The power of thought over corporality, which is tested daily and every moment, has become so common that we hardly acquire anything higher than a simple mechanism in it. Tell me, how does your hand work? tell me what moves your legs? a thought is born in the head, and the members obey it? Or what kind of irritability, present in the muscles, does it produce, or does electrification flow through your limbs?<…>And what gives reality to everything? Thought, silent word; you say: I will, - and it will be. Just as before the beginning of time, the eternal thought arose for action<...>you say to yourself: go, - and you march. Oh man! In your neighborhood you are omnipotent; you are the son of thought!
About man, about his mortality and immortality. Works, vol. 2, pp. 118 - 119.*
*(A N. Radishchev. complete collection essays. Ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1938 - 1952. All references are to this edition.)
Speech seems to be a means of gathering thoughts together; to its allowance man is owed all his inventions and his perfection. Who would have thought that such a slightest tool as language is the creator of everything that is graceful in a person. It is true that he can do without it and instead of speech speak with body movements; true that in modern times the art, so to speak, of thought is extended even to those who are deprived of the feeling that is necessary for speech; but how languid and creeping would the procession of reason be without sonorous speech!
(Ibid., p. 52.)
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITY
Nature, people and things are the educators of man; climate, local position, government, circumstances are the educators of peoples. But the initial contributor to the improvement of the human race is speech. I do not intend to look for it, whether our speech is something given to us or invented by ourselves<...>
But, it seems, it would be useful to consider how, insofar as speech contributes to our improvement: for from this it will be clear that the leader of speech, mentality, will lay a tool, devoid of speech.
Nothing is so ordinary for us, nothing seems so simple as our speech; but in the very essence there is nothing so wonderful, so wonderful, as our speech. It is true that joy, sorrow, torment have sounds that express them; but imitation of it was the guide to the invention of music, not of speech; if we think that sound, that is, the movement of air, and sound is arbitrary, represents both what the eye sees, and what the tongue tastes, and smells the nose, and what the ear hears, and all the touches of the body, and all our feelings, passions and thoughts; that this sound can not only express everything that is said, every thought, but that sound, which in itself does not mean anything, can excite thoughts and mentalities present a picture of everything that is felt, then in a different order of things this would seem completely absurd, impossible: for consider a more diligent ministry of speech. Time, space, solidity, image, color, all qualities of bodies, movement, life, all deeds, in a word: all<...>we transform it into a small movement of air, and, as if by some kind of sorcery, the sound is put in the place of everything that exists, everything possible, and the whole world is enclosed in small particle air, on our lips unsteady. O you, lovers of miracles, heed the word you have spoken, and your surprise will not be excessive: for it is wonderful who called the human race to a hostel from the forests and wilds, they would wander in them, like the animals of oak forests, and there would be no people? Who arranged their union? Who gave them government, laws? Who taught to abhor vice and made virtue kind? Speech, word; without it, our numb sensitivity, mentality stopped would remain inactive, half-dead, like a seed, like a grain containing the greatest tree, which will give shade to the resting, and warm the chilled, and give cool food to the weary, and will be a cover from heat and bad weather, and will carry along the ramparts of the sea the thirsty for wealth or science to the ends of the universe, but who, without earth, without moisture, dies, becomes nothing. But as soon as the omnipotent one inculcated speech into our language, as soon as a man uttered a single word and turned the image of a thing into sound, he turned the sound into a thought, or he transformed a thought into a diabolical babble, - as if darkness and darkness fall around rotating among the thickest darkness, his eyes see clarity, ears hear goodwill, all sensuality trembles, thought acts, and now he can comprehend what is true, what is false; hitherto was alien to both. This is a weak image of miracles, produced by speech. The allegories of those peoples seem to me to be very thoughtful, as they represent the first cause of all being, which produced first of all the word, which, endowed with the omnipotence of the Most High, divided the elements and arranged the world.
About man, about his mortality and immortality. 1 Works, vol. 2, pp. 130 - 131.
ON THE WEALTH OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
In Russian, you can write just as sweetly as in Italian ...
1790 Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "Tver". Works, vol. I, p. 354.
TEACHING IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGE ENRICHES THE NATIONAL CULTURE
What a great lack we still have in educational aids<...>One information of the Latin language cannot satisfy the mind of the hungry science<...>What aid to learning, when the sciences are not sacraments, for those who know latin language only holes, but taught in the language of the people! - But for what<...>will not we have higher schools in which sciences would be taught in the public language, in the Russian language? 2 The teaching would be clearer to all; enlightenment would reach everyone more quickly, and one generation later, for one latinist, there would be two hundred enlightened people<...>How not to grieve, he repeated, that we do not have schools where science would be taught in the language of the people.
1790. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "Birch". Works, vol. 1, pp. 258 - 259
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
FOR A NATIONAL LANGUAGE AS A LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE
Practicing in the knowledge of nature, he did not leave his beloved teaching of poetry<...>Talking with Horace, Virgil and other ancient writers, he had long ago become convinced that the Russian poem was very dissimilar to the benevolence and importance of our language. Reading German poets, he found that their style was smoother than the Russian one, that the stops in the verses were arranged according to the property of their language. And so he set out to make the experience of composing new-looking verses, first setting the rules for the Russian poem, based on the goodwill of our language. This he fulfilled by writing an ode to the victory won Russian troops over the Turks and Tatars and the capture of Khotin, which he sent from Marburg to the Academy of Sciences. The singularity of the syllable, the power of expression, the images are almost breathing; amazed readers of this new work. And this first-born child of the aspiring imagination along an unpaved path, as proof, together with others, served well that when a people is directed once to perfection, it goes to glory, not along one path, but suddenly along many paths.
1790. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "The Word about Lomonosov". Works, vol. I. p. 385.
ABOUT DIFFERENT POEMS OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
For a long time, a good change in versification will be hindered by an accustomed ear to saying local words. hearing for a long time unanimous ending in verse, non-rhyme will seem rude, uneven and discordant. This is how it will be, as long as the French language will be in Russia, more than other languages are in use.<...>
I consider it superfluous to talk with you about various verses peculiar to the Russian language. What is Yamb, Trochee, Dactyl, or Anapaest, everyone knows, if few people understand the rules of versification. But it would not be superfluous if I could give sufficient examples in different genders. But my strength and understanding are short. If my advice can do anything, then I would say that Russian poetry, and indeed the Russian language itself, would be much enriched if translations of poetic works were not always done by Yambami. It would have been much more characteristic of the Epic poem if the translation of the Henriade had not been in Yambs, and Yambs with non-territorial words are worse than prose.
All of the above was uttered by my comrade, in one spirit and with such agility of language, that I did not have time to say anything to him in response, although I had a lot of things to defend, Yambov and all those who wrote with them. four
1790. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "Tver". Works, vol. I, p. 353.
ON THE NEW MEANING OF WORDS
It often happens that foreigners, and especially manufacturers, give their works common names, but which, passing into our language, have acquired a different meaning and represent a different idea ...
1782. Draft of a new general customs tariff. Works, vol. III, p. 51.
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
In our times, great communication between peoples, knowledge foreign languages, many private travels, and most of all, printing, have done what every European people is at least known for in many of its features ...
1801 - 1802. Proceedings on legislation. Works, vol. III, p. 162.
The threshold of learning is the knowledge of languages; but it seems like a field planted with thorns, and like a mountain strewn with a strict stone. The eye does not find here the pleasantness of location, the feet of the traveler, the calm smoothness for rest, there is no verdant refuge for the weary. Taco learner starting to unknown language, is affected different sounds. His larynx is tired by the unusual murmur of the air emanating from it, and his tongue wriggles in a new way, forced, exhausted. Here the mind becomes numb, reason without action weakens, the imagination loses its wing; a single memory vigilant and sharpened, and fills all its bends and holes with images of hitherto unknown sounds. When learning languages, everything is disgusting and painful. If the hope that, having accustomed one's ear to the unusualness of sounds, and having mastered alien pronunciations, would not later reveal the most pleasant objects, then no one would hopelessly desire to embark on such a strict path. But having overcome these difficulties, constancy in the labors endured is rewarded many times over. New species of nature are then presented, a new chain of imaginations. Through the knowledge of a foreign language we become citizens of the region where it is used, we converse with those who have lived for many thousands of centuries, we assimilate their concepts; and all peoples and all ages of invention and thought, we combine and bring into a single bond.<...>
Like a blind man, from the womb of the matter of light not ripening, when the majesty of the daylight shines for him with a skillful eye-healer’s hand, he passes all the beauties of nature with a quick glance, marvels at its diversity and simplicity. Everything captivates him, everything amazes him. He is more lively than usual eyes, always in sight, feels her elegance, admires and is delighted. Tako Lomonosov, who received the knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, devoured the beauty of the ancient oracles and poets. With them he learned to feel the elegance of nature; with them he learned to learn all the tricks of art, always hiding in forms animated by poetry, with them he learned to express his feelings, to give a body of thought and a soul to the lifeless.
If my strength were sufficient, I would imagine how gradually the great man introduced alien concepts into his concept, which, having been transformed in his soul and mind, appeared in his creations in a new form or gave birth to completely different ones, hitherto unknown to the human mind. I would imagine him seeking knowledge in the ancient manuscripts of his school and chasing the kind of teaching wherever his repository seemed to be. Often he was deceived in his expectation, but by frequent reading of church books he laid the foundation for the elegance of his style, which reading he offers to all who wish to acquire the art of the Russian word.
1790. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "The Word about Lomonosov". 5 Works, vol. I, pp. 381 - 382.
ON THE GRAMMAR OF M. V. LOMONOSOV
The power of imagination and lively feeling do not reject the search for details. Lomonosov, giving examples of benevolence, knew that the elegance of the syllable is based on the rules inherent in the language. He wanted to extract them from the word itself, not forgetting, however, that the custom of the first always sets an example in the combination of words, and the sayings outgoing from the rule become correct by custom. Breaking down all the parts of speech, and matching them with their use, Lomonosov compiled his own grammar. But not content to teach the rules of the Russian word, he gives an idea of the human word in general, as a gift of the noblest mind, given to a person to communicate your thoughts. This is an abbreviation of its general grammar: The word represents thoughts; the instrument of the word is the voice; the voice changes with education or pronunciation; a different change of voice represents a difference of thought; and so the word is, the image of our thoughts, through the formation of a voice through the organs arranged for that. Proceeding further from this foundation, Lomonosov defines the inseparable parts of the word, which images are called letters. The addition of inseparable parts of a word produces warehouses, which, apart from the educational difference in voice, are also distinguished by so-called stresses, on which versification is based. Conjugation of warehouses produces utterances, or significant parts of a word. These depict either a thing or its deed. The image of a verbal thing is also called me; image of the act of the verb. For the representation of the intercourse of things among themselves and for their reduction in speech, other parts of the word serve. But the first essence is necessary and can be called the main parts of the word, and the rest are auxiliary. Speaking of different parts words, Lomonosov finds that some of them contain cancellations. A thing can be in different positions in the reasoning of other things. The image of such positions and relations is called cases. Every action is arranged in time; from there, the verbs are arranged in tenses, to depict the act at what time it occurs. Finally, Lomonosov speaks of the addition of significant parts of the word, which produces speeches. Having presupposed such a philosophical discussion about the word in general, based on the very nature of our bodily constitution, Lomonosov teaches the rules of the Russian word. And can they be mediocre when the mind that drew them was led in grammatical thorns as a lamp of wit? do not disdain the great man sowing praise. Among your fellow citizens, it was not your grammar alone that built glory for you. Your merits about the Russian word are manifold; and you are revered in this unobtrusive work of yours, as the first founder of the true rules of our language, and as a seeker of the natural disposition of every word. Your grammar is the threshold for reading your rhetoric, and both are guides for tactile beauties of the sayings of your creations. Acting in the teaching of the rules, Lomonosov set out to guide his fellow citizens in the paths of the thorny Hellicon, showing them the way to eloquence, inscribing the rules of rhetoric and poetry.
1790. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "The Word about Lomonosov". Works, vol. I, pp. 385 - 387.
ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE WORKS OF M. V. LOMONOSOV
Lomonosov, the most reliable loving Russian word, left examples in his creations. In them, the sweetness of Cicero and Demosthenes, sucking their mouths, dissolves into eloquence. In them, on every line, on every punctuation, on every syllable, almost I can’t say with every letter, there is a harmonious and consonant ringing of such a rare, so little imitated, so characteristic of him benevolence of speech.
Having accepted from nature the invaluable right to act on his contemporaries, having taken from her the power of creation, having been cast into the midst of the masses of the people, the great man acts on it, but not always in the same direction. Like natural forces, acting from a focus, which, extending their action to all points of the circle, perform their activity everywhere, - so Lomonosov, acting on his fellow citizens in various ways, variously opened the paths to knowledge for the common mind. Dragging him after him, unweaving the tangled language into eloquence and goodwill, did not leave him with a lean, thoughtless source of literature. He spoke to the imagination: fly into the infinity of dreams and possibilities, collect bright flowers animated and, guided by taste, adorn the very intangibility with them.<...>The writer of the ode, who cannot follow you, will envy, will envy the charming picture of the people's calm and silence, this strong fence of cities and villages, kingdoms and kings of consolation; envy the countless beauties of your word; and if you ever manage to achieve your uninterrupted goodwill in verse, but so far no one has succeeded.
1790. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "The Word about Lomonosov". Works, vol. I, pp. 387 - 389.
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HERITAGE OF M. V. LOMONOSOV FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE
The effect of his benevolence and resounding punctuation of unstoppable speech was, however, universal. If he did not have a follower in civil ornation, but on general image letters it spread. Compare what was written before Lomonosov and what was written after him - the action of his prose will be clear to everyone.
1790 Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, ch. "The Word about Lomonosov". Works, vol. I, p. 389.
We want to show that in relation to Russian literature, the one who paved the way to the temple of glory is the first culprit in acquiring glory, even though he could not enter the temple<...>In the path Russian literature Lomonosov is the first. Run away, envious crowd, this posterity judges him, it is not hypocritical.
Ibid., pp. 391 - 392.
Not a pillar erected over your corruption will preserve your memory for future generations. Not a stone with the cutting of your name will bring your glory to future centuries. Your word, living forever and ever in your creations, the word of the Russian tribe, updated by you in our language, will fly in the mouths of the people, beyond the boundless horizon of centuries. Let the elements, raging in complex, open the earthly abyss and swallow this magnificent city, from where your loud singing was heard to all ends of vast Russia; let some furious conqueror destroy even the name of your dear fatherland: but as long as the word Russian strikes the ear, you will live and not die. If it falls silent, then your glory will fade away. Flattering, flattering to die like this.
On July 13, 1790, the first writer was imprisoned in Russia. For "harmful reasoning, detracting from due respect for the authorities," Alexander Radishchev was sentenced to death, later the chopping block was replaced with hard labor. "Snob" as part of the cycle "Quotes for which you will be imprisoned" remembered "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" - a book banned for 115 years.
Shukhmin P.M. Illustration for Radishchev's essay "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", 1949.
About officials
In his soul he is the meanest being; deceit, treachery, betrayal, fornication, poisoning, marriage, robbery, murder cost him no more than drinking a glass of water; his cheeks never blushed with shame, except from anger or a slap in the face; he is a friend of every court stoker and a slave of something hardly significant at the court.
About entrepreneurs
Barbarian! You are not worthy to bear the name of a citizen. What is the use of the state that a few thousand quarters of more grain is produced a year, if those who produce it are considered on a par with an ox determined to tear up a heavy furrow? Or is it that we honor the happiness of citizens in that our granaries are full of bread, and our stomachs are empty? so that one blesses the government, and not thousands? The wealth of this bloodsucker does not belong to him. It was acquired by robbery and deserves severe punishment in the law.
About the slave trade
The day and hour of the sale has come. Buyers are coming. In the hall where it is produced, convicts stand motionless for sale. An old man of 75 years old, leaning on an elm club, is eager to guess who fate will give him into his hands, who will close his eyes. With his master's father, he was in the Crimean campaign, under Field Marshal Munnich; in the Frankfurt battle, he carried his wounded master on his shoulders from the ranks. Returning home, he was the uncle of his young master. In infancy, he saved him from drowning, rushing after him into the river, where this one fell, moving on the ferry, and at the risk of his life saved him. In his youth, he bought him out of prison, where he was imprisoned for debts when he was a non-commissioned officer in the guard ... A woman of 40 years old, a widow, a nurse of her young master. And to this day she still feels a certain tenderness for him. Her blood flows in his veins. She is his second mother.
About Russian patience
The sons of the peasants flogged with whips or cats. The women and girls of the daughter were beaten on the cheeks or dragged by the hair. Sons in free time they went around the village or in the field to play and mess with girls and women, and not a single one escaped their violence. The daughters, having no suitors, vented their boredom on the spinners, of which they mutilated many. Judge for yourself, my friend, what could be the end of such actions. I noticed from numerous examples that the Russian people are very patient and endure to the very extreme; but when he puts an end to his patience, then nothing can stop him from bowing to cruelty ... They surrounded all four masters and, in short, killed them to death in the same place. Toliko they hated them, that not one of them wanted to pass, so as not to be a participant in this murder.
About Russian body positivity
You have blush on your cheeks, blush on your heart, on your conscience, blush, on sincerity ... soot. It doesn't matter if it's rouge or soot. I will run from you at full horse trot to my village beauties. True, there are among them similar to you, but there are those that are not heard of in the cities and are not seen by sight ... Look how all the members of my beauties are round, tall, not twisted, not spoiled. It's funny to you that their feet are five inches, and maybe even six. Well, my dear niece, with your three-cornered leg, stand next to them, and run away; who will sooner reach the tall birch that stands at the end of the meadow?.. And you, my dear sister, with your three-quarter camp in coverage, you deign to mock that my rural mermaid's belly has grown in freedom. Wait, my dear, I will laugh at you. You have been married for the tenth month, and your three-quarter figure has already become mutilated. And as it comes to childbirth, you will sing in a different voice. But God forbid that everything was done with laughter. My dear son-in-law walks around hanging his nose. I have already thrown all your laces into the fire. I pulled the bones out of all your dresses, but it's too late. It will not straighten your crooked trains that have grown together.
About sex robbery
Who has not been to Valdai, who does not know Valdai bagels and Valdai flushed girls? The arrogant Valdai girls, shaking with shame, stop everyone passing by and try to kindle voluptuousness in the traveler, take advantage of his generosity at the expense of their chastity ... The traveler undresses, goes to the bathhouse, where he is met by either the hostess, if he is young, or her daughter, or her in-laws, or neighbors. Wipe his weary limbs; wash its dirt. This is done by stripping off their clothes, kindling a lustful fire in him, and he spends the night here, losing money, health and precious travel time. It used to be, they say, that a traveler blundered and weighed down by love exploits and wine was put to death by these lustful monsters in order to use his estate.
About violence
Who does not know with what arrogance the audacious noble hand crawls on obscene and insulting to chastity jokes with village girls. In the eyes of nobles old and small, they are creatures created to please them. And so they do; and especially with the unfortunate, subject to their dictates.
In the former Pugachev's indignation, when all the servants armed themselves against their masters, some peasants, having tied their master, took him to the inevitable execution. What was the reason for this? In everything he was a kind and philanthropic gentleman, but a husband was not safe in his wife, a father in his daughter. Every night his messengers brought to him for the sacrifice of dishonor, the one he appointed that day. It was known in the village that he abhorred 60 girls, depriving them of their purity.
About education
If the union between father and son is not based on the tender feelings of the heart, then it is, of course, unstable; and will be unsteady in spite of all laws. If a father sees his son as his slave and seeks his power in the law, if a son honors his father for the sake of heritage, then what good is society? Or one more slave in addition to many others, or a snake in his bosom ...
About traditional values
Father left us five horses and three cows. There are plenty of small livestock and birds; but there is no worker in the house. I was married to a rich house for a ten-year-old guy; but I didn't want to. What do I need in such a child; I will not love him. And when he comes at the right time, then I will grow old, and he will hang around with strangers. Yes, they say that the father-in-law himself sleeps with young daughters-in-law while the sons grow up. I did not want to go to his family for that. I want my equal. I will love my husband, and he will love me too, I have no doubt about that. I don’t like to walk with the good fellows, but I want to get married, sir.
About censorship
Let everyone print whatever comes to mind. Whoever finds himself offended in the press, let him be judged according to the form. Words are not always the essence of deeds, thoughts are not crimes ... What harm can there be if books in print are without the stigma of a policeman? Not only can there be no harm, but good; benefit from the first to the last, from the smallest to the greatest, from the king to the last citizen.
"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" is, in the words of Herzen, "a serious, sad, mournful book", which reflected with maximum completeness and political ideas Radishchev, and the features of his literary talent, and, finally, the very personality of the revolutionary writer.
This book, as well as The Life of Ushakov, Radishchev dedicated to A. M. Kutuzov, his "sympathizer" and "dear friend", with whom he studied together in Leipzig.
The question of whom to dedicate the book to was far from formal, it was of fundamental importance: this already revealed the literary orientation of the writer.
The originality of Radishchev's position is also manifested in his dedication: the particular and the general here organically merge, and we are talking and about the author's friend, one, specific person and about all mankind. "I looked around me - my soul became wounded by the sufferings of mankind" (1, 227), - this famous phrase of Radishchev, included by him in the dedication, serves as a natural prologue to the whole book.
In terms of genre, "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" correlates with the popular in the 18th century. literature of "travels", both European and Russian. However, all these works are so heterogeneous both in character and style that turning to this genre did not limit the author to any specific canons and rules and provided him with great creative freedom.
Radishchev built his book on domestic material: here we were talking about the most pressing issues of Russian public life. The division into chapters according to the names of postal stations between St. Petersburg and Moscow was far from formal, and often determined the content of a particular chapter: excursions into Russian history in the chapter “Novgorod”, a description of “lewd morals” in “Valdai”, a discussion about the benefits of construction when looking at the locks in Vyshny Volochek.
Much can be learned from Radishchev's book about Russian life at the end of the 18th century, and this famous description Russian hut in Pawns, and a description of the roads, and a mention of how the characters are dressed. All these details, however, are important for the writer not in themselves, but insofar as they help the development of his main idea, plot basis constitutes not a chain of external events, but a movement of thought. As in the writings that preceded The Journey, Radishchev moves from each particular fact to generalizations.
Examples of “private disorder in society” follow one after another: the case of the traveler’s friend Ch... (“Chudovo”), the episode with the oyster lover and the story of a companion hiding from unfair pursuers (“Spasskaya Poles”), the story of Krestyankin (“Zaitsovo ”), etc. Each fact should be comprehended by the reader in the general complex, while the conclusions and conclusions are suggested by the author himself.
In research recent years the question of the composition of the Journey has been studied quite well.12 It has been proved that each chapter of the Journey should be considered not in isolation, but in its correlation with other chapters.
The writer reveals the entire inconsistency of the liberal illusions that some of his intended readers, his contemporaries, are in the grip of. Reflecting on the truths that became obvious to him, the writer often ran into misunderstanding even from friends (for example, the same Kutuzov). Radishchev wants to help others to give up their delusions, to remove the thorn in their eyes, like the wanderer from Spasskaya Poles'.
On the one hand, the novelty and originality of "opinions", on the other hand, the desire to convince those who do not share them, the desire to be understood. Like a terrible nightmare, the traveler sees in a dream that he is “alone, abandoned, a hermit in the midst of nature” (1, 228).
This episode, of course, characterizes not only Radishchev's hero, but also the writer himself, who does not think of himself outside public relations and contacts. The main and most effective means of communication remains the word, “the firstborn of everything,” according to Radishchev.
In the “Word about Lomonosov”, which logically concludes the entire book, the writer speaks of “the inestimable right to act on his contemporaries” - a right that the author of Journey himself “accepted from nature” after Lomonosov. "Citizen of Future Times", Radishchev does not write a treatise, but literary work, moreover, he refers to traditional genres that are completely legitimized in the minds of his readers.
The composition of the "Journey" includes an ode, a laudatory word, chapters repeating common satirical genres XVIII in. (writing, dreaming, etc.).
Having carefully thought over the composition of the Journey, giving it an internal logic, Radishchev appealed to both the mind and the feeling of the reader.
One of the main features creative method On the whole, Radishchev was correctly identified by G. A. Gukovsky, who drew attention to the emotional side of the Journey: “The reader must be convinced not only by the fact as such, but also by the strength of the author's upsurge; the reader must enter into the psychology of the author and look at events and things from his standpoint. Journey is a passionate monologue, a sermon, not a collection of essays.
The author's voice is constantly heard in Radishchev's book: sometimes these are detailed statements, imbued with indignation and sorrow, sometimes brief but expressive remarks, like a sarcastic remark made as if in passing: "But when the authorities blushed!" or a rhetorical question: “Tell me, in whose head can there be more inconsistencies, if not in the royal one?” (1, 348).
results latest research, force, however, to clarify the characterization of the Journey, which was given by G. A. Gukovsky. Radishchev's book is essentially not a monologue, since there is a certain distance between the author and his characters, who utter regular philippics.
Many heroes, of course, express the thoughts of the author himself and directly express those feelings that possess him. But the book reveals a clash of different opinions. Some characters are close to the author (the traveler himself, Krestyankin, a Krestitsky nobleman, a "newfangled poet", Ch..., the author of a "project in the future"), others represent a hostile camp.
The speech of each of them is emotionally saturated: each passionately proves that he is right, and Krestyankin's opponents, refuting him " harmful opinions”, are also quite eloquent. Like Ushakov, Krestyankin shows spiritual firmness and adequately responds to his opponents.
It is as if a competition of orators takes place, in which the hero closest to the author wins the moral victory. At the same time, none of the characters expressing the author's opinion completely assumes the role of the mouthpiece of the author's ideas, as it was in the literature of classicism.
Radishchev's Journey is comparable in this respect to Diderot's such works as Rameau's Nephew and Father's Conversation with Children. “The concept of Diderot the thinker,” writes a modern researcher, “can be identified only from the context of the entire work as a whole, only from the totality of points of view that collide in the course of an exchange of opinions and reproduce the interweaving of complex life contradictions.”
The similarity between Diderot and Radishchev in this regard is a particularly remarkable phenomenon, since, of course, we are not talking about borrowing a device (“Ramo’s nephew”, created in the 1760-1770s, was published only in the 19th century), but about manifestation of certain trends in both French and Russian literature of the second half of the 18th century. — tendencies associated with the development of the realistic method.
Truth in Radishchev's view invariably retained its unambiguousness and certainty: "opposing truths" did not exist for writer XVIII in. The "Journey" reflected the consistency and integrity political program Radishchev, his ability to correlate the ultimate goal of the struggle with specific historical conditions.
However, the heroes of the "Journey" differ in the degree of their proximity to that unchanging and eternal truth, in which the author sees the "highest deity." The task of the reader is not reduced, therefore, to the passive assimilation of the idea directly expressed by the author: the reader is given the opportunity to compare different points of view, comprehend them and draw independent conclusions, that is, to come closer to understanding the truth.
The inclination towards the genre of oratorical prose, a genre closely associated with church preaching, largely determines the style of Journey, its archaic syntax and the abundance of Slavicisms.
The high style prevails in Radishchev, but, contrary to the theory of classicism, the unity of the “calm” is not respected. In satirical and everyday scenes, pathos was inappropriate and impossible: accordingly, the writer's language undergoes a metamorphosis, becomes simpler, approaches the living, spoken language, to the language of Fonvizin and Krylov the prose writer.
Pushkin called "Journey" "a satirical appeal to indignation", accurately noticing one of the features of the book. Radishchev's talent as a satirist manifested itself primarily in the depiction of private and general oppressors: nobles abusing their power, "hard-hearted" feudal landowners, unrighteous judges and indifferent officials.
The crowd of these oppressors is many-sided: among them are Baron Duryndin, and Karp Demenich, and an assessor, and the sovereign, "something sitting on the throne." Some created by Radishchev satirical images continue the gallery of characters of Russian journalism and at the same time represent a new stage of artistic typification, a stage associated primarily with the name of Fonvizin.
In Journey, Radishchev repeatedly refers to Fonvizin's works, including Court Grammar, which was banned by censorship but was distributed in lists. Describing the formidable appearance at the post station of an "excellent person" ("Zavidovo"), Radishchev ironically remarks:
“Blessed are those who are adorned with ranks and ribbons. All nature obeys them,” and immediately adds with sarcasm: “Who knows from those who tremble from the whip threatening them that the one in whose name they threaten him is called voiceless in court grammar, that he is neither A, ... nor O, . .. in my whole life I could not say; that he is borrowed, and it is a shame to say to whom with his exaltation; that in his soul he is the meanest being” (1, 372-373).
The acute social orientation of Fonvizin's satire, his art of generalization, understanding of the role of circumstances that shape a person's character - all this was close to Radishchev, who simultaneously solved the same artistic tasks with the author of The Undergrowth.
But the originality of Radishchev's literary position was due to the peculiarities of his worldview, his revolutionary views. Radishchev develops "the doctrine of active person”, showing “not only the dependence of a person on the social environment, but also his ability to oppose it.”
The principles of depicting characters in Fonvizin and Radishchev are very close, but the difference public positions these writers leads them to create different types positive characters. Some of Radishchev's heroes can be compared with Fonvizin's Starodum and Pravdivy. However, these are rather "sympathizers" than like-minded people of the author, and they do not embody the ethical ideal of the writer.
In Journey, for the first time in Russian literature, the real hero of the work is the people. Radishchev's reflections on the historical fate of Russia are inextricably linked with his desire to understand the character, the soul of the Russian people. From the very first pages of the book, this topic becomes the leading one.
Listening to the mournful song of the coachman ("Sofia"), the traveler notices that almost all Russian folk songs "are soft in tone." “At this musical disposition of the people's ear, know how to establish the reins of government. In them you will find the education of the soul of our people” (1, 229-230), — Radishchev draws this conclusion, based not on a momentary impression, but on profound knowledge folk life. The driver's song confirms the author's long-standing observations and gives him a reason to generalize them.
Krestyankin, who tells about the massacre of serfs with their tyrant landowner (“Zaitsovo”), sees in this seemingly extraordinary case a manifestation of a certain pattern. “I noticed from numerous examples (italics mine, - N.K.), - he says, - that the Russian people are very patient, and endure to the very extreme, but when they put an end to their patience, then nothing can keep them, so as not to bowed to cruelty" (1, 272-273).
Each meeting of the traveler with the peasants reveals new aspects of the Russian folk character: a kind of collective image is created, as it were. In conversations with the traveler, the peasants show prudence, quickness of mind, kindness.
The plowman, diligently working on Sunday on his own field (“Lyubani”), calmly and with full consciousness of his rightness explains that it would be a sin to work for the master just as diligently: “He has a hundred hands on arable land for one mouth, and I have two, for seven mouths" (1, 233).
The words of a peasant woman sending a hungry boy for a piece of sugar, “boyar food” (“Pawns”), amaze the traveler not only with their bitter meaning, but also with the very form of the statement: “This reproach, uttered not with anger or indignation, but with a deep sense of spiritual sorrow, filled my heart with sadness” (1, 377).
Radishchev shows that, despite all the oppression and humiliation, the peasants retain their human dignity and high moral ideals. The Journey tells about the fate of several people from the people, and their individual portraits complement and enliven the overall picture.
This is a peasant girl Anyuta (“Edrovo”), who delights the traveler with her sincerity and purity, a serf intellectual who prefers a difficult soldier’s service to “always reproach” in the house of an inhuman landowner (“Gorodnya”), a blind singer who rejects too rich alms (“Wedge”) .
The traveler feels the great moral strength of these people; they cause not pity, but deep sympathy and respect. It is not so easy for "Barin" to win their trust, but the traveler, the hero, who in many respects is close to Radishchev himself, succeeds in this. "The key to the mysteries of the people", in the words of Herzen,
Radishchev found in folk art and managed to very organically introduce rich folklore material into his book. Folk songs, lamentations, proverbs and sayings involve the reader in the poetic world of the Russian peasantry, help to imbue those humane and patriotic ideas that the author of the Journey develops, striving "to be an accomplice in the prosperity of his own kind."
Radishchev does not idealize the patriarchal antiquity: he seeks to show that the disenfranchised position of the peasantry fetters its rich creative possibilities. Another problem arises in Journey - the problem of introducing the people to world culture and civilization.
In the chapter “The Podberezye”, the writer recalls the time when “superstition reigned and everything, its arrogance, ignorance, slavery, the Inquisition, and many other things” (1, 260). The Middle Ages, with its fanaticism, with the unlimited dominance of papal power, appears to Radishchev as one of the darkest epochs in the history of mankind.
In “Discourse on the origin of censorship” (“Torzhok”), the writer returns to the same topic, explaining the meaning of censorship restrictions in medieval Germany: “The priests wanted only participants in their power to be enlightened, so that the people would honor science of divine origin, above its concept and I would not dare to touch it” (1, 343).
Speaking of the people, Radishchev, obviously, first of all has in mind the working masses, in relation to contemporary Russia - the peasantry. At the same time, in the Journey, those representatives of other classes are depicted with obvious sympathy - raznochintsy and noblemen, who are close to national interests.
Radishchev creates a completely new type goodie- image people's protector, revolutionary, image, received further development in Russian art writers of the 19th in.
Separate features inherent in such a hero can be found in the "soothsayer of water" - the author of the ode, in Ushakov; similar images appear in the Journey: this is the traveler himself, and a certain nameless husband, emerging “from the midst of the people”, “alien to the hope of vengeance, alien to slavish awe”, “courageous writers rising to destruction and omnipotence” (1, 391) , to which the author of the Journey belongs.
In the spirit of the times, Radishchev emphasized the autobiographical nature of his works: the very biography of the revolutionary writer is inseparable from his work.19 In the process of working on Journey, Radishchev was well aware of the seditious nature of his book and could partly foresee the danger that threatened him. In this regard, the conversation between the traveler and the “new-fangled poet” about the ode “Liberty” is interesting.
Expressing doubt that "permission" to print the ode can be obtained, the traveler advises correcting the verses, seeing in them "absurdity of thoughts." The poet responds to this with a contemptuous look and invites the interlocutor to read the poem "Creation of the World", ironically asking: "Read this paper and tell me if they will put you in jail for it too" (1, 431).
Radishchev's "trial" unfolded almost immediately after the publication of Journey. AT last days In May 1790, the book, printed in Radishchev's home printing house, with a circulation of about 650 copies, began to go on sale. In the twentieth of June, an investigation about the author had already begun, on June 30 the writer was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
At this time, Catherine II began to read the "daring" book, dotting it with her remarks. “The writer does not like kings, and where he can reduce his love and respect for them, he greedily clings to them with rare courage,”20 the empress admitted. After numerous grueling interrogations, Radishchev was sentenced to death penalty and spent more than two weeks waiting for her.
On September 4, on the occasion of peace with Sweden, the execution was "mercifully" replaced by a ten-year exile in Siberia, in the Ilim prison. The most difficult trials did not break the writer, and one of the remarkable evidence of this was a poem written by Radishchev on the way to exile:
Do you want to know who am I? what am I? where am i going? —
I am the same as I was and will be all my life:
Not cattle, not a tree, not a slave, but a man!
Through the personal, the private, the whole complex of Radishchev's ideas about " true man”, great in its moral virtues, a man-fighter. The writer emphasized loyalty to his former ideals (“I am the same as I was”) and, as it were, defined his program for the future (“and I will be all my life”). It is quite natural, therefore, that the works written both before and after the Journey invariably correlate with it.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983
Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802) - Russian revolutionary thinker and writer. He sharply denounced autocracy and serfdom. He argued that a person cannot be happy if the world is unhappy; denounced the cowardice of the sighted, which objectively strengthened social evil. He was exiled to Siberia. After returning, he again advocated the abolition of serfdom; the threat of new repressions led Radishchev to commit suicide.
This is how a person grovels in the path when he wants to catch nature in her actions. He imagines points, lines, when he wants to imitate her images; imagines movement, heaviness, attraction, when he wants to interpret its forces; divides time into years, days, hours, when he wants to depict her procession, or sets his step as a measure of her all-encompassing space. But its measure is not a step, and not millions of millions of steps, but infinity; time is not hers, but human; but its forces and images are only universal life.
Virtue I call the habit of actions useful to the public good.
[...] So everything that has being in time and space contains the concept of impenetrability; for our knowledge also consists only in the knowledge of the being of things, in space and time.
[...] So, error is worth resurrecting to the truth, and how is it possible that a person does not err! If his knowledge were visceral, then our reasoning would have not certainty, but clarity; for opposition would be impossible in any reasoning. In such a position, a person would never err, if there were a god. So, let us sigh over human delusions, but draw from it the highest striving for the knowledge of truth and protection of the mind from vicissitudes.
Nothing is so ordinary for us, nothing seems so simple as our speech, but in the very essence there is nothing so surprising, so wonderful, as our speech.
The clergy were always the inventors of the fetters with which they were weighed down in different times human mind, they clipped its wing, so that it would not turn its flight to greatness and freedom.
How many ways there are to know things, how many ways to delusion.
Only then will you become a man when you learn to see a man in another.
… Man has erected a vast building of his science. He did not leave the most distant edge of the Universe, wherever his bold mind would not rush; penetrated into the innermost depths of nature and comprehended its laws in the invisible and intangible; gave measure to the boundless and eternal; numbered the impregnable; pursued life and creation and dared to embrace the creator himself in thought. Often a person fell into the depths of wandering and gave life to dreams, but even on his indirect path he is great and imitates God. Oh mortal! rise from the face of the earth and dare wherever your thought takes you, for it is a spark of divinity!
The more one goes into the workings of nature, the more visible becomes the simplicity of the laws that she follows in her doings.
The higher a person ascends in knowledge, the more extensive views are revealed to him.
Just as exercises in bodily movements strengthen the bodily forces, so exercises in meditation strengthen the rational forces.
Literature 5 - 11 grade
Quotes Aphorisms
The great poetry of our century is a science with an amazing flourishing of its discoveries, its conquest of matter, inspiring man to multiply his activity tenfold.
Emile Zola
Books are a mirror: although they do not speak, they declare every guilt and vice.
Second Catherine the Great
Books have a special charm; books give us pleasure: they talk to us, give us good advice, they become living friends for us.
Francesco Petrarca
No reading requires such a strict standard as the reading of fragmentary, scattered thoughts.
Johann Gottfried Herder
Reading good books is a conversation with the most the best people past times, and, moreover, such a conversation when they tell us only their best thoughts.
Rene Descartes
Talking to writers from other ages is almost like traveling.
Rene Descartes
Among books, as among people, one can fall into good and bad company.
Claude Adrian Helvetius
The struggle for purity, for semantic accuracy, for sharpness of language is a struggle for the instrument of culture. The sharper this weapon, the more accurately directed, the more victorious it is.
Maksim Gorky
A book is a great thing as long as one knows how to use it.
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok
Good book- just a holiday
Maxim (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) Gorky
Learn and read. Read serious books. Life will do the rest.
Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
The work being read has the present; a work that is reread has a future.
Alexander (son) Dumas
Most writers regard truth as their most valuable asset, which is why they use it so sparingly.
Mark Twain
Aphorisms, quotes and sayings of great people about the Russian language.
Russian language!
For thousands of years this flexible, magnificent, inexhaustibly rich, intelligent,
poetic and labor tool of his social life, your thoughts, your feelings,
their hopes, their anger, their great future.
A. V. Tolstoy
The Russian language is, first of all, Pushkin - the indestructible mooring of the Russian language.
These are Lermontov, Leo Tolstoy, Leskov, Chekhov, Gorky.
A. Tolstoy
The language, which the Russian power of the great part of the world commands, according to its power, has a natural abundance, beauty and strength, than a single European language does not yield. And for that there is no doubt that the Russian word could not be brought to such perfection, which we are surprised at in others.
M. V. Lomonosov
Ya. A. Dobrolyubov
V. G. Belinsky
In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections on the fate of my homeland - you are my only support and support, oh great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language!., you can’t believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
I. S. Turgenev
You marvel at the preciousness of our language: every sound is a gift: everything is grainy, large, like pearls themselves, and, really, there is another name for the most precious thing itself.
N. V. Gogol
Russian language in skillful hands and in experienced lips - beautiful, melodious, expressive, flexible, obedient, dexterous and roomy
A. I. Kuprin
Let there be honor and glory to our language, which in its native wealth, almost without any foreign admixture, flows like a proud, majestic river - it makes noise, thunders - and suddenly, if necessary, softens, murmurs in a gentle stream and sweetly flows into the soul, forming all the measures that consist only in the fall and rise of the human voice!
N. M. Karamzin
K. G. Paustovsky
The Russian language is revealed to the end in its truly magical properties and wealth only to those who deeply love and know their people “to the bone” and feel the hidden charm of our land.
K. G. Paustovsky
P. Merimee
The Russian language is inexhaustibly rich and everything is enriched with astonishing speed. Take care of our language, our beautiful Russian language - this is a treasure, this is a property handed down to us by our predecessors! Treat this mighty weapon with respect.
I. S. Turgenev
Aphorisms, quotes and sayings of great people about the Russian language.
Aphorisms and quotes of great people about the Russian language.
Nothing is so ordinary for us, nothing seems so simple as our speech, but in the very essence there is nothing so surprising, so wonderful, as our speech.
Radishchev A. N.
Among the splendid qualities of our language there is one absolutely amazing and hardly noticeable. It consists in the fact that in its sound it is so diverse that it includes the sound of almost all languages of the world.
Paustovsky K. G.
We have been given possession of the richest, most accurate, powerful and truly magical Russian language.
Paustovsky K. G.
The Russian language is revealed to the end in its truly magical properties and wealth only to those who deeply love and know "to the bone" their people and feel the hidden charm of our land.
Paustovsky K. G.
There are no such sounds, colors, images and thoughts - complex and simple - for which there would be no exact expression in our language.
Paustovsky K. G.
There is one significant fact: in our still unsettled and young language we can convey the deepest forms of the spirit and thought of European languages.
Dostoevsky F. M.
The natural richness of the Russian language and speech is so great that, without further ado, listening to the time with your heart, in close communication with common man and with a volume of Pushkin in your pocket you can become an excellent writer.
Prishvin M. M.
The Russian language is a language created for poetry, it is unusually rich and remarkable mainly for its subtlety of shades.
Merimee P.
The Russian language, as far as I can judge of it, is the richest of all European dialects and seems deliberately created to express the subtlest shades. Gifted with wonderful conciseness, combined with clarity, he is content with one word to convey thoughts when another language would require whole phrases for this.
Merimee P.
Our speech is predominantly aphoristic, distinguished by its conciseness and strength.
Gorky M.
The Russian language is inexhaustibly rich and everything is enriched with astonishing speed.
Gorky M.
Take care of our language, our beautiful Russian language - this is a treasure, this is a property handed down to us by our predecessors! Treat this mighty weapon with respect.
Turgenev I. S.
Take care of the purity of the language, like a shrine! Never use foreign words. The Russian language is so rich and flexible that we have nothing to take from those who are poorer than us.
Turgenev I. S.
The perception of other people's words, and especially without necessity, is not an enrichment, but a deterioration of the language.
Sumarokov A.P.
The Russian language is quite rich, it has all the means to express the most subtle sensations and shades of thought.
Korolenko V. G.
I do not consider foreign words good and suitable, if only they can be replaced by purely Russian or more Russified ones. We must protect our rich and beautiful language from corruption.
Leskov N. S.
New words foreign origin are introduced into the Russian press incessantly and often completely unnecessarily, and - what is most offensive of all - these harmful exercises are practiced in those same ones. bodies where the most ardent stand for the Russian nationality and its features.
Leskov N. S.
To use a foreign word when there is a Russian word equivalent to it means to insult both common sense and common taste.
Belinsky V. G.
There is no doubt that the desire to dazzle Russian speech foreign words unnecessarily, without sufficient reason, repugnant common sense and sound taste; but it harms not the Russian language and not Russian literature, but only those who are obsessed with it.
Belinsky V. G.
Our native language should be the main basis for both our general education and the education of each of us.
Vyazemsky P. A.
We must love and preserve those samples of the Russian language that we have inherited from first-class masters.
Furmanov D. A.
Aphorisms about the Russian language
Russian language! For thousands of years the people have been creating this flexible, magnificent, inexhaustibly rich, intelligent, poetic and labor instrument of their social life, their thoughts, their feelings, their hopes, their anger, their great future.
Tolstoy L.N.
The Russian language is, first of all, Pushkin - the indestructible mooring of the Russian language. These are Lermontov, Leskov, Chekhov, Gorky.
Tolstoy L.N.
The language, which the Russian power of a great part of the world commands, in its power has a natural abundance, beauty and strength, which is not inferior to any European language. And for that there is no doubt that the Russian word could not be brought to such perfection, which we are surprised at in others.
Lomonosov M.V.
The master of many languages, the Russian language, not only by the vastness of the places where it dominates, but by its own space and contentment, is great before everyone in Europe.
Lomonosov M.V.
The beauty, grandeur, strength and richness of the Russian language is quite clear from books written in past centuries, when our ancestors did not know any rules for compositions, but they hardly thought that they exist or can be.
Lomonosov M.V.
The Slavic-Russian language, according to the testimony of foreign estheticians themselves, is not inferior either in courage to Latin or in fluency to Greek, surpassing all European ones: Italian, French and Spanish, much more German.
Derzhavin G. R.
Our Russian language, more than all the new ones, is perhaps capable of approaching the classical languages in its richness, strength, freedom of location, abundance of forms.
Dobrolyubov N. A.
There is no doubt that the Russian language is one of the richest languages in the world.
Belinsky V. G.
How beautiful is the Russian language! All the advantages of German without its terrible rudeness.
Engels F.
In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections about the fate of my homeland - you are my only support and support, O great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! It is impossible to believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
Turgenev I. S.
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