/IX-<19>45 V.V. Navashina-Paustovskaya
“...Solotcha looks much more destitute than when we were here - in general, it’s very good that we didn’t stay here. The house is very neglected, F has no gardens<раерманов>there weren't any, they planted some potatoes. I saw Semyon the deaf. He talks as if we met just yesterday. The village news is the same - yesterday Madyuk was sent to an insane asylum, the pharmacist’s pig died, etc. etc. under...F<раерман>philosophizes a little. He lives upstairs, on the mezzanine. I bought kerosene and our glass lamp is burning on my table. I bought dried mushrooms, but they are expensive. And in general, prices (except for milk and vegetables) here are not at all that cheap. ...And now there lives in the house a small black kitten - very quiet, but for some reason he always holds his tail straight up... In my room I put a wonderful bouquet of autumn leaves, beet leaves (purple) and violets (they are still blooming) - following the example of animals..."
1948 Winter-spring.
In Solotch he worked on “The Tale of Forests,” which was published in issues of Ogonyok under the title “Overcoming Time.” In August with R.I. Fraerman and his son G.P. Tushkanom traveled deep into Meshchera, to forest cordon No. 273 of forester A.D. Zheltova, on the Pra River. He described this journey in the story “Cordon “273”.
In the essay “Reuben Fraerman,” Paustovsky wrote: “It is impossible to remember and count how many nights we spent with Fraerman, either in tents, or in huts, or in haylofts, or simply on the ground on the banks of Meshchora lakes and rivers, in forest thickets, how many were all sorts of cases - sometimes dangerous, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny - how many stories and fables we heard, what riches of the folk language we touched, how many arguments and laughter there were and autumn nights when it was especially easy to write in a log house, where there were transparent drops on the walls dark gold petrified resin..."
25/VIII-<19>48 V.V.Navashina-Paustovskaya
I moved to the mezzanine - it’s very quiet and clean. I get up early, set up the samovar myself, clean up, do everything for myself, and for some reason I really like it. The house is empty and dead silent, and without the usual residents it has become much more pleasant. All the windows are wide open, all the mustiness has already disappeared. Every time I bring flowers (different) from the meadows, and all my tables are covered with bouquets. I’m only afraid that I’ll forget how to speak—there’s absolutely no one to talk to, except for Arisha. She brings me lunch in the morning, washes the dishes and tells me all the Solotcha news (the post office was robbed, a fireproof box was carried away in her arms, on this occasion there was a search at the Samaraskys last night and the whole Solotcha was disheveled). Today the head of the local ONO came to see me - he is new here, he decided to take the initiative and therefore is organizing a museum in Solotch dedicated to me (!?). It would be stupid if it weren't so funny.
1949
Marries actress of the Moscow Chamber Theater Tatyana Alekseevna Evteeva
1949-1954
He writes the latest Meshchera stories - “In the depths of Russia”, “Notes of Ivan Malyavin”, “Warrior”, “Alien from the South”, “Stream Grass”, “Treasure”. He is finishing work on the second book, “The Tale of Life” (“Restless Youth”).
Vadim Paustovsky recalls: “Before leaving Solotcha, he wrote to me: “Solotcha has deteriorated very much - it’s all crowded with summer residents, cars rush along the main street continuously, like in Moscow, and there are almost no fish.”
K.G.Paustovsky fishing. Prorva. 1950 From the archives of V.S. Fraerman
July 13, 1950
In Solotch, Paustovsky and his wife Tatyana Alekseevna had a son, Alyosha. He writes a series of articles “Letters from a Ryazan village”.
K.G. Paustovsky with his son Alyosha.
Solotcha 14/9, 50 Solotcha
“...It’s very quiet here now and, despite the rains, it’s very good. The flowers are blooming luxuriantly. Those asters that you planted near the poppies have buds and are about to bloom, the garden is already autumn, covered with yellow leaves, damp and deserted. Our news is village news. Arisha took the motley kitten, and it was immediately stolen from her. Grandma Tanya took the gray cat to her place in a sack, but the next day he returned and said that he was not going to go anywhere. I’ve now started working a lot (in the bathhouse) and therefore I’m rarely in the meadows...”
K.G. Paustovsky with his stepdaughter Galina Arbuzova. Solotcha. 1953 Photo by T.A. Paustovskaya.
From the archive of G.A. Arbuzova
Summer 1954
Last time he lived in the Pozhalostina estate.
K.G. Paustovsky. Solotcha. In the office of I.P. Pozhalostin’s house. Early 1950s Photo by S.A. Kuzmitskaya
The last time Konstantin Georgievich came to Solotcha was two years before his death. This was in August 1966. Despite poor health and bouts of illness (he suffered from bronchial asthma), Paustovsky agreed to come to Solotcha to participate in the filming of the documentary film “The Road to the Black Lake.” Persistent filmmakers persuaded Paustovsky to make a film about his life in Meshchera. The illness did not allow him to make long trips, as before, but Konstantin Georgievich enjoyed fishing on Staritsa. The life-giving and transparent air of Solotcha had a beneficial effect on Paustovsky. He dreamed of settling in Solotcha forever, building a dacha here, but these dreams failed to come true... A short time after Paustovsky’s death, his wife Tatyana Alekseevna Paustovskaya came to Solotcha and dug up a rosehip bush with a lump of Meshchera soil in the meadows. She planted this bush with turf on Paustovsky’s grave.