The last, fourth volume of the first was published full meeting works of one of the most original Russian writers of the 20th century
Text: Dmitry Shevarov/RG
Fragments of books provided by the Moskvovedenie publishing house
Boris Viktorovich Shergin. Collected works in 4 volumes.
Compiled by Yu. M. Shulman.
M., “Moscow Studies”, 2012–2016
Dvina-mati,
Father sea, blue abyss, take mine
Melancholy and sadness,
And I will go out to the sea, to the blue,
I’ll look into the wide expanse:
the father steers the ship.
Drink, father!
Calm down, human sadness.
They float over the sea
the clouds are as wide as boat sails.
The father sings about the depths of the sea,
about heavenly heights?
O song, Arkhangelsk glory!
Boris Shergin.
1910s
Every old Shergin epic begins its run with White Sea. Words fly into your face like sea spray. “Oh, you are the sea, the sea, the blue sea, // The blue sea, the salty sea!..”
Shergin’s heroes fall to the sea as if they were to their own father:
Father blue sea, breadwinner!..
Hear me, blue sea...
Boris Viktorovich Shergin was born to the sound of the sea and epic songs. He was born at the top of the short northern summer - July 16, 1893. In the metric book of the Solombala Cathedral of Arkhangelsk they wrote down in ancient script: “In this summer, 1893, on the 16th day of July, the Arkhangelsk tradesman Viktor Vasilyev Shergin and legal wife his Anna Ioanovna had a son, Boris..."
The boy's father was the chief mechanic of the Murmansk Shipping Company, a first-class shipwright and a talented amateur artist. It was from him that they passed on to Shergin and artistic taste, and golden hands. And the heart and faith come from the mother.
“In the morning I will open the window, and the eternal bright sky will look into my basement. I will also open the page of the Gospel, from here the spring of eternal life will begin to flow into my wretched soul...”
You read, and it seems that a stream of old Russian speech is simply flowing before you, word by word - like pearls being strung. Nothing special, but touching. So much so that you want to run with the book into the next room and read it out loud to your loved ones paragraph by paragraph. And then suddenly, in the middle of the page, your eyes will fill with tears, and you will want to bury yourself in a pillow and cry like a child, cry from pity and sadness, from the thought of what we have turned our native language into.
Storyteller, poet, artist, incomparable connoisseur of the Russian Word - Shergin lived in the shadows and disappeared into obscurity.
As it was said in one Pomeranian epic: “There were people who passed by, but their names and titles were forgotten...”
No, lovers of Russian antiquity knew, of course, that somewhere in Moscow, in a semi-basement room, there lived an old man - legless, half-blind, sort of like a holy fool. Sometimes they came to him and asked him to sing and tell him something from the old days. He sang and told stories, the guests marveled and left, but he remained at the low window. Passers-by and cars splashed dirt through this window, the guys hit the ball so many times while playing football...
And so far:
Shergin seems to live like a bird in his native literature, although not in the basement, but somewhere in the far corner, where readers and critics rarely look.
43 years have passed since the death of Boris Viktorovich, and only now the first collected works of the Great Pomor is being published. This unique publication is carried out by the Moskvovedenie publishing house. In it along with widely famous fairy tales and Shergin's short stories included his forgotten early works. Some fairy tales and essays are published for the first time. Boris Viktorovich’s diary, which he kept for many years, will be published in its most complete form.
The collection is illustrated with works outstanding masters illustrations - Vladimir Favorsky, Vladimir Pertsov, Anatoly Eliseev, Viktor Chizhikov, Evgeny Monin, as well as drawings by Shergin himself, preserved in the writer’s archive and never published.
Opening this publication to any page, we will be amazed at how deeply and far Shergin saw through his poor and dusty window, how much beauty was revealed to him in God’s world. Let us hope that his living word will wash our sad eyes.
“A person lying in sadness always wants to get up and cheer up. And for your heart to be merry, it is not at all necessary for everyday circumstances to suddenly change. The bright word of a kind person can cheer up..."
Writer, poet
“A person lying in sadness always wants to get up and cheer up. And for your heart to be merry, it is not at all necessary for everyday circumstances to suddenly change. A bright word can cheer you up kind person" Boris Shergin
Boris Shergin (the correct stress in his surname is on the first syllable) was born in Arkhangelsk on July 28, 1896.
Shergin's father was a hereditary sailor and shipwright, and his mother was a native of Arkhangelsk and an Old Believer.
Shergin's parents were good storytellers; his mother loved poetry. According to Boris: “Mama was a master at speaking... like pearls, the word rolled out of her mouth.” Since childhood, Shergin knew the life and culture of Pomerania well. He loved to listen to the fascinating stories of his father's friends - famous ship carpenters, captains, pilots and trappers. He was introduced to songs and fairy tales by the Trans-Ostrovsky peasant woman N.P. Bugaeva, a family friend and housekeeper of the Shergins. Boris also copied ornaments and headpieces of ancient books, learned to paint icons in the Pomeranian style, and painted utensils. Shergin later wrote: “We are the people of the White Sea, the Winter Coast. Indigenous hunters-industrialists, we beat the seal breed. In 1930, the state offered to work in collectives. They will also present an icebreaking steamship. The conditions were suitable for the people. Some went to the artel, some to the icebreaker...”
While still at school, Shergin began collecting and recording northern folk tales, epics and songs. He studied at the Arkhangelsk Men's Provincial Gymnasium, and later, in 1917, he graduated from the Stroganov Central Art and Industrial School, where he acquired the specialty of graphic artist and icon painter.
During his years of study in Moscow, Shergin himself performed as a performer of ballads of the Dvina land, illustrated lectures on folk poetry at Moscow University. In 1916, he met Academician Shakhmatov and, on his initiative, was sent by the Academy of Sciences on a business trip to the Shenkursky district of the Arkhangelsk province to study local dialects and record works of folklore.
After returning to Arkhangelsk in 1918, Shergin worked as a restoration artist, headed the artistic part of a craft workshop, contributed to the revival of northern crafts (in particular, the Kholmogory technique of bone carving), and was engaged in archaeographic work (collecting books of “ancient writing”, ancient sailing directions , notebooks of skippers, albums of poems, songbooks).
Shergin’s acquaintance with the Pinega storyteller Marya Dmitrievna Krivopolenova and the folklorists the Sokolov brothers aroused a serious interest in folklore. Shergin’s article “Dismissing Beauty” appeared in the Arkhangelsk newspaper - about Krivopolenova’s performance at the Polytechnic Museum and the impression she made on the audience.
In 1919, when the Russian North was occupied by the Americans, Shergin, mobilized for forced labor, was hit by a trolley and lost his leg and left toes. This misfortune prompted Boris Viktorovich to return his word to his engaged bride.
In 1922, Shergin moved to Moscow, where he lived poorly. In the basement in Sverchkov Lane, he wrote fairy tales, legends, and instructive stories about his Russian North. He also worked at the Institute children's reading People's Commissariat for Education, spoke about folk culture Sever, performed fairy tales and epics in front of a diverse, mainly children's, audience. Since 1934, he devoted himself entirely to professional literary work.
Shergin as a storyteller and storyteller was formed and became known earlier than Shergin the writer. His first book, “At the Arkhangelsk City, at the Ship Harbor,” published in 1924, consisted of recordings he made of six Arkhangelsk antiquities with notation of melodies sung by his mother, and included in the repertoire of Shergin’s own performances.
Adventurous, witty stories about “The Shisha of Moscow” - “a buffoon epic about pranks on the rich and powerful,” rich language, and a grotesque caricature of representatives of the social elite connected Shergin’s picaresque cycle with the poetics of folk satire. The fairy-tale “epic” about Shisha began to take shape back in the years of Ivan the Terrible, when runaway slaves were called shishas. The once widespread fairy-tale epic about Shisha has been preserved in its most complete form only in the North. Shergin collected more than a hundred tales about Shisha from the shores of the White Sea. In his adaptations, Shish is depicted as cheerful and cheerful, and the king, bar and officials as stupid and evil. Shish, in the guise of a buffoon, made fun of the rich and powerful of the world: “It was through someone else’s misfortune that Shish became so evil. Through him, the tears of a cow flowed to the wolf... Shisha has a proverb: whoever is rich is not our brother. The bars felt bitter because of Shisha.”
“Shish Moskovsky” was destined to become the most famous book writer. In 1932-33, Shergin's fairy tales performed by the author were broadcast on Moscow radio and were a huge success among listeners. After the release of Shisha Moskovsky, Shergin became a member of the Writers' Union and a delegate of the First All-Union Congress Soviet writers.
In the third book, “Arkhangelsk Novels,” published in 1936, Shergin recreated the customs of old-burgher Arkhangelsk. The author appeared before readers as a subtle psychologist and writer of everyday life. The collection's short stories, stylized in the style of popular translated "histories" of the 17th-18th centuries, are dedicated to wanderings overseas and the "cruel" love of characters from the merchant environment.
Shergin’s first three books (designed by the author himself in the “Pomeranian style”) were presented in in full folklore repertoire Arkhangelsk region. But the degree of dependence of the author on the folklore source decreases with each new book, and Shergin’s indispensable reference to the source has become nothing more than an expression of the author’s modesty.
The history of Pomerania, conveyed in Shergin’s first three books, continued in his next collection, “At the Song Rivers,” published in 1939. This collection included historical and biographical Pomeranian stories, folk rumors about the leaders of the revolution and their legendary and fairy-tale biographies. In the book “At the Song Rivers,” the North of Russia appeared before readers as a special cultural and historical region that played a significant role in the fate of the country and occupied a unique place in its culture. Shergin's subsequent "electors" expanded and refined this image.
Due to his deteriorating health since the end of November 1940, Shergin found it increasingly difficult to read and write. Shergin himself called the book “Pomorshchina-Korabelshchina”, published after the war in 1947, his “repertoire collection”: it united the works with which he performed during the war years in hospitals and military units, clubs and schools. The fate of this collection is tragic: it fell under devastating critical articles after the notorious resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”. The book “Pomorshchina-Korabelshchina” was called pseudo-folk and was accused of “smelling of church incense and oil” from its pages.
During the Leningrad case of Akhmatova-Zoshchenko, the writer’s name was discredited, and he himself was subjected to public obstruction for “desecrating the Russian language” and could not publish for more than ten years. Shergin vegetated, abandoned by everyone, in impenetrable poverty, former friends and acquaintances turned away and walked past. The doors of all publishing houses were closed to the writer. Turning to Alexander Fadeev for help, Shergin wrote: “The situation in which I write my books is the most desperate. For twenty years I have been living and working in a dark and rotten basement. I lost 90% of my vision. There are five of us in one room... My family is starving. I don’t have the strength to continue my work.”
The destruction of the wall of silence around Shergin was facilitated by the writer’s creative evening organized in 1955 in Central house writers, after which the publishing house "Children's Literature" published in 1957 the collection "Pomeranian Legends and Legends", and after some time the "adult" collection of selected works "The Ocean - the Russian Sea" was published. The collection received a lot of rave reviews.
In the 1960s, Shergin lived in Moscow on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard. He occupied two rooms in a large communal apartment. Neighbors saw him only as a quiet pensioner and a half-blind disabled person. When he got out into the yard with his cane, he froze in confusion, not knowing where to step or where to hide. One of the boys would run up to him and lead him to a bench on the boulevard. There, if the weather allowed, Shergin could sit alone until the evening.
In 1967, the most complete lifetime edition of Shergin’s works was published - the collection “Captured Glory”. In Shergin’s work, two main narrative styles were very clearly distinguished: pathetic and everyday. The first is used by the writer in descriptions of the nature of the North and its people. The second, characteristic of Shergin’s sketch of morals and everyday fairy tale, clearly focused on skaz - phonetic, lexical, syntactic imitation oral speech. The originality of Shergin's work consisted in the direct orientation of his texts to folk art.
In Shergin's homeland, Arkhangelsk, a collection of his works, “Gandvik - the Cold Sea,” was first published only in 1971. But in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Shergin’s books were published both in the capital and in Arkhangelsk quite often and in large editions.
Over the years, Boris Viktorovich’s vision became worse and worse, and by old age he became completely blind.
Shergin died on October 30, 1973 in Moscow. He was buried at the Kuzminskoye cemetery.
After his death, cartoons based on the fairy tales of Boris Shergin (“The Magic Ring”, “Martynko” and others) made his name truly famous.
Three writers who knew Shergin in recent years his life, wrote their memoirs about him.
Fyodor Abramov wrote about Boris Shergin: “The room is a basement. It was getting late in the evening and it was getting dark. But - light. Light from the old man on the crib. Like a candle, like a lamp. For some reason Dostoevsky's Zosima came to mind, last time mentoring the Karamazovs, village old men who have already “burned” all their flesh. Ethereal, incorporeal... The impression is goodness, holiness, unearthly purity, which is in the paintings of Vermeer of Delft. Blind old man. And everything was glowing."
Yuri Koval - writer and artist, compiled an expressive verbal portrait Shergina: “Boris Viktorovich was sitting on the bed in the room behind the stove. Dry, with a beautiful white beard, he was still in the same blue suit as in previous years. It seems to me that the head of Boris Shergin was extraordinary. A smooth forehead, rising high, intent eyes and ears moistened by blindness, which can safely be called considerable. They stood almost at right angles to his head, and, probably, in childhood the Arkhangelsk children once teased him for such ears. When describing a portrait of a dear person, it is awkward to write about ears. I dare because they gave Shergin a special appearance - a person who listens extremely carefully to the world.”
Yuri Koval recalled that, looking at the portrait of Boris Viktorovich he had drawn, Shergin’s sister answered the blind brother’s question whether the drawing turned out well, like this: “You look like Nicholas the Saint here.”
And Koval himself noted: “Larisa Viktorovna was mistaken. The appearance of Boris Viktorovich Shergin really reminded us of Russian saints and hermits, but most of all he looked like Sergius of Radonezh.”
Vladimir Lichutin noted signs of spiritual beauty in Shergin’s appearance: “Remember, thirty years have passed since I met Boris Shergin, but he is all in me, like an indelible image wrapped in a shining shroud. A bent old man, completely outdated, disembodied. The ports flared spaciously, the shirt was untucked on the bony thin shoulders, the spacious bald spot glowed like the top of an overripe melon... I was suddenly amazed at what could happen beautiful face, when it is bathed in spiritual light, ...from the entire spiritualized appearance emanates that constant joy that instantly pacifies you and strengthens you. A radiant man, with the eyes of his heart, peers into the huge abode of the soul, populated by bright images, and the good feeling, flowing out, involuntarily infected me with joy. I, a fresh young man, suddenly found strength in a weak old man.”
The uniqueness of Shergin, the uniqueness of his creativity was that he was able to organically connect, merge two art systems- literature and folklore, give the people's word new life- in a book, and enrich literature with treasures of folk culture. Boris Shergin's books today remain more relevant and modern than ever, topical at a time of loss of ideas about spiritual and cultural values, they return readers to moral values, delight and enrich. Shergin in his works shows readers a life filled with high meaning, a life based on impeccable moral principles. In 1979, Victor Kalugin wrote: “The more you read into this peculiar Pomeranian chronicle compiled by our contemporary, the more convinced you become: it belongs not to the past, but to the present and future.”
The year 2003 was celebrated in the Arkhangelsk region as the “year of Shergin”.
SHERGIN'S STORIES
"Circle Help"
For centuries, a Danish ship, battered by bad weather, took refuge in the Murmansk camp, near Tankina Bay. The Russian Pomors began to sew and mend the ship in a row. The transfer and sewing was done firmly and, beyond the light of the nights, quickly. The Danish skipper asks the headman what the price of the job is. The headman was surprised:
What a price! Did you, Mr. Skipper, buy anything? Or dressed up with someone?
Skipper says:
- There were no rows. As soon as my poor ship appeared in sight of the shore, the Russian Pomors rushed towards me on carbass with ropes and hooks. Then the diligent repair of my vessel began.
Headman says:
That's how it should be. We always have this behavior. This is what the maritime regulations require. Skipper says:
- If not total price, I wish to distribute by hand.
The headman smiled:
The will has not been taken away from you or us.
Whenever he sees anyone working, the skipper thrusts gifts at everyone.
People just laugh and wave their hands. The skipper says to the headman and the helmsmen: “I think that people don’t take it because they are embarrassed by each other or by you, the bosses.” The helmsmen and the headman laughed:
There wasn’t as much work as you had with the rewards. But if this is your desire, Mr. Skipper, place your gifts in the courtyard, near the cross. And announce that whoever wants and whenever they want can take it.
The skipper liked this idea:
It’s not me, but you, gentlemen feeders, who will tell the rank and file to take it whenever they want, in good conscience.
The skipper placed the boxes with gifts on the path near the cross. The helmsmen announced by carbass that the Danish skipper, according to his noble custom, wanted to give gifts to everyone who worked around his ship. The awards are stacked at the cross. Take it whoever wants it.
Until the departure of the Danish ship, boxes with gifts stood in the middle of the road. Industrial people, big and small, walked by. No one touched the awards, no one lifted a finger.
The skipper came to say goodbye to the Pomors at the gathering, which took place on Sundays.
After thanking everyone, he explained:
If you are obliged to help, then I am obliged...
He was not allowed to finish. They began to explain:
That's right, Mr. Skipper! You must. We helped you in trouble and thereby firmly obliged you to help us when we find ourselves in trouble at sea. If not us, then help someone else. It's all the same. All of us, sailors, are connected and we all live by such circular help. This is a centuries-old maritime charter. The same charter warns us: “If you took payment or a reward for helping a sailor, then do not expect help for yourself in the event of a sea disaster.”
"According to the charter"
The boat walked along the New Earth. For the autumn time I hurried towards the Russian side. Due to the vain wind, we went to settle in an empty sponge. The curious child went to the shore. I saw, far or close, a hut. He pushed the door - there was a naked body at the threshold. Someone has been gone for a long time. And you can hear the horn being blown from the boat. This means that the wind has struck, the child does not need to rush. He tore off everything from himself, down to the last shirt, dressed his unknown comrade, laid him on a bench, covered his face with a handkerchief, said goodbye kindly and honestly and, naked to the last thread, in only shoe covers, ran to the boat.
Feeder says:
You did it according to the regulations. Now we should go and bury him, but time is running out. We must rise to Rus'.
Lodya was delayed by bad weather near the Vaigatsky shores. Here she spent the winter. The said fellow fell ill by spring. The body became numb, the legs were paralyzed, and melancholy set in. It was written last goodbye relatives. It was hard at night: everyone was sleeping, everyone was silent, only the grease was burning and crackling, illuminating the black ceiling.
The patient lowered his legs to the floor and could not get up. And through his tears he sees: the door opens, an unknown man comes in and asks the patient:
Why are you crying?
- Legs don't work.
The stranger took the patient’s hand:
Get up!
The sick man stood up, marveling.
Lean on me. Walk around the hut.
Having embraced, they went to the door and walked into a large corner.
An unknown man stood up to the fire and said:
Now come to me alone.
Marveling and horrified, the fellow stepped towards the man with a firm step:
Who are you, my good friend? Where are you from?
Unknown person says:
Don't you really recognize me? Look: whose shirt am I wearing, whose caftan, whose handkerchief am I holding in my hand?
The kid looked closely and was horrified:
My dress, my caftan...
The man says:
I am that same lost fisherman from Empty Lip, whose bone you took away, dressed, and hid. You fulfilled the statute, you pardoned a forgotten comrade. For this I have come to have mercy on you. And tell the helmsman - he crossed the commandment of the sea, did not bury me. That's why they were delayed by bad weather.
Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov
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Column assignments: Make notes during the teacher’s story 1. What works were written by Shergin? 2.What was Shergin’s childhood like? What is known about his parents? 3.What talents did Shergin reveal during his life? 4.What did Shergin do during his life? 5.What did Shergin love most? Prove it. 6.What is similar in the fate of Pisakhov and Shergin?
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Boris Viktorovich Shergin, Russian writer, storyteller, artist, was born on July 28 (according to the old style 16) July 1896 (according to other sources - 1893) in Arkhangelsk, in a family of indigenous Pomors, fishermen and shipbuilders. The Shergin family is very ancient and famous in the history of the North; most of its representatives were priests. The life of Boris Shergin’s parents, his own childhood and youth are connected with the City (that’s what the writer called Arkhangelsk with a capital letter in his diaries) and with the sea. His memories of his parents, oh home covered with happiness. A life full of love for each other, righteous works, and passion for “art” forever becomes the standard of life for him. The love for the art of the North - for folk poetry and Pomeranian “bookishness”, icon painting and wood painting, for music and words, for the entire rich folk culture arose here. Back in school years Shergin began collecting and recording northern folk tales, epics, and songs. .
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From 1903 to 1912 he studied at the Arkhangelsk men's provincial gymnasium. In 1913 he went to Moscow and became a student at the Stroganov Central Art and Industrial School. His life was now divided between Moscow and the North, where he came on vacation. This period was extremely important for the development creative personality Shergin, to form his artistic self-awareness. Meanwhile, Shergin was noticed in Moscow. They appreciated not only his ability as an artist, but also his excellent knowledge folk word, the ability to sing epics, the talent of a storyteller. In 1915, he met the Pinega storyteller Marya Dmitrievna Krivopolenova, who was brought to Moscow by folklorists. Shergin’s article “Departing Beauty” appeared in the Arkhangelsk newspaper - about Krivopolenova’s performance at the Polytechnic Museum and the impression she made on the audience. Shergin communicates with folklorists. In 1916, on the initiative of A.A. Shakhmatov, he was sent by the Academy of Sciences on a business trip to the Shenkursky district of the Arkhangelsk province to study local dialects and record works of folklore
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In 1917, after graduating from college, the young man returned to Arkhangelsk and worked in the local Society for the Study of the Russian North, and then in handicraft workshops. His contribution to the revival of northern crafts (in particular, the Kholmogory bone carving technique) is recognized. Shergin was also involved in archaeographic work - collecting old books, albums of poetry, songbooks, ancient sailing directions, and skippers' notebooks. In 1919, an accident happened to him - he was hit by a tram and lost his right leg and left toes. In 1922, Boris Viktorovich moved to Moscow and became an employee of the Institute of Children's Reading of the People's Commissariat for Education. He lived in the basement, poorly, but gradually entered into literary life capitals.
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In 1924, his first book was published - “At the Arkhangelsk City, at the Ship Harbor”, designed by himself. It contains recordings of texts and melodies of folklore northern ballads. But Shergin doesn’t just rearrange these texts and melodies, he transforms them, enhancing the poetic impression. And the elegant illustrations are reminiscent of ancient Russian painting. The triple talent of the author - storyteller, writer, artist - created the amazing integrity of the book. (See presentation about the book) After his death, cartoons based on his fairy tales (“The Magic Ring”, “Martynko” and others) made Shergin’s name quite popular.
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After the publication of his second book, a collection of fairy tales “Shish of Moscow” (1930), Shergin became a member of the Writers’ Union and a delegate to the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934). He goes professional literary work, performs in various audiences, reading both folk tales, epics, ballads, and his own works written on the basis folklore sources, impressed by the stories of fellow Pomors, memories of childhood and youth. The collections “Arkhangelsk Novels” (1936), “At the Song Rivers” (1939) were published. The book “Pomorshchina-Korabelshchina” (1947) appeared shortly after the release of the notorious party resolution on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” and was crushingly defeated by official critics. The author was accused of loving the old Pomeranian way of life, of conservatism, and of lack of connections with modernity. Naturally, after that the doors of all publishing houses were closed in front of him. Shergin still lived in the basement, he was half-blind (he could practically neither read nor write).
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Only in 1957 was it possible to publish another book - “Pomeranian Legends and Legends”; it was published in Detgiz with illustrations by the famous graphic artist V. Favorsky. In 1959, one of the writer’s most voluminous collections, “The Russian Ocean and Sea,” appeared, and in 1967, the most complete of lifetime publications- “Sealed Glory.” In Shergin’s homeland, Arkhangelsk, a collection of his works, “Gandvik - the Cold Sea,” was first published only in 1971. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Shergin’s books were published both in the capital and in Arkhangelsk quite often and in large editions . Shergin died on October 30, 1973 in Moscow.