Probably no film by Eldar Ryazanov has received such mixed reviews. It was a kind of experiment: the director had never filmed Russian classics before, especially since a film based on N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Dowry” had already been made into a film in 1936. The new reading met with an irritated and even angry reaction: “ Cruel romance called outright vulgarity. And during the filming there were many interesting, funny, and sometimes tragic episodes.

Even at the time when Eldar Ryazanov decided to make a film based on "Dowry" and re-read N. Ostrovsky's play, he represented Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrey Myagkov in the roles of Paratov and Karandyshev. Without these actors, the film would not have happened. Therefore, even before filming began, he secured their consent. In the role of Larisa's mother, Harita Ogudalova, Ryazanov saw only Alisa Freindlich. Therefore, no tests were carried out, only main character selected from several applicants. The choice fell on 23-year-old Larisa Guzeeva, for whom this work became her debut.

Guzeeva admitted that she had nothing in common with Larisa Ogudalova: the actress at that time was a hippopotamus, smoked Belomor, swearing and came to the audition in torn jeans. In addition, the experience of unhappy love was completely unfamiliar to her. Eldar Ryazanov recalls: “Not everything in her, of course, suited me, I was not sure about everything when I approved Guzeeva for the role, but all the partner actors showed excellent solidarity, good relations to the young artist, supported her, encouraged her, shared their experience ... At first, her professional ignorance was truly limitless, but when they were filming latest episodes She made it much easier to work with.”

Frame from the film *Cruel Romance*, 1984

Andrey Myagkov in the film *Cruel Romance*

Filming in the film nearly cost Andrey Myagkov his life. According to the plot, his hero rushes in pursuit of the "Swallow". The actor did not notice how he swam too close to the steamer, and the blade hit the bow of the boat. She turned over, and Myagkov went under the water. Fortunately, he managed to escape. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he reacted very calmly, and later laughed it off and said: “I immediately thought how ridiculous such a death would be. After all, the film crew, and in particular Ryazanov, will be blamed for everything. And I didn't want that. I immediately remembered my wife, my house in Moscow, and I felt surprisingly calm.”

Larisa Guzeeva and Alisa Freindlich in the movie *Cruel Romance*

On the set of the movie *Cruel Romance*, 1984

Ryazanov knew in advance that the adaptation of Ostrovsky’s play would not be of the same name, because one “Dowry” had already been released in 1936. The name “Cruel Romance” appeared by itself - the director admits that he always had a weakness for romances: “I, as a fan old romances At first I decided to use only them. Ostrovsky Larisa sings "Do not tempt me needlessly." At first I also wanted to use “I was driving home”, “I dreamed of a garden ...” and others. But I re-read my favorite poetesses: Tsvetaeva, Akhmadulina. And I understood what was needed. And the romance “I, like a butterfly to the fire ...” wrote himself out of desperation. Immediately, Kipling with a “hairy bumblebee” turned out to be in place.

Frame from the film *Cruel Romance*, 1984

During the filming, which took place in Kostroma, Mikhalkov often arranged banquets for the film crew, with a truly Paratov scale: they sang and danced to gypsy songs until the morning. Once the salaries of the actors were delayed, they were interrupted by dry rations. Then Mikhalkov went hunting, killed a bear, and then fed everyone with bear meat for a week. "He's stalling again!" - the director commented on Mikhalkov's hooligan courage.

Nikita Mikhalkov in the movie *Cruel Romance*

On the set of the movie *Cruel Romance*, 1984

On the set of the movie *Cruel Romance*, 1984

Critics smashed "Cruel Romance" to smithereens. The film was called a vulgar and simplified adaptation of Ostrovsky's play, they wrote that against the backdrop of the film luminaries Mikhalkov, Myagkov and Freindlich, the aspiring actress Larisa Guzeeva looked helpless, Ryazanov was branded for distorting the meaning of the play and failing to correctly convey the atmosphere.

Larisa Guzeeva as Larisa Ogudalova

Frame from the film *Cruel Romance*, 1984

Nevertheless, in the year the film was released, it was watched by 22 million viewers, in 1985 it was recognized best movie according to a survey of the Soviet Screen magazine, and Nikita Mikhalkov - the actor of the year.

Recently I watched on TV a wonderful film by Nikita Mikhalkov "Cruel Romance" with a magnificent young Larisa Guzeeva, and somehow I saw everything in a new light. We are used to considering Larisa an unfortunate victim, mourning her bitter fate, hating the handsome Paratov and despising the pitiful Karandyshev. However, let's look at this story from the side positive psychology, which claims that everything in our life depends on ourselves - both the circumstances that develop in our lives and the people who surround us - all this is not at all accidental.

This story is also interesting from the point of view of male and female life strategies. Main character- Sergey Sergeevich Paratov, a life-burner, wants to live cheerfully, carefree, always achieve his own. If you look closely, he, in fact, always achieves everything he wants. This is sober male logic. A person, first of all, knows what he wants, and gives himself an account of how he is ready to pay for it. Man looks at objective circumstances open eyes. What does Paratov want? A cheerful, riotous, carefree life, so that everyone knows him, everyone loves him. What does he do for this? He buys this glory, generously gives tips, squanders money, it is always fun with him, those who share the views of the protagonist are drawn to him. We will not analyze here the moral aspect of his behavior - everyone is free to build his life the way he wants, and sooner or later everyone will reap the fruits of what he has sown. What else does he want? To fall in love with the beautiful Larisa, to achieve her. He beautifully cares for her, seduces, seduces, using knowledge female psychology. He again knows what he wants and what needs to be done to get it.

Further, a carefree lifestyle leads to the ruin of Paratov, and in order to improve his affairs and not lose such a lifestyle, he marries favorably. He again understands what he is doing, and how he must pay for it. "True, I take a rich dowry, he tells his friends, gold mines. But it’s not cheap for me either, I say goodbye to my cheerful life. This is a male strategy. Not surprisingly, men tend to achieve their goals more often.

Everything is very simple. The result depends on the actions. If you want to get this and that, do this and that. Life is ingeniously simple. What is Larissa doing? First, she feels doomed and unhappy in advance. This is with her enchanting beauty! She chooses herself as a victim. And who is the victim couple? Executioner! Again, everything is very simple. First, she herself does not understand what she wants. Love? Which? With whom? Does she consider herself worthy of a successful marriage in all respects? Does she even consider such a marriage possible for herself? How can you get what you consider impossible for yourself? So the actions of Larisa are filled with the same ambiguity that reigns in her soul. Paratov clearly tells her that he is leaving tomorrow. Larissa hears this? He does not offer her his hand, he invites her to go for a ride with him. Does she imagine her line of conduct? Does she want to marry Paratov? Does she need such a man? If not, don't waste your time on it. If yes, then you should think about how you can achieve a man like him. After all, he is passionate, Larisa is beautiful, full of all sorts of talents and spiritual treasures, she has something to attract, something to keep. But after all, she chose herself as a victim, and therefore she behaves accordingly: she brings herself to the slaughter. And everything would be fine, because in the depths of her soul she hopes that, perhaps, she will stay with him and marry him. What are these beliefs based on? Larisa does not understand what she wants, she does not understand what she is doing, she does not analyze the situation, she is guided only by her feelings and vague desires. The situation is clear as day, but Larisa does not want to soberly face the facts and clearly define the line of her behavior.

Instead, Larisa banishes all logic from herself and denies the obvious. This is comparable to the fact that, seeing thunderclouds, feeling gusts of wind and flashing lightning, denying that a thunderstorm is about to begin. No wonder what all this leads the heroine to. In this regard, I recall the scene that Pavel Rakov showed in his program "My Beautiful ..." He took water, flour and an egg to make dough and explained that for happiness, for relationships, for choosing a chosen one, you need a union of body, mind and feelings , not just one. "Try, girls, Pavel suggested. do good dough only from flour, or only from an egg, or from flour and an egg, but without water? Will it work?"

Back to "Cruel Romance". In the morning, Larisa suddenly asks if she is now Paratov's wife after what happened. Paratov sincerely replies that she hardly has the right to demand such a thing from him. What he wanted, he got it. Did he promise Larisa something? He simply offered her a ride on the last evening before his departure, and what Larisa came up with for herself is just her fantasies, and why should he be responsible for them? Yes, Paratov took advantage of the heroine's love, affection for him, but she herself allowed him to take advantage of all these!

This reminds me of another similar story from once popular song Irina Allegrova about a toy. Remember the words? "We dream about different things, and with a bouquet of flowers I wander aimlessly in the labyrinths of words." A beautiful motive, we sing along and do not think about what it is here? A woman wanders, not knowing what she wants, she builds a "vicious circle with the envy of her friends" for herself, and someone else is to blame for this. But the one who made a toy out of it understands perfectly well what he wants and what needs to be done for this. Do you want to be a toy? Do not be!!! Were you driven into this "vicious circle" at gunpoint?

Knurov and Vozhevatov also know what they want. They would like to see Larisa as their mistress. They see that it is difficult to achieve this right off the bat. They really want this and agree to wait for the right moment. Knurov is ready to pay for Larisa's expenses, receiving nothing in return in the hope that one day the right moment will present itself. And that moment is coming! The moment always comes for those who know how to wait. When, as a result of the toss, Larisa "goes" to Knurov, Vozhevatov also thinks quite soberly: "Well, well, I'm not at a loss either - there are fewer expenses." What does Larissa do? She does not want any relationship with Knurov, but she accepts his patronage, his money. She also accepts a luxurious dress from her hated fiance Karandyshev. I say, it’s possible, they’re not people, what difference does it make what they feel and what they want, but with me, oh, it’s impossible! "It's godless!"

Karandyshev understands that such a woman is worth a lot, he makes plans for the future, cares, gives gifts, he has some kind of incentive in life. Larisa, on the other hand, is completely indifferent to the feelings of her fiancé, leaves him alone, not at all caring about his feelings and reputation, and after a few hours Paratov does the same with her. As it comes around, it will respond ... Probably, Larisa did not draw such a parallel. Larisa does not accept men's world in general, does not know, does not understand him. Therefore, she seems to be wandering in the dark, not understanding the road. Maybe you should at least study the route a little first?

But this "cruel" unjust world is only strictly subject to certain completely fair and simple laws: what we believe in is embodied in our life, what we give is what we receive, how we think about ourselves is how others perceive us ...

It is difficult to find another genre of Russian folklore, so loved by the people among the people and so despised by experts. Cruel romance until recently remained an outcast for folklorists. Sometimes direct prohibitions were imposed on cruel romance.

Meanwhile, the people were singing these "pseudo-folk" songs with might and main. Over time, the cruel romance so “littered the valuable song repertoire", which simply ousted it from the memory of the people and in the 19th century, along with the ditty, became the main, most common genre of song folklore.

Only in the last two decades of the XX century. in scientific circles, attitudes towards cruel romance began to change. They began to study and collect it, and in 1996 the first (but, undoubtedly, not the last) collection of cruel romances with scientific comments was published in St. Petersburg.

bourgeois culture

A cruel romance arose somewhere in mid-nineteenth century, and the time of its heyday falls on the last quarter XIX- the beginning of the XX century. The city is considered the birthplace of a cruel romance. But to be more precise, the cradle of this genre was the suburbs or suburbs, where mainly the lower and middle strata of the population lived, the so-called petty bourgeois - peasants who came to work, workers, artisans, servants, poor merchants.

The bourgeois began to create own culture, building it from elements of urban and rural cultures. This culture borrowed all the most superficial, the easiest to assimilate. Collected from heterogeneous elements, petty-bourgeois, or, as it is sometimes called, "third", culture turned out to be quite complete and surprisingly viable.

It included poetry and music (chastushka, romance), dance (for example, quadrille), theater (Balagan), painting (lubok), arts and crafts, and even architecture. A little stronger, the "third" culture began to invade the village and conquered it in a few decades.

Than cruel cruel romance

In a cruel romance, the features of the "third" culture are clearly manifested. In it, one can find both similarities and differences, both with folklore and with literature.

In cruel romances there are such folklore images like "raspberry", "beautiful girl", "dear friend", "blue sea". On the other hand, the cruel romance is closer in form to urban literature: it is characterized by syllabic-tonic versification, precise rhyme, and division into stanzas. The language is also largely of literary origin. Words like "fatal", "terrible", "nightmare", "insane" for the traditional folk song unusual.

In a cruel romance, a little more than a dozen main plots can be distinguished. They differ from each other mainly in the causes of the tragedy, and the choice of endings is not at all large: murder, suicide, death of the hero from grief, or mortal grief.

The favorite plot of a cruel romance is the seduction of a girl by an insidious seducer. The deceived remains either to die of anguish, or to settle accounts with life, or to take revenge.

Art world cruel romance is a super-stressed, painful world, on the verge of life and death.

There are many cruel romances in which the story is told from the perspective of dead heroes.

There is no otherworldly world in the cruel romance. Everywhere there is only villainy and reciprocal suffering of the heroes. Such a worldview reflected profound shifts in people's consciousness. Influenced by primitively interpreted fragments scientific knowledge traditional religious and mythological representations collapsed, and people experienced sharp feeling hostility of the surrounding world, spiritual insecurity and life collapse.

Apparently, such a break in the petty-bourgeois consciousness gave rise to that special hysterical tone that distinguishes the cruel romance from all the traditional genres of Russian folklore.

Cruel romance often talks about incest.

Another one important feature cruel romance - its "exoticism", i.e. craving for everything unusual, out of the ordinary. There are romances, the action of which takes place in distant countries - for example, in South America.

The exoticism of the cruel romance is also manifested in the predilection of its authors for "lofty" words and phrases. For a tradesman who sought to assert his belonging to a high urban culture, these words had a special attraction.

A cruel romance is prone to moralizing and moralizing, loves to learn a lesson and give advice.

The Romance of a Cruel Romance

Cruel romance is in many ways profoundly different from traditional folklore. The artistic world of cruel romance was formed on the basis of romanticism. Cruel romance and romantic poetry are interconnected as the lowest and highest manifestations of one literary trend.

The verses of great Russian poets that have gone into folklore became cruel romances: for example, Pushkin's "Romance", Lermontov's "Reed" and others. These romances are still sung. And yet, the main source of borrowing and stylization for the cruel romance was the verses of secondary, now forgotten poets.

The first songbooks appeared in Russia in mid-eighteenth in. In the first third of XIX in. More than two hundred songbook titles have been published. In 1911 alone, 180 songbook titles saw the light of day. The books were instantly snapped up, they were read to the holes.

Declining from the best poets to imitators, from them to semi-literate writers, the romantic style changed greatly. The "universal grief" characteristic of romanticism turned into tearful sentimentality, and then hysteria, and exceptional characters and events were transformed into heroes and plots of a cruel romance, respectively. The craving for everything unusual was preserved in the exoticism of the latter. Finally, from romantic poetry the petty-bourgeois genre borrowed “beautiful” words and turns, which turned into clichés even in the work of minor poets.

Cruel romance in Soviet times

The genre of violent romance turned out to be very viable. New works continued to be created during the Soviet era.

There were many stories associated with the Great patriotic war 1941-1945 Usually this tragic stories about crippled soldiers who returned home to "traitor" wives.

The cruel romance has been sung both in the village and in the city for almost two centuries. They took root in the army, prisons. It happens that they are sung even among the intelligentsia - however, usually with a smile, amused by their pretentious plots and touchingly clumsy language. Many examples of the genre have become firmly established in children's folklore. What attracts people so much in a cruel romance? Suffering? Sensitivity? Cruelty? Or, perhaps, the desire to push cruelty out of life into literature?

Cruel romance

M. BUT. Trostin

Cruel Romance: Genre Features, Plots and Images

New Approaches in Humanitarian Studies: Law, Philosophy, History, Linguistics

(Interuniversity collection of scientific papers). - Issue. IV. Saransk, 2003, p.197-202.

AT contemporary folklore there is no single definition for genre of violent romance. Moreover, none of the literaryencyclopedias, in none of the dictionaries of literary terms we found even mentions of this genre. Meanwhile, this genre exists and develops, replenishing with new works.

Teaching aids and textbooks present only the most general genre features of a cruel romance, which often includefeatures of a ballad, and features of a non-ritual lyrical song. Basically, originality this genre and lies in the harmonious synthesis genre principles ballad, lyrical song, romance. But he also has his own special features by which a cruel romance can be isolated from a vast layer Russian lyrical songs or ballads. Consider the available in scienceviews on the genre nature of the cruel romance.
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According to D. Balashov, cruel romance develops on the basis of the genre ballads. The term "cruel romance" itself does not appear in the heaps of D. Balashov. He considers the works of this genre as part of the "latest P semiliterature (in its well-known part of the petty-bourgeois) ballad, most closelyinterlocking with another non-folklore phenomenon, also of semi-literary origin - the romance.

Defining substantive, ideological and genre features new ballads, the scientist - along with the traditional plots of ballads, revised and abridged - draws attention to the newly emerged in Russianground of the work. He refers to them as "independent, folk compositions, where the romantic country, far from the usual, everyday reality, is the sea, where the life of fishermen and sailors is poeticized", andalso "romances", which, unlike ballads, were created "not for reading, but for singing. “In the popular environment, ballads, partly for the same reason, received chants very close to romance ones (for example, the ballad “Fisherman andthe hunter's wife" is sung to the motive of the well-known philistine romance " H and there were three pines on the Murom path ...”). weave n new ballad with a romance was very strong and due to the lyricism inherent in new ballad. Sometimes the line between a romance and a ballad is very relative.

Indeed, it is precisely a certain fragility of the boundaries between the ballad anda cruel romance no the reason for it is not isolated and I'm in a separate section in collections of Russian ballads. Errors with the definition of genre affiliation occur even in cases where the line between genres is drawn very easy. V.Ya.Propp, exploring the genre features of the Russian ballad based on collection "Folk Ballads" under the general editorship of L.M. Astakhova, finds among the texts works related, but in his opinion, specifically to cruel romance. He states his remarks as follows: “The ballad of Ilya-kum is dark (276). Prince Semyon invites the first person he meets to be godfather. This is a robber. Despite n and all measures, at night less often t prince, princess and godson. At him sh invisible app. After that, he goes blind, they seize him andexecuted. On the verge of cruel romance... Ballad. One of the Cossacks, a riderdashing (350). The Cossack leaves for the war. Wife is cheating. On his return he kills. Jealousy murder. Cruel romance... Ballad. Daughter murdermerchant (351). The merchant's daughter is growing up. She is found murdered in a bathhouse on a shelf.The killer is right there under the window. He is put behind bars. The murder of a girl. Ballad - Cruel romance" .

V.Ya. Propp singles out the main distinguishing feature researched by us genre: “The plot may coincide with the ballad. It differs from it in melodramatism.

The authors of the textbook "Russian Folklore" T.V. Zueva and B.P. Kirdan consider a cruel romance as part of a new ballad, that is, they do not single out this genre especially. However, they emphasize its features: “Conflicts new ballads are sometimes reminiscent of already known ones, but their artistic interpretation becomes smaller. There is a heightened interest in violent dramas on the basis of love and jealousy (the old ballad hardly knew the theme of jealousy). syu same t becomes melodramatic, lyricism is replaced by cheap pastorality , wretched naturalism is allowed (“As in the Mitrofanovsky cemetery father stabbed his daughter to death...”)”.
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Thus, the opinion that the cruel romance arose on the basis of the traditional genre of the Russian ballad has a right to exist. Between a ballad and a cruel romance there really is a lot in common. In ballads too tells a story from a personal and family life, in which a craving for unusual events, mostly tragic ones, is found. Often inthese stories are intertwined with an element of cruelty:

A falcon mates with a quail,
Well done fell in love with a red girl
Paved a sweet path - did not go poi,
I missed the worst glory - I did not love yoi!
You laughed at me - I'll laugh at you.
Like mine. young, there are two brothers relatives,
My brothers have a damask knife.
I'll make a bed from my hands and from my feet,
I bake from the meat of his pies.
And from the inand I'll smoke him wine... .

A weighty argument for the similarity between a ballad and a cruel romance is commonality of plots and, accordingly, the titles of works. Let's pay attention to the ballads: “Deceived girl”, “Brother married sister”. "The death of a deceived girl", "Slandered wife". They correspond to the names cruel romances; "Sister poisoned brother." "The murder of a girl by her betrothed", “How a brother invited his sister for a walk,” etc.

And yet, compared with the cruel romance, the plots of the ballads are much richer and more diverse. Family stories that offers listenersa traditional ballad often ends happily, for a cruel romance this is almost impossible. There is absolutely no anguish and savoring in ballads cruelty. There is also no exoticism in pei: the action takes place in a native, recognizable environment and is described in traditional folklore language, with the help of images traditional for folk poetry.

Drawing a conclusion from the above, we will attempt to give our own definition of the genre of cruel romance. So, a cruel romance is a lyrical-epic genre of urban folklore, which was formed in the second half of the 19th century in a middle-class environment, absorbing the features of its culture and way of life. Cruel romance developed on the basis of traditional Russianballads, it is characterized by a narrow family and household theme. In resolving the conflict and developing the plot, cruel romance is characterized by exoticism, the desireto savor cruelty, melodrama and a tragic ending (murder,suicide, death from grief, etc.)

A little more than a dozen plots can be distinguished in a cruel romance. They are differ from each other mainly in the causes of the tragedy, and the choice endings and is not at all large: murder, suicide, death from grief or deadly grief.
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The favorite plot of a cruel romance is the seduction of a girl by an insidious seducer. Deceived remains either to die of anguish, or to reduce scores with life, or revenge. The variant of the first outcome is presented in the romance "My mother loved me, respected me ...". The girl literally dries from unrequited love. Her life no longer pleases, everywhere one can hear the voice of "dearfriend," with whom she now lives apart. Turning to your girlfriendsthe sufferer bequeaths after death to dress her in a yellow dress, as white (the bride's dress) turned out to be "not at all to her face." Death is perceived by her as inevitability and salvation from hopeless longing:

Friends, come to me
I will lie on the table
I ask you to. don't judge me
Bury my corpse in silence.

The heroine of the cruel romance "Quietly the willows sway over the river" does not want toresist fate. Her lover cheated on her, and "deep jealousy" filled her soul with despair and longing. Pride and despair do not allow the girl to seek another ending, except for a voluntary departure from life. The description of her last minutes is filled with deep drama:

Jealousy deep
hid for a long time,
But I'm tired of suffering.
Got on the beach.
Swayed slightly.
She just waved her hand.

The rejected girl from the romance “Once I was sitting on the piano...” describes the story of her love with deep sincerity. She does not hide that was beautiful and was a success with the guys (“The boys were chasingme"). However, the one to whom she gave her heart and not only betrayed her and marriedanother. Feelings of wounded pride and jealousy spilled out into terrible crime: the heroine first kills her opponent with a shot from pistol, and then stabs his former lover with a dagger.

It happens that a girl is forced to marry a rich old man or a freak.Then her lover is certainly present in the church at the wedding, and, seeing the desired handsome man, the bride immediately dies of grief. Or another ending: the bride evokes sympathy and empathy among those around her and witnesses, since her fate is sealed. Examples for this story includewe could not find folklore works, but vivid evidenceto this - cruel romances of literary origin ("At the church stood coach..."):

I heard the crowd say:
“The groom is unprepossessing!
In vain the beauty was ruined. -
And I followed the crowd.

If the heroine of the romance nevertheless marries for love, then such horrors await her and her children in family life that it would be better for her to stayin girls. Over time, the husband will surely fall in love with another and either kill his wife or bring her to the grave. And then "the evil stepmother will surely take overchildren. The weak-willed father will surely follow her lead - and it will happen, ohwhat is told in the romances “As in the Mitrofanovsky cemetery ...”, “In the cityPetrov" and others.
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The motive of a family murder is rooted in an old Russian ballad(see, "Brother dies by mistake", etc.). Anonymous authors of cruel romance plots with the murder of relatives were attracted, apparently, because such cases were not uncommon in a narrow middle class environment. An example of a cruel romance this topic is the song "Sister Poisoned Brother". The work closely echoes the ballad "Brother's sister wants lime", howeverthere are also a number of significant differences.

In a cruel romance, the problem is solved differently, according to the requirements of the genre. The posthumous words of a brother sound like a testament. They have no malice, only sadness and last wishes. About the villainous sister, he says only that, passing by his grave, she "weeps in tears." That is good fellow and so it remains. And the retribution of the heroine, however, cannot be avoided. And it will be done by none other than her "dear friend", for whom she poisoned brother, because he prevented her from meeting her lover (brother - "enemy"). But, having reasonably judged, the beloved leaves her forever:

If you knew how to lime brother,
Take me out too, young man.
Stay alone now!

In this text, we found a combination of the plots of two ballads (“Brother's sister wants lime” and “The girl poisoned the young man”). Cruel romanceselected the most necessary of them, deepening the content, introducing motivationcrimes and a new, more vital, denouement.

The figurative system of the cruel romance is not rich. There are a small number of characters in it, sharply opposed to each other in theirspiritual qualities, intentions, life position. In the romance, thus, the division of heroes into positive and negative, traditional for folklore works, is preserved. On the strip of evil are the father-murderer, the blind executor of the will of the young wife (“Like in the cemetery of Mitrofanovsky ...”), the evil stepmother (“In the city of Petrov”), the fratricidal sister (“The sister poisoned the brother”), the beloved-traitor ( "At a stormy night"), seductive brother (“Brother invited his sister for a walk”), ungrateful daughter (“About one nightmarish incident”). They are confronted by innocently suffering children (“In the city of Petrov”), abandoned suicidal lovers (“Quietly over willows sway like a river. But the main place among the heroes of a cruel romance are occupied by the so-called "innocently guilty", "justified criminals", heroes who committed a crime, as it were, against their will. This is the unfortunate lover who stabbed Olya because of her frivolous behavior,hypocrisy and coquetry (“Cornflowers”), a deceived and abandoned girl who, in desperation, shot her beloved’s new girlfriend and stabbed him with a dagger (“Once I was sitting on the piano”). Confession set forth in the work their souls incline the listener towards the justification of heroes: they evoke feeling,

compassion, and the cruel sentence concluded at the end of the romance is perceived as an undeserved punishment. The emotional intensity of passions often ends for the performer and listener with tears of empathy for the characters. In this one more feature works of this genre.

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1 Balashov D.M. The history of the development of the Russian ballad. - Petrozavodsk, 1966.

2 Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore: A textbook for higher education. manager M.: Nauka, 2002.

3 Historical songs. Ballads / Comp., prepared. texts by S.N. Azbelev. M., 1986

4 Propp V.Ya. Poetics of folklore. M., 1998.

"Cruel Romance" has lyricism and melodiousness in its inception, flowing into a story about the upcoming fate of the heroes.

There, far beyond the river, the lights were lit,

The dawn was burning in the clear sky.

A hundred young fighters from the Budenovsk troops

I galloped into the fields for reconnaissance.

"Passion, expression, a surge of emotions and feelings - for example, death due to someone's betrayal, is a plot traditional for a" cruel "romance"

Already from the beginning of the narration of the romance, one can readily assume that the hero is in for a mortal sad fate.

Subject civil war are placed in the work as the main storyline. There is a certain transfer of emotions to the listener, which envelop him like a train. As stated in the song itself:

"These are White Guard chains."

ballad cruel romance folklore

As a predicted outcome in the plot, suggests military action, participation in the fighting battles of the hero, with an emphasis on the fact that avoiding death is inevitable here.

And fearlessly the detachment rode against the enemy,

A bloody battle ensued

And the young fighter suddenly drooped his head -

The Komsomol heart is pierced ... "

All components of the "cruel romance" and ballad plots in this work are present.

Conclusion

The similarities between the genres of the ballad and the "cruel romance" are quite palpable. Especially ballad plots are observed in the description of the surrounding reality, as well as pathos storyline, tragedy and realism. An unexpected plot and conflict with tragic ending. Psychologism and similar lyricism, or rather lyrical-epic. These facts point to the assumption that the ballad merged with the urban romance, which resulted in the emergence of the genre - "cruel romance". The differences between the genres are negligible, but they exist. Not always the climax of the ballad is death, or another fatal outcome corresponding to the "cruel romance" genre. But tragedy is present in both genres. The similarities and differences of the genres described above indicate that the ballad plot in a cruel romance is located as the basis.

According to F.M. Selivanov's line of difference between the urban ballad and the "cruel romance" as such does not exist, moreover, he singles out these types of folklore according to a characteristic storyline: "cruel" stories telling about reprisals, murders, etc., are the latest transformation of the traditional ballad.