The last poem written by Pushkin in Boldin in October 1833 is the artistic result of his reflections on the personality of Peter I, on the "Petersburg" period of Russian history. Two themes “met” in the poem: the theme of Peter, “the miraculous builder,” and the theme of the “simple” (“little”) man, “an insignificant hero,” which worried the poet from the late 1820s. The story of the tragic fate of an ordinary resident of St. Petersburg, who suffered during the flood, became the plot basis for historical and philosophical generalizations related to the role of Peter in the modern history of Russia, with the fate of his offspring - St. Petersburg.
The Bronze Horseman is one of Pushkin's most perfect poetic works. The poem is written, like Eugene Onegin, in iambic tetrameter. Pay attention to the variety of its rhythms and intonations, amazing sound. The poet creates vivid visual and auditory images, using the richest rhythmic, intonation and sound possibilities of Russian verse (repetitions, caesuras, alliterations, assonances). Many fragments of the poem have become textbooks. We hear the festive polyphony of St. Petersburg life (“And the brilliance and noise and the talk of balls, / And at the hour of the feast, the bachelor / The hiss of foamy glasses / And the blue flame of punch”), we see Evgeny, confused and shocked (“He stopped. / Went back and turned back. / Looks ... walks ... still looks. / Here is the place where their house stands, / Here is a willow. There were gates here, / It was blown away, you can see. Where is the house?), We are deafened "as if by thunder - / Heavy-voiced galloping / On the shaken pavement. “In terms of sound figurativeness, the verse of The Bronze Horseman knows few rivals,” the poet V.Ya. Bryusov, a subtle researcher of Pushkin's poetry.
In a short poem (less than 500 verses), history and modernity, the hero's private life with historical life, reality with myth, are combined. The perfection of poetic forms and the innovative principles of the artistic embodiment of historical and modern material made The Bronze Horseman a unique work, a kind of "monument not made by hands" to Peter, Petersburg, the "Petersburg" period of Russian history.
Pushkin overcame the genre canons of the historical poem. Peter I does not appear in the poem as a historical character (he is an "idol" - a statue, a deified statue), nothing is said about the time of his reign. The Petrine era for Pushkin is a long period in the history of Russia, which did not end with the death of the reformer tsar. The poet refers not to the origins of this era, but to its results, that is, to the present. The high historical point from which Pushkin looked at Peter was the event of the recent past - the St. Petersburg flood on November 7, 1824, "a terrible time", about which, as the poet emphasized, "there is a fresh memory." This is a living, not yet “cooled down” history.
The flood, one of many that have hit the city since its founding, is the central event of the work. A tale of flood shapes the first semantic plan of the poem is historical. The documentary nature of the story is noted in the author's "Foreword" and in "Notes". In one of the episodes, the “late tsar,” the unnamed Alexander I, appears. For Pushkin, the flood is not just a vivid historical fact. He looked at it as a kind of final "document" of the era. This is, as it were, the "last tale" in her Petersburg "chronicle", begun by Peter's decision to found a city on the Neva. The flood is the historical basis of the plot and the source of one of the conflicts of the poem - the conflict between the city and the elements.
The second semantic plan of the poem is conditionally literary, fictional- given the subtitle: "Petersburg Tale". Eugene is the central character of this story. The faces of the rest of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg are indistinguishable. This is the "people" crowding the streets, drowning during the flood (the first part), and the cold, indifferent people of St. Petersburg in the second part. The real background of the story about the fate of Eugene was Petersburg: Senate Square, the streets and the outskirts, where Parasha's "ramshackle house" stood. Pay attention to. the fact that the action in the poem is transferred to the street: during the flood, Eugene found himself “on Petrova Square”, home, in his “desert corner”, he, distraught with grief, no longer returns, becoming an inhabitant of St. Petersburg streets. The Bronze Horseman is the first urban poem in Russian literature.
Historical and conditional-literary plans dominate in realistic storytelling(first and second parts).
Plays an important role the third semantic plan is legendary and mythological. It is given by the title of the poem - "The Bronze Horseman". This semantic plan interacts with the historical one in the introduction, sets off the plot narrative about the flood and the fate of Yevgeny, from time to time reminding of himself (primarily by the figure of the “idol on a bronze horse”), and dominates in the climax of the poem (the pursuit of Yevgeny by the Bronze Horseman). A mythological hero appears, a revived statue - the Bronze Horseman. In this episode, Petersburg seems to lose its real shape, turning into a conventional, mythological space.
The Bronze Horseman is an unusual literary image. It is a figurative interpretation of the sculptural composition, embodying the idea of its creator, the sculptor E. Falcone, but at the same time it is a grotesque, fantastic image, overcoming the border between the real (“plausible”) and the mythological (“wonderful”). The Bronze Horseman, awakened by the words of Eugene, breaking off his pedestal, ceases to be only an "idol on a bronze horse", that is, a monument to Peter. He becomes the mythological embodiment of the "terrible king".
Since the founding of St. Petersburg, the real history of the city has been interpreted in various myths, legends and prophecies. The “City of Peter” appeared in them not as an ordinary city, but as the embodiment of mysterious, fatal forces. Depending on the assessment of the personality of the tsar and his reforms, these forces were understood as divine, good, endowing the Russian people with a city-paradise, or, on the contrary, as evil, demonic, and therefore anti-people.
In the XVIII - early XIX century. In parallel, two groups of myths developed, mirroring each other. In some myths, Peter was presented as the “father of the Fatherland”, a deity who founded a certain intelligent cosmos, a “glorious city”, a “beloved country”, a stronghold of state and military power. These myths arose in poetry (including odes and epic poems by A.P. Sumarokov, V.K. Trediakovsky, G.R. Derzhavin) and were officially encouraged. In other myths that developed in folk tales and prophecies of schismatics, Peter was a product of Satan, a living Antichrist, and Petersburg, founded by him, was a “non-Russian” city, satanic chaos, doomed to inevitable disappearance. If the first, semi-official, poetic myths were myths about the miraculous foundation of the city, from which the "golden age" began in Russia, then the second, folk, myths about its destruction or desolation. “Petersburg to be empty”, “the city will burn and drown” - this is how the opponents of Peter answered those who saw in Petersburg the man-made “northern Rome”.
Pushkin created synthetic images of Peter and Petersburg. In them, both mutually exclusive mythological concepts complemented each other. The poetic myth about the founding of the city is developed in the introduction, oriented towards the literary tradition, and the myth about its destruction, flooding - in the first and second parts of the poem.
The originality of Pushkin's poem lies in the complex interaction of historical, conventional literary and legendary mythological semantic planes. In the introduction, the foundation of the city is shown in two plans. First - legendary mythological: Peter appears here not as a historical character, but as a nameless hero of the legend. He- the founder and future builder of the city, fulfilling the will of nature itself. However, his “great thoughts” are historically concrete: the city is being created by the Russian tsar “for the evil of an arrogant neighbor”, so that Russia could “cut a window into Europe”. Historical semantic plan underlined with the words "a hundred years have passed." But these same words envelop the historical event in a mythological haze: in place of the story about how the “city was founded”, how it was built, there is a graphic pause, a “dash”. The emergence of the "young city" "from the darkness of the forests, from the swamp of blat" is like a miracle: the city was not built, but "ascended magnificently, proudly." The story about the city begins in 1803 (this year St. Petersburg turned a hundred years old). Third - conditionally literary- the semantic plan appears in the poem immediately after the historically reliable picture of “gloomy Petrograd” on the eve of the flood (the beginning of the first part). The author states that the name of the hero is conventional, hints at his “literary character” (in 1833 the first complete edition of the novel “Eugene Onegin” appeared),
Note that in the poem there is a change of semantic plans, and their overlap, intersection. Let us give several examples illustrating the interaction of historical and legendary-mythological planes. The poetic "report" on the violence of the elements is interrupted by a comparison of the city (its name is replaced by a mythopoetic "pseudonym") with a river deity (hereinafter, our italics - Auth.): “waters suddenly / Flowed into underground cellars, / Channels poured to the gratings, / And Petropolis surfaced like a Triton, / Immersed in water up to the waist».
The enraged Neva is compared now with a frenzied "beast", then with "thieves" climbing through the windows, then with a "villain" who burst into the village "with his ferocious gang." The story of the flood takes on a folklore-mythological coloring. The water element evokes in the poet stable associations with a riot, a villainous raid of robbers. In the second part, the story of the "brave trader" is interrupted by an ironic mention of the modern myth-maker - the graphomaniac poet Khvostov, who "already sang with immortal verses / The misfortune of the Nevsky banks."
There are many compositional and semantic parallels in the poem. Their basis is the relationship established between the fictional hero of the poem, the water element, the city and the sculptural composition - "an idol on a bronze horse." For example, a parallel to the “great thoughts” of the founder of the city (introduction) is the “excitement of various thoughts” by Eugene (part one). The legendary He thought about the city and state interests, Eugene - about the simple, worldly: "He will somehow arrange for himself / A humble and simple shelter / And he will calm Parasha in him." The dreams of Peter, "the miraculous builder", came true: the city was built, he himself became the "ruler of half the world." Eugene's dreams of a family and a home collapsed with the death of Parasha. In the first part, other parallels arise: between Peter and the "late tsar" (the legendary double of Peter "looked into the distance" - the tsar "in thought with mournful eyes / Looked at the evil disaster"); the tsar and the people (the sad tsar “said: “The elements of God / Kings cannot be co-ruled” - the people “see God's wrath and await execution”). The tsar is powerless against the elements, the dismayed townspeople feel abandoned to the mercy of fate: “Alas! everything perishes: shelter and food! / Where will you get it?
Eugene, sitting "on a marble beast" in the pose of Napoleon ("hands clasped in a cross"), is compared with the monument to Peter:
And turned his back on him
In the unshakable height
Over the perturbed Neva
Standing with outstretched hand
Idol on a bronze horse.
A compositional parallel to this scene is drawn in the second part: a year later, the insane Yevgeny again found himself on the same “empty square”, where waves splashed during the flood:
He found himself under the pillars
Big house. On the porch
With a raised paw, as if alive,
There were guard lions,
And right in the dark sky
Above the walled rock
Idol with outstretched hand
He sat on a bronze horse.
In the figurative system of the poem, two seemingly opposite principles coexist - the principle of similarity and the principle of contrast. Parallels and comparisons not only indicate the similarities that arise between different phenomena or situations, but also reveal unresolved (and unresolvable) contradictions between them. For example, Eugene, fleeing the elements on a marble lion, is a tragicomic "double" of the guardian of the city, "an idol on a bronze horse", standing "in an unshakable height." The parallel between them emphasizes the sharp contrast between the greatness of the “idol” raised above the city and the miserable position of Eugene. In the second scene, the “idol” himself becomes different: losing his grandeur (“He is terrible in the surrounding darkness!”), He looks like a prisoner, surrounded by “watch lions”, “above the fenced rock”. The "unshakable height" becomes "dark", and the "idol" in front of which Eugene stands, turns into a "proud idol".
The majestic and “terrible” appearance of the monument in two scenes reveals the contradictions that objectively existed in Peter: the greatness of a statesman who cared for the good of Russia, and the cruelty, inhumanity of the autocrat, many of whose decrees, as Pushkin noted, were “written with a whip”. These contradictions are merged in the sculptural composition - the material "double" of Peter.
The poem is a living figurative organism that resists any unambiguous interpretations. All images of the poem are multi-valued images-symbols. The images of St. Petersburg, the Bronze Horseman, the Neva, “poor Eugene” have an independent meaning, but, unfolding in the poem, they enter into a complex interaction with each other. The seemingly “cramped” space of the small poem is expanding.
The poet explains history and modernity, creating a capacious symbolic picture of St. Petersburg. "Grad Petrov" is not only a historical stage on which both real and fictional events unfold. Petersburg is a symbol of the Petrine era, the "Petersburg" period of Russian history. The city in Pushkin's poem has many faces: it is both a "monument" to its founder, and a "monument" to the entire Peter the Great era, and an ordinary city in distress and busy with everyday bustle. The flood and the fate of Yevgeny are only part of St. Petersburg's history, one of the many stories suggested by the life of the city. For example, in the first part, a storyline is outlined, but not developed, connected with the unsuccessful attempts of the military governor-general of St. Petersburg Count M.A. Miloradovich and Adjutant General A.Kh. waters / The generals set off / To save him and the fearful / And the drowning people at home. This was written in the historical "news" about the St. Petersburg floods, compiled by V.N. Verkh, to which Pushkin refers in the "Preface".
The Petersburg world appears in the poem as a kind of closed space. The city lives according to its own laws, drawn by its founder. It is, as it were, a new civilization, opposed to both wild nature and the old Russia. The “Moscow” period of its history, symbolized by “old Moscow” (“porphyry-bearing widow”), is a thing of the past.
Petersburg is full of sharp conflicts, insoluble contradictions. The majestic, but internally contradictory image of the city is created in the introduction. Pushkin emphasizes the duality of St. Petersburg: he "ascended magnificently, proudly", but "from the darkness of the forests, from the swamp of blat." This is a colossal city, under which there is a swampy swamp. Conceived by Peter as a spacious place for the coming "feast", it is cramped: along the banks of the Neva, "slender masses crowd." Petersburg is the "military capital", but parades and the thunder of cannon salutes make it so. This is a "stronghold" that no one storms, and the Fields of Mars - the fields of military glory - are "amusing".
The introduction is a panegyric to state Petersburg, the front door. But the more the poet talks about the magnificent beauty of the city, the more it seems that he is some kind of motionless, ghostly. “Ships in a crowd” “are striving for rich marinas”, but there are no people on the streets. The poet sees "sleeping masses / Deserted streets". The very air of the city is "immovable". “Running sleds along the wide Neva”, “and the glitter and noise and the sound of balls”, “the hiss of foamy glasses” - everything is beautiful, sonorous, but the faces of the inhabitants of the city are not visible. There is something unsettling hidden in the proud appearance of the “younger” capital. The word “I love” is repeated five times in the introduction. This is a declaration of love for Petersburg, but it is pronounced like a spell, a compulsion to love. It seems that the poet is trying with all his might to fall in love with the beautiful city, which evokes conflicting, disturbing feelings in it.
Anxiety sounds in the wish to the “city of Peter”: “Show off, city of Petrov, and stand / Unshakable, like Russia. / May he make peace with you / And the conquered elements...» The beauty of the city-stronghold is not eternal: it stands firmly, but can be destroyed by the elements. In the very comparison of the city with Russia, there is a dual meaning: there is both a recognition of Russia's inviolability and a feeling of the city's unsteadiness. For the first time, the image of the water element that has not been tamed to the end appears: it appears as a powerful living being. The element is defeated, but not “reconciled”. "Finnish Waves", it turns out, have not forgotten "the enmity and captivity of their old." A city founded "on the evil of an arrogant neighbor" itself can be disturbed by the "futile malice" of the elements.
The introduction outlines the main principle of the image of the city, implemented in two parts of the "Petersburg story" - contrast. In the first part, the appearance of St. Petersburg changes, as if mythological gilding is falling off it. The “golden skies” disappear, they are replaced by the “gloom of a rainy night” and “pale day”. This is no longer a magnificent “young city”, “beauty and wonder of the midnight countries”, but “gloomy Petrograd”. He is dominated by the "autumn cold", the howling wind, the "angry" rain. The city turns into a fortress besieged by the Neva. Please note: the Neva is also part of the city. He himself hid evil energy, which is released by the "violent nonsense" of the Finnish waves. The Neva, stopping its "sovereign course" in the granite banks, breaks free and destroys the "strict, slender appearance" of St. Petersburg. As if the city itself takes itself by storm, tearing its womb. Everything that was hidden behind the front facade of the “city of Peter” in the introduction is exposed, as unworthy of odic delights:
Trays under a wet veil,
Fragments of huts, logs, roofs,
thrifty commodity,
Relics of pale poverty,
Storm-blown bridges
A coffin from a blurry cemetery
Float through the streets!
People appear on the streets, “crowding in heaps” on the banks of the Neva, the tsar comes out onto the balcony of the Winter Palace, Yevgeny looks with fear at the raging waves, worrying about Parasha. The city has changed, filled with people, ceasing to be only a city-museum. The entire first part is a picture of a national disaster. Petersburg is besieged by officials, shopkeepers, poor inhabitants of huts. There is no rest for the dead. For the first time, the figure of an “idol on a bronze horse” appears. The living king is powerless to resist the "divine element." Unlike the imperturbable "idol", he is "sad", "confused".
The third part shows Petersburg after the flood. But the urban contradictions have not only not been removed, but have become even more intensified. Peace and tranquility are fraught with a threat, the possibility of a new conflict with the elements (“But the victory is full of triumph, / The waves were still seething viciously, / As if a fire smoldered under them"). The Petersburg outskirts, where Eugene rushed, resembles a "battlefield" - "a terrible view", but the next morning "everything went back to the old order." The city again became cold and indifferent to people. This is a city of officials, prudent merchants, "evil children" throwing stones at the insane Yevgeny, coachmen whipping him with whips. But it is still a "sovereign" city - an "idol on a bronze horse" hovers over it.
The line of realistic depiction of St. Petersburg and the "little" man is developed in the "Petersburg stories" by N.V. Gogol, in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky. The mythological version of the Petersburg theme was taken up by both Gogol and Dostoevsky, but especially by the Symbolists of the early 20th century. - Andrei Bely in the novel "Petersburg" and D.S. Merezhkovsky in the novel "Peter and Alexei".
Petersburg is a huge "man-made" monument to Peter I. The contradictions of the city reflect the contradictions of its founder. The poet considered Peter an exceptional person: a true hero of history, a builder, an eternal "worker" on the throne (see Stanzas, 1826). Peter, Pushkin emphasized, is an integral figure in which two opposite principles are combined - spontaneous revolutionary and despotic: "Peter I is at the same time Robespierre and Napoleon, the Revolution Incarnate."
Peter appears in the poem in his mythological "reflections" and material incarnations. He is in the legend about the founding of St. Petersburg, in the monument, in the urban environment - in the “huge masses of slender” palaces and towers, in the granite of the Neva banks, in bridges, in the “warlike liveliness” of the “amusing Fields of Mars”, in the Admiralty needle, as if piercing the sky. Petersburg is, as it were, the materialized will and deed of Peter, turned into stone and cast iron, cast in bronze.
The images of the statues are impressive images of Pushkin's poetry. They were created in the poems “Memories in Tsarskoye Selo” (1814), “To the Bust of the Conqueror” (1829), “Tsarskoye Selo Statue” (1830), “To the Artist” (1836), and the images of statues that come to life, destroying people, are in tragedy "The Stone Guest" (1830) and "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" (1834). The two material "faces" of Peter I in Pushkin's poem are his statue, "an idol on a bronze horse," and the revived statue, the Bronze Horseman.
To understand these Pushkin images, it is necessary to take into account the idea of the sculptor, embodied in the very monument to Peter. The monument is a complex sculptural composition. Its main meaning is given by the unity of the horse and the rider, each of which has an independent meaning. The author of the monument wanted to show "the personality of the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country." “My king does not hold any rod,” Etienne-Maurice Falconet noted in a letter to D. Diderot, “he stretches out his beneficent hand over the country he is touring. He rises to the top of the rock that serves him as a pedestal - this is the emblem of the difficulties he has overcome.
This understanding of the role of Peter partly coincides with Pushkin's: the poet saw in Peter a "powerful lord of fate" who managed to subjugate the elemental power of Russia. But his interpretation of Peter and Russia is richer and more significant than the sculptural allegory. What is given in the sculpture in the form of a statement sounds like a rhetorical question in Pushkin, which does not have an unequivocal answer: “Are you right above the abyss, / At a height, with an iron bridle / Russia reared up?”. Pay attention to the difference in the intonations of the author's speech, addressed in turn to the "idol" - Peter and to the "bronze horse" - the symbol of Russia. “He is terrible in the surrounding darkness! / What a thought on the forehead! What power is hidden in it!” - the poet recognizes the will and creative genius of Peter, which turned into the cruel power of the "iron bridle" that reared Russia. “And what a fire in this horse! / Where are you galloping, proud horse, / And where will you lower your hooves? - the exclamation is replaced by a question in which the poet's thought is addressed not to the country curbed by Peter, but to the riddle of Russian history and to modern Russia. She continues her run, and not only the elements of nature, but also popular riots disturb Peter's "eternal sleep".
The bronze Peter in Pushkin's poem is a symbol of the state will, the energy of power liberated from the human principle. Even in the poem "Hero" (1830), Pushkin called: "Leave your heart to the hero! What will / He be without him? Tyrant...". "The idol on a bronze horse" - "the pure embodiment of autocratic power" (V.Ya. Bryusov) - is devoid of a heart. He is a “wonderful builder”, at the wave of his hand Petersburg “ascended”. But the brainchild of Peter is a miracle created not for man. A window to Europe was opened by the autocrat. The future Petersburg was conceived by him as a city-state, a symbol of autocratic power, alienated from the people. Peter created a "cold" city, uncomfortable for the Russian people, elevated above it.
Having pushed the bronze Peter and the poor St. Petersburg official Yevgeny into conflict in the poem, Pushkin emphasized that state power and man are separated by an abyss. Equalizing all estates with one "club", pacifying the human element of Russia with an "iron bridle", Peter wanted to turn it into a submissive and pliable material. Eugene was to become the embodiment of the autocrat's dream of a man-puppet, deprived of historical memory, who forgot both "native traditions" and his "nickname" (that is, surname, family), which "in times past" "perhaps shone / And under the pen of Karamzin / It sounded in native legends. In part, the goal was achieved: Pushkin's hero is a product and victim of St. Petersburg "civilization", one of the countless officials without a "nickname" who "serve somewhere", without thinking about the meaning of their service, dream of "petty-bourgeois happiness": a good place , home, family, well-being. In the sketches of the unfinished poem Yezersky (1832), which many researchers compare with The Bronze Horseman, Pushkin gave a detailed characterization of his hero, a descendant of a noble family who turned into an ordinary St. Petersburg official. In The Bronze Horseman, the story about the genealogy and everyday life of Yevgeny is extremely laconic: the poet emphasized the generalized meaning of the fate of the hero of the "Petersburg story".
But Eugene, even in his modest desires that separate him from the domineering Peter, is not humiliated by Pushkin. The hero of the poem - a prisoner of the city and the "Petersburg" period of Russian history - is not only a reproach to Peter and the city he created, a symbol of Russia, numb from the angry look of the "terrible Tsar". Eugene is the antipode of the "idol on a bronze horse." He has something that the bronze Peter is deprived of: heart and soul. He is able to dream, grieve, "fear" for the fate of his beloved, to languish from torment. The deep meaning of the poem is that Eugene is compared not with Peter the man, but precisely with Peter's "idol", with a statue. Pushkin found his "unit of measurement" of unbridled, but metal-bound power - humanity. Measured by this measure, the "idol" and the hero draw closer. “Insignificant” in comparison with the real Peter, “poor Eugene”, compared with a dead statue, turns out to be next to the “miraculous builder”.
The hero of the "Petersburg story", having become a madman, has lost social certainty. Evgeny, who went mad, "dragged out his unfortunate age / Neither beast nor man, / Neither this nor that, nor a dweller of the world, / Nor a dead ghost ...". He wanders around St. Petersburg, not noticing the humiliation and malice of people, deafened by the "noise of inner anxiety." Pay attention to this remark of the poet, because it is the “noise” in Yevgeny’s soul, which coincided with the noise of the natural elements (“It was gloomy: / It was raining, the wind howled sadly”) awakens in the madman what for Pushkin was the main sign of a person - memory : “Evgeny jumped up; remembered vividly / He is a past horror. It is the memory of the flood that he experienced brings him to the Senate Square, where he meets the "idol on a bronze horse" for the second time.
This climactic episode of the poem, which ended with the Bronze Horseman chasing the "poor fool", is especially important for understanding the meaning of the whole work. Beginning with V. G. Belinsky, it has been interpreted differently by researchers. Often in the words of Eugene, addressed to the bronze Peter (“Good, miraculous builder! - / He whispered, trembling angrily, - / Already to you! ..”), they see a rebellion, an uprising against the “ruler of the semi-world” (sometimes analogies were made between this episode and the uprising of the Decembrists). In this case, the question inevitably arises: who is the winner - statehood, embodied in the "proud idol", or humanity, embodied in Eugene?
However, it is hardly possible to consider the words of Eugene, who, having whispered them, “suddenly headlong / Set off to run”, a riot or an uprising. The words of the insane hero are caused by the memory awakened in him: “Eugene shuddered. The thoughts have cleared up / There are terrible thoughts in him. This is not only a memory of the horror of last year's flood, but above all historical memory, seemingly etched in it by Peter's "civilization". Only then did Eugene recognize "and the lions, and the square, and the One, / Who stood motionless / In the darkness with a copper head, / The one whose fateful will / Under the sea, the city was founded." Again, as in the introduction, the legendary "double" of Peter appears - He. The statue comes to life, what is happening loses its real features, a realistic narrative becomes a mythological story.
Like a fairy-tale, mythological hero (see, for example, “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs”, 1833), the unintelligent Eugene “comes to life”: “The eyes turned into a mist, / A flame ran through the heart, / The blood boiled.” He turns into a Man in his generic essence (note: the hero in this fragment is never named Eugene). He, "terrible king", the personification of power, and Human, having a heart and endowed with memory, inspired by the demonic power of the elements (“as if possessed by black power”), came together in a tragic confrontation. In the whisper of the awakened Man, a threat and a promise of retribution are heard, for which the revived statue, "instantly burning with rage," punishes the "poor madman." The "realistic" explanation of this episode impoverishes its meaning: everything that happened turns out to be the fruit of the sick imagination of the insane Yevgeny.
In the chase scene, the second reincarnation of the “idol on a bronze horse” takes place - He turns into Rider of the Copper. A mechanical creature gallops behind Man, which has become a pure embodiment of power, punishing even for a timid threat and a reminder of retribution:
And illuminated by the pale moon,
Stretch out your hand above
Behind him rushes the Bronze Horseman
On a galloping horse.
The conflict is transferred to the mythological space, which emphasizes its philosophical significance. This conflict is fundamentally unsolvable; there can be no winner or loser in it. “All night”, “everywhere” behind the “poor madman” “The Bronze Horseman / With a heavy stomping galloped”, but the “heavy-voiced galloping” does not end with anything. A senseless and fruitless pursuit, reminiscent of "running in place", has a deep philosophical meaning. The contradictions between a person and power cannot be resolved or disappear: a person and power are always tragically connected with each other.Such a conclusion can be drawn from Pushkin's poetic "research" of one of the episodes of the "Petersburg" period of Russian history. The first stone in its foundation was laid by Peter I, the “powerful ruler of fate”, who built St. Petersburg and new Russia, but failed to pull a person with an “iron bridle”. Power is powerless against "human, too human" - the heart, memory and elements of the human soul. Any "idol" is only a dead statue, which a Human can crush or, at least, force to break away in unrighteous and impotent anger.
The city on the Neva is actually an open-air museum. Monuments of architecture, history and art are concentrated in its central part and are mostly compositional. A special place among them is occupied by a monument dedicated to Peter the Great - the Bronze Horseman. Any guide can give a detailed description of the monument, everything is interesting in this story: from the creation of a sketch to the installation process. Many legends and myths are associated with it. The first one refers to the origin of the name of the sculpture. It was given much later than the erection of the monument, but has not changed over the two hundred years of its existence.
Name
... Over the fenced rock
Idol with outstretched hand
Sitting on a bronze horse...
These lines are familiar to every Russian person, their author, A. S. Pushkin, describing in the work of the same name called him the Bronze Horseman. The great Russian poet, who was born 17 years after the installation of the monument, did not imagine that his poem would give a new name to the sculpture. In his work, he gives the following description of the Bronze Horseman monument (or rather, whose image was displayed in it):
... What a thought on the forehead!
What power is hidden in it! ..
…O mighty lord of destiny!..
Peter appears not as a simple man, not as a great king, but practically as a demigod. These epithets were inspired by Pushkin's monument, its scale and fundamentality. The rider is not made of copper, the sculpture itself is made of bronze, and a solid block of granite was used as a pedestal. But the image of Peter, created by Pushkin in the poem, was so consistent with the energy of the entire composition that one should not pay attention to such trifles. Until today, the description of the Bronze Horseman monument in St. Petersburg is inextricably linked with the work of the great Russian classic.
Story
Catherine II, wanting to emphasize her commitment to the reforming activities of Peter, decided to erect a monument to him in the city, the founder of which he was. The first statue was created by Francesco Rastrelli, but the monument did not receive the approval of the empress and was kept in the barns of St. Petersburg for a long time. The sculptor Etienne Maurice Falcone recommended to her worked on the monument for 12 years. His confrontation with Catherine ended with the fact that he left Russia without seeing his creation in its finished form. Having studied the personality of Peter according to the sources existing at that time, he created and embodied his image not as a great commander and king, but as the creator of Russia, who opened the way for her to the sea, bringing her closer to Europe. Falcone was faced with the fact that Catherine and all the top officials already had a ready-made image of the monument, he only had to create the expected forms. If this happened, then the description of the Bronze Horseman monument in St. Petersburg would be completely different. Perhaps then it would have had a different name. Falcone's work progressed slowly, this was facilitated by bureaucratic squabbles, the discontent of the empress and the complexity of the created image.
Installation
Even recognized masters of their craft did not undertake to cast the figure of Peter on horseback, so Falcone attracted Emelyan Khailov, who cast guns. The size of the monument was not the main problem, it was much more important to maintain a weight balance. With only three points of support, the sculpture had to be stable. The original decision was the introduction of a snake into the monument, which was a symbol of defeated evil. At the same time, it provided additional support for the sculptural group. We can say that the monument was created in collaboration with the sculptor and his student Marie-Anne Collot (Peter's head, face) and the Russian master Fyodor Gordeev (snake).
thunder stone
Not a single description of the Bronze Horseman monument is complete without mentioning its foundation (pedestal). A huge granite block was split by lightning, which is why the local population gave it the name Thunder Stone, which was later preserved. As conceived by Falcone, the sculpture should stand on a base imitating a billowing wave. The stone was delivered to the Senate Square by land and water, while the work on hewing a granite block did not stop. The whole of Russia and Europe followed the extraordinary transportation, in honor of its completion, Catherine ordered a medal to be minted. In September 1770, a granite base was installed on the Senate Square. The location of the monument was also controversial. The empress insisted on erecting a monument in the center of the square, but Falcone placed it closer to the Neva, and Peter's gaze was also turned to the river. Although there is fierce debate on this subject to this day: where did the Bronze Horseman look? The description of the monument by various researchers contains excellent answers. Some believe that the king is looking at Sweden, with which he fought. Others suggest that his gaze is turned to the sea, access to which was necessary for the country. There is also a point of view, which is based on the theory that the lord surveys the city he founded.
Bronze Horseman, monument
A brief description of the monument can be found in any guide to the historical and cultural sites of St. Petersburg. Peter 1 sits on a rearing horse, stretching out one hand over the Neva flowing nearby. His head is decorated with a laurel wreath, and the horse's feet trample on a snake, personifying evil (in the broadest sense of the word). On the granite base, by order of Catherine II, the inscription "Catherine II to Peter I" was made and the date is 1782. These words are written in Latin on one side of the monument, and in Russian on the other. The weight of the monument itself is about 8-9 tons, the height is more than 5 meters, excluding the base. This monument has become the hallmark of the city on the Neva. Every person who comes to see its sights definitely visits Senate Square, and everyone forms their own opinion and, accordingly, a description of the monument to the Bronze Horseman Peter 1.
Symbolism
The power and grandeur of the monument does not leave people indifferent for two centuries. He made such an indelible impression on the great classic A. S. Pushkin that the poet created one of his most significant creations - The Bronze Horseman. The description of the monument in the poem as an independent hero attracts the reader's attention with its brightness and integrity of the image. This work was included in a number of symbols of Russia, like the monument itself. “The Bronze Horseman, a description of the monument” - an essay on this topic is written by high school students from all over the country. At the same time, the role of Pushkin's poem, his vision of sculpture appear in every essay. From the moment the monument was opened to the present day, there are ambiguous opinions in society about the composition as a whole. Many Russian writers used the image created by Falcone in their work. Everyone found symbolism in it, which they interpreted in accordance with their views, but there is no doubt that Peter I personifies the movement of Russia forward. This is confirmed by the Bronze Horseman. The description of the monument has become for many a way of expressing their own thoughts about the fate of the country.
Monument
On the rock, in front of which the abyss opened up, a mighty horse runs swiftly. The rider pulls the reins, raising the animal on its hind legs, while its whole figure personifies confidence and calmness. According to Falcone, this was exactly what Peter I was like - a hero, a warrior, but also a reformer. With his hand he points to the distances that will be subject to him. The fight against the forces of nature, not too far-sighted people, prejudices for him is the meaning of life. When creating a sculpture, Catherine wanted to see Peter as a great emperor, that is, Roman statues could be a model. The king should sit on a horse, holding in his hands, while matching the ancient heroes was given with the help of clothes. Falcone was categorically against it, he said that the Russian sovereign could not wear a tunic, just like Julius Caesar's caftan. Peter appears in a long Russian shirt, which is closed by a cloak fluttering in the wind - this is exactly what the Bronze Horseman looks like. The description of the monument is impossible without some of the symbols introduced by Falcone into the main composition. For example, Peter is not sitting in the saddle, in this capacity the skin of a bear acts. Its meaning is interpreted as belonging to the nation, the people, which the king leads. The snake under the horse's hooves symbolizes deceit, enmity, ignorance, defeated by Peter.
Head
The features of the king's face are slightly idealized, but the portrait resemblance is not lost. Work on the head of Peter lasted a long time, its results constantly did not satisfy the empress. Petra, taken by Rastrelli, helped the student Falcone to complete the face of the king. Her work was highly appreciated by Catherine II, Marie-Anne Collot was assigned a life annuity. The whole figure, the position of the head, the furious gesture, the inner fire expressed in the look, show the character of Peter I.
Location
Falcone paid special attention to the base on which the Bronze Horseman is located. on this topic attracted many talented people. A rock, a block of granite personifies the difficulties that Peter overcomes on his way. After he has reached the top, he acquires the meaning of subordination, subordination to his will of all circumstances. The granite block, made in the form of a rising wave, also indicates the conquest of the sea. Very indicative is the location of the entire monument. Peter I, the founder of the city of St. Petersburg, despite all the difficulties, creates a seaport for his state. That is why the figure is placed closer to the river and turned to face it. Peter I (the Bronze Horseman) seems to continue to peer into the distance, assess the threats to his state and plan new great achievements. In order to form your own opinion about this symbol of the city on the Neva and all of Russia, you need to visit it, feel the powerful energy of the place, the character reflected by the sculptor. Reviews of many tourists, including foreign ones, boil down to one thought: for a few minutes the gift of speech disappears. In this case, it is striking not only but also the awareness of its importance for the history of Russia.
The Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg - a monument to Peter IThe Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg is the most famous monument to Peter I. It is located in an open park on Senate Square and is a unique work of Russian and world culture. The Bronze Horseman is surrounded by well-known sights: the buildings of the Senate and the Synod are located in the west, the Admiralty in the east, St. Isaac's Cathedral in the south. 
The history of the creation of the monument
The initiative to create a monument to Peter I belongs to Catherine II. It was on her orders that Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn turned to the professors of the Paris Academy of Painting and Sculpture Diderot and Voltaire, whose opinion Catherine II fully trusted. Well-known masters recommended for this work Etienne-Maurice Falcone, who worked at that time as the chief sculptor at the porcelain factory. “There is an abyss of fine taste, intelligence and delicacy in him, and at the same time he is uncouth, stern, does not believe in anything. .. He does not know self-interest,” Diderot wrote about Falcon. 
Etienne-Maurice Falcone always dreamed of monumental art and, having received an offer to create an equestrian statue of a colossal size, he agreed without hesitation. On September 6, 1766, he signed a contract in which the remuneration for the work was determined in the amount of 200 thousand livres, which was a fairly modest amount - other masters asked for much more. The 50-year-old master came to Russia with 17-year-old assistant Marie-Anne Collot.
Opinions about the appearance of the future sculpture were very different. Thus, the President of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Ivan Ivanovich Belskoy, who supervised the creation of the monument, presented a sculpture of Peter I, standing in full growth with a staff in his hand. Catherine II saw the emperor sitting on a horse with a rod or scepter, and there were other suggestions. So, Diderot conceived a monument in the form of a fountain with allegorical figures, and the state councilor Shtelin sent Belsky a detailed description of his project, according to which Peter I was to appear surrounded by allegorical statues of Prudence and Diligence, Justice and Victory, which prop up the vices of Ignorance and Sloth with their feet, Deception and Envy. Falcone rejected the traditional image of the victorious monarch and refused to depict allegories. “My monument will be simple. There will be no Barbarism, no Love of the peoples, no personification of the People ... I will limit myself only to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret as either a great commander or a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country is much higher, and this is what people need to show,” he wrote to Diderot. 
Work on the monument to Peter I
Falcone created a model of sculpture on the territory of the former temporary Winter Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna from 1768 to 1770. From the imperial stables, two horses of the Oryol breed Kapriz and Brilliant were taken. Falcone made sketches, watching as a guards officer took off on a horse to the platform and put it on its hind legs. Falcone reworked the model of the head of Peter I several times, but did not get the approval of Catherine II, and as a result, the head of the Bronze Horseman was successfully sculpted
Marie Anne Collot. 
The face of Peter I turned out to be courageous and strong-willed, with wide-open eyes and illuminated by deep thought. 
For this work, the girl was accepted as a member of the Russian Academy of Arts and Catherine II assigned her a lifelong pension of 10,000 livres.
The snake under the horse's feet was made by the Russian sculptor Fyodor Gordeev. 
A plaster model of the Bronze Horseman was made by 1778 and opinions about the work were mixed. If Diderot was satisfied, Catherine II did not like the arbitrarily chosen appearance of the monument.
Casting the Bronze Horseman
The sculpture was conceived on a colossal scale and the casters did not undertake this complex work. Foreign craftsmen demanded a lot of money for casting, and some frankly said that the casting would not succeed. Finally, a caster, a cannon maker Yemelyan Khailov, was found, who took up the casting of the Bronze Horseman. Together with Falcone, they selected the composition of the alloy and made samples. The difficulty was that the sculpture had three points of support and therefore the thickness of the walls of the front of the statue had to be small - no more than one centimeter. 
During the first casting, the pipe through which the bronze was poured burst. In desperation, Falcone ran out of the workshop, but master Khailov did not lose his head, took off his coat and soaked it with water, smeared it with clay and applied it as a patch to the pipe. Risking his life, he prevented the fire, although he himself received burns to his hands and partially damaged his eyesight. The upper part of the Bronze Horseman was damaged anyway, it had to be cut down. Preparations for a new casting took another three years, but this time it was successful and in honor of the successful completion of the work, the sculptor left the inscription in one of the folds of the cloak of Peter I: “Etienne Falcone, a Parisian of 1788, sculpted and cast”. 
Installation of the Bronze Horseman
Falcone wanted to erect a monument on a plinth in the form of a wave, carved from a natural piece of rock. It was very difficult to find the right block with a height of 11.2 meters, and therefore an appeal was published in the St. Petersburg News newspaper to individuals who wanted to find a suitable piece of rock. And soon the peasant Semyon Vishnyakov responded, who had long noticed a suitable block near the village of Lakhta and informed the head of the prospecting work about this. 
The weight of the monolith is about 1600 tons and is called the Thunder-stone, according to legend, lightning hit it and broke off a piece of the block. To deliver the stone, piles were driven, a road was laid, a wooden platform was made moving along two parallel gutters, in which 30 balls made of copper alloy were laid. This operation was carried out in winter from November 15, 1769, when the ground was icy and on March 27, 1770 the stone was delivered to the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Then the monolith was loaded onto a special raft, built by the master Grigory Korchebnikov, fortified between two ships. Thousands of people took part in the extraction and transportation of the stone. On September 25, 1770, crowds of people met the Thunder-stone on the banks of the Neva near Senate Square. During transportation, dozens of masons gave it the necessary shape. This event was marked by the minting of the medal "It is like boldness. January 1770".
Back side 
Front side 
In 1778, Falcone's relationship with Catherine II finally deteriorated and, together with Marie-Anne Collot, he was forced to leave for Paris.
The installation of the Bronze Horseman was led by Fyodor Gordeev, and on August 7, 1782, the grand opening of the monument took place.
The military parade at the celebration was led by Prince Alexander Golitsyn, and Catherine II arrived along the Neva in a boat and climbed onto the balcony of the Senate building. The empress came out wearing a crown and purple and gave a sign to open the monument. Under the roll of a drum, the shields covering the monument opened up - an exclamation of admiration swept through ... and the regiments of the guards marched along the Neva embankment. 
But the author was not among the enthusiastic audience, he was not even invited to the opening ceremony. Only later Prince Golitsyn in France presented Falcone with gold and silver medals from Catherine II. This was a clear recognition of his talent, which the queen could not appreciate before. They say that at this Falcone, who spent 15 years of his life on his main sculpture, began to cry. 
Bronze Horseman - title
The name of the Bronze Horseman was later given to the monument thanks to the poem of the same name by A.S. Pushkin, although in fact the monument is made of bronze.
Monument Bronze Horseman
Falcone depicted the figure of Peter I in dynamics, on a rearing horse, and thereby wanted to show not a commander and a winner, but, first of all, a creator and legislator. We see the emperor in simple clothes, and instead of a rich saddle - an animal skin. Only the wreath of laurel crowning the head and the sword at the belt tell us about the winner and the commander. The location of the monument on the top of the rock indicates the difficulties Peter overcame, and the snake is a symbol of evil forces. The monument is unique in that it has only three points of support. On the pedestal there is an inscription “TO PETER the first EKATERINA the second of the summer of 1782”, and on the other side the same text is indicated in Latin. The weight of the Bronze Horseman is eight tons, and the height is five meters.
Legends and Myths about the Bronze Horseman
There is a legend that Peter I, being in a cheerful mood, decided to jump over the Neva on his beloved horse Lisette. He exclaimed: "All God's and mine" and jumped over the river. The second time he shouted the same words and was also on the other side. And for the third time he decided to jump over the Neva, but he made a reservation and said: “All mine and God’s” and was immediately punished - he turned to stone on Senate Square, in the place where the Bronze Horseman now stands.
They say that Peter I, who fell ill, was lying in a fever and fancied that the Swedes were advancing. He jumped on a horse and wanted to rush to the Neva against the enemy, but then a snake crawled out and wrapped around the horse's legs and stopped him, did not allow Peter I to jump into the water and die. So the Bronze Horseman stands in this place - a monument to How the snake saved Peter I.
There are several myths and legends in which Peter I prophesies: "As long as I am in place, my city has nothing to fear." Indeed, the Bronze Horseman remained in his place during the Patriotic War of 1812 and during the Great Patriotic War. During the siege of Leningrad, it was sheathed with logs and boards, and bags of sand and earth were laid around it.
Peter I points towards Sweden with his hand, and in the center of Stockholm there is a monument to Charles XII, Peter's opponent in the Northern War, whose left hand is directed towards Russia.
Interesting facts about the Bronze Horseman monument
The transportation of the stone-pedestal was accompanied by difficulties and unforeseen circumstances, and often there were emergency situations. All of Europe followed that operation, and in honor of the delivery of the Thunder Stone to Senate Square, a commemorative medal was issued with the inscription “It is like boldness. Genvarya, 20, 1770"
Falcone conceived a monument without a fence, although the fence was nevertheless installed, but has not survived to this day. Now there are people who leave inscriptions on the monument and spoil the pedestal and the Bronze Horseman. It is possible that soon a fence will be installed around the Bronze Horseman
In 1909 and 1976, the restoration of the Bronze Horseman was carried out. A recent gamma-ray survey showed that the frame of the sculpture is in good condition. Inside the monument was laid a capsule with a note on the restoration and a newspaper dated September 3, 1976
The Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg is the main symbol of the Northern capital and newlyweds and numerous tourists come to admire one of the most famous sights of the city on Senate Square. 
History of the monument
The equestrian statue of Peter was made by the sculptor Etienne Falcone in -. Peter's head was sculpted by Falcone's student, Marie-Anne Collot. Fyodor Gordeev fashioned the snake according to Falcone's plan. The casting of the statue was completed in 1778 under the guidance of master Yemelyan Khailov.
For the pedestal of the monument, a giant granite boulder was brought from the vicinity of Lakhta, “ thunder stone". The stone weighed 1600 tons. Its transportation to the shore of the Gulf of Finland (about 8 miles) was carried out on a log platform along two special gutters, in which 30 five-inch bronze balls were laid. The platform was driven by several gates. This unique operation lasted from November 15, 1769 to March 27, 1770. The transportation of the stone by water was carried out on a ship specially built for this purpose according to the drawing of the famous shipbuilder Grigory Korchebnikov and began only in the fall. The giant "Thunder-stone" with a huge crowd of people arrived in St. Petersburg on Senate Square on September 26, 1770. In honor of the transportation of the stone, a commemorative medal with the inscription "It is like boldness" was knocked out.
In 1778, due to a sharp change in the attitude of Catherine II towards Falcone, he was forced to leave Russia. And the work to complete the monument was entrusted to Yu. M. Felten. The monument was inaugurated on August 7, 1782. Ironically, Falcone was never invited to its opening.
It was the first equestrian monument to the Russian Tsar. In conditional attire, on a rearing horse, Peter is depicted by Falcone primarily as a legislator: in the hierarchy of classicism, legislators are higher than generals. Here is what Falcone himself wrote about this: “My monument will be simple ... I will limit myself only to the statue of this hero whom I do not interpret as either a great commander or a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator of the legislator is much higher ... ”The sculptor portrayed Peter in an emphatically dynamic state, dressed him in simple and light clothes, and replaced the rich saddle with an animal skin so that all this would not be conspicuous and would not distract attention from the main thing. A pedestal in the form of a huge rock is a symbol of the difficulties Peter I overcame, and a snake under the feet of a rearing horse depicts hostile forces. And only a wreath of laurel crowning his head, and a sword hanging from his belt, indicate the role of Peter as a victorious commander.
Catherine II, Diderot and Voltaire took part in the discussion of the concept of the monument. The monument was supposed to depict the victory of civilization, reason, human will over wild nature. The pedestal of the monument was intended to symbolize nature, barbarism, and the fact that Falcone hewn the grandiose Thunder-stone, polished it, caused indignation and criticism of his contemporaries.
The inscription on the pedestal reads: “Catherine the Second to Peter the Great, summer 1782” on the one hand, and “Petro primo Catharina secunda” on the other, thus emphasizing the empress’s intention: to establish a line of succession, inheritance between the deeds of Peter and her own activities.
The monument to Peter I already at the end of the 18th century became the object of urban legends and anecdotes, and at the beginning of the 19th century - one of the most popular topics in Russian poetry.
Legend of Major Baturin
There is an assumption that the legend of Major Baturin formed the basis of the plot of A.S. Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman". There is also an assumption that the legend of Major Baturin became the reason that during the years of World War II the monument remained in place and was not hidden, like other sculptures.
Literature
- Architectural monuments of Leningrad. - Leningrad, Stroyizdat. 1975.
- Knabe G.S. Imagination of a Sign: The Bronze Horseman of Falcone and Pushkin. M., 1993.
- Toporov VN On the dynamic context of three-dimensional works of fine art (semiotic view). Falconet's monument to Peter I // Lotman's collection. 1. M., 1995.
- Proskurina V. Petersburg Myth and the Politics of Monuments: Peter the Great to Catherine the Second // New Literary Review. 2005. No. 72.
Footnotes
Links
- History of the Bronze Horseman. Photos, how to get there, what's nearby
- The Bronze Horseman in the Wedding Encyclopedia
Coordinates : 59°56′11″ N sh. 30°18′08″ in. d. / 59.936389° N sh. 30.302222° E d.(G)59.936389 , 30.302222
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See what the "Bronze Horseman (monument)" is in other dictionaries:
"Bronze Horseman"- Monument to Peter I ("The Bronze Horseman"). Monument to Peter I ("The Bronze Horseman"). Saint Petersburg. "The Bronze Horseman", a poetic designation of the monument to Peter I, sung by A. S. Pushkin in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" (1833). Monumental statue of a rider, ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
The Bronze Horseman: The Bronze Horseman monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg The Bronze Horseman poem by A. S. Pushkin The Bronze Horseman ballet to music by R. M. Glier The Bronze Horseman film award ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Bronze Horseman (meanings). Coordinates: 59° N sh. 30° in. / 59.9364° N sh. 30.3022° E etc. ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Bronze Horseman (meanings). Bronze Horseman ... Wikipedia
"Bronze Horseman"- THE BRASS HORSEMAN Pushkin's name. Monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg. After the publication of one. poems became popular. The monument, the first equestrian monument in Russia, was opened in 1782. Its creators are sculptors E. Falcone, M. A. Kollo, F. Gordeev, architect. YU.… … Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary
Poetic designation of the monument to Peter I, sung by A. S. Pushkin in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" (1833). A monumental statue of a rider, with an imperious hand clutching the reins of a horse reared in a swift impulse, personifying the growth of power ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)
- "The BRONZE HORSEMAN", a poetic designation of the monument to Peter I (see PETER I the Great) in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), sung by A. S. Pushkin (see PUSHKIN Alexander Sergeevich) in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" (1833). Bronze equestrian statue of Peter, ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
The poem "The Bronze Horseman" by A.S. Pushkin is one of the most perfect creations of the poet. In its style, it resembles "Eugene Onegin", and in content it is close at the same time to history and mythology. This work reflects the thoughts of A.S. Pushkin about Peter the Great and absorbed various opinions about the reformer.
The poem became the final work of those written during the Boldin autumn. At the end of 1833, The Bronze Horseman was completed.
At the time of Pushkin, there were two types of people - some idolized Peter the Great, while others attributed to him a relationship with Satan. On this basis, myths were born: in the first case, the reformer was called the Father of the Fatherland, they talked about an unprecedented mind, the creation of a city-paradise (Petersburg), in the second, they prophesied the collapse of the city on the Neva, accused Peter the Great of having connections with dark forces, called the Antichrist.
The essence of the poem
The poem begins with a description of St. Petersburg, A.S. Pushkin emphasizes the uniqueness of the place for construction. Eugene lives in the city - the most ordinary employee, poor, does not want to get rich, it is more important for him to remain an honest and happy family man. Financial well-being is required only for the need to provide for your beloved Parasha. The hero dreams of marriage and children, dreams of meeting old age hand in hand with his girlfriend. But his dreams were not destined to come true. The work describes the flood of 1824. A terrible time when people perished in layers of water, when the Neva raged and swallowed up the city with its waves. In such a flood, Parasha dies. Eugene, on the other hand, shows courage during a disaster, does not think about himself, tries to see the house of his beloved in the distance and runs to him. When the storm subsides, the hero hurries to the familiar gate: here is a willow, but there is no gate and no house either. This picture broke the young man, he is doomed to drag along the streets of the northern capital, leads the life of a wanderer and every day relives the events of that fateful night. In one of these blurs, he comes across the house where he used to live and sees a statue of Peter the Great on horseback - the Bronze Horseman. He hates the reformer because he built a city on the water that killed his beloved. But suddenly the rider comes to life and angrily rushes at the offender. Later, the tramp will die.
In the poem, the interests of the state and the common man collide. On the one hand, Petrograd was called the northern Rome, on the other hand, its foundation on the Neva was dangerous for the inhabitants, and the flood of 1824 confirms this. Yevgeny's vicious speeches against the reforming ruler are interpreted in different ways: the first is a rebellion against the autocracy; the second is the revolt of Christianity against paganism; the third is the pitiful murmur of a small man, whose opinion is not put on a par with the force necessary for changes on a national scale (that is, to achieve grandiose goals, you always have to sacrifice something, and the mechanism of collective will will not be stopped by the misfortune of one person).
Genre, meter and composition
The genre of "The Bronze Horseman" is a poem written, like "Eugene Onegin", in iambic tetrameter. The composition is quite strange. It has an exorbitantly large introduction, which in general can be considered as a separate independent work. Then 2 parts, which talk about the main character, the flood and the collision with the Bronze Horseman. There is no epilogue in the poem, more precisely, it is not singled out separately by the poet himself - the last 18 lines about the island on the seaside and the death of Eugene.
Despite the non-standard structure, the work is perceived as a whole. This effect is created by compositional parallelisms. Peter the Great lived 100 years earlier than the main character, but this does not interfere with creating a sense of the presence of a reforming ruler. His personality is expressed through the monument of the Bronze Horseman; but the person of Peter himself appears at the beginning of the poem, in the introduction, when it is about the military and economic significance of St. Petersburg. A.S. Pushkin also carries the idea of the immortality of the reformer, because even after his death, innovations appeared and the old ones were valid for a long time, that is, he launched that heavy and clumsy machine of change in Russia.
So, the figure of the ruler appears throughout the poem, either as his own person, or in the form of a monument, he is revived by the confused mind of Eugene. The time interval of the narrative between the introduction and the first part is 100 years, but, despite such a sharp jump, the reader does not feel it, since A.S. Pushkin connected the events of 1824 with the so-called "culprit" of the flood, because it was Peter who built the city on the Neva. It is interesting to note that this book on the construction of composition is completely uncharacteristic of Pushkin's style, it is an experiment.
Characteristics of the main characters
- Eugene - we know little about him; lived in Kolomna, served there. He was poor, but had no ill taste for money. Despite the perfect commonness of the hero, and he would easily be lost among thousands of the same gray residents of St. Petersburg, he has a lofty and bright dream that fully meets the ideals of many people - marrying his beloved girl. He - as Pushkin himself liked to call his characters - "the hero of the French novel." But his dreams are not destined to come true, Parasha dies in the flood of 1824, and Eugene goes crazy. The poet painted for us a weak and insignificant young man, whose face is instantly lost against the background of the figure of Peter the Great, but even this layman has his own goal, which is commensurate with or even surpasses the personality of the Bronze Horseman in strength and nobility.
- Peter the Great - in the introduction, his figure is presented as a portrait of the Creator, Pushkin recognizes an incredible mind in the ruler, but emphasizes despotism. First, the poet shows that although the emperor is higher than Eugene, he is not higher than God and the elements that are not subject to him, but the power of Russia will pass through all adversity and remain unharmed and unshakable. The author has repeatedly noticed that the reformer was too autocratic, did not pay attention to the misfortunes of ordinary people who became victims of his global transformations. Probably, opinions on this topic will always differ: on the one hand, tyranny is a bad quality that a ruler should not have, but on the other hand, would such extensive changes be possible if Peter was softer? Everyone answers this question for himself.
Subject
The clash of power and the common man is the main theme of the poem "The Bronze Horseman". In this work, A.S. Pushkin reflects on the role of the individual in the fate of the whole state.
The Bronze Horseman personifies Peter the Great, whose reign was close to despotism and tyranny. His hand introduced reforms that completely changed the course of ordinary Russian life. But when a forest is cut down, chips will inevitably fly. Can a small man find his happiness when such a lumberjack does not take into account his interests? The poem answers no. A clash of interests between the authorities and the people in this case is inevitable, of course, the latter remain the losers. A.S. Pushkin reflects on the structure of the state in the time of Peter the Great and the fate of a single hero taken in it - Eugene, coming to the conclusion that the empire is cruel to people in any case, and whether its greatness is worth such sacrifices is an open question.
The creator also addresses the topic of the tragic loss of a loved one. Eugene cannot stand loneliness and grief of loss and does not find what to cling to in life if there is no love.
Issues
- In the poem "The Bronze Horseman" A.S. Pushkin raises the problem of the individual and the state. Eugene is a native of the people. He is the most ordinary petty official, lives from hand to mouth. His soul is full of high feelings for Parasha, with whom he dreams of marrying. The monument of the Bronze Horseman becomes the face of the state. In oblivion of the mind, a young man comes across the house where he lived before the death of his beloved and before his madness. His gaze stumbles upon the monument, and his sick mind revives the statue. Here it is, the inevitable clash of the individual and the state. But the rider is viciously chasing Yevgeny, pursuing him. How dare the hero grumble at the emperor?! The reformer thought on a larger scale, considering plans for the future in a full-length dimension, as from a bird's eye view he looked at his creations, not peering at the people who were overwhelmed by his innovations. The people sometimes suffered from the decisions of Peter, just as now they sometimes suffer from the ruling hand. The monarch erected a beautiful city, which during the flood of 1824 became a cemetery for many residents. But he does not take into account the opinion of ordinary people, it seems that with his thoughts he went far ahead of his time, and even after a hundred years, not everyone was able to comprehend his plan. Thus, a person is not protected in any way from the arbitrariness of higher persons, his rights are rudely and with impunity trampled.
- The problem of loneliness also bothered the author. The hero could not bear a day of life without the second half. Pushkin reflects on how vulnerable and vulnerable we are, how the mind is not strong and subject to suffering.
- The problem of indifference. No one helped the townspeople to evacuate, no one corrected the consequences of the storm either, and officials did not even dream of compensation for the families of the dead and social support for the victims. The state apparatus showed a surprising indifference to the fate of its subjects.
State as the Bronze Horseman
For the first time, we encounter the image of Peter the Great in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" in the introduction. Here the ruler is depicted as the Creator, who conquered the elements and built a city on the water.
The emperor's reforms were disastrous for the common people, since they were guided only by the nobility. Yes, and she had a hard time: remember how Peter forcibly cut the beards of the boyars. But the main victim of the monarch's ambitions was the ordinary working people: it was they who paved the road to the northern capital for hundreds of lives. The city on the bones - that's it - the personification of the state machine. It was comfortable for Peter himself and his associates to live in innovations, because they saw only one side of the new affairs - progressive and beneficial, and the fact that the destructive effect and "side effects" of these changes fell on the shoulders of "little" people did not bother anyone. The elite looked at St. Petersburg drowning in the Neva from "high balconies" and did not feel all the sorrows of the water foundation of the city. Peter perfectly reflects in himself the peremptory absolutist state system - there will be reforms, but the people "will live somehow."
If at first we see the Creator, then closer to the middle of the poem, the poet propagates the idea that Peter the Great is not God and it is completely beyond his power to cope with the elements. At the end of the work, we see only a stone likeness of the former ruler, who was sensational in Russia. Years later, the Bronze Horseman has become only an occasion for unreasonable anxiety and fear, but this is only a fleeting feeling of a madman.
What is the meaning of the poem?
Pushkin created a multifaceted and ambiguous work, which must be evaluated in terms of ideological and thematic content. The meaning of the poem "The Bronze Horseman" lies in the confrontation between Eugene and the Bronze Horseman, the individual and the state, which criticism deciphers in different ways. So, the first meaning is the opposition of paganism and Christianity. Peter was often awarded the title of Antichrist, and Eugene opposes such thoughts. Another thought: the hero is a layman, and the reformer is a genius, they live in different worlds and do not understand each other. The author, however, admits that both types are needed for the harmonious existence of civilization. The third meaning is that the main character personified the rebellion against autocracy and despotism, which the poet propagated, because he belonged to the Decembrists. The same helplessness of the uprising he allegorically retold in a poem. And one more interpretation of the idea is a pitiful and doomed to failure attempt by a “little” person to change and turn the course of the state machine in the other direction.
