Introduction.

The 18th century is a century of changes not only in the economy and social relations, but also in the social thought and culture of Russia. The reforms of Peter I, aimed at the modernization and Europeanization of Russia, determined the features of the historical and cultural process of Russia at the beginning of the 18th century: the further secularization of culture and the establishment of a new view of the human personality, overcoming the isolation of cultural development. It is important that in the second half of the 18th century, educational thought was formed and the ideas of enlightenment penetrated deeply into all spheres of the cultural process. After a long time of forced cultural isolation due to the three-century Mongol conquest, as well as the influence of the Orthodox Church, which tried to protect Rus' from everything “heretical”, “Western” (including education, morals, forms of cultural life), Russian culture is entering the path of pan-European development and is gradually freed from the shackles of the Middle Ages. This was the first century of the development of secular culture, the century of the decisive victory of a new, rationalistic worldview over the harsh dogmas of religious morality. "Secular" art acquires the right to public recognition and begins to play an increasingly important role in the system of civic education, in the formation of new foundations of the country's social life. These processes are developing very quickly, but, despite global Europeanization, Russian culture inherited the best national traditions, it did not reject its past.
While joining the rich cultural heritage of Europe, Russian figures at the same time relied on indigenous Russian traditions accumulated over a long previous period of artistic and historical development, on the experience of ancient Russian art. It was precisely because of this deep continuity that during the 18th century Russia was able not only to take an active part in the general process of the movement of world culture, but also to create its own national schools, firmly established in literature and poetry, in architecture and painting, in theater and music.
By the end of the century Russian art achieves great success.

Russian culture in the first half of the 18th century. The era of Peter I.

1.1 Life and customs.
XVIII century characterized by the breakdown of the medieval way of life, rules of behavior, and the strengthening of Western European influence on the life of the Russian nobility. The most noticeable changes occurred during the period of Peter the Great's reforms. Peter I was aware of the unity of lifestyle, customs, everyday life and forms of social activity, so he began his reforms with the “correction of morals.”
By decrees of December 19 and 20, 1699, a new calendar was introduced: not from the creation of the world, but from the Nativity of Christ; The new year began not on September 1, but on January 1, as in many European countries. The New Year celebration was supposed to take place from January 1 to January 7. The gates of the courtyards were to be decorated with pine, spruce or juniper trees, and the gates of the poor owners - with branches. Every evening it was prescribed to light bonfires along the main streets, and to congratulate each other when meeting. Fireworks displays were held in the capital these days.
This was followed by a change in the counting of hours. Previously, the day was divided from morning to evening. Peter introduced a new, European division - from noon to midnight.
In 1700, a special decree was adopted on the compulsory wearing of Hungarian dress (caftan), and the following year it was forbidden to wear Russian dress, its manufacture and sale were punishable by law, and it was prescribed to wear German footwear - boots and shoes. It was a conscious contrast between the new, modern, and convenient and the old, archaic. For many years, only violence could support new fashions and mores. More than once decrees were published threatening violators with various punishments, including hard labor.
In an effort to root out the “sleepy disposition” of Moscow antiquity, Peter I in 1705 ordered the face to be shaved (previously, barber shaving was considered a sign of Western “heresy” - “Latinism”). Only the clergy and peasants were allowed to wear beards. Merchants and other townspeople who sought to preserve the semblance of the “face of Christ” had to pay a special tax: from 30 to 100 rubles. per year (depending on class and property status) - huge money for that time. A metal beard sign was introduced - a kind of receipt for payment of money for wearing a beard.
Since 1718, assemblies (balls-meetings) began to be held regularly in the houses of nobles. They attracted the entire St. Petersburg society of that time. No guests were greeted or seen off here. Women also participated in the assemblies. They left such assemblies “in English” without saying goodbye.
Special rules of behavior in society were developed, the so-called “polites” appeared, the rules of good manners. Peter in every possible way encouraged the ability to dance, speak fluently in foreign languages, fencing, and master the art of speech and writing. The most popular instruction for youth, published in 1717, was “An Honest Mirror of Youth.” It condemned what had recently been common for the youngest king and his friends when they first went abroad. There, in particular, it was said about behavior at the table: “...sit up straight and don’t grab the first thing in the dish, don’t eat like a pig and don’t blow in your ear (from the word “ukha”, a fish dish), so that it splashes everywhere, don’t sniffle when you eat ( when you eat)… Do not lick your fingers or gnaw the bones, but cut with a knife.”
In the middle of the 18th century. The life of the Russian nobility was largely determined by Western European customs, adherence to which began to take the form of servility to the West.

1.2 Education and science.
Under Peter I the spread education was first recognized as a state necessity and became an integral part of state policy. The features of this policy were determined by the recognition that the main goal of education was to satisfy the state's need for personnel. The main difference between education in Peter's times was its secular nature and the combination of learning and practice. Theological disciplines in educational institutions gave way to arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, fortification, engineering and other sciences. It became mandatory to teach literacy to noble children, who could study at home, in private or public schools. In addition, young nobles were sent abroad to master crafts and learn various sciences and arts. By a decree of 1714, noblemen who evaded their studies were forbidden to marry. The spread of literacy, the development of secular schools and the activation of book publishing were greatly facilitated by the campaign carried out in 1708-1710. alphabet reform: the Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet was replaced by a simpler “civilian” printed alphabet, and the complex system of lettering numbers was replaced by Arabic numerals. Already in the first quarter of the 18th century. The Primer by F. Polikarpov, The First Teaching to Youths by F. Prokopovich, Arithmetic by L. Magnitsky, and the Grammar by M. Smotritsky were published as teaching aids. From 1708 to 1725 About 300 civil books were printed, but their circulation was still small. Formation of a system of educational institutions. The growing needs of the state for domestic specialists in various fields led to the emergence of a network of educational institutions. For the first time, Peter’s schools recruited “children of all kinds, besides (except) landowner peasants,”
The system of primary and secondary general education remained practically undeveloped. In I714, by decree of Peter I, 42 provincial digital schools were created - state primary schools for boys of all classes, except peasants (from the second quarter of the century the number of these schools gradually decreased, and they soon ceased to exist).
The orientation of the education system towards training specialists has led to the greatest development of the system of vocational schools. In 1701, a school of mathematical and navigational sciences (Navigation School) was opened in Moscow, where arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, and navigation were studied. In 1715, the Naval Academy was created from the senior classes of this school, transferred to St. Petersburg. Under the Ambassadorial Prikaz, a school for teaching foreign languages ​​was opened, and later a school for clerical workers. At the same time, Artillery, Engineering and Medical schools were created, and mining schools were created at Ural factories. All vocational schools had preparatory departments that taught writing, reading and arithmetic.
The preparation of nobles for officer service in the army and navy was carried out in the Noble Corps, which opened in 1731 (later it was divided into land, sea, artillery and engineering). Opened in the late 50s, noble children were prepared for court service. Corps of Pages.
The nobles received primary education through a system of private education, primarily at home. This was the only form of education available to females, for whom access to educational institutions was denied. The children of the clergy studied in diocesan schools, theological seminaries and academies. Children of commoners and merchants could study in various professional (medical, mining, commercial) and vocational art educational institutions. Recruit children studied in garrison schools that trained non-commissioned officers for the army. Children of serfs were still deprived of the opportunity to receive an education.
An outstanding event in the life of the country was the creation in 1755, on the initiative and project of M.V. Lomonosov and I.I. Shuvalov Moscow Imperial University and its gymnasium. In accordance with the ideas of M.V. Lomonosov, the university was created for “general training of commoners,” which contradicted established principles and was an important step towards the formation of a unified system of classless education.
The intensive process of accumulation of knowledge in the previous period ensured rapid development in the 18th century. domestic scientific thought, combined with mastery of the best achievements of European science and technology. The scattered knowledge accumulated in previous periods in most areas began to turn into science.
In the first quarter of the 18th century. For the first time in the history of Russia, the processes of accumulation of scientific knowledge and their rational theoretical understanding received powerful support from government authorities. Purposeful state policy significantly contributed to the rapid development of domestic scientific thought. The most important result of Peter I's activity in the field of science was the opening in 1725 in St. Petersburg of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (from 1803 - the Imperial Academy of Sciences), which became the center of Russian science. The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences had a solid state budget. Initially, it united 3 “classes”: mathematics, physics and humanities. To study the territory of the Russian Empire, its natural resources, population and historical monuments, the Academy organized several expeditions, including two Kamchatka expeditions (1725-1730 and 1733-1743). The Academy of Sciences had a physics office, a chemical laboratory, an astronomical observatory, an anatomical theater, mechanical and optical workshops, an engraving school, a printing house, a library and an archive. In 1719, the Kunstkamera, the first natural history museum in Russia, was opened at the Academy. In the first half of the century, Russia had very few scientists of its own, so foreign specialists were invited to the Academy of Sciences, which, on the one hand, contributed to Russia’s involvement in the achievements of European science, on the other hand, often harmed the development of domestic scientific thought. Such outstanding foreign scientists as the founder of hydrodynamics D. Bernoulli worked at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; author of several hundred works on mechanics, astronomy and shipbuilding L. Euler; botanist I. Gmelin; natural scientist K. Wolf and others. They made a great contribution to Russian science and defended its honor in Western Europe. Only from the middle of the 18th century. under the influence of M.V. Lomonosov, who became the first Russian academician in 1745, a gradual increase in the number of domestic scientists began at the Academy. Physicist G.V. became academicians. Richman, geographer and ethnographer S.P. Krasheninnikov and others.
The greatest development in the “Petrine era” was achieved by the branches of knowledge necessary to create a strong army and navy, ensuring a successful foreign policy, the rise of industry and trade. This led to the rapid development of natural sciences.
Already at the beginning of the century, an active study of the country's natural resources began, which at first had a purely practical significance: the study of natural resources was necessary for the construction of new plants for the smelting of iron, copper and silver. Coal deposits were discovered in the Moscow region, Don and Kuznetsk. Work was carried out to explore Baku oil. Russian ore explorers discovered the richest deposits of iron ore in the Urals, which provided the metal needed during the Northern War. Silver deposits were found in Transbaikalia. The industrial study of the earth's interior also contributed to the development of science.
At the same time, expeditions were organized that had primarily scientific purposes. 1713-1714 expeditions of I.M. Evreinov and F.F. Luzhin visited the Kuril Islands for the first time. In 1720, the government organized the first expedition to explore Siberia. This expedition, led by D. Messerschmidt, collected valuable information about the nature, history, economy and ethnography of Siberia. A participant in the second Kamchatka expedition (1733-1743), the naturalist scientist I. Gmelin published his travel observations “Journey through Siberia” and a four-volume work “Flora of Siberia”, in which he described more than a thousand species of plants. Cartographers F. Soimonov and K. Verdun mapped the Caspian Sea and described it. This map made a fundamental change in the ideas of contemporaries about the coastline of the Caspian Sea. V. Kipriyanov, A. Zubov and J. Bruce made a great contribution to the development of geography and cartography, through whose works the Baltic and Azov seas and the Don basin were mapped. Surveys of the interior regions of Siberia, the coast of the Caspian and Aral Seas, the Arctic Ocean, and Central Asia prepared a publication in the mid-18th century. geographer I.K. Kirillov "Russian Atlas" (by this time only France had such an atlas).

1.3 Literature.
Literature XVIII century was a kind of creative laboratory in which prose stylistics was developed, a system of versification was formed, a creative experiment in the field of artistic expression took place, during which the foundations of the modern Russian literary language were created.
Transformations of the first quarter of the 18th century. contributed to the final victory of the secular trend in literature, which led to the formation of new genres, the emergence of new literary heroes, new plots.
The introduction of the “civil” alphabet by Peter I and its further simplification, carried out in the 1730s. The Academy of Sciences not only contributed to the strengthening of the secular language and the development of new secular literature, but also intensified book publishing activities.
Within the framework of traditional literary genres, new plots, new characters appear, and new ideas are expressed. At the same time, new genres are being formed. One of the dominant genres is still the everyday story.
Satirical works gained great popularity at this time. The greatest master of satire was the Russian poet and educator Antioch Cantemir (1708-1744). His main satires ("To His Godfather" and "Filaret and Eugene") are devoted to the defense of Peter's reforms. Cantemir's odes, fables and epigrams also became very famous.
Love lyrics became widespread in Peter's era. The mannerism, sophistication of the language and appeal to ancient images indicate the influence of French “gallant poetry”. The authors of numerous examples of love poetry from Peter's time are in most cases unknown. Subsequently, writing love poems became fashionable, and many people began their creative journey with it. greatest poets XVIII century
The author of numerous odes, poems, and poems, which are examples of the literature of Russian classicism, M.V. Lomonosov developed the theory of “three styles,” according to which each genre has its own style: high, mediocre or low. This theory became a guide for the creation of a new literary language.
Folk art. In addition to ritual songs traditional for folk art, works about Peter I and songs of complaint are widely used. More than 200 folk songs about Peter are known, which touch on almost all the main events of his life - from birth to death (about the conspiracies of Princess Sophia, about the Streltsy riots, about the capture of Azov, especially numerous works about the Battle of Poltava). Most of the songs testify to the glorification of the image of Peter in the popular consciousness. This was especially clearly reflected in the “Lamentations of the Troops” about the death of Peter, which apparently developed among soldiers. At the same time, complaints about the hardships of conscript life and the enslavement of free “walking people” who have nowhere to “escape” from the “strong guards” began to be heard more and more often in folk art. In songs about Stepan Razin and Kondraty Bulavin, the “daring fellows” - the Cossacks - are contrasted with the “dogs” - the governors and boyars - who are responsible for the people’s troubles.

Art.

1.4.1 Visual arts

Russian fine art of the first half of the 18th century. characterized by the final victory of the secular trend, the emergence of new genres, and a close connection with Western European fine art.
Russian secular painting developed on the basis of the national traditions of the painting workshop of the Armory Chamber. At the same time, domestic masters were actively mastering the best Western European traditions: foreign artists were invited to Russia, and young Russian painters were sent to study in Italy and the Netherlands (Peter’s pensioners).
The portrait becomes the leading genre, finally replacing the icon. The first works of this genre tend to be parsuna in nature. The founders of Russian secular portraiture are considered to be I.N. Nikitin and A.M. Matveeva.
In the first half of the century, Russian artists began to master compositions with mythological subjects that were new to them. (A. Matveev “Venus and Cupid”, “Allegory of Painting”). Monumental painting in the form of panels and lampshades in palaces and administrative buildings under construction, as well as miniature writing, were also popular.
At the beginning of the century, engravings that conveyed the heroic pathos of the era acquired particular significance. The ability to obtain several hundred prints from one original ensured the fulfillment of agitation and propaganda functions that were extremely important in Peter’s time. The founders of modern engraving in Russia are the Dutch masters A. Schonebeek and P. Picart. The largest Russian engraving masters of that time were A. Zubov, who worked for many years at the St. Petersburg printing house and left a large graphic heritage ("The Battle of Grenham", "Panorama of St. Petersburg"), and M. Makhaev, the author of the famous series of views of St. Petersburg.
In the first half of the 18th century. Lubok (folk picture) - a graphic work made by master craftsmen, distinguished by the intelligibility of the image and intended for mass distribution - is becoming widespread. The splint is characterized by simplicity of technique and bright coloring. Images are often supplemented with explanatory notes. One of the most famous popular prints of this period is “Mice burying a cat,” which became widespread after the death of Peter I. In addition to the title inscription, at the bottom of the picture there are comic captions for all the depicted participants in the funeral procession. The general theme of the captions is the glee of rats and mice over the death of the cat.
In the middle of the century, Russian painting developed under the influence of European Baroque and Rococo styles, which manifested itself in its tendency towards pomp, splendor and at the same time virtuoso decorativeness.

1.4.2 Theater.
During the first half of the 18th century. Attempts have been made repeatedly to create a professional theater in Russia. Peter I gave great value theatrical art as a means of influencing public consciousness. In 1702, by his order, the Public Theater was created, for which a special building was built on Red Square - the “Comedian Temple”. The troupe consisted of German actors and was headed by I.Kh. Kunst. He was supposed to prepare Russian artists. In 1706, the theater, which was not popular with the audience, ceased to exist, but its actors continued to perform.
In the first half of the 18th century. The foundations of the Russian school of classical ballet dance were also laid. In 1738, the ballet school of J.B. was founded in St. Petersburg to train dancers for the court ballet troupe. Lande, and in 1741, by decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a Russian ballet troupe was established.
In the middle of the 18th century. Foreign acting troupes performed in many cities, but the predominance of foreign plays in their repertoire led to a lack of widespread interest in them.
The serf theater became widespread: the largest Russian nobles created theaters in their estates or in the capital's houses, the actors of which were serfs. The one that emerged in the 17th century became most famous. Sheremetev Theater.

2. Russian culture in the second half of the 18th century. The era of Catherine II.
2.1 Life and customs.
The second half of the 18th century, namely the period of the reign of Catherine II, went down in history as the “golden age” of the Russian nobility. One of the first manifestos of Catherine II after her accession to the throne was the “Manifesto on the granting of liberty and freedom to the entire Russian nobility,” according to which the nobles were exempted from the duties of military and civil service. According to the same “Manifesto”, many nobles received lands into their possession, and the peasants, the inhabitants of these lands, were assigned to them. Naturally, these lands had to be improved. Improvement began, as a rule, with the construction of an estate. And the reign of Catherine was the heyday of noble estate culture. But the life of the majority of landowners was not separated by the “Iron Curtain” from the life of the peasants; there was direct contact with folk culture, and a new attitude was emerging towards the peasant as an equal person, as an individual.
Also, the second half of the 18th century was marked by a number of innovations concerning the life of citizens. Especially a lot of new things have appeared in the life of cities. After the government allowed merchants to keep shops in their homes, merchant estates with warehouses and shops appeared in cities, forming entire shopping streets.
Water pipelines appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but for most cities the source of water supply remained numerous wells and nearby reservoirs, as well as water carriers delivering water in barrels.
At the end of the century, lighting of main streets was introduced in some large cities. In Moscow, the first street lamps appeared in the 30s. XVIII century In them, a wick dipped in hemp oil was lit by special order of the authorities.
With the increase in population, hygiene issues became a big problem for city authorities, so the number of public baths in cities was growing, where visitors could have a meal and while away the night for a special fee. For the first time, a special decree of the Senate prohibited the patriarchal custom of bathing together for men and women, and according to the Charter of the Deanery of 1782, persons of the opposite sex were prohibited from entering the bathhouse not on their day.
Another innovation in the second half of the century was the opening of city hospitals. The first of them appeared in St. Petersburg in 1779. But, despite this, the common people firmly retained faith in healers and conspiracies. The government itself strengthened prejudices: in 1771, during the plague epidemic in Kostroma, Catherine II confirmed the decree of 1730 on fasting and religious procession around the city as a means of combating the infection.

2.2 Education and science.
In the "Catherine era" the trend of nationalization education received new impetus and a new character. If in the first quarter of the century the main goal of education was to satisfy the state’s need for personnel, then Catherine II, with the help of education, sought to influence public consciousness and educate “a new breed of people.” In accordance with this, the principle of class-based education was preserved.
Book publishing played an important role in the spread of literacy and the development of education, which expanded significantly in the second half of the century. Book publishing has ceased to be a privilege of the state. The Russian educator N.I. played a major role in its development. Novikov. His printing houses published books in all branches of knowledge, including textbooks. An important event was the publication in 1757 of “Russian Grammar” by M.V. Lomonosov, which replaced the outdated “Grammar” by M. Smotritsky.
Primary school still remained the least developed link in the education system. As in the previous period, there were diocesan schools for the children of the clergy, and garrison schools for the children of recruits. Only at the end of the century were formally classless main public schools opened in each province, and small public schools in each district. However, the children of serfs were still deprived of the opportunity to receive an education.
Vocational schools continued to occupy a significant position in the education system. The network of medical, mining, commercial and other vocational schools was further developed, and new directions emerged special education. In 1757 in St. Petersburg, according to the project of I.I. Shuvalov founded the “Academy of the Three Most Notable Arts.” A Ballet School was opened at the Moscow Orphanage. To train teachers of public schools, teacher seminaries were created in Moscow and St. Petersburg, on the basis of which pedagogical institutes subsequently emerged.
Significant changes have occurred in the higher education system. The largest cultural center of the Russian Empire was created in 1755 according to the project of M.V. Lomonosov and I.I. Shuvalov Moscow Imperial University. The university had faculties of philosophy, law and medicine. Theology was not taught there until the beginning of the 19th century; all lectures were given in Russian. A printing house was organized at the university, where the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti was published until 1917. In addition to Moscow University, where education in accordance with the charter was classless, noble corps (land, naval, artillery, engineering and pages) and theological academies still operated.
In 1764, the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens (Educational Society of Noble Maidens at the Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg) was opened for girls, at which there was a “School for Young Girls” of non-noble origin (later it was transformed into the Alexander Institute).
In 1786, the “Charter of Public Schools” was published - the first legislative act in the field of education. For the first time, unified curricula and a class-lesson system were introduced
By the end of the 18th century. there were 550 educational institutions in the country, with about 60 thousand students; Women's education was started. Despite significant achievements in the spread of literacy and the development of a network of educational institutions, education still remained class-based; it was not universal, compulsory and the same for all categories of the population.
Catherine II continued the policy of state support for domestic science. Understanding the importance of the development of science for strengthening the economy and defense capability of the country, Catherine II supported various scientific research. For example, it was she who received the first smallpox vaccination in 1768. In the “Catherine era”, domestic scientists took a dominant position in the Academy of Sciences, the circle of domestic academic scientists grew significantly, among them nephew M.V. Lomonosov mathematician M.E. Golovin, geographer and ethnographer I.I. Lepekhin, astronomer S.Ya. Rumovsky and others. At the same time, fearing any “freethinking,” the empress sought to subordinate the development of science to strict state regulation. This was one of the reasons for the sad fate of many talented Russian self-taught scientists.
Natural sciences in the second half of the 18th century, as in the previous period, developed at an accelerated pace. By the end of the century, domestic natural science had reached the pan-European level.
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Introduction

“The Age of Reason and Enlightenment” - this is how the great thinkers of the 18th century, the heralds of new revolutionary ideas, spoke about their time. The 18th century entered the history of world culture as an era of great ideological and socio-historical shifts, an acute struggle against feudal-monarchical foundations and religious dogmatism. The spread of the materialistic worldview and the establishment of the spirit of love of freedom are clearly reflected in philosophy, science, literature, educational activities the greatest philosophers, scientists, writers of this time - Diderot and Holbach, Voltaire and Rousseau, Lessing, Goethe and Schiller, Lomonosov and Radishchev.

Russian culture, which survived at the turn of the 17th and XVIII century a significant turning point. After a long time of forced cultural isolation due to the three-century Mongol conquest, as well as the influence of the Orthodox Church, which tried to protect Rus' from everything “heretical”, “Western” (including education, morals, forms of cultural life), Russian art is entering the path of pan-European development and is gradually freed from the shackles of medieval scholasticism. This was the first century of development secular culture, the century of the decisive victory of the new, rationalistic worldview over the harsh, ascetic dogmas of religious morality. "Secular" art acquires the right to public recognition and begins to play an increasingly important role in the system of civic education, in the formation of new foundations of the country's social life. And at the same time, Russian culture of the 18th century did not reject its past.

While joining the rich cultural heritage of Europe, Russian figures at the same time relied on indigenous Russian traditions accumulated over a long previous period of artistic and historical development, on the experience of ancient Russian art. It was precisely because of this deep continuity that during the 18th century Russia was able not only to take an active part in the general process of the movement of world culture, but also to create its own national schools, firmly established in literature and poetry, in architecture and painting, in theater and music.

By the end of the century, Russian art achieved enormous success.

General assessment of Russian culture of the 18th century

The significance of the shifts that have occurred in Russian culture is evidenced by the fact that for the first time in the 18th century, secular, non-church music left the realm of oral tradition and acquired the significance of high professional art.

The intensive growth of Russian culture in the 18th century was largely due to major transformations in all areas of the life of Russian society carried out in the era of Peter I.

Peter's reforms radically changed the entire structure of cultural and social life in Russia. The old “Domostroevsky” customs of the medieval church-scholastic worldview are collapsing.

The political and cultural achievements of Peter the Great's era helped to strengthen the people's sense of national pride, consciousness of the greatness and power of the Russian state.

An invaluable contribution to the development of Russian culture of the 18th century was made by Russian musicians - composers, performers, opera artists, most of them came from the people's environment. They were faced with tasks of enormous difficulty; within several decades they had to master the accumulated wealth of Western European music over centuries.

In the general path of historical development of Russian art of the 18th century, three main periods are distinguished:

The first quarter of a century associated with Peter's reforms;

The era of the 30s-60s, marked by further growth national culture, major achievements in the field of science, literature, art and at the same time the strengthening of class oppression;

The last third of the century (starting from the mid-60s), marked by major social changes, aggravation of social contradictions, noticeable democratization of Russian culture and the growth of Russian enlightenment.

Education

On the verge of the 19th century. in Russia there were 550 educational institutions and 62 thousand students. These figures show the rise of literacy in Russia and at the same time its lag in comparison with Western Europe: in England at the end of the 18th century. There were more than 250 thousand students in Sunday schools alone, and in France the number of primary schools in 1794 reached 8 thousand. In Russia, on average, only two people out of a thousand studied.

The social composition of students in secondary schools was extremely varied. In public schools, children of artisans, peasants, artisans, soldiers, sailors, etc. predominated. The age composition of students was also different - both children and 22-year-old men studied in the same classes.

Common textbooks in schools were the alphabet, F. Prokopovich’s book “First Teaching to Youths,” “Arithmetic” by L. F. Magnitsky and “Grammar” by M. Smotritsky, a book of hours and a psalter. There were no mandatory training programs; the duration of training ranged from three to five years. Those who completed the course were able to read, write, and knew basic information from arithmetic and geometry.

A significant role in the development of education in Russia was played by the so-called soldiers' schools - general education schools for soldiers' children, successors and continuers of digital schools of Peter the Great's time. This is the earliest, most democratic elementary school of that time, teaching not only reading, writing, arithmetic, but also geometry, fortification, and artillery. It is no coincidence that in the second half of the 18th century. a retired soldier, along with a sexton, becomes a literacy teacher both in the village and in the city - let us remember the retired sergeant Tsyfirkin, honest and selfless, who tried in vain to teach Mitrofanushka “tsyfir wisdom.” Soldiers' children made up the bulk of students at Moscow and St. Petersburg universities. National military schools, opened in the second half of the 18th century, also belonged to the soldier type. in the North Caucasus (Kizlyar, Mozdok and Ekaterinograd).

The second type of schools in Russia in the 18th century were closed educational institutions for the nobility: private boarding houses, gentry corps, institutes for noble maidens, etc., in total more than 60 educational institutions, where about 4.5 thousand noble children studied. Although the gentry corps (Land, Naval, Artillery, Engineering) trained mainly officers for the army and navy, they provided a general education that was broad for that time. The first Russian actors, the Volkov brothers and the playwright Sumarokov, studied there; students participated in performances of the court theater. Class educational institutions also included noble boarding schools - private and public: the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, the Noble Boarding School at Moscow University, etc. They produced well-educated nobles who accepted the ideology of their class. These educational institutions enjoyed the greatest financial support from the government: 100 thousand rubles were allocated for one Smolny Institute. per year, while 10 thousand rubles were given to all public schools. to the province, and this money went not only to public education, but also to the needs of “public charity” - hospitals, almshouses, etc.

The third type of educational institutions includes theological seminaries and schools. There were 66 of them, with 20,393 students studying there (only Orthodox schools are meant). These were also estate schools intended for the children of the clergy; Commoners, as a rule, were not accepted into them. The main task of these schools was to train priests devoted to the church and the tsar, but seminary students also received general education and often became agents of literacy in their parishes. A small number (about two dozen) of special schools (mining, medical, navigating, land surveying, commercial, etc.), as well as the Academy of Arts founded in 1757, represented the fourth type of educational institutions. Although only about 1.5 thousand people studied in them, they played an important role in training specialists, which Russia especially needed at that time.

Finally, the training of specialists was also carried out through universities - Academic, established in 1725 under the Academy of Sciences and existing until 1765, Moscow, founded in 1755 at the initiative of Lomonosov, and Vilensky, which was formally opened only in 1803, but actually operated as a university since the 80s of the 18th century. Students of the philosophical, law and medical faculties of Moscow University, in addition to the sciences in their specialty, also studied Latin, foreign languages ​​and Russian literature.

Moscow University was a major cultural center. He published the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti and had his own printing house; Various literary and scientific societies worked under him. From the walls of the university came D. I. Fonvizin, later A. S. Griboyedov, P. Ya. Chaadaev, the future Decembrists N. I. Turgenev, I. D. Yakushkin, A. G. Kakhovsky.

It is necessary to soberly assess the results of the development of education in Russia in the 18th century. Noble Russia had an Academy of Sciences, a university, gymnasiums and other educational institutions, but the country's peasants and artisans for the most part remained illiterate. The school reform of 1786, so widely advertised by the government of Catherine II, was popular only in name, but in fact was of a purely class nature. We must not forget that the ideas of the “Enlightenment” were “the motto of tsarism in Europe.” However, the genius of the people was able to manifest itself not thanks to the policy of “enlightened absolutism”, but in spite of it. This is especially clearly seen in the example of M.V. Lomonosov.

Russian science. M. V. Lomonosov.

There is no need to talk in detail about the life of M.V. Lomonosov: from school everyone knows how this son of a Pomor fisherman secretly left his parents with a convoy for Moscow, endured severe poverty and hardship, but did not leave sciences, but became the first Russian academician, founded Moscow University and, according to apt definition A. S. Pushkin, “itself was our first university.” He was a scientist of encyclopedic knowledge, one of the founders of modern natural science, a physicist, chemist, astronomer, geologist, historian, poet and linguist.

The appearance of such a giant of science as Lomonosov in the conditions of serf Russia cannot be explained by a simple accident, a whim of nature, a whim of fate. The previous development of Russian society prepared the great achievements of the 18th century, when Russian science, freeing itself from the shackles of the Middle Ages, experienced a kind of Renaissance. F. Engels characterized the Renaissance as an era “which needed titans and which gave birth to titans in strength of thought, passion and character, in versatility and learning.” Russian science of the 18th century. also needed such titans, and it is no coincidence that it was in the Russian Academy that physicist and chemist Lomonosov, mathematicians Euler and Bernoulli glorified their names with discoveries of world significance.

The research of foreign scientists invited to the St. Petersburg Academy contributed to the development of Russian and world science. But it was not their piles and not the efforts of the “enlightened monarch” that Russian science was created. It was created by the Russian people, people of “various ranks and titles.” Peasants M.V. Lomonosov and M.E. Golovin (mathematician), soldiers' children I.I. Lepekhin, S.P. Krasheninnikov and V.F. Zuev were among the first Russian academicians; turner of the Navigation school A.K. Nartov, hydraulic engineer and Kalmyk builder M.I. Serdyukov, the first Russian heating engineer, creator of the “fire-acting machine”, soldier’s son I.I. Polzunov, “Nizhny Novgorod townsman”, mechanic of the Academy of Sciences I.P. Kulibin are the true creators of science and new technology in serf Russia.

The achievements of Russian scientific thought were significant, and among them the brilliant guesses and discoveries of M. V. Lomonosov especially stand out. Relying on living practice, experience, and materialistically assessing all the phenomena of the surrounding world, Lomonosov strove for deep theoretical generalizations and knowledge of the secrets of nature. He developed the atomic-molecular hypothesis of the structure of matter and became one of the founders of chemical atomism and physical chemistry. The universal law of conservation of matter and motion, discovered by Lomonosov, is of great importance for all natural science, as well as for materialist philosophy. Lomonosov's works in the field of geology provided a correct explanation of the reasons for the uplift of continents and mountain building, the secular oscillatory movements of the Earth; The scientist laid the foundations of the comparative historical method in geology. From the deep bowels of the Earth, “where nature forbids our hands and eyes to reach” and where we have to “penetrate with our minds,” Lomonosov turns to the distant stars; world space, “the vastness of immeasurable places” attracts him both as a scientist and as a poet. Lomonosov's discovery of the atmosphere on Venus led to the creation of a new science - astrophysics; The “night scope” he invented is now used in the world of marine binoculars and searchlight scopes.

M.V. Lomonosov also acted as an innovative scientist in the field of social sciences. He was not a professional historian, but his historical works rightfully occupy a prominent place in Russian science. He fought against the theory of Bayer and Miller about the Norman origin of Rus', based on a critical study of historical sources, he created a general work “Ancient Russian History”, in which he wrote that the history of our Motherland does not begin with the calling of the Varangians, but that the Russian people and language extend to “ deep antiquity." Russian history is given by Lomonosov against the background of universal history.

The reform of Russian versification, begun by V.K. Tredyakovsky, was completed by Lomonosov, who closely connected the issues of poetry with the development of the Russian language. He created textbooks on rhetoric and grammar, he prepared the reform of Russian stylistics, which was later carried out by A. S. Pushkin. Lomonosov also did a lot for the development of Russian art. He revived what had been forgotten since the 12th century. the art of mosaic, contributed to the promotion of such prominent artists and sculptors as F. S. Rokotov and F. I. Shubin.

Lomonosov's works were far ahead of his time; all the greatness of the scientific feat of this “Arkhangelsk man” was fully realized much later. But even during Lomonosov’s lifetime, his works became famous abroad; he was elected a member of the Swedish and an honorary member of the Bologna Academy of Sciences. The great mathematician L. Euler called him “a brilliant man who, with his knowledge, brings credit to the academy as much as to all science.”

Lomonosov was not alone. The discoveries of a number of Russian scientists constituted the golden contribution of Russian science to the world. The founder of the Russian mineralogical school, the son of the court musician V. M. Severgin did a lot to develop Lomonosov’s ideas in mineralogy and geology. Through the works of Russian scientists in the 18th century. Siberia was explored. “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” by S.P. Krasheninnikov was translated into four European languages. The names of S.I. Chelyuskin and the Laptev brothers forever remained on the geographical maps of the North of our Motherland. The research of the outstanding naturalist, traveler and ethnographer I. I. Lepekhin opened up the riches of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia for Russian science. A brief but expressive description from his life story: “He was quick-witted, firm in his judgments, precise in his research, and true in his observations.”

The Academy of Sciences in the 60-70s conducted five expeditions that explored vast territories. In order to more clearly imagine the activities of these expeditions and their significance for science, let us dwell on one of them, led by Academician I. I. Lepekhin. In 1768, the expedition headed down the Volga to Astrakhan, explored the Orenburg steppes, turned north along the Ural ridge, penetrated the Vychegda region, the Northern Dvina and reached Arkhangelsk. Having walked along the ocean coast, she returned to St. Petersburg through the Olonets region in December 1772.

The expedition kept careful notes, which formed the basis of Lepekhin’s “Daily Notes”. We find here a description of the animal and plant world, mines and factories, sights of cities and villages, customs and life of peoples. Lepekhin provided his research with drawings. The name of Academician Lepekhin became famous not only in Russia, but also abroad. In 1767 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of Strasbourg, and in 1776 he became a member of the Berlin Society of Natural Scientists. Lepekhin's "Notes" were, unlike many other scientific works of that time, written in Russian, and not in Latin or German. Lepekhin was also involved in teaching activities. For 16 years he was an inspector of an academic gymnasium and devoted a lot of time and effort to caring for its students. While developing the materials of his expedition, Lepekhin at the same time performed a number of other duties at the Academy of Sciences: he was a member of the commission for publishing translations, led the academic publication of Lomonosov’s works, and participated in the compilation of an etymological dictionary.

In the second half of the 18th century. The foundations of scientific biology in Russia are laid. In 1793, the first medical journal in Russia was published - “St. Petersburg Medical Gazette”.

Second quarter of the 18th century. is the time of formation of historical science in our country. The collection and publication of historical sources begins. The largest noble historian of this time, V.N. Tatishchev, is working on his “Russian History,” in which he makes an attempt to coherently present the events of Russian history from a noble point of view. Tatishchev’s work was used in the already mentioned “Ancient Russian History” by M.V. Lomonosov, and M.M. Shcherbatov also proceeded from it, creating in the 70s of the 18th century. his “Russian History from Ancient Times.” Shcherbatov’s “history” is imbued with the desire to glorify the nobility, to justify serfdom and noble privileges. Frightened by the Peasant War led by E.I. Pugachev, the author condemns popular movements, although he understands their inevitability. Another noble historian, I.N. Boltin, a thoughtful and insightful scientist and critic, studied the history of not only the nobility, but also the merchants, clergy, and artisans. In his works, he exalted the serf system, the autocratic power of the tsar and the power of landowners over serfs.

Science in Russia in the 18th century. developed as part of world science. Russian scientists not only creatively perceived the achievements of Western European scientists, but also exerted an ever-increasing influence on world scientific thought. The general level of development of science in Russia was lower than in Western Europe, but each new achievement became increasingly important. The publications of the Russian Academy of Sciences were known to scientists from other countries. People abroad closely followed the scientific life of St. Petersburg. When the Russian physicist G.V. Richman tragically died from a lightning strike, responses to his death appeared in Germany, England and France, describing the experiences of the deceased.

Outstanding figures of foreign science were elected honorary members of the St. Petersburg Academy - materialist philosopher D. Diderot, French naturalist J. Buffon, American scientist and revolutionary W. Franklin.

However, the successes of Russian education and science did not become the property of the working masses. The masses were cut off from the achievements of culture and lived with interests far removed from it. The autocracy was afraid of the spread of knowledge. “The mob should not be given an education, since it will know as much as you and I, it will not obey us to the extent that it obeys now,” wrote Catherine II to Field Marshal P. S. Saltykov.

The people expressed their socio-political views and artistic ideas in oral literature and applied art.

18th century music

The Peter the Great era marked the beginning of the development of a new type of secular music. The creativity of this time is still very insignificant: it is limited mainly to the simplest genres of applied music - military, table, dance.

Military bands play on the streets of the new capital - St. Petersburg; Assemblies with dances are held in the palace; music is heard at ceremonial celebrations, at military parades, and on theater stages. The construction of a new “Russian state” persistently required new, special, specific forms of music-making.

The new function of musical art was especially fully manifested in the genres of ceremonial and ceremonial music.

In honor of Peter I and his commanders, specially composed chants were performed, called “panegyric” or “viat” cants.

In musical and poetic terms, panegyric cants were a typical expression of the heroic-patriotic sentiments of Peter the Great's era.

They gave birth to a special style of solemnly lush, anthemic choral music, a style that received its highest culmination in choral concerts, cantatas and oratorios at the end of the century.

Dance genres were especially popular.

The dances of Peter the Great's assemblies - minuet, polonaise, anglaise - were firmly rooted on Russian soil, and some of them, primarily the minuet, became favorites in noble society.

The musical repertoire of Peter the Great's assemblies was quite varied.

In the last years of Peter's reign, musical entertainment at court took on a different character.

Gradually, the most educated representatives of the Russian aristocracy began to become involved in music. Some of them were proficient in the art of playing the clavichord, violin and flute. At court, gallant songs of love and lyrical content (“arias”), performed to the accompaniment of a harpsichord, flute or violin, became fashionable.

Music also occupied a prominent place in the theater. The first years of the reign of Peter I marked the beginning of the active development of theatrical life in Russia. For the first time, the theater was accessible to a relatively wide range of spectators. Instrumental music was a constant participant in all performances. For registration theatrical productions, apparently, a fairly large group of musicians was required.

Having begun its existence in the first years of the reign of Peter I, the Russian theater continued to grow and develop throughout the 18th century. The theater became an important center of musical life in the post-Petrine era, when art was gaining wider public recognition.

The era of the 30-60s of the 18th century was marked by the growth national identity and strengthening national cultural traditions. The activities of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, the first Russian scientist on a global scale, were of great importance. Russian literature grew and strengthened; The poetry of Russian classicism flourished, represented in the works of the same Lomonosov and his closest contemporaries V.K. Trediakovsky and A.P. Sumarokov. The successes of Russian art were clearly manifested in the work of the famous architect V.V. Rastrelli, in the portrait painting of A.P. Losenko, A.P. Antropov and I.P. Argunov.

In the period of the 30s and 40s, music gradually left the sphere applied arts on an independent path of development. Complex musical genres are mastered: opera, cantata, sonata, suite. Musical instruments, including the clavichord, violin and harp, are becoming increasingly widespread in noble life. Chamber concerts are held at the court and in the houses of noble nobles. Choirs, orchestras and opera troupes are being formed, and Russian musicians are mastering performing skills. Thus, the developing traditions of everyday and concert music-making prepared the ground for the subsequent emergence of the Russian school of composition.

The main genre characterizing the development of musical art in the 18th century in Russia was opera. It is not surprising that it was in the opera genre that the creative capabilities of Russian composers of the 18th century subsequently manifested themselves most clearly.

Along with opera, various genres of chamber music are gaining popularity in Russia. In the mid-18th century, chamber concerts at court became commonplace.

Chamber music playing enjoyed great success in aristocratic amateur circles. By this time, the role of the court orchestra had grown noticeably.

In the early 60s, the orchestra was divided into two independent groups of musicians - performers of opera, symphony and ballroom music. Such differentiation was an undoubted sign of the growth of performing forces.

It is no coincidence that such gifted Russian composers as V.A. Pashkevich and I.A. emerged from among the musicians of the court orchestra at the end of the century. Khandoshkin.

The last third of the 18th century is characterized by significant democratization of musical and social life. Theatrical life goes far beyond the boundaries of court and aristocratic life. Music education, music printing and music publishing are developing. Music becomes the property of wider circles of Russian society: home music-playing becomes widespread in small-scale and urban bourgeois environments.

The leading role in the musical life of Russia still belongs to the opera theater. However, the development of musical theater by this time was taking on a new direction: both the operatic repertoire and the composition of the audience were changing.

The successes of the domestic drama theater were of great importance for the development of the opera genre in Russia. Theater life reached a great rise in the period 1770 - 1780, during the era of the activities of the leading Russian playwrights Fonvizin, Nikolaev, Knyazhin, Kapnist. In 1776, the Petrovsky Theater was opened in Moscow, on the basis of which the Bolshoi Theater subsequently arose.

Along with the city "free" theaters, at the end of the 18th century, a network of serf theaters scattered throughout Russia was widely developed.

The theaters of Count N.P. Sheremetev in his Kuskovo and Ostankino estates near Moscow were especially widely known.

The Sheremetyev Theater was primarily an opera house, and the basis of the repertoire was the latest theatrical "news" - comic operas by French and Italian composers. The best works of Paisiello, Piccini, Grétry and Monsina were performed on this stage.

And in the leading roles shone the famous “first singer” of the Sheremetev theater Praskovya Ivanovna Kovaleva (on stage - Parasha Zhemchugova, 1768-1803), whose name entered folk legends and was covered in legendary glory.

Widely popular in everyday life in feudal Russia special kind performance - music of horn orchestras.

At the end of the 18th century, horn orchestras also performed a fairly wide concert repertoire of classical music (including symphonies by Haydn and Mozart) and even took part in opera performances.

By the end of the 18th century, concert life became more and more systematic.

Oratorio and choral concerts were a great success among the public. At the same time, solo concerts were also held.

The performances of harpsichordists and organists V. Palschau, I. Gessler, A. Sartori, who were also known in Russia for their teaching activities, enjoyed great success.

Successes in music education and theater and concert life

created a solid foundation for the further growth of musical culture. If at the beginning of the century home music-making flourished only in a narrow circle of the Russian aristocracy and was largely a tribute to “foreign taste,” now it has become a necessity.

TO musical art, despite class restrictions, ever wider sections of the population are reaching out, and even representatives of the serf class now constitute almost the main group of professional musicians. By the end of the 18th century, we can talk about well-established, stable national traditions in the field of musical performance, opera theater, and concert life.

Opera XVIII century.

Among the various genres of professional music of the late 18th century, opera ranks first. It is opera in this era that becomes the most developed, most professional and at the same time the most widespread type of musical creativity. Opera attracts both a wide audience and the best creative forces. The opera evokes lively responses in public opinion, in poetry, literature and criticism. With great spontaneity and completeness, it reflects the advanced, democratic tendencies of Russian art.

The opera, like the comedy, touched upon the most acute, fundamental problems of Russian reality, and first of all the issue of social inequality, the difficult, powerless situation of the serf peasantry.

Russian opera of the 18th century is, first of all, a realistic comedy-opera of everyday life, closely connected with the entire structure of Russian social life.

On the opera stage at the end of the 18th century there appears a gallery of typical characters long familiar to the viewer from the comedies of that time.

The opera, in its own way, aptly ridiculed the backward morals of Russian society, castigated the vices of cattle and simpletons.

The critical, accusatory orientation determines the main, basic tendency of the realistic opera-comedy of the 18th century, which entered the circle of the most significant, progressive phenomena of Russian art of the Radishchev era.

The young art of opera of the 18th century clearly demonstrates the amazing diversity of development paths of the Russian school of composition.

Opera, with all the complexity and diversity of its forms, nourished all Russian professional music and contributed to the development of other genres.

The foundations of both Russian symphonism and Russian choral classics were rooted in it. In close contact with folk song And everyday romance, it also influenced professional vocal lyrics.

The active development of operatic dramaturgy in the 18th century largely determined in advance the important role that the operatic genre was destined to play in the work of classical composers.

Folk art of the 18th century

Rebellious poetic creativity has invariably accompanied the people throughout their history, being an artistic response to the major events of reality. In different eras, folk art took different forms. For the 18th century. characterized by the emergence of new themes and images brought to life by changed historical conditions.

Central place in oral folk art of the 18th century. are occupied by songs and legends about Pugachev. No wonder A.S. Pushkin valued in them “the stamp of living modernity.” These songs were created during the battles of the rebels with the Tsarist troops. The people see in Pugachev not a “state thief, monster, villain and impostor,” as the tsar’s manifestos called him, but a people’s king, peasant protector and avenger. In folk legends, Pugachev is a hero, a hero-commander, vitally connected with the people and opposed to the nobility; he became the leader of the rebels who

We thought of a just cause,

The cause is right, I have an honest thought:

We are noble gentlemen - on strings,

We are clerks and yarygs - on collars,

We are breeders - for birch trees.

The people did not even believe Pugachev’s death - so great was the confidence in his strength. Pugachev’s feat was glorified not only by Russians: the Bashkirs, Mordovians, Tatars, and Udmurts saw in him an exponent of people’s aspirations. Together with Pugachev, his comrade-in-arms Salavat Yulaev is also glorified in Bashkir songs.

In addition to songs about Pugachev, in the 18th century. Previously created songs about Razin, about “good fellows, free people” were popular. This is the famous song “Don’t make noise, mother green oak tree.”

In the 18th century Traditional genres of folk art continued to be widely used - epics, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, everyday songs, etc. It cannot be considered an accident that in the 18th century. proverbs were written down that reflect the idea of ​​will: “will is for the master, but will is for the slave”, “will does not want bondage”, “in the field there is will”.

In handwritten democratic literature of the 18th century. works of folk art penetrated, which could not be published due to censorship slingshots. Such is the “Lament of the Serfs,” which, through expressive comparisons, reveals the “ferocity” of the bar and the servile position of the serfs. “Wherever you go, there are gentlemen everywhere,” the unknown author of “Lamentation” sadly exclaims; death is the only deliverance from a difficult fate. The difficult life of the starving servants was reflected in the peasant “Tale of the Pakhrinskaya Village of Kamkina”. Either a complaint or bitter laughter through tears can be heard in handwritten parodies of official documents. In “Deaf Passport” the author speaks with bitterness about the impossibility of a runaway peasant finding a job; Poverty pushes him onto the path of robbery and robbery. The hard service of a soldier is vividly described in handwritten stories of a soldier's origin - in a parody petition to God and in the "Tale of Sorrows." Folk satire also penetrates into popular prints - such is the picture “The Bull Didn’t Want to Be a Bull,” where the people’s dreams of social justice are expressed in an allegorical form.

The main motives of oral folk drama are a sharp denunciation of the villainous king (the drama “Tsar Maximilian”), a servant’s mockery of a ruined nobleman (“The Imaginary Master”), and calls for reprisals against the nobles (“The Boat”). This genre of oral folk art is reflected in an intelligible game form class contradictions of the time.

Russian democratic theater of the 18th century. also showed the nobles and clergy in their true unsightly form, satirically exposed the stupidity of a judicial official, the greed and ignorance of a foreign charlatan doctor, the stupidity and arrogance of a parasitic master. Folk theater is characterized by sharp grotesqueness in the depiction of characters, expressiveness of gesture and dialogue, and frequent improvisation of the text using general political and local everyday themes. These folk performances served as one of the national foundations of Russian everyday and satirical drama in the second half of the 18th century.

The artistic tastes of the working people are vividly embodied in works of applied art. The works of folk artists contain images of folk life, satirical sketches of representatives of the ruling classes, fairy-tale images, floral and geometric patterns.

Spinning wheels, looms, etc. were decorated with carvings or paintings. Painted children's toys of the 18th century. in a grotesque form they ridicule the cutesy, pampered lady, the self-satisfied merchant, the fashionable nobleman. Images of animals and birds (rooster, falcon, horse, swan, etc.) can be found on all kinds of household items, furniture, gingerbread boards, etc. The peasant’s dishes were poor, but how lovingly the clay and wooden bowls and ladles were painted , what fine carvings the birch bark boxes and wooden boxes are covered with, how much strict taste is put into patterned fabrics, thin lace and colorful embroideries!

Culture of the nobility.

Classicism

Russian culture of the second half of the 18th century. reflects the characteristics of a rising nation. Increasing public role fiction, which is gradually losing its former anonymous and handwritten character. Progressive writers are active fighters for the ideas of enlightenment; The first literary magazines appeared.

Although Russian writers and artists turned to the experience of Western European classicism, which was ahead of them in the development, they sought to give this movement features of national originality. Lomonosov said it well: “In order not to introduce anything objectionable, and not to leave anything good, you need to look at who is better to follow and in what.”

Unlike Western European classicism, Russian classicism, full of the pathos of citizenship, had strong educational tendencies and a sharp accusatory satirical stream.

In literature, Russian classicism is represented by the works of A. D. Kantemir, V. K. Tredyakovsky, M. V. Lomonosov, A. P. Sumarokov. A.D. Kantemir was the founder of Russian classicism, the founder of the most vital real-satirical direction in it - such are his famous satires. V.K. Tredyakovsky, with his theoretical works, contributed to the establishment of classicism, but in his poetic works the new ideological content did not find a corresponding artistic form. This was achieved in the genre of a solemn and philosophical ode by M.V. Lomonosov, for whom both this form and the appeal to the monarch were the occasion for promoting the idea of ​​national cultural progress.

The traditions of Russian classicism manifested themselves differently in the works of A.P. Sumarokov and his school (M.M. Kheraskov, V.I. Maikov Ya.B. Knyazhnin, etc.), which defended the idea of ​​​​the inseparability of the interests of the nobility and the monarchy. Sumarokov laid the foundation for the dramatic system of classicism. In his tragedies, under the influence of the reality of that time, he often turns to the theme of the uprising against tsarism, for example, in the political tragedy “Dmitry the Pretender”. In his work, Sumarokov pursued social and educational goals, preaching high civic feelings and noble deeds; “The property of comedy is to correct morals through mockery,” wrote A.P. Sumarokov.

Since the 70s of the 18th century. Russian classicism in literature is experiencing a crisis; the aggravation of social contradictions and class struggle leads to the penetration of new themes and sentiments into literature. Thus, republican motifs appeared in Ya. B. Knyazhnin’s tragedy “Vadim Novgorodsky”. But at the same time, civil themes are pushed aside by love lyrics. From the leading literary movement, classicism becomes the literature of narrow reactionary-serfdom circles.

Classicism is gaining a dominant position in architecture and fine arts. He determined the appearance of St. Petersburg, where V. I. Bazhenov, A. D. Zakharov, A. N. Voronikhin, as well as foreign architects - G. Cameron, D. Quarenghi and others built. Russian architects successfully solved the most important problems of urban planning; their buildings are distinguished by the clarity and logic of their design: rigor and laconicism were combined in their work with a desire for monumental ceremonial images. Of particular note is the old building of the Library named after V.I. Lenin (the former house of P.E. Pashkov) in Moscow - the highest achievement of Bazhenov’s creativity, a brilliant example of classicism, perfect in architectural image and ingenuity in decoration. The ensembles and public buildings created by Russian architects of the second half of the 18th century, for example, the Senate building in the Moscow Kremlin (M. F. Kazakov), the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg (I. E. Starev), are imbued with patriotic pride, ideas of triumph and power of Russia. The majestic simplicity and originality of the composition are combined with compact volumes, light colors, and rich decoration of the building facade and fence.

A characteristic feature of Russian classicism in sculpture was warmth and humanity. It is enough to look at the tombstone of N. M. Golitsyna in the Donskoy Monastery by F. G. Gordeev to feel the sublime sadness and wise restraint of quiet grief, expressed with the greatest sincerity. Russian masters created examples of monumental sculpture, distinguished by their majestic character, humanism of images, brevity and generality. One of the most remarkable monuments of this era is the monument to Peter I by E.-M. Falcone. He was a foreigner, but the monument he created should be considered within the framework of Russian culture, which predetermined the assessment of Peter I and the interpretation of his sculptural image. The figure of Peter, stretching his hand forward, is rhythmically connected with a horse, and the entire statue is connected with a powerful pedestal, a stone rock weighing 80 thousand pounds. The depth of thought, the heroic interpretation of the image, the pathetic nature of the artistic concept make “The Bronze Horseman” the poetry of history, a symbol of the great historical vocation of Russia.

Classicism is also reflected in historical painting. Noteworthy are the paintings by A. P. Losenko “Vladimir and Rogneda” and “Farewell of Hector to Andromache”, the painting by G. I. Ugryumov “The Test of the Strength of Jan Usmar”. However, painting was more affected by the limitations of classicism - the abstract ideal nature of images, conventionality of color, imitation of poses and gestures of ancient models.

Russian theatrical classicism, which developed by the mid-18th century, was founded by the dramaturgy of Lomonosov and Sumarokov, who established national-patriotic themes and educational trends in the theater. Spread of classicism in theater arts associated with the emergence in St. Petersburg in 1756 of the state public professional theater headed by the Russian actor F. G. Volkov. The largest actors of Russian theatrical classicism were also I. A. Dmitrevsky, P. A. Plavilshchikov, T. M. Troepolskaya. Their playing was distinguished by subtle skill in revealing passions and thoughts, and expressiveness of recitation. A master of great stage temperament, F. G. Volkov left behind the memory of an inspired artist in the heroic images of the freedom-loving characters of Sumarokov’s tragedy, who did not leave the stage at that time.

Sentimentalism

Classicism was not the only trend of noble culture in the Age of Enlightenment. It was replaced by sentimentalism. He brought with him attention to the feelings and interests of the common man, mainly from the “middle” class. Tragedy was replaced by “tearful bourgeois drama” and comic opera. The sublime language of tragic heroes ceases to excite listeners, who greet with delight the “mixing of fun with sorrow in the actions” and shed tears over sensitive stories. The creator of the genre of sentimental story and sentimental journey in Russian literature, N. M. Karamzin sought to convey the subtle and deep experiences of ordinary people. However, in his works, in a conservative spirit, he depicted the idyllic relationship between landowners and peasants. N. M. Karamzin was afraid of the peasants’ speech, the ghost of the French bourgeois revolution XVIII century and therefore came to terms with feudal reality.

The influence of sentimentalism was also reflected in the architecture, especially in park architecture, with various “grottoes of solitude”, mysterious pavilions hidden in the twilight, and in the stylization of “wild” nature. One of the works of the agronomist and noble memoirist A. T. Bolotov is called: “Some general notes about tender melancholic gardens.” Most of the estates of the 18th century. was created with the participation or designs of serf architects and gardeners.

In painting, sentimentalism was reflected in “sensitive” subjects, in the sugary-sweet interpretation of peasant images, in the pastoral depiction of nature. In M. M. Ivanov’s painting “Milking a Cow,” the artist’s entire attention is focused not on the peasants (his images don’t even look like them!), but on the gentle sheep, on the idyllic picture of peaceful rural life. Looking at this canvas, one would not think that it was written in 1772 - on the eve of the Peasant War. Sentimental themes are also strong in the works of landscape painter S. F. Shchedrin, who painted traditional “landscapes with cattle,” peasant huts of fantastic architecture and idyllic “rural amusements” of shepherds and shepherdesses.

One of the prominent sentimentalists in portrait painting was V. L. Borovikovsky. The female images he created (for example, the portrait of M. I. Lopukhina) are full of tender elegiac feelings and idyllic moods.

The founder of sentimentalism in the Russian theater is the actor V. II. Pomerantsev. Theater of the 70-80s of the 18th century. often turned to pastoral operas and comedies. This is Maikov’s “Village Festival,” at which the touched peasants sing in chorus: “We have a lot in the field and live according to our will, you are our master and father! »

The same is true of Kheraskov’s “tearful dramas” with heartbreaking scenes and an idyllic ending, with the reward of virtue and the denunciation of vice.

A sentimental-idyllic “sensibility” penetrated into music. The romance “The Gray Dove Moans” (words by I. I. Dmitriev, music by F. M. Dubyansky) outlived its creators for a long time, continuing into the 19th century. to disturb the hearts of merchants and tradeswomen.

Sentimentalism in Russian culture arose during the period of the formation of new, bourgeois relations in the depths of the feudal-serf system, and its struggle with classicism was a reflection of deep socio-economic processes. Therefore, despite all the political limitations of sentimentalism, it was a progressive movement for its time.

Conclusion

The eighteenth century in the field of culture and life in Russia is a century of deep social contrasts, the rise of education and science.

The 18th century was significant for Russia with noticeable changes and significant achievements in the field of art. Its genre structure, content, character, and means of artistic expression have changed. And in architecture, and in sculpture, and in painting, and in graphics, Russian art entered the pan-European path of development. Back in the depths of the 17th century, in the times of Peter the Great, a process of “secularization” of Russian culture took place. In the formation and development of a secular culture of a pan-European type, it was impossible to rely on old artistic cadres, for whom new tasks were beyond their capabilities. Foreign masters invited to Russian service not only helped create new art, but also served as teachers of the Russian people. Another equally important way of receiving professional training was sending Russian craftsmen to study in Western Europe. Thus, many Russian masters received high training in France, Holland, Italy, England, and Germany.

Russian art, as we will see below, which continued to develop in the 18th century on new European principles, still remained an expressed national phenomenon with its own specific face, and this fact in itself is very significant.

However, unlike the previous period of time, the culture was greatly influenced by the nobility, and the dominance of foreigners continued.

During this period, Russian science and education continued to develop, although serfdom and autocracy greatly hindered this. Nevertheless, the tsarist government had to take some measures to spread education - this was required by the era.

In the development of education in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. Two trends are clearly visible. The first of them was manifested in a significant expansion of the network of educational institutions; the second was expressed in the strengthening of the influence of the principle of class on the organization of education.

The development of science is closely related to the spread of education. The need to know the laws of nature and increased interest in studying the country's resources were caused by economic needs.

List of used literature

1. " Encyclopedic Dictionary Russian artist." Pedagogy. 1983

2. A. N. Petrov. “Russian architecture of the first half of the 18th century.” 1954.

3. Big Soviet Encyclopedia, - M.: 1975 Volumes 18,19,20,21.

4. V.V. Mavrodin “The Birth of a New Russia.”, M., 1998.

5. Essays on Russian culture. Higher school of Moscow State University 1990 B.A. Rybakov.

6. History of Russian music. T. 1. From ancient times to the mid-19th century. 1973. O. Levasheva, Y. Keldysh, A. Kandinsky.

7. Russian lira. “Essays on musical Russia.” 1971. Mironov A.G.

8. About Russian art. Collected works vol. 24. M., 1953. Gorky A.M.

9. At the origins of Russian theater. Kuzmin A.I. M. 1984.

10. Rybakova B. A. History of the USSR from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. M.: Higher school. 1983.

11. Krivorotov V. Milestones. The ups and downs of Russia’s special path // Knowledge is power. No. 8, 9. 1990

12. Anisimov E.V. The Birth of an Empire // book. History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, decisions. Essays on the history of Russia in the 9th - early 20th centuries. M.: Politizdat. 1991.

K. Marx And F. Engels. Works, vol. 22, p. 24.

K. Marx And F. Engels. Works, vol. 20, p. 346.

M. V. Lomonosov. Complete works, vol. 6. M.-L., 1952, p. 178.

In the 18th century, the “Europeanization” of Russian culture took place - the process of introducing Russian culture to European culture. The penetration of Western influences into Russia began in the 17th century. There was a German settlement in Moscow. There were many Englishmen and Dutch in Russian trade and industry. However, these were only the first symptoms of a new trend in the development of Russian culture. It fully manifests itself in the 18th century. Russia's acquaintance with European culture took place in several stages: foreign masters were invited to work in Russia, works of European art were purchased, Russian masters were sent abroad as pensioners, i.e. at public expense. From the middle of the 18th century, the development of Russian culture began, corresponding to the pan-European one. From now on, all new cultural movements and artistic movements come from the West and take root on Russian soil (baroque, rococo, classicism, romanticism, etc.). The second trend in the development of Russian culture of the 18th century is the “secularization” of culture, the penetration of secular principles into it, the departure from the church and religious canons. This process covered all spheres of culture (education, enlightenment, bookmaking, artistic culture, everyday life). Moreover, in the West by this time new forms of life and secular culture had already formed. Therefore, Russia had to go through this development path in all areas in 50 years, which in the West lasted 2-3 centuries. Russian culture of the 18th century absorbed the problems of European culture of the 15th - 18th centuries, combining the features of both the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

The assessment of Russian culture of the 18th century is ambiguous. Slavophiles criticized her for copying and imitation, for breaking away from ancient Russian traditions. They talked about the unlimited spiritual life of the era. Westerners believed that borrowing European experience was necessary to overcome Russia's backwardness. In their opinion, Western experience was reworked and took root on Russian soil. In Western European culture there are many statements that deny any originality of Russian culture.

Conclusion

In the course of writing the essay, I fulfilled my goals and came to the conclusions outlined below.

The development of science is closely related to the spread of education. The need to know the laws of nature and increased interest in studying the country's resources were caused by economic needs.

The 18th century was significant for Russia with noticeable changes and significant achievements in the field of art. Its genre structure, content, character, and means of artistic expression have changed. And in architecture, and in sculpture, and in painting, and in graphics, Russian art entered the pan-European path of development. Back in the depths of the 17th century, in the times of Peter the Great, a process of “secularization” of Russian culture took place. In the formation and development of a secular culture of a pan-European type, it was impossible to rely on old artistic cadres, for whom new tasks were beyond their capabilities. Foreign masters invited to Russian service not only helped create new art, but also served as teachers of the Russian people. Another equally important way of receiving professional training was sending Russian craftsmen to study in Western Europe. Thus, many Russian masters received high training in France, Holland, Italy, England, and Germany.

Russian art, as we will see below, which continued to develop in the 18th century on new European principles, still remained an expressed national phenomenon with its own specific face, and this fact in itself is very significant.

However, unlike the previous period of time, the culture was greatly influenced by the nobility, and the dominance of foreigners continued.

During this period, Russian science and education continued to develop, although serfdom and autocracy greatly hindered this. Nevertheless, the tsarist government had to take some measures to spread education - this was required by the era.

In the development of education in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. Two trends are clearly visible. The first of them was manifested in a significant expansion of the network of educational institutions; the second was expressed in the strengthening of the influence of the principle of class on the organization of education.

2. Russian culture of the 18th century

Culture of Russia in the 18th century. developed under the influence of changes that occurred in the socio-economic and political life countries. The development of the economy and absolutism predetermined the development of Russian culture as a secular culture. To a large extent, this was facilitated by the fall of the spiritual dictatorship of the church, since absolutism deprived it of economic and political power and, subordinating it to its power, turned the church into part of the state apparatus. Changes that took place in the 18th century. in culture, affected primarily the culture of the ruling class - the nobility. In the 18th century in culture its class character was sharply manifested. On the one hand, the culture of the nobility and some social groups type of merchants, bureaucrats, and on the other hand, the culture of the general population, primarily the peasantry, which preserved traditional forms and elements of culture in the economic, everyday, spiritual and aesthetic (folklore), and customary legal spheres.

History of Russian culture of the 18th century. usually divided into two periods: the end of the 17th century - the first quarter of the 18th century. (formation of a new culture) and the middle - second half of the 18th century. - the development and flourishing of secular noble culture and folk culture, which was fundamentally traditional in nature.

The first stage in the development of culture bears the imprint of Peter's transformations. The formation of a secular, European culture is underway in Russia. At this time, an ideology was created that defined the educational and edifying role of art in society. The art system developed in two directions: improvement of previously found means artistic expression, as well as searching for and creating new genres. At this time, the process of development of secular education was underway, the ideology of the absolutist state was being formed, the architectural ensemble of St. Petersburg was being created, portraiture, music, and theater were developing. Knowledge is transformed into science, there is an Academy of Sciences and a university attached to it. A university is being created in Moscow, where learning is combined with development scientific research and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Baroque gives way to classicism.

At the second stage of cultural development, artistic creativity and classicism flourish in literature, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Petersburgskaya is being created composer school. Secular education is developing, which is acquiring a class character.

The creation and development of the Russian state required an increasing number of educated people. At the beginning of the 18th century. Primary schools were created in the province: priests were trained in 46 diocesan schools, minor officials were trained in 42 digital schools, and soldiers’ children were trained in garrison schools. Education became mandatory for the nobility.

In 1701, two new types of schools appeared in Moscow: Pushkarskaya (artillery) and Navigatskaya. The Navigation School trained not only maritime specialists, but also engineers, surveyors, teachers for digital schools, architects and civil officials. Since 1715, it became a preparatory class for the Maritime Academy created in St. Petersburg. A medical school was opened in Russia in 1707. Engineering, shipbuilding, navigation, mining and craft schools were created and functioned. Foreign languages ​​were taught at Pastor Gluck's gymnasium. Sending young nobles abroad was of great importance for the training of specialists.

The development of secular education raised the question of creating new textbooks. In 1701, Polikarpov's primer was published. In 1703, a textbook on arithmetic by L. F. Magnitsky appeared. Instead of alphabetic numbers, Arabic numbers were introduced. Magnitsky and Farvarson prepared for publication a table of logarithms by A. Vlakka. In 1708, a civil script was introduced. Printing houses were created in cities to print textbooks, scientific publications, and legislative acts. In 1722, a manual on mechanics by Skornyakov-Pisarev was published. In total, 610 book titles were published during the reign of Peter I. The development of printing contributed to the development of bookselling and librarianship. In 1714, the first public library was opened in St. Petersburg, which became the basis for the library of the Academy of Sciences.

Since 1731, closed noble educational institutions began to be created, in particular the Land Noble Cadet Corps, a military educational institution for nobles. The corps trained officers for the army and officials to work in civilian departments. There they studied both military disciplines, geography, jurisprudence, and foreign languages. In 1752, the Naval Corps was created. Later, the Artillery and Engineer Corps were created. In 1759, the Corps of Pages was opened. The government provided special protection to these corps.

In the second half of the 18th century. The efforts of the autocracy were aimed at creating a “new breed of people.” The conductor of this policy was the talented teacher I. I. Betskoy. He developed " General establishment about the education of both sexes of youth." It was approved by the empress. The “new breed of people” had to be raised isolated from family and society from the age of 5 or 6 in closed class boarding-type educational institutions. In them, students had to receive a certain amount of knowledge required of a representative of a particular class, clearly understand their rights and responsibilities according to class, and most importantly, they had to be “disgusted from all kinds of insolence.” This was achieved by trying to “instill the fear of God in youth.” Isolated from family and society until the age of 18-20, students of these educational institutions prepared for classes that corresponded to their class affiliation. An officer or civil service awaited the nobleman. The “new man,” trained in an orphanage, was required to engage in crafts and other activities prescribed by his class. In education and upbringing he differed from the nobles.

In 1764 and 1770 According to Betsky’s project, educational homes for foundlings and “unfortunately born” babies were created in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1764, the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg was opened for young noblewomen. In 1765, a department for bourgeois girls was created there. In 1772, a commercial school was opened for the children of merchants and townspeople, the so-called Demidov Lyceum. In 1779, the Catherine Institute was opened for girls from families of bourgeois and merchants. The cadet corps were transformed.

In 1744, digital schools were merged with garrison schools and began to be called literacy schools. In the second half of the 18th century. spiritual education could be obtained in diocesan schools, theological seminaries and academies.

In 1782–1786 In Russia, a school reform was carried out, which marked the beginning of the creation secondary school with unified curricula and unified teaching methods. In the country, main public schools were created in the provinces, and small public schools in the districts. In small schools, which provided basic knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, penmanship and catechism, students studied for two years. The main schools provided four-year education. Primary subjects were taught there, as well as Russian language, arithmetic, history, geography, natural science, architecture, physics and mechanics. At the end of the 18th century. 400 public schools were created.

In addition to public schools, private individuals, on their own initiative, created schools for poor children and orphans in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tver, Tula and other cities. In 1779, on the initiative of N.I. Novikov, the first pedagogical educational institution was opened at Moscow University - a teachers' seminary. At the end of the 18th century. There were three medical schools in Russia. In addition to them, medical education was given at the Medical-Surgical Academy and at the Faculty of Medicine of Moscow University.

In the 18th century University education is beginning to develop in Russia. In 1724, Peter I signed a decree on the creation of the Academy of Sciences. Its structure included a gymnasium and a university. The academic university was supposed to train future scientists, and classes there were supposed to be taught by members of the Academy. However, the academic gymnasium and university until 1758, when the leadership of the educational and scientific part of the Academy was entrusted to M.V. Lomonosov, eked out a rather miserable existence due to insufficient material resources, organizational confusion, and unsuccessful selection of teachers. M.V. Lomonosov managed to raise teaching to a higher level, and began teaching in Russian. The teachers included the best students of the university. However, the academic university was far from becoming a citadel of education and science in Russia.

In the 50s, M.V. Lomonosov focused his efforts on organizing a university in Moscow, which was to become a center of education and science. In 1755, with the assistance of the most prominent Elizabethan nobleman I. I. Shuvalov, Moscow University was opened. He also became its first curator. But the main idea of ​​creating and organizing the university belonged to M.V. Lomonosov. He developed a project for its organization. Moscow University was unclassified secular educational institution. Unlike Western European universities, it did not have a faculty of theology, and teaching was conducted in Russian, not Latin. Moscow University had three faculties: philosophy with departments of literature and physics and mathematics, law and medicine. To train student personnel, a gymnasium with two departments was created at the university - for nobles and commoners.

From its very foundation, Moscow University has become a center of education, science and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Public lectures were given here and scientific debates were held, and scientific and educational literature was widely published. In the second half of the 18th century. Moscow University became the largest center of science and education in Russia, where outstanding professors N.N. Popovsky, A.A. Barsov, D.S. Anichkov, S.E. Desnitsky and others worked.

The creation of the Academy of Arts in 1757, which grew out of the art classes of the university gymnasium, is associated with Moscow University. The student theater of Moscow University laid the foundation for professional theater in Moscow. In 1756, the Moscow University began publishing the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti, and then magazines. In the 70s the first literary society arose. Moscow University also became the center for the development of national culture.

The opening of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1725 became an important stage in the development of Russian science in the 18th century. In the Peter the Great era, the development of science and technology was determined by the practical needs of the state. Therefore, great successes have been achieved in the search for minerals, the study of subsoil, and cartography. Expeditions were made to Siberia and the Far East, Central Asia by V. Atlasov, I. Evreinov, D. G. Messerschmidt, I. Unkovsky and others. Maps of Kamchatka were compiled. S. Remezov at the turn of the 17th–18th centuries. began to compile the “Drawing Book of Siberia.” This work was continued by I.K. Kirillov, who began to compile the “Atlas of the All-Russian Empire”. Its first volume was published in 1732. In January 1725, Peter I signed a decree sending the Kamchatka naval expedition of V. I. Bering and A. L. Chirikov, which lasted from 1725 to 1730.

Great strides have been made in the field of mechanics, the creation of machine tools and mechanisms. Such names as M.V. Sidorov, Y. Batishchev, A. Nartov, I.I. Serdyukov are known in this area. In Peter's time, the beginning of collecting scientific collections was laid. In 1719, the Kunstkamera was opened for public viewing, the collection of “rarities” of which served as the basis for the collections of future museums: the Hermitage, the Naval, and the Artillery.

In 1720, Peter I issued a decree on collecting ancient manuscripts, chronographs, chroniclers and degree books from monasteries. Historical works by F. Polikarpov, “The Book of Mars”, “Discourses on the Causes of the Suean War” by P. P. Shafirov, “The Core of Russian History” by A. I. Mankiev and others began to be created.

The Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg was inaugurated on December 27, 1725. Within two decades, it took a prominent place among other academies in the world. At this time, prominent scientists worked in it: mathematicians L. Euler, D. Vernoul, astronomer J. Delisle, physicists G. Richman, F. Epinus. In 1745, M. V. Lomonosov, a truly outstanding figure in Russian science, became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy. He formulated atomic and molecular ideas about the structure of matter, the conservation of matter and motion, thoughts about the kinetic nature of heat, conducted studies of atmospheric electricity, put forward a theory of color formation, and ideas about changes in time of the earth's surface. In the natural sciences, Lomonosov was an innovator, in many ways boldly refuting the opinions of the authorities recognized in his time. Working on the corpuscular theory, he opposed the idealistic constructions of Leibniz and Wolf, and having discovered the law of conservation of matter and motion, he declared that “the famous Robert Boyle’s opinion is false.” The number of such examples can be multiplied.

In the field of natural sciences, Lomonosov's work was distinguished by its novelty, depth of research, and consistency in the implementation of materialist principles. Lomonosov's materialistic ideas and theories, significant not only for Russia, but also for Western Europe, allowed him to achieve outstanding success in solving the most important scientific problems.

Lomonosov's scientific work contributed to the development of metallurgy and mining, manufacturing, national defense, navigation, and agriculture. Another thing is that under the conditions of the dominance of serfdom, his discoveries did not find proper application, and were often simply hushed up.

With his works in the field of poetry and the Russian language, Lomonosov rendered a “service to the Fatherland.” Creating a new versification, he did not abandon that truly poetic that was in the fiction of ancient and medieval Rus'. Indeed, in spiritual poetry he chose universal, emotional and psychological motives and used them in his poems. Lomonosov created a new literary language by synthesizing the living Russian and book Church Slavonic languages, understanding them as stylistic categories of a common literary language.

Lomonosov also used the experience of ancient authors (Horace, Virgil) and German poets. Using domestic and foreign experience in versification, he created a truly national form of verse that corresponds to the “blessings of our language.” Lomonosov preferred formal attire. The ideological essence of his poetry was the pathos of the formation of the Russian nation, the struggle for Russian culture, and the main theme was the theme of Russia. Lomonosov's work is characterized by a state-civil orientation. His odes, as a rule, posed high state problems, and they were written in a solemn oratorical style.

M.V. Lomonosov did a lot for the development of the Russian language. The scientist created a grammar that brought him universal fame. Lomonosov talked about the relationship between language, the material world and human consciousness, about the role and place of the human word in the life of society. These considerations certainly gave his grammar great scientific value. Lomonosov wrote only one part of it, without having time to create the second - syntax. In Rhetoric he developed a theory of literary prose and versification. “Russian Grammar” and “Rhetoric” by Lomonosov were of great importance, as they opened “paths to knowledge to the common mind,” that is, they contributed to facilitating communication between Russian people, the development and dissemination of education, science, and culture.

Many prominent scientists came out of the Academy. The first places among them are rightfully occupied by many of M. V. Lomonosov’s students: mathematician and astronomer S. Ya. Rumovsky, founder of the Russian mineralogical school V. M. Severgin, naturalist and ethnographer I. I. Lepekhin, philosopher N. N. Popovsky and etc.

The priority direction in the work of the Academy was the study of the geography and nature of the country. Here we should note the works of botanist S. G. Gmelin (“Flora of Siberia”), naturalist SP. Krasheninnikov (“Description of the Land of Kamchatka”), documentary materials on Siberia by historian G. F. Miller (“Miller’s Portfolios”).

The second Kamchatka expedition led by Vitus Bering (1733–1743) turned out to be rich in discoveries. During it, the shores of northwestern America were discovered, the Strait named after Bering was discovered, and the northern shores of Siberia were described. On contour map The Kuril Islands and Northern Japan were hit.

In the middle and second half of the 18th century. historical knowledge is transformed into science, and a number of major historical works are created, which are based on rationalist philosophy and criticism of historical sources. This was largely facilitated by “Russian History” (4 parts) by V.N. Tatishchev, where he brought the presentation of Russian history to the end of the 16th century. In the second half of the 18th century. history was fruitfully studied by M.V. Lomonosov, who, in contrast to the Normanist constructions of G. Miller and Z. Bayer, in his “Ancient Russian History...” wrote about the autochthonous origin of the Slavs, the southern Slavic origin of the ethnonym Rus. M. M. Shcherbatov created the “Russian History from Ancient Times”, which was updated to 1613, and contained many inaccuracies of a chronological and geographical nature.

Major General I. N. Boltin wrote “Notes on the history of ancient and modern Russia by G. Leclerc.” Leclerc, a French physician, lived in Russia for ten years, and upon returning to his homeland, he wrote an essay in which he criticized the autocratic-serfdom reality of Russia from an educational standpoint. His work contained many fabrications and attacks against Russia and the Russian people, stemming from ignorance of the country’s history. Boltin subjected Leclerc’s work to a detailed analysis “in order to convict and shame its impudent author.”

The dissemination of historical knowledge was facilitated by the publication of documents and historical works. N.I. Novikov, who published “Ancient Russian Vivliofika,” played a huge role in this. Its second edition contained 20 volumes, where various historical sources were published. The development of historical local history began in the works of V.V. Krestinin and P.I. Rychkov.

Medicine (works on the plague by D.S. Samoilovich) and agronomy developed successfully in Russia. The works of A. T. Bolotov made a great contribution to its development.

Second half of the 18th century. marked by great successes in the development of technology. The self-taught mechanic I. P. Kulibin improved the grinding of glass for optical instruments, invented the “mirror lantern” - a prototype of a searchlight, a semaphore telegraph, an elevator, a new clock mechanism and a 298 m long span of a single-arch bridge across the Neva. I. I. Polzunov created the project steam engine and in 1765 built the first steam power plant for factory needs. It was used for two months and then abandoned. All these and other inventions were not widely used in Russia, where serfdom dominated, dooming the industry to maintain technical and economic backwardness due to the cheapness of serf labor.

Princess E.R. Dashkova, who was appointed director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1783, played a huge role in organizing scientific research work. She held this post for twelve years. During this time, the economy of the academy and its educational institutions were put in order, and publishing activities became more active. Two periodicals were created - the literary, artistic and historical magazine “Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word” and “New Monthly Works”, which popularized scientific knowledge. In the same 1783, E. R. Dashkova headed the Russian Academy, which became the center for the study of the Russian language, streamlining its grammar, style and pronunciation. A 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” was prepared, which contained an explanation of 43 thousand words of the Russian language.

The 18th century was marked by the rapid development of socio-political thought. Representatives of social thought of the first half of the century V. Tatishchev, D. Kantemir, I. Pososhkov, F. Prokopovich were irreconcilable with obscurantism, inertia, patriarchalism, advocated the widespread dissemination of science and education, the comprehensive development of industry and trade, opposed everything that interfered with the development of Russia and the formation of an absolutist state. They firmly believed that Russia’s progress was the result of the activities of an autocratic monarch, and therefore they proved “how monarchical rule It’s more useful for our state than others.”

In the second half of the 18th century. In the socio-political thought of Russia there are two directions - conservative and educational.

Ideologists conservative direction Catherine II, M. M. Shcherbatov, N. I. Panin, M. M. Kheraskov, A. P. Sumarokov and others recognized the inviolability of autocracy and serfdom, the class division of society, spoke about the need to preserve the dominant position of the nobility, strengthen it rights and privileges. At the same time, realizing that it was necessary to change the forms of the internal policy of the autocracy, representatives of the conservative trend considered concessions to other classes possible if they did not affect the foundations of the existing system. They sought only to renovate the existing system, clearing it of despotism and “Asianism.”

Enlightenment - an anti-feudal, bourgeois ideology - arose in the 60s of the 18th century, when autocracy and serfdom became an obstacle to the progressive development of the country, when social contradictions became increasingly aggravated, when peasant uprisings reached an unprecedented scale in Russia and, along with Economic issues brought social issues to the fore, primarily the issue of the relationship between landowners and peasants. The bearers of anti-feudal, bourgeois ideas in Russia were representatives of the progressive nobility and the emerging intelligentsia of the various ranks. Economically weak, politically powerless, closely connected with the autocracy and dependent on it, the nascent Russian bourgeoisie was not and could not become the bearer of anti-feudal ideas.

The ideologists of the Russian Enlightenment, at the origins of which stood the great M.V. Lomonosov, were N.I. Novikov, D.I. Fonvizin, A.Ya. Polenov, Ya.P. Kozelsky, I.A. Tretyakov, D.S. Anichkov, P. S. Baturin, A. N. Radishchev, I. A. Krylov, Radishchevites - I. P. Pnin, I. M. Born, V. V. Popugaev, A. Kh. Vostokova, V. V. Passek, S. A. Tuchkov.

In the development of enlightenment in the second half of the 18th century. Two stages can be distinguished. In the 60–70s, the country was not yet ripe for bourgeois reforms, there was no broad social movement, and the talk was about limiting, mitigating, and eliminating only the most blatant manifestations of serfdom. Enlightenmentists sharply criticized various aspects of the feudal-serf system and pinned their hopes on the omnipotence of education and the activities of an enlightened monarch. But this criticism prepared the ideological negation of the entire feudal system already in the 80s and 90s. These years were marked for Russia by a further deepening of the decomposition of the feudal-serf system and an aggravation of social contradictions. The feudal system was shaken by revolutions in America and France. And it was during this period that Radishchev developed an integral political ideal of enlightenment based on an analysis of the entire social system of Russia at that time. In the 80–90s, in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” he put forward the idea of ​​a popular revolution as a means of destroying the autocracy.

But at the end of the 18th century. The revolutionary path of struggle against absolutism was rejected by the enlighteners. The peasant war led by E.I. Pugachev and the revolution in France of 1789–1794 played a significant role in this. Russian society was frightened by them and regarded them as “bloody riots.” Radishchevites continued to think about the situation of the peasants, serfdom, substantiated peaceful ways of its elimination, criticized social foundations, political institutions, but without revolutionary conclusions.

In the 18th century Russian literature developed rapidly. Its heyday came in the second half of the century, when culture began to reflect the features of a rising nation. In the first quarter of the century, literature primarily served as a means of promoting government activities. The main content of the cultural process of the middle and second half of the 18th century. was the formation of classicism, the ideological basis of which was the struggle for a powerful national statehood under the auspices of autocratic power.

Russian classicism as a literary movement was characterized by the pathos of citizenship, strong educational tendencies, a sharp accusatory current, and defense of the idea of ​​​​the inseparability of the interests of the nobility and the monarchy.

In the second half of the 18th century. a new one was created fiction With developed system genres: ode, fable, elegy, tragedy, comedy, story, novel. A famous writer was A.P. Sumarokov (9 tragedies, including “Khorev”, “Dmitry the Pretender”, and 12 comedies). They left their mark on theatrical dramaturgy by Ya. B. Knyazhnin (the dramatic work “Vadim Novgorodsky”, the libretto for the operas “The Misfortune of the Coach”, the drama “Arfey”) and V. A. Kapnist (the comedies “The Snitch”, “Ode to Slavery”) . G. R. Derzhavin wrote poems and odes (“Nobleman”, “Felitsa”, “At the Capture of Izmail”, “At the Capture of Warsaw”, “Waterfall”, “Desire”). A. N. Radishchev’s talent was revealed in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” and the ode “Liberty.”

In Russian literature of the second half of the 18th century. The artistic-realistic direction begins to take shape. Here, D.I. Fonvizin, the author of the comedies “The Brigadier” and “The Minor,” left a major mark, although in form they were similar to the works of classicism.

“The Brigadier” was written in 1769, when memories of the debates in the Legislative Commission were still fresh, where the nobles, defending their rights and privileges, referred to their noble origin and services to the Fatherland. Fonvizin in his comedy showed what the “noble” Russian nobility was like. He ridiculed typical Russian reality. True, seeing the main cause of Russia’s misfortunes in improper education, Fonvizin did not yet connect it at that time with the existing autocratic system.

The playwright did this in the comedy “The Minor,” written in 1782. This work poses three problems: serfdom, the education of a nobleman faithful to his official duty, and the form of power. For Fonvizin they are inextricably linked. Exposing the tyranny of the landowners in the images of Prostakova and Skotinin, he showed that serfdom corrupts and disfigures the landowners, turns them into ignorant people who think only about personal gain, who have forgotten about honor and duty to the Fatherland. Serfdom has a destructive effect on peasants, making them slaves not only by position, but also by consciousness (Eremeevna). The environment of ignoramuses, bigots, parasites gives birth to their own kind.

In “The Minor,” Fonvizin ridiculed the methods of education that existed in most estates of provincial nobles. Poorly educated, ignorant people were invited to become home teachers. Ignorant of science, uncultured parents, in order to keep up with fashion, hired foreigners who had never been involved in education before. And there were a great many such teachers. In the words of Prostakova, Fonvizin expressed the true attitude of many provincial nobles towards education. “People live and have lived without science,” she tells Starodum. “The late father was a commander for fifteen years, and at the same time he deigned to die because he did not know how to read and write, but he knew how to make and save enough wealth.” Here main value for a nobleman, and “learning is nonsense.”

Fonvizin not only laughs at Mitrofan’s knowledge and his reluctance to learn, but also indignantly shows his essence - the essence of a serf owner, ready to “take on people”, ready for any betrayal for his own benefit. “These are the fruits worthy of evil,” exclaims Starodum, looking at Mitrofan.

The result of the aggravation of social contradictions in the country was the crisis of classicism, which began in the 70s of the 18th century. At the end of the century, a style of sentimentalism began to develop, marked by an emotional perception of the surrounding world and an increased interest in human feelings. The flourishing of sentimentalism is associated with the work of N. M. Karamzin (“Poor Liza”).

In the 18th century architecture developed powerfully. In Peter's time, new principles of architecture found their full embodiment in the construction of St. Petersburg. This is, first of all, a preliminary plan for the development of the city, the development of a special style of regular planning, urban ensembles with a system of streets, blocks, and squares. In 1703, the so-called Office of Buildings was created. In 1714, Peter I banned stone construction throughout the country, except for St. Petersburg, so that all craftsmen, left without work, would flock to the capital and finish it faster.

At first, St. Petersburg was built only by foreign masters, but in the 20s, Russian architects also began to be involved. The plan for the regular development of the city was developed by the French architect Jean Baptiste Leblond. The Italian architect D. Trezzini made a special contribution to the construction of the city: he built the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Kunstkamera, the building of the Twelve Colleges, and the Summer Palace of Peter. Russian master M. G. Zemtsov created the ensemble of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, M. O. Anichkov created the palace on the Fontanka (Anichkov Palace), I. K. Korobov built the Admiralty, P. M. Eropkin created a project for the development of the Admiralty Island between the Neva and Moika and developments in the New Holland area.

Moscow architecture was associated with the names of architects M. I. Choglokov and N. P. Zarudny. Choglokov built the Sretensky Gate of the Zemlyanoy City, the Sukharev Tower, the Mint and the building of the Main Pharmacy. Zarudny built the Menshikov Tower.

In the 40–50s of the 18th century. Baroque (translated from Italian as “pretentious”) became the dominant style. Baroque buildings are characterized by monumentality, which was combined with pomp, brilliance, and splendor, which was achieved by the curved lines of the facade, an abundance of columns, decorative moldings, and sculptures. Its prominent representative was Bartolomeo Francesco (Bartholomew Varfolomeevich) Rastrelli. He built the Biron Palace in Mitau, the Great Palace of Peterhof, the Winter Palace, the Great Palace in Tsarskoe Selo and the Smolny Monastery. In Moscow, the master of baroque was D.V. Ukhtomsky (bell tower of the Novodevichy Convent and the Red Gate).

In the 60s, Baroque was replaced by classicism. It was characterized by clarity and clarity of forms, their simplicity, but at the same time, classical buildings were monumental, asserting the power and strength of the noble state. Classicism turned to the architectural models of Ancient Greece and Rome, relying on symmetry in the layout, clarity of vertical and horizontal lines, and highlighting the main parts of the building. Architects such as A.F. Kokorinov (Academy of Arts), Jean-Baptiste Vaen-Delamot (Small Hermitage and Chernyshov Palace on the Moika), A. Rinaldi (Marble Palace), G. Quarenghi (Academy of Sciences, Alexander Palace) worked in St. Petersburg in Tsarskoe Selo, Yusupov Palace on the Fontanka), Scotsman C. Cameron (Pavlovsky Palace, Cameron Gallery in Tsarskoe Selo), N. A. Lvov (Main Post Office, Priory Palace in Gatchina), I. E. Starov (Trinity Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky laurels and Tauride Palace).

In Moscow, outstanding masters of classicism were V.I. Bazhenov and M.?. Kazakov. Bazhenov is the founder of classicism in Russia. He was an innovator in architecture, thinking of a building in connection with its surrounding landscape and urban environment. Kazakov was distinguished by his ability to rationally place the building. The main building was located in the depths of the courtyard, and gate arches, outbuildings, and openwork fences overlooked the street. In the external appearance of buildings, Kazakov strived for simplicity and conciseness of forms. Smooth walls were complemented by clearly graphically detailed details. M. F. Kazakov built the Petrovsky Palace in Lefortovo, the Senate in the Kremlin, the University, which was rebuilt by D. Gilardi in 1812 after a fire, the Golitsyn hospital, the house of the Dolgoruky princes, the Column Hall of the House of Unions. Bazhenov's outstanding works were the Pashkov house and the Tsaritsyno estate.

In painting already in the first half of the 18th century. Two genres emerged: portrait and engraving. The masters of portraiture were A. M. Matveev (self-portrait with his wife) and I. N. Nikitin (paintings “Peter I on his deathbed”, “Floor Hetman”, portrait of Chancellor G. I. Golovkin). The engraving was associated with the work of A.F. Zubov (panorama of St. Petersburg) and A.N. Rostovtsev (cycle of engravings about the Northern War). In portraiture, Matveev and Nikitin laid down its main feature, characteristic of Russian portraits of the 18th century - attention to the inner world of the heroes, their individuality, wealth inner world person.

In the second half of the 18th century. There are three genres in painting - historical, everyday, portrait (front, pair, chamber portraits).

Historical and mythological genre represented by the works of A. P. Losenko (“A wonderful catch of fish”, “Vladimir and Rogneda”, “Farewell of Hector to Andromache”, “Abraham sacrifices his son Isaac”) and G. I. Ugryumov (“Test of the strength of Jan Usmar” , “The Capture of Kazan”, “The Calling of Mikhail Fedorovich to the Tsar”). All of them are made in the style of classicism. The paintings of classic artists are characterized by the abstract nature of the images, the conventionality of color, and the imitation of the poses of ancient models.

In the everyday genre, works by M. Shibanov (“Peasant Lunch,” “Conspiracy”) and watercolors by I. A. Ermenev (“The Singing Blind,” “Beggars”) stand out. M. Shibanov - serf artist of Prince G. A. Potemkin. He painted pictures from peasant life, the conditions of which he knew well. The film “Peasant Lunch” shows an episode in the life of a peasant family: tired faces, tired hands, meager food. “Conspiracy” depicts the festive side of peasant life. The bride and groom and everyone present are dressed smartly. Faces glow with joy in anticipation of the upcoming celebration.

A. P. Antropov ("Ataman Red-cheeked", portrait of A. M. Izmailova), I. P. Argunov - a serf of Count Sheremetev (self-portrait, a paired female portrait, "Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume"), F. S. Rokotov (“Unknown in a cocked hat”, “Unknown in a pink dress”, portrait of A. P. Struyskaya), D. G. Levitsky (portrait of A. F. Kokorinov, portrait of D. Diderot, cycle of female portraits “Smolyanka” – graduates of the Smolny Institute), V. A. Borovikovsky (“Portrait of Lizinka and Dashinka”, portrait of Catherine II, portrait of M. I. Lopukhina). Antropov worked in the old manner, his portraits were somewhat reminiscent of parsuna. Argunov was close to him in his style of painting. Rokotov was distinguished by his filigree technique. Levitsky in his portraits expressed the versatility of human nature, while Borovikovsky more strongly revealed its intimate sides.

The process of secularization of art gave impetus to the development of sculpture. They became part of gardening ensembles and triumphal arches. Interest in human personality determined the creation of sculptural portraits, the first of which appeared in the 40s. A famous sculptor from the Baroque masters was Bartolomeo Rastrelli. He owns a bronze bust, as well as equestrian statue Peter I, sculpture of Empress Anna Ioannovna with a little black arap.

In the development of portraiture in the second half of the 18th century. two trends emerged: an increase in the artistic level and a deepening realistic image. This was also typical for sculpture. At this time, sculpture appears in three forms: relief, statue and portrait bust. Particularly famous was F. I. Shubin, a fellow countryman of M. V. Lomonosov, who created portraits of A. M. Golitsyn, P. A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky and M. V. Lomonosov, and the statue “Catherine the Legislator”. M.I. Kozlovsky glorified himself with the sculptures “Sleeping Cupid”, “Polycrates”, “Samson tearing apart the mouth of a lion”, and the monument to Suvorov on the Champs of Mars. E. Falcone created a monument to Peter I, known as the “Bronze Horseman”, in the style of classicism.

In the music of the first half of the 18th century. French and Italian court operas are spreading. In 1738, the first ballet school was opened in St. Petersburg. In the 40–50s, the development of Russian opera began. E. N. Fomin created the opera “The Miller-Sorcerer, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker”, “Coachmen on a Stand”, M. Metinsky wrote the opera “St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor”.

In the 70s, chamber music appeared. A. N. Verstovsky was the author of the opera “Askold’s Grave”, the concert “Do not reject me in the name of joy”, I. E. Khandoshkin created a number of violin concertos, D. S. Bortnyansky created the operas “The Feast of the Senor” and “The Falcon” and was author of concerts for church choirs, cantatas and oratorios based on poems by G. R. Derzhavin, M. M. Kheraskov, which are still performed today.

The first Russian professional theater was created by royal decree in 1756 on the basis of the theater that arose in Yaroslavl in 1750 on the initiative of the merchant F. G. Volkov. In the second half of the century, amateur theaters at Moscow University, the Academy of Arts, the Gentry Corps and the Moscow Orphanage became widespread. In 1765 there was an attempt to create a free public theater for the people, where amateur actors would perform.

In the 70s, private professional theaters emerged. Operated from 1759 to 1779 Russian theater. In 1783, the Stone Theater was opened in Moscow, and subsequently the Maly Theater was created on its basis under the direction of Nikolai Knipper. Serf theaters on estates became widespread. In Moscow alone there were 18 of them. The most famous were the Sheremetev Theater in Ostankino, where the serf actress P. Kovaleva-Zhemchugova shone, and the Yusupov Theater in Arkhangelsk, where the ballerina T. Shlykova-Granatova performed.

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In the second half of the 18th century. National culture continues to develop in Russia.

The culture was greatly influenced by the nobility, and the dominance of foreigners continued. Russian science and education continued to develop, although serfdom and autocracy greatly hindered this.

In the development of education in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. Two trends are clearly visible:

· significant expansion of the network of educational institutions;

· strengthening the influence of the principle of class on the organization of education.

Literature in the second half of the 18th century it remained predominantly aristocratic. Oral works of folk poetry, as well as various stories that were part of handwritten books, were widespread among the peasantry. The life of the serfs was reflected in the “Lament of the Serfs,” which appeared among the serfs in 1767-1768. those. on the eve of the peasant war. The essay describes the lack of rights of the serf peasant, the mockery of the master over him; complaints about an unfair trial end with a threat to “knock out the evil gentlemen.” Many satirical stories appear, parodying the royal court, military service, and red tape in government agencies. Directions of literature 2nd half. 18th century:

· classicism (A.P. Sumarokov)

· realism (D.I. Fonvizin)

· sentimentalism (N.M. Karamzin)

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich wrote, in addition to many lyrical and satirical poems, 9 tragedies and 12 comedies. He is recognized as the creator of the Russian theater repertoire. Sumarokov, in his ideological and political views, belonged to the conservative camp. He considered the nobility to be the superior class in the state, opposed church superstition and the domostroevsky way of life family life, was a supporter of women's education. The heroes of his comedies are either virtuous, and he sympathizes with them, or repulsively ugly. This is how the hero of the tragedy “Dmitry the Impostor” was drawn. Sumarokov’s comedies, like tragedies, performed educational functions; they were aimed at correcting morals and eliminating human vices (“Guardian”, “The Covetous Man”, “Cuckold by Imagination”, etc.).

Fonvizin Denis Ivanovich- author of the comedies “The Brigadier” and the immortal “Undergrowth”. The comedies are outwardly similar to the works of classicism: they have 5 acts, the unity of time and place is observed. The names of the characters meet the requirements of classicism: their surnames contain their characteristics. However, the content of the comedies deviates from the canons of classicism: they depict not abstract characters endowed with either vices or virtues, but living people, artistically generalized characters generated by feudal reality. “Nedorosl” presents a gallery of characters brought up in conditions of serfdom. The problem of education, which was leading in the system of views of the enlighteners, also worried Fonvizin, who believed that the root of evil was in education.

Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich. Adherents of sentimentalism show the feelings of an ordinary person, sometimes not standing out in any way. IN psychological novels In their stories, sentimentalists depict intimate life and family life. In their works, the heroes escape from social reality and retire to the lap of nature. An idyllic picture of rural life is characteristic: the master shows fatherly care for the peasants, and they repay him with respect and obedience. Thus, the social contradictions of the era and the slavish position of the serf peasant were obscured. The largest representative of this trend was N.M. Karamzin, and his most significant work is “Poor Liza.” The story is based on a sentimental fiction about the relationship between the poor serf girl Liza and the young officer Erast. The idyllic relationship ends in tragedy: the seduced Lisa commits suicide.

Art. The 18th century was significant for Russia with noticeable changes and significant achievements in the field of art. Its genre structure, content, character, and means of artistic expression have changed. Russian art entered the pan-European path of development:

· foreign masters were invited who helped create new art and were teachers of the Russian people.

· obtaining professional training by sending Russian masters to study in Western Europe (France, Holland, Italy, England, Germany)

At this stage, Russian art came into close contact with Western European stylistic trends.
In 1757, the opening of the Academy of Three Noble Arts took place in St. Petersburg. Already in 1758, through the efforts of M.V. Lomonosov and I.I. Shuvalov (president of the Academy 1757–1763), a group of Moscow and St. Petersburg youths inclined towards the arts arrived here. Foreign teachers also taught at the Academy: the sculptor N. Gillet, the painters S. Torelli, F. Fontebasso and others. In 1764, the Academy of Three Noble Arts was transformed into the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts. At this time, the Academy became both a trendsetter of artistic ideas and an educational institution. A new generation of artists grew up in its midst, who later glorified Russia throughout the world, including architects I. Starov, V. Bazhenov, sculptors F. Shubin, F. Gordeev, artists A. Losenko, D. Levitsky.

Russian painting developed throughout the 18th century in close contact with the art of Western European schools, joining the common heritage - works of art of the Renaissance and Baroque. Painting is distinguished by significant diversity and completeness. The Russian school is mastering genres of painting that were previously represented only by works of old and modern Western European masters. The greatest achievements are associated with the art of portraiture.

F. S. Rokotov(1735-1808). Already at a fairly mature age, he was accepted into the Academy of Arts. His early works - portraits of G. G. Orlov (1762-1763), E. B. Yusupova (1756-1761) testify to his involvement in the Rococo culture. Signs of this style are also present in the coronation portrait of Catherine II (1763), which became a model for the depiction of a very demanding empress. During the eighties of the eighteenth century, a shade of proud consciousness of one’s own importance predominated in Rokotov’s portraits (portrait of General V. E. Novosiltseva (1780), noble lady E. N. Orlova).

D. G. Levitsky(1735-1822). The son of a priest, Levitsky, was born in Ukraine. He is distinguished by his ability to convey external resemblance models in combination with her psychologically. For about 20 years, Levitsky headed the portrait class at the Academy of Arts and not only participated in the education of an entire school of Russian portrait painters, but set the tone and level of the high reputation of portrait art in Russia. He was equally good at chamber portraits and full-length ceremonial images (Demidov (1773), Ursula Mniszech (1782)).

V. L. Borovikovsky(1757-1825). Borovikovsky comes from Ukraine. Born into a Cossack family. He started as a church icon painter. Quite quickly it becomes popular among the St. Petersburg nobility. The artist portraits entire family “clans” - the Lopukhins, Tolstoys, Arsenyevs, Gagarins, Bezborodkos. Chamber portraits occupy a predominant place. The artist's canvases are very elegant. Heroes are usually inactive, most models are intoxicated with their own sensitivity. This is expressed by the portrait of M.I. Lopukhina (1797), Skobeeva (mid-1790s). The artist pays great attention to small-format miniature portraits, which he has achieved very well.

Conclusion: throughout the entire 18th century, the Russian art of painting has come a long way in its formation according to the laws of modern times. The needs of the era were reflected in the predominant development of secular painting - portrait, landscape, historical and everyday genres.

Sculpture. In the 18th century, a noticeable stylistic change in the development of Russian plastic art was brought about by the new aesthetics of classicism of the Enlightenment. An important role was played by the invited French sculptor N. Gillet, who for a long time headed the sculpture class of the Academy. All leading Russian sculptors of the second century attended N. Gillet’s school, which laid the foundations of classical sculpture in Russia. half of the 18th century who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts: F. Gordeev, M. Kozlovsky, I. Prokofiev, F. Shchedrin, F. Shubin, I. Martos.

Ivan Martos(1752-1835). He creates completely classical works, noticeably different in the purity and clarity of their form from the works of other masters. Martos is a master of a wide range, addressing a variety of subjects. He left a noticeable mark on the development of the theme of the classical tombstone and city monument. (Monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow).

Ivan Prokofiev (1758-1828). Prokofiev has a sentimentalist streak that gives a special softness and lyricism to his images. The best of his legacy are the reliefs created for the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, in which he achieves exceptional perfection of form in the expression of majestic silence, in harmony with the classical structure of the interior.

Fedot Shubin(1740-1805). The brilliant flowering of his talent began at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He becomes an unrivaled master of sculptural portraiture, completing many commissioned portraits and busts (A. M. Golitsyn, Z. P. Chernyshev). By the end of the 18th century, new forms of figurative expression were emerging in the form of sentimentalist and then romantic sentiments (P.V. Zavadovsky and A.A. Bezborodko (1798)). At the same time, another trend is noticeable in the artist’s later works - the specification of the portrait image is increasing, and the features of rigor and simplicity are increasing in the style.

Architecture. In a country that has belatedly entered the pan-European path of development, the development of Western European styles inevitably proceeds at an accelerated pace. The essence of the transitional time was expressed by a state of multi-style, when Russian art, figuratively speaking, “tried itself on” to different European styles, without yet making a final choice, combining the features of Baroque, Classicism and Rococo.

St. Petersburg became the epicenter of advanced trends in urban planning. The future capital was built from scratch, which greatly facilitated the introduction of regular planning and development techniques.

Rastrelli Francesco Bartolomeo (1700-1771), the son of an Italian sculptor who served at the court of the French king Louis XIV, but gained architectural and construction experience in Russia; being a gifted artist, he managed to prove himself as a skilled architect and took the highest position of “chief architect” in the architectural world of Russia. His work reached its apogee in 1740-1750. His most famous creations are the ensemble of the Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg (1748-1764), created in the traditions of Russian monastic ensembles of previous centuries, and the palaces of the Elizabethan nobles M.I. Vorontsov and S. . G. Stroganov in St. Petersburg, but his talent was manifested to the highest degree in the creation of such masterpieces as the Winter Palace (1754-1762) in the capital, the Grand Palace in Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof (Petrodvorets). All of them characterize the Baroque style of the mid-18th century.

Antonio Rinaldi(1710-1794). In his early buildings he was still influenced by the “aging and passing” Baroque, but Rinaldi is a representative of early classicism. His creations include: the Chinese Palace (1762-1768), the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg (1768-1785), the Palace in Gatchina (1766-1781). Rinaldi also built several Orthodox churches, which combined Baroque elements - five-domed domes and a high multi-tiered bell tower.

Kokorinov A. F.. (1726-1822). Among his famous works, where the style of classicism was most clearly manifested, is the building of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, built on the Nevskaya embankment of Vasilievsky Island (1764-1788). The unusually beautiful facade and multifunctional offices and halls of this building corresponded to the ever-increasing prestige of Russian art.

Conclusion: The 18th century became a time favorable to the development of Russian culture, defining its two main lines: professional, oriented towards the pan-European path, and local, continuing to develop the traditions of folk art.

Theater. Fyodor Grigorievich Volkov (1729-1763), who is called the “father of the Russian theater.” Volkov was born into a poor merchant family in the city of Kostroma. Then he settled in Yaroslavl, where he launched his remarkable activities. In 1750 Volkov founded a public theater in Yaroslavl. The fame of this theater reached the capital, the artists were summoned to St. Petersburg. The artists experienced many ordeals until, finally, the government issued a decree on the establishment in 1756 in St. Petersburg of a “Russian theater for the presentation of tragedies and comedies.” The director of the theater was first the writer Sumarokov, and then Volkov. Volkov's influence on the subsequent development of theater in Russia was enormous. Volkov occupies an honorable place in the history of Russian culture.