Literature. XIX century turned out to be extremely fruitful and bright in the field of cultural development of Russia.
In a broad sense, the concept of “culture” includes all examples of human achievements in various areas of life and activity. Therefore, it is quite justified and appropriate to use such definitions as “everyday culture”, “political culture”, “industrial culture”, “rural culture”, “philosophical culture” and a number of others, indicating the level of creative achievements in certain forms of human society. And everywhere there were cultural changes in the 19th century. in Russia were great and amazing.
Second half of the 19th century. became a time of not just rapid flowering of all forms and genres of creativity, but also a period when Russian culture confidently and forever took a prominent place in the cultural arena of human achievements. Russian painting, Russian theater, Russian philosophy, Russian literature established their global positions thanks to the cohort of our outstanding compatriots who worked in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Nowadays, anywhere in the world, it is difficult to find a sufficiently educated person who would not be familiar with the names of F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. V. Rachmaninov, F. I. Shalyapin, K. S. Stanislavsky, A. P. Pavlova, N. A. Berdyaev. These are just some of the most striking figures who will forever remain iconic in the field of Russian culture. Without them, the cultural baggage of humanity would be noticeably poorer.
The same applies to the end of that century, when a contemporary of L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov was the Monk John of Kronstadt (1829-1908).
Despite the spread of various forms of freethinking, skepticism and even atheism among the nobility, the bulk of the population of the Russian Empire remained faithful to Orthodoxy. This faith, to which the Russian people have been committed for many centuries, was not at all affected by the fashionable ideological hobbies that existed in high society. Orthodoxy was the essence of what modern political science defines with the borrowed term “mentality,” but which in Russian lexical circulation corresponds to the concept of “life understanding.”
The Orthodoxy of the people in one way or another influenced all aspects of the creative activity of the most remarkable domestic masters of culture, and without taking into account the Christian impulse it is impossible to understand why in Russia, unlike other bourgeois countries, no reverent attitude arose towards either entrepreneurs, nor to their occupation. Although by the beginning of the 20th century. the triumph of capitalist relations in the country was beyond doubt; no one created literary or dramatic works in which the virtues and merits of characters from the world of capital were glorified and extolled. Even domestic periodicals, a considerable number of which were directly or indirectly financed by the “kings of business,” did not risk publishing enthusiastic praises addressed to them. Such newspapers or magazines would immediately become the object of angry vilification, would inevitably begin to lose readers, and their days would very quickly be numbered.
When talking about the Russian cultural process, taking into account the above is extremely important in two main respects.
Firstly, to understand the spiritual structure of Russian people as a whole, its fundamental difference from the social environment of modern Russia.
Secondly, to understand why pity for the poor, sympathy for the “humiliated and insulted” were the core motives of the entire Russian artistic and intellectual culture - from the paintings of the Wanderers to the works of Russian writers and philosophers.
This non-bourgeois social consciousness further contributed to the establishment of communist power in the country, the ideology of which was the denial of private property and private interests.
This motif manifested itself most clearly in the works of the two most famous representatives of Russian culture of this period - the prophetic writers F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy.
The life paths and creative techniques of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are completely different. They were not like-minded people, they never had not only close, but even friendly relations, and although in various periods they briefly belonged to certain literary and social groups (parties), the very scale of their personalities did not fit within the framework of narrow ideological movements. In the turning points of their biographies, in their literary works, time was focused, reflecting the spiritual quest, even the throwing of people of the 19th century, who lived in an era of constant social innovations and premonitions of the coming fatal eves.
F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy were not only “masters of belles-lettres”, brilliant chroniclers of times and morals. Their thought extended much further than the ordinary, deeper than the obvious. Their desire to unravel the mysteries of existence, the essence of man, to comprehend the true destiny of mortals reflected, in perhaps its highest manifestation, the disharmony between the mind and heart of man, the tremulous sensations of his soul and the coldly pragmatic hopelessness of the mind. Their sincere desire to resolve the “damned Russian questions” - what a person is and what his earthly purpose is - turned both writers into spiritual guides of restless natures, of which there have always been many in Russia. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, having expressed the Russian understanding of life, became not only the voices of the time, but also its creators.
F. M. Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born into a poor family of a military doctor in Moscow. He graduated from the boarding school, and in 1843 from the Main Engineering School in St. Petersburg, for some time he served as a field engineer in the engineering team of St. Petersburg. He retired in 1844, deciding to devote himself entirely to literature. Meets V. G. Belinsky and I. S. Turgenev, begins to move in the capital's literary environment. His first major work, the novel Poor People (1846), was a resounding success.
In the spring of 1847, Dostoevsky became a regular at the meetings of V. M. Petrashevsky’s circle, where pressing social issues were discussed, including the need to overthrow the existing system. Among others, the aspiring writer was arrested in connection with the Petrashevites case. First, he was sentenced to death, and already on the scaffold Dostoevsky and the other accused were shown the royal mercy to replace the execution with hard labor. F. M. Dostoevsky spent about four years in hard labor (1850-1854). His stay in Siberia was described in a book of essays, Notes from the House of the Dead, published in 1861.
In the 1860-1870s. The largest literary works appeared - novels that brought Dostoevsky world fame: The Humiliated and Insulted, The Gambler, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, The Brothers Karamazov.
The writer completely broke with the revolutionary passions of his youth and realized the falsity and danger of theories for the violent reorganization of the world. His works are permeated with reflections on the meaning of life, on the search for life paths. Dostoevsky saw the possibility of comprehending the truth of existence only through the faith of Christ. Moralism developed from Christian socialism to Slavophilism. However, calling him a Slavophile can only be a stretch. He was one of the founders of the ideological movement called pochvenism. It made itself known in the 1860-1870s, just at the time when the work of F. M. Dostoevsky reached its peak.
The program of the magazine “Time”, which F. M. Dostoevsky began publishing in 1861, said: We are finally convinced that we are also a separate nationality, highly original, and that our task is to create a form for ourselves, our own , native, taken from our soil. This position was fully consistent with the original Slavophil postulate. However, the universal universalism of Dostoevsky’s thinking appeared already at this time: We predict that the Russian idea may be a synthesis of all those ideas that Europe is developing.
This view found its highest embodiment in the writer’s famous speech at the 1880 celebrations of the opening of the monument to A. S. Pushkin in Moscow. It was in his Pushkin speech, which delighted the audience and then became the subject of fierce controversy in the press, that F. M. Dostoevsky formulated his vision of the future world. He derived his well-being from the fulfillment of Russia’s historical mission - to unite the people of the world in a fraternal union according to the covenants of Christian love and humility:
Yes, the purpose of the Russian person is undoubtedly pan-European and worldwide. To become a real Russian, to become completely Russian, perhaps, means only to become the brother of all people, an all-man, if you like. Oh, all this Slavophilism and Westernism of ours is just one great misunderstanding among us, although historically necessary. For a true Russian, Europe and the destiny of the entire great Aryan tribe are as dear as Russia itself, as is the destiny of our native land, because our destiny is universality, and not acquired by the sword, but by the power of brotherhood and our fraternal desire for the reunification of people.
Dostoevsky was not a philosopher in the strict sense of the word, he thought like an artist, his ideas were embodied in the thoughts and actions of the heroes of literary works. The writer's worldview has always remained religious. Even in his youth, when he was carried away by the ideas of socialism, he remained in the bosom of the Church. One of the most important reasons for his break with V. G. Belinsky, as F. M. Dostoevsky later admitted, was that he scolded Christ. Elder Zosima (“The Brothers Karamazov”) expressed an idea found in many literary and journalistic works of F. M. Dostoevsky: “We do not understand that life is paradise, for as soon as we want to understand, it will immediately appear before us in its entirety.” its beauty." The reluctance and inability to see the surrounding beauty stems from a person’s inability to master these gifts - “read F. M. Dostoevsky.
All his life the writer was worried about the mystery of personality; he was possessed by a painful interest in man, in the reserved side of his nature, in the depths of his soul. Reflections on this topic are found in almost all of his works of art. Dostoevsky, with unsurpassed skill, revealed the dark sides of the human soul, the forces of destruction hidden within him, the boundless egoism, the denial of moral principles rooted in man. However, despite the negative aspects, the writer saw a mystery in each individual; he considered everyone, even in the form of the most insignificant, to be an absolute value. Not only was the demonic element in man revealed by Dostoevsky with unprecedented force; no less deeply and expressively are shown the movements of truth and goodness in the human soul, the angelic principle in it. Faith in man, triumphantly affirmed in all the writer’s works, makes F. M. Dostoevsky the greatest humanist thinker.
Dostoevsky, already during his lifetime, was awarded the title of a great writer among the reading public. However, his social position, his rejection of all forms of the revolutionary movement, his preaching of Christian humility caused attacks not only in radical, but also in liberal circles.
The heyday of Dostoevsky’s creativity occurred during the “riot of intolerance.” Everyone who did not share the passion for fashionable theories of a radical reorganization of society was branded as reactionaries. It was in the 1860s. the word “conservative” has become almost a dirty word, and the concept “liberal” has become synonymous with a social progressive. If before, any ideological dispute in Russia was almost always of an emotional nature, now its indispensable attribute has become intolerance towards everything and everyone that did not correspond to the flat schemes “about the main path of development of progress.” They did not want to hear the voices of opponents. As the famous philosopher B.C. wrote. Solovyov about another outstanding Russian thinker K. N. Leontiev, he dared to “express his reactionary thoughts” at a time “when it could bring him nothing but ridicule.” Opponents were bullied, they were not objected to in essence, they served only as an object of ridicule.
Dostoevsky fully experienced the moral terror of liberalizing public opinion. The attacks on him, in fact, never stopped. They were started by V. G. Belinsky, who called the writer’s early literary and psychological experiments “nervous nonsense.” There was only one short period when the name of Dostoevsky enjoyed reverence among the “priests of social progress” - the end of the 1850s, when Dostoevsky became close to the circle of M. V. Petrashevsky and became a “victim of the regime.”
However, as it became clear that in his works the writer did not follow the theory of acute sociality, the attitude of liberal-radical criticism towards him changed. After appearing in print in 1871-1872. novel “Demons,” where the author showed the spiritual squalor and complete immorality of the bearers of revolutionary ideas, Dostoevsky became a target of systematic attacks. Capital newspapers and magazines regularly presented the public with critical attacks against “Dostoevsky’s social misconceptions and his caricature of the humanistic movement of the sixties.” However, the creative monumentality of the writer’s works, their unprecedented psychological depth, were so obvious that the attacks were accompanied by many routine recognitions of the master’s artistic talents.
Such endless abuse of a name had a depressing effect on the writer, and although he did not change his views and his creative style, he tried, as far as possible, not to give new reasons for attacks. A noteworthy episode in this regard dates back to the early 1880s, when populist terror was spreading in the country. It happened somehow that, together with the journalist and publisher A.S. Suvorin, the writer reflected on the topic: would he tell the police if he suddenly found out that the Winter Palace had been mined and that an explosion would soon occur and all its inhabitants would die. Dostoevsky answered this question: No. And, explaining his position, he noted: The liberals would not forgive me. They would exhaust me, drive me to despair.
Dostoevsky considered this situation with public opinion in the country to be abnormal, but he was unable to change the established methods of social behavior. The great writer, an old, sick man, was afraid of being accused of collaborating with the authorities, and was unable to hear the roar of the educated mob.
Count L. N. Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born into a wealthy noble family. He received his primary education at home, then studied for some time at the Oriental and Law faculties of Kazan University. He didn’t finish the course; he wasn’t interested in science.
He dropped out of the university and went to the active army in the Caucasus, where the decisive phase of hostilities with Shamil unfolded. Here he spent two years (1851-1853). Service in the Caucasus enriched Tolstoy with many impressions, which he later reflected in his stories.
When the Crimean War began, Tolstoy volunteered to go to the front and took part in the defense of Sevastopol. After the end of the war, he retired, traveled abroad, then served in the administration of the Tula province. In 1861 he interrupted his service and settled on his estate Yasnaya Polyana not far from Tula.
There Tolstoy wrote major literary works - the novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection. In addition, he has written many novels, short stories, dramatic and journalistic works. The writer created a diverse panorama of Russian life, depicted the morals and way of life of people of dissimilar social status, and showed the complex struggle between good and evil in the human soul. The novel "War and Peace" still remains the most outstanding literary work about the War of 1812.
Many political and social problems attracted the attention of the writer, and he responded to them with his articles. Gradually their tone became more and more intolerant, and Tolstoy turned into a merciless critic of generally accepted moral norms and social foundations. It seemed to him that in Russia the government was not the same and the Church was not the same. The Church in general turned out to be the object of his vilification. The writer does not accept the church's understanding of Christianity. He is repulsed by religious dogmas and the fact that the Church has become part of the social world. Tolstoy broke with the Russian Orthodox Church. In response to this, in 1901 the Holy Synod excommunicated Tolstoy from the Church, but expressed the hope that he would repent and return to its fold. There was no repentance, and the writer died without a church ceremony.
From his youth, Tolstoy was strongly influenced by the views of Rousseau and, as he wrote later, at the age of 16 he destroyed traditional views in himself and began to wear a medallion with a portrait of Rousseau around his neck instead of a cross. The writer passionately embraced Rousseau's idea of natural life, which determined much in Tolstoy's subsequent searches and re-evaluations. Like many other Russian thinkers, Tolstoy subjected all phenomena of the world and culture to harsh criticism from the position of subjective morality.
In the 1870s. the writer experienced a long spiritual crisis. His consciousness is fascinated by the mystery of death, before the inevitability of which everything around him takes on the character of insignificance. Wanting to overcome oppressive doubts and fears, Tolstoy tries to break his ties with his usual environment and strives for close communication with ordinary people. It seems to him that with them, beggars, wanderers, monks, peasants, schismatics and prisoners, he will gain true faith, knowledge of what the true meaning of human life and death is.
The Yasnaya Polyana count begins a period of simplification. He rejects all manifestations of modern civilization. His merciless and uncompromising rejection concerns not only the institutions of the state, the Church, the court, the army, and bourgeois economic relations.
In his boundless and passionate nihilism, the writer reached maximalist limits. He rejects art, poetry, theater, science. According to his ideas, goodness has nothing to do with beauty; aesthetic pleasure is pleasure of a lower order. Art in general is just fun.
Tolstoy considered it blasphemous to put art and science on the same level as good. Science and philosophy, he wrote, talk about whatever you want, but not about that. how a person himself can be better and how he can live better. Modern science has a lot of knowledge that we do not need. But it cannot say anything about the meaning of life and even considers this question not within its competence.
Tolstoy tried to give his own answers to these burning questions. The world order of people, according to Tolstoy, should be based on love for one's neighbor, on non-resistance to evil through violence, on mercy and material selflessness. Tolstoy considered the most important condition for the reign of the light of Christ on earth to be the abolition of private property in general and private ownership of land in particular. Addressing Nicholas II in 1902, Tolstoy wrote: The abolition of the right to land ownership is, in my opinion, the immediate goal, the achievement of which the Russian government should make its task in our time.
L. N. Tolstoy's sermons did not go unanswered. Among the so-called enlightened public, where critical assessments and a skeptical attitude towards reality dominated, the graphanihilist had many admirers and followers who intended to bring Tolstoy’s social ideas to life. They created small colonies, which were called cultural hermitages, and tried to change the world around them through moral self-improvement and honest work. The Tolstoyans refused to pay taxes, serve in the army, did not consider church consecration of marriage necessary, did not baptize their children, and did not send them to school. The authorities persecuted such communities, some active Tolstoyans were even brought to trial. At the beginning of the 20th century. The Tolstoyan movement in Russia almost disappeared. However, it gradually spread outside of Russia. Tolstoy farms originated in Canada, South Africa, the USA, and Great Britain.
I. S. Turgenev (1818-1883) is credited with creating socio-psychological novels in which the personal fate of the heroes was inextricably linked with the fate of the country. He was an unsurpassed master in revealing the inner world of man in all its complexity. Turgenev's work had a huge influence on the development of Russian and world literature.
I. S. Turgenev came from a rich and ancient noble family. In 1837 he graduated from the philological faculty of St. Petersburg University. He continued his education abroad. Turgenev later recalled: I studied philosophy, ancient languages, history, and studied Hegel with particular zeal. For two years (1842-1844) Turgenev served as an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but showed no interest in a career. He was fascinated by literature. He wrote his first work, the dramatic poem Steno, in 1834.
At the end of the 1830s. The poems of the young Turgenev began to appear in the magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski. These are elegiac reflections on love, permeated with motifs of sadness and longing. Most of these poems received high audience recognition (Ballad, Alone again, alone..., Foggy morning, gray morning...). Later, some of Turgenev's poems were set to music and became popular romances.
In the 1840s. Turgenev's first dramas and poems appeared in print, and he himself became an employee of the socio-literary magazine Sovremennik.
In the mid-1840s. Turgenev became close to a group of writers, figures of the so-called “natural school” - N. A. Nekrasov, I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich and others, who tried to give literature a democratic character. These writers primarily made serfs the heroes of their works.
The first issue of the updated Sovremennik was published in January 1847. The real highlight of the magazine was Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kalinich,” which opened a whole series of works under the general title “Notes of a Hunter.
After their publication in 1847-1852. All-Russian fame came to the writer. The Russian people, Russian peasants are shown in the book with such love and respect as has never been seen in Russian literature.
In subsequent years, the writer created several novels and stories outstanding in their artistic merit - Rudin, The Noble Nest, On the Eve, Fathers and Sons, Smoke. They masterfully depict the way of life of the nobility and show the emergence of new social phenomena and figures, in particular the populists. The name Turgenev became one of the most revered names in Russian literature. His works were distinguished by their acute polemics, they raised the most important questions of human existence, they outlined the writer’s deep view of the essence of current events, the desire to understand the character and aspiration of new people (nihilists) who entered the arena of the country’s socio-political life.
The breadth of thinking, the ability to comprehend life and historical perspective, the belief that human life should be filled with the highest meaning, marked the work of one of the most remarkable Russian writers and playwrights - A. P. Chekhov (1860-1904), this most subtle psychologist and master subtext, which so uniquely combined humor and lyricism in his works.
A.P. Chekhov was born in the city of Taganrog into a merchant family. He studied at the Taganrog gymnasium. He continued his studies at the medical faculty of Moscow University, which he graduated in 1884. He worked as a doctor in the Moscow province. He began his literary career with feuilletons and short stories published in humorous magazines.
Chekhov's major and most famous works began to appear in the late 1880s. These are the stories and stories Steppe, “Lights”, House with a Mezzanine, A Boring Story, Chamber of MB, Men, In the Ravine, About Love, Ionych, Lady with a Dog, Jumping, Duel, books of essays From Siberia and Acute Sakhalin.
Chekhov is the author of wonderful dramatic works. His plays Ivanov, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard are staged on stages all over the world. The writer's stories about the destinies of individual people contain a deep philosophical subtext. Chekhov's ability to sympathize, his love for people, his ability to penetrate into the spiritual nature of man, and his interest in pressing problems of the development of human society have made the writer's creative legacy relevant today. Fine arts. In 1870, an event occurred in Russia that had a powerful impact on the development of fine art: the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions arose, which played an important role in the development of democratic painting and its opposition to salon-academic art. It was a public organization that was not funded by the state. The partnership was organized by young artists, mostly graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, who did not share the aesthetic principles of the Academy’s leadership. They no longer wanted to depict “eternal beauty” or focus on “classical examples” of European art. Reflecting the general social upsurge of the 1860s, artists sought to express the complexity of the modern world, bring art closer to life, convey the aspirations and moods of wide public circles, and show living people, their concerns and aspirations. Almost all outstanding Russian artists were creatively associated with the Association of Itinerants.
Over the next decades, the Partnership of the Peredvizhniki (usually they were simply called the Peredvizhniki) organized many exhibitions, which were not only shown in some place, but also transported (moved) to different cities. The first exhibition of this kind took place in 1872.
The central figure of Russian art of the 1860s. teacher and writer V. G. Perov (1833-1882) became one of the organizers of the Association of Itinerants. He studied painting at the Arzamas Drawing School, then at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. After completing the course in 1869, he received a scholarship and improved his skills in Paris. Already in the 1860s. Perov declared himself to be a great realist artist; his paintings were distinguished by their acute social content. These are the Sermon in the Village Rural Procession of the Cross on
Tea drinking in Mytishchi, near Moscow Seeing off the deceased, “Troika. Apprentice artisans carrying water, “The last tavern at the outpost, etc. The artist’s painting subtly conveyed his compassion for people oppressed by need and experiencing grief.
Perov is a master of lyrical paintings (Birders and Hunters at Rest) and fairy-tale images (Snow Maiden). The golden fund of Russian art includes portraits of the playwright A. N. Ostrovsky, the writer F. M. Dostoevsky, executed by the artist commissioned by P. M. Tretyakov for the portrait gallery he conceived, representing “people dear to the nation.” Perov also addressed historical themes; his most famous such painting is the Court of Pugacheva.
I. N. Kramskoy (1837-1887) was born into a poor family. From 1857 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1863, he became a troublemaker at the Academy, leading a group of 14 graduate students who refused to participate in a competition that required the submission of paintings only on mythological themes. The protesters left the Academy and created the Mutual Aid Artel, which later became the basis of the Association of Itinerants.
Kramskoy was a remarkable master of portraiture and captured on his canvases many famous people of Russia, those who are usually called the rulers of the thoughts of their era.
These are portraits of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, N. A. Nekrasov. P. M. Tretyakov, S. P. Botkin, I. I. Shishkin and others. Kramskoy also painted portraits of simple peasants.
In 1872, at the First Traveling Exhibition, Kramskoy’s painting Christ in the Desert appeared, which became the program not only for the artist himself, but also for all the Wanderers. The canvas depicts Jesus Christ in deep thought. The enlightened, calm gaze of Christ attracts the viewer’s attention.
A close interest in the gospel theme runs through the entire work of another of the founders of Russian Peredvizhniki - N. N. Ge (1831-1894). In the painting The Last Supper, a striking play of light and shadow achieves a contrast between the group of apostles and the figure of Judas, located in thick shadow. The gospel plot allowed the artist to depict the conflict of different worldviews. This painting was followed by What is Truth?. Christ and Pilate, Judgment of the Sanhedrin, Guilty of Death!, Golgotha, Crucifixion, etc.
In the portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, the artist managed to convey the work of thought of the brilliant writer.
At the First Traveling Exhibition Ge exhibited the painting “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof. The viewer feels the tense silence of father and son. Peter is sure of the prince’s guilt. The conflict between the king and the heir to the throne is depicted at the moment of greatest intensity.
Famous battle painter BJB. Vereshchagin (1842-1904) more than once participated in the hostilities of that time. Based on his impressions of the events in the Turkestan region, he created the painting Apotheosis of War. The pyramid of skulls cut with sabers looks like an allegory of war. On the frame of the painting is the text: Dedicated to all great conquerors, past, present and future.
Vereshchagin owns a series of large battle paintings, in which he acted as a true reformer of this genre.
Vereshchagin found himself a participant in the Russian-Turkish campaign of 1877-1878. His famous “Balkan Series” was created based on sketches and sketches performed on the ground. In one of the paintings in this series (“Shipka - Sheinovo. Skobelev near Shipka”) the scene of Skobelev’s solemn greeting of the victorious Russian regiments is relegated to the background. In the foreground of the canvas, the viewer sees a snow-covered field strewn with dead people. This mournful image was intended to remind people of the bloody price of victory.
One of the most popular Russian landscape painters can be called I. I. Shishkin (1832-1898). A painter and a remarkable connoisseur of nature, he established the forest landscape in Russian art - luxurious mighty oak groves and pine forests, forest expanses, deep wilds. The artist’s canvases are characterized by monumentality and majesty. Expanse, space, land, rye. God's grace, Russian wealth - this is how the artist described his canvas Rye, in which the scale of Shishkin’s spatial solutions was especially clearly demonstrated. The ceremonial portraits of Russian nature were Pines illuminated by the sun, Forest distances, Morning in a pine forest, Oaks, etc. The famous art historian V.V. Stasov called Ya. E. Repina (1844-1930) the Samson of Russian painting.
This is one of the most versatile artists, who succeeded with equal brilliance in portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and large canvases on historical themes.
I. B. Repin was born into a poor family of a military settler in the city of Chuguev, Kharkov province, and learned his first drawing skills from local Ukrainian icon painters. In 1863, he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts, where Repin’s first mentor, V.I. Surik, turned out to be I.N. Kramskoy. Repin graduated from the Academy in 1871 and, as a capable graduate, received a scholarship for a creative trip to France and Italy.
Already in the 1870s. Repin's name becomes one of the largest, most popular Russian painters. Each of his new paintings arouses keen public interest and heated debate. Some of the artist’s most famous paintings include Barge Haulers on the Volga, Procession of the Cross in the Kursk Province, Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581, Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan, Portrait of M. P. Mussorgsky, “Great Meeting of the State Council”, Portrait of K . P. Pobedonostsev, They Didn’t Wait, etc. Repin captured the panorama of the life of the country in his canvases, showed the bright national characters, the mighty forces of Russia.
V. I. Surikov (1848-1916) proved himself to be a born historical painter. A Siberian by birth, Surikov studied in St. Petersburg at the Academy of Arts, and after graduating from the Academy he settled in Moscow. His first large canvas was the Morning Streletsky Execution. This was followed by Menshikov in Vera Zov, Boyarynya Morozova, Ermak's Conquest of Siberia, Suvorov's Crossing of the Alps in 1799, etc. The artist drew the subjects and images of these paintings from the depths of Russian history.
The nineteenth century in Russian literature is the most significant for Russia. In this century, A.S. began to show his creativity. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Ostrovsky. All of their works are unlike anything else and carry great meaning. Even to this day, their works are shown in schools.
All works are usually divided into two periods: the first half of the nineteenth century and the second. This is noticeable in the problems of the work and the visual means used.
What are the features of Russian literature in the nineteenth century?
The first is that A.N Ostrovsky is generally considered a reformer who brought many innovations to dramatic works. He was the first to touch upon the most exciting topics of that time. I was not afraid to write about the problems of the lower class. Also, A.N. Ostrovsky was the first to show the moral state of the soul of the heroes.
Secondly, both I.S. Turgenev is famous for his novel Fathers and Sons. He touched on the eternal themes of love, compassion, friendship and the theme of the relationship between the old generation and the new.
And, of course, this is F.M. Dostoevsky. His themes in his works are extensive. Faith in God, the problem of little people in the world, the humanity of people - he touches on all this in his works.
Thanks to the writers of the nineteenth century, today's youth can learn kindness and the most sincere feelings through the works of great people. The world was lucky that these talented people were born and lived in the nineteenth century, who gave all of humanity new food for thought, discovered new problematic topics, taught compassion for one’s neighbor and pointed out the mistakes of people: their callousness, deceit, envy, renunciation of God, humiliation of another person and their selfish motives.
Several interesting essays
- Analysis of Platonov's work Love for the Motherland or The Journey of a Sparrow
The genre of the work belongs to a parable, an allegorical story that has the author’s moral teaching, the main theme of which is reflections on the true moral principles of humans
- The image and characteristics of Pavlushi from the story Bezhin Meadow by Turgenev
Pavlusha stood out from the rest of the boys, both in appearance and character. The guys had blond hair, but his hair was black and disheveled. Strong and squat, with a large head, he attracted attention.
- The image and characteristics of the Devils in Gogol's story The Night Before Christmas essay
One of the characters in Gogol's work The Night Before Christmas is Osip Nikiforovich, a rural clergyman. The author describes the appearance of Osip Nikiforovich as rather unsightly and not particularly outstanding
- Analysis of the story Living Hat by Nosov
The work of the Soviet children's writer N. N. Nosov is imbued with sincere love for children. The story “The Living Hat” was written in 1938, when the writer’s career was just beginning.
- Analysis of the story Hamlet of Turgenev's Shchigrovsky district
The work, in terms of its genre orientation, refers to a story with autobiographical features, which is part of the writer’s prose collection “Notes of a Hunter,” which considers as the main theme
The heyday of Russian classics in the 19th century. many foreign researchers call it a “golden age”, a kind of Renaissance, the last and “greatest of all even in comparison with the Italian, German and French Renaissance” (J. McKail). Another English critic M. Murray also noted: “The powerful inspiration that emanated so strangely and majestically from the old poets of the English Renaissance reappears in modern Russian novels.”
Currently, the fact of the universal significance of Russian literature is not only generally recognized, but is the object of close study by both domestic and foreign researchers. And many critics in various countries, analyzing certain phenomena of modern literary reality, invariably turn to the works of Russian classics as unattainable standards in the artistic sphere.
We find a remarkable assessment of the high achievements of Russian classical literature in M. Gorky. “Our literature is our pride, the best that we have created as a nation,” he declared. The same thought about the remarkable flowering of Russian literature and Russian art of the 19th century. Gorky develops in the following words: “The giant Pushkin is our greatest pride and the most complete expression of the spiritual forces of Russia, and next to him is the magical Glinka and the beautiful Bryullov, Gogol merciless to himself and people, the yearning Lermontov, the sad Turgenev, the angry Nekrasov, the great rebel Tolstoy ; Kramskoy, Repin, the inimitable Mussorgsky... Dostoevsky and, finally, the great lyricist Tchaikovsky and the sorcerer of language Ostrovsky, unlike each other, as only we can have in Rus'... All this grandiose was created by Russia in less than a hundred years. Joyfully, to the point of insane pride, I am excited not only by the abundance of talents born in Russia in the 19th century, but also by their amazing diversity, a diversity that historians of our art do not give due attention to.”
The deep ideological nature and progressiveness of Russian literature were determined by its constant connection with the liberation struggle of the people. Advanced Russian literature has always been distinguished by democracy, which grew out of the struggle against the autocratic serfdom regime.
Particularly noteworthy is the enormous leading role of revolutionary-democratic criticism in Russian literature. And Belinsky, and Chernyshevsky, and Dobrolyubov unerringly led Russian literature forward, showed writers their civic duty and social path, demanded that they pose social issues directly and honestly, and called for the protection of the masses.
We should proudly point out how firmly and consistently the revolutionary democrats defended and explained the originality and greatness of the historical path of Russia and its culture.
We see the same quick and deep response to the events of Russian life in the works of Lermontov, Nekrasov, Turgenev, and all the best writers of the 19th century. Particularly indicative in this regard is the work of I. S. Turgenev, a writer who, in his political views, seemed to be far from revolutionary democratic thought. But what a sensitive response to the public mood of Russia in the 40-70s we find in the author of “Notes of a Hunter”, the novels “Rudin”, “On the Eve”, “Fathers and Sons”, “New”!
By depicting Russian life, our writers thus introduced an affirming principle into literature. But the writer’s dream of a more perfect structure of society can be revealed not only directly, but also through the depiction of negative phenomena that deviate from the norm. Hence the critical portrayal of life by Russian writers, the abundance of negative types in Russian literature, the passionate denunciation of the most diverse shortcomings of Russian reality. It was a form of protest against life’s ugliness, a kind of striving forward into the future.
Chekhov, L. Tolstoy, Gorky - these are three remarkable figures of Russian writers standing on the verge of two centuries - XIX and XX. The names of L. Tolstoy and Chekhov mark the end of Russian literature of the 19th century, the name of Gorky - the beginning of a new, socialist proletarian literature. To talk about Gorky's work means to talk about a new stage of Russian literature - about the stage of socialist realism.
The role of Russian classical literature in the global literary process at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. not least determined by the fact that it contributed to the overcoming of the extremes of naturalism by many talented artists.
The presentation contains abstracts for a lecture on the topic “Features of Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century” and examines the following questions:
1. General characteristics and originality of Russian literature of the 1st half of the 19th century.
2. Features of the socio-political situation in Russia.
3. The main problems of the time.
4. The significance of Russian literature of the 1st half of the 19th century in the development of the Russian and world literary process.
During the lecture, you can create a reference table with students.
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"The nineteenth century, the iron, truly cruel century!" General characteristics of Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century
The 19th century is called the “Golden Age” of Russian poetry and the century of Russian literature on a global scale. We should not forget that the literary leap that took place in the 19th century was prepared by the entire course of the literary process of the 17th and 18th centuries. The 19th century is the time of formation of the Russian literary language, which took shape largely thanks to A.S. Pushkin.
But the 19th century began with the heyday of sentimentalism and the emergence of romanticism. These literary trends found expression primarily in poetry. The poetic works of poets E.A. come to the fore. Baratynsky, K.N. Batyushkova, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Feta, D.V. Davydova, N.M. Yazykova. The creativity of F.I. Tyutchev's "Golden Age" of Russian poetry was completed. However, the central figure of this time was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
A.S. Pushkin began his ascent to the literary Olympus with the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” in 1920. And his novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” was called an encyclopedia of Russian life. Romantic poems by A.S. Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman” (1833), “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”, and “The Gypsies” ushered in the era of Russian romanticism. Many poets and writers considered A.S. Pushkin their teacher and continued the traditions of creating literary works laid down by him. One of these poets was M.Yu. Lermontov.
His romantic poem “Mtsyri”, the poetic story “Demon”, and many romantic poems are known. It is interesting that Russian poetry of the 19th century was closely connected with the socio-political life of the country. Poets tried to comprehend the idea of their special purpose. The poet in Russia was considered a conductor of divine truth, a prophet. The poets called on the authorities to listen to their words. Vivid examples of understanding the role of the poet and influence on the political life of the country are the poems of A.S. Pushkin “The Prophet”, ode “Liberty”, “Poet and the Crowd”, poem by M.Yu. Lermontov “On the Death of a Poet” and many others.
Along with poetry, prose began to develop. Prose writers at the beginning of the century were influenced by the English historical novels of W. Scott, the translations of which were extremely popular. The development of Russian prose of the 19th century began with the prose works of A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol. Pushkin, under the influence of English historical novels, creates the story “The Captain's Daughter,” where the action takes place against the backdrop of grandiose historical events: during the Pugachev rebellion. A.S. Pushkin did a colossal amount of work exploring this historical period. This work was largely political in nature and was aimed at those in power.
A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol outlined the main artistic types that would be developed by writers throughout the 19th century. This is the artistic type of “superfluous man”, an example of which is Eugene Onegin in the novel by A.S. Pushkin, and the so-called “little man” type, which is shown by N.V. Gogol in his story “The Overcoat”, as well as A.S. Pushkin in the story “The Station Agent”.
Literature inherited its journalistic and satirical character from the 18th century. In the prose poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" the writer in a sharp satirical manner shows a swindler who buys up dead souls, various types of landowners who are the embodiment of various human vices (the influence of classicism is evident). The comedy “The Inspector General” is based on the same plan. The works of A. S. Pushkin are also full of satirical images. Literature continues to satirically depict Russian reality. The tendency to depict the vices and shortcomings of Russian society is a characteristic feature of all Russian classical literature. It can be traced in the works of almost all writers of the 19th century.
Since the mid-19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has been taking place, which was created against the backdrop of the tense socio-political situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. A crisis of the serfdom system is brewing, and there are strong contradictions between the authorities and the common people. There is an urgent need to create realistic literature that is acutely responsive to the socio-political situation in the country. Literary critic V.G. Belinsky denotes a new realistic direction in literature. His position is developed by N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. A dispute arises between Westerners and Slavophiles about the paths of historical development of Russia.
Writers turn to socio-political problems of Russian reality. The genre of the realistic novel is developing. His works are created by I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, I.A. Goncharov. Socio-political and philosophical issues predominate. Literature is distinguished by a special psychologism. The development of poetry subsides somewhat. It is worth noting the poetic works of Nekrasov, who was the first to introduce social issues into poetry. His poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” is known, as well as many poems that reflect on the difficult and hopeless life of the people.
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Periodization of Russian literature I half XIX century | The most important historical events in Europe and Russia | General characteristics development Russian literature | Basic literary genres |
1795--1815 | The Great French Revolution (1789-1793) Opening of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Patriotic War of 1812. The emergence of Decembrist organizations | The secular nature of literature. Development of European cultural heritage. Increased attention to Russian folklore and folk legends.The decline of classicism and its transformation in Derzhavin’s work. Specifics of Russian sentimentalism and emerging romanticism.The rise of journalism. Literary societies and circles | Travel, novel (educational novel, novel in letters). Elegy, message, idyll |
1916--1925 | The growth of revolutionary and national liberation movements in Europe. The emergence of secret societies in Russia (1821-1822). The death of Napoleon and the death of Byron. Decembrist revolt (1825) | The dominant trend is romanticism. Literature of the Decembrists. Publishing almanacs.The principle of historicism put forward by Karamzin. Romantic aspirations in the works of Pushkin 1812-1824. | “Modernized” by the Decembrists, ode, tragedy, “high comedy,” civil or patriotic poem, elegy, epistle. "Psychological Tale", ballad |
1826 - first half of the 50s. | Defeat of the Decembrist uprising. "New censorship regulations." Victories of Russia in the wars with Persia and Turkey (1826-1829). July Revolution in France (1830). Suppression of the Polish uprising (1831). Persecution of free thought in Russia. The deepening crisis of serfdom, public reaction. Strengthening democratic tendencies. Development of the ideas of revolution and utopian socialism. Reactionary protective measures of the government in connection with revolutions in Europe | Fidelity to the ideas of Decembrism and realism in creativity Pushkin (1826-1837). The heyday of Lermontov's romanticism. The transition to realism and social satire in Gogol.Realism takes on leading importance, although most writers work within the framework of romanticism. The emergence of new romantic genres. Replacement of poetry by prose. The 1830s are the heyday of the story. Belinsky's realistic aesthetics. Publication of the first volume of Dead Souls (1842). The growing influence of advanced journalism on public life. The struggle of progressive and democratic forces in journalism. The ideological struggle between Slavophiles and Westerners. "Natural school"Priority of social issues. Development of the "little man" theme.The confrontation between the literature of the “Gogol school” and the romantic lyric poets | Romantic ballad, poem, historical novel. Secular, historical, romantic, everyday story. Literary critical article. The main genres of the “natural school”: social story, socio-psychological novel, poem. Landscape, love-aesthetic and philosophical lyrics of romantic poets |
The 19th century is called the "Golden Age" Russian poetry and the century of Russian literature on a global scale. We should not forget that the literary leap that took place in the 19th century was prepared by the entire course of the literary process of the 17th and 18th centuries. The 19th century is the time of formation of the Russian literary language, which took shape largely thanks to A.S. Pushkin .
But the 19th century began with the heyday of sentimentalism and the emergence of romanticism. These literary trends found expression primarily in poetry. The poetic works of poets E.A. come to the fore. Baratynsky, K.N. Batyushkova, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Feta, D.V. Davydova, N.M. Yazykova. The creativity of F.I. Tyutchev's "Golden Age" of Russian poetry was completed. However, the central figure of this time was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
A.S. Pushkin began his ascent to the literary Olympus with the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” in 1920. And his novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” was called an encyclopedia of Russian life. Romantic poems by A.S. Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman” (1833), “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”, and “The Gypsies” ushered in the era of Russian romanticism. Many poets and writers considered A.S. Pushkin their teacher and continued the traditions of creating literary works laid down by him. One of these poets was M.Yu. Lermontov. His romantic poem “Mtsyri”, the poetic story “Demon”, and many romantic poems are known.
Interesting that Russian poetry of the 19th century was closely connected with the socio-political life of the country. Poets tried to comprehend the idea of their special purpose. The poet in Russia was considered a conductor of divine truth, a prophet. The poets called on the authorities to listen to their words. Vivid examples of understanding the role of the poet and influence on the political life of the country are the poems of A.S. Pushkin “The Prophet”, ode “Liberty”, “Poet and the Crowd”, poem by M.Yu. Lermontov “On the Death of a Poet” and many others.
Along with poetry, prose began to develop. Prose writers at the beginning of the century were influenced by the English historical novels of W. Scott, the translations of which were extremely popular. The development of Russian prose of the 19th century began with the prose works of A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol. Pushkin, under the influence of English historical novels, creates the story “The Captain's Daughter”, where the action takes place against the backdrop of grandiose historical events: during the Pugachev rebellion. A.S. Pushkin did a colossal amount of work exploring this historical period. This work was largely political in nature and was aimed at those in power.
A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol designated the main artistic types that would be developed by writers throughout the 19th century. This is the artistic type of “superfluous man”, an example of which is Eugene Onegin in the novel by A.S. Pushkin, and the so-called “little man” type, which is shown by N.V. Gogol in his story “The Overcoat”, as well as A.S. Pushkin in the story “The Station Agent”.
Literature inherited its journalistic and satirical character from the 18th century. In the prose poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" the writer in a sharp satirical manner shows a swindler who buys up dead souls, various types of landowners who are the embodiment of various human vices (the influence of classicism is evident).
The comedy “The Inspector General” is based on the same plan. The works of A. S. Pushkin are also full of satirical images. Literature continues to satirically depict Russian reality. The tendency to depict the vices and shortcomings of Russian society is a characteristic feature of all Russian classical literature. It can be traced in the works of almost all writers of the 19th century. At the same time, many writers implement the satirical tendency in a grotesque form. Examples of grotesque satire are the works of N.V. Gogol “The Nose”, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Gentlemen Golovlevs”, “The History of a City”.
Since the mid-19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has been taking place, which was created against the backdrop of the tense socio-political situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. A crisis is brewing in the serf system, and there are strong contradictions between the authorities and the common people. There is an urgent need to create realistic literature that is acutely responsive to the socio-political situation in the country. Literary critic V.G. Belinsky denotes a new realistic direction in literature. His position is developed by N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. A dispute arises between Westerners and Slavophiles about the paths of historical development of Russia.
Writers turn to socio-political problems of Russian reality. The genre of the realistic novel is developing. His works are created by I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, I.A. Goncharov. Socio-political and philosophical issues predominate. Literature is distinguished by a special psychologism.
The development of poetry subsides somewhat. It is worth noting the poetic works of Nekrasov, who was the first to introduce social issues into poetry. His poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” is known, as well as many poems that reflect on the difficult and hopeless life of the people.
The end of the 19th century was marked by the emergence of pre-revolutionary sentiments. The realistic tradition began to fade away. It was replaced by the so-called decadent literature, the distinctive features of which were mysticism, religiosity, as well as a premonition of changes in the socio-political life of the country. Subsequently, decadence developed into symbolism. This opens a new page in the history of Russian literature.
Russian literature of the 20th century: general characteristics
Description of the literary process of the 20th century, presentation of the main literary movements and trends. Realism. Modernism(symbolism, acmeism, futurism). Literary avant-garde.
Late XIX - early XX centuries. steel the time of the bright flourishing of Russian culture, its “silver age” (the “golden age” was called Pushkin’s time). In science, literature, and art, new talents appeared one after another, bold innovations were born, and different directions, groups, and styles competed. At the same time, the culture of the “Silver Age” was characterized by deep contradictions that were characteristic of all Russian life of that time.
Russia's rapid breakthrough in development and the clash of different ways of life and cultures changed the self-awareness of the creative intelligentsia. Many were no longer satisfied with the description and study of visible reality, or the analysis of social problems. I was attracted by deep, eternal questions - about the essence of life and death, good and evil, human nature. Interest in religion revived; The religious theme had a strong influence on the development of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century.
However, the turning point not only enriched literature and art: it constantly reminded writers, artists and poets of impending social explosions, of the fact that the entire familiar way of life, the entire old culture, could perish. Some awaited these changes with joy, others with melancholy and horror, which brought pessimism and anguish into their work.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th 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, it will be the word “crisis”. Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world and led to the paradoxical conclusion: “matter has disappeared.” A new vision of the world, thus, will determine the new face of realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors. The crisis of faith also had devastating consequences for the human spirit (" God died!" exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that the person of the 20th century began to increasingly experience the influence of irreligious ideas. The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology for 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 indicate a deep crisis of consciousness.
In Russian literature of the early 20th century, a crisis of old ideas about art and a feeling of exhaustion of past development will be felt, and a revaluation of values will take shape.
Literature update, its modernization will cause the emergence of new trends and schools. The rethinking of old means of expression and the revival of poetry will mark the advent of the “Silver Age” of Russian literature. This term is associated with the name N. Berdyaeva, who used it in one of his speeches in the salon of D. Merezhkovsky. Later, the art critic and editor of Apollo S. Makovsky consolidated this phrase, calling 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 / Cold over the silver age.”
The chronological framework of the period defined by this metaphor can be designated as follows: 1892 - exit from the era of timelessness, the beginning of social upsurge in the country, 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 former illusions, which began after the death A. Blok and N. Gumilyov mass emigration of Russian cultural figures from Russia, expulsion of a group of writers, philosophers and historians from the country).