Romanov Panteleimon Sergeevich (1884-) - Soviet writer. R. in the family of a small landowner. It has been published since 1911. In his early works, R. appears as an epigone of the literature of the nobility. They abound with borrowings from the classics. Romanov's first major story "Childhood" was written under the strong influence of L. Tolstoy's "Childhood and Adolescence". The estate motifs of this story and the image of the “repentant nobleman” outlined in it were widely developed in central work R. novel "Rus" (1926), conceived by the author as a monumental epic. However, in the three parts that came out, covering the summer of 1914 and the beginning of the World War, only the crisis and decay of the pre-war estates are shown and the forces that prepared the revolution are completely left in the shadow. Understanding the historical doom of the nobility, R. depicts in comic tones the figures of useless afterlife local nobility, weak-willed or deliberately unprincipled loafers. But at the same time, the author is sad about the bygone antiquity. With great warmth, he depicts the festive aspects of the old lordly life, traditional sublime image noble Girls, the manor landscape is imbued with lyricism in the spirit of the classical noble literature. The peasantry, taken at the moment of pre-revolutionary ferment, is shown in "Rus" as an inert, lazy and stupid herd mass, incapable of any organized action.
Since 1918, R. has been writing many small comic stories. The heroes of these miniatures are the peasant masses or city dwellers, depicted from the perspective of a cursory sketch (the favorite scenes of action are the station, carriage, queue, etc.). Their plots were Ch. arr. diverse curiosities of everyday life in the first years of the revolution. Thanks to the sharp observation of the author and the expressiveness of the comic sketches, these short stories enjoyed wide popularity in their time; taken together, they give a sharply one-sided image of the masses; in comic episodes, R. invariably emphasizes the stupidity, inertia, the impenetrable lack of culture of the peasantry and urban inhabitants, the lack of understanding of the events taking place, and the selfish fear of each for himself. Particularly characteristic is the repetitive story about a herd team, where everyone unanimously does the opposite of what they decided to do - because of the fear of each individually being left in the cold (“Friendly People”, “Believers”, “Badge”, “Blue Jacket”, “ Bad person"). On the whole, R.'s stories are imbued with a spirit of disbelief in the revolutionary and creative forces of the masses.
From 1927 R. moved on to topics from the life of the urban intelligentsia. R.'s stories on "sexual" themes, in which pathetic grief " former people» about the lost «poetry» love relationship and indignation at the excesses of sexual anarchism and the simplification of modern youth (“Without bird cherry”, “Trial of a Pioneer”, 1927) are combined with an increased interest in thrill, to easy connections (“White Flowers”, “Unsent Letter”, “One Hour”, “Spring”, etc.). R. did not cope with the task of exposing the vulgarity, and his numerous rehashings of vulgar love collisions for the most part satisfy the demands of the philistine strata of readers.
R. repeatedly repeats and varies the epic of an intelligent opportunist (“The Right to Life”, 1927, “Lights”, “Actress”, “Comrade Kislyakov”, 1931). Here, as in the stories on "sex" themes, R., trying to raise the question of the intelligentsia in general as an integral class, invariably brings out only representatives of the philistine strata of the intelligentsia, far from the proletariat. His attempt to paint the image of a communist intellectual from the peasants suffered a complete failure (the novel " New Tablet"). Usually, the communists only flicker against the background of R.'s works, and Ch. arr. their low culture and attitude towards the intelligentsia is hostile and dismissive or, conversely, unexpectedly gullible.
Since 1932, new motifs have been heard in some of R.'s works and performances. He turns to an essay for sketching the construction of social industry ("Rus and the USSR"), with great sincerity he gives an image of the reforging of man in the process of social construction. His attention is especially attracted by people of strong, purposeful will (the stories "On the Volga", "There will be no business behind this"), overcoming that element of laxity and laziness, which seemed to him until now "the dominant feature of the Russian national character". In the novel Property (1933), R. strives to show the destructive effect of possessive aspirations and the re-education of a person under the influence of the Soviet public, but resolves this topic extremely unsuccessfully.
Style early works R. contains rehashings of the style of classical literature of the nobility. The author achieves the greatest liveliness and accuracy in the transfer of the language of the peasants and the urban street crowd. With the transition to themes from the life of the intelligentsia, the language of R. - even in part of the author's narrative - uncritically absorbed a number of patterns of philistine-intelligentsia speech, such as "definitely", "terrible heartlessness", etc. Even more tasteless are the high-flown phrases of the philistine heroes about " acute happiness”, “flowering of the soul”, etc. in the context of ordinary and vulgar experiences. R. written plays - "Earthquake", "Maria Krokotova" and "Writer".
Bibliography
I. Complete collection. sochin., 12 vols., ed. "Nedra", M., 1928
Comrade Kislyakov, Sat. "Nedra", book. 18, M., 1930
Property, novel, GIHL, M. - L., 1933
Autobiography. Writers, ed. Vl. Linda, ed. 2, M., 1928
From notebook writer (Thoughts about Art), Sat. "Morning", M., 1927
About myself, about criticism and about other things, "30 days", 1927, No. 6
About his own, "Reader and Writer", 1928, No. 17
Stories, ed. " Soviet literature”, M., 1934.
II. Pakentreiger S., Talent of indifference, "Print and Revolution", 1926, No. 8
Nikitina E. and Shuvalov S., Fiction writers-contemporaries, M., 1927
Dispute at the Academy of Communist Education. Krupskaya (“Without bird cherry” by P. Romanov and others), “Young Guard”, 1926, No. 12 (transcript), Gusev S., Trial of Pioneers over P. Romanov, “Young Guard”, 1927, No. 7
P. Romanov. Collection, ed. "Nikitinsky subbotniks", M., 1928
Kogan L. V., Comic novel by P. Romanov, "Literature and Marxism", 1928, No. 6
Ingulov S., Bobchinsky on Parnassus. Dissenting opinion about P. Romanov, "Young Guard", 1929, No. 11
Etude
Professor of Moscow University, Andrei Khristoforovich Vyshnegradsky, in the third year of the war received a letter from his two brothers from the village - Nikolai and Avenir, who asked him to come to them for the summer, visit them and relax himself.
“You must have turned sour there in the capital, you forgot your native, but here, brother, the Russian soul is still alive,” Nikolai wrote.
Andrey Khristoforovich thought about it and, going to the telegraph office, sent a telegram to his brother Nikolai, and the next day he left for the village.
The intense life of Moscow was replaced by the spaciousness and silence of the fields.
Andrey Khristoforovich looked out the window of the carriage and watched the plowed hills running past him swell and fall, the bridges being repaired with the sleepers scattered downhill rush by.
Time definitely stopped, got lost and fell asleep in these flat fields. Trains stood at each stop for an infinitely long time - why, why - no one knew.
Why are we standing for so long? Andrey Khristoforovich asked once. - We are waiting for someone?
No, we are not waiting for anyone, - said the important chief conductor and added: - we have no one to wait for.
We sat on transfers for hours on end, and no one knew when the train would come. Once a man came up, wrote with chalk on the blackboard: "Train number 3 is late for 1 hour and 30 minutes." Everyone came and read. But five hours passed, and there was no train.
They didn't guess, - said some old man in a chute.
When someone got up and walked with a suitcase to the door, then they suddenly jumped up and all vied with each other rushed to the door, crushed each other, climbed over their heads.
It's coming, it's coming!
Where are you going with the knot?
The train is coming!
Nothing goes: one, maybe, got up for his own business, and everyone shied away.
So why is he getting up? Here's the accursed one, look, please, he messed up like everyone else.
And when the professor arrived at the station, it turned out that the horses had not been sent.
What am I going to do now? said the professor to the porter. He felt embarrassed. He did not see the brothers for 15 years, and they themselves called him and still remained true to themselves: either they were late with the horses, or they mixed up the numbers.
Don't worry, - said the porter, a nimble little man with a badge on his apron, - at the inn we will provide you with any horses you want. We have one word on this score!..
Well, take me to the inn, just don't get your suitcases dirty, please.
Be calm ... - the little man waved his hand over the covers, threw the suitcases on his back and disappeared into the darkness. Only his voice was heard somewhere ahead:
Along the wall, along the wall, sir, make your way, otherwise there is a puddle on the side, and a well to the right.
The professor, as he became, rolled somewhere from the first step.
They didn’t please ... - said the peasant. - It's true that it's a little dirty. Well, yes, we will dry soon. We live well here: there is a wide square right here for you, to the left - the church, to the right - the priests.
Where are you? Where to go here?
Indulge in me, in me, otherwise here now the pits will go. Last week, a land surveyor cracked one of his forelocks, and they dragged him out by force.
The professor walked, every minute expecting that the same thing would happen to him as to the surveyor.
And the little man kept talking and talking endlessly:
Our area is good. And the rooms are good, Seleznevsky. And the people are good, remembering.
And everything was good with him: both life and people.
We must, apparently, knock, - said the peasant, stopping near some wall. He dumped the suitcases right into the mud and began banging on the gate with a brick.
Would you be quieter, why are you thrashing like that?
Do not worry. Otherwise, you won't wake them up. The people are strong. What are you doing there, oh, everyone went crazy! Are there horses?
There is ... - a sleepy voice was heard from behind the gate.
That's it - there is! Always reschedule so that you chop all your hands.
Please go upstairs.
No, you prepare a place for me in the carriage, I will sit down, and you harness and go. So it will be more likely ... - said Andrei Khristoforovich.
It's possible.
Is the road good?
The road is one word - Lub.
Lub ... splint, that is. Very smooth. Our seats are good. Well, sit down, I'll be in one minute.
Andrey Khristoforovich groped for the step, sat down in a huge sob, which was standing in a shed under a shed. He smelled of dusty felt and some kind of acid. Andrei Khristoforovich stretched out his legs on the hay and, leaning his head against the back, began to doze. From time to time a fresh, cool breeze swept over his face, coming in from above through the crack of the closed gate. There was a pleasant smell of tar, fresh hay and horses.
Through his drowsiness he could hear the luggage being tied down, pulling the rope behind the carriage. Sometimes his driver, saying: “Oh, you, honest mother!”, Repaired something. Sometimes he ran away to the hut, and then there was silence, from which the legs hummed pleasantly, as if at a stop while riding a sleigh in a snowstorm. Only occasionally did the horses snort and step over the straw as they chewed oats under the shed.
Half an hour later, the professor woke up in fright with the feeling that he was hanging over an abyss, and clutched the edge of the sod with his hands.
Where are you going! Hold your horses, crazy!
Be calm, we won’t leave, - a calm voice said from somewhere behind, now I’ll support the other side.
It turned out that they were not hanging over the abyss, but were still standing in the yard, and the driver was only going to grease the wheels, raising one side of the carriage.
As soon as we left the yard, it began to rain, direct, large and warm. And the whole neighborhood was filled with the steady sound of falling rain.
The driver silently reached under the seat, pulled out some tattered rubbish and covered himself with it, like a priest with a robe.
Half an hour later the wheels were already moving with a continuous murmur over deep ruts. And the sobs all somewhere pulled to the left and down.
The driver stopped and slowly looked back from the goat, then began to look around, as if studying the area in the dark.
What has become? Hey, are you lost?
No, it's like nothing.
What are you? There are ravines, right?
No, there are no ravines.
Well, so what then?
You never know what ... here, just look, you will hang out somewhere.
Yes, be careful! Where are you turning?
And the devil knows, - said the driver, - so you go - nothing, but like rain, then pick up your boots ...
Nikolai wrote that it was only 30 versts from the station, and Andrei Khristoforovich expected to arrive in three hours. But we drove 4-5 hours, stopped at an inn from an impossible road, and only by morning had overcome these 30 versts.
The carriage drove up to a low house with two whitewashed chimneys and a wide boarded porch, on which a white rooster stood perched on one leg. Not far away, in the open gates of a wattle shed, crouching on the ground by a carriage, a worker was busy tying a windrow, helping himself with his teeth and not paying any attention to the newcomer.
And from the back porch, picking up a semi-caftan around the corners and rolling with galoshes in the mud, some old priest was in a hurry.
Seeing the professor, he waved his arms and remained in this position for some time, as if he were a ghost.
Hey, have you arrived? We're just going to send for you. Why a whole day earlier? Hey, what happened?
Nothing happened. I telegraphed that I would arrive on the 15th, and today the 16th.
My dear you! The sixteenth - you say? .. This means that yesterday they forgot to tear off a leaf from the calendar. What are you going to do here! Well, hello, hello. What a fine fellow you are, fresh, tall, slender. Well, uh...
This was younger brother Nikolay.
Let's go to the house quickly. Why are you looking at me like that? Aged?
Yes, very old...
What will you do to it suits... Lower, lower your head, - he shouted in fright, - otherwise you will knock.
Why did you make such doors for yourself? ..
What can you do ... - And he smiled slowly and kindly. - Why are you all looking at me?
Panteleimon Sergeevich Romanov
Romanov Panteleimon Sergeevich (2.071884-8.04. 1938), writer. Born in with. Petrovskoe, now Odoevsky district, Tula region, in a small estate noble family. The first story "Father Fyodor" was published in 1911 in the journal "Russian Thought". In 1925 he published the collection "Stories". Collaborated in the magazines "Krasnaya Nov", " New world”,“ Searchlight ”,“ Krasnaya Niva ”. He wrote lyric-psychological ("Autumn", 1914, "Light Dreams", 1919, "Winter", 1923, etc.) and satirical stories. The latter are devoted mainly to the era civil war, then - NEP. The writer denounces speculation in them (“Traffic Jams”, 1922), bureaucratic confusion (“Labyrinth”, 1918, “Weak Heart”, 1921), inertia, narrow-mindedness, cowardice, rising to satirical generalizations in the best stories. In works dealing with modern life and morality (the story "Without Bird Cherry", 1926, the novel "New Tablet", 1928, the story "Comrade Kislyakov", 1930), Romanov sought to show "the harm of sexual promiscuity." In the autobiographical story "Childhood" (1903-20, published in 1926), Romanov idyllically sang the small estate life and landscapes of central Russia. Forte stories - in a truthful depiction of child psychology. The epic novel "Rus" (Ch. 1-5, 1922-36) depicts manor Russia before the First World War, then the war until the February Revolution. Individual chapters of the novel rise to an extremely high level of artistry. Stylistically, "Rus" is sustained in the traditions of the Russian novel XIX V. In 1933, Romanov published the novel "Property" - about an artist who ruined his talent by money-grubbing. Romanov knew how to notice life's contradictions, sometimes to draw a character with a few strokes. He is characterized by lively lyricism and humor, mastery of dialogue, clear, realistic language.
Site materials used Big Encyclopedia Russian people - http://www.rusinst.ru
Romanov Panteleimon Sergeevich - prose writer.
Father was a petty official in the city of Belev, Tula Province, a representative of a rapidly impoverished late XIX V. Russian petty nobility. Mother - the daughter of a village deacon. The writer's childhood passed on a small farm in Belevsky district. Volodkovskaya volost, not far from the village of Karmanye, where the family moved in 1889, having sold the land in Petrovsky, in order to be able to educate children with the proceeds. Romanov studied at the Belevsky vocational school. V.A. Zhukovsky and in the gymnasium, and then - in the Tula gymnasium.
In 1905 he entered Faculty of Law Moscow University.
In 1908 he left the university and returned to the village, where he took some part in the affairs of the local zemstvo. In 1911 he joined the bank. Working in a bank as an attorney allowed Romanov to travel a lot around the country. These trips strengthened his panoramic perception of Russia as a whole organism with its own destiny. During the First World War, Romanov worked as a statistician in Vitebsk and as an assistant to the head of the statistical department of the Red Cross in Petrograd, and made trips to the front. During February Revolution served in the State Duma as a statistician and literary officer. From the second half of 1917, for 2 years, he headed the department of out-of-school education in the city of Odoev, Tula province. Herzen and Ogarev.
In 1919 Romanov moved to Moscow to live with his future wife ballerina A.M. Shalomytova. In Moscow, he worked for a short time as a member of the Censorship Commission at the Photographic Film Committee, for some time he was the secretary of the artistic council. Soon he leaves the service and devotes his life entirely to writing.
Romanov began to write early. In the last classes of the gymnasium, he worked on the story "Childhood", completed only 17 years later - in 1920.
By 1907-08, the concept of the epic novel "Rus" appeared. The beginning of Romanov's literary activity is considered to be 1911, when his first publication appeared in the Russian Thought magazine (No. literature XIX V.
From 1911 to 1917, Romanov published the stories The Court (1914), Winter (Woman) (1915), The Russian Soul (In native land”) (1916) and others, the story “The Writer” (1915), which served as the basis for play of the same name. The Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper publishes Essays on Siberia (1913), written on the basis of personal impressions from trips around the country. The essays revealed the originality of Romanov's view of the national character, far from the populist, purely sociological understanding of it. Romanov preferred the nationally characteristic to the socially determined. Following the positivist doctrine, Romanov believed that the national traits of any people are "nothing but those general reasons that make the people of this nation act this way and not otherwise" in every historical situation. The concept of immutable national features, capable of influencing circumstances, became one of the foundations of the Romanovs' work.
The first book of the writer - the first part of the first volume of the epic novel "Rus" (1923) - depicts the life of manor Russia on the eve of the First World War. The writer considered "Rus" the main business of his life and tirelessly emphasized its importance for his work. According to Romanov, "Rus" was to become the center to which all other works are drawn. The desire to show “all Rus'” taken from Gogol is realized by Romanov as a task to reveal the stability of the eternal principle - the “folk element”, to indicate the continuity of the traditions of the Russian national collectivity, where social differentiation is dominated by features of national belonging. "Rus" gave rise in criticism to a flurry of accusations of the author of epigonism and nostalgia for the outgoing patriarchy.
In 1924, the previously written story "Childhood" was published, which adequately continued the national literary tradition artistic development of the world of the child's soul. In the same year, the play "Earthquake" was published - a tragicomic chronicle of post-revolutionary events, which bypassed many theaters in the country. Since that time, Romanov has been actively collaborating in literary and art magazines, becoming a member of literary society"Nikitinsky Subbotniks", at the evenings of which he reads his works. The 1920s saw the heyday of Romanov's creative activity, the peak of his literary fame. At this time, Romanov successfully combines writing with the public reading of his works in front of the widest possible audience. In the mid-1920s, Romanov's performances at the Polytechnic Museum, the Hall of Columns, etc. become one of the characteristic signs of the cultural life of Moscow.
Romanov became known to the general reader primarily as the author of satirical miniature stories about the life of the first years of the revolution, which made up the writer’s numerous collections: “Strong People” (1925), “Enchanted Villages”, “Good Places” (both - 1927), “Three whale" (1928) and many others. Romanov enjoyed persistent, though far from favorable attention from critics. Almost every of his works became the subject of sharp controversy. The bibliography of lifetime critical articles about the writer has hundreds of titles. However, most of them are of interest only as facts of the acute ideological and aesthetic struggle of that time. Romanov fully experienced the unenviable share of disgraced artists and, with phenomenal reader recognition, a striking lack of understanding of criticism. Romanov was accused of philistinism, portraying the "scum of the revolution", everyday life, empty anecdotes, photographicism and indifference, imitation and blind epigonism, and was dismissively called the "Soviet Chekhov". The peculiarities of typification in satirical stories-sketches, which produce a superficial impression of empirical photographism, are largely due to Romanov's adherence to the provisions of his own aesthetic theory, formulated in the main theoretical work of the writer - the remaining unpublished book "The Science of Vision", on which Romanov worked long years. The writer himself admitted that the theoretical study of questions of creativity preceded his artistic work. practice. The aesthetic credo of Romanov - "The Science of Vision" - reveals a close connection with the aesthetics of naturalism, with its subordination creative process the process of observation, the requirement of scientific objectivity, the rejection of the image of epoch-making social events. However, the stories-sketches built on the dialogue only create the appearance of “naturalistically” submitted observations. The artistic fabric of the stories reveals an orientation towards folklore aesthetics. The problem of the antagonism of the people and the authorities studied by Romanov appears in his the art world in the categories of mythologized folk consciousness, as a confrontation between holiness and satanism. The idea of the absurdity of the post-revolutionary world order found an adequate artistic embodiment in the motif of two worlds, which proved the hostility of the violent reorganization of the world traditional life. Behind the outward impassivity in the “naturalistically” presented observations of Romanov, one cannot but see the pain and anxiety of the artist, who does not accept those forms of life that lead to the death of the moral potential of the nation.
In the second half of the 1920s, Romanov creates a number of socio-psychological stories, dedicated to love, family, marriage. The writer's concern is caused by simplified theories of the violent reshaping of human consciousness (in particular, new theories of family and marriage), which tried to prove the historically transient nature of moral standards. With the story "Without bird cherry" (1926), which caused a heated controversy in the press, a wave of frantic debates among readers, Romanov spoke out against the vulgar materialism and nihilism that were planted in those years among the youth. Romanov defended the spirituality and romance of love. In the story "The Trial of a Pioneer" (1927), the writer opposed the officially proclaimed hypocritical spiritual asceticism, which threatened to simplify the great mysteries of life.
To the tragic fate of the Russian intelligentsia in Soviet Russia Romanov turned to the story “The Right to Life, or the Problem of Non-Party” (1927), in which he studied the relationship between talent and the requirements of the era, the destructive policy of the authorities towards the intelligentsia for society. The story reflects the last stage of the absorption of personality totalitarian regime. Romanov touched upon the same problems in the novel "Comrade Kislyakov" (1930) - in many respects the final one for the writer. The work, which portrayed the "reforging of the personality" as a violation of all moral norms, was naturally declared slanderous, and after the publication of the translation of the novel in England, it was also counter-revolutionary. After the persecution of Romanov the writer was unleashed, they practically ceased to print, and a systematic ousting of him from literature began. The artist, who sought to reveal in his works the destructive effect of deadly forms of life on a person, experienced their deadly force on himself. The novel Property, published in 1933, spoke of the decline in Romanov's creative powers. After the death of the writer, his books and the name itself were deleted from the history of Russian literature for a long time.
O.G. Malyshkina
Used materials of the book: Russian literature of the XX century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographic dictionary. Volume 3. P - Ya. 218-220.
Read further:
Stories. M.; 1991
Literature:
Panteleimon Romanov: Critical series. No. 13 M.
Nikitinsky Subbotniks. 1928;
Afanasiev E.L. I want to accept the paths of my land in their entirety... // Romanov P. Childhood. story and stories. Tula, 1986, pp. 363-382;
Petrochenkov V. creative destiny Panteleimon Romanov. New York, 1988;
Sushilina I.K. On the path of your true life // P.S. Romanov. Apple blossom: a story and short stories. M., 1991. S.3-10.
"If you still exist in the world, it means that you have successfully slipped through the revolution and now you have the right to life, so to speak, behind the prescription of years..."
These words are spoken by the hero of one of Panteleimon Romanov's stories "The Right to Life, or the Problem of Non-Party", written in 1927.
What happened there in Soviet Russia, which inspired such words - Stalinist terror the thirties had not yet begun, they had not even begun to dispossess kulaks "sensibly", but here such pessimism - "he successfully slipped through the revolution ...". What does "jump" mean?
Or maybe he condemns his character, his petty-bourgeois petty-bourgeois position?
Well, explain yourself, writer Romanov, how do you feel about Soviet power?
But no one asked Panteleimon Romanov such questions in 1927, he wrote, published, was loved by readers, respected by his colleagues and recognized by leaders Soviet culture. If not all, then many.
And later, no one interrogated him in the basements of the Lubyanka and did not call him to the NKVD.
But questions were still asked, however, only literary critics(More precisely, party-literary, since the whole writing business was directed and controlled by the Bolshevik Party).
Somehow, Comrade Romanov, you are somehow carried away, before you wrote something like one thing, but now it seems like another ... Are you hinting at something? Or are they dissatisfied with something in our Soviet reality?
And Panteleimon Romanov had to explain that, in general, a writer (especially one who creates in the USSR) does not need to hint at anything, but simply needs to fulfill his great duty as a proletarian writer (and there are no others in the USSR), which he honestly does.
Well, look, Comrade Romanov...
And now a few words about who this Panteleimon Romanov is.
He was born on July 24 (August 5), 1884 in the small estate of his father - the village of Petrovsky, Odoevsky district, Tula province. This estate was subsequently sold, and the father began to serve as a scribe in the Vezev city government. In Vezeve future writer began to study - in the city school. V. A. Zhukovsky, then entered the Tula gymnasium, where he spent eight years. He studied poorly, and he was repeatedly left in the class for a second term. During the years of the writer's childhood, his father acquired a farm near the village of Karmany, where the family lived.
He entered the law faculty of Moscow University, but studied there for only six months. He returned to the village, began to work, engage in self-education and writing, his stories and essays were published in 1911-1914 in the Russian Thought magazine.During the First World War, he worked as an attorney in a bank, then in the statistical department of the Red Cross, in 1918 in the Odoevsky district department of public education, from 1919 in Moscow.
After the revolution, P. Romanov's satirical stories were published in many magazines and published in small collections. It was these miniatures that brought him fame. It is worth adding that he also acted as a reader of his works (and a magnificent reader). Victor Ardov, who performed on the stage more than once with Panteleimon Sergeevich, compared the skill of Romanov the reader only with the art of Yakhontov or Igor Ilyinsky.
Were his short stories really satire? Or is it still humor? Or are they just realistic sketches of life with a touch of irony? You read and involuntarily smile, you read on - and laugh, you read on and ... a completely unexpected reaction - a slight sadness. Why? Read it for yourself, maybe you can do without it.
What did he write about? Yes, in fact, about how the power of the working people is established in the country and how the working people establish this power. At the same time, he did not exaggerate, did not stick out, did not hint, did not ridicule, and even more so did not denounce, but simply told how it happens,
Although there was nothing funny in the process of building socialism. Of course, there were some survivals, shortcomings or misunderstandings, which M. Zoshchenko or I. Ilf and E. Petrov told about. But these are relics of the past, and so, our people as a whole were and are good, they understand the party line, support it and begin to love more and more, you know who.
There are, of course, individual citizens who misunderstand, so they are prompted, corrected ... you also understand.Take, for example, the writer Mikhail Bulgakov. But, of course, it should be discussed separately.
Panteleimon Romanov did not write about the growing love for the leader of the CPSU (b), nor about the remnants. He wrote about the people. About the one that was. And Romanov tried to understand him. And I was able to explain a little.
As I.V. Stalin once said that he had no other writers, so we had no other people.In addition to “small” stories, Panteleimon Romanov also wrote more “big” things - the business of his life was the novel in six parts “Rus”, which he never finished, the novels “The New Tablet” (192B), “Comrade Kislyakov” (1930) , the novel "Property" (1932).
Later stories P. Romanov and his stories just raised questions from competent literary critics: Still, are you for the Soviet government with all your heart and soul, citizen-comrade Romanov, or is it like that, a fellow traveler, or even a detractor?
P. Romanov himself made an entry in his diary about the novel “Comrade Kislyakov”: “The first thought was to write the novel “Degeneration”, that is, the end of the intelligentsia in terms of degeneration ...”.
In the early 1930s, P. Romanov got into the "black lists" - they did not want to publish him. Some books were removed from libraries. In 1934 he spoke at the first All-Union Congress writers and said a little already in Aesopian language about what satire should be in Soviet country. At this time, writers had to seriously think about what and how to speak from a high rostrum.
“... Satire is sharper and tougher than humor. Satire is a showcase of marriage, like the showcases that are set up in our stores to replace a badly made thing. The task of the satirist is to expose marriage human actions and characters. Alexey Maksimovich in his wise and valuable report once again pointed out the most striking feature of marriage in a person - philistinism, philistinism where a person does not go further than satisfying his zoological instincts, with deep indifference to everything else. Communism is in all its essence the opposite of philistinism. I firmly believe that at the end of the second five-year plan, A. M. can consider his work - the fight against philistinism - almost finished .... "
However, P. Romanov was not any opponent Soviet power or anti-bolshevik. Just like Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, who died in 1935, or Ilya Ilf with Yevgeny Petrov, or Mikhail Bulgakov, or Mikhail Zoshchenko ...
Panteleimon Romanov accepted October revolution and I think that in 1917 he also understood that the autocracy Russian place in the dustbin of history, and the fact that a revolution is necessary, and the difficulties with which the construction of a new life will take place.
But what it will be, this new life 20-30 years after October 1917, few guessed in 1917. Some thought that happy, others - on the contrary. And who KNEW what it would be like - in 1917, I think, there were no such people at all. There were expectations of a new life, there were dreams...
In 1935, the last lifetime collection of his stories was published, in 1937 he had a heart attack, and Panteleimon Romanov died in Moscow on April 8, 1938 as a result of serious illness leukemia. He was then less than fifty-four years old.
In this section, in addition to several stories by P. Romanov, there are not at all satirical story“Without bird cherry”, which caused heated discussions, and not among writers, but among young people - what should love be like under socialism, what should be the relationship between boys and girls liberated by the revolution. Is love philistinism or not?
Romanov was not a satirist like Saltykov-Shchedrin, Zoshchenko or Shenderovich. Rather, he was just a writer. But when you read it, if you don’t laugh, then you certainly smile.
This is why his works (a small part of those written by P. Romanov) ended up in our section of political satire.
