Interest in history early XIX century stirred up in Russia with extraordinary force after a powerful national upsurge caused Napoleonic wars and especially the Patriotic War of 1812. The awakened national consciousness determined the originality spiritual development Russian society. And the Decembrist movement, and the monumental work of Karamzin, and the fables of Krylov, and the works of Pushkin - all these are echoes of major historical events, which themselves have become facts of our history. First decades XIX centuries have passed under the sign of history. Belinsky drew attention to this feature. “Our century is primarily a historical century. Historical contemplation, the critic wrote, has powerfully and irresistibly penetrated all spheres of modern consciousness. History has now become, as it were, the general foundation and the only condition of all living knowledge: without it, it has become impossible to comprehend either art or philosophy.”
Russian society felt an urgent need to be aware of what distinctive features national character, national spirit, as they said then. Historicism became the banner of the new century. He was inseparable from the ideas of the people. But in order to understand the feat of the people in Patriotic War 1812, surprised noble Russia In order to comprehend the way of his life, thoughts and feelings, it was necessary to look into the past, into the “dark antiquity”, to turn to the origins of national existence. “The History of the Russian State” by Karamzin opened to Russian society pages of antiquity that had been covered by almost no one until then. Russian society saw in it a reliable picture of life, the struggle of opinions, the psychological intensity of passions and ready-made subjects for philosophical, historical, moral and artistic reflection. Real ground was created for the flourishing of historical genres. But Karamzin’s “History...” played no less a role in the formation of the method of historicism. From now on, historical thinking becomes not only a tool with which to open the door of knowledge into the depths of centuries, but also a necessary quality of philosophical or artistic thought, illuminating living modernity with its beam.
At the same time, “History...” by Karamzin is a work in which the scientific nature of the presentation merged with artistry. The element of artistry, very strong in “History...”, was based on genuine and reliable facts and evidence. This circumstance immediately confronted the writers whole line purely creative problems - how appropriate is fiction in artistic essay how to combine historical truth and an imaginary plot? Narrative forms have not yet been so refined and refined that contradictory terms work of art on historical topic could be reconciled in some organic unity. Therefore, in a historical story, either an artistic task predominates, mostly ignoring historical reality, or an essay in which the characters look pale, devoid of full-blooded life and persuasiveness. Between them were intermediate forms of memories, “happenings,” “incidents.” Often historical material played an auxiliary, service role - writers were not interested last century in its truth, but its own views on modernity, carried out with the help of historical information.
The fate of the historical story is also instructive in the sense that it clearly demonstrated how historical thinking was formed and the forms of historical narration took shape, and how the features of realism were honed. If Karamzin awakened theoretical thought, forced us to pay attention to historical reality, to the era, to the conflict of interests, then Walter Scott is his historical novels were already widely known to Russian society - had a huge impact on the form of historical narration. Walter Scott, like Karamzin, relied on documents, but from them he chose the most characteristic for a particular time. At the same time, he was attracted by some episode, scene, touch, “anecdote”, in which morals, customs, and thinking, determined by the era or environment, vividly and vividly revealed themselves. This resulted in an attitude towards the ordinariness of the image. Thanks to careful selection, special cases carried artistic appreciation, originality of characters, and typicality of the era. History was depicted in everyday simplicity, it was made by people, and not by figures placed on pedestals or sentimental heroes endowed with a sensitive author's heart.
The Russian historical story gradually assimilated both the historicism of Karamzin and narrative style Walter Scott. However, this assimilation was extremely difficult and was accompanied by disagreements, disputes, and harsh judgments. The principles of historicism and their implementation in literature became the subject of open or hidden polemics.
With all their admiration for Karamzin, the Decembrists decisively disagreed with him in their view of Russian history. They did not and could not accept Karamzin's monarchism. They believed that the idea of a monarchy was alien to the Russian people, that autocracy was imposed on them. The people were forced into an autocratic order by deception and force and their freedom was taken away, turning the peasants into forced serfs. From the point of view of the Decembrists, the entire people, one way or another, ended up in slavery to the autocrats with varying degrees of freedom - more (nobles) or less (peasants). Inspired by the national-patriotic idea, the Decembrists divided the entire nation into tyrants and republicans. Tyrants are those who defended autocracy and slavery with thoughts, feelings, and actions; Republicans are freedom lovers, although they turned out to be “slaves”, but with their thoughts, feelings and actions they have not resigned themselves to a pitiful fate. The overwhelming majority of the Russian nation, the Decembrists believed, was a nation of republicans. Novgorod and Pskov served as historical evidence of this for them, where the free popular voice dominated the veche and where “the last outbreaks of Russian freedom were stifled.” From this point of view, the content of Russian history was the unceasing struggle of the Republicans against tyranny and its champions.
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1. First third XIX century - the era of the Russian romantic story. Romanticism, as you know, is first mastered by our poets and only then spread to prose and drama. It is important to remember that starting from the 10s. our general public gets acquainted with the novels of Walter Scott, which inevitably influences the development of prose genres (if you want, you can connect this with the growth of national consciousness, etc.): in the early 20s. superficial borrowing of elements of historicism (the desire to draw attention to the color of place and time, to compare the political events of the past with the present, but the conflict and plot are not yet determined by the historical situation); in the second half of the 20s-30s, events of the long past cease to be a reason for depiction instructive pictures, the historical past becomes not only the subject of the narrative, but also the object of study - the aesthetic existence of historical material, and not the historical background, as it was before (which, apparently, was inherited by the romantic story from the sentimental one). All mysteries, fairy tales, legends occupy an important place. Also among the characteristic features one can note the parallelism of the author and the hero, the confession of the main character, etc. However, in each case, in essence, different elements romantic poetics, so let's turn to specific examples. It is also important to note that especially at an early stage, but also later, the influence of Karamzin’s sentimentalism remains important. And finally: there is a tradition of identifying several subtypes within the Russian romantic story: historical, fantastic, secular and morally descriptive stories (however, there are probably more).
2. M. Pogodin “Black Sickness” (1829): this is one of illustrative examples Russian historical romantic story, where not a single component is maintained to the required extent. Regarding this story, there are two opposing points of view: 1) the main subject of the description is merchant life (then it is an everyday story); 2) everyday life is contrasted with the main character, who forms the center of the story - a romantic story. The second point of view finds quite a lot of confirmation: 1) romantic conflict - the hero’s rejection of the world around him ( merchant life); 2) the hero’s romantic idea of love (absolutely not consistent with the nature of his surroundings - fat, scary Agasha, actually “sold” by her parents in marriage, of course, not a “combination of two souls”); 3) the confession of the main character is also present - it falls on her the main role in disclosure spiritual world a hero into whom the narrator’s outside words are unable to penetrate (confession as a device is typical of romantic prose); 4) the presence of poetic quotes - also important feature Russian romantic prose: Authors in search own capabilities prose and drama resort to the help of already established romantic genres. Fragments of other people's texts, most often very well-known and widely heard by readers, serve as impulses of romantic energy. In this case, Zhukovsky’s poem is quoted: “I found everything familiar in them, but it was so sweet, so pleasant to read them that I quietly learned them by heart...” (we are talking about the elegy “On the Death of Her Majesty the Queen of Wirtemberg”). On the other hand, the concept of a romantic hero is not fully sustained: upon learning that he is not the only one in the world, Ganya rejoices, while the romantic hero is unique, Gavrila wants to find an interlocutor so that together he can express to each other everything spiritual and inexpressible. On the third hand, for a historical story, there is a rather weakly motivated conflict here that does not receive historical and social understanding: the conflict is built on the individual (the devil knows where it came from) property of Gavrila. Thus, we have a very unusual story, which, on the one hand, uses romantic techniques and is based on romantic poetics, on the other hand, gravitates toward everyday life, and on the third, combines everything (you can even talk about it in the question about ambivalence: )).
3. Pushkin (1830): Belkin's Stories: Young Peasant Lady and Sentimentalism
The characters in Pushkin's little tragedies and "Belkin's Tales" act guided not by romantic secret impulses (even though their actions look very romantic) or sentimental best/worst impulses, but by impulses that are most natural for them as representatives of their world. Most of the plots of the "Tales" do not have direct references to specific predecessor texts; these are restored only as a result of analytical work and only hypothetically. The exception is the story that completes the cycle - "The Young Lady-Peasant". The main pretext of the story is obvious: this is Karamzin's " Poor Lisa". The connection between the texts is established not only at the level of the names of the main characters, but also at the level of the plots, which are in relation to partial parallelism: in "Poor Liza" it is told about a peasant girl who fell in love with a nobleman and, after his betrayal, committed suicide, and in "The Young Lady -peasant woman" - about a noble girl who partially imitated the Karamzin conflict and, as a result, married a nobleman.
However, “Poor Liza” itself was hardly so interesting to Pushkin as an object of parody. Much more important is the fact that this story has become a kind of precedent text, a paradigm of Russian sentimentalism, one of its peaks, representing sentimentalism in general in the minds of the literary community (meaning both writers and readers). Despite the fact that sentimentalism by this time was already a thing of the past, the authority of Karamzin’s prose remained quite large, although the main positions were still given over to romantic strife. To some extent, Pushkin was indeed more strongly influenced by romanticism: in Belkin’s Tales themselves, three of the five stories are related more to romantic than to sentimentalist plots. Pushkin needed a sentimentalist plot in order to assign a new hero to his poetics (precisely as a hero, and not a minor character) - a simple person.
Sentimentalism (Lessing, Karamzin, partly Rousseau) created a certain canon love story. According to this canon, to an idyllic life " ordinary people"existing in accordance with natural law human existence, the figure of a lover (a nobleman) invades, who destroys this life, since his (her) nature is distorted by an unnatural upbringing and way of life.
Pushkin completes his cycle (he completes it not chronologically, but compositionally, which is much more important for understanding the author’s position) with “The Peasant Young Lady,” in which he consistently demythologizes the figure of “the peasant woman who also knows how to love.”
First of all, main character The story, like other district young ladies dear to the author’s heart, was brought up on novels: “Raised in the clean air, in the shade of their gardens, they draw knowledge of the world and life from books” (As we see, Karamzin’s propaganda work was a success). At the same time, Pushkin, as befits an “episentimentalist,” does not forget to contrast them with more educated city women: “In the capitals, women get, perhaps, better education; but the skill of light soon softens the character and makes souls as monotonous as hats."
The main character, on the contrary, has a university education, which, however, does not prevent him from intending to join military service. He behaves like a real romantic, while at the same time parodying the sentimentalist standard of the infernal seducer (“The young ladies went crazy for him”). The story uses such canonical techniques as correspondence; Alexei, as befits a sentimentalist hero, is struck by the thoughts and feelings of a “simple girl,” etc.
Let us note that the heroes of the story constantly fluctuate between the sociocultural stereotypes instilled in them by literature and genuine feelings; Moreover, sometimes the very adherence to the automatism of the stereotype spurs the feeling (a collision unthinkable for sentimentalism): “He spoke in the language of true passion and at that moment he was definitely in love.” However, the heroes' orientation to book models is not a reason for censure: “romantic” thoughts are just their natural habitat. At the same time, a happy ending occurs not because the heroes follow the “dictation of their hearts” or “do what they should,” but because it is unlikely that the story could have turned out differently: “the time has come - they got married.”
So Pushkin says goodbye to Russian sentimentalism of the Karamzinist kind, erecting a kind of monument to it, in which familiar features are combined into a rather unexpected structure.
4. Gogol: Gogol in his stories also takes inspiration from romanticism, especially from its fantastic side. However, if in “Evenings...” there is only a complication of the romantic conflict, then already in “The Nose” it is completely turned upside down. Gogol's subtlest irony is manifested in the fact that he constantly plays on the expectation of a solution to the romantic mystery, parodying its poetics and further and further luring the reader into a trap. Mann: “The plot planes of The Nose are also mysteriously incompatible.” On one level, the nose exists in its “natural” form, and Ivan Yakovlevich seems to be, if not guilty, then at least involved in its “separation”. On another plane, the nose is “on its own” with the signs of a “state councilor”, and Ivan Yakovlevich’s guilt is decisively attributed to the fact that the nose disappeared two days after shaving. Instead of somehow combining both planes, the narrator again steps aside, cutting off the event line twice: “But here the incident is completely obscured by fog, and absolutely nothing is known what happened next.” At the same time, Gogol skillfully prevents the possibility of interpreting “history” as a misunderstanding or deception of the character’s feelings, preventing it by introducing a similar perception of the fact by other characters. The essence of the technique is that Gogol has completely removed the medium of fantasy - the personified embodiment of unreal power. But the fantasticness itself remains. The achievements of romantic fiction were transformed by Gogol, but not abolished. By removing the bearer of the fantastic, he left the fantastic; by parodying romantic mystery, he maintained mystery; By making the “form of rumors” the subject of an ironic game, he strengthened the credibility of “the incident itself.”
In the Decembrists' views on history, strengths were combined with weaknesses. The Decembrists were convinced that monarchism was a despotic form of government, that it restrained the mighty forces of the nation and slowed down the progress of the country. In a word, autocracy is the strangler of the free initiative of the nation and each individual.
At the same time, the noble revolutionaries extended the ideas of modernity to the entire historical Russian experience, without seeing the qualitative originality of a particular era and without noticing that at a certain stage of history, autocracy played a positive unifying role. Since, the Decembrists believed, there are no fundamental differences between the historical past and the present, the struggle between tyrant fighters and tyrants is equally characteristic of all periods of Russian history. Consequently, the freedom-loving ideas of antiquity are identical to the freedom-loving ideas of modernity. Therefore, all ancient and new freedom-loving heroes think the same way with each other and with the author. And this meant that these selfless people were not at all generated by this or that era, its social conditions. If the heroism of historical figures brought out by the Decembrists were dependent on the circumstances of historical life, then the guarantees of the appearance of valor in modern era. Thus, the character of the freedom lover was explained by the Decembrists not by the time that created him, but by the commonality of patriotic and civil ideas of the past with the patriotic and civil ideas of our time. The Decembrists sought to reveal the unity of national character at all times, leaving the historical development of the Russian people outside the brackets of their thoughts. This, in essence, consisted of that anti-historicism and that rationalistic approach to history, which were manifested with particular force in many works of the Decembrists, including in the historical story.
If Karamzin wrote that “we will not find any repetitions in history,” then the Decembrists insisted on the self-evidence of repetitions, for patriotism and love of freedom are repeated throughout all eras. “Every age,” Karamzin asserted, “has its own special moral character, plunges into the depths of eternity and never appears on earth another time.” For Karamzin, each century has a relatively independent character. Historical development is accomplished by changing such eras, which are no longer resurrected in the future. According to the Decembrists, the content and distinctive features of people’s moral existence do not disappear anywhere and, of course, do not disappear without a trace. History, with its examples, convinces us of the vitality of patriotic and civic virtues. This is where the characteristic of the Decembrist historical literature allusiveness, consisting in the fact that examples of civil virtues are found in history, directly imposed on modernity and overturned into it. Historical figures or events illustrate the Decembrist understanding of the underlying conflict. The method of allusions and “applications” was intended to justify the Decembrist ideas historically and give them a national meaning.
Because the historical heroes were like-minded people of each other and the Decembrist author, they thought, felt, and spoke the same way. In addition, the Decembrists glorified historical figures who, for one reason or another, found themselves in conflict with tyrants, but the real reasons for the clashes were not taken into account and therefore appeared distorted. So, for example, for Ryleev it is enough that Artemy Volynsky was Biron’s opponent. This prompted the poet to paint the image of a passionate and unyielding freedom-lover, dying for his beliefs, but not changing them. Meanwhile, Volynsky, of course, was neither a revolutionary1 nor a lover of freedom. He belonged to that noble oligarchy that wanted to overthrow Biron, assert its influence over Anna Ioannovna and seize power. In other words, his actions were not driven by revolutionary or democratic considerations. With Ryleev, Volynsky turned into a fiery freethinker, a Decembrist in thoughts and feelings. The poet Katenin was surprised by the coverage of Mazepa in the poem “Voinarovsky,” who appeared to Ryleev as “some kind of Cato,” that is, instead of a traitor and enemy of Russia, a hater of tyranny and a republican.
The Decembrists in their historical consciousness initial stage were far from recognizing the immutable fact that autocracy is a form of government that naturally arose in the course of history, that monarchism is an objective result of the historical process, independent of our subjective desires and tastes. The Decembrists approached history romantically and therefore excluded the idea of development, but had not yet risen to the point of recognizing historical period a necessary link in the fate of the people. At the same time, the Decembrists did not want to deliberately distort history. On the contrary, they sought to rely on documents, borrowing them from various sources, mostly from Karamzin’s “History...”. Thus, they showed interest in historical truth-telling and historical documentation. For example, each “Duma” by Ryleev was preceded by historical reference, which talked about the event depicted in the poem. Ryleev, therefore, convinced readers of the accuracy of what he had drawn. historical painting. Over time, the Decembrists became more and more attentive to the historically accurate presentation of events, linking the concept of historicism with the concept of nationality. Attempts to capture the uniqueness of the era, to penetrate into the “soul” of the people led the Decembrists to reproduce the morals of the people in a particular historical era.
Reproducing traditional motifs and relying on existing ones structural elements, the Decembrists introduced original ideological content into the historical story and expressed history through the prism of modernity. Thanks to the new content, the early historical story of the Decembrists, which included the ideas of romantic historicism, replaced the sentimental story with a historical plot and preceded the further deepening of the genre.
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"Truly, this was the Golden Age of our literature,
the period of her innocence and bliss!..”
M. A. Antonovich
M. Antonovich in his article called the beginning of the 19th century, the period of creativity of A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol, the “golden age of literature.” Subsequently, this definition began to characterize the literature of all XIX century- right up to the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.
What are the main features of Russian classical literature this period?
Sentimentalism, fashionable at the beginning of the century, gradually fades into the background - the formation of romanticism begins, and from the middle of the century realism rules the roost.
New types of heroes appear in literature: " small man", who most often dies under the pressure of the accepted principles of society and the "superfluous person" - this is a string of images, starting with Onegin and Pechorin.
Continuing the traditions of satirical depiction, proposed by M. Fonvizin, in XIX literature century satirical image the vices of modern society becomes one of the central motives. Satire often takes grotesque forms. Vivid examples— Gogol’s “The Nose” or “The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Another one distinguishing feature literature of this period had an acute social orientation. Writers and poets are increasingly turning to socio-political topics, often plunging into the field of psychology. This leitmotif permeates the works of I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy. A new form is emerging - the Russian realistic novel, with its deep psychologism, severe criticism of reality, irreconcilable hostility with existing foundations and loud calls for renewal.
Well main reason, which prompted many critics to call the 19th century the golden age of Russian culture: the literature of this period, despite a number of unfavorable factors, had a powerful influence on the development of world culture as a whole. Absorbing all the best that was offered world literature, Russian literature was able to remain original and unique.
Russian writers of the 19th century
V.A. Zhukovsky- Pushkin’s mentor and his Teacher. It is Vasily Andreevich who is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. We can say that Zhukovsky “prepared” the ground for Pushkin’s bold experiments, since he was the first to expand the scope of the poetic word. After Zhukovsky, the era of democratization of the Russian language began, which Pushkin so brilliantly continued.
Selected poems:
A.S. Griboyedov went down in history as the author of one work. But what! Masterpiece! Phrases and quotes from the comedy “Woe from Wit” have long become popular, and the work itself is considered the first realistic comedy in the history of Russian literature.
Analysis of the work:
A.S. Pushkin. He was called differently: A. Grigoriev claimed that “Pushkin is our everything!”, F. Dostoevsky “a great and still incomprehensible Forerunner,” and Emperor Nicholas I admitted that, in his opinion, Pushkin is “the smartest man in Russia". Simply put, this is Genius.
Pushkin’s greatest merit is that he radically changed the Russian literary language, ridding it of pretentious abbreviations like “mlad, breg, sweet”, from the absurd “zephyrs”, “Psyches”, “Cupids”, so revered in pompous elegies, from borrowings, which were so abundant in Russian poetry at that time. Pushkin brought colloquial vocabulary, craft slang, and elements of Russian folklore to the pages of printed publications.
A. N. Ostrovsky pointed out another important achievement of this brilliant poet. Before Pushkin, Russian literature was imitative, stubbornly imposing traditions and ideals alien to our people. Pushkin “gave the Russian writer the courage to be Russian,” “revealed the Russian soul.” In his stories and novels, for the first time the theme of the morality of social ideals of that time is raised so clearly. And with the light hand of Pushkin, the main character now becomes an ordinary “little man” - with his thoughts and hopes, desires and character.
Analysis of works:
M.Yu. Lermontov- bright, mysterious, with a touch of mysticism and an incredible thirst for will. All his work is a unique fusion of romanticism and realism. Moreover, both directions do not oppose at all, but rather complement each other. This man went down in history as a poet, writer, playwright and artist. He wrote 5 plays: the most famous is the drama “Masquerade”.
And among prose works a real diamond of creativity was the novel “A Hero of Our Time” - the first realistic novel in prose in the history of Russian literature, where for the first time the writer tries to trace the “dialectics of the soul” of his hero, mercilessly subjecting him psychological analysis. This innovative creative method Lermontov will be used in the future by many Russian and foreign writers.
Selected works:
N.V. Gogol is known as a writer and playwright, but it is no coincidence that one of his most famous works, “Dead Souls,” is considered a poem. There is no other such Master of Words in world literature. Gogol's language is melodious, incredibly bright and imaginative. This was most clearly manifested in his collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”.
On the other hand, N.V. Gogol is considered the founder of the “natural school”, with its satire bordering on the grotesque, accusatory motives and ridicule of human vices.
Selected works:
I.S. Turgenev- the greatest Russian novelist who established the canons of the classic novel. He continues the traditions established by Pushkin and Gogol. He often refers to the topic " extra person", trying to convey the relevance and significance of social ideas through the fate of his hero.
Turgenev’s merit also lies in the fact that he became the first propagandist of Russian culture in Europe. This is a prose writer who opened the world of the Russian peasantry, intelligentsia and revolutionaries to foreign countries. And the string female images in his novels became the pinnacle of the writer's skill.
Selected works:
A.N. Ostrovsky- outstanding Russian playwright. Most precisely, Ostrovsky’s merits were expressed by I. Goncharov, recognizing him as the creator of the Russian folk theater. The plays of this writer became a “school of life” for playwrights of the next generation. And the Moscow Maly Theater, where most of the plays of this talented writer were staged, proudly calls itself the “House of Ostrovsky.”
Selected works:
I.A. Goncharov continued to develop the traditions of the Russian realistic novel. The author of the famous trilogy, who was able to describe like no other major vice Russian people are lazy. With the light hand of the writer, the term “Oblomovism” appeared.
Selected works:
L.N. Tolstoy- a real block of Russian literature. His novels are recognized as the pinnacle of the art of writing novels. L. Tolstoy's style of presentation and creative method are still considered the standard of the writer's skill. And his ideas of humanism had a huge influence on the development of humanistic ideas throughout the world.
Selected works:
N.S. Leskov- a talented successor to the traditions of N. Gogol. He made a huge contribution to the development of new genre forms in literature, such as pictures from life, rhapsodies, and incredible events.
Selected works:
N.G. Chernyshevsky — outstanding writer And literary critic, who proposed his theory about the aesthetics of the relationship between art and reality. This theory became the standard for the literature of the next several generations.
Selected works:
F.M. Dostoevsky — brilliant writer, whose psychological novels are known all over the world. Dostoevsky is often called the forerunner of such cultural movements as existentialism and surrealism.
Selected works:
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin — greatest satirist, who brought the art of denunciation, ridicule and parody to the heights of mastery.
Selected works:
A.P. Chekhov. With this name, historians traditionally end the era of the golden age of Russian literature. Chekhov was recognized throughout the world during his lifetime. His stories have become a standard for short story writers. A Chekhov's plays had a huge influence on the development of world drama.
Selected works:
TO end of the 19th century centuries of tradition critical realism began to gradually fade away. In a society thoroughly permeated with pre-revolutionary sentiments, mystical, partly even decadent, sentiments came into fashion. They became the forerunners of the emergence of a new literary direction- symbolism and marked the beginning of a new period in the history of Russian literature - the Silver Age of poetry.
Section KHRK-612
RUSSIAN HISTORICAL STORY
FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY
For children of senior school age Compiled by Valentin Ivanovich Korovin
Artist Yu. K. Bazhenov
- M.: Sov. Russia, 1989.— 368 p.
The historical stories collected in this book belong mostly to Russian romantic writers. With their creativity, they stirred up interest in the dramatic events of Russian history, thanks to their activity, historical thinking began to take shape, which later manifested itself so powerfully in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, L. Tolstoy and our other classics.
Content:
V. Korovin. “Treasured Legends.”
Alexander Bestuzhev
An old story.
Orest Somov
A traveler's story.
Nikolay Polevoy
The Tale of Simeon, Prince of Suzdal.
Alexander Kryukov
.
Alexander Kornilovich
Andrey Bezymeny. An old story.
Konstantin Masalsky
Biron's regency.
Notes
RUSSIAN HISTORICAL STORY
FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY
"CHECKED TRADES"
AND Interest in history at the beginning of the 19th century surged in Russia with extraordinary force after the powerful national upsurge caused by the Napoleonic Wars and especially the Patriotic War of 1812. The awakened national consciousness determined the uniqueness of the spiritual development of Russian society. And the Decembrist movement, and the monumental work of Karamzin, and the fables of Krylov, and the works of Pushkin - all these are echoes of major historical events, which themselves have become facts of our history. The first decades of the 19th century pass under the sign of history. Belinsky drew attention to this feature. “Our century is primarily a historical century. Historical contemplation, the critic wrote, has powerfully and irresistibly penetrated all spheres of modern consciousness. History has now become, as it were, the general foundation and the only condition of all living knowledge: without it, it has become impossible to comprehend either art or philosophy.”
Russian society felt an urgent need to realize what the distinctive features of the national character, the national spirit, as they said then, were. Historicism became the banner of the new century. He was inseparable from the ideas of the people. But in order to understand the feat of the people in the Patriotic War of 1812, which surprised noble Russia, in order to comprehend the way of their life, thoughts and feelings, it was necessary to look into the past, into the “dark antiquity”, to turn to the origins of national existence. Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State” opened up to Russian society pages of antiquity that had been covered by almost no one until then. Russian society saw in it a reliable picture of life, the struggle of opinions, the psychological intensity of passions and ready-made subjects for philosophical, historical, moral and artistic reflection. Real ground was created for the flourishing of historical genres. But, perhaps, Karamzin’s “History” played no less important role in the formation of the method of historicism. From now on, historical thinking becomes not only a tool with which to open
1 Belinsky V. G. Complete. collection cit.— M., 1955.— T. VI.— P. 90.
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the door of knowledge into the depths of centuries, but with the necessary quality of philosophical or artistic thought, illuminating living modernity with its ray.
At the same time, Karamzin’s “History” is a work in which the scientific presentation merged with artistry. The element of artistry, very strong in “History,” was based on genuine and reliable facts and evidence. This circumstance immediately posed a number of purely creative problems for writers - how appropriate is fiction in a literary work, how to combine historical truth and an imaginary plot? Narrative forms have not yet been so improved and refined that the contradictory components of a work of art on a historical theme could be reconciled in some kind of organic unity. Therefore, in a historical story, either an artistic task predominates, mostly ignoring historical reality, or an essay in which the characters look pale, devoid of full-blooded life and persuasiveness. Between them were intermediate forms of memories, “events,” and “incidents.” Often, historical material played an auxiliary, service role - writers were not interested in the past century in its truth, but in their own views on modernity, carried out with the help of historical information.
The fate of the historical story is also instructive in the sense that it clearly demonstrated how historical thinking was formed and the forms of historical narration took shape, and how the features of realism were honed.
If Karamzin awakened theoretical thought, forced us to pay attention to historical reality, to the era, to the clash of interests, then Walter Scott - his historical novels were already widely known to Russian society - had a tremendous influence on the form of historical narration.
Walter Scott, like Karamzin, relied on the document, but from the documents he chose the most characteristic for a particular time. At the same time, he was attracted by some episode, scene, touch, “anecdote”, in which morals, customs, and thinking, determined by the era or environment, vividly and vividly revealed themselves. This resulted in an attitude towards the ordinariness of the image. “The main charm is rum.<анов>W. Sc. “,” wrote Pushkin, “consists<в том>, that we get acquainted with the past tense not with enflure (puffiness - Ed.) fr.<анцузских>tragedies - not with the stiffness of sensitive novels - not with dignite (in an upbeat tone - Ed.) history, but in a modern, but homely way" Thus, the "anecdote" became one of the important weak-
1 Pushkin A. S. Complete. collection op.—M.; JI., 1949.—T. XII.—P. 195.
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required artistic historical description. Thanks to careful selection, special cases carried artistic appreciation, originality of characters, and typicality of the era. History was depicted in everyday simplicity, it was made by people, and not by figures placed on pedestals or sentimental heroes endowed with a sensitive author's heart. Walter Scott managed to organically merge artistic intuition and scientific documentation. In his novels, historical events and historical time naturally revealed themselves in the actions, thoughts, and feelings of ordinary people. The task of conveying the typical in the special, and, in comparison with modernity, even unusual and strange, and through it to understand the rights of the people and each person participating in history, came to the fore.
The Russian historical story gradually adopted both Karamzin's historicism and the narrative style of Walter Scott. However, this assimilation was extremely difficult and was accompanied by disagreements, disputes, and harsh judgments.
The principles of historicism and their implementation in literature became the subject of open or hidden polemics.
With all their admiration for Karamzin, the Decembrists decisively disagreed with him in their view of Russian history. They did not and could not accept Karamzin's monarchism. They believed that the idea of a monarchy was alien to the Russian people, that autocracy was imposed on them. The people were forced into an autocratic order by deception and force and their freedom was taken away, turning the peasants into forced serfs. From the point of view of the Decembrists, the entire people one way or another ended up in slavery to the autocrats with varying degrees of freedom - more (nobles) or less (peasants). Inspired by the national-patriotic idea, the Decembrists divided the entire nation into tyrants and republicans. Tyrants are those who defended autocracy and slavery with thoughts, feelings, and actions; Republicans are freedom lovers, although they turned out to be “slaves”, but with their thoughts, feelings and actions they have not resigned themselves to a pitiful fate. The overwhelming majority of the Russian nation, the Decembrists believed, was a nation of republicans. Novgorod and Pskov served as historical evidence of this for them, where the free popular voice dominated the veche and where “the last outbreaks of Russian freedom were stifled.” From this point of view, the content of Russian history was the unceasing struggle of the Republicans against tyranny and its champions.
In the Decembrists' views on history, strengths were combined with weaknesses. The Decembrists were convinced that monarchism was a despotic form of government, that it restrained the mighty forces of the nation and slowed down the progress of the country. In a word, autocracy is the strangler of the free initiative of the nation and each individual person.
At the same time, the ideas of modernity, the noble revolutionaries
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extended to the entire historical Russian experience, without seeing the qualitative originality of a particular era and but noting that at a certain stage of history, the autocracy played a positive unifying role. Since, the Decembrists believed, there are no fundamental differences between the historical past and the present, the struggle between tyrant fighters and tyrants is equally characteristic of all periods of Russian history. Consequently, the freedom-loving ideas of antiquity are identical to the freedom-loving ideas of modernity. Therefore, all ancient and new freedom-loving heroes think the same way with each other and with the author. And this meant that these selfless people were not at all generated by this or that era, its social conditions. If the heroism of historical figures brought out by the Decembrists were dependent on the circumstances of historical life, then the guarantees for the appearance of virtues in the modern era would disappear. Thus, the character of the freedom lover was explained by the Decembrists not by the time that created him, but by the commonality of patriotic and civil ideas of the past with the patriotic and civil ideas of the present. The Decembrists sought to reveal the unity of national character at all times, leaving the historical development of the Russian people outside the brackets of their thoughts. This, in essence, consisted of that anti-historicism and that rationalistic approach to history, which were manifested with particular force in many works of the Decembrists, including in the historical story.
If Karamzin wrote that “we will not find any repetitions in history,” then the Decembrists insisted on the self-evidence of repetitions, for patriotism and love of freedom are repeated throughout all eras. “Every age,” Karamzin asserted, “has its own special moral character, plunges into the depths of eternity and never appears on earth another time.”1 For Karamzin, each century has a relatively independent character. Historical development occurs through the succession of such eras, which are no longer resurrected in the future. According to the Decembrists, the content and distinctive features of people’s moral existence do not disappear anywhere and, of course, do not disappear without a trace. History, with its examples, convinces us of the vitality of patriotic and civic virtues. From here comes the allusion characteristic of Decembrist historical literature, which consists in the fact that examples of civil virtues are found in history, directly imposed on modernity and overturned into it. Historical figures or events illustrate the Decembrist understanding of the underlying conflict. The method of allusions and “applications” was intended to justify the Decembrist ideas historically and give them a national meaning.
1 Karamzin N. M. Izbr. op.—M.; JI., 1904.—T. 2.—S. 258.
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Since the historical heroes were like-minded people of each other and the Decembrist author, they thought, felt, and spoke the same way. In addition, the Decembrists glorified historical figures who, for one reason or another, found themselves in conflict with tyrants, but the real reasons for the clashes were not taken into account and therefore appeared distorted. So, for example, for Ryleev it is enough that Artemy Volynsky was Biron’s opponent. This prompted the poet to paint the image of a passionate and unyielding freedom-lover, dying for his beliefs, but not changing them. Meanwhile, Volynsky, of course, was neither a revolutionary nor a lover of freedom. He belonged to that noble oligarchy that wanted to overthrow Biron, assert its influence over Anna Ioannovna and seize power. In other words, his actions were not driven by revolutionary or democratic considerations. With Ryleev, Volynsky turned into a fiery freethinker, a Decembrist in thoughts and feelings. The poet Katenin was surprised by the coverage of Mazepa in the poem “Voinarovsky,” who appeared to Ryleev as “some kind of Cato,” that is, instead of a traitor and enemy of Russia, a hater of tyranny and a republican.
The Decembrists, in their historical consciousness at the initial stage, were far from recognizing the immutable fact that autocracy is a form of government that naturally arose in the course of history, that monarchism is an objective result of the historical process, independent of our subjective desires and tastes. The Decembrists approached history romantically and therefore excluded the idea of development and had not yet risen to understand the historical period as a necessary link in the fate of the people.
At the same time, the Decembrists did not want to deliberately distort history. On the contrary, they sought to rely on documents, borrowing them from various sources, mostly from Karamzin’s “History”. Thus, they showed interest in historical truth-telling and historical documentation. For example, each of Ryleev’s thoughts was preceded by a historical note, which told about the event depicted in the poem. Ryleev, therefore, convinced readers of the accuracy of the historical picture he painted. Over time, the Decembrists became more and more attentive to the historically accurate presentation of events, linking the concept of historicism with the concept of nationality. Attempts to capture the uniqueness of the era, to penetrate the “soul” of the people led the Decembrists to reproduce the morals of the people in a particular historical era.
The Decembrists felt that each nation lives its own historical life, that the life and customs of the Russian people cannot be confused with the life and customs of the Germans, French, English or Arabs. In those first decades of the 19th century, opposing types of culture were distinguished.
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tour, still very generalized - northern, “Ossnan”, and southern, “antique”. The contrast “East” - “West” dominated in the Byronic poem. Byron's “oriental” poems are permeated with the flavor of the East. Next to the Arab, Muslim Mediterranean lives another - Western, European - type of culture, originating in antiquity. Consequently, the historical fate of eastern and western peoples is considered different. The contemporaries of Byron and Walter Scott, the Decembrists, were close to the idea that the life of a people depends on their living conditions, occupations, climate, customs, traditions, beliefs, language, and on what is called “local color.” The moral character of a people is inseparable from the totality of the circumstances surrounding it. The Decembrists went even further. They realized that the Russian man of the 12th century was different from Russian XIX centuries. However, such a difference does not relate to the content of national heroism, but only to the external forms of its expression.
The historical story reflected that stage in the creation of a historical style when, on the one hand, the writers already felt the difference between the speech of the narrator and the speech of the characters, and on the other hand, they were not yet able to give the speeches of the heroes a historical flavor. Not least of all, this happened because the early historical story could not rely on a deep narrative tradition and at first depended on lyrical-narrative forms. This dependence concerned the organization of the plot (gaps in the narrative, the absence of gradual transitions), the “peak” and episodic nature of the composition, built from one intense dramatic moment to another, leaving the intermediate course of events unsaid; attention to exceptional, unusual characters, “to forced emotional experiences; introduction of spectacular scenes, gestures, poses. From romantic poem situations associated with horrors, secrets and moral perversions moved into the historical story. Increased exaltation, the lofty language of passions, along with ancient sayings, everyday realities and moral and religious concepts and relationships formed the linguistic background of the historical story, in which the stylistic principles of the “Eastern” or historical poem. Reproducing traditional motifs and relying on existing structural elements, the Decembrists introduced original ideological content into the historical story and expressed history through the prism of modernity. Thanks to the new content, the early historical story of the Decembrists, which included the ideas of romantic historicism, replaced the sentimental story with a historical plot and preceded the further deepening of the genre.
The first romantic historical stories are associated with the names of Alexander Bestuzhev, V. Kuchelbecker, N. Bestuzhev and other Decembrists. In A. Bestuzhev’s early prose there is a strong interest in the Russian medium.
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ageless Two themes stand out here - Livonian and purely Russian. The second of them is dedicated to events reflecting the struggle between Novgorod and Moscow. A striking example of it was the story “Roman and Olga”, which had an impact strong impact on romantic writers who turned to the same or similar historical era.
For the historical narrative, A. Bestuzhev chooses a plot briefly outlined in Karamzin’s “History”. This choice is dictated by the desire to follow the truth of history. The writer deliberately took a specific historical event, trying to be documentarily accurate. This allowed Bestuzhev, as he thought, to historically correctly recreate the historical flavor: the morals of the people, the thoughts, feelings, desires of the heroes, the peculiarities of their behavior and language. In the afterword to the story, the writer referred to the documentary nature of his narrative: “The course of my story lies between the halves of 1396 and 1398 (counting the year from March 1, according to the then style). All historical incidents and persons mentioned in it are presented with relentless accuracy, and I depicted morals, prejudices and customs, according to considerations, from legends and remaining monuments.” As evidence of “persistent accuracy,” Bestuzhev referred to the works of N. Karamzin, E. Bolkhovitinov and G. Uspensky. The reader had to believe that the author was based on authentic documents and evidence. He was convinced that the action of the story was strictly confined to a certain time, and “mores, prejudices and customs” were extracted “from legends and remaining monuments.” However, Bestuzhev “depicted them... out of consideration,” that is, following fiction, fantasy, his artistic intuition, but verifying it with the same historical facts. Thus, he tried to connect two principles - the testimony of history and fiction, going back again to original documents. All this, according to the writer, ensured historical authenticity to the story.
However, coverage of the historical past is highly romanticized. The intention to reproduce the era “relentlessly accurately” came into conflict with the Decembrist understanding of history. In the conflict between Novgorod and Moscow, all the Decembrist’s sympathies were given in advance to Novgorod and his love of freedom. Moscow was portrayed as oppressive and unrighteous. She encroached on the freedoms of Novgorod. For the sake of glorifying the Novgorod freemen, Bestuzhev distorted historical facts. Karamzin, for example, wrote about the “selfish Novgorod government”, that certain parts of Novgorod “willingly” and “friendly” greeted the Moscow army. Bestuzhev, on the contrary, idealizes the veche and emphasizes the unity of Novgorodians who do not want to recognize the power of Moscow. Although the Novgorodians argue about whether to fight with Vasily Dmitrievich or surrender to the mercy of a strong enemy, Moscow remains an enemy for both, and its claims are a gross attack on independence and ancient customs. Them
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In the process, historical accuracy is sacrificed to the Decembrist worldview.
The hero of the story, the novel, acts as a conductor of the author’s idea about the Novgorod freemen. This is a romantic Decembrist, dressed in the costume of a Novgorod boyar. Above all for him is the freedom of Novgorod, which he is ready to defend and defend at the cost own life. The writer, creating the image of a fiery champion of freedom, capable of sacrificing himself, of course, appealed to his contemporaries, drawing them into struggle and awakening in them feelings of honor and duty. At the same time, the novel speaks and thinks as a contemporary of the author and those young nobles to whom the writer is addressing. The hero’s speech combines two stylistic streams - lyrically excited and pathetically passionate, full of exclamations, questions and “overturned” into the past, replete with ancient phrases, expressions, proverbs and sayings. Interspersed with ancient Russian words, concepts, everyday realities, descriptions of clothing, utensils, fabrics add a historical flavor to the narrative, but it turns out not to be a reproduction of the authenticity of a bygone era, but just a spectacular ornament that sets off the completely modern ones. characters and actions of the heroes.
Bestuzhev’s attempts to convey the moral image of the era “out of consideration” based on authentic documents turn out to be unsuccessful, because the basis of the author’s narrative is the speech of the Decembrist writer, slightly embellished and covered up in ancient words. So, talking about the behavior of Olga, Roman’s beloved, Bestuzhev reports that the heroine remembers “that unforgettable Seven Week, when for the first time her hand trembled in Roman’s hand.” Not to mention Olga’s behavior, which was impossible for the morals of antiquity (she could not see Roman before the matchmaking and wedding, because “our ancestors” did not show their daughters not only to strangers, but even to their brothers), the stylistic accents in the thoughts of the heroine, conveyed by Bestuzhev , are placed incorrectly. The word “semik,” which is deliberately used here for supposed historical fidelity, looks like an alien oddity, while the word “unforgettable” carries a strong emotional charge, explaining state of mind Olga. But the epithet “unforgettable” was taken by Bestuzhev from modern romantic language, while the word “semik” belongs to religious and everyday vocabulary. In the second part of the phrase (“when her hand trembled in Roman’s hand”) the style of romanticism dominates. This phrase is firmly linked to the word “unforgettable”. They are selected according to stylistic similarity and form a single stylistic layer, from which the word “semik” falls out. At the same time, it loses its historical flavor and means the word “day”, which was common for that time. All this proves that Olga thinks about her sweetheart like a typical romantic heroine, and not the sedate beauty of our folklore or ancient monuments.
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The description of morals “for reasons” does not pass the test of historical accuracy, excluding the organic unity of style and allowing for a conflict of words bearing historical overtones with words and expressions used in romantic prose. In accordance with the general artistic assignment Bestuzhev focuses on the inner world of the characters, on the motives of their behavior and experiences, and external images become signs of deep passions. All narrative material was subordinated to the expression of the patriotic idea. In Novgorod’s struggle for its freedom, both the civil and personal fate of Roman was decided. If the Decembrist writer correlated with the image of Olga the idea of personal and, moreover, female independence, protesting against the constraining foundations of the medieval way of life and standing up for the dignity of the girl, for her right to love, for which the heroine is ready to sacrifice herself, then with the image of Roman Bestuzhev associated the idea of public freedom, in which the highest personal feelings gave way to civic virtues. Roman does not doubt for a minute that he will be able to bring his love for Olga to the altar of loyalty to Novgorod freedom. At the same time, the spirit of freedom in Novgorodians is so strong that it does not fade even among the robbers who first captured Roman and then rescued him from trouble.
Plot-composition and stylistic features historical story of the Decembrists, where the patriotic spirit of the hero is revealed in his “transformations” (the hero seems to change different masks; remaining selfless and faithful to public duty, he appears either as a sorrowful lover, separated from his girlfriend, or as a mysterious wanderer, or as a prisoner imprisoned, sometimes an unexpected savior of his offender, and finally a happy winner who receives a bride as a reward), are easily distinguishable in subsequent historical stories of romantics.
The Decembrist historical story, in which two principles are combined - documentary and fictional ("on the basis"), became the progenitor of two types of historical narration, conventionally designated as "poetic", gravitating towards the romantic, and "prosaic", with features of realism ripening in it . At the same time, both principles were certainly present, but the emphasis shifted either to “fiction” or to “document”.
The “poetic” type of historical narration was then embodied in N. Polevoy’s story about Simeon, the Suzdal Prince and in other stories of this “tireless and gifted fighter” for romanticism, according to Belinsky. N. Polevoy sought to reproduce the national spirit on the basis of poetic intuition. He brought to the fore the principle of philosophical and poetic penetration into the historical era. From this point of view, N. Polevoy contrasted Walter Scott, in whom he found only a decoration of morals, a true depiction of the nationality and customs,
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but I did not see either philosophy or poetry, the school of French historical novelists (V. Hugo, A. de Vigny).
Unlike Pushkin, N. Polevoy, thus, decisively preferred the French romantics to the realist W. Scott. To the romantic imagination of H. Field history seemed exceptionally sublime. The writer believed that the characters in Ancient Rus' were significantly stronger than those contemporary with him and, therefore, neither his consciousness nor the consciousness people XIX centuries are inaccessible and unattainable for them. Therefore, in his story all the main characters- extraordinary, exceptional, truly romantic characters. Simeon, for example, is depicted as brave and noble. He has a special destiny, marked by fate. However, he acts contrary to the fate prepared for him. The merchant Zamyatya, who frees Simeon from prison, and the boyar Dimitri are equal to him. The struggle that Simeon wages with his uncle is caused by a sense of justice and love of freedom. The support given to him by some of the residents of Nizhny Novgorod is also explained by their desire for independence. Thus, the conflict is based on reasons of a moral nature: a conspiracy arises where the primordial property of the Russian person - the ineradicable love of freedom - is infringed. This interpretation of history brought N. Polevoy closer to the romantic Decembrists and alienated him from the realists, primarily from Pushkin. However, N. Polevoy, although he saw the historical past in a romantically sublime light, believed that a truthful reproduction of the era is impossible without preserving historical accuracy, attributed primarily to historical facts. Therefore, unlike A. Bestuzhev, N. Polevoy combines the romantic idea of personal freedom with the historical important task overthrow Russian principalities Tatar yoke. He understands that Simeon is pursuing personal goals, which, if successfully implemented, will not yet bring freedom to the Russian people. Moscow, having intervened in the feud between Boris Konstantinovich and Simeon Kirdyak and deprived both of power over Nizhny Novgorod, united forces for the final liberation of Russian lands.
Gradually, the fate of Rus' becomes the main theme of the work, and on the last pages of the story the author places a lyrical and pathetic “prophecy” from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” directly addressing national patriotic motives.
Comprehending the philosophical and poetic meaning of history, N. Polevoy, naturally, weakened the romantic, love story in comparison with A. Bestuzhev. a line that has just emerged, but has not developed into an intrigue of any significance for the fate of the country or the heroes.
Along with the “poetic” historical narrative, steeped in romance, another, “prosaic” type of depiction of antiquity arose. It also began with Decembrist prose, in particular the stories of A. O. Korpilovich. Decembrist A. Kornilovich received, in addition to stories,
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There were also essays, paintings and sketches of morals. Contemporaries (P. Vyazemsky, V. Belinsky) believed that in Russian documentary sources, unlike, for example, Scottish or English, “there are no morals, community life, citizenship and home life,” which, in their opinion, made it extremely difficult to accurately reproduce stories in the spirit of W. Scott. A. Kornlovich focused his efforts precisely on this. He turned to the era of Peter I and wrote essays about amusements, assemblies, the first balls, and the private life of the emperor and Russians during the time of Peter the Great. Much of his information, described in the essays, was then used by Pushkin in the unfinished novel “Arap of Peter the Great.” A. Nornilovich did not shy away from oral stories and anecdotes that reached his contemporaries from a relatively distant era. For the first time, he widely used written and oral materials of an everyday nature, thanks to which the course of historical life was illuminated.
A. Kornilovich’s story “Andrei the Nameless” is dedicated to the events of the Peter the Great era. Its plot basis is documentary: the writer borrowed the plot from the works of I. Golikov (an episode about a private and unfair trial). The story clearly distinguishes two principles: historical material and romantic intrigue. However, the historian and the novelist are in conflict in the work. As a historian, A. Kornilovich carefully selects facts, creating a historical background. Documents are almost not processed and become self-sufficient. Detailed Descriptions Petersburg, in which excursions into the past are combined with comments and appeals to the present (“In a long row of buildings, the former palace of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich (now the Gough Quartermaster’s Office) stood out, Foundry yard, which has not changed its then appearance, the Summer Palace, the wooden Winter Palace (where now Imperial Hermitage), huge house Admiral Apraksin (broken down to form the current Winter Palace), Naval Academy. Admiralty..."), are mechanically connected with the romantic "history" and written in a different - rather dry and precise - style. The most important thing for A. Kornilovich is to express his attitude towards the era of Peter the Great, to talk about the beneficial undertakings and transformations of the tsar in all areas - from state institutions to small signs of private life. In this case, the documentary material is separated from the plot and turned into essays of larger or smaller volume. A. Kornilovich talks about St. Petersburg, about his activities and hobbies, about the private life of the tsar and his entourage. Peter's transformations and the very spirit of the era captivate the writer, and he conveys them in detail, with many characteristic features, lovingly naming the names of the tsar's associates and sympathetically drawing pictures of morals and life.
Against this historical background, the fate of the nobleman Andrei Gorbunov unfolds, from whom the powerful and greedy Menshikov takes away
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estate, and along with the estate, honor, dignity and a bride, because Gorbunov, deprived of his noble title, can no longer lay claim to Varvara’s hand. The hero is saved by chance: having entered the Preobrazhensky Regiment, he once found himself alone with Peter I and told him about his sad story. The Tsar, who knew the habits of his favorite, checked Gorbunov’s story and returned his hereditary title and estate. In a word, he restored the justice violated by Menshikov. This story is presented by Kornilovich in conventional and rather worn-out romantic colors. She confirms, according to overall plan writer, the greatness of Peter as a statesman and as a person. However, A. Kornilovich did not achieve an organic fusion of the historical background and the romantic plot, heroes and environment. Historical documentary material entered the story unprocessed, although with its help the story was depicted in the manner of W. Scott in a “homely way.” The hero’s private story, both in content and style, seemed to “stand out” from the sketch narration: in its presentation, the romantic style prevailed, which affected the unnaturalness of the experiences, and the speeches, and the behavior of the characters. The characters, as the writer himself admitted, turned out to be undeveloped.
A. Kryukov also experienced difficulties in transforming documentary material into an artistic narrative in “My Grandmother’s Story.” On the one hand, the story from the time of the Pugachev uprising was filled with expressively truthful details of everyday life (unsightly houses woven from twigs and coated with clay, uncleaned and hardly suitable for firing cannons, “in which sparrows made nests for themselves,” wretched clothes, mended and repaired , disabled soldiers who could barely stand on their feet due to decrepitude), and on the other - romantic story which happened to an orphan girl. The Pugachevites appear in the story as romantic villains, fiends of hell, and the author does not spare black colors to paint their faces, clothes, to talk about their terrible intentions and base feelings. A. Kryukov wanted to contrast the episode from real story"imaginary disasters romantic heroes“, but the life of his heroine Nastenka proceeds according to a long-known romantic template: here is a rumor about the secret relations of the old woman who sheltered Nastenka with otherworldly creatures, and a servant playing the role of the devil and crawling into the oven, and a secluded corner from where you can overhear the speeches of robbers, and then foil their conspiracy, and a happy ending.
Descriptions of everyday life containing realistic elements were strong point historical stories. It is known that Pushkin used many everyday realities from A. Kryukov’s story in “ The captain's daughter", depicting life in the Belogorsk fortress. However, the document in historical prose Pushkin ceases to fulfill the role of illustration and is deprived of decorativeness. He is subjected to such creativity
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technical processing, as a result of which the image and environment merge into a single whole. Historical conditions become necessary for understanding heroes, and heroes naturally act in circumstances, “for such circumstances are familiar to them,” as Pushkin himself put it about the characters in W. Scott’s novels.
The historical story of the romantics aroused interest in the uniqueness of the national character and its reliable reproduction, stirred up a sense of patriotism and made us think again about the historicism and nationality of literature. By comprehending them, the historical story has advanced quite far. So, for example, in the story “The Sign” O. Somov, a writer and critic close to the Decembrists, and then to Pushkin’s circle of writers, depicted two ways of life - French and Russian, two types of behavior of simple, ordinary people different nations. The ideological core of the story is the idea of the unity of the Russian people during the Napoleonic invasion. The peasants and the landowner commanding them act in harmony and deftly, capturing the French. In this sense, the glorious past is more sublime than the present, in which people are divided and interests are different. In part, the events of the past were portrayed as a reproach to modernity and as the so far unattainable ideal of better, more perfect social relations. The historical story of the romantics here directly interfered with life, and its problems to some extent anticipated the ideas of the realistic story or merged with them.
Since the second half of the 1830s, the genre of the historical story has been fading away. It becomes the property of writers, although knowledgeable in Russian history, such as K. Masalsky, but too preoccupied with an entertaining, action-packed narrative to the detriment of true historical depth. The patriotic content of K. Masalsky's story “The Regency of Biron” is narrowed to the denial of German influence and deviations from Orthodoxy. Nevertheless, K. Masalsky quite correctly described the dark era of “Bironovism” with its general suspicion, court intrigues, squabbles for power and the complete defenselessness of ordinary people in the realm of investigation and torture. Romantic story on a historical theme retained a dual character: documentary and fiction, historical background and images, everyday realities and entertainment did not become a convincing artistic fusion. This was not least due to a superficial assimilation of the principles of historicism. Man has not yet been explained by history, but has been planted on sometimes even detailed historical soil. His behavior and experiences were not organically associated with her. Therefore, against the background of the past, either a modern character was depicted, or a conventional, bookish one, created according to well-known literary models. Only Pushkin, and then Gogol (“Taras Bulba”) and Lermontov (“Borodino”, “Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov”) managed to say in historical narrative a new word and apply the principles of historicism to the production
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money for modern theme(“Eugene Onegin”, “Hero of Our Time”). In saying this, there is no need, of course, to belittle the romantic historical story that has become an important stage towards a realistic narrative. The desire to capture and understand the spirit of the era, attention to historical documents, language, everyday life, morals, customs, costumes - all this, of course, had a fruitful significance for the fate of Russian literature. The Romantics were the first to not only declare the demands of historicism and nationality, but also proposed bold and artistic solutions in historical stories that have not disappeared without a trace, preserving both cognitive and aesthetic interest to this day.
V. Korovin