Literature of the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries is a general characteristic. The main directions of Russian literature of the XX century

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The main directions of Russian literature of the XX century. Literature of the beginning of the XX century. introductory lesson literature in grade 11

"None world literature did not have such a limitless experience of anxieties, hopes, aggravated moral quest, pain for the fate of the native people in the hour of danger ... "V.A. Chalmaev Three revolutions: 1905, February, October 1917, Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. World War I 1914-1918, Civil War Stalin's repressions World War II Environmental disasters Literature of the 20th century

“Our time is difficult for a pen...” V.V. Mayakovsky “Not a single world literature of the 20th century, except Russian, knew such an extensive list of untimely, early deceased masters of culture ...” V.A. Chalmaev “The 20th century broke us all...” M.I. Tsvetaeva Literature of the XX century

Periodization literature of the XX century Russian literature Silver Age (1900 - 1917) The first decades of Soviet literature (1917 - 1941) literature during the Second World War (1941 -1945) literature of the middle of the century (50 - 70s years) literature of the 80-90s modern literature Emigrant literature (literature of Russian abroad)

The Silver Age “The Silver Age is not so much time and individual creative personalities as a holistic worldview, a picture of the world in which personality and creativity are one...” V.A. Chalmaev "... wrote how they lived, lived how they wrote" V.A. Chalmaev

The historical situation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century The last years of the 19th century became a turning point for Russian and Western cultures. Since the 1890s and until the October Revolution of 1917, literally all aspects of Russian life changed, from the economy, politics and science, to technology, culture and art. The new stage of historical and cultural development was incredibly dynamic and, at the same time, extremely dramatic. It can be said that Russia, at a critical time for it, was ahead of other countries in terms of the pace and depth of changes, as well as the colossal nature of internal conflicts.

The most important historical events in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century? Three revolutions: 1905, February, October 1917, Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. World War I 1914-1918, Civil War Stalin's repressions

"Cultural Renaissance" "It was the era of awakening in Russia of independent philosophical thought, the flourishing of poetry and the sharpening of aesthetic sensitivity, religious anxiety and quest, interest in mysticism and the occult. New souls appeared, new sources of creative life were discovered, new dawns were seen, feelings of sunset and death were combined with a feeling of sunrise and with hope for the transformation of life "N. Berdyaev

Literary polyphony What is art? What is the role of art in society? What is the effect of art on a person? What is the connection between art and life? What should be the art of the future? What should be the creator?

The main literary trends of the 20th century Critical realism. Decadence. Modernist currents: symbolism acmeism futurism Socialist realism.

Critical realism (XIX century - early XX century) Truthful, objective reflection of reality in its historical development. Continuation of the traditions of Russian literature XIX century, a critical understanding of what is happening. Human character is revealed in organic connection with social circumstances. Close attention to the inner world of man.

Decadence (late 19th - early 20th centuries) From the French. decadence; from medieval Latin. decadentia - decline. Mood of passivity, hopelessness, rejection public life, the desire to withdraw into the world of their spiritual experiences. Opposition to the generally accepted "petty-bourgeois" morality. The cult of beauty as a self-sufficient value. Nihilistic hostility to society, unbelief and cynicism, a special "sense of the abyss".

Decadan lyrics A desert ball in an empty desert, Like the Devil's meditation... Always hung, hangs to this day... Madness! Madness! A single moment froze - and lasts, Like eternal remorse... You can neither cry nor pray... Despair! Despair! Someone frightens with the torment of hell, Then he promises salvation... Neither lie nor truth is needed... Oblivion! Oblivion! Close your empty eyes tighter And quickly rot, dead man. There are no mornings, no days, only nights. End. Z. Gippius

Decadan lyrics So life is terrible with nothingness, And not even with struggle, not with torment, But only with endless boredom And full of quiet horror, It seems that I do not live, And my heart stopped beating, And it's only in reality I dream the same thing. And if, where I will be, the Lord will punish me, as here, - That will be death, like my life, And death will not tell me anything new. D.S. Merezhkovsky

Modernism (from French moderne - modern) The concept of "modernism" was applied to all art movements of the 20th century that did not correspond to the canons of socialist realism. The cumulative name of artistic trends that established themselves in the second half of the 19th century in the form of new forms of creativity, where not so much adherence to the spirit of nature and tradition prevailed, but the free view of the master, free to change the visible world at his discretion, following a personal impression, inner idea or mystical daydream. New artistic trends usually declared themselves to be highly “modern” art (hence the very origin of the term), most sensitively responsive to the rhythm of the “current” time that daily encompasses us.

Silver Age - poetry of the beginning of the 20th century. Symbol cultural era in the history of Russia at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. and entered into criticism and science from the late 1950s - early 1960s. The term arose by analogy with the "Golden Age". The Silver Age formula had an evaluative character. In the 1920-1930s. he was opposed to the "Golden Age" as an era that bears the undoubted features of secondary, and at the same time, refinement. The poets of the Silver Age created a new concept of the world and man in this world: not everything created by people is realized, there are areas inaccessible to the analytical mind.

Symbolism (1870-1910) The expression of ideas through symbols. "Poetry of allusions", metaphorical, allegorical, cult of impression. Inner world personality - an indicator of a common tragic world, doomed to death. Existence in two planes: real and mystical.

Valery Bryusov "Woman" You are a woman, you are a book between books, You are a folded, sealed scroll; In his lines there are an abundance of thoughts and words, In his sheets every moment is insane. You are a woman, you are a witch's drink! It burns with fire as soon as it penetrates the mouth; But the drinker of the flame suppresses the cry And glorifies wildly in the midst of torture. You are a woman and you are right about that. From time immemorial removed by a starry crown, You are the image of a deity in our abyss! We draw an iron yoke for you, We serve you, crushing the mountains, And we pray - from eternity - for you!

Acmeism (formed in 1910) Derived from Greek. "acme" - "point", "top", "blooming power", "highest degree". Clarity, the affirmation of real life, the cult of feelings over everything else. The return to the word of its original, non-symbolic meaning.

Anna Akhmatova “Before spring there are days like this” Before spring there are days like this: A meadow rests under dense snow, The trees merrily dry rustle, And the warm wind is gentle and resilient. And the body marvels at its lightness, And you don’t recognize your home, And the song that you were tired of before, Like a new one, you sing with excitement.

Futurism (early 1910) Restructuring of Russian literature, "the art of the future" (from the Latin f and t and r and m - the future). An avant-garde movement that denies the artistic and moral heritage. Creation of a "transrational language", a play on words and letters. Admiring the word, regardless of the meaning. Word creation and word innovation.

Velimir Khlebnikov "The Spell of Laughter" Oh, laugh, laughers! Oh, laugh, laughers! That they laugh with laughter, that they laugh with laughter, Oh, laugh with laughter! Oh, mocking laughs - the laugh of clever laughers! Oh, laugh merrily, laughter of mocking laughers! Smeyvo, smeyvo, Smey, smey, smeyvo, smeyvo. Laughs, laughs. Oh, laugh, laughers! Oh, laugh, laughers!

Socialist realism (October 1917) A true, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. The main task: the ideological alteration and education of the working people in the spirit of socialism. The writer is a "spokesman", "representative", "teacher". Real heroes are fighters for the idea, hard workers, honest and fair people, bold and courageous.

Outside of literary styles and trends I am the last poet of the village, The boardwalk bridge is modest in songs. Behind the farewell mass I stand The birch leaves stinging. A candle will burn out with a golden flame From body wax, And a wooden clock of the moon Will croak my twelfth hour. On the path of the blue field Soon the iron guest will come out. Oatmeal, spilled in the dawn, Will collect its black handful. Not alive, other people's palms, These songs will not live with you! Only there will be ears-horses About the old master to grieve. The wind will suck their neighing, Dirge dancing. Soon, soon the wooden clock Will wheeze my twelfth hour! S.A. Yesenin

Outside of literary styles and trends Has opened the veins: unstoppable, irretrievably gushing life. Bring bowls and plates! Every plate will be small, the bowl will be flat. Over the edge - and past Into the black earth, to nourish the reeds. Irrevocably, irrevocably, irretrievably whips the verse. M.I. Tsvetaeva

Outside of literary styles and trends, the stories “Epifan Gateways”, “City of Gradov”, “Potudan River”, “Pit”, “Juvenile Sea” “Dzhan” novels “Chevengur”, “Happy Moscow”

Outside the literary styles and trends of the story "Devil's Game", "Fatal Eggs", "Heart of a Dog" novels "White Guard", "Master and Margarita" plays "The Cabal of Saints", "Days of the Turbins", "Running"

Literature of the beginning of the 20th century “This time - the Silver Age - brought forward writers, striking in their diversity, courage, sharpness of vision of life and spirituality of feeling ... They did a lot of work that Russia needed for its self-knowledge at the turning point in history” L. B. Voronin

In world literature, it is Russian literature as a whole that occupies significant place. If we talk about Russian literature of the 20th century, then it is the beginning of the century that is marked as the silver age of the heyday of literature in Russia. In this period, the most difficult for Russia of that era, significant contradictions took place. At that moment, interest in the study of religion gradually began to revive, which, in turn, had the main influence on such a rapid development of Russian literature. More and more talented people began to appear. Almost all writers of that era began to be disturbed by questions about the essence of good and evil, life and death, as well as the inner nature of man.

The scientific discoveries that were made during that period greatly shook modern ideas about life. NEW VIEWS ON THE WORLD BEGAN TO DETERMINE AND NEW UNDERSTANDING OF THE REALITY OF THE 20TH CENTURY. It was very sensitively different compared to the vision of life of their predecessors. All this was the first and main step towards the deepest crisis in consciousness. In almost every difficult moment of life, a person simply needs a strong surge of emotions, and even more so if a person is of a creative nature. During these years, not everyone could simply and freely express their feelings. Only writers could do this, and even then on paper, because it can endure everything. Literature has made a huge contribution to the ongoing reassessment of life values.

The influence of the literature of the 20th century in Russia quickly spread beyond its borders. This was felt quite well immediately after the end of the October Revolution. She made it obvious that Russian literature of the 20th century has progressive influences on human consciousness. Thanks to the works written in this century, outside Russia, everyone considered the Russian man a real and brave fighter with strong spiritual qualities of self-knowledge. Works written by the classics of Russian literature of the 20th century began to appear in gigantic editions. Thus every day there were more and more new people who read them.

During this significant period of the heyday of Russian literature, most of the writers of that era were expelled from the country, and some voluntarily decided to emigrate, but the cultural society of Russia and its literary life have not stopped for a second since then. Very talented young writers began to appear who took part in the Civil War.

It is impossible to ignore the work of brilliant writers like Yesenin, Mayakovsky, Tolstoy, Platonov, as well as dozens of many other writers, whose works to this day remain world classics and role models for novice poets and writers. During the Great Patriotic War, more and more patriotism began to appear in literature, which appealed to the people. They quite vividly described the scenes of the battle of the Russian people with the fascist invaders and occupiers.

Story

Imagism as a poetic movement arose in 1918 when the "Order of the Imagists" was founded in Moscow. The creators of the "Order" were those who came from Penza Anatoly Mariengof, former Futurist Vadim Shershenevich and previously a member of the group of new peasant poets Sergey Yesenin. Features of a characteristic metaphorical style were contained in the earlier work of Shershenevich and Yesenin, and Mariengof organized literary group imaginists still in hometown. Imagist "Declaration", published January 30 1919 in the Voronezh magazine Sirena (and February 10 also in the newspaper "Soviet Country", whose editorial board included Yesenin), in addition to them signed by the poet Rurik Ivnev and artists Boris Erdman and Georgy Yakulov. Poets also joined Imagism Ivan Gruzinov , Matvey Roizman , Alexander Kusikov , Nikolai Erdman .

Organizationally, Imagism actually disintegrated to 1925: Alexander Kusikov emigrated in 1922, 1924 Sergey Yesenin and Ivan Gruzinov announced the dissolution of the "Order", other Imagists moved away from poetry, turning to prose, dramaturgy, and cinema. The activities of the "Order of Militant Imagists" ceased in 1926, and in the summer of 1927 the liquidation of the "Order of Imagists" was announced. The relationship and actions of the Imagists were then described in detail in the memoirs of Mariengof, Shershenevich, Roizman.

General characteristics of the literature of the beginning of the century (trends, publishing houses, problems of prose, motives in poetry).

Late XIX - early XX centuries. became the time of the bright flowering of Russian culture, its " silver age"(The "golden age" was called Pushkin's time). In science, literature, art, new talents appeared one after another, bold innovations were born, different directions, groupings and styles competed. At the same time, the culture of the "Silver Age" was characterized by deep contradictions, characteristic for the whole Russian life of that time.

The rapid breakthrough of Russia in development, the clash of different ways and cultures changed self-consciousness creative intelligentsia. Many were no longer satisfied with the description and study of visible reality, analysis social problems. I was attracted by deep, eternal questions - about the essence of life and death, good and evil, human nature. Revived interest in religion; The religious theme had a strong influence on the development of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

However, the critical era not only enriched literature and art: it constantly reminded writers, artists and poets of the coming social explosions, that the whole habitual way of life, the whole old culture, could perish. Some were waiting for these changes with joy, others - with longing and horror, which brought pessimism and anguish into their work.

On the turn of XIX and XX centuries. Literature developed under different historical conditions than before. If you look for a word that characterizes key features period under review, it will be the word "crisis". Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world, led to a paradoxical conclusion: "matter has disappeared." The new vision of the world, thus, will also determine the new face of the realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors. Also devastating consequences for human spirit had a crisis of faith (“God is dead!” exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that the man of the 20th century began to increasingly experience the influence of non-religious ideas. The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology of evil and death, the glorification of the self-will of the individual, the recognition of the right to violence, which turned into terror - all these features testify to the deepest crisis of consciousness.

In Russian literature of the beginning of the 20th century, a crisis of old ideas about art and a sense of the exhaustion of past development will be felt, a reassessment of values ​​will be formed.

Renewal of literature, its modernization will cause the emergence of new trends and schools. The rethinking of the old means of expression and the revival of poetry will mark the onset of the "silver age" of Russian literature. This term is associated with the name of N. Berdyaev, who used it in one of his speeches in the salon of D. Merezhkovsky. Later, the art critic and editor of "Apollo" S. Makovsky reinforced this phrase by naming his book about Russian culture at the turn of the century "On Parnassus of the Silver Age." Several decades will pass and A. Akhmatova will write "... the silver month is bright / Over the silver age it froze."

The chronological framework of the period defined by this metaphor can be described as follows: 1892 - the exit from the era of timelessness, the beginning of a social upsurge in the country, the manifesto and collection "Symbols" by D. Merezhkovsky, the first stories of M. Gorky, etc.) - 1917. According to another point of view, the chronological end of this period can be considered 1921-1922 (the collapse of past illusions, the mass emigration of figures of Russian culture from Russia that began after the death of A. Blok and N. Gumilyov, the expulsion of a group of writers, philosophers and historians from the country).

Russian literature of the 20th century was represented by three main literary movements: realism, modernism, and the literary avant-garde.

Representatives literary trends

Senior Symbolists: V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Z. N. Gippius, F. K. Sologub and others.

Mystics-Godseekers: D. S. Merezhkovsky, Z. N. Gippius, N. Minsky.

Decadents individualists: V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, F. K. Sologub.

Junior Symbolists: A. A. Blok, Andrey Bely (B. N. Bugaev), V. I. Ivanov and others.

Acmeism: N. S. Gumilyov, A. A. Akhmatova, S. M. Gorodetsky, O. E. Mandelstam, M. A. Zenkevich, V. I. Narbut.

cubofuturists(poets of "Gilea"): D. D. Burliuk, V. V. Khlebnikov, V. V. Kamensky, V. V. Mayakovsky, A. E. Kruchenykh.

Egofuturists: I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev, K. Olimpov, V. Gnedov.

Group"Mezzanine of poetry": V. Shershenevich, Khrisanf, R. Ivnev and others.

Association "Centrifuge": B. L. Pasternak, N. N. Aseev, S. P. Bobrov and others.

One of the most interesting phenomena in the art of the first decades of the 20th century was the revival of romantic forms, largely forgotten since the beginning of the last century. One of these forms was proposed by V. G. Korolenko, whose work continues to develop at the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the new century. Another expression of the romantic was the work of A. Green, whose works are unusual for their exoticism, flight of fancy, ineradicable dreaminess. The third form of the romantic was the work of revolutionary workers' poets (N. Nechaev, E. Tarasova, I. Privalov, A. Belozerov, F. Shkulev). Turning to marches, fables, appeals, songs, these authors poeticize heroic deeds, use romantic images of a glow, fire, crimson dawn, thunderstorm, sunset, limitlessly expand the range of revolutionary vocabulary, resort to cosmic scales.

A special role in the development of literature of the 20th century was played by such writers as Maxim Gorky and L. N. Andreev. The twenties are a difficult, but dynamic and creatively fruitful period in the development of literature. Although many figures of Russian culture were expelled from the country in 1922, while others went into voluntary emigration, artistic life does not stop in Russia. On the contrary, there are many talented young writers, recent participants in the Civil War: L. Leonov, M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, Yu. Libedinsky, A. Vesely, and others.

The thirties began with the "year of the great turning point", when the foundations of the former Russian way of life were sharply deformed, and the active intervention of the party in the sphere of culture began. P. Florensky, A. Losev, A. Voronsky and D. Kharms are being arrested, repressions against the intelligentsia intensified, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of cultural figures, two thousand writers died, in particular N. Klyuev, O. Mandelstam, I. Kataev, and Babel, B. Pilnyak, P. Vasiliev, A. Voronsky, B. Kornilov. Under these conditions, the development of literature was extremely difficult, tense and ambiguous.

The work of such writers and poets as V. V. Mayakovsky, S. A. Yesenin, A. A. Akhmatova, A. N. Tolstoy, E. I. Zamyatin, M. M. Zoshchenko, M. A. Sholokhov, M. A. Bulgakov, A. P. Platonov, O. E. Mandelstam, M. I. Tsvetaeva.

The Holy War, which began in June 1941, put forward new tasks for literature, to which the writers of the country immediately responded. Most of them ended up on the battlefield. More than a thousand poets and prose writers joined the ranks of the army, becoming famous war correspondents (M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, N. Tikhonov, I. Ehrenburg, Vs. Vishnevsky, E. Petrov, A. Surkov, A. Platonov). Works of various kinds and genres joined the fight against fascism. In the first place among them was poetry. Here it is necessary to highlight the patriotic lyrics of A. Akhmatova, K. Simonov, N. Tikhonov, A. Tvardovsky, V. Sayanov. Prose writers cultivated their most active genres: journalistic essays, reports, pamphlets, stories.

Realistic publishing houses:

Knowledge (issue of general educational literature - Kuprin, Bunin, Andreev, Veresaev); collections; social Issues

Rosehip (St. Petersburg) collections and almakhs

Slovo (Moscow) collections and almanacs

Gorky publishes the literary and political journal "Chronicle" (publishing house Parus)

"World of Art" (modernist. Art; magazine of the same name) - Diaghilev founder

"New Way", "Scorpio", "Vulture" - a symbolist.

"Satyricon", "New Satyricon" - satire (Averchenko, S. Cherny)

* The most significant trend in Russian modernism was symbolism. It arose in the early 90s of the XIX century and lasted two decades. The artistic and journalistic organ of the Symbolists was the journal Scales (1904-1909).

The senior symbolists (90s), who approved the name and principles of the new art, included V. Bryusov, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, K. Balmont. The second generation of symbolists came to literature already at the beginning of the 20th century - A. Blok, A. Bely, S. Solovyov, Ellis.

The ideologist and inspirer of the Symbolists was the poet and philosopher B. Solovyov (1853-1900). His idea of ​​the Soul of the World, the Eternal Femininity, the Spirit of Music turned out to be close to the Symbolists. The younger generation of symbolists was guided by the position of I. Annensky
(1856-1909), his "torments of the ideal".

At the heart of the world, the symbolists saw not a material, but an ideal essence. In the surrounding reality - only signs, symbols of this essence. They found the origins of this perception in philosophy. So, Plato compared reality with a cave, where only glare, shadows of the true unreal world penetrate. A person can only guess from these shadows-symbols about what happened outside the cave. The reasoning of I. Kant sounded in the same vein.

Existing in the everyday, real world, a person feels his connection with the existential, unreal world, tries to penetrate into it, to go beyond the "cave". Let us emphasize in this position the recognition of the paramount role of the spiritual world of man.

The concept of a symbol needs to be clarified. We quite often meet the symbolic meaning of images in realistic literature of the past. Folklore is permeated with symbolism. Modernists put a new semantic connotation into this word. The symbol was opposed to allegory, allegory. As the main thing in the symbol, its ambiguity, the variety of associative links, the whole system of correspondences were emphasized.

Symbolists in music saw the highest form of creativity, they paid special attention to melody. The nature of the sound of the work was no less important than its meaning. And in comprehending the meaning, the attitude towards reticence is essential. The text was supposed to remain a mystery, and the artist felt like a creator, a theurgist.

The work of the Symbolists was originally addressed to the elite, the initiates. The poet counted on the reader-co-author, not trying to be understood by everyone. In one of Z. Gippius's lyrical poems, the refrain was the recognition of the uncertainty of desires, the desire for that "which is not in the world." It was a certain program setting, a refusal to pay attention to real, “real” life.

Refusing to depict a specific world, the Symbolists turned to the problems of being. However, it was real life that made its own adjustments. Dissatisfaction with modernity gave rise to the motive of the end of the world, was the impetus for the poeticization of death.

In the works of literary critics of past years, these motives, as already mentioned, were explained by confusion before the impending revolution. At the same time, many symbolists perceived the revolutionary events of 1905 as the beginning of renewal. Welcoming the destruction of the old world, the Symbolists did not fill their confessions with concrete social content. “I will break with you, build - no!” - V. Bryusov claimed in verse. The element of revolution was accepted as a symbol of freedom, further it seemed to be its limitation and therefore was rejected.*

Senior Symbolists:

Priority of spiritual idealistic values ​​(Merezhkovsky)

The spontaneous nature of creativity (Balmont)

Art as the most reliable form of knowledge (Bryusov)

Junior Symbolists:

The need to combine art and religion (White) - mystical and religious moods

- "trilogy of incarnation" (Blok) - movement from the music of the beyond through the underworld of the material world and the whirl of the elements to the "elementary simplicity" of human experiences

Symbolist poetry is poetry for the elite, for the aristocrats of the spirit. “While realist poets view the world naively, as simple observers, obeying its material basis, symbolist poets, recreating materiality with their complex impressionability, rule over the world and penetrate into its mysteries”

Philosophy of symbolism:

The perception of duality is given only to the elect

Sophia, feminine, catholicity

The new religion is neo-Christianity (the union of the soul with God without the mediation of the church)

Features of the verse:

Solemnity, high style

Music of verse, emotional value of sounds

Complex abstract irrational metaphor

“Symbolism makes the very style, the most artistic substance of poetry spiritualized, transparent, translucent through and through, like the thin walls of an alabaster amphora in which a flame is lit”

From the 40s of the last century until the very end of it, realism dominated Russian literature. New qualities arose in active contact with tradition. The need for fundamental updates prompted a broad summing up: what to accept and what to refuse in the artistic past. His perception in the literature of that time was particularly intense.

The transformation of realism is taking place at the turn of the century throughout Europe. But the role of traditions in this process was especially great in Russia, because here classical realism not only does not weaken by the end of the century, but is enriched. In the 1990s, a young generation of realistic artists entered Russian literature. However, the beginning of the renewal of realism was laid the largest masters older generations - those who directly connected the current century with the past century. This is the late L. Tolstoy and Chekhov.

By the end of the 19th century, the world significance of Tolstoy's activity was also fully recognized abroad. Of paramount importance for the literary process were the conquests of Chekhov's work, who created, according to L. Tolstoy, completely new forms of writing both in prose and in drama.

The realist literature of the transitional period as a whole has not risen to the level of its great predecessors. One of the explanations for this is the special difficulties of creative self-determination at a time of a radical change in values ​​and guidelines in the country. But despite the contradictions and difficulties, the direction continued to develop intensively, giving rise to a special typological quality that arose on the basis of a renewed perception of the traditions of classical realism and the gradual overcoming of the concept of determinism in a naturalistic spirit. Of fundamental importance is the actual artistic renewal of realism at the turn of the century: stylistic searches, expressed in decisive genre restructuring, in significant modifications of the poetic language.

(FROM THE TUTORIAL)

Allegations of a crisis of realism at the turn of the 20th century are a thing of the past. Arguments against such statements were the works of L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov and talented writers of the next generation, who spoke with realistic works(A. Kuprin, I. Bunin and others).

Obviously, when characterizing the literature of the beginning of the century, one should not talk about the crisis of realism, but about the expansion of ways of incarnation in literature. crisis phenomena life, crisis of consciousness.

The work of A. Chekhov and the late L. Tolstoy is regarded by researchers as the highest stage in the development of classical realism. Both writers did not seek answers to the traditional questions of "who is to blame?" and “what to do?”, but showed how modern life deviates from the norm. L. Tolstoy in the completed at the turn of the 20th century "Resurrection" gave artistic image those state institutions - courts, churches, prisons - which allowed him to reveal the hostility of the whole social system to man. Tolstoy solved a similar artistic problem in the drama The Living Corpse (1900). In the story "Hadji Murat" (1904) tragic fate central hero- a strong, whole person - revealed in opposition to the same system, indifferent to a person and his national mentality. Tolstoy gave the reader the opportunity to see and feel not individual shortcomings and vices of specific people, but the foundations, the roots of deceitful morality, corrupt politics, a criminal state.

In Chekhov's works, the reader was immersed in the everyday, philistine atmosphere. Showing the worldly incoherence, the writer recreated the complexity of life, in which evil is present diffusely and silently, pervades everyday life. Chekhov is busy not with a "moral investigation", but with identifying the reasons for the mutual misunderstanding of people, distant and close.

The author led the characters and readers to abandon the categorical judgments, to understand the complexity of each person. In Chekhov's stories and stories, it is important not only what happens, but also what never happens - Moscow remained in the dreams of the Prozorov sisters, the characters of The Lady with the Dog do not take decisive steps, etc. Plot situations help to discover measure of delusion of each of the characters. At the same time, Chekhov believed in the ability of a person to change his life, he believed even in such weak people as Laevsky (“Duel”).

The researchers emphasized the substantial significance of the structure of Chekhov's works. Plots of "epiphany" - the hero discovers the meaning of his existence, the inner need to resist vulgarity ("A boring story", "Teacher of literature"). The plots of “leaving” are the necessity and implementation of an act, a step into the unknown, a twist of fate (“My Life”, “The Bride”). The misunderstanding that separates the characters is recognized by readers not only as confirmation of the disunity of people, but also as an impetus to the development of self-consciousness.

The clash of concepts, ideas about man and the world with real life turned into disappointment, but did not stop the search. The literature of the beginning of the century is characterized by various forms of expression author's position. The writers counted on the thinking reader, but also openly analyzed his perception. It is no coincidence that the abundance of questions organizing and pushing the development of the plot: “Why is life like this?”; "Who am I?"; “What to do if that dream, like any other dream, deceived?”

Hadji Murat, retelling

On a cold November evening in 1851, Hadji Murad, the famous Naib of Imam Shamil, enters the non-peaceful Chechen village of Makhket. Chechen Sado receives a guest in his sakla, despite Shamil's recent order to detain or kill the rebellious naib,

On the same night, from the Russian fortress of Vozdvizhenskaya, fifteen miles from the village of Makhket, three soldiers with non-commissioned officer Panov go out to the forward guard. One of them, the merry fellow Avdeev, recalls how, out of homesickness, he once drank his company money, and once again tells that he joined the soldiers at the request of his mother, instead of his family brother.

Envoys of Hadji Murad come out to this guard. Escorting the Chechens to the fortress, to Prince Vorontsov, the cheerful Avdeev asks about their wives and children and concludes: “And what are these, my brother, good bare-faced guys.”

The regimental commander of the Kurinsky regiment, the son of the commander-in-chief, the adjutant wing, Prince Vorontsov, lives in one of the best houses in the fortress with his wife Marya Vasilievna, the famous beauty of St. Petersburg, and her little son from his first marriage. Despite the fact that the life of the prince amazes the inhabitants of the small Caucasian fortress with its luxury, it seems to the Vorontsov spouses that they are suffering great hardships here. The news of Hadji Murad's departure finds them playing cards with the regimental officers.

That same night, the inhabitants of the village of Makhket, in order to cleanse themselves in front of Shamil, are trying to detain Hadji Murad. Shooting back, he breaks through with his murid Eldar into the forest, where the rest of the murids are waiting for him - the Avar Khanefi and the Chechen Gamzalo. Here Hadji Murad is waiting for Prince Vorontsov to respond to his proposal to go out to the Russians and start a fight against Shamil on their side. He, as always, believes in his happiness and that this time everything works out for him, as it always happened before. The returned envoy of Khan-Magom informs that the prince promised to receive Hadji Murad as an honored guest.

Early in the morning, two companies of the Kurinsky regiment went out to cut wood. Company officers over drinks discuss the recent death in battle of General Sleptsov. During this conversation, none of them sees the most important thing - the end of human life and its return to the source from which it came out - but they see only the military dashing of the young general. During the exit of Hadji Murad, the Chechens pursuing him casually mortally wound the cheerful soldier Avdeev; he dies in the hospital, not having time to receive a letter from his mother that his wife left home.

All Russians who see the “terrible highlander” for the first time are struck by his kind, almost childish smile, self-esteem and the attention, insight and calmness with which he looks at others. The reception of Prince Vorontsov at the Vozdvizhenskaya fortress turns out to be better than Hadji Murad expected; but the less he trusts the prince. He demands that he be sent to the commander-in-chief himself, the old prince Vorontsov, in Tiflis.

During a meeting in Tiflis, Vorontsov the father understands perfectly well that he should not believe a single word of Hadji Murad, because he will always remain an enemy to everything Russian, and now he is only submitting to circumstances. Hadji Murad, in turn, understands that the cunning prince sees right through him. At the same time, both say to each other completely opposite to their understanding - what is necessary for the success of negotiations. Hadji Murad assures that he will faithfully serve the Russian tsar in order to take revenge on Shamil, and vouches that he will be able to raise all of Dagestan against the imam. But for this it is necessary that the Russians redeem the family of Hadji Murad from captivity, the Commander-in-Chief promises to think about this.

Hadji Murad lives in Tiflis, attends the theater and balls, increasingly rejecting in his soul the way of life of the Russians. He tells the adjutant Vorontsov assigned to him, Loris-Melikov, the story of his life and enmity with Shamil. Before the listener passes a series of brutal murders committed by the law of blood feud and by the right of the strong. Loris-Melikov is also watching the murids of Hadji Murad. One of them, Gamzalo, continues to consider Shamil a saint and hates all Russians. Another, Khan-Magoma, went out to the Russians only because he easily plays with his own and other people's lives; just as easily he can return to Shamil at any moment. Eldar and Hanefi obey Hadji Murad without question.

While Hadji Murad was in Tiflis, by order of Emperor Nicholas I in January 1852, a raid was made into Chechnya. The young officer Butler, who recently transferred from the guard, also takes part in it. He left the Guards because of a card loss and is now enjoying a good, valiant life in the Caucasus, trying to maintain his poetic idea of ​​the war. During the raid, the village of Makhket was devastated, a teenager was killed with a bayonet in the back, a mosque and a fountain were senselessly polluted. Seeing all this, the Chechens do not even feel hatred for the Russians, but only disgust, bewilderment and a desire to exterminate them like rats or poisonous spiders. The inhabitants of the village ask Shamil for help,

Hadji Murad moves to the Groznaya fortress. Here he is allowed to have relations with the highlanders through scouts, but he cannot leave the fortress except with an escort of Cossacks. His family is currently being held in custody in the village of Vedeno, awaiting Shamil's decision on their fate. Shamil demands that Hadji Murad come back to him before the Bayram holiday, otherwise he threatens to send his mother, the old woman Patimat, to the auls and blind his beloved son Yusuf.

For a week Hadji Murad lives in the fortress, in Major Petrov's house. The major's cohabitant, Marya Dmitrievna, is imbued with respect for Hadji Murad, whose manner differs markedly from the rudeness and drunkenness accepted among regimental officers. A friendship develops between Officer Butler and Hadji Murad. Butler is embraced by the "poetry of a special, energetic mountain life", tangible in the mountain songs that Khanefi sings. The Russian officer is especially struck by the favorite song of Hadji Murad - about the inevitability of blood feud. Butler soon becomes a witness of how calmly Hadji Murad perceives an attempt of blood revenge on himself by the Kumyk prince Arslan Khan,

Negotiations on the ransom of the family, which Hadji Murad is conducting in Chechnya, are not successful. He returns to Tiflis, then moves to the small town of Nukha, hoping to snatch the family away from Shamil by cunning or force. He is in the service of the Russian Tsar and receives five gold pieces a day. But now, when he sees that the Russians are in no hurry to release his family, Hadji Murad perceives his exit as a terrible turn in his life. He increasingly recalls his childhood, mother, grandfather and his son. Finally, he decides to flee to the mountains, break into Vedeno with his faithful people in order to die or free his family.

While on horseback, Hadji Murad, together with his murids, mercilessly kills the Cossack escorts. He expects to cross the Alazan River and thus get away from the chase, but he fails to cross the rice field flooded with spring water on horseback. The pursuit overtakes him, in an unequal battle Hadji Murad is mortally wounded.

The last memories of the family run through his imagination, no longer evoking any feeling; but he fights to the last breath.

Cut off from the mutilated body, the head of Hadji Murad is carried around the fortresses. In Grozny, they show her to Butler and Marya Dmitrievna, and they see that the blue lips of a dead head retain a childish kind expression. Marya Dmitrievna is especially shocked by the cruelty of the "liver cutters" who killed her recent lodger and did not betray his body to the ground.

The history of Hadji Murad, his inherent strength of life and inflexibility are recalled when looking at a burdock flower crushed in full bloom by people in the middle of a plowed field.

DUEL, REPRESENTATION

In a town on the Black Sea, two friends are talking while swimming. Ivan Andreyevich Laevsky, a young man of twenty-eight, shares the secrets of his personal life with military doctor Samoylenko. Two years ago he got along with married woman, they fled from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus, telling themselves that they would start a new working life there. But the town turned out to be boring, people were uninteresting, Laevsky did not know how and did not want to work on the land in the sweat of his brow, and therefore from the first day he felt bankrupt. In his relationship with Nadezhda Fedorovna, he no longer sees anything but a lie, living with her is now beyond his strength. He dreams of running back to the north. But you can’t part with her either: she has no relatives, no money, she doesn’t know how to work. There is another difficulty: the news of the death of her husband came, which means for Laevsky and Nadezhda Fedorovna the opportunity to get married. Good Samoylenko advises his friend to do exactly this.

Everything that Nadezhda Fyodorovna says and does seems to Laevsky to be a lie or similar to a lie. At breakfast, he barely restrains his irritation, even the way she swallows milk causes him heavy hatred. The desire to sort things out as soon as possible and run away now does not let him go. Laevsky is used to finding explanations and justifications for his life in someone else's theories, in literary types, he compares himself with Onegin and Pechorin, with Anna Karenina, with Hamlet. He is ready either to blame himself for the lack of a guiding idea, to recognize himself as a loser and an extra person, or to justify himself to himself. But just as he used to believe in salvation from the emptiness of life in the Caucasus, so now he believes that as soon as he leaves Nadezhda Fyodorovna and leaves for St. Petersburg, he will begin a cultured, intelligent, vigorous life.

Samoylenko keeps a kind of table d'hôte in his place, and the young zoologist von Koren and Pobedov, who has just graduated from the Seminary, are dining with him. At dinner the conversation turns to Laevsky. Von Koren says that Laevsky is as dangerous to society as the cholera microbe. He corrupts the inhabitants of the town by openly living with someone else's wife, drinking and getting others drunk, playing cards, multiplying debts, doing nothing, and, moreover, justifying himself with fashionable theories about heredity, degeneration, and so on. If people like him multiply, humanity, civilization is in serious danger. Therefore, for his own benefit, Laevsky should have been rendered harmless. “In the name of the salvation of mankind, we must ourselves take care of the destruction of the frail and unfit,” the zoologist says coldly.

The laughing deacon laughs, but the stunned Samoylenko can only say: “If people are drowned and hanged, then to hell with your civilization, to hell with humanity! To hell!"

On Sunday morning Nadezhda Fyodorovna goes for a swim in the most festive mood. She likes herself, I'm sure that all the men they meet admire her. She feels guilty before Laevsky. During these two years she had run into debts in Achmianov's shop for three hundred rubles, and she was not going to say anything about it. In addition, she had twice hosted the police officer Kirilin. But Nadezhda Fyodorovna happily thinks that her soul did not participate in her betrayal, she continues to love Laevsky, and everything is already broken with Kirilin. In the bathhouse, she talks with an elderly lady, Marya Konstantinovna Bityugova, and learns that in the evening the local society is having a picnic on the banks of a mountain river. On the way to the picnic, von Koren tells the deacon about his plans to go on an expedition along the coast of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans; Laevsky, riding in another carriage, scolds the Caucasian landscapes. He constantly feels von Koren's dislike for himself and regrets that he went to the picnic. At the mountain spirit of the Tartar Kerbalai, the company stops.

Nadezhda Fyodorovna is in a playful mood, she wants to laugh, tease, flirt. But the persecution of Kirilin and the advice of the young Achmianov to beware of that darken her joy. Laevsky, tired of the picnic and von Koren's undisguised hatred, takes out his irritation on Nadezhda Fyodorovna and calls her a cocotte. On the way back, von Koren admits to Samoylenko that his hand would not tremble if the state or society had instructed him to destroy Laevsky.

At home, after a picnic, Laevsky informs Nadezhda Fyodorovna about the death of her husband and, feeling at home as in a prison, goes to Samoylenko. He begs his friend to help, lend him three hundred rubles, promises to arrange everything with Nadezhda Fyodorovna, to make peace with his mother. Samoylenko offers to reconcile with von Koren, but Laevsky says that this is impossible. Maybe he would have extended his hand to him, but von Koren would have turned away with contempt. After all, this is a firm, despotic nature. And his ideals are despotic. People for him are puppies and nonentities, too small to be the goal of his life. He works, goes on an expedition, breaks his neck there, not in the name of love for his neighbor, but in the name of such abstractions as humanity, future generations, an ideal breed of people ... He would order to shoot anyone who goes beyond the circle of our narrow conservative morality, and all this in the name of improving the human race... Despots have always been illusionists. With enthusiasm, Laevsky says that he clearly sees his shortcomings and is aware of them. This will help him to resurrect and become a different person, and he is passionately waiting for this rebirth and renewal.

Three days after the picnic, an excited Marya Konstantinovna comes to Nadezhda Fedorovna and invites her to be her matchmaker. But a wedding with Laevsky, Nadezhda Fyodorovna feels, is now impossible. She cannot tell Marya Konstantinovna everything: how confused her relationship with Kirilin, with the young Achmianov. From all the experiences she starts a strong fever.

Laevsky feels guilty before Nadezhda Fyodorovna. But the thought of leaving next Saturday so seized him that he asked Samoylenko, who came to visit the patient, only if he could get money. But there is no money yet. Samoilenko decides to ask von Koren for a hundred rubles. He, after a dispute, agrees to give money for Laevsky, but only on the condition that he leaves not alone, but together with Nadezhda Fyodorovna.

The next day, Thursday, while visiting Marya Konstantinovna, Samoylenko told Laevsky about the condition set by von Koren. The guests, including von Koren, play mail. Laevsky, automatically participating in the game, thinks about how much he has to lie and still has to lie, what a mountain of lies prevents him from starting new life. In order to skip it at once, and not lie in parts, you need to decide on some kind of drastic measure, but he feels that this is impossible for him. A malicious note, apparently sent by von Koren, causes him a hysterical fit. Having come to his senses, in the evening, as usual, he leaves to play cards.

On the way from the guests to the house, Nadezhda Fyodorovna is pursued by Kirilin. He threatens her with a scandal if she does not give him a date today. Nadezhda Fyodorovna is disgusted with him, she begs to let her go, but in the end she gives in. Behind them, unnoticed, young Achmianov is watching.

The next day, Laevsky goes to Samoilenko to take money from him, since it is shameful and impossible to remain in the city after a tantrum. He finds only von Koren. A short conversation follows; Laevsky understands that he knows about his plans. He keenly feels that the zoologist hates him, despises and mocks him, and that he is his most bitter and implacable enemy. When Samoylenko arrives, Laevsky, in a nervous fit, accuses him of not being able to keep other people's secrets, and insults von Koren. Von Koren seemed to be waiting for this attack, he challenges Laevsky to a duel. Samoilenko unsuccessfully tries to reconcile them.

On the evening before the duel, Laevsky is first possessed by hatred for von Koren, then, over wine and cards, he becomes careless, then anxiety seizes him. When young Achmianov takes him to some house and there he sees Kirilin, and next to him Nadezhda Fedorovna, all feelings seem to disappear from his soul.

Von Koren that evening on the embankment talks with the deacon about the different understanding of the teachings of Christ. What is love for one's neighbor? In the elimination of everything that in one way or another harms people and threatens them with danger in the present or future, the zoologist believes. Humanity is in danger from the morally and physically abnormal, and they must be rendered harmless, that is, destroyed. But where are the criteria for distinguishing, because errors are possible? asks the deacon. There is nothing to be afraid of getting your feet wet when a flood threatens, the zoologist replies.

On the night before the duel, Laevsky listens to the thunderstorm outside the window, goes over his past in his memory, sees only lies in it, feels guilty for the fall of Nadezhda Fyodorovna and is ready to beg her forgiveness. If it were possible to return the past, he would find God and justice, but this is just as impossible as returning a sunken star back to heaven. Before leaving for the duel, he goes to Nadezhda Fyodorovna's bedroom. She looks with horror at Laevsky, but he, having embraced her, understands that this unfortunate, vicious woman is for him the only close, dear and irreplaceable person. Sitting in a carriage, he wants to return home alive.

The deacon, leaving early in the morning to see the duel, ponders why Laevsky and von Koren can hate each other and fight duels? Wouldn't it be better for them to go down and direct their hatred and anger to where whole streets are groaning from gross ignorance, greed, reproaches, impurity ... Sitting in a strip of corn, he sees his opponents and seconds arrive. Two green rays stretch out from behind the mountains, the sun rises. No one knows exactly the rules of the duel, they recall the descriptions of duels by Lermontov, Turgenev ... Laevsky shoots first; fearing that the bullet would not hit von Koren, he makes a shot in the air. Von Koren aims the muzzle of the pistol straight at Laevsky's face. "He will kill him!" - the desperate cry of the deacon makes him miss.

Three months pass. On the day of his departure for the expedition, von Koren, accompanied by Samoylenko and the deacon, goes to the pier. Passing by Laevsky's house, they talk about the change that has taken place with him. He married Nadezhda Fyodorovna, and works from morning to evening to pay his debts... Deciding to enter the house, von Koren holds out his hand to Laevsky. He has not changed his beliefs, but admits that he was wrong about his former adversary. Nobody knows the real truth, he says. Yes, no one knows the truth, agrees Laevsky.

He watches how the boat with von Koren overcomes the waves, and thinks: it is the same in life ... In search of the truth, people take two steps forward, one step back ... And who knows? Perhaps they will swim to the real truth ...

(FROM THE TUTORIAL)

The literature of the 1920s is characterized not only by the difference in the approaches of writers to life problems, to the hero of the time, but also by the diversity of styles. The artistic searches of writers of the beginning of the century were continued. Realistic representation of reality seemed clearly insufficient. E. Zamyatin, a theoretical writer, speaking of the new literature, introduced the term "synthetism": the coexistence of "the microscope of realism with the telescopic glass of symbolism."

The increased subjectivity of the artist's perception made it possible to move away from lifelikeness, to present a "contour" picture of reality, to highlight leitmotifs, to "shift" plans. As an example of such impressionistic prose of the 20s, M. Golubkov considers the works of B. Pilnyak in prose, and the poems of O. Mandelstam in poetry. The main thing in the work, the researcher emphasizes, is not the explanation of a person by circumstances, the environment, but the features of the perception of reality by the writer and his characters. Of particular value in such a text is a moment, today, its significance, its uniqueness. Fantasy coexists with everyday life, generalization with concreteness.

Another feature new prose manifested itself in increased expressiveness, expressive form of phrases, rhythm, in the deformation of the external world for the sake of comprehending the deep issues of being. M. Golubkov refers to the works created on the basis of expressionistic aesthetics, "We" by E. Zamyatin and "The Pit" by A. Platonov. The grotesque, fantasy of these works help the writers to reveal alogism, absurdity in their contemporary reality.

Many prose works The 1920s were built according to the laws of poetic speech. A significant layer of this prose was called "ornamental". Metaphors, the rhythmic organization of the text, the oral word of the narrator - "skaz" were used interestingly. These features are typical for the works of I. Babel.

A stream of vernacular words, dialectisms, neologisms, speech constructions with colloquial syntax, with a variety of lively intonations, poured into literature.

L. Leonov, for example, turned to the oldest form of folklore - conspiracies, folk beliefs, fabulous and mythological images of Ancient Russia, magic spells. “Do not go to the midnight forests, girls, for berries, men, for firewood, rotten old women, for mushrooms: if you meet a diva, he is swaggering much, bark - you will become a stump ...”

In the early 1920s, there were many officially registered literary organizations and associations with their own publications. The question of the difference between the intelligentsia and the people. Attempts to educate are a failure. Proletcult founded by Bogdanov. But it emphasizes the independence of literature from the state. Therefore, he clashed with the authorities. In 1920, Proletkult was deprived of independence and included in the People's Commissariat for Education. One of the first groups of proletarian poets was the Forge (until 1921). The peculiarity of their poetry is posterity, sloganism. The titles of the poems: "Close the ranks!", "To arms!", "Follow us!". The genres also corresponded to the general mood of the call and praise: hymns, marches, battle songs. In the verses sounded the aphorism of the order, rally expressions, political formulas. A. Gastev "Poetry of the working blow." Machinization.

The poets who left the Forge - A. Bezymensky, A. Zharov, N. Kuznetsov in 1922 created the group "October". The history of the most massive and radical group - RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) begins with it. Goals: strengthening the communist line in proletarian literature, that is, capable of influencing the psyche and consciousness of the working class and the working masses. A. Bezymensky and D. Poor. Magazines "On the post". 1928 - the first congress of proletarian writers. L. Averbakh, G. Lelevich, V. Ermilov.

1921-1932 a group of peasant writers. 1929 - the first congress. Magazines "Trudovaya Niva", "Zhernov", "Soviet Land". Klyuev, Oreshin, Yesenin teamed up with the former symbolists Blok and Bely in the Scythians group. Peasant poets associated dreams of national identity and the creation of an agricultural paradise with the revolution. The revolution seemed to be a bridge between the past and the future, a "transformation". Peasant poets argued with the slogans of technization, with those who idealized the machine and iron. In iron, N. Klyuev saw only an evil force that brings death to man and nature. S. Yesenin also felt something similar. His thin-legged colt (“Sorokoust”) was perceived as a symbol of an unequal dispute between the lively beauty of the village and the dead mechanical force of technological progress - the steam locomotive.

The ideas of revolutionary art, understood in its own way, were the main ones for the futurists. As before the revolution, V. Mayakovsky was associated with the futurists. In the "Letter on Futurism" in 1922, he formulated the tasks:

1. Establish verbal art as a mastery of the word, but not as an aesthetic stylization.

2. Answer any task set by modernity. The name of the futuristic magazine "LEF" (Left Front

Arts) is similar to the name of the group united around V. Mayakovsky and O. Brik. Since, in addition to poets, there were artists in its composition, the goal was defined broadly - "to contribute to finding a communist path for all kinds of art."

At the end of the 20s, the magazine began to be called "New LEF", and in the name of the group "left" was replaced by "revolutionary" (REF). But the "front" remained a "front" - the attitude to the struggle was preserved. After Mayakovsky left this group in 1929, it broke up.

Against the background of politically active organizations, the commonwealth of young writers who united at the beginning of 1921 in the St. Petersburg House of Arts in the Serapion Brothers group looked like a black sheep: V. Kaverin, M. Zoshchenko, L. Lunts, Vs. Ivanov, N. Nikitin, E. Polonskaya, M. Slonimsky, N. Tikhonov, K. Fedin. E. Zamyatin became their spiritual leader, and M. Gorky became their “patron”. The "Serapions" proclaimed the principle of the independence of creativity from the political situation, the principle of freedom of the artist. Their first joint performance took place in the "Petersburg Collection" (1922) in the anthology "Serapion Brothers". The name was taken from Hoffmann. The alliance with the "desert Serapion" emphasized the lack of connection with a specific revolutionary reality. The main thing was not themes, but images, not revolutionary content, but art in itself.

Defending the rights of the artist to independence of views and judgments, the "serapions" in the official press were assessed as "internal emigrants". The group held out until 1927.

Among the literary groups of the 1920s, in which the main attention was paid to the art form, were the Imagists. The leader and author of the manifestos was the former futurist V. Shershenevich. This group consisted of R. Ivnev, A. Mariengof, S. Yesenin. According to the novels of A. Mariengof and the articles of S. Yesenin, the modern reader can get an idea of ​​the nature of the Imagists' passion for images, the disputes among them, and the reasons for the departure of S. Yesenin.

The Pereval group arose under the Krasnaya Nov magazine in 1924 and existed, despite criticism, until 1932. It was organized by Chief Editor this first thick magazine in Soviet Russia A. Voronsky; as part of the group - I. Kataev, N. Zarudin, M. Prishvin, N. Ognev, M. Golodny, I. Kasatkin, D. Altauzen, D. Vetrov, D. Kedrin, A. Karavaeva. The task of The Pass, formulated by Voronsky, is to resist the "tendentious nudity in prose and superficial verse-weaving in poetry" of proletarian authors.

This attitude did not contradict the unconditional devotion to the revolution. “The good of the revolution is above all, and I have no other postulates,” A. Voronsky argued. He, as emphasized by G. Belaya in the book about the “Pass” (“Don Quixotes” of the 20s. - M., 1989), protested against turning the theory of class struggle into “a butt that is nailed right and left without any sense and analysis. "Perevaltsy" sought in their works to combine the image of everyday life with fiction, realism with romanticism.

Rappov critics blamed A. Voronsky for increased attention to "fellow travelers" and neglect for truly revolutionary authors. And he complained about the “revolutionary assurances of quick and quick people”, said more than once that from a good ideology to a good artistic embodiment of it, the distance is quite a decent size: “Honor and place for communist writers, proletarian writers, but to the extent of their talent. The measure of their creativity. A party ticket is a great thing, but it should not be waved out of place.

A fundamentally different understanding of the tasks of art among the “perevaltsy” and the ideologists of the RAPP manifested itself in the course of the discussion about the “social order”. The position of A. Voronsky was supported by B. Pilnyak: “From the moment when the writer begins to think about how to sew a story to an idea in order to dress it up, there can be no story ... A mandate to a writer of our era is, first of all, a social mandate, for the era extremely tense socially; but in no way is it a mandate to describe and make systems.”

A. Voronsky, like B. Pilnyak, was not forgiven for independence. The struggle against the “Voronshchina”, against the “Pilnyakovism” ended in the physical destruction of these and many other writers close to them in their views in the 30s. And the debate about the "social order" continued for decades, its echoes were manifested in attempts to connect the pointer of the "party" with the "dictations of the heart."

The union of several poets in the late 20s was formed under the name OBERIU (Association of real art). It included D. Kharms, N. Zabolotsky, K. Vaginov, A. Vvedensky and others. Initially, they called themselves the “school of plane trees”. This was the last literary association in line with the Russian avant-garde, inheriting futurism. It was from the Futurists that the Oberiuts borrowed destructive and outrageous beginnings, a passion for phonetic and semantic “absurdity”. basis them artistic method was a mockery of the generally accepted, an ironic highlighting of the obvious absurdities of modernity.

Konstantin Vaginov (Wagenheim, 1899-1934) continued Khlebnikov's tradition of creating a "self-made word". He was a member of many little-known groups, the "Workshop of Poets" of the Acmeists. In the 1920s, K. Vaginov published the collection Journey into Chaos, and in the early 1930s, Experiences of Connecting Words Through Rhythm.

Proletarian and peasant authors were grouped along class lines. The commonality of creative principles united the "serapions", "passengers". There were also groups focused on a certain genre. One of these associations of the 1920s was the Red Selenites group, which included science fiction writers. The first Soviet science fiction work was A. Obolyaninov's novel The Red Moon, published in Berlin in 1920. At the beginning of 1921, A. Lezhnev came up with a program for a new association.

Literary critics and linguists, participants in the university seminar of S. Vengerov, united in a group, in 1923 they established the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOYAZ). It included Yu. Tynyanov, B. Tomashevsky, V. Shklovsky, B. Eikhenbaum. Members of the society published collections on the theory of poetic language. The RAPP ideologists dubbed the method of studying literature that was born in disputes "formalism" and for several years smashed it as "alien to Soviet literary science."

The journal "Print and Revolution" declared "war on formalism to annihilate". There were, of course, mistakes and excesses among the Opoyazovites, but in history domestic literature The importance of B. Eikhenbaum's literary books, V. Shklovsky's memoirs, and Yu. Tynyanov's historical novels is indisputable. Many of the theoretical searches of the "formal school" have been adopted by modern scholars.

The October Revolution was perceived differently by cultural and art figures. For many, it was the greatest event of the century. For others - and among them was a significant part of the old intelligentsia - the Bolshevik coup was a tragedy leading to the death of Russia.

The poets were the first to respond. Proletarian poets performed hymns in honor of the revolution, evaluating it as a holiday of emancipation (V. Kirillov). The concept of rebuilding the world justified cruelty. The pathos of remaking the world was internally close to the Futurists, but the very content of the remake was perceived by mime in different ways (from the dream of harmony and universal brotherhood to the desire to destroy order in life and grammar). Peasant poets were the first to express concern about the relationship of the revolution to man (N. Klyuev). Klychkov predicted the prospects of brutality. Mayakovsky tried to stay on the pathetic wave. In the poems of Akhmatova and Gippius, the theme of robbery, robbery sounded. Death of freedom. Blok saw in the revolution that lofty, sacrificial and pure thing that was close to him. He did not idealize the people's element, he saw its destructive power, but so far he accepted it. Voloshin saw the tragedy of the bloody revolution, the confrontation within the nation, refused to choose between whites and reds.

Voluntary and forced emigrants blamed the Bolsheviks for the death of Russia. The break with the Motherland was perceived as a personal tragedy (A. Remizov)

In journalism, irreconcilability with cruelty, with repressions, extrajudicial executions often sounded. "Untimely Thoughts" by Gorky, Korolenko's letters to Lunacharsky. Mismatch of politics and morality, bloody ways of fighting dissent.

Attempts to satirically depict the achievements of the revolutionary order (Zamiatin, Ehrenburg, Averchenko).

Features of the concept of personality, the idea of ​​the heroes of the time. Increasing the image of the masses, the assertion of collectivism. Rejection of I in favor of we. The hero was not himself, but a representative. The lifelessness of the characters gave impetus to the slogan "For a living person!" In the heroes of early Soviet prose, sacrifice was emphasized, the ability to abandon the personal Y. Libedinsky "Week". D. Furmanov "Chapaev" (spontaneous, unbridled in Chapaev is more and more subject to consciousness, idea). Reference work about the working class F. Gladkov "Cement". Excessive ideologization, albeit an attractive hero.

Intellectual hero. Either he accepted the revolution, or he turned out to be a man of an unfulfilled destiny. In Cities and Years, Fedin kills Andrey Startsov with the hand of Kurt Van, because he is capable of betrayal. In Brothers, composer Nikita Karev writes revolutionary music at the end.

A. Fadeev fulfilled the order of time. Having overcome physical weakness, Levinson gains strength to serve the idea. In the confrontation between Frost and Mechik, the superiority of the working man over the intellectual is shown.

The intellectuals are most often the enemies of the new life. Anxiety about the attitude of the new person.

Among the prose of the 1920s, the heroes of Zoshchenko and Romanov stand out. Lots of small people, poorly educated, uncultured. It was the little people who were enthusiastic about tearing down the bad old and building the good new. They are immersed in life.

Platonov saw a thoughtful innermost person, trying to understand the meaning of life, work, death. Vsevolod Ivanov portrayed a man of the masses.

The nature of the conflicts. The struggle of the old and new worlds. By NEP - a period of reflection on the contradictions between the ideal and real life. Bagritsky, Aseev, Mayakovsky. It seemed to them that the townsfolk become the masters of life. Zabolotsky (eating inhabitant). Babel Cavalry. "Iron Stream" by Serafimovich - overcoming spontaneity in favor of conscious participation in the revolution.

The center of literary emigration first became Berlin, Belgrade, then Paris; in the East - Harbin. Societies were organized; one of the largest is the "Union of Russian writers and journalists" in Paris, chaired by I. Bunin. Russian newspapers and magazines were published abroad: in the 1920s - 138 Russian newspapers; in 1924 - 665 books, magazines and collections. Literary historians abroad single out Sovremennye Zapiski (Modern Notes) (Paris, 1920-1940) as the most significant journal. The 70 issues of this journal contain works by I. Bunin and Z. Gippius, K. Balmont and M. Aldanov, A. Remizov and V. Khodasevich, M. Tsvetaeva and I. Shmelev.

The general emigre writers' congress took place in 1928 in Belgrade.

In the absence of a wide readership, the main theme of émigré literature was still Russia.

In exile, the historical novel, biographical and autobiographical genres. A number of writers acted as critics.

Vladislav Khodasevich(1886-1939) was ready to accept the revolution. However, he quickly became convinced that the artist was required to adapt to power, regardless of his convictions. Defending his independence in 1922, Khodasevich left the country of the revolutionary experiment, remaining its citizen. Russia is the main theme of his poetic book The Heavy Lyre (1922). The last poetry collection is European Night (1923). The verses sounded a feeling of emptiness, reflecting the heavy consciousness of the reader's lack of demand. There was no one to write to.

After 1928, V. Khodasevich stopped writing poetry. He creates a book about Derzhavin. In its own way, it was autobiographical - in the fate of Derzhavin and his era, V. Khodasevich saw a lot of "his", "today's". The most significant of V. Khodasevich's creations in the last years of his life are the collection of articles "About Pushkin" (1937) and the book "Necropolis" (1939), which includes chapters about remarkable contemporary writers.

Igor Severyanin ( 1887-1942) was elected "King of Poets" in 1918. He was accompanied by the glory of the philistine idol. A. Blok, V. Mayakovsky wrote about the poems of I. Severyanin.

In his poetry, Russia became the main character.

Severyanin during the years of exile wrote ten thematic books-cycles, poetic memoirs.

Georgy Ivanov(1894-1958). In exile G. Ivanov wrote about love and death, about Russia. The researcher of his poetry V. Ermilova notes the complexity of interpreting the lyrics of G. Ivanov, the poet's refusal from any embellishment. Often his poems, written in exile, are perceived as "the last", created "at the limit and even beyond the limit of despair." The poet also refuses religious consolation.

Often, emigrant writers performed with journalistic works. The diaries, notes, memoirs reflected the last impressions received at home, recorded the process or moment of parting, accompanied by reflections on the prospects of Russia and one's own fate: "Petersburg Diaries" 3. Gippius, "Cursed Days" by I. Bunin, "The Word of Death Russian Lands” by A. Remizov, “The Sun of the Dead” by I. Shmelev.

Poets and prose writers wrote about the lost Russia with sadness and tenderness. F. Stepun called this motif "the cult of the Russian birch".

Boris Zaitsev(1884-1972). In the first years after the revolution, he not only witnessed the Red Terror, but survived the murder of loved ones. Despite this, he tried to work - he prepared a three-volume collection of his works for publication, translated, organized trade in the Moscow Book Store, and participated in the activities of the committee to help the hungry. The latter was the reason for the arrest, imprisonment. After his release, B. Zaitsev left his homeland in 1922. Having lived in exile for half a century, he created whole line works of various genres. Among them are novels, the autobiographical tetralogy "Gleb's Journey" (1937-1954), the hagiographic narrative " Reverend Sergius Radonezhsky" (1925), biographies of Russian classic writers - Zhukovsky, Turgenev, Chekhov. The main pathos of his books is the comprehension of spirituality.

The literary process of 1917-1929 can be divided into three stages. The first years after the October Revolution - comprehension of the changes that have taken place, orientation in the new reality. This stage ends with a "great exodus" into emigration, and domestic literature is divided far from only territorially. The farther, the more the loss of the homeland by those who left it and the lack of freedom of those who remained in the fatherland are realized.

The next stage is the years of the New Economic Policy, the crisis nature of the perception of reality. At the same time - deepening of the analysis, expansion of subjects. Turning to history in search of analogies and correspondences. In exile during these years, the first books about Russia in various genres were created, and the finality of the break with it was realized.

In the second half of the 1920s, an attack on the freedom of creative searches was being carried out more and more actively. Any inconsistency with ideological guidelines is declared hostile to socialist ideals.

* Now there is an opportunity to look at those events from different perspectives. Books about the civil war: stories by M. Sholokhov, stories by A. Malyshkin, A. Serafimovich, novel by Fadeev. Belonging to one camp or another determined the author's approach to events. Participants of the white movement created their books about Russia already in exile. In the 1920s, the series "Revolution and Civil War in the Descriptions of the White Guards" was published. Among them are "Essays on Russian Troubles" by Denikin, "From the Double-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner" by Krasnov. Thoughts on the fate of Russia.

Bunin wrote about Russia and the revolution (“Cursed Days”), Gippius “Petersburg Diaries”, Remizov “The Word about the Destruction of the Russian Land”. Sarcastic irony interspersed with a sense of shame and bitterness. Thoughts of repentance, faith in higher justice helped to overcome apocalyptic moods.

In 1923, V. Zazubrin wrote the story "Sliver". Her hero Srubov is a man with strong convictions, who considers himself a "vacuum cleaner of history." The subtitle of "Sliver" is "The Tale of Her and Her." "She" is the heroine of the soul. Revolution. She is a powerful stream carrying people-chips. “Let the taiga be burned, let the steppes be trampled... After all, only on cement and iron will an iron brotherhood be built - the union of all people.”

Srubov's willingness to do anything for the sake of an idea turns him into an executioner. This readiness is emphasized by the attitude towards the father. The son of his warnings did not hear: "Bolshevism is a temporary, painful phenomenon, a fit of rage into which the majority of the Russian people fell." The finals of "Two Worlds" and "Sliver" echo. The first ended with a fire in the church, arranged by fanatics of the revolutionary idea. The events of the second take place in days Happy Easter. “It seems to Srubov that he is floating on a bloody river. Just not on a raft. It broke away and sways on the waves like a lone sliver.

Y. Libedinsky (“Week”, 1923), and A. Tarasov-Rodionov (“Chocolate”, 1922) included the motif of doubt, delirium in the story of the uncompromising firmness of the adherents of the revolutionary idea.

In a number of works of the early 1920s, the hero was the new army itself - the revolutionary crowd, "multiples", heroically inclined, striving for victory. The fact that this path was bloody, involving the death of thousands of people, was relegated to the background.

A. Malyshkin was not an ordinary participant in the fighting in the Crimean region, but a member of the Headquarters. Accordingly, he knew about the losses on both sides, he knew about the mass execution of white officers, who were promised life if they surrendered their weapons. But The Fall of Daira (1921) is not about that. This is a romantic book, stylized as ancient historical stories. “And in the black night, in front, they saw - not eyes, but something else - a fierce and prickly massif, dark from the century, raised, and behind it the wonderful Dair - blue fogs of valleys, flowering cities, a starry sea.”

In Cavalry by I. Babel (1923-1925) they faced the reality of a revolutionary dream. The protagonist of the book (K. Lyutov) occupied a seemingly contemplative position, but was endowed with the right to judge. Lyutov's insurmountable loneliness does not interfere with his sincere desire to understand, if not justify, then try to explain the unpredictable actions of the horsemen. The murder is perceived as a punishment coming from all over Russia.

For many writers, both those who accepted the revolution and its opponents, the main motive was the unjustification of the spilled rivers of blood.

B. Pilnyak portrayed a man connected with the revolution by ideas and deeds, his own and others' blood. In 1926, Novy Mir published and immediately banned The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon. personifying totalitarian power a non-hunched man sent a commander to his death. Gavrilov, dying on the operating table, also bore the blame for the spilled blood of people. The icy light of the moon illuminated the city.

And the moon will rise at night. She was not devoured by dogs: She was only not visible Because of the human bloody fight.

These poems by S. Yesenin were written in 1924. The moon appeared in many works of techlet, not a single science fiction book could do without it. The unextinguished moon of B. Pilnyak, as it were, gave additional light to the real world - a disturbing, alarming light.

The historian and observer of the revolution, B. Pilnyak, did not admire the scope of the destruction, but made him feel the threat to all living things, especially to the individual, from the new state machine

Genre diversity and stylistic originality. Memoirs and diaries, chronicles and confessions, novels and stories. Some authors tried to be as objective as possible. Others are characterized by increased subjectivity, emphasized figurativeness, expressiveness.*

Philosophically comprehended the essence of events in Russia at the beginning of the century years later B. Pasternak in the novel "Doctor Zhivago". The hero of the novel turned out to be a hostage of history, which mercilessly intervenes in his life and destroys it. The fate of Zhivago is the fate of the Russian intelligentsia in the 20th century.

Fadeev's heroes are "ordinary". The strongest impression in “Rout” is made by deep Scan changes caused by the civil war in the spiritual world of an ordinary person. The image of Frost speaks clearly about this. Ivan Morozka was a second generation miner. His grandfather plowed the land, and his father mined coal. From the age of twenty, Ivan rolled trolleys, cursed, drank vodka. He did not look for new ways, he followed the old ones: he bought a satin shirt, chrome boots, played the harmonica, fought, walked, stole vegetables for the sake of mischief. He was in prison during the strike, but did not betray any of the instigators. He was at the front in the cavalry, received six wounds and two shell shocks. He is married, but a bad family man, does everything thoughtlessly, and life seems to him simple and uncomplicated. Frost did not like clean people, they seemed fake to him. He believed that they could not be trusted. He himself strove for easy, monotonous work, and therefore did not remain Levinson's orderly. His comrades sometimes call him a "balda", "fool", "damn sweaty", but he is not offended, the matter is most important to him. Frost knows how to think: he thinks that life is becoming “tricky” and you have to choose your own path. Nashkodiv on melons, he cowardly fled, but after that he repents and is very worried. Goncharenko defended Morozka at the meeting, called him a “fighting guy” and vouched for him. Frost swore that he would give his blood for each of the miners, that he was ready for any punishment. He was forgiven. When Frost manages to calm people down at the crossing, he felt like a responsible person. He was able to organize the men, and he was pleased with it. In the detachment of miners, Morozka was a serviceable soldier and was considered a good one, the right person. He even tries to fight a terrible desire to drink, he understands that there is external beauty, but there is genuine, spiritual beauty. And thinking about it, I realized that he was deceived in his former life. Revelry and work, blood and sweat, but nothing good was visible ahead, and it seemed to him that all his life he had been trying to get on the straight, clear and correct road, but did not notice the enemy that was sitting in himself. People like Morozka are reliable, they can make their own decisions and are capable of remorse. And although they have Weak Will, they will never commit meanness. They will be able to find a way out of any, even the most hopeless situation. Just before his heroic death, Frost realized that Mechik was a bastard, a cowardly bastard, a traitor who thought only of himself, and the recollection of close, dear people who rode behind him made him commit self-sacrifice. In works about the civil war, the idea is important that often the winner is not the one who is more conscientious, gentler, more responsive, but the one who is more fanatical, who is more insensitive to suffering, who is more subject to his own doctrine. These works raise the theme of humanism, which is inextricably linked with a sense of civic duty. Commander Levinson took the only pig from the poor Korean, using weapons, forced the red-haired guy to flatter into the water for fish, gave the green light to Frolov's forced death. All this for the sake of saving the common cause. People suppressed personal interests, subordinating them to duty. This debt crippled many, making them tools in the hands of the party. As a result, people became callous, crossed the line of what was permitted. The "selection of human material" is waged by the war itself. More often the best die in battles - Metelitsa, Baklanov, Morozka, who managed to realize the significance of the team and suppress his selfish aspirations, and such as Chizh, Pika and the traitor Mechik remain.

LITERATURE OF THE END OF THE XIX — BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY

More than eighty years ago, Alexander Blok expressed his hope for the attention and understanding of his future readers. Fifteen years later, another poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, summing up his literary work, will directly address the "respected descendants of comrades." Poets trust the people of the future with the most important thing: their books, and in them - everything they aspired to, what they thought, what people who lived in the “beautiful and furious” 20th century felt. And today, when we are on the threshold of a new millennium, “to you, from another generation”, history itself has given the opportunity to see the passing century in a historical perspective and discover the domestic literature of the 20th century.

One of the brightest and most mysterious pages of Russian culture is the beginning of the century. Today this period is called the "silver age" of Russian literature, following the "golden" XIX, when Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy reigned. But it is more correct to call the "Silver Age" not all literature, but above all poetry, as the participants in the literary movement of that era did. Poetry, actively looking for new ways of development, for the first time after Pushkin's time at the beginning of the 20th century. came to the fore in the literary process. It must be remembered that the term "Silver Age" is arbitrary, but it is significant that the very choice of this characteristic paid tribute to the predecessors, primarily A.S. Pushkin (more on this in the chapters on poetry).

However, at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. Literature developed under different historical conditions than before. If you look for a word that characterizes the most important features of the period under consideration, then it will be the word crisis. Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world, led to a paradoxical conclusion: "matter has disappeared." As E. Zamyatin wrote in the early 1920s, “exact science blew up the very reality of matter”, “life itself has ceased to be flat-real today: it is projected not on the former fixed, but on dynamic coordinates”, and the most famous things in this new projection seem strangely familiar, fantastic. So, the writer continues, and new beacons loomed before literature: from the image of everyday life - to being, to philosophy, to the fusion of reality and fantasy, from the analysis of phenomena - to their synthesis. Fair, although unusual at first glance, is Zamyatin's conclusion that "realism has no roots," if we mean by realism "one bare image of everyday life." The new vision of the world, thus, will also determine the new face of the realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors in its “modernity” (definition by I. Bunin). The trend towards the renewal of realism as early as the end of the 19th century. astutely noted V.V. Rozanov. “... After naturalism, a reflection of reality, it is natural to expect idealism, penetration into its meaning ... Centuries-old currents of history and philosophy - this is what will probably become our favorite subject of study in the near future ... Politics in the high sense of the word, in the sense of penetration into the course of history and influence on it, and Philosophy as the need of a perishing and greedily clutching at the salvation of the soul - such is the goal that irresistibly attracts us to itself ... ”, - wrote V.V. Rozanov (italics mine. - L.T.).

Crushing consequences for the human spirit had a crisis of faith (“God is dead!” exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that the man of the XX century. more and more he began to feel the influence of non-religious and, what is truly terrible, immoral ideas, for, as Dostoevsky predicted, if there is no God, then "everything is permitted." The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology of Evil and death, the glorification of the self-will of the individual, the recognition of the right to violence that turned into terror - all these features, indicating the deepest crisis of consciousness, will by no means be characteristic only of modernist poetry.

At the beginning of the XX century. Russia was shaken by the most acute social conflicts: the war with Japan, the First World War, internal contradictions and, as a result, the scope of the popular movement, the revolution. The clash of ideas intensified, political movements and parties were formed that sought to influence the minds of people and the development of the country. All this could not but cause a feeling of instability, fragility of being, a tragic discord of a person with himself. “Atlantis” - such a prophetic name will be given to the ship on which the drama of life and death will unfold, I. Bunin in the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, emphasizing the tragic subtext of the work by describing the Devil watching human destinies.

Each literary epoch has its own system of values, a center (philosophers call it axiological, axiological), to which, one way or another, all the paths of artistic creativity converge. Such a center that determined many distinctive features Russian literature of the XX century, became History with its unprecedented socio-historical and spiritual cataclysms, which involved everyone in its orbit - from a particular person to the people and the state. If V.G. Belinsky called his 19th century predominantly historical, this definition is all the more true in relation to the 20th century with its new worldview, the basis of which was the idea of ​​an ever-accelerating historical movement. Time itself again brought to the fore the problem of the historical path of Russia, made it necessary to seek an answer to the prophetic Pushkin's question: "Where are you galloping, proud horse, And where will you lower your hooves?" The beginning of the 20th century was filled with predictions of "unprecedented rebellions" and "unheard of fires", a premonition of "retribution", as A. Blok prophetically says in his unfinished poem of the same name. B. Zaitsev's idea is well-known that everyone was hurt ("wounded") by revolutionism, regardless of the political attitude to the events. “Through the revolution as a state of mind” - this is how a modern researcher defined one of the characteristic features of the “well-being” of a person of that time. The future of Russia and the Russian people, the fate of moral values ​​in a critical historical era, the connection of a person with real history, the incomprehensible "diversity" of the national character - not a single artist could escape the answer to these "damned questions" of Russian thought. Thus, in the literature of the beginning of the century, not only did the interest in history, traditional for Russian art, manifest itself, but a special quality of artistic consciousness was formed, which can be defined as historical consciousness. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to look for direct appeals to specific events, problems, conflicts, heroes in all works. History for literature is primarily its "secret thought", it is important for writers as an impetus for reflection on the mysteries of life, for comprehending the psychology and life of the spirit of the "historical man".

But the Russian writer would hardly have considered himself to have fulfilled his destiny if he had not searched (sometimes difficult, even painfully) and offered the man of the crisis era his understanding of the way out.

Without the sun, we would be dark slaves,

Beyond understanding what a radiant day is.

K. Balmont

A person who has lost integrity in a situation global crisis spirit, consciousness, culture, social structure, and the search for a way out of this crisis, the desire for an ideal, harmony - this is how you can define the most important areas of artistic thought of the frontier era.

Literature of the late XIX - early XX century. - an extremely complex phenomenon, acutely conflicted, but also fundamentally united, since all directions domestic art developed in a common social and cultural atmosphere and in their own way answered the same difficult questions put forward by the time. So, for example, not only the works of V. Mayakovsky or M. Gorky, who saw a way out of the crisis in social transformations, but also the poems of one of the founders of Russian symbolism, D. Merezhkovsky, are imbued with the idea of ​​rejection of the surrounding world:

So life is terrible insignificance,

And not even a struggle, not flour,

But only endless boredom And quiet horror is full.

The lyrical hero of A. Blok expressed the confusion of a person leaving the world of familiar, established values ​​“on a damp night”, having lost faith in life itself:

Night, street, lamp, pharmacy,

A meaningless and dim light.

Live at least a quarter of a century -

Everything will be like this. There is no exit.

How terrible everything is! How wild! - Give me your hand, Comrade, friend! Let's forget again!

If the artists were basically unanimous in assessing the present, then contemporary writers answered the question about the future and ways to achieve it in different ways. Symbolists went to created creative imagination"Palace of Beauty", into mystical "other worlds", into the music of verse. M. Gorky, who glorified the power of Man in his works, placed hope in the mind, talent, and active principle of man. The dream of the harmony of man with the natural world, the healing power of art, religion, love and doubts about the possibility of realizing this dream permeate the books of I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, L. Andreev. The lyrical hero of V. Mayakovsky, who took on his shoulders the brunt of the rebellion against the foundations of the universe (“down with it!”), felt himself “the voice of the languageless street” like a lyrical hero. The ideal of Russia is “the country of birch calico”, the idea of ​​the unity of all living things sounds in the poems of S. Yesenin. Proletarian poets came out with a belief in the possibility of social reorganization of life and a call to forge the "keys of happiness" with their own hands. Naturally, literature did not give its answers in a logical form, although the journalistic statements of writers, their diaries, memoirs, without which it is impossible to imagine Russian culture at the beginning of the century, are also unusually interesting. A feature of the era was the parallel existence and struggle of literary trends that united writers who were close to ideas about the role of creativity, the most important principles of comprehending the world, approaches to depicting a person, and preferences in choosing genres, styles, and forms of narration. Aesthetic diversity and a sharp delimitation of literary forces became a characteristic feature of the literature of the beginning of the century.

Russian literature of the XX century: general characteristics

Descriptionthe literary process of the XX century, the presentation of the main literary movements and trends. Realism. Modernism (symbolism, acmeism, futurism). literary vanguard.

Late XIX - early XX centuries. became the time of the bright flowering of Russian culture, its "silver age" ("golden age" was called Pushkin's time). In science, literature, art, new talents appeared one after another, bold innovations were born, different directions, groupings and styles competed. At the same time, the culture of the "Silver Age" was characterized by deep contradictions, characteristic of the entire Russian life of that time.

The rapid breakthrough of Russia in development, the clash of different ways and cultures changed the self-consciousness of the creative intelligentsia. Many were no longer satisfied with the description and study of visible reality, the analysis of social problems. I was attracted by deep, eternal questions - about the essence of life and death, good and evil, human nature. Revived interest in religion; The religious theme had a strong influence on the development of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

However, the critical era not only enriched literature and art: it constantly reminded writers, artists and poets of the coming social explosions, that the whole habitual way of life, the whole old culture, could perish. Some were waiting for these changes with joy, others - with longing and horror, which brought pessimism and anguish into their work.

At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. Literature developed under different historical conditions than before. If you look for a word that characterizes the most important features of the period under consideration, then it will be the word "crisis". Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world, led to a paradoxical conclusion: "matter has disappeared." The new vision of the world, thus, will also determine the new face of the realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors. Also devastating to the human spirit was a crisis of faith (“God is dead!” exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that the man of the 20th century began to increasingly experience the influence of non-religious ideas. The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology of evil and death, the glorification of the self-will of the individual, the recognition of the right to violence, which turned into terror - all these features testify to the deepest crisis of consciousness.

In Russian literature of the beginning of the 20th century, a crisis of old ideas about art and a sense of the exhaustion of past development will be felt, a reassessment of values ​​will be formed.

Renewal of literature, its modernization will cause the emergence of new trends and schools. The rethinking of the old means of expression and the revival of poetry will mark the onset of the "silver age" of Russian literature. This term is associated with the name of N. Berdyaev, who used it in one of his speeches in the salon of D. Merezhkovsky. Later, the art critic and editor of "Apollo" S. Makovsky reinforced this phrase by naming his book about Russian culture at the turn of the century "On Parnassus of the Silver Age." Several decades will pass and A. Akhmatova will write "... the silver month is bright / Over the silver age it froze."

The chronological framework of the period defined by this metaphor can be described as follows: 1892 - the exit from the era of timelessness, the beginning of a social upsurge in the country, the manifesto and collection "Symbols" by D. Merezhkovsky, the first stories of M. Gorky, etc.) - 1917. According to another point of view, the chronological end of this period can be considered 1921-1922 (the collapse of past illusions, the mass emigration of figures of Russian culture from Russia that began after the death of A. Blok and N. Gumilyov, the expulsion of a group of writers, philosophers and historians from the country).

Russian literature of the 20th century was represented by three main literary movements: realism, modernism, and the literary avant-garde. Schematically, the development of literary trends at the beginning of the century can be shown as follows:

Representatives of literary movements

• 
  Senior Symbolists: V.Ya. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont, D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, F.K. Sologub and others.
  • 
    Mystics-Godseekers: D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, N. Minsky.
  • 
    Decadents individualists: V.Ya. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont, F.K. Sologub.
• 
  Junior Symbolists: A.A. Blok, Andrey Bely (B.N. Bugaev), V.I. Ivanov and others.
• 
  Acmeism: N.S. Gumilyov, A.A. Akhmatova, S.M. Gorodetsky, O.E. Mandelstam, M.A. Zenkevich, V.I. Narbut.
• 
  cubofuturists(poets of "Hilea"): D.D. Burlyuk, V.V. Khlebnikov, V.V. Kamensky, V.V. Mayakovsky, A.E. Twisted.
• 
  Egofuturists: I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev, K. Olimpov, V. Gnedov.
• 
  Group"Mezzanine of poetry": V. Shershenevich, Khrisanf, R. Ivnev and others.
• 
  Association "Centrifuge": B.L. Pasternak, N.N. Aseev, S.P. Bobrov and others.

One of the most interesting phenomena in the art of the first decades of the 20th century was the revival of romantic forms, largely forgotten since the beginning of the last century. One of these forms was proposed by V.G. Korolenko, whose work continues to develop at the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the new century. Another expression of the romantic was the work of A. Green, whose works are unusual for their exoticism, flight of fancy, ineradicable dreaminess. The third form of the romantic was the work of revolutionary workers' poets (N. Nechaev, E. Tarasova, I. Privalov, A. Belozerov, F. Shkulev). Turning to marches, fables, appeals, songs, these authors poeticize heroic deeds, use romantic images of a glow, fire, crimson dawn, thunderstorm, sunset, limitlessly expand the range of revolutionary vocabulary, resort to cosmic scales.

A special role in the development of literature of the 20th century was played by such writers as Maxim Gorky and L.N. Andreev. The twenties are a difficult, but dynamic and creatively fruitful period in the development of literature. Although many figures of Russian culture were expelled from the country in 1922, while others went into voluntary emigration, artistic life in Russia does not stop. On the contrary, there are many talented young writers, recent participants in the Civil War: L. Leonov, M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, Yu. Libedinsky, A. Vesely, and others.

The thirties began with the "year of the great turning point", when the foundations of the former Russian way of life were sharply deformed, and the active intervention of the party in the sphere of culture began. P. Florensky, A. Losev, A. Voronsky and D. Kharms are being arrested, repressions against the intelligentsia intensified, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of cultural figures, two thousand writers died, in particular N. Klyuev, O. Mandelstam, I. Kataev, and Babel, B. Pilnyak, P. Vasiliev, A. Voronsky, B. Kornilov. Under these conditions, the development of literature was extremely difficult, tense and ambiguous.

The work of such writers and poets as V.V. Mayakovsky, S.A. Yesenin, A.A. Akhmatova, A.N. Tolstoy, E.I. Zamyatin, M.M. Zoshchenko, M.A. Sholokhov, M.A. Bulgakov, A.P. Platonov, O.E. Mandelstam, M.I. Tsvetaeva.

The Holy War, which began in June 1941, put forward new tasks for literature, to which the writers of the country immediately responded. Most of them ended up on the battlefield. More than a thousand poets and prose writers joined the ranks of the army, becoming famous war correspondents (M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev, N. Tikhonov, I. Ehrenburg, Vs. Vishnevsky, E. Petrov, A. Surkov, A. Platonov). Works of various kinds and genres joined the fight against fascism. In the first place among them was poetry. Here it is necessary to highlight the patriotic lyrics of A. Akhmatova, K. Simonov, N. Tikhonov, A. Tvardovsky, V. Sayanov. Prose writers cultivated their most active genres: journalistic essays, reports, pamphlets, stories.

The next major stage in the development of the literature of the century was the period of the second half of the 20th century. Within this big segment time, researchers distinguish several relatively independent periods: late Stalinism (1946-1953); "thaw" (1953-1965); stagnation (1965-1985), perestroika (1985-1991); modern reforms (1991-1998) Literature developed in these very different periods with great difficulties, experiencing alternately unnecessary guardianship, destructive leadership, command shouting, indulgence, restraint, persecution, emancipation.