Writer, philosopher and journalist Nikolai Chernyshevsky was popular during his lifetime in a narrow circle of readers. With coming Soviet power his works (especially the novel What Is to Be Done?) have become textbooks. Today his name is one of the symbols of Russian literature XIX century.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Chernyshevsky, whose biography began in Saratov, was born into the family of a provincial priest. The father himself was engaged in the education of the child. From him, Chernyshevsky was transferred to religiosity, which faded away in his student years, when the young man became interested in revolutionary ideas. Since childhood, Kolenka read a lot and swallowed book after book, which surprised everyone around him.
In 1843, he entered the Saratov Theological Seminary, but, without graduating from it, he continued his education at the University of St. Petersburg. Chernyshevsky, whose biography was associated with humanities, chose the Faculty of Philosophy.
At the university, the future writer was formed. He became a utopian socialist. His ideology was influenced by members of the circle of Irinarkh Vvedensky, with whom the student talked and argued a lot. At the same time, he began his literary activity. The first works of fiction were only training and remained unpublished.
Teacher and journalist
Having received an education, Chernyshevsky, whose biography was now connected with pedagogy, became a teacher. He taught in Saratov, and then returned to the capital. In the same years, he met his wife Olga Vasilyeva. The wedding took place in 1853.
The beginning of Chernyshevsky's journalistic activity was connected with Petersburg. In the same 1853, he began to publish in the newspapers Otechestvennye Zapiski and St. Petersburg Vedomosti. But most of all, Nikolai Gavrilovich was known as a member of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine. There were several circles of writers, each of which defended its position.
Work at Sovremennik
Nikolai Chernyshevsky, whose biography was already known in the literary environment of the capital, became closest to Dobrolyubov and Nekrasov. These authors were passionate about the revolutionary ideas they wanted to express in Sovremennik.
A few years earlier, civil riots had erupted across Europe, echoing through Russia. For example, Louis-Philippe was overthrown by the bourgeoisie in Paris. And in Austria, the nationalist movement of the Hungarians was suppressed only after Nicholas I came to the rescue of the emperor, who sent several regiments to Budapest. The tsar, whose reign began with the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, was afraid of revolutions and increased censorship in Russia.
This caused concern among the liberals in Sovremennik. They Vasily Botkin, Alexander Druzhinin and others) did not want the journal to be radicalized.
Chernyshevsky's activities increasingly attracted the attention of the state and officials responsible for censorship. A striking event was the public defense of a dissertation on art, at which the writer delivered a revolutionary speech. In protest, Minister of Education Avraam Norov did not allow Nikolai Gavrilovich to be awarded the prize. Only after he was replaced in this position by the more liberal Yevgraf Kovalevsky, did the writer become a master of Russian literature.
Chernyshevsky's views
It is important to note some features of Chernyshevsky's views. They were influenced by schools such as French materialism and Hegelianism. As a child, the writer was a zealous Christian, but in adulthood began to actively criticize religion, as well as liberalism and the bourgeoisie.
Especially fiercely he stigmatized serfdom. Even before the Manifesto on the Liberation of the Peasants of Alexander II was published, the writer described the future reform in many articles and essays. He proposed drastic measures, including the transfer of land to peasants free of charge. However, the Manifesto had little to do with these utopian programs. Since they were established that prevented the peasants from becoming completely free, Chernyshevsky regularly scolded this document. He compared the situation of Russian peasants with the life of black slaves in the USA.
Chernyshevsky believed that in 20 or 30 years after the liberation of the peasants, the country would get rid of capitalist agriculture, and socialism would come with a communal form of ownership. Nikolai Gavrilovich advocated the creation of phalanstery - premises in which the inhabitants of future communes would work together for mutual benefit. This project was utopian, which is not surprising, because its author was Phalanster, which was described by Chernyshevsky in one of the chapters of the novel What Is To Be Done?
"Land and Freedom"
Revolutionary propaganda continued. One of her inspirations was Nikolai Chernyshevsky. short biography writer in any textbook necessarily contains at least a paragraph stating that it was he who became the founder of the famous movement "Land and Freedom". It really is. In the second half of the 1950s, Chernyshevsky began to have many contacts with Alexander Herzen. went into exile due to pressure from the authorities. In London, he began publishing the Russian-language newspaper The Bell. She became the mouthpiece of revolutionaries and socialists. It was sent in secret editions to Russia, where the numbers were very popular among radical students.
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky also published in it. The biography of the writer was known to any socialist in Russia. In 1861, with his ardent participation (as well as the influence of Herzen), Land and Freedom appeared. This movement united a dozen circles in the most big cities countries. It included writers, students and other supporters revolutionary ideas. It is interesting that Chernyshevsky even managed to drag the officers with whom he collaborated by publishing in military magazines there.
Members of the organization were engaged in propaganda and criticism of the tsarist authorities. "Going to the People" has become a historical anecdote over the years. Agitators trying to find mutual language with the peasants, they were also issued to the police. For many years, revolutionary views did not find a response in common people, remaining the lot of a narrow stratum of the intelligentsia.
Arrest
Over time, the biography of Chernyshevsky, in short, interested the agents of the secret investigation. On Kolokol's business, he even went to see Herzen in London, which, of course, only drew more attention to him. From September 1861, the writer was under covert surveillance. He was suspected of provocations against the authorities.
In June 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested. Even before this event, clouds began to gather around him. In May, the Sovremennik magazine was closed. The writer was accused of compiling a proclamation discrediting the authorities, which ended up in the hands of provocateurs. The police also managed to intercept a letter from Herzen, where the emigrant offered to publish the closed Sovremennik again, only in London.
"What to do?"
The accused was placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he stayed during the investigation. It went on for a year and a half. At first, the writer tried to protest against the arrest. He announced hunger strikes, which, however, did not change his position in any way. On days when the prisoner was getting better, he took up the pen and began to work on a sheet of paper. So the novel “What is to be done?” Was written, which became the most famous work published by Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich. A brief biography of this figure, printed in any encyclopedia, necessarily contains information about this book.
The novel was published in the newly opened Sovremennik in three issues in 1863. Interestingly, there might not have been any publication. The only original was lost on the streets of St. Petersburg during transportation to the editorial office. The papers were found by a passer-by and only out of his kindness of heart returned them to Sovremennik. Nikolai Nekrasov, who worked there and literally went crazy with the loss, was beside himself with happiness when the novel was returned to him.
Sentence
Finally, in 1864, the verdict was announced to the disgraced writer. He went to hard labor in Nerchinsk. The verdict also contained a clause according to which Nikolai Gavrilovich was to spend the rest of his life in eternal exile. Alexander II changed the term of hard labor to 7 years. What else can Chernyshevsky's biography tell us? Briefly, literally in a nutshell, let's talk about the years spent by the materialist philosopher in captivity. The harsh climate and difficult conditions greatly worsened his health. Despite having survived hard labor. Later he lived in several provincial towns, but never returned to the capital.
Even in hard labor, like-minded people tried to free him, who came up with various escape plans. However, they were never implemented. From 1883 to 1889, Nikolai Chernyshevsky (his biography says that it was at the end of the life of a democratic revolutionary) spent in Astrakhan. Shortly before his death, he returned to Saratov thanks to the patronage of his son.
Death and meaning
October 11, 1889 in hometown died N. G. Chernyshevsky. The biography of the writer has become the subject of imitation of many followers and supporters.
Soviet ideology put him on a par with figures of the XIX century, which were the harbingers of the revolution. The novel "What to do?" became a mandatory school curriculum. On modern lessons literature, this topic is also studied, only less hours are devoted to it.
In Russian journalism and journalism there is a separate list of the founders of these areas. It included Herzen, Belinsky and Chernyshevsky. Biography, summary his books, as well as the impact on social thought - all these issues are being investigated by writers today.
Quotes Chernyshevsky
The writer was known for his sharp language and ability to build sentences. Here are Chernyshevsky's most famous quotes:
- Personal happiness is impossible without the happiness of others.
- Youth is the time of freshness of noble feelings.
- Scholarly literature saves people from ignorance, and elegant literature from rudeness and vulgarity.
- They flatter in order to dominate under the guise of humility.
- Only in truth is the power of talent; wrong direction destroys the strongest talent.
Current page: 2 (total book has 40 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 27 pages]
*Fight for Gogol. Literary debuts 1847
Each literary direction seeks to establish its high status. And for the sake of this, he is looking for an authoritative predecessor, a founding father. Such in the 40s could only be Gogol, the author of The Inspector General and dead souls". A writer exceptionally popular among writers of the most diverse persuasions: Slavophiles and Westernizers, Muscovites and Petersburgers.
For Belinsky, Gogol is primarily a satirist who depicts poverty and inferiority. Russian life(poem " Dead Souls”), ridiculing the vices of individuals and classes (the comedy “The Government Inspector”), special attention giving image " little man"(The famous story" Overcoat "). From here it seems to be a direct road to a natural school, at least Belinsky is sure of this. And everything would have been so if ... not for the position of Gogol himself, who at the beginning of 1847 published an unusual, confessional book "Selected passages from correspondence with friends" (we talked about it in the first part of the textbook).
It is easy to guess how the leaders of the St. Petersburg literary parties reacted to the change in Gogol's views. Belinsky wrote an open “Letter to Gogol”, which went from hand to hand, in which he furiously denounced the writer for betraying past ideals, for defending religious values that supposedly had long since become obsolete. One way or another, after "Selected Places ..." it became completely impossible to talk about Gogol as the leader and forerunner of the natural school.
Well, Bulgarin, of course, triumphed! Immediately after appearing in bookstores of Gogol's new book, he wrote in Severnaya Pchela: new school". Now, according to Bulgarin, "the former praisers have departed from him ... they began to blame their idol", and this is "a true triumph for the Northern Bee!"
So, in 1847, the "theoretical" battle for Gogol was lost by the Nekrasov circle. However, in the end, the direction of Nekrasov - Belinsky turned out to be an incommensurably more fruitful phenomenon in the history of Russian literature. Following the "writers of the average hand", who made up the majority among the authors of "Physiology of Petersburg", the future classics of Russian literature Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Goncharov, Herzen began to cooperate with the founders of the natural school ... About the reasons for these significant events we have to talk.
How (and why so) did Belinsky and Bulgarin react to Gogol's book Selected passages from correspondence with friends?
After the success of "Physiology of Petersburg" and the "Petersburg Collection" published in 1846 (in which, by the way, the unknown writer Fyodor Dostoevsky made his debut with the novel "Poor People"), Nekrasov and Panaev decided to publish a magazine. The fact is that the preparation and publication of almanacs and collections required exorbitant efforts and costs: each time it was necessary to obtain official permission for publication anew, to “prepare” the reader for its appearance long before. An almanac, a collection are inevitably one-time, one-time events, so it is difficult to take full advantage of their success with the reader - it is not possible to publish an endless continuation of the “Physiology of Petersburg”!
Another thing is its own "thick" magazine, published every month, which has an easily recognizable list of permanent headings ("Literature", "Science and Art", "Criticism and Bibliography", etc.)! At the end of 1846, Nekrasov and Panaev purchased a magazine that was destined to become the most popular literary periodical mid-nineteenth centuries. However, the past of this magazine was very loud. "Contemporary" we are talking about him - was founded ten years ago by Pushkin, who before his death in early 1837 managed to publish only four issues (or, as they said, books) of his favorite brainchild.
After the death of the poet, the magazine formally passed to his heirs, and was published by Pushkin's friend, poet, critic, professor of St. Petersburg University Pyotr Pletnev. Sovremennik under Pletnev did not have a resounding success: the circulation was constantly decreasing, losses were growing.
And suddenly - a breakthrough! The new publishers of Sovremennik, during the first year of the new magazine's existence alone, published so many sensational works on its pages that we can only wonder: Ivan Goncharov's Ordinary History, essays from Ivan Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter, novels by Dostoevsky and Grigorovich, Nekrasov's poems, Panaev's feuilletons, Belinsky's articles... And if we also mention the first complete edition of Herzen's novel Who is to Blame? fostered in the editorial circle of Sovremennik.
It's all right - it's not. Indeed, there is no way to take away the professional insight of the founders of the natural school. Among the multitude of both beginners and those who already had a high reputation in the capital's writers, Nekrasov and Panaev unmistakably chose those who, in their opinion, followed the path of a natural school - and their protégés almost inevitably found themselves on the crest of success and glory in the future. However, the natural school for the most part had nothing to do with it.
Why did Nekrasov and Panaev become the publishers of Sovremennik?
Westernism; natural school; Slavophilism; physiological essay.
Questions and tasks
1. How did two currents of Russian thought arise and become established: Slavophilism and Westernism? Is it possible to put the question in this way: who was right, the Slavophiles or the Westernizers? Or do both these currents express in their own way the essence of Russian culture?
2. What is a "physiological essay"? Which of the Russian writers of the second half 19th century worked in this genre? How did he influence the development of Russian prose?
3. Who was the founder of the natural school? And who came up with its name? What were the main artistic ideas natural school?
1. Read the essay by D. V. Grigorovich “ lottery ball” from the collection “Physiology of St. Petersburg” and his own story “The Gutta-Percha Boy” (1883). Are there fundamental differences between the picture of the world created in the "documentary" essay and in the story? What is the relationship between the narrator and the events in one case and the other?
Physiology of Petersburg. M., 1991.
The Nekrasov collection was republished in the most serious scientific series " Literary monuments»; this edition includes an extensive article about the history of its creation, a detailed commentary.
Vinogradov V.V. The evolution of Russian naturalism // Vinogradov VV Selected works. Poetics of Russian literature. M., 1976.
The outstanding historian of literature placed the Russian natural school in the context of pan-European cultural processes.
Kuleshov V.I. natural school in Russian literature. 2nd ed. M., 1982.
The book contains detailed analysis such a phenomenon in Russian literature as the natural school.
Mann Yu.V. Philosophy and poetics of the natural school // Problems of typology of Russian realism. M., 1969.
"Social Epoch" in Russian Literature of the 1850s-1860s
Miscellaneous writers. N. G. Chernyshevsky
Who became the direct heir to the ideas of the natural school in Russian literature? Except for the great satirist and publicist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (the next section will be devoted to him), then first of all those raznochintsy writers who are commonly called "revolutionary democrats". For the most part, they were interested not so much in "arts" as in the real course of real life. Many of them were political fighters in spirit, they wanted to change the Russian reality in an evolutionary or revolutionary way. But there were no legal ways to participate in politics (elections to parliament, parties) in autocratic Russia. And they did not want to confine themselves to illegal struggle, participation in secret revolutionary organizations. And then, feeling that Russian literature was turning into the main public platform, directly influencing the minds, dealing with the fate of “little people”, criticizing the structure of Russian life, raznochinny prose writers and publicists of the 1840-1860s, consciously or unconsciously, used literature as a means of promoting their political ideas.
by the most prominent representative this "cohort" of domestic wrestling writers became Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828-1889).
He was born and raised in Saratov, on the Volga. Being (like many literary raznochintsy) the son of a priest, he early parted from church life, but transferred all the passion of religious feelings to public life. He believed in the reorganization of earthly existence on a just basis, just as a believer hopes in the Kingdom of God, in afterlife. A straightforward and honest man, Chernyshevsky warned his future wife that he would devote himself entirely to the cause of the revolution, and if a popular uprising happened, he would certainly take part in it; therefore, most likely, he will end up in a fortress and hard labor. And so she consciously and voluntarily connected her fate with a "dangerous" person.
Before acting as a novelist, Chernyshevsky (who by that time had moved to St. Petersburg) managed to defend a scientific dissertation entitled "The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality" (1855). The main idea of Chernyshevsky-aesthetics was the idea that the beautiful is life itself in all its manifestations, and the tragic is the terrible in human life.
From the point of view of traditional aesthetics, Chernyshevsky's ideas did not withstand any criticism. We read a book not to learn from reading practical benefit; we read it in order to get aesthetic pleasure. Of course, a good book ultimately influences us, our thoughts, our worldview, and even educates us. But this is a consequence, not a cause, a result, not a goal. However, any political fighters, regardless of which camp they belong to, noble, raznochintsy or proletarian, treat art as a service force, which is subordinated to the solution of more important social problems.
In 1863, Chernyshevsky's own novel, What Is to Be Done?, appeared in Sovremennik. The title referred the reader to another nonfiction novel, Who is to Blame? A. I. Herzen. (At the center of Herzen's plot was the young nobleman Beltov; brought up by a Swiss idealist, Beltov dreamed of social activities; tried to find a job in the social field in Russia; was rejected by autocratic reality; became a disappointed "young old man", in fact, a loser.) Herzen, the question was posed "in a literary way"; he, as a writer-analyst, a student of the natural school, diagnosed modern society, declared it to be the main culprit of the Beltov catastrophe. And for Chernyshevsky, the question put in the title of the novel sounds almost like a guide to action. The writer, as it were, promises the reader in advance to answer the question, to give a recipe for healing from a social disease.
Semi-detective story ( mysterious hero Rakhmetov disappears to no one knows where) was quite consistent with the semi-detective story of the manuscript itself. On July 7, 1862, on suspicion of involvement in revolutionary organizations, Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. During the investigation (it ended in 1864 with a guilty verdict, civil execution and seven years of hard labor), Nikolai Gavrilovich had a lot of free time, and he composed a publicistic novel. The manuscript was submitted in parts for consideration by the members investigative committee, but they did not raise any objections: "dangerous" ideas were well conspired, veiled by an "entertaining" form. Missed the novel and censorship; if anything threatened the manuscript at that moment, it was an accident, “the finger of fate.”
Later, A. Ya. Panaeva recalled:
The editors of Sovremennik were impatiently waiting for Chernyshevsky's manuscript. Finally, it was received with many seals ... Nekrasov himself took the manuscript to Wolf's printing house, located not far - on Liteinaya, near Nevsky. A quarter of an hour had not passed when Nekrasov returned and, entering my room, struck me with the lost expression of his face.
“A great misfortune happened to me,” he said in an agitated voice, “I dropped the manuscript!”
Most of all, Nekrasov feared that the manuscript of the novel What Is To Be Done? find some commoner who will put it into wrappers or sell it to a small shop; then it will not be possible to restore the novel. However, everything was settled by itself: the editors placed an ad in the newspaper, and soon an official came to Sovremennik and brought the manuscript he had found. In three issues of the magazine for 1863, the novel What Is To Be Done? was published.
Its heroes, as Chernyshevsky himself emphasized in the subtitle (“From stories about new people”), were representatives of a new generation of raznochintsy intelligentsia - later they would be called “sixties”.
Outwardly, the novel is structured in such a way that at first it is indeed easy to mistake for a traditional moral description.
The young raznochinets student Lopukhov is indignant at how the family treats the girl Vera Pavlovna; becoming her spiritual leader (actually replacing the priest, spiritual father), he instills in her a love of science, practical knowledge and social ideals. And in order to save her from marriage with a hated zhuyer, he marries her - and for this he refuses his future medical career, drops out of his studies at the medical academy.
Lopukhov's friend, Kirsanov, also refuses a brilliant medical practice, but not for the sake of saving a young creature, but for the sake of engaging in high science. In turn, the businesslike Vera Pavlovna comes up with a way to benefit society - she organizes a sewing workshop, the workers of which take everything they earn for themselves, and the mistress does not pursue any personal benefit. (This was the first depiction in Russian culture of socialist production based on justice, not profit.)
But the social idyll suddenly stumbles upon a personal problem: after two years of happy family life, Lopukhov suddenly notices that his wife fell in love with Kirsanov. How would a traditional Russian hero act in such a situation? classical literature? He would fall into deep thought, indulge in suffering, at worst, would challenge the enemy to a duel. But for new people (respectively, for new heroes) this is an unworthy way out of the current circumstances, a manifestation of noble prejudices. Therefore, Lopukhov is guided not by emotions, but by reason (Chernyshevsky defined his ethical views as “reasonable egoism”). He analyzes the situation and in the end comes to the conclusion that Vera Pavlovna's happiness is the most precious thing, therefore, she should become Kirsanov's wife.
The images of young people filled with practical nobility are shaded, on the one hand, by the unworthy image of Vera Pavlovna's mother, Maria Alekseevna Rozalskaya. With another - perfect way real revolutionary Rakhmetov.
Maria Alekseevna is practical, intelligent, but indifferent to other people's suffering and cruel; her only goal is the well-being of the family. Of course, against the background of Rozalskaya with her unreasonable egoism, the “new people” especially benefit. But they lose a little against the background of Rakhmetov, who broke with his native noble environment and from his youth devoted himself to the future revolution (Rakhmetov even sleeps on bare boards to prepare his body for hardships). Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna have yet to become conscious fighters against the existing regime - the author hints at this quite transparently.
It is not for nothing that Vera Pavlovna constantly has dreams in which pictures of the socialist future arise; for this future, as the writer believes, it is not a pity to lay down one's life. In the famous “fourth dream” of Vera Pavlovna, the author’s words generally sound, which cannot be understood otherwise than as a direct call to revolution: “... you know the future. It is light and beautiful. Love him, strive for him, work for him, transfer from him to the present as much as you can transfer: your life will be so bright and kind, rich in joy and pleasure, as far as you can transfer into it from the future.
propaganda, tendentious, as they said then, the meaning of the novel “What is to be done?” eventually reached the censorship department. But it's too late - the novel has already been published. It only remained to ban it for reprints (the ban was in effect until 1905). Those who let the manuscript go to print were roughly punished. Meanwhile, Chernyshevsky, as a consistent person, only put into practice the provisions of his long-standing aesthetic theory; He used art form literary work to "advance" practical ideas. That is why his novel caused a huge reader response, but not like literary work but as a social, political document. It still retains its importance primarily as historical source, as a distant evidence of that controversial era.
Read the "fourth dream" of Vera Pavlovna. Compare it with the Traveler's "vision" in the chapter Spasskaya Poles' in Radishchev's Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
*"New people" in the social prose of the 1860s
Writers of ordinary talent, of a good average level, seem to have “preserved” the poetics of a physiological essay. And for almost a decade and a half, they willingly exploited his methods.
So, Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomyalovsky (1835–1863) set in his prose writings actual problems of that time: in his story "Petty Bourgeois Happiness" (1861), the educated raznochinets Molotov is faced with an incurable landownership; in the sketch story The Junkman (1863), a man is taken out of the crowd. A Vasily Alekseevich Sleptsov (1836-1878) placed in the plot center of his sensational story "Hard Time" (1865) a revolutionary raznochintsy who is faced not with the "wild nobility", but with the inertia of the people. This hero, Ryazanov, expresses the cherished thought of the author himself, taking the ideas of Russian “naturalism” to the extreme: “Everything depends on the conditions in which a person is placed: under certain conditions he will strangle and rob his neighbor, and under others, he will remove and give back myself the last shirt.
Such a super-rigid social approach to the human personality, which completely reduced it to external circumstances, was shared by many at that time. One of the most popular critics and publicists of that time, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev (1840-1868), in one of his articles polemically argued that a person does not kill people, does not commit bad deeds, for the same reason that he does not eat rotten meat. But being in hopeless situation hunger, he will overcome disgust and eat rotten meat; therefore, if the environment, circumstances compel him, he will kill and steal, and there is no particular fault in that. In fact, the writers and publicists of the revolutionary camp turned a person into a social animal, which depends on social instincts. Because Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev called them nihilists from Latin word nihil - nothing.
However, the highest achievements of writers who were followers of the natural school are associated with the genre that borders between literature and journalism. essay.
So, the best essays are still reprinted Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (1843-1902) about the life of the Russian post-reform village - "From the village diary" (1877-1880). His colorful book The Morals of Rasteryaeva Street (1866) directly continued the tradition of the Physiology of Petersburg. These literary essays, devoid of fiction, but colored by the personal intonation of the narrator, had a direct influence on the development of "proper" fiction. They were read, for example, by Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko (1853–1921), whose novels “The Blind Musician” (1886) and “In Bad Society [Children of the Underground]” (1885) you read in lower grades. Other talented prose writers of the second half of the 19th century did not pass them by, for example, Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (1855–1888), the author of the textbook “social” story The Red Flower (1883).
Why did Turgenev call the raznochintsy-sixties "nihilists"?
Russian prose after natural school
In parallel with the physiological outline and artistic compositions essay type in the 1850s and 1860s, realistic, life-like, everyday prose developed. It was then that the Russian reader met autobiographical novels Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov (1791-1859): "Family Chronicle" (1856), "Childhood of Bagrov-grandson" (1858); at the same time, his fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” was published, which you probably know well. The father of the famous Slavophiles, the Aksakov brothers, Sergei Timofeevich came to "professional" literature late, a few years before his death, but remained in national culture forever. His literary talent was original. When raznochintsy writers began to expose the wild nobility and popular ignorance, Aksakov almost defiantly wrote about the happy childhood of the barchuk, Bagrov-grandson. Stylistically it coincided with the spirit of the times, gave heroes and events social characteristics, in detail prescribed the details of real life; meaningful resisted the era.
But still further destinies of Russian literature were associated primarily not with acutely social stories from modern "grassroots life", not with vivid essays or autobiographical narratives in the spirit of Aksakov, but with the genre novel.
The main genres of modern European epic prose are story (short story), story, novel. The story is a small form; it, as a rule, has one storyline, not complicated by "side" plot moves, the narrator's focus is on the fate of the protagonist and his immediate environment. It is common to call a novel a special kind of story with a dynamic plot that ends with an unexpected denouement (the very name of the novel genre comes from the Italian word novella, which means “news”). Tale - middle form epic prose; As a rule, there are several storylines in the story that interact with each other in a complex way. But, like a story (and this is “fixed” by the name of the genre), the story shows a picture of life that can be captured, as it were, with one look, a look. narrator, narrator.
And here novel – big shape epic prose, covers such a vast section of life, so intertwines the fate of heroes, storylines that it is difficult for one narrator to keep all his threads in his hands. Therefore, he is forced to resort to testimonies and "documents", retell events from other people's words, "instruct" the heroes who witnessed some episodes to independently narrate about them. Roman, as the largest literary genre, often absorbs small and medium genres. Within the vast space of the novel, a poem, a fairy tale, and even a whole story can be included - remember, for example, "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" in Gogol's "Dead Souls".
And of course, the more complex the picture of life that Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century strove to portray became, the more often they turned to the synthetic, all-encompassing genre of the novel. It was in this genre that Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy worked. They were destined to complete all those critical processes that took place in Russian literature throughout the 19th century. They managed to combine in their novel work the image of an individual character in inseparable connection with society and the environment - and an extremely broad view of a person as a being capable of overcoming any circumstances.
Remember literary terms
Fiction; raznochintsy writers; social prose; pure art.
Questions and tasks
1. Why did Nikolai Chernyshevsky decide to turn to fiction? What is the meaning of the title of his novel What Is to Be Done?
2. What role did the genre of the novel play in the fate of Russian prose in the second half of the 19th century?
3. What distinctive features"tendential art"?
Questions and tasks of increased complexity
1. Read the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What is to be done?”. Prepare an essay on Fiction and revolutionary propaganda.
2. Prepare a report on the topic “B. G. Belinsky is a theoretician and practitioner of the natural school.
Topics of essays and essays
1. Natural school in Russian literature: the fate of the "little man".
2. "New people" in Russian literature of the 1850s-1860s.
3. Slavophilism and Westernism: two poles of Russian culture.
Volodin A. I., Karyakin Yu. F., Pli m ak E. G.
Chernyshevsky or Nechaev? About the true and imaginary revolutionism and the liberation movement of Russia in the 50-60s of the XIX century. M., 1976.
At different times, researchers treated the social ideas of the revolutionary democrats (which formed the basis of their artistic and literary-critical works) differently. Under Soviet rule, official literary criticism exalted them in every possible way; many freedom-loving scientists, on the contrary, tried to prove the inconsistency and even the danger of the ideology of forcible "improvement" of the world. And some tried to find a "middle", conciliatory position, like the authors of this book, which at one time played a certain role in science.
Egorov B.F. Evolution of aesthetic ideas of N. G. Chernyshevsky // He is. The struggle of aesthetic ideas in Russia in the middle of the 19th century. L., 1982.
In the works of the scientist, the history of the struggle of ideas in Russia in the middle of the 19th century is very capaciously, accurately and briefly.
Paperno I. Semiotics of behavior: Nikolai Chernyshevsky is a man of the era of realism. M., 1996.
Author, American researcher Russian origin, proceeds from the fact that the artistic works of Chernyshevsky, weak from a general aesthetic point of view, nevertheless, it was no coincidence that they were perceived by contemporaries as bright and relevant. The book will be useful to those who want to connect their future professional life with the humanities.
Pisarev D.I. Destruction of aesthetics // He is. Cit.: In 4 vols. M., 1956. Vol. 3 or any other edition.
In order to understand exactly what principles the "nihilists" professed, how they understood the nature of art, it is useful to familiarize yourself with the original treatise of the bright critic of that time, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev.
Topic: - Artistic features and compositional originality of the novel "What is to be done?"
Unconventional and unusual for Russian prose XIX century, the plot of the work, more characteristic of French adventure novels, is a mysterious suicide described in the 1st chapter of "What to do?" - was, according to the generally accepted opinion of all researchers, a kind of intriguing device designed to confuse the commission of inquiry and tsarist censorship. The melodramatic tone of the narrative of family drama in the 2nd chapter, and the unexpected title of the 3rd - "Foreword", which begins with the words: "The content of the story is love, the main person is a woman, this is good, even if the story itself was bad ..." Moreover, in this chapter, the author, addressing the public in a half-joking, half-mocking tone, admits that he quite deliberately "began the story with spectacular scenes torn from the middle or end of it, covered them with fog." After that, the author, having laughed at his readers to his heart's content, says: “I don’t have a shadow of artistic talent. I don’t even speak the language well. a good thing: she rewards the shortcomings of the writer who serves her. "The reader is puzzled: on the one hand, the author clearly despises him, ranking him among the majority with whom he is "impudent", on the other, as if he is ready to show him all the cards and, moreover, intrigues him by the fact that in his narrative there is also hidden meaning! The reader is left with one thing - to read, and in the process of reading to gain patience, and the deeper he plunges into the work, the more tests his patience undergoes ... The fact that the author really has a poor command of the language, the reader is convinced literally from the first pages. So, for example, Chernyshevsky has a weakness for stringing verbal chains: "Mother stopped daring to enter her room"; loves repetition: "It's strange to others, but you don't know that it's strange, but I know that it's not strange"; the author's speech is careless and vulgar, and sometimes one gets the feeling that this is a bad translation from a foreign language: "the gentleman broke into ambition"; "For a long time they felt the sides of one of themselves"; "He answered with exquisite tolerance"; "People fall into two main departments"; "The end of this beginning happened when they passed by the old man"; the author's digressions are dark, clumsy and wordy: "They didn't even think that they were thinking this; but this is the best thing, that they didn't even notice that they were thinking this"; "Vera Pavlovna" ... began to think, not at all, but somewhat, no, not several, but almost completely, to think that there was nothing important, that she took for a strong passion just a dream that would dissipate in a few days "... "or did she think that she didn't, didn't think it, that she felt that it wasn't so? Yes, it wasn't so, no, so, so, more and more firmly she thought she thought it." At times, the tone of the narration seems to parody the intonations of the Russian everyday fairy tale: "After tea ... she came into her little room and lay down. So she reads in her bed, only the book falls from her eyes, and Vera Pavlovna thinks: what is it, Lately am I a little bored sometimes?" Alas, such examples can be given ad infinitum ... The mixing of styles is no less annoying: over the course of one semantic episode, the same faces now and then go astray from a pathetically sublime style to everyday, frivolous or why did the Russian public accept this novel? "vilely written," immediately made the reservation: "on the other hand, a lot of good things." From what "other side"? Obviously, from the side of Truth, the service of which should remove all accusations of mediocrity from the author! And the "advanced minds" of that era identified with Benefit, Benefit - with Happiness, Happiness - with serving the same Truth ... Be that as it may, Chernyshevsky can hardly be reproached for insincerity, because he wanted good, and not for himself, but for everyone! As Vladimir Nabokov wrote in The Gift (in the chapter devoted to Chernyshevsky), "the ingenious Russian reader understood the good things that the mediocre novelist tried in vain to express." Another thing is how Chernyshevsky himself went to this good and where he led the "new people." (Recall that the regicide Sophia Perovskaya was already in early youth adopted Rakhmetov's "boxing diet" and slept on the bare floor.) Let the revolutionary Chernyshevsky be judged with all severity by history, and the writer and critic Chernyshevsky by the history of literature.(1828-1889). Publicist, literary critic, prose writer, economist, philosopher, revolutionary democrat. Born in the family of a priest. Until the age of 12, he was brought up and studied at home under the guidance of his father. In 1842-1845, Chernyshevsky studied at the Saratov Seminary, where he was predicted to have a spiritual career. However, the spiritual field did not attract the future publicist, and, without graduating from the seminary, he entered in 1846 the Department of General Literature of the Philosophical Faculty of St. Petersburg University, where he studied Slavic philology .
During the years of study at the university (1846-1850), the foundations of the worldview were developed. The conviction that a revolution in Russia was necessary by 1850 was combined with the soberness of historical thinking: “Here is my way of thinking about Russia: an irresistible expectation of an imminent revolution and a thirst for it, although I know that for a long time, maybe a very long time, nothing will come of it good. That, perhaps, oppression, etc., will only increase for a long time. – that peaceful, quiet development is impossible.” Chernyshevsky tried his hand at prose (the story of Lily and Goethe, the story of Josephine, Theory and Practice, The Cut Piece). Having left the university as a candidate, after a short work as a tutor in the Second Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, he served as a senior teacher of literature at the Saratov gymnasium (1851-1853), where he spoke in the class "such things that smell like hard labor." Returning to St. Petersburg in May 1853, Chernyshevsky taught at the Second Cadet Corps, while preparing for the exams for a master's degree and working on his dissertation "The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality." The debate on the dissertation presented to Professor Nikitenko in the autumn of 1853 took place on May 10, 1855 and was a manifestation of materialistic ideas in aesthetics, irritating the university authorities.
The dissertation was officially approved in January 1859. In parallel, there was a journal work, which began in the summer of 1853 with reviews in the journal " Domestic notes". But from the spring of 1855, Chernyshevsky, who retired, was engaged in journal work for N.A. Nekrasov's Sovremennik.
Collaboration in this journal (1859-1861) fell on a period of social upsurge associated with the preparation of the peasant reform.
Under the leadership of Chernyshevsky and Nekrasov, and later Dobrolyubov, the revolutionary-democratic direction of the journal was determined. Since 1854, Chernyshevsky led the department of criticism and bibliography in Sovremennik. At the end of 1857, he handed it over to Dobrolyubov and focused mainly on political, economic, philosophical topics.
Convinced of the predatory nature of the forthcoming reform, Chernyshevsky boycotted the pre-reform hype; upon the publication of the manifesto on February 19, 1861, Sovremennik did not directly respond to it. In Letters Without an Address, written after the reform and actually addressed to Alexander II (published abroad in 1874), Chernyshevsky accused the autocratic-bureaucratic regime of robbing the peasants. Counting on a peasant revolution, the Sovremennik circle, headed by Chernyshevsky, resorted to illegal forms of struggle.
Chernyshevsky wrote a revolutionary proclamation "Bow to the lordly peasants from well-wishers." In an atmosphere of growing post-reform reaction, the attention of the III Division was increasingly attracted by the activities of Chernyshevsky. Since the autumn of 1861, he was under police surveillance. But Chernyshevsky was a skilled conspirator, nothing suspicious was found in his papers. In June 1862, the publication of Sovremennik was banned for 8 months. On July 7, 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested.
The reason for the arrest was a letter intercepted at the border by Herzen and Ogarev, in which it was proposed to publish Sovremennik in London or Geneva. On the same day, Chernyshevsky became a prisoner of the Alekseevsky ravelin. Peter and Paul Fortress, where he stayed until the verdict was passed - a civil execution that took place on May 19, 1864 on Mytninskaya Square. He was deprived of all rights of state and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor in the mines, followed by a settlement in Siberia.
Alexander II reduced the term of hard labor to 7 years. The trial in the Chernyshevsky case dragged on for a very long time due to the lack of direct evidence. In the fortress, Chernyshevsky turned to artistic creativity. Here, from December 14, 1862 to April 4, 1863, the novel “What is to be done? From stories about new people. He was followed by the remaining unfinished story "Alferyev" (1863) and the novel "Tales in the story" (1863), "Small stories" (1864). Saw the light only novel "What to do?". In May 1864, Chernyshevsky was sent under escort to Siberia, where he was first at the mine, and from September 1865 - in the prison of the Alexander Plant. where the prison was the best building, and the climate proved disastrous.
Here Chernyshevsky was the only exile and could communicate only with the gendarmes and the local Yakut population; Correspondence was difficult, and often deliberately delayed.
Only in 1883, when Alexandra III, Chernyshevsky was allowed to move to Astrakhan. A sharp change in climate greatly damaged his health. The years of fortress, hard labor and exile (1862-1883) did not lead to the oblivion of the name and works of Chernyshevsky - his fame as a thinker and revolutionary grew. Upon his arrival in Astrakhan, Chernyshevsky hoped to return to active literary activity, but the publication of his works, albeit under a pseudonym, was difficult.
In June 1889, Chernyshevsky received permission to return to his homeland, to Saratov. He built big plans despite rapidly deteriorating health. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in Saratov. In the versatile heritage of Chernyshevsky important place works on aesthetics, literary criticism, artistic creativity. In all these areas, he acted as an innovator, raising controversy to this day. Chernyshevsky is applicable to his own words about Gogol as a writer from among those “love for whom requires the same mood of the soul with them, because their activity is serving a certain direction of moral aspirations” . In the novel "What to do? From stories about new people "Chernyshevsky continued the theme of a new public figure discovered by Turgenev in Fathers and Sons, mainly from raznochintsy, who changed the type" extra person". The romantic pathos of the work lies in the striving for the socialist ideal, the future, when the type of "new man" will become "the common nature of all people." The prototype of the future is also the personal relations of the “new people”, resolving conflicts on the basis of the humane theory of “calculation of benefits”, and their labor activity.
These detailed areas of life of the "new people" are correlated with a hidden, "Aesopian" plot, the main character of which is the professional revolutionary Rakhmetov.
The themes of love, labor, revolution are organically linked in the novel, the characters of which profess "reasonable egoism", stimulating the moral development of the individual.
Realistic principle typification is more consistently sustained in Rakhmetov, whose stern courage is dictated by the conditions of the revolutionary struggle of the early 60s. tragic fate his "new people": "a few more years, maybe not years, but months, and they will be cursed, and they will be driven from the stage, shoved, stringed." The publication of the novel caused a storm of criticism.
Against the background of Chernyshevsky's numerous accusations of immorality and other things, the article by R.R. Strakhov "Happy people". Recognizing the vital basis and the "tension of inspiration" of the author, the "organic" critic challenged the rationalism and optimism of the "new people" and the absence of deep conflicts between them. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, expressing sympathy with the general idea of the novel, noted that in its embodiment the author could not avoid some arbitrary regulation of details.
A N.G. Chernyshevsky believed: “... Only those areas of literature achieve brilliant development that arise under the influence of strong and living ideas that satisfy the pressing needs of the era. Each century has its own historical work, its own special aspirations. The life and glory of our time are two aspirations that are closely related and complement one another: humanity and concern for the improvement of human life.
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Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich(1828 - 1889) - publicist, literary critic, prose writer, economist, philosopher, revolutionary democrat.
Born in the family of a priest. Until the age of 12, he was brought up and studied at home under the guidance of his father. In 1842-1845, Chernyshevsky studied at the Saratov Seminary, where he was destined for a brilliant spiritual career. However, the spiritual field did not attract the future publicist, and, without graduating from the seminary, he entered in 1846 the department of general literature of the philosophical faculty of St. Petersburg University, where he studied Slavic philology.
During the years of study at the university (1846-1850), the foundations of the worldview were developed. The conviction that a revolution in Russia was necessary by 1850 was combined with the soberness of historical thinking: “Here is my way of thinking about Russia: an irresistible expectation of an imminent revolution and a thirst for it, although I know that for a long time, maybe a very long time, nothing will come of it the good news is that, perhaps, oppression will only increase for a long time, and so on. - what are the needs?.. peaceful, quiet development is impossible.
Chernyshevsky tried his hand at prose (the story of Lily and Goethe, the story of Josephine, Theory and Practice, The Cut Piece). Having left the university as a candidate, after a short work as a tutor in the Second Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, he served as a senior teacher of literature at the Saratov gymnasium (1851-1853), where he spoke in the class "such things that smell like hard labor."
Returning to St. Petersburg in May 1853, Chernyshevsky taught at the Second Cadet Corps, while preparing for the exams for a master's degree, and working on his dissertation "The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality." The debate on the dissertation presented to Professor Nikitenko in the autumn of 1853 took place on May 10, 1855 and was a manifestation of materialistic ideas in aesthetics, irritating the university authorities. The dissertation was officially approved in January 1859. In parallel, there was a journal work, which began in the summer of 1853 with reviews in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski.
But from the spring of 1855, Chernyshevsky, who retired, was engaged in journal work for N.A. Nekrasov's Sovremennik. Collaboration in this journal (1859-1861) fell on a period of social upsurge associated with the preparation of the peasant reform. Under the leadership of Chernyshevsky and Nekrasov, and later Dobrolyubov, the revolutionary-democratic direction of the journal was determined.
Since 1854, Chernyshevsky led the department of criticism and bibliography in Sovremennik. At the end of 1857, he handed it over to Dobrolyubov and concentrated mainly on political, economic, and philosophical topics. Convinced of the predatory nature of the forthcoming reform, Chernyshevsky boycotted the pre-reform hype; upon the publication of the manifesto on February 19, 1861, Sovremennik did not directly respond to it. In Letters Without an Address, written after the reform and actually addressed to Alexander II (published abroad in 1874), Chernyshevsky accused the autocratic-bureaucratic regime of robbing the peasants. Counting on a peasant revolution, the Sovremennik circle, headed by Chernyshevsky, resorted to illegal forms of struggle. Chernyshevsky wrote a revolutionary proclamation "Bow to the lordly peasants from well-wishers."
In an atmosphere of growing post-reform reaction, the attention of the III Division was increasingly attracted by the activities of Chernyshevsky. Since the autumn of 1861, he was under police surveillance. But Chernyshevsky was a skilled conspirator; nothing suspicious was found in his papers. In June 1862, the publication of Sovremennik was banned for eight months.
On July 7, 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested. The reason for the arrest was a letter intercepted at the border by Herzen and Ogarev, in which it was proposed to publish Sovremennik in London or Geneva. On the same day, Chernyshevsky became a prisoner of the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he stayed until the verdict was passed - a civil execution, which took place on May 19, 1864 on Mytninskaya Square. He was deprived of all the rights of the estate and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor in the mines, with the subsequent settlement in Siberia, Alexander II reduced the term of hard labor to 7 years. The trial in the Chernyshevsky case dragged on for a very long time due to the lack of direct evidence.
In the fortress, Chernyshevsky turned to artistic creativity. Here, from December 14, 1862 to April 4, 1863, the novel What Is to Be Done? From stories about new people. He was followed by the remaining unfinished story "Alferyev" (1863) and the novel "Tales in the story" (1863), "Small stories" (1864). Saw the light only novel "What to do?".
In May 1864, Chernyshevsky was sent under escort to Siberia, where he was first at the mine, and from September 1865 - in the prison of the Alexander Plant.
Hard labor, which expired in 1871, turned out to be the threshold for the worst test - a settlement in Yakutia, in the city of Vilyuysk, where the prison was the best building, and the climate turned out to be disastrous.
Here Chernyshevsky was the only exile and could communicate only with the gendarmes and the local Yakut population; Correspondence was difficult, and often deliberately delayed. Only in 1883, under Alexander III, Chernyshevsky was allowed to move to Astrakhan. The drastic change in climate greatly damaged his health.
The years of fortress, penal servitude and exile (1862-1883) did not lead to the oblivion of the name and works of Chernyshevsky - his fame as a thinker and revolutionary grew. Upon his arrival in Astrakhan, Chernyshevsky hoped to return to active literary activity, but the publication of his works, albeit under a pseudonym, was difficult.
In June 1889, Chernyshevsky received permission to return to his homeland, to Saratov. He made big plans, despite his rapidly deteriorating health. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in Saratov.
In the versatile heritage of Chernyshevsky, an important place is occupied by works on aesthetics, literary criticism, and artistic creativity. In all these areas, he was an innovator, raising controversy to this day. To Chernyshevsky, his own words about Gogol as a writer from among those “for whom love requires the same mood of the soul with them, because their activity is the service of a certain direction of moral aspirations,” are applicable.
In the novel "What to do? From stories about new people” Chernyshevsky continued the theme of a new public figure, discovered by Turgenev in “Fathers and Sons”, mostly from raznochintsy, who replaced the type of “extra person”.
The romantic pathos of the work lies in the striving for the socialist ideal, the future, when the type of "new man" will become "the common nature of all people." The prototype of the future is also the personal relations of the “new people”, who resolve conflicts on the basis of the humane theory of “calculation of benefits”, and their work activity. These detailed areas of life of the "new people" are correlated with a hidden, "Aesopian" plot, the main character of which is the professional revolutionary Rakhmetov.
The themes of love, labor, revolution are organically linked in the novel, the characters of which profess "reasonable egoism", stimulating the moral development of the individual. The realistic principle of typification is more consistently sustained in Rakhmetov, whose stern courage was dictated by the conditions of the revolutionary struggle of the early 1960s. The call for a bright and wonderful future, Chernyshevsky's historical optimism, and the major finale are combined in the novel with an awareness of the tragic fate of his "new people": "... a few more years, perhaps not years, but months, and they will curse them, and they will driven off the stage, shoved aside, pageable."
The publication of the novel caused a storm of criticism. Against the background of Chernyshevsky's numerous accusations of immorality and other things, the article by R.R.Strakhov "Happy People" stands out for its seriousness. Recognizing the author's vitality and "tension of inspiration", the "organic" critic challenged the rationalism and optimism of the "new people" and the absence of deep conflicts between them.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, expressing sympathy with the general idea of the novel, noted that in its embodiment the author could not avoid some arbitrary regulation of details.
And N.G. Chernyshevsky believed: "... Only those areas of literature achieve brilliant development that arise under the influence of strong and living ideas that satisfy the pressing needs of the era. Each century has its own historical work, its own special aspirations. The life and glory of our time constitute two aspirations, closely related and complementing one another: humanity and concern for the improvement of human life.
