Literature. 19th century turned out to be extremely fruitful and bright in the field of cultural development of Russia.
In a broad sense, the concept of "culture" includes all patterns of human achievement in various areas of life and activity. Therefore, it is quite justified and appropriate to use such definitions as “the culture of everyday life”, “ political culture”, “industrial culture”, “rural culture”, “philosophical culture” and a number of others, indicating the level of creative accomplishments in various forms of human community. And everywhere cultural shifts in the 19th century. in Russia were great and amazing.
Second half of the 19th century became a time not only for the rapid flowering of all forms and genres of creativity, but also a period when Russian culture confidently and forever took a prominent place in the cultural area of human achievements. Russian painting, Russian theater, Russian philosophy, Russian literature have established their world positions thanks to a cohort of our outstanding compatriots who worked in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. It's hard to find enough anywhere in the world these days. educated person who would not know the names of F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. V. Rakhmaninov, F. I. Chaliapin, K. S. Stanislavsky, A. P. Pavlova, N. A. Berdyaev. These are just some of the most striking figures who have forever remained iconic in the field of Russian culture. Without them, the cultural baggage of mankind would be noticeably poorer.
The same applies to the end of that century, when St. John of Kronstadt (1829-1908) was a contemporary of L. N. Tolstoy and A. P. Chekhov.
Despite the spread among the nobility various forms freethinking, skepticism and even atheism, the bulk of the population Russian Empire remained faithful to Orthodoxy. This faith, to which the Russian people had been committed for many centuries, was not at all reflected in the prevailing in high society fashionable ideological hobbies. Orthodoxy was the essence of what modern political science defines with the borrowed term "mentality", but which in Russian lexical circulation corresponds to the concept of "life understanding".
Orthodoxy among the people in one way or another influenced all sides creative activity the most remarkable domestic masters of culture, and without taking into account the Christian impulse, it is impossible to understand why in Russia, unlike other bourgeois countries, there was no reverent attitude either towards entrepreneurs themselves or to their occupation. Although by the beginning of the 20th century the triumph of capitalist relations in the country was not in doubt, no one created literary or dramatic works, where the merits and merits of characters from the world of capital would be sung and extolled. Even domestic periodicals, a considerable number of which were directly or indirectly financed by the "kings of business", did not dare to publish enthusiastic praises addressed to them. Such newspapers or magazines would immediately turn into an object of angry reproach, inevitably begin to lose readers, and their days would be very quickly numbered.
In a conversation about Russian cultural process Considering the foregoing is extremely important in two main respects.
Firstly, to understand the spiritual structure of the Russian people as a whole, its fundamental difference from the social environment of modern Russia.
Secondly, to understand why pity for the poor, sympathy for the "humiliated and offended" was the core motive of the entire Russian artistic and intellectual culture - from the paintings of the Wanderers to the works of Russian writers and philosophers.
This non-bourgeoisness of public consciousness further contributed to the establishment of communist power in the country, the ideology of which was the denial of private property and private interests.
This motive manifested itself in the clearest way in the works of the two most famous representatives of the national culture of this period - the prophetic writers F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy.
The life paths and creative methods of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are completely dissimilar. They were not like-minded people, they never had not only close, but even friendly relations, and although at various periods they briefly belonged to certain literary and social groups (parties), the very scale of their personalities did not fit into the framework of narrow worldview currents. In the turning points of their biographies, in their literary works, time was focused, spiritual quests were reflected, even the throwing of people of the 19th century, who lived in an era of unceasing social innovations and forebodings of the coming fateful eve.
F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy were not only “masters of belles-lettres”, brilliant chroniclers of times and customs. Their thought extended far beyond the ordinary, deeper than the obvious. Their desire to unravel the mysteries of being, the essence of man, to comprehend the true fate of mortals reflected in its, perhaps, the highest manifestation of disharmony between the mind and heart of a person, the quivering sensations of his soul and the cold-pragmatic hopelessness of reason. Their sincere desire to resolve the "damned Russian questions" - what is a person and what is his earthly destiny - turned both writers into spiritual guides of restless natures, of which there have always been many in Russia. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, expressing the Russian understanding of life, became not only the voices of the time, but also its creators.
F. M. Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born into a poor family of a military doctor in Moscow. He graduated from the boarding school, and in 1843 - the Main Engineering School in St. Petersburg, for some time served as a field engineer in the engineering team of St. Petersburg. He retired in 1844, deciding to devote himself entirely to literature. He meets V. G. Belinsky and I. S. Turgenev, begins to rotate in the metropolitan literary environment. His first major work, the novel Poor People (1846), was a resounding success.
In the spring of 1847, Dostoevsky became a regular at the meetings of V. M. Petrashevsky's circle, where acute social issues were discussed, including the need to overthrow the existing system. Among others, the aspiring writer was arrested in the case of the Petrashevites. First he was sentenced to death penalty, and already on the scaffold, Dostoevsky and the other defendants were given royal favor to replace the execution with hard labor. F. M. Dostoevsky spent about four years in hard labor (1850-1854). He described his stay in Siberia in a book of essays Notes from dead house, published and 1861
In the 1860-1870s. the largest literary works appeared - novels that brought Dostoevsky world fame: Humiliated and Insulted, Gambler, Crime and Punishment, Idiot, Demons, Brothers Karamazov.
The writer completely broke with the revolutionary hobbies of youth, realized the falsity and danger of the theories of the violent reorganization of the world. His works are permeated with reflections on the meaning of life, on the search for life paths. Dostoevsky saw the possibility of comprehending the truth of being only through faith in Christ. The moral developed from Christian socialism to Slavophilism. However, one can call him a Slavophile only with a big stretch. He was one of the founders of the ideological current, called pochvenism. It declared itself in the 1860s-1870s, just at the time when the work of F. M. Dostoevsky reached its peak.
The program of the Vremya magazine, which F. M. Dostoevsky began publishing in 1861, said: We are finally convinced that we, too, are a separate nationality, highly original, and that our task is to create a form for ourselves, our own , native, taken from our soil. This position fully corresponded to the original Slavophile postulate. However, the universal universalism of Dostoevsky's thinking manifested itself already at that time: We foresee that the Russian idea, perhaps, will be a synthesis of all those ideas that Europe is developing.
This view found its highest embodiment in the well-known speech of the writer at the celebrations in 1880 on the occasion of the opening of the monument to A. S. Pushkin in Moscow. It was in his Pushkin speech, which delighted the audience and then became the subject of fierce controversy in the press, that F. M. Dostoevsky formulated his vision of the future world. He derived his well-being from the fulfillment of the historical mission of Russia - to unite the people of the world in a fraternal union according to the precepts of Christian love and humility:
Yes, the purpose of the Russian man is undeniably pan-European and worldwide. To become a real Russian, to become completely Russian, perhaps, means only to become a brother of all people, an all-man, if you will. Oh, all this Slavophilism and our Westernism is only one great misunderstanding among us, although historically necessary. For a real Russian, Europe and the lot of the entire great Aryan tribe are as dear as Russia itself, like the lot of its own. native land because our inheritance is universality, and not acquired by the sword, but by the power of brotherhood and our fraternal striving for the reunification of people.
Dostoevsky was not a philosopher in the exact sense of the word, he thought like an artist, his ideas were embodied in the thoughts and actions of the heroes of literary works. The worldview of the writer has always remained religious. Even in his youth, when he was carried away by the ideas of socialism, he remained in the bosom of the Church. One of the most important reasons for his break with V. G. Belinsky, as F. M. Dostoevsky later admitted, was that he scolded Christ. Elder Zosima ("The Brothers Karamazov") expressed the idea found in many literary and journalistic works of F. M. Dostoevsky: its beauty." The unwillingness and inability to see the surrounding beauty stems from the inability of a person to master these gifts - “read F. M. Dostoevsky.
All his life the writer was worried about the riddle of personality, he was possessed by a painful interest in a person, in the reserved side of his nature, the depths of his soul. Reflections on this topic are found in almost all his works of art. Dostoevsky, with unsurpassed skill, revealed the dark sides of the human soul, the forces of destruction lurking in him, the boundless egoism, the denial of moral principles that are rooted in man. However, despite the negative aspects, the writer saw a riddle in every individual, he considered everyone, even in the form of the most insignificant, an absolute value. Not only the demonic element in man was revealed by Dostoevsky with unprecedented force; no less deeply and expressively shows the movements of truth and goodness in the human soul, the angelic principle in it. Faith in man, triumphantly affirmed in all the works of the writer, makes F. M. Dostoevsky the greatest humanist thinker.
Dostoevsky already during his lifetime was awarded the title of a great writer among the reading public. However, his public position, his rejection of all forms of the revolutionary movement, his preaching of Christian humility caused attacks not only in the radical, but also in the liberal environment.
The heyday of Dostoevsky's work came at the time of the "violence of intolerance." All those who did not share the enthusiasm for the fashionable theories of the radical reorganization of society were branded as reactionaries. It was in the 1860s. the word "conservative" has become almost abusive, and the concept of "liberal" has become a synonym for a social progressive. If before any ideological dispute in Russia almost always had an emotional character, now intolerance towards everything and everyone that did not correspond to flat schemes “about the main path of development of progress” has become its indispensable attribute. They did not want to hear the voices of opponents. As written famous philosopher B.C. Solovyov about another outstanding Russian thinker K. N. Leontiev, he dared to "express his reactionary thoughts" at a time "when it could bring him nothing but ridicule." Opponents were treated, they were not objected to in essence, they served only as an object of ridicule.
Dostoevsky fully experienced the moral terror of liberal public opinion. The attacks on him, in fact, never stopped. They were initiated by V. G. Belinsky, who called the writer’s early literary and psychological experiments “nervous nonsense.” There was only one short period when the name of Dostoevsky enjoyed reverence among the "priests of social progress" - the end of the 1850s, when Dostoevsky became close to the circle of M.V. Petrashevsky and became a "victim of the regime."
However, as it turned out that in his works the writer did not follow the theory of acute sociality, the attitude of liberal-radical criticism towards him changed. After the appearance in print in 1871-1872. In the novel "Demons", where the author showed the spiritual poverty and complete immorality of the bearers of revolutionary ideas, Dostoevsky became the target of systematic attacks. The capital's newspapers and magazines regularly presented the public with critical attacks against "Dostoevsky's public delusions and his caricature of the humanist movement of the sixties." However, the creative monumentality of the writer's works, their unprecedented psychological depth were so obvious that the attacks were accompanied by many on-duty confessions of the master's artistic talents.
Such an endless treatment of the name had a depressing effect on the writer, and although the views and his creative manner he did not change, but tried, as far as possible, not to give new grounds for attacks. A noteworthy episode in this regard dates back to the early 1880s, when populist terror was spreading in the country. It happened somehow that, together with the journalist and publisher A.S. Suvorin, the writer reflected on the topic: would he tell the police if he suddenly found out that the Winter Palace was mined and an explosion would soon occur and all its inhabitants would die. To this question Dostoevsky answered: No. And, explaining his position, he remarked: The liberals would not forgive me. They would torture me, drive me to despair.
Dostoevsky considered this situation to be public opinion abnormal in the country, but he was not able to change the established methods of social behavior. great writer, an old, sick man was afraid of accusations of collaborating with the authorities, was unable to hear the roar of the educated mob.
Count LN Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born into a wealthy noble family. He received his primary education at home, then studied for some time in the eastern and law faculties Kazan University. He did not finish the course, he was not carried away by science.
He left the university and went to the active army in the Caucasus, where the decisive phase of hostilities with Shamil was unfolding. Here he spent two years (1851-1853). Service in the Caucasus enriched Tolstoy with many impressions, which he later displayed in his novels and stories.
When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy volunteered to go to the front and took part in the defense of Sevastopol. After the end of the war, he retired, traveled abroad, then served in the administration of the Tula province. In 1861 he interrupted his service and settled on his estate Yasnaya Polyana near Tula.
There Tolstoy wrote the largest literary works - the novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection. In addition, he wrote many novels, short stories, dramatic and journalistic works. The writer created a diverse panorama of Russian life, depicted the customs and life of people of dissimilar social status, showed the complex struggle between good and evil in the human soul. The novel "War and Peace" is still the most outstanding literary work about the war of 1812.
Many political and social problems attracted the attention of the writer, he responded to them with his articles. Gradually, their tone became more and more intolerant, and Tolstoy turned into a merciless critic of generally accepted norms of morality and social principles. It seemed to him that in Russia the authorities were not the same and the Church was not the same. The Church in general turned out to be the object of his reproach. The writer does not accept the church understanding of Christianity. He is repulsed by religious dogmas and the fact that the Church has become part of the social world. Tolstoy broke with the Russian Orthodox Church. In response to this, in 1901 the Holy Synod excommunicated Tolstoy from the Church, but expressed the hope that he would repent and return to her fold. There was no repentance, and the writer died without a church ceremony.
From his youth, Tolstoy was strongly influenced by the views of Rousseau and, as he later wrote, at the age of 16 he destroyed traditional views in himself and began to wear a medallion with a portrait of Rousseau around his neck instead of a cross. The writer passionately accepted Rousseau's idea of natural life, which determined a lot in Tolstoy's subsequent searches and reassessments. Like many other Russian thinkers, Tolstoy subjected all phenomena of the world and culture to harsh criticism from the standpoint of subjective morality.
In the 1870s the writer went through a long spiritual crisis. His consciousness is fascinated by the mystery of death, before the inevitability of which everything around him takes on the character of an insignificant. Wishing to overcome oppressive doubts and fears, Tolstoy tries to break his ties with the familiar environment and strives for close communication with ordinary people. It seems to him that with them, beggars, wanderers, monks, peasants, schismatics and prisoners, he will gain true faith, knowledge of what is the true meaning of human life and death.
The Yasnaya Polyana count begins a period of simplification. He rejects all manifestations modern civilization. His merciless and uncompromising rejection concerns not only the institutions of the state, the Church, the courts, the army, and bourgeois economic relations.
In his boundless and passionate nihilism, the writer has reached maximalist limits. He rejects art, poetry, theater, science. According to him, goodness has nothing to do with beauty, aesthetic pleasure is pleasure of a lower order. Art in general is just fun.
Tolstoy considered it blasphemy to put art and science on the same level as good. Science and philosophy, he wrote, treat about whatever you want, but not about that. how a person himself can be better and how he can live better. Modern science has a mass of knowledge that we do not need. But to the question of the meaning of life, it cannot say anything and even considers this question not within its competence.
Tolstoy tried to give his own answers to these burning questions. The world order of people, according to Tolstoy, should be based on love for one's neighbor, on non-resistance to evil by violence, on mercy and material unselfishness. Tolstoy considered the abolition of private property in general and private property in land in particular to be the most important condition for the reign of the light of Christ on earth. Addressing Nicholas II in 1902, Tolstoy wrote: The destruction of the right to land ownership is, in my opinion, that immediate target the achievement of which the Russian government must make its task in our time.
The sermons of Leo Tolstoy did not go unanswered. Among the so-called enlightened public, dominated by critical assessments and a skeptical attitude towards reality, the graphanihilist had many admirers and followers who intended to embody social ideas Tolstoy to life. They created small colonies, which were called cultural sketes, tried to change the moral self-improvement and honest work the world. The Tolstoyans refused to pay taxes, to serve in the army, did not consider it necessary to consecrate the church marriage, did not baptize their children, did not send them to schools. The authorities persecuted such communities, some active Tolstoyans were even brought to trial. At the beginning of the XX century. Tolstoy's movement in Russia almost came to naught. However, it gradually spread outside of Russia. Tolstoy farms originated in Canada, South Africa, the USA, Great Britain.
I. S. Turgenev (1818-1883) is credited with creating socio-psychological novels in which the personal fate of the characters was inextricably linked with the fate of the country. He was an unsurpassed master in revealing the inner world of man in all its complexity. Creativity Turgenev had a huge impact on the development of Russian and world literature.
I. S. Turgenev came from a rich and ancient noble family. In 1837 he graduated from the philological faculty of St. Petersburg University. He continued his education abroad. Turgenev later recalled: I studied philosophy, ancient languages, history, and studied Hegel with particular zeal. For two years (1842-1844) Turgenev served as an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but did not show any interest in a service career. He was fascinated by literature. His first work dramatic poem Steno, he wrote in 1834.
At the end of the 1830s. young Turgenev's poems began to appear in the journals Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski. These are elegiac thoughts about love, permeated with motives of sadness and longing. Most of these poems received high audience recognition (Ballad, Again one, one ..., Foggy morning, gray morning ...). Later, some of Turgenev's poems were set to music and became popular romances.
In the 1840s the first dramas and poems of Turgenev appeared in print, and he himself became an employee of the social and literary magazine Sovremennik.
In the mid 1840s. Turgenev became close to a group of writers, figures of the so-called "natural school" - N. A. Nekrasov, I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich and others, who tried to give literature a democratic character. The heroes of their works, these writers made primarily serfs.
The first issue of the updated Sovremennik was published in January 1847. Turgenev's short story "Khor and Kalinich" became a real decoration of the magazine, which opened a whole cycle of works under the general title "Notes of a Hunter.
After their publication in 1847-1852. All-Russian fame came to the writer. The Russian people, Russian peasants are shown in the book with such love and respect as never before in Russian literature.
In subsequent years, the writer created several novels and stories of outstanding artistic merit - Rudin, The Noble Nest, On the Eve, Fathers and Sons, Smoke. They skillfully depict the way of life of the nobility, show the emergence of new social phenomena and figures, in particular populists. Turgenev's name has become one of the most revered names in Russian literature. His works were distinguished by acute polemics, they raised the most important questions human being, they outlined the writer's deep look at the essence of ongoing events, the desire to understand the nature and aspirations of new people (nihilists) who entered the arena of the country's socio-political life.
The breadth of thinking, the ability to comprehend the life and historical perspective, the belief that a person’s life should be filled with higher meaning marked the work of one of the most remarkable Russian writers and playwrights - A.P. Chekhov (1860-1904), this subtlest psychologist and master subtext, which so peculiarly combined humor and lyricism in his works.
A.P. Chekhov was born in the city of Taganrog into a merchant family. He studied at the Taganrog gymnasium. He continued his studies at the medical faculty of Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1884. He worked as a doctor in the Moscow province. literary activity began with feuilletons and short stories published in humorous magazines.
The largest and most famous works Chekhov began to appear from the end of the 1880s. These are the stories and stories Steppe, "Lights", House with a mezzanine, Boring story, Chamber of MB, Muzhiks, In the ravine, About love, Ionych, Lady with a dog, Jumper, Duel, books of essays From Siberia and Sharp Sakhalin.
Chekhov is the author of remarkable dramatic works. His plays Ivanov, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard are staged all over the world. In the writer's stories about the fate of individuals, a deep philosophical subtext is hidden. Chekhov's ability to sympathize, his love for people, the ability to penetrate into the spiritual nature of man, his interest in the pressing problems of the development of human society made the writer's creative heritage relevant today. Art. In 1870, an event occurred in Russia that had a powerful impact on the development visual arts: the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions arose, which played an important role in the development of democratic painting and its opposition to salon-academic art. It was a public organization that the state did not finance. The partnership was organized by young artists, mostly graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, who did not share aesthetic principles Academy leadership. Depict "eternal beauty", focus on "classical patterns" European art they didn't want any more. Reflecting the general societal upsurge of the 1860s, artists sought to express the complexity modern world, to bring art closer to life, to convey the aspirations and moods of the broad public circles, to show living people, their cares and aspirations. Almost everyone was creatively associated with the Association of the Wanderers outstanding artists Russia.
Over the next decades, the Association of the Wanderers (usually they were simply called the Wanderers) organized many exhibitions that were not only shown in some place, but also transported (moved) around different cities. The first such exhibition took place in 1872.
The central figure of Russian art of the 1860s. became one of the organizers of the Association of Wanderers teacher, writer V. G. Perov (1833-1882). He studied painting at the Arzamas Drawing School, then at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. At the end of the course in 1869 he received a scholarship and improved his skills in Paris. Already in the 1860s. Perov declared himself as a great realist artist, his paintings were distinguished by a sharp social content. These are the Sermon in the village
Tea drinking in Mytishchi, near Moscow Seeing off the deceased, “Troika. Apprentice craftsmen carry water, “The last tavern at the outpost, etc. The artist’s painting subtly conveyed his compassion for people crushed by need, who survived grief.
Perov - the master of lyrical paintings (Bird-catchers and Hunters at rest) and fabulous images(Snow Maiden). The golden fund of Russian art includes portraits of the playwright A. N. Ostrovsky, writer F. M. Dostoevsky, executed by the artist commissioned by P. M. Tretyakov for the portrait gallery conceived by him, representing "people dear to the nation." Perov also turned to historical themes, his most famous such painting being SudPugacheva.
IN Kramskoy (1837-1887) was born into a poor family. From 1857 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1863, he became a troublemaker at the Academy, leading a group of 14 graduate students who refused to participate in a competition that required paintings only on mythological themes. The protesters left the Academy and created the Artel of Mutual Aid, which later became the basis of the Association of the Wanderers.
Kramskoy was a wonderful portrait master and captured on his canvases many famous people Russia, those who are usually called the rulers of the thoughts of their era.
These are portraits of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, N. A. Nekrasov. P. M. Tretyakov, S. P. Botkin, I. I. Shishkin and others. Kramskoy also painted portraits of ordinary peasants.
In 1872 on the First traveling exhibition Kramskoy's picture of Christ in the desert appeared, which became a program not only for the artist himself, but for all the Wanderers. The canvas depicts Jesus Christ, who is in deep thought. The enlightened, calm look of Christ attracts the attention of the viewer.
A close interest in the gospel theme runs through all the work of another of the founders of Russian wandering - N.N.Ge (1831-1894). In the painting The Last Supper, a striking play of light and shadow achieves the opposition of a group of apostles and the figure of Judas, located in a dense shadow. The gospel story allowed the artist to portray the conflict of different worldviews. This painting was followed by What is Truth?. Christ and Pilate, Judgment of the Sanhedrin, Guilty of death!, Golgotha, Crucifixion, etc.
In the portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, the artist managed to convey the work of thought of a brilliant writer.
At the First Traveling Exhibition, Ge exhibited the painting “Peter I Interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof. The viewer feels the tense silence of father and son. Peter is sure of the fault of the prince. The conflict between the king and the heir to the throne is depicted at the moment of the highest intensity.
Famous BJB battle painter. Vereshchagin (1842-1904) took part in the hostilities of that time more than once. Based on his impressions of the events in the Turkestan region, he created a picture of the Apotheosis of War. The pyramid of skulls cut with sabers looks like an allegory of war. On the frame of the picture - the text: Dedicated to all the great conquerors, past, present and future.
Vereshchagin owns a series of large battle paintings, in which he acted as a true reformer of this genre.
Vereshchagin turned out to be a participant in the Russian-Turkish campaign of 1877-1878. Based on sketches and studies performed on the scene, his famous "Balkan Series" was created. In one of the paintings in this series ("Shipka - Sheinovo. Skobelev near Shipka") the scene of Skobelev's solemn greeting of the victorious Russian regiments is relegated to the background. In the foreground of the canvas, the viewer sees a snow-covered field dotted with the dead. This mournful image was intended to remind people of the bloody cost of victory.
I. I. Shishkin (1832-1898) can be called one of the most popular Russian landscape painters. A painter and a remarkable connoisseur of nature, he approved the forest landscape in Russian art - luxurious mighty oak forests and pine forests, forest distances, deaf wilds. The artist's canvases are characterized by monumentality and majesty. Expanse, space, land, rye. God's grace Russian wealth- this is how the artist described his canvas Rye, in which the scale of Shishkin's spatial solutions was especially clearly manifested. Pines illuminated by the sun, Forest distances, Morning in a pine forest, Oaks, etc. became parade portraits of Russian nature. The well-known art historian V. V. Stasov, Ya. E. Repina (1844-1930) called Samson of Russian painting.
This is one of the most versatile artists, who succeeded with equal brilliance in portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and large canvases on historical themes.
I. B. Repin was born into a poor family of a military settler in the city of Chuguev, Kharkov province, and received his first drawing skills from local Ukrainian icon painters. In 1863, he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts, where I.N. Kramskoy turned out to be Repin's first mentor, V.I. Surik. Repin graduated from the Academy in 1871 and, as a capable graduate, received an execution scholarship for a creative trip to France and Italy.
Already in the 1870s. Repin's name becomes one of the largest, most popular Russian painters. Each of his new paintings arouses the liveliest interest of the public and heated debate. Among the most famous paintings of the artist are barge haulers on the Volga, the procession in the Kursk province, Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581, the Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish sultan, Portrait of M. P. Mussorgsky, “The solemn meeting State Council”, Portrait of K. P. Pobedonostsev, They didn’t wait, etc. Repin on his canvases captured a panorama of the life of the country, showed bright folk characters, the mighty forces of Russia.
V. I. Surikov (1848-1916) proved to be a born historical painter. A Siberian by origin, Surikov studied in St. Petersburg at the Academy of Arts, and after graduating from the Academy he settled in Moscow. His first large canvas was the Morning execution. This was followed by Menshikov in Verezov, Boyarynya Morozova, Ermak's Conquest of Siberia Suvorov's Crossing the Alps in 1799, and others. The artist drew the plots and images of these paintings from the depths of Russian history.
Russian national culture in the 19th century reached in art, literature, in many areas of knowledge the heights defined by the word "classic". Russian literature of the 19th century is deservedly called the "golden age". Even an ignoramus of literature cannot object. It became the trendsetter of literary fashion, rapidly bursting into world literature. The "Golden Age" gave us many famous masters. The 19th century is the time of the development of Russian literary language, which took shape for the most part thanks to A. S. Pushkin. It began with the flourishing of sentimentalism and the gradual formation of romanticism, especially in poetry. There were many poets during this period, but the main figure of that time was Alexander Pushkin. As now he would be dubbed a "star" .
His ascent to the Olympus of Literature began in 1820 with the poem Ruslan and Lyudmila. And "Eugene Onegin" - a novel in verse was called an encyclopedia of Russian life. The era of Russian romanticism was opened by his romantic poems "The Bronze Horseman", "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray", "Gypsies". For most poets and writers, A. S. Pushkin was a teacher. The traditions laid down by him in the creation of literary works were continued by many of them. Among them was M. Lermontov. Russian poetry of that time was closely connected with the socio-political life of the country. In the works, the authors tried to comprehend and develop the idea of their special purpose. They urged the authorities to listen to their words. The poet of that time was considered a prophet, a conductor of divine truth. This can be seen in Pushkin's poem "The Prophet", in the ode "Liberty", "The Poet and the Crowd", in Lermontov's "On the Death of a Poet" and many others. In the 19th century, English historical novels had a huge impact on all world literature. Under their influence, A.S. Pushkin writes the story "The Captain's Daughter".
During the 19th century, the main artistic types were the "little man" type and the " extra person».
From the 19th century, literature inherited a satirical character and publicism. This can be traced in Gogol's "Dead Souls", "The Nose", in the comedy "The Government Inspector", in M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "History of one city", "Gentlemen Golovlev".
The formation of Russian realistic literature has been going on since the middle of the 19th century. She reacted sharply to the socio-political situation in Russia. A dispute arises between the Slavophiles and the Westernizers about the paths of the country's historical development.
The development of the genre begins realistic novel. A special psychologism can be traced in the literature, philosophical, socio-political problems prevail. The development of poetry somewhat subsides, but, despite the general silence, the voice of Nekrasov is not silent, which in the poem “Who is living well in Rus'?” illuminates the hard and hopeless life of the people. -
The end of the century gave us A.P. Chekhov, A.N. Ostrovsky, N. S. Leskov, M. Gorky. Pre-revolutionary moods run like a red thread in literature. The realistic tradition began to fade, replaced by decadent literature, with mysticism, religiosity, as well as a premonition of changes in the socio-political life of Russia. Then everything grew into symbolism. And a new page has been opened in the history of Russian literature.
On the works of writers of that time, we learn humanity, patriotism, we study our history. More than one generation of people - Humans - has grown up on this "classic".
The collection "Modern Erotic Prose" includes erotic works writers of St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as Russian-speaking foreign prose writers - traditional and innovative, lyrical and harsh, aesthetically beautiful and shocking, funny and tragic. But all of them are united by psychological authenticity, the skill of the authors, the absence of any moralizing and high degree erotic tension. This book includes the story "Humanitarian Aid" and stories by Lev Kuklin. The collection once again confirms that ...
Dream in the Jade Pavilion without an author
"A Dream in the Jade Pavilion" is one of the largest works of ancient Korean prose. early XVII century (the name of the author remains unknown), refers to the popular Far East the genre of dream novels, close in plot to ancient mythological tales and adventurous stories of the late Middle Ages. Published in Russian for the first time.
Notes on the Tablets of Apronenia Avicia Pascal Quinard
Pascal Quinard is one of the most significant writers of contemporary France. Critics admit that the work of this prose writer, who was rightfully crowned with the Goncourt Prize in 2002, hardly lends itself to the usual classification. For his images, hovering in a magical triangle between philosophical essay, novel and high poetry, there are no ready-made expressions, words of the usual dictionary. At the end of the 4th century AD, a fifty-year-old patrician living in Rome begins to keep a diary, more precisely, something like a diary. On waxed tablets she writes...
THREE MONKS Undefined Undefined
The story "Three Monks" brought to the attention of readers is one of the most interesting and original creations of Japanese narrative prose of the 15th-16th centuries, known as "otogizoshi" - " entertaining books". The prose of otogizoshi is marked by variety of genres and styles. A significant place in it belongs to the genre of the story-confession, designed not only to entertain the reader, but also to educate him, instructing him on the path of true faith. The story "Three Monks" clearly expresses the ideas of Zen Buddhism, under the sign of which many developed ...
Dear friend Guy Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant is often called the master of erotic prose. But the novel "Dear Friend" (1885) goes beyond this genre. The story of the career of an ordinary seducer and life-burner Georges Duroy, developing in the spirit of an adventurous novel, becomes a symbolic reflection of the spiritual impoverishment of the hero and society.
Bianca Igor Kubersky
Twenty years later Igor Kubersky
The skill of the author in the presentation of love topics prompts us to consider his work as a kind of standard of erotic prose in modern domestic literature. And just like the temperature environment It is customary to measure in degrees Celsius, the degree of eroticism could be measured in Kuberas.
Portrait of Yvette Igor Kubersky
Awakening of the Snail Igor Kubersky
The works of the famous St. Petersburg prose writer, poet and translator Igor Kubersky, written by him in recent years, are devoted to the theme of love and eroticism. A test of the spirit and the flesh, a fatal duel, from which one does not always come out alive - this is how love appears in the fascinating texts of this heir to the literary traditions of Ivan Bunin, Vladimir Nabokov, Yuri Kazakov. The author's mastery in presenting love themes encourages us to consider his work as a kind of standard of erotic prose in modern Russian literature. And just like...
The Dangerous Adventures of Miguel Littin in Chile Gabriel Marquez
In Europe and the USA, this book produced the effect of a bombshell, and in Chile its first printing was destroyed on the personal order of Augusto Pinochet. ... In 1985, director Miguel Littin, expelled from Chile, returned illegally to make a film about what twelve years of military dictatorship had turned the country into. Despite the mortal danger, using a hidden camera, he created a unique film "The Universal Declaration of Chile", which was awarded a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Marquez's docu-novel is not just a captivating tale of Littin's adventures...
Medea and her children Lyudmila Ulitskaya
The works of Lyudmila Ulitskaya can be called "prose of nuances" - and the subtlest manifestations human nature, and the details of life are written out from her with special care. Her novels and stories are imbued with a very special worldview, which, nevertheless, turns out to be close to very many. The story "Medea and her children" has already won the recognition of readers in our country and abroad. The story of the Crimean Greek Medea is a story of love and separation, short female happiness and long years of painful loneliness, the joy of unity and the bitterness of betrayal. Pursuit…
Sleep in the Jade Pavilion Undefined Undefined
“A Dream in the Jade Pavilion” is one of the largest works of ancient Korean prose of the early 17th century (the name of the author remains unknown), belongs to the genre of dream novels popular in the Far East, similar in plot to ancient mythological tales and adventurous stories of the late Middle Ages. Published in Russian for the first time.
Scary love stories Milorad Pavić
Literary critics highly appreciated the simplicity and paradoxical multidimensionality of Pavić's texts, the virtuosic eccentricity of form. They see Pavić as an iconic figure modern prose writer of the 21st century. "Terrible love stories"is a collection of new stories by M. Pavich, where every thing makes us accomplices in some kind of magical game started by the writer. Pavich's favorite themes - love, death, mysterious dreams, the past - reappear in his prose.
Russian science fiction prose XIX - early XX ... Alexander Kuprin
This collection includes fantastic works by classical writers: Osip Senkovsky, Nikolai Polevoy, Konstantin Aksakov, Vladimir Odoevsky, Alexander Kuprin, Mikhail Mikhailov, and others. - otherworldly (irrational, spontaneously sensual, metaphysical) and existing material, material. The reader is forced to constantly choose between the rational and the supernatural, but it is interesting that the conflict ...
Volume 1. Prose Ivan Krylov
This edition of the Complete Works of the great Russian fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov is carried out by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of July 15, 1944. During the life of I. A. Krylov, his collected works were not published. Many prose works, plays and poems remained lost in periodicals. late XVIII century. Only collections of his fables were published many times. Several attempts have been made to publish complete collection works, however, it was not possible to achieve this completeness due to a number of ...
My century, my youth, my friends and girlfriends Anatoly Mariengof
Anatoly Borisovich Mariengof (1897 - 1962), poet, prose writer, playwright, memoirist, was a prominent figure in the literary life of Russia in the first half of our century. One of the founders poetic group Imagists, which had a certain influence on the development of Russian poetry in the 10-20s. He was associated with a close personal and creative friendship with Sergei Yesenin. He is the author of more than a dozen plays that were shown in the country's leading theaters, numerous poetry collections, two novels - "Cynics" and "Catherine" - and an autobiographical trilogy. His memoir prose for many years ...
End of the Nylon Age Josef Shkvoretsky
Josef Škvoretsky (b. 1924) is a classic of modern Czech literature, prose writer, playwright and musical critic living in Canada. The collection "The End of the Nylon Age" is composed of the most famous and controversial works of the writer, created in a strange and terrible time between the Nazi occupation of the Czech Republic and the Soviet invasion. Shkvoretsky's short novel "Bass Saxophone" was recognized as the best literary work of all times and peoples about jazz. Musical prose by Joseph Shkvoretsky - for the first time in Russian.
"Verily, that was the golden age of our literature,
the period of her innocence and bliss! .. "
M. A. Antonovich
M. Antonovich in his article called the "golden age of literature" early XIX century - the period of creativity of A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol. Subsequently, this definition began to characterize the literature of the entire 19th century - up to the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.
What are the main features of the Russian classical literature this period?
Fashionable at the beginning of the century, sentimentalism gradually fades into the background - the formation of romanticism begins, and from the middle of the century realism rules the ball.
New types of heroes appear in literature: " small man", which most often dies under the pressure of the foundations accepted in society and the "extra person" is a string of images, starting with Onegin and Pechorin.
Continuing the traditions of the satirical image, proposed by M. Fonvizin, in the literature of the 19th century satirical image vices of modern society becomes one of the central motives. Often satire takes on grotesque forms. Vivid examples- Gogol's "Nose" or "The History of a City" by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Another one distinguishing feature The literature of this period has an acute social orientation. Writers and poets are increasingly turning to socio-political topics, often plunging into the field of psychology. This leitmotif permeates the works of I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy. Appears new form- Russian realistic novel, with its deep psychologism, the most severe criticism of reality, irreconcilable enmity with the existing foundations and loud calls for renewal.
Well, the main reason that prompted many critics to call the 19th century the golden age of Russian culture: the literature of this period, despite a number of unfavorable factors, had a powerful influence on the development of world culture as a whole. Absorbing all the best that world literature offered, Russian literature was able to remain original and unique.
Russian writers of the 19th century
V.A. Zhukovsky- Pushkin's mentor and his Teacher. It is Vasily Andreevich who is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. It can be said that Zhukovsky "prepared" the ground for Pushkin's bold experiments, since he was the first to expand the scope poetic word. After Zhukovsky, the era of the democratization of the Russian language began, which was so brilliantly continued by Pushkin.
Selected Poems:
A.S. Griboyedov went down in history as the author of one work. But what! Masterpiece! Phrases and quotes from the comedy "Woe from Wit" have long become winged, and the work itself is considered the first realistic comedy in the history of Russian literature.
Analysis of the work:
A.S. Pushkin. He was called differently: A. Grigoriev claimed that "Pushkin is our everything!", F. Dostoevsky "the great and incomprehensible Forerunner", and Emperor Nicholas I admitted that, in his opinion, Pushkin is "the most intelligent person in Russia". Simply put, this is Genius.
Pushkin's greatest merit is that he radically changed the Russian literary language, saving it from pretentious abbreviations, such as "young, breg, sweet", from ridiculous "marshmallows", "Psyche", "Cupids", so revered in high-sounding elegies, from borrowings, which then so abounded in Russian poetry. Pushkin brought colloquial vocabulary, craft slang, elements of Russian folklore to the pages of printed publications.
A. N. Ostrovsky also pointed out another important achievement of this brilliant poet. Before Pushkin, Russian literature was imitative, stubbornly imposing traditions and ideals alien to our people. Pushkin, on the other hand, "gave courage to the Russian writer to be Russian", "revealed the Russian soul". In his stories and novels, for the first time, the theme of the morality of the social ideals of that time is so vividly raised. And the main character light hand Pushkin is now becoming an ordinary "little man" - with his thoughts and hopes, desires and character.
Analysis of works:
M.Yu. Lermontov- bright, mysterious, with a touch of mysticism and an incredible thirst for will. All his work is a unique fusion of romanticism and realism. Moreover, both directions do not oppose at all, but, as it were, complement each other. This man went down in history as a poet, writer, playwright and artist. He wrote 5 plays: the most famous is the drama "Masquerade".
And among prose works The real diamond of creativity was the novel "A Hero of Our Time" - the first realistic novel in prose in the history of Russian literature, where for the first time the writer tries to trace the "dialectics of the soul" of his hero, mercilessly subjecting him to psychological analysis. This innovative creative method of Lermontov will be used by many Russian and foreign writers in the future.
Selected works:
N.V. Gogol known as a writer and playwright, but it is no coincidence that one of his most famous works - "Dead Souls" is considered a poem. There is no other such Master of the word in world literature. Gogol's language is melodious, incredibly bright and figurative. This was most clearly manifested in his collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.
On the other hand, N.V. Gogol is considered the founder of the "natural school", with its satire bordering on the grotesque, accusatory motifs and ridicule of human vices.
Selected works:
I.S. Turgenev- the greatest Russian novelist who established the canons classic novel. He continues the traditions established by Pushkin and Gogol. He often refers to the theme of "an extra person", trying to convey the relevance and significance of social ideas through the fate of his hero.
Turgenev's merit also lies in the fact that he became the first propagandist of Russian culture in Europe. This is a prose writer who opened the world of the Russian peasantry, intelligentsia and revolutionaries to foreign countries. A string female images in his novels became the pinnacle of the writer's skill.
Selected works:
A.N. Ostrovsky- an outstanding Russian playwright. I. Goncharov most accurately expressed Ostrovsky's merits, recognizing him as the founder of the Russian folk theater. The plays of this writer became a "school of life" for the playwrights of the next generation. And the Moscow Maly Theater, where most of the plays of this talented writer were staged, proudly calls itself the "Ostrovsky House".
Selected works:
I.A. Goncharov continued to develop the traditions of the Russian realistic novel. The author of the famous trilogy, who, like no one else, managed to describe the main vice of the Russian people - laziness. With the light hand of the writer, the term "Oblomovism" also appeared.
Selected works:
L.N. Tolstoy- a real block of Russian literature. His novels are recognized as the pinnacle of the art of novel writing. The style of presentation and the creative method of L. Tolstoy are still considered the standard of the writer's skill. And his ideas of humanism had a huge impact on the development of humanistic ideas throughout the world.
Selected works:
N.S. Leskov- a talented successor to the traditions of N. Gogol. He made a huge contribution to the development of new genre forms in literature, such as pictures from life, rhapsodies, incredible events.
Selected works:
N.G. Chernyshevsky — eminent writer and a literary critic who proposed his theory of the aesthetics of the relationship of art to reality. This theory became the reference for the literature of the next few generations.
Selected works:
F.M. Dostoevsky- brilliant writer psychological novels known all over the world. Dostoevsky is often called the forerunner of such trends in culture as existentialism and surrealism.
Selected works:
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin — the greatest satirist, who brought the art of denunciation, ridicule and parody to the heights of mastery.
Selected works:
A.P. Chekhov. With this name, historians traditionally complete the era of the golden age of Russian literature. Chekhov was recognized throughout the world during his lifetime. His short stories have become a benchmark for short story writers. And Chekhov's plays had a huge impact on the development of world drama.
Selected works:
TO late XIX centuries, the traditions of critical realism began to gradually fade away. In a society permeated through and through with pre-revolutionary moods, mystical moods, partly even decadent ones, have come into fashion. They became the forerunner of the emergence of a new literary trend - symbolism and marked the beginning of a new period in the history of Russian literature - the silver age of poetry.
The period of the end of the nineteenth - the beginning of the twentieth century can safely be called a "turning point". Social upheavals were brewing, changing public consciousness there was a reassessment of values. Literature has also changed. Many new directions appeared, new topics and problems entered the field of literary consideration.
Russian prose of this era is very diverse. Then many talented authors wrote, and each brought something new to literature. First of all, it should be said about the change of genres. If in the sixties of the nineteenth century the form of the long novel dominated literature, now it has been replaced by short story(although novels were also written). The small form implies a much greater concentration of information than the large form, hence the authors' attention to artistic detail. Description of life with the help of such details that create a comic effect is the basis of the work of Leikin and early Chekhov - Antosha Chekhonte. The detail carries a huge informational load in all of Chekhov's work, so Misyu's "weak hands" in the "House with a Mezzanine" tell us about her mental weakness, and the smell of fried onions in "Ionych" further emphasizes the vulgarity of the existence of the Turkin family.
Bunin artistic detail is primarily of aesthetic value. His prose is the prose of a poet, this must not be forgotten. He lists details that may not contain specific information, but are absolutely necessary to create a mood, to convey the author's intonation.
In Merezhkovsky's novels, a detail always has a symbolic meaning. He is a theorist of symbolism and almost the head of the school - he writes nothing in vain, and every detail is a symbol. When Peter in "Peter and Alexei" accidentally steps on the icon with his foot and splits it in half, then this acquires a philosophical meaning in the context of the novel. In general, symbolist prose is very meaningful. It is characterized by an interest in philosophical questions, in the problems of Christianity. Hence their interest in antiquity (“Julian Otsupnik” by Merezhkovsky, “The Altar of Victory” by Bryusov), in the Middle Ages (“ Fire Angel Bryusov), to mysticism and in general everything mysterious.
The stories of L. Andreev cannot be attributed to a certain direction. He himself called himself a "neorealist", and sought to show "the unreal in the real." Hence the completely symbolist theme of his stories, which are purely realistic in form. His favorite topic is the relationship between man and fate, and the whole pathos of his work is pessimistic. Along with "neo-realism" there was also "neo-romanticism". Early stories M. Gorky, such as "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil" are saturated with a romantic attitude.
We see that Russian prose of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries developed in several directions, groped for different paths, in a word, lived a full-blooded and creative life.
