Transformations of Peter I in the field of culture. Literature of the Petrine era

History

The composition of fiction of that era was extremely diverse. The handwritten collections contained works of various genres: adaptations of folklore - epics, historical songs, spiritual poems and fairy tales. In these alterations and retellings of the early 18th century. works of oral folk art receive new headings: “legend”, “story”, “history” (“history”). For example, “The Tale of the Seven Russian Bogatyrs” from Buslaev’s collection, “The Tale of the Glorious Mighty Bogatyr about Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber” (“The History of Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber”) and many others.

Then, throughout the entire 18th century, and especially in its first half, various ancient Russian stories were rewritten many times, and many of them were subjected to creative revision. For example, a story on military theme: "A story about Mamaev's massacre" and "The History of the Kazan Kingdom", stories about the capture of Azov, the popularity of which in the Peter the Great era is quite understandable. Various didactic stories, such as the story of Akira the Wise, Basarga, Varlaam and Joasaph. And of course, old Russian hagiographic stories are being rewritten, such as, for example, the life of Alexei, the man of God, the life of Peter and Fevronia of Murom.

They are also found repeatedly in handwritten collections of the 18th century. came to Rus' in the 16th-17th centuries. old translated knightly tales about Bruntsvik, Peter the Golden Keys, Vasily Zlatovlas, Bova Korolevich, of which the last two are being processed. Translated legends of ancient Russian literature are being rewritten, such as the legend of the proud Tsar Haggai and Pope Gregory. The latter also receives a new edition.

In connection with the general intensified process of Europeanization of Russia, in the literature of the first third of the 18th century, along with works of folklore and stories of ancient Rus', translated Western European stories are widely represented. Characters borrowed from all countries of Western Europe: Germany, France (“The History of Melandra, Queen of France and the Elector of Saxony Augustus”), Spain (“The History of the Gishpan nobleman Dolthorn”), England (“The History of the English Mylord Gereon”), Italy (“The History of the English Mylord Gereon”), Italy (“The History of the English Mylord Gereon”), The story of Prince Tsylodon of Italy"), etc. All kinds of exotic adventure stories, the action of which takes place either in Africa, or in Asia, or even in America or Lapland, are also translated many times. P. N. Sakulin conventionally divides translated stories of the first half of the 18th century into two main groups: love-adventurous stories (knightly novels in folk adaptation) and sensitive and moralizing ones, but emphasizes that everywhere the main interest of the translated story is the external entertainingness of the plot.

Together with recordings of works of oral folk art, editing of old Russian stories and a wide flow of translated Western European literature in the fiction of the early 18th century. A new original Russian story is also developing. This story creates its own special style, ideology, theme, and its own typical hero. This story is a special stage in the development of Russian literature

The most common hero is an elegant “cavalier”, a young Russian nobleman affected by the influence of European culture, undertaking travels to “Europe”, in a foreign setting, showing the proper gallantry and sophistication, in accordance with the ideal requirements of knightly traditions. The theme of love affairs begins to occupy a special place - it becomes central. “Just as constant formulas of battle were created in military stories, so now stable formulas of love are being deposited Love is an arrow (Cupid's arrow) pierced into the heart, a flame that burns it, a sweet disease that requires a doctor and medicine. The entire language of the stories is replete with barbarisms and neologisms; the Old Slavonic element of bookish speech is apparently dying out under the pressure of new elements of colloquial and business language" 1

The most typical among the original stories of the Peter the Great era are the following: “The story of Alexander the Russian nobleman”, the story of the “Russian sailor Vasily” and “The story of the Russian merchant John”.

The first two of them reflect elements of the life and customs of the Russian nobility of the early 18th century, the third - the merchants.

“The History of the Russian Sailor Vasily” is known from three lists of the 18th century. The hero of this story - Vasily Koriotsky, the son of a poor nobleman - lived in “Russian Europe”. Wanting to get out of the “great poverty” that surrounded him, the young man went to “St. Petersburg”, signed up as a sailor there, and then, together with other young nobles, was sent by the government to Holland “for a better knowledge of the sciences.” There he lived and studied practically with the “Galan guest”. During these years, Vasily persistently studied maritime affairs and generously helped his parents. At the end of the business trip, despite the persuasion of his patron, the young man went home to see his father. The storm wrecked the ship and brought Vasily to the robber island. A series of adventures begins. First, the Russian sailor, out of necessity, became a robber chieftain, then, captivated by the beauty of the captive princess Heraclius, he freed her, fled with her from the robbers, wandered for a long time, defeated the treachery of an unexpected rival admiral, then married Heraclius and after the death of his father-in-law became the “King of Florence” "

The work clearly falls into two parts: the first of them is an everyday story about the life of a young nobleman sent abroad by the government to receive an education; the second is a love-adventure story, built partly on the motives of Russian so-called “robber” songs and fairy tales, partly on examples of translated Western European stories.

The first part of the “history”, due to its real-life content, provides a lot of material for clarifying the question of how typical it was for the first third of the 18th century. the image of the hero of the story: a nobleman - “Russian sailor” Vasily.

Memoirs

Sending noble youth abroad to receive education, especially to study various industries naval knowledge, as they said then, “navigational science” and “military articulation,” was a typical phenomenon of the Peter the Great era.

The nobility, which at first expressed dissatisfaction with Peter's drastic measures to introduce education, little by little began to understand the benefits of education and its necessity for occupying the highest government positions.

At the same time, educational activities were carried out: schools, gymnasiums and a university at the Academy of Sciences were opened, young people were sent abroad to study the sciences and “political morals”

At this time, a special genre of memoirs became very popular, a variety of which were notes about events, autobiographies, and diaries. In terms of content, these are memories of the past, written by participants or eyewitnesses of any events. They are narratives about significant events in the domestic and foreign policy life of the country, and talk about historical figures.

Autobiographies view events through the lens life path author. A diary, unlike notes, consists of fragmentary entries, always recorded synchronously with events. A type of diary is travel notes - one of the most widely represented genre groups of memoir literature of Peter's time. In addition, travel notes, as a rule, were processed after the trip on the basis of travel diaries, therefore, they contain the author’s retrospective view of the events.

Here, first of all, we should name the works of Prince B.I. Kurakin of various genres: autobiography (1709), travel notes (1705-1710), “History of Tsar Peter Alekseevich” (1727) - a historical work with memoir elements ( notes about events). The choice of Kurakin’s works is due to his rich biography.

Boris Ivanovich Kurakin (1676--1727) was a major general, colonel of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, one of the first Russian professional diplomats. In his youth, he was sent as a volunteer to Italy, where he studied mathematics, fortification, and European languages. And also, he took part in major military battles as a military man: the Azov campaigns, the campaign near Narva, the Battle of Poltava.

Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy (1645-1729) was the steward of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, under Peter I he studied maritime affairs in Italy as a volunteer, and later served as a diplomat in Turkey and Western European countries. He was a man with extraordinary statesmanship and diplomatic abilities, combining a brilliant memory and a sharp mind, caution and foresight in solving political problems, high education and culture of communication, called by a contemporary “the smartest head in Russia.” His travel notes 1697-1699. are of undoubted interest.

The work of another diplomat, Andrei Artamonovich Matveev (1666-1728), represents a transitional form between article lists and travel notes, which is reflected in its title - “Archive, or Article list of the Moscow embassy, ​​which was in France from Holland incognito in the past , 1705, September 5th day." But it also reflects the author’s varied observations on the life of Western European countries.

"Walking to the Holy Land"

Also one of the outstanding literary monuments of the Peter the Great era is “Walking to the Holy Land” by Ioann Lukyanov. This is a landmark work of Russian pilgrimage literature, summing up the development of travel notes Ancient Rus' and laying the foundations of the “travel” genre of the New Age. “Walking” is of great interest to historians of language and literature, since it was created at the beginning of the 18th century. a writer developing the traditions of Archpriest Avvakum.

"Walking" is a description of the journey to Constantinople, Egypt and Jerusalem, made in 1701-1703. a Moscow priest who, after returning to his homeland, became one of the leaders of the Old Believers.

Ioann Lukyanov is a bright, gifted personality, in many ways ahead of his era. It is difficult to clearly determine who he is - a militant traditionalist or a bold innovator. His position in the religious-political struggle and literary affairs at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries was too complex and ambiguous. A Moscow priest from Arbat, who secretly professed the “old faith,” a traveler and publicist, an active preacher of the Old Believers in Moscow, on Vetka and in the Bryn forests, Ioann Lukyanov left a noticeable mark on the history of the Russian church and literature.

“Our literature suddenly appeared in the 18th century,” wrote Pushkin, knowing full well that its origins go back to ancient times. With the word “suddenly,” Pushkin emphasized the special, unprecedented nature of the dynamic development of Russia at that time. XVIII century - this is the era of the rapid formation of new Russian literature. Over the course of several decades, Russian literature has caught up with Western literature. Literary phenomena of this period are so compressed in time that already in the era of classicism elements of sentimentalism appeared; new syllabic-tonic versification(see about this below) coexists with archaic verses. Speaking about the literature of the 18th century, we often come across phenomena that, although not of interest from an aesthetic or artistic point of view, are of great importance from the point of view of the historical and literary process. Poems by V.K. Trediakovsky is almost impossible to read, but he is the creator of modern versification. And none other than Pushkin stood up for Trediakovsky when I.I. Lazhechnikov in his historical novel"Ice House" brought out the poet of the 18th century. in the guise of an insignificant jester: “His philological and grammatical research is very remarkable. He had the most extensive concepts about Russian versification... In general, studying Trediakovsky is more useful than studying our other writers.”

Periodization of Russian literature of the 18th century. traditionally relies on leading stylistic trends in artistic culture that time. In general, it can be presented in the form of the following table:

1. Literature of Peter's time

First quarter of the 18th century was marked by major transformations in the economic, political and cultural life of Russia. Peter's reforms marked the beginning of the process of Europeanization of Russia, and this process also captured the field of literary creativity. The literature of modern times decisively emerged from church influence, adopted the European concept of enlightened absolutism, having before its eyes the living example of Peter I. Peter I, in turn, sought to use literature for state needs, to promote new ideas. The particularly educational, openly didactic character of Russian literature of the Peter the Great era will remain throughout the entire 18th century. and acquires a new quality in the Russian classics of the 19th century.

However, Russian literature of the first quarter of the 18th century. in terms of its artistic capabilities, it clearly lagged behind the needs of the time, and the scope of Peter’s reforms. It is not for nothing that the era of Peter the Great is often called the most “non-literary era” in Russian history. Literature 1700-1720s presents a strange picture of a mixture of old and new; it is generally still of a transitional nature. In Peter's time, the old handwritten tradition of Old Russian literature continued to exist and develop - it remained on the periphery of the general literary process in Russia until the end of the 18th century, and some of its phenomena will survive to this day (Old Believer estachological writings and journalism).

The secularization of culture led to liberation artistic creativity; Another thing is that the writer often did not know how to use this freedom. Literature under Peter not only serves practical purposes, it also entertains, exploring new topics that were once forbidden to it. Old Russian literature knew almost no love theme (with rare exceptions, love is interpreted as an obsession of the devil; only marital love was recognized). In the era of Peter the Great, love lyrics (the so-called “kants”) spread, in which folklore images from folk poetry peacefully coexisted with ancient mythological motifs. Secular stories with an exciting adventure story. These stories were distributed in manuscripts, were anonymous and were built according to the type that were popular in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. translated short stories and adventure novels. However, the hero of these stories was a young man typical of Peter the Great's era. Usually ignorant, but educated, energetic and enterprising, he achieved fame, wealth, recognition solely through his personal merits. This is the “History of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky and the princess Heraclius of the Florentine land.” The style of this story is strikingly eclectic - along with the traditional gallant vocabulary of translated knightly novels - barbarisms and clericalisms, going back to the business writing of Peter the Great's time, the language of the Vedomosti and Kurantov newspapers, and even the language of translated textbooks on natural history and exact sciences. These stories most clearly revealed the Achilles heel of Peter's culture as a whole: the lack of a literary language that could adequately convey those new concepts in the field of culture, philosophy, and politics that the era of Peter's reforms brought with it. The writers of Peter the Great's era bequeathed the task of creating a new literary Russian language to a new generation of writers.

The traditions of school drama continued to develop in Peter's literature. The emergence of a school theater within the walls of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy played a big role here. Religious plots in this dramatic genre were replaced by secular ones, telling about political current events, containing panegyrics to Peter I and his associates. In the future, the journalistic and panegyric nature of dramaturgy is further enhanced. The genre of school drama took a central place in the work of Feofan Prokopovich (1681-1736) - a brilliant speaker, publicist, playwright and poet. The tragicomedy “Vladimir” (1705) occupies a central place in his work. Depicting in this play the events associated with the adoption of Christianity in Rus' under Vladimir, Theophanes allegorically glorified the transformations of Peter and satirically ridiculed his opponents. The tragicomedy “Vladimir” bore the features of future classicist drama: the conflict between passion and reason, unity of action and time, clarity and clarity of composition.

Literature was still handwritten. There was syllabic poetry. In pre-Petrine times, the writer did not consider himself a writer: studying literature was the fulfillment of a religious duty.

In the era of Peter the Great, literary pursuits were a private matter, so officials and private individuals became writers (Feofan Prokopovich fulfilled the order of the state). Literature has a new attitude towards love between a man and a woman . Moscow literature did not know the theme of love, love between husband and wife = love between Christ and the church. Love is not destructive between husband and wife, extramarital love is horror () (Savva Grudtsyn (who fell in love with someone else’s wife, etc.) wallows like a pig in his own sewage). A new understanding of love not as a sinful feeling, but as a high, tender experience of spiritual devotion to a loved one. For the first time in Rus', gallant, graceful gentlemen appear, subtly courting a lady. A poetic depiction of high love appears in poetic dramas and artificial lyrics of love. Young nobles and officers strive to express their tender feelings in poetry.

In pre-Petrine Rus', love lyrics were represented only by folk songs. The emancipation of the individual, his liberation from church and home care, the possibility of free expression of love feelings gave rise to the need for intimate lyrics. The spread of literacy made this task easier. Under the influence of European literature, handwritten love verses are created, written in both syllabic and tonic (folklore, German poetry) verses. The authors could be both men and women. The content, as a rule, is minor: complaints about the unbearable suffering that love causes, or circumstances that prevent connection with a loved one. Artistic images were drawn from both oral and book poetry. Cupid, Fortune, Venus were borrowed from antiquity. Arrows that pierce hearts are mentioned, love suffering is compared to an ulcer or wound, love is compared to fire that burns the heart and womb of the lover. (not a word was said at the lecture about love lyrics)

Music, architecture and painting - art, which are non-national in nature, were easy to translate into Western “language”. But it was problematic to do this with other art: you can’t invite a Western writer to teach you how to write in European style and vice versa.

The result is a chaotic mixing old with new . This confusion affects different levels of literature.

Most obviously confusion in language : the main feature of the language is the absence of a system. V.V. Vinogradov spoke about the Peter the Great era as a time of collapse.

There is simply no genre system : Different genres are created all the time.

The same thing with writers: they began to write secular people .

Perhaps the most characteristic, typical manifestation of the Petrine era in literature was stories , created at this time and distributed in lists along with the increasingly popular translated novels. They were, as it were, a continuation of those stories that arose in Rus' in the 17th century, but at the same time they differed sharply from Peter’s literature. New horizons, new opportunities have opened up for the Russian people.

Actually, translations and even adaptations of foreign stories-novels have been popular in Rus' since the 17th century. The 18th century preserves the stock of these stories that are alien in origin and significantly expands them. This is usually adventure novels , which tell about extraordinary and numerous adventures, often fantastic. Based on the assimilation of adventure novels, they created their own Russian stories, which were also adaptations, but free ones, of popular translations. At the same time, they were built, as it were, again on Russian soil, rebuilt internally, and filled with their own Russian content. They are definitely worth it in the center image of a new hero , a young man, a Russian youth, to whom Peter’s reforms opened the whole world. This hero, a Russian nobleman, the ideal of a new man, enterprising, brave, strives to the west, where there is a lot of space for him. Among the adventurous stories of this type, the best should be recognized “The story of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky and the beautiful princess Irakli of the Florensky land.” This story is based on a free reworking of the plot of the “story of the Gishpan nobleman Doltorn”, very popular and known in many different lists, dissimilar to each other.

Such a story as about V. Kor. fostered in her reader will, independence, and self-confidence. In addition, she introduced the Russian people to the ancient tradition of novels from Western Europe. At the same time, it was close to the reader, because he encountered many features in it that were well known to him.

Interesting combination of completely different elements:

A lot of elements from a fairy tale, the influence of ancient Russian literature (piety, paternal love), are full of details from Peter’s time (From the author’s point of view, all European cities are on the seashore and they are all on the way to Holland, on the seashore, etc.), lack of motivation (Vasily violates the ban, but there is no punishment), cumulative composition (episodes are strung together mechanically, one after another, no complex structures).

The problem of the “father’s home” has been solved in a new way (in ancient Russian literature, a break with it is tantamount to the collapse of life, but here a representative of the younger generation is its savior). The increased international prestige of Russia was reflected (the Austrian Caesar receives a simple Russian sailor with honor). A new interpretation of the love theme, love is ennobled. The language of history is full of new words: “to frunt”, “to march”, “term”, etc.

In Peter's time there were other kinds of stories, the main content of which was not the adventures of the heroes, but their feelings, subtle and deep experiences, in particular the experiences of love. They promoted the ideal of the perfect secular gentleman, the ideal of fidelity and serious feelings. This is, for example, the first part "Stories about Alexander, Russian nobleman." There are no rare adventures in this short story, it talks about simple, everyday things, about ordinary people, the interest of the short story lies only in classical and everyday conflicts. Alexander is the son of wealthy parents, whose departure from home was dictated by the desire to receive a decent education. But, once in France, the hero gives himself up to love interests. Of interest is the debate among foreign nobles about female virtue (connected with the change in the position of women in Peter’s time and their appearance in society). You can feel the love-adventurous tragedy.

In addition to the above two stories of Peter the Great’s time, the best of which have come down to us, mention should be made of the everyday and classical short story “The story of the Russian merchant John and the beautiful maiden Eleanor”

The literature of Peter the Great's time is a kind of gap, it is not very expressive. Speaking about it, we can divide it into two parts:

anonymous literature

There is a lot of anonymous literature, because the category of authorship in Peter’s era is just emerging, it is sometimes more or less obvious.

Theater was to a certain extent a form of propaganda of an idea. Allegories, allegories, etc. were used. ( see the first ticket about the theater for more details)

1. Plays: Russian Glory. Delivered in 1724. Summing up the reign of Peter. An unheard of event: the dying emperor decided to crown his wife in Moscow. Catherine 1 became the bearer of absolute monarchical power.

Slava Sad is also close to this play. 1725 The text is of the same type, only it is an allegorical dramatization of the death of Peter. The enumeration of the emperor's glorious deeds, the mourning of him by Russia and other states, is staged in connection with the death of Peter.

2. religious plays.

“The Act of the Prodigal Son”, “The Christmas Act”

3. entertainment plays:

"action about Peter the Golden Keys"

4. The response to Peter’s major military success - the capture of the Narva fortress - was the play “Liberation of Livonia and Ingermanland”, staged at the Theological Academy (political events are framed in the plot of Moses’ withdrawal of the Israelites from Egypt; secular images: Russian Jealousy (Peter I), Theft unrighteous (Sweden), emblematic images: Eagle and Lion). Another play, the reason for which was the Battle of Poltava, “God's Humiliation of the Proud,” used the battle between David and Goliath as a biblical parallel, and again the Eagle and the Lion helped decipher the allegories. The texts of these plays have not reached us.

There were many different theaters with different plays, but the main quality of dramaturgy was missing: there was no dramatic conflict . There was a theater, but the dramaturgy was very specific. Real drama begins with the activities of Sumarokov.

Virsheva tradition (“Epikonion” by F. Prokopovich). A unique genre of solemn, panegyric poetry. ( more details in the next ticket)

Philosophical poetry (Buslaev)

Translated literature (about Bova, about Peter): translations of ancient authors

Baroque is a direction in culture that replaced in Europe during the Renaissance. Old Russian literature knew no directions. They appear at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries.

The specificity of Baroque in Russia is due to the fact that Baroque culture here is not the result of organic cultural development, but arises due to the transplantation of another culture, as one of the most important moments of Europeanization or Western influence.

On Russian soil, Baroque acquired unique national features that distinguish it from Western European Baroque forms. Although Baroque came to Russia from Europe through Poland and Ukraine, here it acquired a different meaning than in the West. Baroque in Russia is more cheerful and decorative than in the West. Festiveness and the desire for decoration sometimes reach the point of diversity here. Ornamentation reaches the limits of the possible; it even penetrates into versification. “The ornament curls over the surface, not so much expressing the essence of the object as decorating it. Literary subjects are multi-subject,” notes D. S. Likhachev. Even the appearance of the poems takes on baroque forms, they are constructed in the form of an ornament or figures in the form of a cross, rhombus, eagle, star, etc. “The poems resemble Stroganov or royal letters in icon painting - the same ornamentation, the same fine writing, preciousness, decoration . The content is largely obscured by the precious frame of the form. In general, the Baroque ornament is dynamic, but without the struggle of the masses characteristic of Western Baroque"6. Literature, just like music, includes the author’s element, and the author’s personal point of view is enhanced. “The growth of the author’s self-awareness was one of the symptoms of awareness in literature of the human personality.”

The defining factor for Western European baroque is the emphasis on the polysemy of the text, the possibility of its different readings.

This attitude is due to the denial of the harmony of the world, the feeling of its illusory nature. The destruction of the boundaries between sleep and reality is proclaimed as a creative principle. The reader is, as it were, involved in the creative process, his perception is intentionally activated. The focus on polysemy determines the multiplicity of registers in which a text can be perceived, and reading it turns into guessing these meanings, which requires a comparison of all possible perceptions. (We remember in Russian literature Simeon of Polotsk with his riddles) Baroque in Russia and the nature of the literary process . Researchers of Russian literature of the 17th century. With with good reason

highlight in the works of this period (for example, those of Simeon of Polotsk, Sylvester Medvedev or Karion Istomin) an exhaustive set of stylistic characteristics that usually characterize the Baroque (they are analyzed in detail by L.I. Sazonova). However, it is precisely the external features of the style that are borrowed, but the emphasis on polysemy, which is the specificity of the Baroque, is not borrowed.

Traditional spiritual literature in Russia implies a single addressee of Christian edification. In baroque literature, the discourse of unity is replaced by a division of the audience into the knowledgeable and the ignorant; texts appear that are addressed to the cultural elite (which is constituted by these texts). Ideological task of baroque techniques . Borrowed without connection with the mentality of the era, elements of poetics and stylistics turn out to be free and receive a new educational function for them. They become carriers of the implanted ideology. Baroque finds itself in the service of the authorities, who have set themselves the task of re-educating society. It is this kind of use that the byrok poetics finds in Feofan Prokopovich, for example, in the use of figura ethymologica in “The Tale of the Tsar’s Power and Honor” of 1718 (the etymological meaning of the word Christ

as the “anointed one” and proof of the divine rights of the monarch).

Literature of the Petrine era. Prose. The problem of Baroque in Russian literature of the 18th century. - page No. 1/2 LITERATURE AND CULTURE PETROVSKAYA

1. 
   AGES
2. 
   Reforms of Peter I, their content and cultural and historical significance.

2.1. Prose.

2.2. The problem of Baroque in Russian literature of the 18th century.

2.3. Dramaturgy.

1. 
   2.4. Poetry.

Feofan Prokopovich – educator and writer.
One of the most difficult and controversial periods in the history of Russian literature, which is conventionally called the “Petrine era”, is a transitional stage from the Middle Ages to the New Age and is characterized by the secularization and democratization of literary affairs, the deepening of the process of its “Europeanization”. The literature of the Peter the Great era had a pronounced didactic character and served to promote the ideas of the early Enlightenment.

At the beginning of the 18th century, during the era of Peter I (1672–1725), Russia returned to the number of European nations, from which it found itself excluded due to tragic historical events: the Tatar-Mongol invasion. The debate between “Westerners” and “Slavophiles” about Peter’s transformations, about the ways of development of the Russian nation, Russian culture after Peter, still does not subside. A.S. Pushkin in the poem “ Bronze Horseman" brilliantly expressed the idea of ​​the contradictory, complex nature of the reform activities of Peter I:

O mighty lord of fate!

Aren't you above the abyss?

At the height, with an iron bridle

Raised Russia on its hind legs?

(“rack” - a medieval instrument of torture on which the body of the accused was stretched; “on hind legs” - 1) stand on your hind legs, 2) rise up, take a vertical position, 3) (trans.) sharply show disagreement, protest, opposition) . The country, drawn by the indomitable energy of the autocrat, rose in agony, in painful anguish, to a new life.

Researchers note duality goals(break with traditional ancient Russian culture↔ creation of a new single national secular state of the European type) and methods(revolutionism ↔ strengthening of absolutism; civilization ↔ slavery; progress ↔ violence) Peter's reforms, which were of great importance for the destinies of Russian culture of the 18th century. An important role in the formation of Peter’s personality as a reformer was played by a long trip to European capitals in 1697–1698, which he undertook as part of the Russian embassy in order to find allies for the anti-Turkish coalition. Peter traveled without official status, incognito, he lived for a long time among the Dutch and English, worked at a shipyard, became acquainted with the way of life and achievements of European peoples. For the first time he saw European civilization in all its impressive strength, feeling its spirit. It was then that Peter’s orientation towards the Western European path of development finally took shape, coupled with a complete denial of the way of life of old Russia, with a fierce rejection of Russian traditions.

Carrying out reforms, Peter I sought to develop some general principles, guided by which the renewed country should live, and in many ways used and adapted to Russian conditions those ideas that lived in Europe at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries.

And these were rationalistic ideas: the outstanding successes of the natural sciences and mathematicians created the illusion that human possibilities are unlimited, that an enlightened person with precise knowledge can rebuild and change the world around him according to his views. The Christian ideas of good in heaven for suffering on earth, which dominated in the Middle Ages, no longer satisfied people. Good on earth, good for everyone seemed quite possible. Philosophers of the New Age (Spinoza, Locke, Gassendi, Hobbes, Leibniz) formalized the concept of the “common good” as the great goal of humanity. The two indispensable conditions for achieving the “common good” were: 1) the state and 2) the presence of absolute power. It was then that the idea of ​​progress through violence, achieving happiness through coercion firmly entered the consciousness of people. Peter saw in violence almost the only way to transform the country and spoke out on this issue more than once. Some of his decrees, according to

The ideal of Peter I was a “regular” - correct, clearly organized and controlled - state. The whole point of the activities of such a state came down, firstly, to the publication of numerous and detailed laws, regulations and instructions that determined all aspects of society and many aspects personal life subjects; and, secondly, to the detailed and detailed supervision of the execution of these laws and statutes by the police and other government agencies. A series of fateful reforms by Peter, carried out by him in the first quarter of the 18th century, were aimed at creating a new statehood.

Military reforms . Due to the outbreak of wars (1695–1696 – with Turkey; 1700–1721 – Northern War with Sweden; 1722–1723 – Persian War), the creation of army new type and naval fleet. The recruitment system introduced by Peter functioned in the Russian army until 1874 (almost 170 years!). Successes in the Northern War ensured Russia's access to the Baltic coast. This opened the way for the free development of trade and economic relations with Western Europe.

Economic reforms . The country is covered in a network manufactories . Freedom was proclaimed trade and private entrepreneurship under state control.

Administrative reforms . During the first quarter
XVIII century The structure of the country's administrative management and the procedure for legal proceedings were transformed. The Boyar Duma (the highest government institution of the 17th century) was replaced by Governing Senate (1711). The order system has given way collegiums . Established new capital – St. Petersburg (1712), which was a window to Europe, embodying Peter’s dream of turning Russia into a maritime power with the shortest routes for economic and cultural relations with Western European countries. All population countries were divided into taxable , i.e. paying taxes to the treasury, and tax-exempt, privileged , tax exempt. The first included peasants and townspeople, the second - nobles and clergy.

Petrovskaya "Table of Ranks" (1722) was a significant step in the practical implementation of educational ideas (and above all, the idea of ​​the non-class value of the individual): the law dividing officials of all departments into 14 classes established the equality of all in the service; preference for merit to “breed”; addiction social status a person from his place in the service hierarchy, which could only be obtained through personal service. The ranks in the “Table of Ranks” were divided into military (land and sea), civil (civil) and court. The established procedure for career advancement provided unborn nobles with the conditions for obtaining high ranks, and those from the “mean classes” with opportunities to penetrate the ranks of the nobility. Everyone who received the first officer rank in military service became hereditary nobles. In the civil service hereditary nobility provided from the 8th rank (collegiate assessor). Peter sought to harmonize the position and the honor given, and to distribute positions depending on personal merit to the state and abilities, and not on the nobility of the family (“nobility is counted by suitability,” says one of his resolutions). However, contrary to Peter’s plans, the country very soon saw a “separation” of rank from man, and deep bureaucratization became a characteristic feature of Russian life. In a bureaucratic state, the right to respect and many real privileges were distributed according to rank.

Church governance reform . The inclusion of Russia in the system of the European cultural and political area required a change in value priorities, which from now on were to determine the norms of spiritual life upper strata Russian society. The theocratic nature of power that existed in Muscovite Rus' under Peter I is becoming a thing of the past. Peter consistently put into practice the idea of ​​complete subordination of the church to the state, the strictest separation of secular and spiritual power. For the first time the dividing line between state and church was officially drawn in "Spiritual Regulations" (1719) by Feofan Prokopovich, where the idea of ​​church reform was explained and its theoretical justification was given. Feofan Prokopovich, who became right hand Peter's reforms, proved the inadmissibility of the existence of any spiritual independent force other than a state, autocratic one. With skillful references to history, he argued the advantages of collegial (synodal) government of the church in contrast to patriarchal power. It was in the “Spiritual Regulations” that the definition of the essence of royal power was contained: “His Majesty is an autocratic monarch who should not give an answer to anyone in the world about his affairs.” In 1721, in Russia, instead of the abolished institution of the patriarchate, the Holy Governing Synod (Ecclesiastical Collegium) - the highest ruling body of the Russian Orthodox Church, which turned out to be one of the most lasting innovations of the Petrine era, for the Holy Synod is still in effect today. Peter appointed himself as the head of the Church (“extreme Judge of the Spiritual Collegium”) (the members of the Synod took the oath to him), and the elderly locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Stefan Yavorsky, (appointed to lead church affairs after the death of the last Patriarch Adrian in 1701) as the president of the Synod. The actual head of the Synod was its vice-president Feofan Prokopovich. Thus, Peter I finally removed the church from interfering with the prerogatives of secular power. The Church found itself completely deprived of the influence it previously had in the cultural and ideological sphere.

In the same year, 1721, during the celebration on the occasion of the conclusion of the Treaty of Nystadt, Peter was presented with a gift from his compatriots who were grateful for the peace after the long Northern War. title of "Father of the Fatherland, Great Emperor of All Russia" . Peter becomes a symbol of a renewed Russia, and a special atmosphere of exaltation, bordering on deification, develops around his personality. With the cult of Peter, with the deification of the monarch, a new (purely Russian) phenomenon entered Russian culture, which Academician A.M. Panchenko called “secular holiness” when religious holiness is “suspended” and kings are spiritually equated with the fathers of the Church. Subsequently, in Russia the Poets – Pushkin, Gogol, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy – are recognized as “secular fathers”, spiritual mentors of the nation by the nation itself. Peter laid the foundations of “secular holiness” with his church reform.

Religious and cultural reforms . The change in religious and cultural consciousness proceeded in parallel with the change in the appearance of the country and at first was of a purely pragmatic nature. The essence of the religious and cultural policy of Peter I was that religion and art in all their forms and manifestations were to serve the state and the good of the nation. By Peter's decree (December 15, 1699) it was established in Russia n the beginning of a new calendar from January 1, 1700 - from the time of the “Nativity of Christ”, and not from the date of the “creation of the world”, as was the case in Ancient Rus': Russian calendar, according to which the year 7208 was going, which began on September 1, was brought into line with the European one. The calendar reform of 1699, which lasted only 4 months within Russian borders, was symbolic in nature - it was a sign of the Europeanization of Muscovite Rus'.

From the end of 1702, the first Russian printed newspaper began to be published in Moscow, and subsequently in St. Petersburg "Vedomosti", with the help of which the government of Peter I explained its policy and promoted the need and importance of reforms and Russia’s military successes. It also systematically covered events in international life. Created on the initiative of Peter (Peter himself edited some issues and was the author of a number of materials), the newspaper existed for twenty-five years, remaining all these years the only periodical publication in Russia. Vedomosti played an important role in the development of journalistic and documentary genres in Russian literature.

In 1708, Russia was introduced civil font . The letters began to look much simpler, their style came closer to the Latin alphabet. The time of Peter the Great was characterized by deep cultural stratification and, accordingly, cultural “bilingualism,” which manifested itself in the parallel existence in Russian literature of the Cyrillic alphabet, preserved for church books, and the civil script, created for secular books. The Tsar-Reformer recommended that secular authors write “as in orders,” i.e. in "simple" language. He himself invented a new font for the Russian civil press, making an attempt to eliminate from the Russian alphabet what he considered unnecessary letters and superscripts (“ot”, “omega”, “psi”, “yus”, “izhitsa”, etc.). Peter sanctioned the emergence of a precise language, almost without Church Slavonicisms and with a small amount of foreign vocabulary, which became the language of business prose in the first decades of the 18th century (translated literature, Russian historical and journalistic works). Printed books began to become part of Russian life.

In order to education and enlightenment There was a massive sending of young people to study abroad, combined with an equally active policy of attracting specialists from Europe to Russia. Secular, mainly technical, educational institutions were created, where they taught mathematics, engineering and military affairs, navigation and shipbuilding, medicine, and mining: Engineering, Navigation, Artillery, Surgical, Mining (in the Urals and Karelia) schools. Scientific and educational literature (more than 600 titles) was published. Since 1714, “tsyfir” schools were opened in all provinces, where not only noble children, but also “children from all ranks of people” (except for serfs) had to undergo training in literacy, arithmetic and basic geometry. IN major cities There were diocesan schools for the children of clergy, and in the provinces there were garrison schools for the children of soldiers. Before Peter, there was only one higher educational institution in Russia - the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, education in it was of a church nature, there were no secular schools at all. In 1715, Peter established the Maritime Academy on the basis of the Navigation School, opened in 1701. In the year of his death (1725), Peter I signed a decree on the organization of the Academy of Sciences - “a meeting of scientists and skilled people” (in January 1724, the tsar approved its charter ; the project provided for the involvement of the largest scientists in Europe). A university and a gymnasium were opened at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. The founding of the Academy of Sciences seemed to crown the titanic efforts of the monarch (now posthumously) to spread education in the country. However, although in general the situation in the field of education has changed radically, according to reliable statistical data available to modern science, “in the era of Peter the Great, when Europeanization reached its apogee, the literacy of the Russian population, on the contrary, decreased: the forces of the nation were diverted to the fleet, the regular army, the construction new capital, etc.” (A.M. Panchenko).

Has undergone significant changes everyday life Russian nobles. Peter ordered the beards to be shaved and forbade the wearing of long-skirted and wide-sleeved traditional ancient Russian dress (believing that such clothing restricted movement and interfered with work). Since 1718, in St. Petersburg, to introduce the Russian nobility to European culture, they began to organize assembly - public entertainment gatherings (the main entertainment during which were dancing, chess and checkers, reasoning and friendly conversations), where the upper classes of society went through school, in the words of A.M. Panchenko, “secularized and Western-oriented everyday behavior.” Thanks to the assemblies, a woman was freed from “terem seclusion” and gained the opportunity to enter into relaxed relationships with the opposite sex.

New standards of communication were regulated by translated textbooks and practical aids. Letterman “Butts, how to write different compliments”(1708) contained samples of letters, gallant and businesslike. In a textbook of good manners “An Honest Mirror of Youth, or Indications for Everyday Conduct, Collected from Various Authors”(1717) new ideals of civilized secular behavior and education and class dignity were presented. Under Peter, “The Honest Mirror of Youth” was published three times, which indicates a huge demand for it. The unknown compiler of this work used several foreign works, from which he translated those parts that he considered useful to the Russian reader: rules of conduct for young people in the family, at a party, in public places and at work. “The Honest Mirror of Youth” instilled in the noble youth modesty, hard work, obedience, courtesy and prudence. Here are some of the recommendations:

"father and mother in great honor contain";

“Do not command anything in the house in your own name, but in the name of your father or mother”;

“You shouldn’t interrupt parents’ speeches and you shouldn’t contradict them”;

to answer the call of the parents: “what do you want, sir father”, or “empress mother”, or: “what do you order me, sir”, and not like this: “what, what, what, as you say, what do you want”;

“don’t praise yourself too much, don’t humiliate yourself, and don’t put anyone to shame”;

“always praise your enemies in absentia, when they do not hear, and in their presence, honor and serve them in their need; also, do not speak any evil about the dead”;

“don’t be idle, laziness will cloud your mind, and your body will become decrepit and fat”;

“young boys should always talk to each other foreign languages, so that they can get used to it, and especially when they happen to say something secret, so that the servants and maids cannot find out and so that they can be recognized from other idiots who don’t know”;

“Don’t chomp over your food like a pig, and don’t scratch your head; Don’t speak without swallowing a piece, because that’s what peasants do. Frequently sneezing, blowing your nose and coughing is not good,” etc. and so on.

If a young man was supposed to have three virtues - “humble, friendly and courteous”, then a girl had to have much more: humility, hard work, mercy, modesty (the ability to blush was especially valued as a sign of moral purity), frugality, fidelity, cleanliness.

Founded in 1719 Kunstkamera– a museum of rarities, which, along with rarities (stuffed animals, bones of extinct animals and birds, antiquities, ancient letters, handwritten and printed books, antique cast cannons, etc.) contained monsters (monsters: babies with three legs and two heads , a sheep with four eyes and two tongues, etc.). Peter acquired the first exhibits for the museum when he traveled abroad in 1697–1698. Above the museum, on the second floor, there was library. By the time of Peter's death, it consisted of about 11 thousand volumes and was one of the richest in Europe. The Kunstkamera and the library were open for free viewing and use. From the very beginning, the tsar gave both institutions an educational character. In order to attract visitors to the Kunstkamera, a special royal decree ordered that each person who came to the museum be offered a free glass of vodka.

Secularization (“secularization” of society, the independence of its spiritual life from the church) contributed to the growing role of the art of speech in secular culture, which took on the cultural and historical function of traditional church literature - the bearer of public morality, the guardian of social harmony. During the Petrine era there was change of writer's type : writing was taken out of the scope of duties of a learned monasticism. A writer who writes out of vow or inner conviction is replaced by a literate person who writes by order or directly “by decree.” This is the most common writer type of Peter's time. Literature was allowed to perform not only practical functions, which Peter considered the most important. She also had to entertain. The writer became a private person, private person became a writer. This transformation was followed by a “reform of fun” (in the words of A.M. Panchenko): the bans on laughter and love were lifted.

The transformations of the Petrine era made Russia a great European power. Well-educated people who are familiar with the latest achievements have appeared in Russia European civilization who developed a new worldview and self-awareness. However, as we know from history, the Russian cultural archetype turned out to be so powerful and stable that as a result of Peter’s reform activities in Russia, a gap occurred between ethnic (spiritual-religious) and national (secular) cultures. The nobility became the dominant state and cultural class. A new Europeanized culture, with such basic qualities as practicality And secular orientation , turned out to be alien to the common people, although the leaders of the Petrine era loved to emphasize the national meaning of the reforms carried out through hard work. Modern Explorer

In the Peter the Great era in Russian culture, and in literature in particular, much of what was embodied and completed over the following centuries began.

Peter I saw the main instrument for transforming Russia in the creation of a secular civilization, in its material prosperity based on a developed economy and advanced technology, and the word had to serve first of all the deed. Widespread, at that time, translations from European and ancient languages, mainly of a scientific or practical nature ( textbooks and practical aids in mathematics, military affairs, law, “polites”, including “Butts, how different compliments are written”, “An honest mirror of youth”), as well as translated adventure-knightly novels. To propagate the idea of ​​state reorganization through direct influence on the people, Peter I, who did not like novels and poetry, turned to church oratory and its famous masters recognized by people. Prominent church leaders and orators of Peter the Great's time were Dimitri Rostovsky, Stefan Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Feofilakt Lopatinsky, Gabriel Buzhinsky. Called by the Tsar-Transformer to the episcopal sees in Russia from Ukraine, they became the creators of the Russian ideological oratorical prose . IN sermons These and other church hierarchs, often edited by Peter himself, theoretically substantiated the idea that monarchs are “Gods and Christs.” Comparisons of Peter with Christ are found in “Greetings to Peter” by D. Rostovsky, in the “Sermon on the Victory over the King of Sweden at Poltava” and the “Sermon of Thanks” (on the occasion of the capture of Vyborg) Art. Yavorsky, in the works of F. Prokopovich (“Panegirikos, or a Praiseworthy Word about the glorious victory over the Swean troops...”, “A Laudatory Sermon about the Battle of Poltava”) and F. Lopatinsky (“A Service of Thanks for the great God-given victory at Poltava”). In the sermons of G. Buzhinsky (the word “In praise of St. Petersburg and its founder, Sovereign Emperor Peter the Great”, “A word of praise delivered on the 52nd birthday of the most illustrious and powerful Peter the Great…”) it is proven that in Divine providence was embodied in Peter. Traditional speeches (" words of praise") church preachers acquired a secular journalistic character. In the genre of tendentious “political preaching,” the unification of spiritual and secular literature was carried out in the glorification of the new statehood and in the creation of the imperial cult.

In journalism, the most active process was the awareness of the person of that time of his changed position in the renewed world. It is journalism that becomes a form of ideological affirmation of new principles of state life; the main achievements in the field of literature were associated with it. Moreover, one of the distinctive features of the development of journalism of this period is its close connection with the practice of church preaching. The official preachers of the Peter the Great era entered the history of literature as bright and talented publicists. Their sermons, delivered in the presence of the tsar or those around him, could not but contain responses to the events taking place in the country, giving them a certain interpretation, naturally in a spirit positive for official politics. Essentially, the highest hierarchs of the Orthodox clergy were included by Peter I in carrying out his reforms, becoming ideological associates of the tsar. The sermons of representatives of the highest clergy, touching on the political events of the time (the military successes of Peter and the reforms he carried out) served a clear example awareness in the minds of contemporaries of those new realities that determined the new face of Russia. The preaching tradition of Peter the Great's time largely predetermined the meaningful pathos of poetry and prose of the era of classicism.

Another type of prose of the Peter the Great era was everyday prose , focused on translated novels - secular anonymous "histories"(story). Examples of this new type of Russian plot narration are “The story of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky and the beautiful princess Irakli of the Florensky land”, “The story of the brave Russian cavalier Alexander and his lovers Tyra and Eleonora”, “The story of a certain nobleman’s son, how, through his high and glorious science, he earned himself great fame and honor and the rank of cavalier, and how, for his good deeds, he was awarded the prince’s title in England.” They reflected new trends in Russian life. Of greatest interest, from this point of view, is “The story of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky...”, which was a reworking of the translated “History of the Gishpan nobleman Doltorn”. The son of a minor nobleman, Vasily Koriotsky, having received his parental blessing, went to serve as a sailor, fashionable at that time, quickly acquired knowledge in Kronstadt and went to Holland “for the sciences of arithmetic and different languages" A sharp mind, resourcefulness and knowledge allow Vasily to achieve success in any environment where fate throws him. He brilliantly fulfills the commercial orders of the Dutch merchant with whom he lodged, and was not at a loss on the island, where he ended up with robbers, who discovered in him “a daring fellow and a sharp mind.” The robbers immediately elected Vasily as their chieftain. In front of the Florentine queen captured by robbers, the hero appears in a new

The hero of this and other “historia” stories is typical of his time: an humble young man (most often an impoverished petty nobleman), trained in the sciences and “polites” (politeness, good manners). His fate is also typical: he achieves happiness, wealth, a high position in society thanks not to his origin, but to personal initiative, “reason,” “sciences,” etc. The form of these works is also typical, where traditions and motifs of Russian folklore, stories of the 17th century, business prose of the Peter the Great era and Western novels are uniquely combined. The language of “histories” is characterized by a disordered combination of bookish (Church Slavonic), colloquial and borrowed vocabulary and phraseology. These are secular works, their plots are fictional and develop along the lines of revealing the characters of the main characters, whose fate is the result of their actions, and not the action of inescapable fate (cf.: “The Tale of Woe-Misfortune”, “The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn”); the center of attention in them becomes the person himself. In the “histories,” the ideal of a new literary hero begins to take shape, including secular elements: vital activity, active work, the desire for scientific knowledge, education, prosperity, entertainment, travel... The plot, which is based on the adventures of a son who left his father’s house, is, in principle, not new But if in the literature of the 17th century. adventures are accompanied by failures and repentance of the prodigal son, returning to abandoned foundations, then in Peter’s time the hero of the story, brought up in new conditions, is everywhere accompanied by recognition. A new literary hero is a successful, proactive person with a new, secular worldview; a “private person” who has a private life, the right to choose a course of action and behavior outside the church, outside the etiquette-“rank” (“rank” of behavior was developed by religious ideology in accordance with a person’s social affiliation, “decency” until the 18th century was considered one of the basic human virtues). Having begun to live not according to Domostroevsky wisdom, trampling on the foundations of patriarchal life, he not only does not fail in life (like Molodets or Savva Grudtsyn), but, on the contrary, succeeds in it, emerges victorious from all life’s difficulties.

Authors of Russian stories of the early 18th century. Already, in a completely different way from what was previously accepted, they evaluate the phenomena of life aesthetically. And in particular, they are developing the love theme in a completely new way. Official literature of the 17th century. viewed love as nothing other than a manifestation of the sinfulness of human flesh, the “fall of prodigaldom” (see, for example, “The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn”). In the “histories,” love was understood in the Renaissance spirit: as a natural passion inherent in a person, pushing him to exploits and serve a lady. The love of the new hero is far from the love of “lust,” which ancient Russian stories called for to be suppressed in every possible way. We are now talking about a high feeling that ennobles the hero, revealing such qualities as courage, resourcefulness, wit, devotion, honesty, etc. The desire for external beauty was severely condemned by religious ideology and was opposed to “inner beauty.” New heroes are characterized by external beauty (they are always “extremely beautiful”), combined with intelligence and education and complemented by musicality.

A significant compositional feature of the stories of the Peter the Great era is the inclusion of songs-“arias” in them, which are performed by the heroes during the action. These “arias” are typical examples of early Russian love lyrics. They combine features of the Renaissance and Baroque styles (allegorism, hypertrophied emotionality, mention of ancient gods or goddesses: Cupid, Mars, Fortune, etc.).

In the stories of Peter the Great's time, some character traits novel, they played a significant role in the further evolution of Russian prose of the 18th century: F. Emin, M. Chulkov,
M. Komarov, V. Levshin inherited and developed their narrative style.

2.2. The problem of Baroque in Russian literature of the 18th century
The problem of the Baroque is one of the most confusing in literary studies (not only in Russian, but also in the world). The scientific literature has established the idea that Baroque in Russia in the 18th century. existed. But different researchers answer key questions differently: how organic is Baroque for Russian culture? What writers and works belong to the Baroque? What is its connection with classicism?

Baroque(Italian - “strange”, “irregular”, “pretentious”; “pearl or shell irregular shape") – style in Western European art of the 16th–17th centuries; in Russia- art of the “transitional period” (mid-17th to first half of the 18th centuries), which took on the cultural and historical function of the Renaissance, but continued medieval cultural traditions.

Representatives of Baroque literature are characterized by an interest in complicated artistic form: The goal of baroque is to evoke amazement. The originality of the work was proclaimed to be its most important advantage, and its necessary features were the difficulty of perception and the possibility of different interpretations.

Artistic direction and style in a broad sense are determined by ideological principles. Baroque originated as the art of the Counter-Reformation (aka Catholicism). It was a reaction to the crisis of the humanistic ideals of the Renaissance, but did not reject the great humanistic ideas Renaissance. On the contrary, interest in a person restless in the grip of insoluble religious and ethical contradictions has intensified. The foundation of the Baroque was philosophical skepticism And moral relativism, utopian And mystical teachings. The Baroque ideology was based on three principles: “ Memento mori» ("Memento Mori"); " Vanitas» (“vanity”) is an abbreviation for the biblical expression “Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas” (“Vanity of vanities and all kinds of vanity”); " Varietas» (“variegation, vicissitude, combination of the incompatible”).

The first two of them are associated with the ideas of man’s precarious, temporary position on earth and, therefore, the worthlessness of earthly life, of all things, for man gains eternal bliss and true life only in the afterlife. The flip side of these gloomy moods was the desire for hedonism, to momentary pleasure (“enjoy while you’re alive, because death is behind you!”). Baroque works cultivate secular eroticism. For some writers, poetry becomes fun, “poetry for the eyes”; poems are written in visible outlines: in the shape of a cross, bowl, rhombus, heart, star, glass, etc. Such “picture” poems contained a certain “secret” that the reader had to unravel in order to understand the author’s “edification”. Great importance was also given to the outline of letters, verses, and the arrangement of poetic lines, which corresponded to the idea of ​​a poem as a picture of the world and of a poetic line as a magical verbal-figurative series. Used and acrostic- a poem in which the initial or final letters of the lines form a word, phrase, or name, often serving as a dedication. Baroque literature makes extensive use emblems– allegorical drawings, secret meaning which are revealed in the sayings and poems that accompany them. So, for example, the image of a lamp with the inscription: “If you pour oil,” symbolized the need for rewards for faithful service, etc. Emblems, multi-valuedly conjugating word and image, go back to ancient origins rhetoric and to medieval artistic thinking.

The third principle is associated with the idea of ​​​​the selectivity of the society to which this art is accessible, which, first of all, affected features of Baroque style, determining such features as: floridity, pretentiousness, deliberate obfuscation of the meaning of the text, speeches, phrases, words; increased use of numerous tropes and figures (mainly metaphors, unexpectedly comparing phenomena that are infinitely distant); "wit", understood as clever verbal delights, accessible only to the "initiated"; abundant use of various paraphrases, antitheses, allusions and allegories (including from ancient mythology, the Bible, medieval literature); interleaving mystical images with naturalistic descriptions. Literature (and especially poetry) of the Baroque appears as literature for the few, for the initiated, the chosen, the enlightened, and not for the “rude rabble.”

Baroque literature was formed national options(“schools”): in Italy first mannerism(“pretentious” style), then Marinism(named after the theorist and poet G. Marino); in Spain - Gongorism(named after the poet Luis de Gongora y Argote); in France - precise poetry and prose; in England - euphuism(named after the hero of John Lilly's novels "Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit" and "Euphues and His England"), who had a huge influence on Shakespeare (among the notes to his plays there are often notes like "Untranslatable pun"); in Poland - Sarmatism; in Germany - " second Silesian school" etc. Those. Baroque develops mainly in Catholic countries, replacing the Renaissance (Reformation) and being its antithesis.

Meanwhile, in Orthodox Russia, which, due to its well-known backwardness and some cultural isolation, did not experience the Renaissance stage, conditions developed for the emergence of Baroque ideology, although fundamentally different. Nikon's reforms and the “Old Believers” (“schismaticism”) in the middle of the 17th century. - to some extent, a typological correspondence with the European Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Typologically, the Reformation won in Rus', but the victory of Nikonianism did not change the foundations of church ideology and hierarchy. Peter I again reformed the management of the church (abolished the patriarchate and introduced collegial government - the Holy Synod), but Peter’s reforms did not shake the most general foundations of the church and doctrine. The situation in Russia was much softer and easier than in Europe. That is why the Baroque did not become particularly widespread in Rus', although it gave rise to a number of outstanding phenomena for its age, for example, the court “high” poetry of Simeon of Polotsk, on the one hand, and the oppositional Old Believer “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”, on the other. There was no Renaissance in Russia, but there were inhibited renaissance phenomena , among which Baroque can be noted. Baroque in Russia, in its historical and literary role, turned out to be close to the Renaissance, this greatest revolution in the artistic development of mankind. It was of an educational nature, and in many ways contributed to the liberation of the individual and the acceleration of the process of secularization, in contrast to the West, where in some cases, in the initial stages of its development, the Baroque marked just the opposite - a return to churchliness. Russian baroque was called upon to serve the new secular culture, to express the pathos of state building and the idea of ​​deification of tsarist power.

It is customary to distinguish two stages of Russian Baroque: Moscow (pathetic journalism, sermons, syllabic verse poetry of the second half of the 17th century, the work of Simeon of Polotsk, “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”) and Petersburg (“histories” of Peter’s time; cants; church sermons of Stefan Yavorsky, Demetrius of Rostov, Feofilakt Lopatinsky and others, (but with Feofan Prokopovich the situation is much more complicated: the founder of the theory of classicism in Russia, and in his work he went from baroque to classicism) ; “school” poetry and drama, for example, “Russian Glory” and “Sad Glory” by Fyodor Zhurovsky; the last major phenomenon of the baroque in “high literature” is the first printed novel in Russia “Ride to the Island of Love” by Trediakovsky, a translation of the finest. French novel Fields Thalmann).

The Russian Baroque style is characterized by such features as allegorism, emblematicity, a mixture of Christian and ancient mythology, verbal delights (manifestation of “grace of mind”), unusual placement of words. In the Russian “moderate” (in the words of D.S. Likhachev) baroque did not dominate, as in Western Europe, the tragic vision of the world came to the fore hedonism, pleasure, decorativeness. During Peter's reforms, Russia made a colossal breakthrough in the economy, the transformed army and the created fleet won brilliant victories on land and at sea. As a result, the psychological climate in the country and the mood of society changed dramatically. Hence the cheerfulness of Russian Baroque, coexisting with a feeling of disharmony. An excellent example of this is one of the best cants of the era « A storm dissolves the sea... » . The content of the cant is gloomy: a storm at sea, the ship is cracking, sails are breaking, sailors are dying, “the helm (rudder) is no longer serving” - and the melody is major, optimistic. One more example - "Table Song" Johann Werner Pause (Pause), in which, according to the principle of “Varietas”, feasting fun and thoughts of death are combined:

Why not have fun?

God knows where we will be tomorrow!

Time will soon run out

Like a river will run by:

And we don’t know ourselves yet,

When we run to the coffin...

The “torn” consciousness of man in the Petrine era corresponded to a fundamental antinomy the art of Russian Baroque, coupled with the possibility (in the conditions of Peter’s reforms) to focus on one of the poles: optimism ↔ pessimism; hedonism ↔ religious asceticism; buffoonery ↔ tragedy; unpredictability ↔ predetermination; targeting a wide audience ↔ art for the elite; transparency of allegories ↔ extreme metaphorism.

Russian Baroque had a “buffer value”: it was a connecting link between ancient Russian literature that was receding into the past and Russian literature of modern times. The literature of classicism did not grow out of nowhere. Its roots are in the baroque culture of the 17th century, which reached its highest, albeit brief, peak in Peter’s time. In the art of the Baroque, renewed Russian literature at first drew means for artistic reflection of the changes taking place in state life and cultural development Russia of the Petrine era. Academician D.S. Likhachev wrote with good reason: “Peter is a typical figure of the Russian Baroque with his Renaissance role in the history of Russia. Peter had many of his character traits from the Baroque: his penchant for teaching, his confidence in his own rightness, his “fight against God” and parody of religion combined with undoubted religiosity, his kindness and cruelty, and many other contradictions of his nature.”

The transition from Baroque to Classicism in Russia at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 17th century

Having ensured the continuity and unity of the literary process in Russia during the transition period, Russian literary baroque opened up opportunities for the rapid development of Russian classicism. This is its historical and literary significance. The features of the Baroque were especially clearly manifested in the drama and poetry of the Peter the Great era.

2.3. Dramaturgy

During the Peter the Great era there arose a need to renew theater, which, according to Peter I, was supposed to introduce people to the new secular Western European culture and promote their correct understanding of government events. In 1702, a “comedy mansion” was opened in Moscow on Red Square - public theater with a guest German troupe of actors led by Johann Kunst(since 1703, after the death of Kunst, the troupe was headed by Otto Fuerst). The main place in the theater's repertoire was occupied by plays on themes of ancient history with a tragic struggle between passion and duty, feeling and reason, personal and social, little understood by the Russian audience. In addition, Moliere’s comedies were staged: “The Compulsory Doctor” (“The Reluctant Doctor”), “The Breed of Hercules, in which Jupiter is the first person” (“Amphitryon”), “Dragya Laughing” (“Funny Primitive Girls”); there were performances on the themes of private family life (for example, the play by the Italian playwright Cicognini “The Honest Traitor, or Friederico von Popley and Aloysius, his wife,” the theme of which is revenge for desecrated marital honor). The Kunst-Fürst Theater was closed in 1707 because it did not live up to the hopes of the government of Peter I: it was assumed that state policy would be explained from the stage, especially the significance of the military victories of the Russian troops, and civic education would be conducted, but the German troupe could only present a motley picture of Western European plays .

Dissatisfaction with the public theater forced Peter I to pay more attention to school theater . School theaters existed at the Moscow Theological Academy (Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy) since 1701 and at the Moscow Surgical School (at the “Gofspital” of Dr.
N. Bidloo) since 1706. The tradition of school performances originated in the Kiev-Mohyla Theological College (later - the Kiev-Mohyla Academy). School drama of the 17th century. was a religious-ecclesiastical work based on biblical and hagiographical subjects, which aimed to promote Christian religious morality. The writers of school dramas (symbolic-allegorical plays of a religious and church nature) were teachers of poetics and rhetoric. In the Peter the Great era there was a transformation of the didactic-moralistic orientation of school plays: they included episodes related to worldly political events; Biblical, mythological, ancient stories and images acquired topical resonance. The strengthening of the journalistic and panegyric character of school drama was determined by its implementation of an important educational function, initially assigned to the Kunst-Fürst public theater.

Often such productions contained in their content instant responses to real political events of those years, embodied, for example, in the plays “The Zeal of Orthodoxy”, “The Liberation of Livonia and Ingermanland”, “God’s Humiliation of the Proud”, etc. In the play "God's humiliators humiliate the proud"(1710) allegorical images and biblical motifs symbolize the defeat of the Swedes near Poltava and the flight of Charles XII. At the end of the performance, a lame Lion (Karl was wounded in the leg), a Hydra, personifying the treason and betrayal of Hetman Mazepa, and an Eagle with a proud inscription remain on stage: “We humble both the lame and the non-lame, the fierce and the not fierce”. The production of all these plays was of a solemn, ceremonial character: a variety of lighting effects, music, choirs, ballet numbers. The panegyric style and pomp of the design of school performances created the impression of the grandeur and unusualness of the spectacles, the meaning of which required special training to understand. Therefore, on Moscow streets and squares in the 1690–1720s, in honor of political and military victories, triumphal arches with ancient mythology in the form of paintings and inscriptions for them.

Intermissions between acts of school dramas of the era of the “emancipation of laughter” were filled with the purpose of entertaining the public sideshows (borrowing from Western European theater) - farces about love affairs, satirical scenes of everyday content about a clever servant, a deceived husband, etc. Their plots revealed similarities to the folklore repertoire (Yuletide nativity scene, puppet show, folk drama, "Lubok" theater). Interludes marked the beginning of Russian comedy.

School theaters staged not only dramas biblical stories, but also secular plays directly related to modernity. School theater at the Moscow "government hospital" Dr. N. Bidloo presented for the first time a panegyric and triumphal play "Russian Glory", played in May 1724 on the occasion of the coronation of Catherine I in the presence of Peter and the St. Petersburg court. Its author was Fedor Zhurovsky, in the recent past a student of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. He also wrote a play in connection with the death of Peter I “Sad glory to the Russian people”(1725). In his “sad tragedy,” Zhurovsky created an impressive image of Peter, the “father of the fatherland.” The play was staged at the Hospital School Theater. Like other panegyric plays, “Sorrowful Glory” is static, there is no dynamics and almost no actual dramatic action. This is an accessible political commentary showing the turmoil of the whole world over the death of the Father of the Fatherland. Allegorical characters (Neptune, Pallas, Mars, Mercury, Glory, Persia, Polonia, Sweden, Eternity, Truth, Courage, Wisdom, Piety) in a conventional declamatory form explain to the audience all the bitterness of loss and glorify Peter - a friend of the church, a warrior, an emperor. The play is thoroughly journalistic and rhetorical; it is not without reason that certain parts of it are written in prose similar to the sermons of that time, for example, “The Oration for the Funeral of Peter I” by Feofan Prokopovich. And in the poetic parts there are many similarities with “Elegy” by V.K. Trediakovsky, including the composition of the characters, which does not exclude the author of the play from knowing her.

In the 17th century, the most common genre was short stories. They remained popular into the first decades of the new 18th century. The stories were anonymous. Handwritten stories about a new hero were typical. This is a young man who is studying abroad and making a successful career. The stories were not independent. Unknown Russian writers imitated translated secular stories. Peter's time had its own ideal of a hero: a man of humble birth, but energetic, enterprising, achieving fame and wealth with his intelligence and knowledge. The then fashionable word “history” or “history” is introduced into the title of the stories. The anonymous authors wanted to emphasize the authenticity of the events depicted in the works, and thereby distinguish the stories of the 18th century from the stories of the 17th.

Two stories were especially popular: “The History of the Russian Sailor Vasily Koriotsky”, and “The History of Alexander, the Russian Nobleman.” The story of Koriotsky has come down to us in many copies. There are 12 editions of the story. This work develops a conflict familiar from stories of the 17th century. Before us is a clash of old and new ideas about the goals of life, about moral values. If in the stories of the 17th century such clashes became acute (The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn), then here there is no clash between Vasily and his father. Moreover, the father does not interfere with his son’s desire to “live by his own mind.” There is no enmity between them. On the contrary, Vasily takes care of his father, sends him money from abroad, and always remembers him. The whole story proves that it is impossible to live in the old way. The old life, its entire way of life, its moral foundations are denied. Vasily, living in his own way, wins and reaches the highest rung of the social ladder. The poor nobleman becomes the “King of Florence.” This is a fundamentally new solution to the conflict - quite in the spirit of the turbulent times of Peter the Great. The hero is proactive and independent, but before leaving home he asks his father for a blessing. The hero of history had not yet completely lost his old perception of the world, since it was believed that only parental blessing would give success to the business.

The action begins in St. Petersburg, where a poor nobleman Vasily Koriotsky asks his father to let him serve in the navy. It is no coincidence that Vasily chose to join the navy - the brainchild of Peter. This choice was dictated by the new political situation, when Russia, having recaptured the shores of the Baltic Sea, became a major maritime power. He manages to master naval science in Kronstadt and goes to Holland “for the sciences of arithmetic and various languages.” A sharp mind, resourcefulness and knowledge allow Vasily to achieve success in any situation where fate throws him. He brilliantly fulfilled the commercial orders of the Dutch merchant with whom he lodged. He manages to achieve success and the merchant decides to make Vasily his heir again before accepting the inheritance. he needs his father's blessing. He goes by sea to St. Petersburg, but the ships are caught in a storm and Vasily is thrown onto the island. The robbers immediately chose Vasily as their chieftain. languishes in captivity - the queen of the Florentine land - Heraclius. Before her, the hero appears in a new capacity - he is a gallant gentleman who has mastered the subtleties of the rules of secular behavior and managed to win her heart. He frees Heraclius, flees with her from the island and, after wanderings, ends up in Caesarea. The Caesar hospitably meets them and admires his intelligence, and brings Vasily closer to him, calls him brother and invites them to live with Irakli and settle in his palace. Soon Vasily and Irakli are separated due to the machinations of the Florentine admiral and meet a year later. In the finale, Vasily marries Iraklia, and after the death of her father, becomes king.

There is no fantasy in the story. The hero is helped not by magical objects, but by his intelligence and ingenuity. Vasily is a hero of Peter's time - smart, decisive, enterprising. He achieved everything in life on his own. Koriotsky carries the proud title of “Russian sailor” across all countries. All the author’s sympathies are on the side of the smart Koriotsky.

In full accordance with the new worldview, Vasily Koriotsky has a completely different attitude towards women than the heroes of the stories of Ancient Rus' / for example, the fellow from “The Tale of the Mountain of Misfortune” or Savva Grudtsin. / In relation to Heraclius, he is depicted as a “courteous” gentleman. The features of his relationship with Heraclius are largely inspired by the tale of chivalry, which was generously translated at the beginning of the 18th century. In stories of the 17th century. love was considered a sinful, devilish feeling, the hero falls in love with married woman. In the stories of the 18th century, on the contrary, love is a noble feeling. The love between Iraklia and Vasily is beautiful. Such love forces the hero to neglect danger and risk his life for the sake of Irakli. In the stories of Peter the Great's era, Russian people are depicted as Europeans. He was given qualities alien ancient Russian stories: independence, resourcefulness, gallantry - what the new way of life and the new reality required.

The story “The Story of Alexander, a Russian Nobleman” was also popular. “History” is a work composed of several separate short stories, united only by the name of the main character - Alexander. The characterization of the hero changes from short story to short story. Here is a gallant psychological story, anecdotes, and an adventurous knightly novel. The first part of the story is especially interesting. It tells how a Russian nobleman, a very handsome and educated young man, went abroad; visited Paris, he settled in the city of Lille in France. Alexander fell in love with the pastor's daughter Eleanor, and she fell in love with him. The mutual feelings of the young people, their modest declarations of love, and the hero’s graceful courtship of his beloved girl are described in detail in the story. They swore eternal fidelity to each other. But then a noble and rich person, the daughter of General Dorothea, saw Alexandra and fell in love with him. She brazenly sought Alexander's love, and she managed to get him to cheat on Eleanor. Having learned about this, Eleanor fell ill from grief. Alexander returned to her, cursing Dorothea, but it was too late. Eleanor died after forgiving Alexander.

There are no adventures in this story, it talks about simple, everyday things, about ordinary people, the interest of the story lies only in psychological and everyday conflicts. The honest love of the modest Eleanor is justified and the passion of a noble person is condemned, who, in contrast to Eleanor, herself achieves the love of the hero. The author of the story depicts the courtship of a Russian nobleman for Eleanor. The focus is on Alexander’s feelings: sighs and love longings are described, from which the hero is ready to die. When Alexander is attacked by “sudden despondency,” he begins to play the flute, and with this playing he attracts Eleanor’s attention. Alexander is a strong, dexterous, brave knight. He defeats the glorious knights of Europe. Alexander admires European cities and especially Paris. His fate is also sad: Alexander drowns while swimming in the sea.

If the story of Vasily Koriotsky inspired courageous deeds, then the story of Alexander taught to love and cultivated good manners.

Compositional feature Russian stories of Peter the Great's time is the inclusion in them of songs-arias that were performed by the heroes. These “arias” are examples of love poetry from the early 18th century. In “The History of Alexander the Russian Nobleman” Eleanor sings arias. She, seeing Alexander, expresses her feelings in an aria. Vasily Koriotsky also plays the harp and sings the aria. The authors of the stories were not the authors of these arias. They used popular arias of their time.

The artistic merits of the stories of Peter's time are small, but their content was significant. The stories depicted a new hero who believed in his own strength and this hero was interesting to the reader.

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