Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin
INTRODUCTION
In one of the far corners of Russia there is a city that somehow especially speaks to my heart. It’s not that it is distinguished by magnificent buildings, there are no gardens of Semiramidin, you won’t find even a single three-story house in a long row of streets, and the streets are all unpaved; but there is something peaceful, patriarchal in his whole physiognomy, something soothing the soul in the silence that reigns on his hundred feet. Entering this city, you seem to feel that your career here is over, that you can no longer demand anything from life, that all you can do is live in the past and digest your memories.
And in fact, from this city there is not even a road further anywhere, as if the world is ending here. Wherever you look around - forest, meadows and steppe; steppe, forest and meadows; Here and there a country lane winds its way in a whimsical twist, and a cart drawn by a small, playful horse gallops briskly along it, and again everything becomes quiet, everything drowns in the general monotony...
Krutogorsk is located very picturesquely; When you approach it on a summer evening, from the side of the river, and from afar your eyes see the city garden abandoned on a steep bank, public places and this beautiful group of churches that dominates the entire surrounding area, you will not take your eyes off this picture. It's getting dark. Lights are lit both in public places and in the prison, standing on the cliff, and in those shacks that are molded closely below, near the water itself; the entire coast seems dotted with lights. And God knows why, whether due to mental fatigue or simply from road fatigue, both the prison and public places seem to you to be shelters of peace and love, the shacks are inhabited by Philemon and Baucis, and you feel in your soul such clarity, such meekness and gentleness... But then they arrive before you the sounds of bells calling to the all-night vigil; you are still far from the city, and the sounds touch your ears indifferently, in the form of a general hum, as if the whole air is full of wonderful music, as if everything around you lives and breathes; and if you were ever a child, if you had a childhood, it will appear before you in amazing detail; and suddenly all its freshness, all its impressionability, all its beliefs, all this sweet blindness, which experience subsequently dispelled and which for so long and so completely consoled your existence, will be resurrected in your heart.
But darkness takes over the horizon more and more; the tall spiers of churches sink into the air and seem like some kind of fantastic shadows; the lights along the shore become brighter and brighter; your voice resounds louder and clearer in the air. There is a river in front of you... But its surface is clear and calm, exactly its pure mirror, reflecting the pale blue sky with its millions of stars; The humid air of the night quietly and softly caresses you, and nothing, no sound disturbs the seemingly numb surroundings. The ferry doesn’t seem to be moving, and only the impatient knock of a horse’s hoof on the platform and the splash of a pole being taken out of the water bring you back to the consciousness of something real, not fantastic.
But here is the shore. A commotion ensues; berths are removed; your carriage moves slightly; you hear the dull tinkling of a tied bell; fasten seat belts; finally everything is ready; A hat appears in your tarantass and you hear: “Wouldn’t your honor be there, father?” - “Touch it!” - comes from behind, and now you are briskly climbing a steep mountain, along the post road leading past the public garden. And in the city, meanwhile, lights are already burning in all the windows; scattered groups of people are still roaming the streets; you feel at home and, having stopped the driver, get out of the carriage and go wandering around.
God! How fun you are, how good and gratifying it is on these wooden sidewalks! Everyone knows you, they love you, they smile at you! There flashed through the windows four figures at a quadrangular table, indulging in business relaxation at the card table; Here, from another window, smoke pours out in a column, exposing the cheerful company of clerks, and perhaps even dignitaries, gathered in the house; Then you heard laughter from the neighboring house, a ringing laughter, from which your young heart suddenly sank in your chest, and right there, next to it, a joke was uttered, a very good joke, which you had heard many times, but which, that evening, seems especially attractive to you, and you are not angry, but somehow kindly and affectionately smile at her. But here are the walkers - more and more female, around whom, as everywhere else, like mosquitoes over a swamp, young people swarm. These youth sometimes seemed unbearable to you: in their aspirations for the female sex you saw something not entirely neat; her jokes and tenderness resonated in your ears rudely and materially; but this evening you are kind. If you had met the ardent Trezor, languidly wagging his tail while running after the coquette Dianka, you would have found a way to find something naive, bucolic. Here she is, the Krutogorsk star, the persecutor famous family of the Chebylkin princes - the only princely family in the entire Krutogorsk province - our Vera Gottliebovna, German by birth, but Russian in mind and heart! She walks, and her voice carries from afar, loudly commanding over a whole platoon of young admirers; She walks, and the gray-haired head of Prince Chebylkin, which was leaning out of the window, hides, the lips of the princess eating evening tea are burned, and a porcelain doll falls out of the hands of the twenty-year-old princess playing in the open window. Here you are, magnificent Katerina Osipovna, also a Krutogorsk star, you, to whom your luxurious forms remind better times humanity, you, whom I dare not compare with anyone except the Greek Bobelina. Fans also swarm around you and a rich conversation swirls around you, for which your charms serve as an inexhaustible subject. And all this smiles at you so welcomingly, you shake everyone’s hand, you enter into conversation with everyone. Vera Gotlibovna tells you some new trick of Prince Chebylkin; Porfiry Petrovich recounts a remarkable incident from yesterday’s preference show.
But now His Excellency himself, Prince Chebylkin, deigns to return from the all-night vigil, with all fours in a carriage. His Excellency graciously bows in all directions; four well-fed horses drag the carriage with a measured and languid step: the dumb ones themselves feel the full importance of the feat entrusted to them and behave as horses of good taste should.
Finally it got completely dark; the walkers disappeared from the streets; windows in houses are closed; here and there you can hear the slamming of shutters, accompanied by the jingling of iron bolts being pushed in, and you can hear the sad sounds of a flute played by a melancholic orderly.
Everything is quiet, everything is dead; dogs appear on stage...
It would seem that this is not life! Meanwhile, all the Krutogorsk officials, and especially their wives, are fiercely attacking this city. Who called them there, who glued them to the edge so hateful for them? Complaints about Krutogorsk form an eternal basis for conversation; they are usually followed by aspirations to St. Petersburg.
– Charming St. Petersburg! - the ladies exclaim.
- Darling Petersburg! - the girls sigh.
“Yes, Petersburg...” the men respond thoughtfully.
In the mouths of everyone, Petersburg seems to be something like a bridegroom coming at midnight (See Notes 1 at the end of the book); but neither one nor the other, nor the third are sincere; this is so, façon de parler, because our mouth is not covered. Since then, however, when Princess Chebylkina went to the capital twice with her daughter, the enthusiasm has cooled a little: it turns out, “qu"on n"y est jamais chez soi”, that “we are unaccustomed to this noise”, that “le prince Kurylkin , jeune homme tout-à-fait charmant, - mais que ça reste entre nous - m"a fait tellement la cour, which is simply shameful! - but still, what a comparison is our dear, our kind, our quiet Krutogorsk!"
- Darling Krutogorsk! - the princess squeaks.
“Yes, Krutogorsk...” the prince responds, smiling carnivorously.
A passion for French phrases is a common ailment of Krutogorsk ladies and girls. The girls will gather, and their first condition is: “Well, mesdames, from now on we will not speak a word of Russian.” But it turns out that foreign languages they know only two phrases: permettez-moi de sortir And allez-vous en! It is obvious that all concepts, no matter how limited they may be, cannot be expressed in these two phrases, and the poor girls are again condemned to resort to this oak Russian language, in which no subtle feeling can be expressed.
However, the class of officials is the weak side of Krutogorsk. I don’t like his living rooms, in which, in fact, everything looks somehow awkward. But it’s joyful and fun for me to wander around the city streets, especially on market day, when they are bustling with people, when all the squares are littered with various rubbish: chests, beetroot, buckets, etc. This general talk of the crowd is dear to me; it caresses my ears more than the best Italian aria, despite the fact that it often contains the strangest, most false notes. Look at these tanned faces: they breathe intelligence and intelligence and at the same time some kind of genuine innocence, which, unfortunately, is disappearing more and more. The capital of this innocence is Krutogorsk. You see, you feel that here the person is satisfied and happy, that he is simple-minded and open precisely because there is no reason for him to pretend and dissemble. He knows what O no matter what befalls him - whether grief or joy - it is all his, his own, and he does not complain. Sometimes he just sighs and says: “Lord! If there weren’t fleas and stans, what kind of paradise would this be, if not life!” - he will sigh and humble himself before the hand of Providence, who made Kiferon, the sweet-voiced bird, and various reptiles.
Saltykov comes to the conclusion that the only way out of the current situation is for modern man- “honest service”, the practice of “liberalism in the very temple of illiberalism.” In “Provincial Sketches” (1856 -1857), which became the artistic result of the Vyatka exile, such a theory is professed by a fictional character, court adviser Shchedrin, on whose behalf the story is told and who will henceforth become Saltykov’s “double”. The social upsurge of the 1860s gives Saltykov confidence that the “honest service” of the Christian socialist Shchedrin can push society to radical changes, that a single good can bring noticeable results if the bearer of this good holds a high Christian ideal in mind.
The content of “Provincial Sketches” convinces that the position of an honest official in the conditions of the provincial city of Krutogorsk is not a political program, but an ethical necessity, the only way for Shchedrin so far that allows him to maintain a sense of moral honesty, a sense of fulfilled duty to the Russian people and to himself: “ Yes! I couldn’t live for nothing for so many years, I couldn’t leave no trace behind me! Because even an unconscious blade of grass does not live in vain, and with its life, although imperceptibly, it certainly influences the surrounding nature... Am I really lower, more insignificant than this blade of grass?” [T. 2, 466].
In distant Vyatka, he seeks and finds support for his ideals in the beliefs and hopes of the people. This is where the poeticization of folk religiosity comes from, and this is where the epic scale of Shchedrin’s satire is gaining strength in “Provincial Sketches.” Like Nekrasov in the poem “Silence,” Shchedrin is trying to reach the people through familiarization with their moral shrines. IN mid-19th centuries they have been religious. What Shchedrin holds dear among the people is the ethic of self-sacrifice, renunciation of oneself for the sake of the happiness of another, the ethic of service to one’s neighbor, which makes one forget about oneself and one’s sorrows.
Following Turgenev and simultaneously with Tolstoy and Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin finds in the people's environment what is lost in the world of Krutogorsk bureaucracy, in the world of Russian bureaucracy - human community and sensitivity. Shchedrin's people are wanderers and pilgrims, wandering along Russian roads in a tireless search for brotherhood and truth.
However, Saltykov looks at the peasant not only from a democratic, but also from a historical point of view. Therefore, the image of the people in the “essays” is twofold. The people are poeticized as “the embodiment of the idea of democracy,” but Shchedrin’s sadly ironic thoughts are evoked by the people-citizens acting in the field of modern Russian history.
The writer depicts situations differently in which people's humility receives ethical justification. The old schismatic woman, driven to death by the tyranny of the dashing mayor, on her deathbed “thanks” her tormentor: “Thank you, your honor, for not abandoning me, the old woman, for not depriving me of the martyr’s crown.” [T. 2, 32] In the people's long-suffering, a high spirituality is revealed here, a spark of resistance runs through the soulless extortion of the top. World folk life in “Provincial Sketches” is thus not devoid of drama: relying on the viable elements of the people’s worldview, Shchedrin separates from them the dead and lifeless elements.
After his release from “Vyatka captivity,” he continued (with a short break in 1862-1864) public service, first in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and then as the Ryazan and Tver vice-governor, earning the nickname “Vice Robespierre” in bureaucratic circles. In 1864-1868 he served as chairman of the treasury chamber in Penza, Tula and Ryazan. Administrative practice reveals to him the most hidden sides of bureaucratic power, its entire mechanism hidden from external observation. At the same time, Saltykov-Shchedrin works a lot, publishing his satirical works in Nekrasov’s magazine Sovremennik.
He is gradually losing faith in the prospects of “honest service,” which is increasingly turning into “a pointless drop of good in a sea of bureaucratic arbitrariness.” If in “Provincial Sketches” Shchedrin buries “past times” in the finale, and then dedicates the unfinished “Book of the Dying” to them, now the satirist feels the prematureness of hopes for such a funeral. The past not only does not die, but takes root in the present, revealing extraordinary vitality. What feeds the old order of things, why changes do not affect the deep being, the root basis of Russian life?
Composition
Saltykov-Shchedrin is an original writer who occupies a special place in Russian literature. In his work, he showed the social shortcomings of the social structure of Russia, painted life without embellishment, but not only gave a list of vices and abuses, but also caustically ridiculed them. Saltykov-Shchedrin worked in the genre of social satire. At a time when censorship reigned in Russia, ridiculing the shortcomings of rulers and officials was very dangerous. Satire often caused dissatisfaction among readers who did not want to pay attention to the shortcomings of life, to how they themselves lived. Since it was not easy for the authors of satirical works at all times, the writers used a special Aesopian language. This method of allegory was named after the ancient Greek author Aesop, who hid satire behind seemingly neutral or frivolous things. In order to ridicule the order and structure of the country in which you live, great courage is required. But the ability to laugh at yourself, at your own shortcomings, is already the path to correcting them. The work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, which revealed the troubles of Russia to the whole world, was at the same time an indicator national health, an inexhaustible supply of strength that will eventually be used for the benefit of the country.
The writer had the gift of sensitively capturing the most acute conflicts brewing in Russia and displaying them in front of the entire Russian society in his works. Shchedrin studied most closely political life Russia: relationships between different classes, oppression of the peasantry upper strata society. A close study of the life of Russia, the life of its lower classes and districts, was also facilitated by Saltykov-Shchedrin’s seven-year service as a provincial official of the provincial government in Vyatka. There's a future satirist there own experience got acquainted with the life of petty officials, peasants, and merchants. Saltykov looked at state system Russia from the inside. The main inconvenience for Russia, in his opinion, was the excessive centralization of power. It leads to the emergence of a mass of officials who cannot understand the needs of the common people. Centralized power kills people's initiative, does not allow the people to develop, and in this underdevelopment, the people support centralization and bureaucracy. The result of seven years of service as an official was a collection of stories “Provincial Sketches”, in which Saltykov-Shchedrin, in a satirical manner, paints pictures of Russian life, and also humorously sets out the theory of state reorganization, which he calls “driving theory.” influential person by the nose." Soon after the “Provincial Sketches,” the writer creates “The History of a City,” in which he rises to a satirical depiction of not provincial, but government figures. Brief characteristics The mayors – the “fathers” of the city – are replete with fantastical traits and sarcasm. The characteristics of the inhabitants of the city of Foolov, who are similar to the capital and provincial townspeople, are also fantastic. The mayors combine features typical of Russian tsars and nobles. Working on “The History of a City,” Saltykov-Shchedrin uses his experience in public service, and also relies on the works of prominent Russian historians.
Saltykov-Shchedrin’s satirical talent manifested itself very clearly in the cycle of “Fairy Tales for Children of a Fair Age.” This book is considered the final work of the writer. It included all the main satirical themes of his work. Fairy tales are written in Russian traditions folk tales: characters- animals, they have unprecedented problems, and, finally, every work contains a lesson for the reader. But animals, fish and birds behave just like people. These discrepancies with traditions confirm the originality of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “Fairy Tales” cycle.
The smallest details in the description of the behavior of animals and their way of life make us understand that these “Tales” tell about the pressing problems of Russia. The form of a fairy tale helped the author to enlarge the scale artistic image, give satire greater scope. Behind the fairy-tale narrative, the reader should see not only the life of Russia, but also of all humanity.
A fairy tale is the most successful form for conveying satirical content. Borrowing ready-made fairy-tale plots from the people, Shchedrin develops the satirical content inherent in them and supplements them with details and recognizable signs of the era. In all the abundance of Saltykov-Shchedrin's tales, four main themes can be distinguished: satire on the government, denunciation of the philistine intelligentsia, depiction of the masses, exposure of the morality of predatory owners and propaganda of new morality.
The “selfless hare” reminds us of a law-abiding citizen who does not resist the treachery of the supreme authority. In the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”, in an allegorical form, a timid intellectual is ridiculed, afraid of the changes taking place in society, and therefore striving to live “... so that no one notices.”
But not in all of the “Fairy Tales” Saltykov-Shchedrin only denounces. Thus, in “The Horse” the author discusses the state of affairs of the peasantry and wonders about its future. The same problem is considered by the writer in “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals.” In this tale, Shchedrin satirically shows the complete helplessness of the rulers and their dependence on the peasantry. However, none of those in power appreciates the man’s work. In the peasant, Saltykov-Shchedrin sees the only force capable of acting and creating. But the hero, who had every opportunity to escape, surprisingly, does not take any action to save himself. This wordless, slavish obedience arouses the writer's wrath. I. S. Turgenev wrote: “I saw listeners writhing with laughter when reading some of Saltykov’s essays. There was something scary in that laughter. The audience, laughing, at the same time felt like a scourge was lashing itself.”
Other works on this work
“The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin as a satire on autocracy “Saltykov has... this serious and malicious humor, this realism, sober and clear among the most unbridled play of imagination...” (I.S. Turgenev). "The History of a City" as a socio-political satire Analysis of 5 chapters (to choose from) in the work of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City” Analysis of the chapter “The Fantastic Traveler” (based on the novel “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin) Analysis of the chapter “On the Roots of the Origin of the Foolovites” (based on the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”) Foolov and the Foolovites (based on the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”) Grotesque as the leading artistic device in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Grotesque, its functions and significance in the depiction of the city of Foolov and its mayors Twenty-third mayor of the city of Glupov (based on the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”) The yoke of madness in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin The use of the grotesque technique in depicting the life of the Foolovites (based on the novel by Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”) The image of the Foolovites in “The History of a City” Images of mayors in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The main problems of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The History of a City” Parody as an artistic device in “The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Parody as an artistic device in “The History of a City” by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin Techniques of satirical depiction in M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The History of a City” Techniques of satirical depiction of mayors in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Review of “The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin The novel "The History of a City" by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin - the history of Russia in the mirror of satire Satire on the Russian autocracy in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin Satirical chronicle of Russian life A satirical chronicle of Russian life (“The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin) The originality of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s satire The functions and meaning of the grotesque in the depiction of the city of Foolov and its mayors in the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City” Characteristics of Vasilisk Semenovich Wartkin Characteristics of Mayor Brudasty (based on the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”) A series of mayors in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin What are the similarities between Zamyatin’s novel “We” and Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novel “The History of a City”? The history of the creation of the novel “The History of a City” Heroes and problems of satire by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin Laughter through tears in "The Story of a City" People and power as the central theme of the novel Activities of the mayors of the city of Glupova Elements of the grotesque in the early works of M. E. Saltykov The theme of the people in “The History of a City” Description of the city of Foolov and its mayors Fantastic motivation in “The Story of a City” Characteristics of the image of Benevolensky Feofilakt Irinarkhovich The meaning of the ending of the novel “The Story of a City” The plot and composition of the novel “The History of a City” Satirical depiction of mayors in “The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin The story of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City” as a socio-political satire Contents of the history of the city of Foolov in “The History of a City” Characteristics of the image of Brudasty Dementy Varlamovich Characteristics of the image of Semyon Konstantinich Dvoekurov Essay on the story “The History of a City” The grotesque of Foolov’s “story” Grotesque in the image of the city of Foolov Ways of expressing the author’s position in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin What causes the author's irony in the novel by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin Characteristics of the image of Wartkin Vasilisk Semenovich Characteristics of the image of Lyadokhovskaya Aneli Aloizievna Genre features of the novel “The History of a City” The role of the Grotesque in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin The originality of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s satire using the example of “The History of a City” Exposing the stupid and complacent administration in “The History of a City” by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Grotesque figures of mayors in “The History of a City”“Provincial Sketches,” which appeared in print as separate stories and scenes in 1856–1857, constituted Saltykov’s first major work. The emergence of the idea for “Provincial Sketches” and the work on them date back to the time of the writer’s return from Vyatka, where he was exiled by Nicholas I for service in 1848.
Saltykov returned to St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1856, shortly before the Peace of Paris. This peace ended the Crimean War, in which “tsarism,” according to F. Engels, “suffered a pitiful collapse.” Under these conditions, the government itself did not consider it either possible or advisable to preserve the existing order of things completely intact. The next step was the abolition of serfdom - a fundamental social evil of old Russia, which stood like a stone in the way of a progressive solution to all the main problems facing the country.
The historical turning point that had begun, on the one hand, echoed in the life of Russian society with “unprecedented sobering”, the need to take a critical look at one’s past and present, and on the other hand, caused a wave optimistic expectations associated with the emerging hope of taking an active part in the “making” of history.
In this situation, “Provincial Sketches” arose - one of the landmark works of Russian literature. “We remember the appearance of Mr. Shchedrin in the Russian Messenger,” Dostoevsky wrote in 1861. - Oh, it was such a joyful time, full of hope! After all, Mr. Shchedrin chose the moment when to appear.” This “minute” turned out to be truly extraordinary in Russian literature and public life biennial 1856–1837, when, along with “Provincial Sketches,” Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Stories” and Turgenev’s “Rudin,” Aksakov’s “Family Chronicle” and Ostrovsky’s “Profitable Place,” Grigorovich’s “Displacers” and Sukhovo-Kobylin’s “Krechinsky’s Wedding” appeared ; when the first book of Nekrasov’s poems was published and “burned, in Ogarev’s words, the soul of the Russian people,” when the Sovremennik magazine published Chernyshevsky’s articles one after another, revealing the horizons of a new, revolutionary-democratic worldview; when Herzen, who had already created the “Polar Star,” founded the famous “Bell” and, by ringing it, as Lenin said, broke the “slave silence” in the country; when, finally, “accusatory literature,” one of the most characteristic forms of social life of that historical moment, began her noisy campaign across Russia.
“Provincial Sketches” were part of the general flow of these phenomena and occupied one of the first places among them in terms of the power of their impression on contemporaries. This is “a book that undoubtedly had most significant success last year,” testified the well-known magazine columnist Vl. Raf. Zotov. And a little earlier, the same author, wanting to determine the position of the “Provincial Sketches” in the historical and literary perspective last decade, confidently gave them “the third place of honor next to two best works our modern literature" - " Dead souls" and "Notes of a Hunter".
Years will pass, Saltykov will create a number of deeper and more mature works. But in the minds of many contemporary readers, his literary reputation for a long time will be associated primarily with “Provincial Sketches.” “I must confess to you,” Saltykov concluded on this occasion in a letter dated November 25, 1870 to A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov, “that the public has somewhat cooled towards me, although I can’t say that I moved back after the “Provincial Sketches” " Not considering myself either a leader or a first-class writer, I still went somewhat forward against the “Provincial Sketches,” but the public, apparently, thinks about it differently.” Indeed, none of Saltykov’s subsequent works were received by the “public” with such burning interest, as excitedly and ardently as his first book. But the point here, of course, was not the backward movement of Saltykov’s talent. It was a matter of the changed socio-political situation. The exceptional success of “Provincial Sketches” in the second half of the 50s was determined primarily not by the artistic merits of the work, but by its objective sound, by those qualities that gave Chernyshevsky the basis not only to name the book "beautiful literary phenomenon», but also include it among « historical facts Russian life."
With these words Chernyshevsky very precisely defined general meaning"Provincial Sketches". The artistic prism of this work reflected profound shifts in Russian social consciousness during the years of the beginning of the “revolution” in the life of the country. The objective historical content of this “revolution” (in its final results) was, according to Lenin, “the replacement of one form of society by another - the replacement of serfdom with capitalism...”.
In “Provincial Sketches,” contemporaries saw a broad picture of the life of that Russia in the last years of the serfdom, about which even the representative of the monarchist ideology, the Slavophile Khomyakov, wrote with bitterness and indignation in a poem about Crimean War:
The courts are black with black untruths
And branded with the yoke of slavery,
Godless flattery, pernicious lies
And laziness is dead and shameful
And full of all sorts of abomination.
To create this picture, Saltykov needed, in his words, to “plunge into the swamp” of the pre-reform province and take a close look at its life. “Vyatka,” he told L.F. Panteleev, “also had a beneficial influence on me: it brought me closer to real life and gave me a lot of materials for “Provincial Sketches,” but earlier I wrote nonsense.”
On the other hand, in order to creatively process the impressions of the “ugliness of provincial life”, which, while in Vyatka, Saltykov, by his own admission, “saw but did not think about them, but somehow mechanically absorbed them with his body,” and create from these materials a book that is deeply analytical and at the same time has the power of broad figurative generalizations - for this, the author needed to develop his own view of modern Russian reality and find artistic media his expressions.
The literature has long shown how densely “Provincial Sketches” are saturated with the author’s Vyatka observations and experiences (although far from them alone). The “heroes” of Saltykov’s first book, everyday and landscape sketches in it, as well as its artistic “toponymy”. Thus, “Krutogorsk” (originally “Steep Mountains”) is Vyatka itself, “Sryvny” is Sarapul, “Okov” is Glazov, “Krechetov” is Orlov, “Chernoborsk” is Slobodskaya, etc. Quite a lot in “Provincial Sketches” "and authentic geographical names: provinces of Perm and Kazan, counties of Nolinsky, Cherdynsky, Yaransky, rivers Kama and Vetluga, Lupya and Usta, Pilva and Kolva, piers Porubovskaya and Trushnikovskaya, villages of Lenva, Usolye, Bogorodskoye, Ukhtym, ironworks in Ocher, Pig Mountains, etc. d.
Vyatka, the Vyatka province and the Ural region also inspired a collective image of the Russian people in Saltykov’s first book. The depiction of the people in the “Provincial Sketches” is dominated by features characteristic of the rural population of the north-eastern provinces: not landowners, but state, or state-owned, peasants, adherents not of the official church, but of the “old faith” (schismatics), not only “Great Russians”, but also “foreigners” - “Votyaks” and “Zyryans”, that is, Udmurts and Komi. Saltykov borrowed the plot basis for most of his “Essays” directly from Vyatka observations, with the exception, however, of the section “Talented Natures,” which had little connection with the Vyatka material.
The basis of the “concept” of Russian life, artistically developed in “Provincial Sketches”, is democracy. Moreover, this democracy is no longer abstractly humanistic, as in youth stories of the 40s, but historically concrete, associated with the peasantry. Saltykov is full of feelings of immediate love and sympathy for the long-suffering peasant Russia, whose life is filled with “heart pain”, “sucking need”.
In his “Essays,” Saltykov sharply separates the working subordinate people (peasants, petty bourgeois, lower officials) both from the official world, represented by all ranks of the pre-reform provincial administration, and from the world of the “first estate.” People, officials and landowners-nobles- three main collective image of the work. The motley crowd is mainly distributed between them, about three hundred characters in the “Essays” - living people of the Russian province of the last years of Nicholas’s reign.
Saltykov’s attitude towards the main groups of Russian society of that time and the method of depicting them are different. He does not hide his likes and dislikes.
The writer's ideas about people's life still lack socio-historical perspective and clarity. They reflect peasant democracy in its initial stage. The image of the Russian people - a “giant baby”, still tightly swaddled in the swaddling clothes of serfdom - is recognized by Saltykov for now as “mysterious”: the varied manifestations of Russian folk life are shrouded in “darkness”. It is necessary to solve this “riddle”, to dispel the “darkness”. It is necessary to find out the innermost thoughts and aspirations of the Russian people and thereby find out what their moral forces are, which can lead the masses to conscious and active historical activity (as the enlightener Saltykov attached special importance to these forces). This is positive program Saltykov in “Provincial Sketches”. To implement it, Saltykov focuses on “the study of the predominantly spiritual side of people’s life.
In the stories “The First Visit”, “Arinushka” (section “In Prison”), “Christ is Risen!” and in the first essays of the section “Pilgrims, Wanderers and Travelers” Saltykov tries, as it were, to look into the very soul of the people and try to understand inner world"a simple Russian person." In search of means of penetration into this then almost unexplored sphere, Saltykov sets himself the task of establishing “the degree and manner of manifestation of religious feeling” and “religious consciousness” in different strata of the people. But unlike the Slavophiles, who suggested to the writer wording this task real its content had nothing in common with the reactionary-monarchist and Orthodox ideology of “Holy Rus'”.
Under the religious and church cover of some historically established phenomena in the life of the Russian people, such as, for example, going on pilgrimage or pilgrimage, Saltykov is looking for the original folk dream of truth, justice, freedom, looking for practical bearers of “spiritual achievement” in the name of this dream.
True to reality, Saltykov also depicts such sides folk character, as “inflexibility”, “kindness”, “patience”, “submissiveness”.
In the very first “introductory essay,” Saltykov declares that although he “loves” the “general talk of the crowd,” although it caresses his ears “more than the best Italian aria,” he “often” hears in it “the strangest, most false notes "
We are talking here about the still grave unawakenedness of the masses, their darkness, civic underdevelopment and, above all, passivity.
The positive program in the “Essays” associated with the disclosure (“research”) of spiritual wealth people's world and the image of the homeland, determined the deep lyricism of the folk and landscape pages of the book, perhaps the brightest and most sincere in the entire work of the writer.
“Yes, I love you, distant, untouched land! - the author addresses Krutogorsk and all of Russia behind it. - I love your space and the simplicity of your inhabitants! And if my pen often touches such strings of your body that emit an unpleasant and false sound, then this is not due to a lack of ardent sympathy for you, but because, in fact, these sounds reverberate sadly and painfully in my soul.”
These words from the “Introduction” - words almost Gogolian even in language - determine the structure of the entire work, in which irony and sarcasm coexist with the element of lyricism - lyricism not only accusatory, bitter, but also bright, caused by a deep feeling of love for people's Russia and for native nature(see especially the essays “Introduction”, “ The big picture", "Retired soldier Pimenov", "Pakhomovna", "Boredom", "Christ is risen!" “Arinushka”, “Elder”, “Road”).
Democracy, as the basis of the “concept” of Russian life, developed in the “Essays,” determined and negative program Saltykov in his first book. The purpose of this program was to “explore” and then expose through satire those “forces” in Russian life at that time that “stood against the people,” thereby hindering the development of the country.
The fundamental social evil in the life of the Russian people was serfdom, protected by its state guard - the police-bureaucratic system of the Nikolaev autocracy.
In the "Provincial Sketches" there are relatively few paintings that give direct image peasant-serf life. With all that, the accusatory pathos and the main socio-political tendency of the “Provincial Sketches” are imbued with anti-serfdom, anti-noble content, reflecting the struggle of the masses against the centuries-old bondage of feudal enslavement.
Revealing the provincial underside of the ceremonial “empire of facades” of Nicholas I, depicting all these administrators - “mischievous” and “guzzlers”, officials - bribe-takers and embezzlers, rapists and slanderers, absurd and semi-idiotic governors, Saltykov exposed not just bad and incapable people dressed in uniforms. With his satire he aimed pillory the entire order-serf system and the civil clergy generated by it, according to Herzen’s definition, serving as priests in the courts and police and sucking the blood of the people with thousands of mouths, greedy and unclean.”
The same Herzen characterized the people of the “noble Russian class” as “drunken officers, bullies, card players, heroes of fairs, hounds, fighters, seconds, seralniks” and “beautiful” Manilovs, doomed to extinction. Saltykov, as it were, embodies these Herzen definitions, which later attracted the attention of Lenin, into a series of complete artistic images or sketches.
In this "group portrait" upper class society" is never shown in the flowering of noble culture, as in some of the works of Turgenev and Tolstoy. Everywhere it is only brute, coercive force, or exhausted, useless force.
The deeply critical portrayal of the Russian nobility in “Provincial Sketches” marked the beginning of Saltykov’s remarkable chronicle of the collapse of the ruling class of old Russia. The writer kept this “chronicle” from now on without interruption, right up to the dying “Poshekhon antiquity”.
In the atmosphere of the beginning of democratic upsurge and excitement, “Provincial Sketches” immediately became a central literary and social phenomenon.
Already in his response to the first four “provincial” essays that had just appeared, Chernyshevsky, with his characteristic instinct for the socio-political situation, expressed “confidence” that “the public will reward the author with its sympathy.” As successive books of the Russian Messenger are published, Chernyshevsky notes in brief mentions the steady increase in the public interest he predicted in Saltykov’s stories. And he begins the article, specifically dedicated to the “Essays,” by recognizing the universality and enormity of the success of Saltykov’s incriminating work.
Dobrolyubov also begins his article about Saltykov’s work with the statement that “Essays” “were met with enthusiastic approval from the entire Russian public.”
Reformist hopes in “Provincial Sketches” did not prevent Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov from giving the work a high rating from the point of view of the main political tasks facing the emerging camp of Russian revolutionary democracy. In the objective artistic content of the “Essays” they saw not just an exposure of “bad” officials with the aim of replacing them with “good” ones and not everyday memoirs about provincial life, but a work rich in social criticism. This deep criticism and the heat of indignation that permeated it were, in the minds of Sovremennik’s leaders, an effective weapon in the fight against the autocratic-landowner system.
The leaders of Sovremennik pursued primarily journalistic goals in their speeches about the Provincial Sketches. They drew political conclusions from a work of art. And these were revolutionary-democratic conclusions. It turned out to be possible to draw such conclusions only because already in his first book Saltykov clearly revealed the position of a writer who acts not only as an “explainer”, but also as a judge and “director” of life - towards broad democratic ideals; he showed himself to be an innovative artist in his approach to depicting social evil and the “disorder of life.”
“He is a writer par excellence and an indignant one,” Chernyshevsky defined the image of the author of “Essays.” Both Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov saw the main originality of Saltykov’s talent in the writer's ability to portray“environment”, the material and spiritual conditions of society, in its ability to guess and reveal the features social psychology in the characters and behavior of both individuals and entire socio-political groups. It was this originality of the realism of the “Essays” that allowed the leaders of Sovremennik to use Saltykov’s denunciations to promote the revolutionary-democratic educational thesis: “Remove harmful circumstances, and a person’s mind will quickly brighten and his character will be ennobled.”
“Our literature is and will long be proud of our literature,” Chernyshevsky concluded his article. Shchedrin has a deep admirer in every decent person of the Russian land. Honorable is his name among the best, most useful, and most gifted children of our homeland. He will find many panegyrists, and he is worthy of all panegyrics. No matter how high the praise for his talent and knowledge, his honesty and insight, with which our fellow journalists will hasten to glorify him, we say in advance that all these praises will not exceed the merits of the book he wrote.” With this assessment, “Provincial Sketches” entered the great Russian literature, and with this assessment they still live in it.
) Ustvochevskaya The pier (Vologda province) is located in the upper reaches of the Northern Keltma, which flows into the Vychegda. The goods rafted from this pier mainly consist of various kinds of bread and flaxseed, brought there by cart from the northwestern districts of the Perm province: Cherdynsky, Solikamsky and partly Perm and Okhansky. In general, the Vologda province abounds in navigable and raftable rivers, especially in the northeastern part (counties: Ustsysolsky, Nikolsky and Ustyugsky), which are beneficial not so much for the Vologda region, which is deserted and inhospitable in this part, but for the neighboring provinces: Vyatka and Perm . It is known, for example, that all trade in the northern part of the Vyatka province is almost exclusively directed to the Arkhangelsk port, where goods (bread and flax) are rafted along the rivers: Luza (piers: Noshulskaya and Bykovskaya), South (pier Podosinovskaya) and Sysol (pier Kaygorodskaya). All these marinas are led by commercial roads, which are very remarkable in their trade traffic. Unfortunately, it must be admitted that this fact, legitimized by the natural force of circumstances, has still attracted too little attention. So, for example, the road from the cities of Orlov, Slobodsky and Vyatka to the Noshulskaya pier is in the saddest condition, and from the same cities to the Bykovskaya pier there is almost no road at all, while laying a convenient road to it, due to its advantageous position , compared to the Noshul pier, would be a blessing for the whole region. In general, studying the trade movement along the commercial routes of northeastern Russia, and especially the Vyatka province, and comparing it with the movement along official (postal) routes would present a very instructive picture. In the former there is activity and crowds, in the latter there is desert and deathly silence. To be convinced of this, it is enough to drive along the commercial highway that has existed since ancient times between cities and counties: Glazovsky and Nolinsky, and then ride along the postal highway connecting provincial town Vyatka with the same Glazov. On the first, you constantly encounter long rows of carts loaded with goods; there are also rich and trading villages: Bogorodskoye, Ukhtym, Ukan, Uni, Vozhgaly (the last two are a little to the side) - these are the centers of the local agricultural industry; on the second everything is deserted, there are no trading villages at all, and for a whole week only a postal cart, drawn by a couple and carrying two orders and a hundred confirmations to the local dozing authorities, and a letter to the secretary of some government office from his provincial godfather and benefactor will pass. There is no doubt that trade turnover suffers a lot from the length of time that accompanies the relations of private individuals. ( Note Saltykov-Shchedrin.)