The image of Peter I in Russian literature of the 18th-20th centuries. Research work "the image of Peter the Great in Russian literature"

The image of Peter I is striking in its power. It is felt in everything: in height, in physical strength, in the range of feelings, in work and revelry. Peter bears little resemblance to a European sovereign: he tortures and executes with his own hands, beats those close to him (albeit for the sake of it!), drinks excessively, and organizes wild fun. But he managed to make Russia an advanced power and instill European culture in the country.

The writer almost does not give detailed descriptions of the king’s appearance, drawing him as if with strokes. Here is Peter, a young man: “Peter’s eyes grew wider and wider with curiosity. But he remained silent, clenching his small mouth. For some reason it seemed that if he crawled ashore - long-armed, long - Lefort would laugh at him.” But in his mature years after the capture of Narva: “Peter quickly entered the vaulted knight’s hall in the castle. He seemed taller, his back was elongated, his chest was breathing noisily.” And only through the eyes of a foreigner does the writer give a detailed description of him: “This is a man tall, stately, strong build, agile and dexterous. His face is round, with a stern expression, his eyebrows are dark, his hair is short, curly and darkish. He was wearing a twill caftan, a red shirt and a felt hat.”

Tolstoy often emphasizes the tsar’s nervousness: trembling nostrils, bulging eyes, a head twitching in anger, missing letters while writing when he is in a hurry, missing words when, “getting excited, he began to speak unintelligibly, choked on haste, as if he wanted to say a lot more than that, than there were words on the tongue." Peter was always in a hurry, because from his early youth he realized that he was faced with a great task: to make Russia as rich and strong as the European states. The king spends his nights without sleep, thinking: “He was surprised, but so what? What it was like - sleepy, poor, unmovable, this is how Russia lies. What a shame! The rich and powerful have shame. And here it is not clear with what forces to push people aside, to open their eyes.” And then he thinks, like a man from an era distant to us and terrible in its barbarism: “Is it possible to issue some kind of terrible decree? To rehang, to flog." And he flogged, hanged, cut their beards, and forced people into backbreaking hard labor. All this is true - we must remember at what cost Russia entered Europe. But even before Peter, people were flogged and hanged. And although, according to Pushkin, he wrote decrees, like a whip, he acted for the good of the state.

Pyotr Alekseevich also realized that everyone needs to study, and he first. With naivety, he says to the German princess: “I know fourteen crafts, but it’s still bad, I came here for these. Being kings among you is not a pleasant thing. But me, mother, I first need to learn how to do carpentry myself.”

The most striking character trait, which surprised both foreigners and his own, was that Peter did not hesitate to deal with simple, “mean” people. Moreover, for the sake of business, he had no shame in submitting to artisans who simply called him by name. Peter studied not only crafts, but also sciences, arts, especially military affairs. He also knew several foreign languages, personally examining people sent abroad. Pushkin wrote about him: “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter.”

The historical novel "Peter 1" is an inexhaustible source of detailed and very interesting information about Peter's time, about social conflicts, government and cultural reforms, about life, customs and people of that turbulent era. And most importantly...

Either an academician or a hero. Either a sailor or a carpenter. He was a worker with an all-encompassing soul on the eternal throne. A. S. Pushkin Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy came to literature at a difficult, turning point, when centuries-old...

P-loved Russia very much, knew its history well and often turned to the past of his country. In this past, he was interested in the image of Peter I, his character (complex and contradictory) and the ambiguous attitude towards his reforms of both his contemporaries and those who followed...

The bright, colorful figure of Peter the Great and his era have excited and excite the imagination of artists of many generations, from Lomonosov to the present day. One of the significant works on this topic is the novel by Alexei Tolstoy, the content of which is...

St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after. Rimsky-Korsakov

HISTORY ABSTRACT ON THE TOPIC:

THE IMAGE OF PETER IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE.

The work was done by a student

4 courses of DRL

Bokova Elizaveta.

Head: Associate Professor of the Department

social and human sciences

E.A. Ponomareva.

St. Petersburg, 2012

Image of PeterIin Russian literature.

1.Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………3

2. From Lomonosov to A.S. Pushkin………………………………………………………………4

3. Novel “Peter”I» A. Tolstoy……………………………………………………………………………10

4. Works of other writers and historians of Russia about the personality of Peter the Great and his time………………………………………………………………………………………… …….12

5.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….14

6. List of used literature…………………………………………………….15

Introduction.

“And henceforth we must work and prepare everything in advance, before missing the time of irrevocable death is like”

PeterI.

The personality of Peter I constantly attracted the attention of both his contemporaries and posterity.

Peter was glorified and reviled, songs were written about him and he was cursed, he was loved and feared (often at the same time), incense was smoked for him and thunder from heaven was called upon his proudly raised head.

It was impossible to remain indifferent to Peter, it was impossible to treat him “in any way.” And this attitude up to our time is explained not only by the greatness of his figure and the deeds he created, but also by the brightness of his personality, multifaceted, complex, impetuous and integral, his bright mind, the burning of his broad Russian soul. Even appearance Petra, different from everyone else with his well-known, special, seemingly incompatible features, could not help but capture the attention of the people around him.

Of course, great Russian writers and poets could not ignore Peter. Over the entire time that has passed since the reign of Peter, many works have been written in different genres, in which the main figure is this great king from the Romanov family.

The authors interpreted the personality of the tsar differently: some paid more attention to the features of a tyrant who, through reforms, turned Russia to an “alien” European course of development, but most writers admired his greatness and his transformative activities, which literally “awakened” Russia and understood how important this figure was in the development and formation of our country. In many ways, Peter and everything that was connected with him became a red thread, a cross-cutting theme of literature of the 18th-19th centuries.

“The difference in views occurred, firstly, from the enormity of the deed accomplished by Peter, and the duration of the influence of this deed: - the more significant any phenomenon, the more contradictory views and opinions it gives rise to, and the longer they talk about it: secondly, from the fact that Russian life did not stop after Peter, and with each new situation, its thinking Russian person had to turn to the activities of Peter, the results of which remained inherent in further movement, and discuss it, apply it to new conditions, a new situation of life: thirdly “, the difference in views on Peter’s activities depended on the immaturity of our historical science.”

In this essay we will touch upon the most significant works that showed and still show readers the scale of Peter the Great’s personality.

From Lomonosov to Pushkin.

« To you I cry, wisdom is infinite,

Shine your ray to me, where sincerity is heartfelt

And the spirit is full of jealousy and hurries in delight

Peter the Great speaks out loud to the universe

And show how he is above man

He has endured labors unheard of for us since ages...”

(ode “Peter the Great”, Lomonosov)

Lomonosov revered Peter - the great collector of lands, a tireless worker and a learned man, beloved by the people.

The ideal of the time of Lomonosov and Derzhavin (late 18th century) was an enlightened monarchy and, in principle, education and the pursuit of knowledge, and it is logical that the ideal hero of their time was Peter I.

Derzhavin’s most striking examples of “petrism” are the odes “Nobleman” and “Monument of Peter the Great”:

« Leaving the scepter, throne, palace,

I was a wanderer, covered in dust and sweat,

Great Peter, like some kind of god,

He shone with majesty at work:

Honorable and in rags hero!

Catherine in low stakes

And not on the royal throne

She was a great wife"

(ode "Nobleman")

« Although death lifts his scythe The same applies to the rulers of the earth; But the memory remains forever In the hearts of people there are good kings. Your virtue will remain, You are our successor! ‎Nero, Caligula, Commodes, When on the thrones where they sit, Though their late births remember them, But they remember it like pestilence and famine. Your virtue will remain, Oh, Peter! dear to all ages; Keep, keep always, Creator, “You are our successor!”

(Ode "Monument to Peter the Great")

As much as Peter I was a great reformer, a powerful statesman who moved Russia forward on a grand scale, Pushkin was the Peter the Great of Russian literature. The theme of Peter is a “cross-cutting” theme in Russian literature in general, in the work of Pushkin in particular.

Interest in historical topics, including the era of Peter, arose from Pushkin in the 1820s and especially after December 14, 1825. Historical events for Pushkin are not valuable in themselves; he always sought not only to show the great victories and deeds of the reformer, but also to reveal their results and influence on the destinies of individual people. The gigantic figure of Peter undoubtedly delighted the poet, everything that Peter accomplished was dear to Pushkin, -Petersburg, “young city // The beauty and wonder of full countries”, - and at the same time, Pushkin could not come to terms with Peter’s tyranny and despotism, and critically assessed the results and methods of his activities. This duality in the evaluation criteria determined the duality in the image of Peter, which manifested itself in his works. For A.S. Pushkin, Emperor Peter is the only initiator of reforms. The idea of the socio-economic conditionality of the reformation could not arise at that time, therefore the image of Peter was presented by Pushkin as the embodiment of some higher, demiurgic, elemental force, an instrument of Providence.

“The insignificant heirs of the northern giant, amazed at the brilliance of his greatness, imitated him with superstitious precision in everything that did not require new inspiration. ... Peter I was not afraid of people’s freedom, the inevitable consequence of enlightenment, for he trusted his power and despised humanity, perhaps more than Napoleon.” (Notes on Russian history of the 18th century)

Working on Peter's theme, Pushkin used various genres.

In his first works dedicated to Peter: the poem “Stanzas” (1826) and “Poltava” (1828), the poet creates a clearly idealized image of Peter:

“Now an academician, now a hero

Either a sailor or a carpenter

He is an all-encompassing soul

There was an eternal worker on the throne" ("Stanzas")

But the assessment of the era is not so clear:

"the beginning of Peter's glorious deeds

Riots and executions were gloomy"

(“Stanzas”).

In Poltava, which glorifies Peter, it is time for reforms, “When Russia is young... “...Muzhala with the genius of Peter” named "troubled times"

The assessment of the era and the will of the autocrat is figuratively summarized in the words:

“So heavy mlat,

Crushing glass, forges damask steel"

- here the idea of necessary violence, tragic for "glass" but beneficial for "damask steel" which is forged by the king-demiurge.

The tragic deaths of Kochubey and Iskra characterize the cruel morals of Peter and the era.

In "Poltava" Peter - "genius", "his eyes

They shine. His face terrible

The movements are fast. He is beautiful,

He’s like God’s thunderstorm.”

Here Peter is the Demiurge, the embodiment of the providential forces of history, but in his image it is not only inspiration from above that is important - the combination of the beautiful and the terrible leads to the idea of the elemental unbridledness of his character, which brings evil: the reason for Mazepa’s betrayal is the insult inflicted on him by Peter in a fit of insanity. completely justified anger.

A. S. Pushkin’s dual approach to assessing history, the awareness of the irreconcilable contradiction between the historical necessity of state building and the destinies of the people, personal destinies, was the basis for the ideological content of the poem “The Bronze Horseman.”

The founding of St. Petersburg, according to Pushkin, was motivated by state necessity:

“from here we will threaten the Swede

Here, on new waves

All flags will come to visit us"

Open a “window to Europe” for us “destined by nature.”

But the fate of Eugene, the historical ruthlessness of the transformative activities of Peter I becomes “ Bronze Horseman"A terrible reproach to the entire work of the converter.

The image of Peter in The Bronze Horseman is revealed in the unity of irreconcilable opposites: he and "wonderful builder" And “an idol on a bronze horse”, “a proud idol”, That

"by whose will fatal

The city was founded above the sea...

Terrible he is in the surrounding darkness!

What a thought on the brow!

What power is hidden in it!

... At the height, with an iron bridle

Has Russia reared up?

He is the embodiment of elemental forces and state greatness, History and Fate, hostile to man.

The mystical idea of the superhuman nature of Peter is characteristic only of the poetry of A. S. Pushkin. In prose works

the image of a reformer is more down-to-earth.

In Pushkin’s unfinished novel “The Blackamoor of Peter the Great” Peter -

“Hero of Poltava, mighty and formidable transformer of Russia”, but in the description of the morals of the era, the character of Peter and the methods of the Reformation, ironic notes can also be traced.

The tyranny and despotism of Peter are also shown: he orders Rzhevsky to give his daughter for his favorite, he rides with a club in his hands “to the rogue Danilych... to exchange money for his newleprosy."

As Pushkin portrays, Peter loved those Russian morals and customs that did not seem to him a manifestation of patriarchal savagery. Talking with Ibrahim, Peter reveals such good nature and cheerfulness, “that no one writes Pushkin in the affectionate and hospitable host could suspect the hero of Poltava, the powerful and formidable transformer of Russia.”

Peter takes on the role of matchmaker for his godson, loves national dishes, and is not averse to “relaxing, as is the Russian custom.” He sincerely cares about Ibrahim: “Listen..., you are a lonely person, without family or tribe, a stranger to everyone except me. If I die today, what will happen to you tomorrow, my poor Arab? You need to get settled while there is still time; find support in new connections, enter into an alliance with the new boyars.”

Peter's penchant for broad and great fun, good-natured slyness, hospitality - all this complements the image of Peter, who, according to Pushkin, embodies the traits national character. Pushkin gives a deep insight into Peter's democracy. Peter judges people and chooses his assistants not based on class, but on mental abilities and knowledge. Without at all diminishing Peter's outstanding personal qualities, Pushkin helps the reader understand and feel the historical pattern of Peter's transformations and their necessity.

The novel remained unfinished, but despite this, Pushkin’s contemporaries highly appreciated “Arap Peter the Great.” V.G. Belinsky wrote: “If this novel had been finished as well as it began, we would have had an excellent historical Russian novel.”

Pushkin also emphasizes the nobility of Peter in “My Genealogy,” indicating the Tsar’s mercy to the Arab, his great-grandfather.

This poem was a kind of response to Bulgarin’s libel, in which the dignity of Pushkin’s ancestors was touched upon. The indignant poet then wrote in the unfinished article “Refutations to Critics”: “One newspaper said that my great-grandfather..., godson and pupil of Peter the Great, “…” - was bought by the skipper for a bottle of rum. My great-grandfather, if it was bought, it was probably cheap, but it went to a skipper, whose name every Russian pronounces with respect and not in vain.”

Pushkin answered Bulgarin in poetry, “and very coolly,” as he himself put it in the “Post scriptum” to “My Pedigree”: This skipper was that glorious skipper, Who moved our land, Who gave a powerful, sovereign run to the helm of his native ship. But in the first part, Peter’s cruelty is indicated: The spirit of stubbornness has spoiled us all: I am indomitable in my relatives, My ancestor did not get along with Peter and was hanged by him for that. In this poem we see the duality of Peter’s character: “a glorious skipper,” “the spirit of stubbornness spoiled us all,” “he was... hanged by him.”

In the writer’s historical work about Peter’s time - “The History of Peter”, Pushkin did not limit himself to collecting and systematizing the material; the entire text of the “history” is permeated with the author’s digressions and notes - approving, critical, ironic - showing Pushkin’s attitude towards Peter and his activities: “Peter boasted of his cruelty...”, “he himself was a strange monarch,” “On July 1, Peter fell ill (with a hangover?),” “... a very prudent decree, with a small admixture of autocracy...” and others.

Peter's final concept, formulated in the History, is as follows:

“The difference between the state institutions of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees is worthy of surprise. The first are the fruit of an extensive mind, filled with goodwill and wisdom; the latter are cruel, capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. The first were for eternity, or at least for the future; the latter were wrested from an impatient, autocratic landowner. Note: This should be added to the history of Peter, having thought it over.”

I. Feinberg believes that here Pushkin reveals the duality and inconsistency of Peter’s activities; this “difference” is understood by him as a contradiction between the goals and means of the reformation. But this statement can also be interpreted as a generalization of the contradictory character of Peter himself: “an extensive mind, full of goodwill and wisdom” and, at the same time, “an impatient autocratic landowner.”

Pushkin also managed to develop an understanding of Peter’s era in his works: an analysis of his works suggests that Pushkin came close to the idea of the regularity of Peter’s reforms, their conditionality by socio-economic, state-political reasons, which was in many ways ahead of the historical thought of that time. The importance of A. S. Pushkin’s creativity in the development of Peter’s theme cannot be overestimated. He generalized, rethought and embodied in artistic images the entire experience of socio-historical thought of the 18th and early XIX centuries, and his concept of Peter’s personality became the basis for the further development of this topic in literature, an inexhaustible source of images and motifs for all subsequent authors.

The novel "Peter"I» Alexei Tolstoy.

In the novel "Peter I" A. N. Tolstoy depicted time, events, people, their way of life and customs with historical truthfulness. “To understand the secret of the Russian people, its greatness,” the author wrote, “you need to know its past well and deeply: our history, its fundamental nodes, the tragic and creative eras in which the Russian character was born.”

A. N. Tolstoy widely covered the most important events of the Peter I era, showed the role in them of the most diverse segments of the population and the enormous historical significance of the figure of Peter I.

On the pages of the novel, Tsarevich Peter appears in the scene of the Streltsy rebellion, when his mother, Natalya Kirillovna, carries the boy out onto the porch: “Chub-faced and blunt-nosed, he craned his neck. His eyes are round, like those of a mouse...” He saw the bloody massacre, the exorbitant cruelty of the Streltsy , incited by Khovansky and Vasily Golitsyn. These events left an indelible mark on the prince’s soul and caused a nervous shock.

Peter grew up very active, excitable, impressionable; it was impossible to contain him in the hothouse atmosphere of the palace, where his two brothers withered away.

There was a struggle for power, and Peter shocked the boyars with his frivolous behavior, games inappropriate for a tsar, scratches, bruises and pimples on his arms.

Peter was drawn to the German settlement; he is very interested in life on Kukui, where he is surprised by everything: “What is this for? What is this for? And how is it organized?” He will remain like this for the rest of his life, thanks to his lively curiosity he will constantly learn, let everything pass through himself, not be afraid of any work, no difficulties. He must reach everything himself; to carry out reforms, he needs independence of mind, the absence of authorities.

A. N. Tolstoy shows the extraordinary endurance of Peter, who could go for days without sleep or food, forcing everyone in the amusing army to unconditionally accept his rules of the game, which eventually turned into a serious study of military science. The comrades in these games are boys from the common people, smart, loyal and brave - the core of the future guard.

In one of the chambers of the Preobrazhensky Palace, a ship workshop was organized, where, under the leadership of the Germans, they built models of galleys and ships, and studied arithmetic and geometry. Boris Golitsyn advised Peter to build a shipyard on Lake Pereyaslavl and sent him all the necessary literature, and Natalya Kirillovna said: “You gave birth to a good son, he will turn out to be smarter than everyone else, give him time. He has a sleepless eye...”

Peter, who loved the German Anna Mons (later erased from his heart for betrayal), was married to A. Lopukhina, a young, stupid and primitive girl who wanted her husband to sit near her skirt. But Peter was busy with work and worries from morning to evening - amusing ships were being built on Lake Pereyaslavl.

Having learned from Uncle Lev Kirillovich about Sophia's conspiracy, that the royal power was hanging by a thread, Peter remembers the horrors of his childhood, the execution of the Naryshkin supporters, and he has a seizure. He rides into Trinity; Sophia, having learned about this, says: “It’s free for him to run wild.” Counting on the troops, she was mistaken: the archers went to Peter, despite Sophia’s threats. “Like a dream from memory - power was leaving, life was leaving” from Sophia.

The situation in the country forced Peter to be cruel and merciless (often beyond measure); terrible theft, desolation, backwardness caused him terrible anger.

Peter grew very mature after the defeat at Azov; failure hardened him, he became stubborn, angry, businesslike. He sets his sights on a new campaign; For this purpose, it strengthens its combat power: it builds a fleet in Voronezh. And two years later, victory was not long in coming.

Peter's struggle with the boyars was cruel and irreconcilable; he broke the structure of the old boyar duma, now admirals, engineers, generals, foreigners sat in it - all of them were like-minded people of the young tsar.

A. N. Tolstoy describes in detail the profound changes in Peter’s consciousness after his trip abroad. There was a lot there that was extraordinary and marvelous for the Russian eye. Peter remembered sleepy, poor and clumsy Russia, he does not yet know, “with what forces to push people aside, to open their eyes... The devil brought me to be born a king in such a country!” All these thoughts arouse in him furious anger towards his own people and envy towards foreigners. The first impulse is to outweigh, to flog. “But who, who? The enemy is invisible, incomprehensible, the enemy is everywhere, the enemy is within himself...”

In Holland, Peter works at a shipyard as a sailor, is not afraid of any work, and studies shipbuilding. Peter's personality is actively being formed, his active, state mind is revealed, everything in him is subordinated to the main goal: to turn his country on the path leading from vegetation and isolation to progress, to the introduction of the Russian state into the circle of advanced states as a great power. He sets his sights on a war with a strong enemy - Sweden, in order to have access to the Baltic Sea. Realizing that for this he needs to be well equipped and armed, he decides to build factories in the Urals.

The defeat at Narva did not break Peter, but forced him to act: “... we haven’t learned to fight yet... for a cannon to fire here, it must be loaded in Moscow.” He begins careful preparations and three years later, having marched with a new army, with new cannons against the Swedes, he wins, standing firmly on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Speaking as a realist writer, A. N. Tolstoy truthfully describes the foundation of the new capital of Russia - the city of St. Petersburg. Peasants work in terrible conditions: in swamps, half-starved, ragged, sick; the city is built on human bones.

A. N. Tolstoy looks at Peter not only as a major historical figure who controlled thousands of people, but also conveys the tsar’s ability to maintain friendship and respect for Lefort, to listen to his advice. Lefort's death was a huge loss for Peter: "There will be no other friend like him... Joy - together and worries - together."

A. N. Tolstoy widely shows the abundance of people's talents, which Peter noticed and sent them abroad to study, since he understood that without young scientists it was impossible to make changes in the country. Peter valued people not for ranks and titles, but for talent, skills, dexterity and hard work, so in his circle there were many people from the people: this was Aleksashka Menshikov, and the Brovkin family, and Fyodor Sklyaev, and Kuzma Zhemov, and the Vorobyov brothers, and many others.

There were nobles and boyars who understood and supported the tsar: Prince Caesar Romodanovsky, the skilled commander Sheremetyev, diplomat Pyotr Tolstoy, Admiral Golovin, and clerk Venus.

The more grandiose Peter's plans are, the tougher his character becomes; he is unforgiving towards those who hinder his progress and slow down the implementation of his ideas.

The merchants played a very important role in the tsar’s reforms: “God tied us with one rope, Pyotr Alekseevich, - where you go, we go,” says Ivan Brovkin to Peter on behalf of the merchants.

But despite the scale of the transformation of Peter I, not only did they not improve the lot of the people, but, on the contrary, led to increased exploitation and increased extortions from poor peasants. They were driven thousands of miles away to build ships and cities, separating them from their families, to mine iron, and were marked to death as soldiers. All this is also covered in the novel, the writing of which was based on the torture records of the late 17th century, collected by Professor N.Ya. Novombergsky and handed over to the writer by historian V.V. Kolmash. in 1916

A. N. Tolstoy created a monumental image of Peter I, but this is not the ideal figure of a “crown bearer.” He depicted the most complex interweaving of rough and gentle, kind and evil, humane and cruel. It was an image in development. But, of course, Peter I was a man of genius in terms of his potential and the scale of the transformations carried out in Russia - this is obviously what the author of the novel believed.

Writers' viewsXXcentury and historians of Russia

on the personality of Peter the Great.

In the literature of the 20th century, the theme of Peter has not lost its relevance. It is represented by the novel by D. Merezhkovsky (Antichrist: Peter and Alexey), a cycle of stories, two plays and the aforementioned novel by A. N. Tolstoy (Peter the Great), stories by Yu. Tynyanov ( Wax Person) and B. Pilnyak (Nikola on Posady, The Petersburg Tale), a story by A. Platonov (Epifansky locks).

In the second half of the 20th century, novels by Y. German (Young Russia, 1952), A. Sokolov (Menshikov), B. Zabolotskikh (Captain of the Four Seas) were created; stories by Sun. Ivanov (The Night of Tsar Peter), Y. Semenov (The Death of Peter), etc.

19th century fiction writers V. Aladin, O. Kornilovich, N. Kukolnik, K. Masalsky, P. Furman, G. wrote about Peter. Danilevsky, D. Mordovtsev, L. Zhdanov and others.

A significant work about Peter I was D. Granin’s novel “Evenings with Peter the Great,” published in 2000.

The literature about Peter is notable not only for the number of works created, but also for the endless diversity and inconsistency of assessments of Peter, from “the builder of the miraculous” to the “king-Antichrist.” Artistic interpretations of the image of Peter, embodied in literary works, become a reflection, an integral part of the general cultural process of development of the historical self-awareness of society, which takes shape in the form of various scientific, philosophical, religious and artistic interpretations of history, successively replacing each other.

As for the historical assessment of the personality of the tsar, the question of Peter plays a special role in the historical concept of N.M. Karamzin. The main idea of his “History” was the idea of the civilizing role of autocracy in the history of Russia. At first, N. Karamzin proceeded from the idea of community historical path Russia and Europe, therefore, in “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” he wrote about the beneficence and inevitability of Peter’s reforms, and assessed Peter’s reforms as a positive example of creative state activity. French revolution and the crisis of the philosophy of the encyclopedists forced him to change his point of view. In the “Note on ancient and new Russia“The historian tried to warn the supreme power against mistakes that could lead to revolution. Peter's attempt to speed up the course of history made, in Karamzin's opinion, a repetition of the revolution in Russia possible. So Karamzin, without denying the high personal qualities of Peter, the necessity and beneficence of his reforms in general, begins to criticize Peter’s despotism, revolutionary methods of implementing reforms and his excessive passion for imitation, destructive for national self-awareness.

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Lugansk National University named after Taras Shevchenko

Faculty of Foreign Languages

Department of World Literature

The image of Peter the Great in novels

Dmitry Merezhkovsky "Peter and Alexey" and

"Peter 1" by Alexei Tolstoy

Completed by: 4th year student,

Specialties "Russian language and literature"

Fedyuk A.I.

Scientific adviser:

O.A. Vernik

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..3-4

1. The image of Peter I in D. Merezhkovsky’s novel “Peter and Alexey”………...5-10

1.1.Novel by D. Merezhkovsky “Peter and Alexey”………………………….5-8

1.2.The image of Peter I in D. Merezhkovsky’s novel “Peter and Alexey”……….9-10

2.The image of Peter I in the novel by A.N. Tolstoy "Peter I"………………….….….11-17

2.1. “Peter the First” novel by A. Tolstoy………………………………..…..11-12

2.2. The image of Peter I in the novel by A.N. Tolstoy "Peter I"……………..………13-17

Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………18-20

List of references………………………………………………………...21-22

Introduction

Russian literature has always been characterized by the desire to look back at the history of the country, find there answers to the “eternal” questions of social life, and explain modernity through facts and phenomena of the past. For this purpose, writers, as a rule, turned to the depiction of individual most significant eras, most closely connected with modernity by cause-and-effect relationships or close in principle of similarity and resemblance. As a rule, these are turning points in history that determine the fate of Russia.

One of such key eras in the historical self-awareness of society is traditionally considered the era of Peter I. Almost three centuries separate us from this time, and all these years, poets and writers have constantly returned to the personality and activities of the first Russian emperor. In the literature of the 20th century, the theme of Peter has not lost its relevance. It is represented by the novel by D. Merezhkovsky (Antichrist: Peter and Alexei), the novel by A. N. Tolstoy (Peter the Great).

The literature about Peter is notable not only for the number of works created, but also for the endless diversity and contradictory assessments of Peter from the “miraculous builder” to the “king-Antichrist.” Artistic interpretations of the image of Peter, embodied in literary works, become a reflection, an integral part of the general cultural process of development of the historical self-awareness of society, which takes shape in the form of various scientific, philosophical, religious and artistic interpretations of history, successively replacing each other.

In literary studies 3. G. Mints, N. V. Barkovskaya, L. A. Kolobaeva, A. V. Alpatov, V. R. Shcherbina, M. A. Charny, A. I. Pautkin studied the historical and philosophical concepts of D. Merezhkovsky and A. P. Tolstoy and their conditionality by the sociocultural context.

Kondakov I.V. History as a phenomenon of culture // Culturology of the XX century. Encyclopedia. T. 1; /WITH. Y. Levit /, St. Petersburg: University Book, 1998. - 283. !7 - the conceptual basis for understanding the personality of Peter I by D. Merezhkovsky, A. Tolstoy is the idea of the creative, demiurgic and beneficial for Russia nature of the activities of Peter I; - the main attention of the writers in the artistic study of the personality of Peter I, the authors focus on recreating the controversial personality of Peter; - the artistic interpretation of the personality of Peter I is determined by the peculiarities of the worldview and the creative individuality of the writer (D. Merezhkovsky, A. Tolstoy) and does not always coincide with the assessment dominant in the public consciousness of the era, but sometimes ahead of her.

The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography.

The total volume of the coursework is 21 pages. The bibliographic list contains 19 titles.

1.The image of Peter 1 in D. Merezhkovsky’s novel “Peter and Alexey”

1.1.Novel by D. Merezhkovsky “Peter and Alexey”

Antichrist. Peter and AlexeihistoriosofskyD. S. Merezhkovsky, written in 1903-1904, first published in the magazine “New Way”, and published as a separate edition in 1905. Novel “Antichrist. Peter and Alexey", which became the third part of Merezhkovsky's trilogy "Christ and Antichrist", was (together with the first two parts, "The Death of the Gods. Julian the Apostate" and "The Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci"), republished in Berlin in 1922. All three novels had big success in the countries of Western Europe and provided Merezhkovsky with pan-European fame.

background Preparing to begin work on the third part of the trilogy, D. S. Merezhkovsky traveled to study the life of sectarians and Old Believers beyond Volga, to the Kerzhensky forests, to the city of Semenov; in 1902 he visited the lake Svetloyar, where, according to legend, the invisible Kitezh-grad. Here he spent the night of Ivan Kupala in the forest, on the shore of the lake, in conversation with wanderers of different faiths who converged there that night from all over Russia. Zinaida Gippius spoke about this trip in the essay “Bright Lake” (“New Way”. 1904. No. 1-2).

Ideas of the novel Just as the second novel of the trilogy seemed to “pick up the baton” from the end of the first, so “Peter and Alexey” develops the themes and problems outlined in the final chapters of “Leonardo da Vinci”. Now the embodiment of the struggle between two world principles (“Christ” and “Antichrist”) in history has become the era Peter's reforms in Russia. In “Peter and Alexei” several early threads of the trilogy converge: the one broken in “Leonardo da Vinci” is resurrected AphroditePraxiteles, the works of Leonardo are heard in Russian translations, Old Believers priests argue about the purity of faith, just as the Christian monks invited to the council by Julian argued. Russia in the third novel turns out to be a kind of “heir” to the global conflict. As noted by Fr. Alexander Men, in his theological and philosophical novel about Peter I, the author paints the latter as the “incarnate Antichrist”, largely under the influence of the corresponding idea that existed in schismatic environment. The bearer of faith is depicted here Tsarevich Alexei, who, talking with Leibniz, to the question: “Why is everything so bad in Russia?” - answers: “Well, yes, we are naked, drunk, beggars, but Christ is in us.” After completing work on the trilogy, Merezhkovsky explained the evolution of his views as follows: When I began the trilogy “Christ and Antichrist,” it seemed to me that there were two truths: Christianity is the truth about heaven, and paganism is the truth about earth, and in the future union of these two truth - the fullness of religious truth. But, finishing, I already knew that the union of Christ with the Antichrist is a blasphemous lie; I knew that both truths - about heaven and about earth - were already united in Christ Jesus<...>But now I also know that I had to go through this lie to the end in order to see the truth. From bifurcation to union - this is my path - and my companion-reader, if he is equal to me in the main thing - in freedom of quest - will come to the same truth. People and Church The author's worldview position, as researchers noted, in the final part of the trilogy underwent (in comparison with the first two novels) some shift. The world here is still a kingdom of irreconcilable “abyss,” but this conflict is viewed from an ethical, Christian point of view. The people are depicted differently in the novel: if in the first two novels the “rabble” (prone to betrayal) opposed the “people of nature” (Julian’s soldiers), then in “Antichrist” there is no popular “rabble” as such; peasants become an independent dominant force here; urban small people are heterogeneous and ambiguous; depicted - at times sympathetically. The people here carry both bright ideas of sacrifice (Dokukin), as well as the idea of universal destruction (“Let’s set fire<…>lights!...Russia and everything will burn, and behind Russia is the universe!” - Elder Cornelius). The people here (according to Z. Mints) turn out to be the bearer of both “the truth about heaven” and “the truth about earth”; it contains the promise of a future “synthesis”. The church in the novel serves the “antichrist” state. The images of selfish clergymen (Fedoska Yanovsky, Feofan Prokopovich) voluntarily destroying pre-Petrine Orthodoxy are vividly depicted here. The culmination of this line of the novel is the order for priests to report to the Secret Chancellery about state crimes revealed in confession. The victim of this decree, Tsarevich Alexei, accused of treason, dying from torture, shouts to the priest: “Boors, boors, every single one!<…>The Church was sold to the Antichrist!” Reviews from critics Unlike most critics of the early 20th century (in particular, I. Ilyina), who considered Merezhkovsky to be an exclusively “European” writer, and his first trilogy to be a scholastic, tendentious study devoted to the development of a pre-planned ideological outline, later researchers noted that the entire trilogy “Christ and Antichrist”, especially its third novel, was converted into primarily to the Russian reader, although it was enthusiastically received in the West and very restrained in Russia. “The painful experience of a break with the old, the entry into the world of new principles and ideas and, finally, the search for reliable spiritual support in a period of continuously occurring catastrophic changes - all this was to a large extent part of the present internal experience of the Russian person. But the extent to which this situation was destined to repeat itself again in Russian historical existence, obviously, neither the author of the trilogy “Christ and Antichrist” nor its reader could have foreseen at that time,” noted D. Magomedova. NotesThe Merezhkovsky phenomenon. russianway.rchgi.spb.ru.Retrieved January 2, 2010.1 2 D. M. Magomedova Preface to the 1993 edition. Moscow, Fiction. az.lib.ru.Retrieved February 22, 2010.Alexander Men Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius. Lecture.. www.svetlana-and.narod.ru.Retrieved February 15, 2010.Oleg Mikhailov. D. S. Merezhkovsky. Collected works in four volumes. Captive of Culture (About D. S. Merezhkovsky and his novels), introductory article. - True, 1990 - 2010-02-14 1 2 3 Z. G. Mints About D. S. Merezhkovsky’s trilogy “Christ and Antichrist”. Poetics of Russian symbolism. St. Petersburg: “Iskusstvo-SPb”, 223-241. novruslit.ru Cathedral Library (2004).Retrieved March 2, 2010.

/ / / The image of Peter I in Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the Great”

The personality of the Russian Tsar Peter I and the time of his reign attracted the attention of many writers.

One of best works Alexei Tolstoy's novel "" is on this topic. The image of the king is somewhat idealized, but not devoid of truth. the main objective the author - to show the transformation of life by a progressive figure. Such a person must become an active creator of destiny.

Alexei Tolstoy names the novel after the main character. All events are connected with the personality of Peter the Great. The author focuses the reader's attention on the role of this tsar in the formation of a new Russia.

The image of the hero is revealed gradually over time. The first part of the novel shows Peter's childhood. His accession to the throne after Fyodor Alekseevich was rather a happy accident. The choice was between the two younger brothers of the previous king.

People see Peter for the first time in the form of a boy in a colorful caftan. Even one outfit contrasted the heir with the general poverty of the population. Peter comes to power in a time of confusion and poverty.

The hero in the first part is a still unformed personality. One of the first episodes is the heir’s review of the demands of the rebel archers. Peter is still just a scared child here. The monomach hat that has slid to one side looks funny on him.

Throughout the novel we observe the dynamics of the image of Peter the Great. After description early childhood Episodes follow where Peter is already a boy of about twelve. His voice is muffled, and his unblinking eyes are like those of an owl. In these episodes, an important hero appears - who in the future will become the king's favorite.

In the meantime, Aleksashka is teaching teenager Peter dexterity and cunning.

While still a young man with a barely visible mustache above his upper lip, Peter rebuffs his relatives who also lay claim to the throne. He interrupts the church ceremony in order to argue with his older sister. Already now it is beginning to form strong personality, which will not adapt to the usual foundations of society, but will transform life.

In the work, Alexei Tolstoy emphasizes that early years the kings were quite dramatic. This is due to his constant struggle for power. In the novel there is an antagonist of Peter - Golitsyn, who is a favorite. Unlike him, Peter has a strong active character. He wants to show his qualities as quickly as possible. The tsar's first innovation was amusing regiments. In this way, Peter demonstrated his unlimited power. And although at first it seemed just fun, later these shelves became reliable support for the king.

The novel shows Peter's struggle with the old way of life in Russia, the keeper of which was his sister. The progressive ideas of the new king are supported by the archers and boyars.

The personality of Peter the Great is revealed in various ways. He is both a progressive politician and a demonic monarch with unlimited power.

The work was not completed by the writer, but the image of Peter is shown well in it.

The present day - in its complete characteristics - is understandable only when it becomes a link in a complex historical process.

A. N. Tolstoy

The writer almost does not give detailed descriptions of the king’s appearance, drawing him as if with strokes. Here is Peter, a young man: “Peter’s eyes grew wider and wider with curiosity. But he remained silent, clenching his small mouth. For some reason, it seemed that if he crawled ashore - long-armed, long - Lefort would laugh at him.” But in his mature years after the capture of Narva: “Peter quickly entered the vaulted knight’s hall in the castle... He seemed taller, his back was elongated, his chest was breathing noisily.” And only through the eyes of a foreigner does the writer give a detailed description of him: “This is a man of tall stature, stately, strong physique, agile and dexterous. His face is round, with a stern expression, his eyebrows are dark, his hair is short, curly and darkish. He was wearing a twill caftan, a red shirt and a felt hat.”

Tolstoy often emphasizes the tsar’s nervousness: trembling nostrils, bulging eyes, a head twitching in anger, missing letters while writing when he is in a hurry, missing words when, “getting excited, he began to speak unintelligibly, choked on haste, as if he wanted to say a lot more than that, than there were words on the tongue.” Peter was always in a hurry, because from his early youth he realized that he was faced with a great task: to make Russia as rich and strong as the European states. The king spends his nights without sleep, thinking: “He was surprised, but so what? What it was like - sleepy, poor, unmovable, this is how Russia lies. What a shame! The rich, the powerful have shame... But here it’s not clear with what forces to push people aside, to open their eyes.” And then he thinks, like a man from an era distant from us and terrible in its barbarism: “Is it possible to issue some kind of terrible decree? To rehang, to flog.” And he flogged, hanged, cut their beards, and forced people into backbreaking hard labor. All this is true - we must remember at what cost Russia entered Europe. But even before Peter, people were flogged and hanged... And although, according to Pushkin, he wrote decrees, like a whip, he acted for the good of the state.

Pyotr Alekseevich also realized that everyone needs to study, and he first. With naivety, he says to the German princess: “I know fourteen crafts, but I’m still bad, I came here for these... To be kings among you is not a nice thing... But for me, mother, I first need to learn how to carpenter myself.”

The most striking character trait that surprised both foreigners and his own people was that Peter did not hesitate to deal with simple, “mean” people. Moreover, for the sake of business, he had no shame in submitting to artisans who simply called him by name. Peter studied not only crafts, but also sciences, arts, especially military affairs. He also knew several foreign languages, personally examining people sent abroad. Pushkin wrote about him: “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter...”.

Almost his entire reign was spent in wars. The transformations themselves served primarily to achieve victory over Sweden. What is Peter like in battle? Tolstoy shows us that this hero does not strive, like Charles XII, to constantly emphasize his courage. After the defeat at Narva, the tsar leaves, not fearing that he will be accused of cowardice. He's above that. During this period, his most characteristic feature is especially clearly manifested: failures and difficulties not only cannot force him to change his goal, but encourage him to fight even more decisively to achieve it. “Being embarrassed is a good lesson,” he says, having learned about the defeat of the Russian army, for the creation of which he spent almost ten years of his life. “We’re not looking for glory... And they’ll beat us ten more times, then we’ll overcome.”

A. Tolstoy at the end of the novel emphasizes that Peter considered war to be a difficult and difficult matter, an everyday “bloody suffering”, a state need, contrasting him with the Swedish king, who fights for glory. This contrast is also visible in the leadership talents of both monarchs: the talented Charles, carried away by victories, is ultimately defeated by Peter, for whom victory and the fate of his state are inseparable.

It is impossible to fully embrace the image of Peter the Great. Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy failed to do this throughout his life, leaving the novel unfinished. But we know that in the first quarter of the 18th century the emperor experienced the glory of victory at Poltava, at sea, peace with the defeated enemy, and the rise of Russia. There is much about Peter that is incomprehensible to us today. But his love for the country, his ability to learn from others are qualities that we cannot help but appreciate...

(No Ratings Yet)

The action of the novel takes place over a vast geographical space: from the Black Sea to Arkhangelsk, from the Baltic Sea to the Urals; from Russia it is transferred to European capitals and cities. The reader will visit the court...
Art performs the work of memory: it selects the most vivid, exciting, significant from the stream of time and captures it in the crystals of books. A. N. Tolstoy Starting work on the novel “Peter the Great”, Alexey Nikolaevich...
A. N. Tolstoy worked on the topic of the era of Peter I that fascinated him for more than two decades. Long before creating the novel “Peter the Great,” he wrote the stories “Obsession” and “The Day of Peter,” the essay “The First Terrorists,”...
The historical novel “Peter the Great” is an inexhaustible source of detailed and very interesting information about the time of Peter the Great, about social conflicts, state and cultural reforms, about life, customs and people of that turbulent...
Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy Peter the First Novel (Book 1 - 1929-1930, Book 2 - 1933-1934, Book 3 - 1944-1945) By the end of the 17th century. after the death of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich in Russia begins...
Pushkin loved Russia very much, knew its history well and often turned to the past of his country. The poet was attracted by the image of Peter I, his character (complex and contradictory) and the ambiguous attitude towards him...
Only Kutuzov could offer battle of Borodino; Kutuzov alone could have given Moscow over to the enemy, Kutuzov alone could have remained in this wise, active inaction, putting Napoleon to sleep in the conflagration of Moscow and waiting for the fatal moment:...
Initially, Pushkin wanted to write a novel dedicated only to the Pugachev movement, but censorship would hardly have let it through. Therefore, the main storyline The story becomes the service of a young nobleman for the good of the fatherland and love...
This is the funniest and most absent-minded person in the world, but the most golden heart. (Prince Andrei about Pierre Bezukhov) Plan 1. The dynamics of the hero’s soul, the formation of a worldview. 2. Difficulty life's quest Pierre Bezukhov....
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, the new acquirer, the “modernized” Chichikov, is the personification of “reasonable egoism”, which is embedded in the basis of Raskolnikov’s “arithmetic”. Luzhin is a lawyer, wants to open an office providing legal services in St. Petersburg, considering...
The purpose of man is the desire for moral improvement. L. Tolstoy Plan 1. Andrei Bolkonsky is the best representative of the nobility. 2. Dreams of fame. 3. The complexity of Andrei’s life quest. 4. Useful activities of Bolkonsky....
Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich 1883-1945 Peter I Work on the novel “Peter the Great” began in 1929 and continued until the end of the writer’s life in 1945. The novel remained unfinished. A book about Peter...
Traditions Old Russian literature preserved in a slightly modified form until the end of the 17th century. The country changed little during this time: its two main features were Orthodoxy and patriarchy. The first was based on faith...
M. V. LOMONOSOV TO THE STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT Inscription first This image is sculptured wise hero, That, for the sake of his subjects, depriving himself of peace, the latter accepted the rank and served as king, His own laws being an example...
“War and Peace” is an epic novel. The work shows historical events of exceptional importance and the role of the people in them. It would be wrong to try to explain the defeat of the French by some special genius of the Russians...
L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” carries great philosophical meaning, which is revealed different ways. The philosophy of the work is “polyphonic”. The author does not limit himself to digressions. He puts his ideas into the mouths of the main characters...
L.N. Tolstoy said that in “War and Peace” he loved “people's thought.” These words are by no means accidental. They express the central idea not only of the novel, but also of the time of its creation...
Two greatest writer, F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy, for some reason equally disliked the creation of Peter the Great, his brainchild - St. Petersburg. It’s their negative attitude towards the northern capital that they...
Russian literature 2nd half of the 19th century century “To live honestly, you have to rush, get confused, fight, make mistakes... and calmness is spiritual meanness” (L.N. Tolstoy). (Based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)...
Tolstoy in his novel “War and Peace” presents us with many different heroes. He tells us about their lives, about the relationship between them. Almost from the first pages of the novel you can understand...
L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” is one of the most “densely populated novels” known to world literature. Each event in the story attracts to itself, like a magnet, many names, destinies and faces, a huge...
In terms of genre, the novel “War and Peace” is an epic novel, since Tolstoy shows us historical events that cover a large period of time (the action of the novel begins in 1805 and ends in... In the epic novel “War and Peace” Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy talentedly portrayed several female images. The writer tried to understand mysterious world female soul, to determine the moral laws of life of a noblewoman in Russian society. One... The novel “War and Peace” can rightfully be called historical novel, It was based on the great historical event, on the outcome of which the fate of an entire people depended. Tolstoy does not speak...

THE IMAGE OF PETER I (based on the novel by A. N. Tolstoy “Peter the First”)