The fields of my meager land are white analysis. "Rus" A. Bely. Last period of life

"Rus" Andrei Bely

The fields of my meager land
Over there, filled with sorrow.
Hills of space away
Hump, plain, hump!

Shaggy, distant smoke.
Shaggy villages in the distance.
A shaggy stream of fogs.
Expanses of hungry provinces.

Expanses outstretched army:
Spaces hide in spaces.
Russia, where should I go?
From hunger, pestilence and drunkenness?

From hunger, cold here
Millions are dying and dying.
The dead were waiting and waiting
Gentle mournful slopes.

There Death trumpeted in the distance
In forests, towns and villages,
In the fields of my meager land,
In the open spaces of hungry provinces.

Analysis of Andrei Bely's poem "Rus"

"Rus" is one of the most gloomy poems of Andrei Bely. It is included in the collection "Ashes", section "Russia". It was written in 1908 at the Silver Well estate. This work consists of five quatrains with a simple cross rhyme. Poetic size - amphibrach.

Andrei Bely himself is the lyrical hero of the poem. When reading, one gets the impression that he is wandering somewhere far from human habitation, contemplating the landscapes of Mother Russia. However, this is not an enthusiastic admiration of the pictures of native nature, but a dreary contemplation of the miserable existence of all living things. Here, for example, with what bitter epithets the poet endows the country where he lives: “scarce land”, “hungry provinces”. Lush generous ears of corn are not golden in the fields, capable of satiating all those in need. Instead, the expanses are sown with grief, or, as the author writes, “full of sorrow,” because the earth will not bring forth enough bread, and there is not enough food for people.

The world around is seen by the poet in gloomy colors. Using anaphora and repetition (“shaggy smoke”, “shaggy villages”, “shaggy stream of fogs”), the author shows how monotonous the landscape is. Andrei Bely found a very suitable epithet. When you come across the word “shaggy” in literature, you always imagine a short, long-shorn little man in dirty, worn out clothes. Objects produce a similar impression: both smoke and fog, and human dwellings seem tormented, battered by life. In this sense, natural phenomena and the creations of human hands demonstrate an amazing kinship in this sad untidiness of theirs.

The poet notices an important property of his homeland - its immensity. With the help of a spectacular metaphor “spaces lurk in spaces”, which is reminiscent of the famous nesting dolls, he shows that there is no end to the Russian land. Alliteration is also used here (the consonants “s”, “t”, “p”, “p” are repeated: “open spaces”, “stretched”, “army”, “spaces”). But this does not sound proud, but rather depressing, since the vastness of the territory does not at all imply that the people living on it prosper.

Indeed, hunger was a constant attribute of life in Russia. This word is used very often in the poem. The author enhances the drama of the lines by adding gradations (“from hunger, pestilence and drunkenness ...”), alliteration (“and millions died, and millions die”), anaphoras (“To the forests ... To the fields ... To the expanses ...”). Andrei Bely ends the work with what he began, once again emphasizing how difficult his homeland lives.

The philosophical lyrics of Blok are written in images inherent in symbolism, which do not mean what it seems. You can not take them literally, because from this the poem will lose its semantic richness. That is why "Rus" must be re-read over the years: the older the reader becomes, the better he understands the essence of the work. Text analysis will also help you understand what you read.

Throughout his career, Blok sought answers to all the pressing questions of his time, so it is not surprising that he often reflected on patriotism. The general theme of the poem is determined by the very name "Rus". This is one of Blok's first direct addresses to the theme of Russia as an independent one. Why Russia? If we choose definitions, then the first one is “ancient”. The block, as if from a cosmic height, surveys the vast expanses of the motherland, the life of the people, traditions that have been developing over the centuries. The themes of nature, historical memory, morality, spiritual growth, sacred love, and an incomprehensible creative process are intertwined with the main theme. All of them are connected with each other and form a single semantic layer of the work.

Image of the Motherland

Russia was famous for its rich history, combining various cultures and traditions that found shelter in this mysterious country. The image of the motherland is mysterious, mysterious, it is difficult to fit it into a certain framework, to give a clear form. The lyrical hero sees her as if half asleep, in a "drowse", trying to unravel the "mystery". Centuries succeeded each other - the face of Russia also changed. The poem unfolds the image of a fabulous land with sorcerers, fortune tellers, sorcerers. With the cries of cranes - a symbol of fidelity, love, memory of those who have gone to another dimension. Russia is "belted" by rivers, dense forests, impassable thickets, impenetrable swamps.

Severe winters, severe frosts, snow whirlwinds are a symbol of the difficult fate of the people, who have experienced many trials created by civil strife, wars, and diseases. The reader's gaze opens up a "poor" country with "fragile" housing, impassability. But in joy and sorrow, a song sounds over the expanse.

The image of the motherland is represented by a dual one: on the one hand, a difficult, dramatic fate, on the other, a cheerful song beginning.

Genre and size of the poem

The poem can be attributed to philosophical lyrics or "lyrics of direct utterance". It is built in the form of the poet's appeal to Russia, therefore it is both a commendable word and a declaration of love.

The size in which the poem is written is iambic tetrameter. Each stanza has four lines (quatrain) with cross-rhyming. The lightness and airiness of the poem is given by the pyrrhic (two-syllable unstressed foot) found in each line. Spondey (weighted foot of two stressed syllables) serves to additionally highlight the word. Highlighting the words "you" and "Rus" at the beginning of the first and second stanzas, the poet emphasizes a trusting, respectful, personal attitude towards the homeland. The use of the repeated word "where" at the beginning of stanzas from the third to the seventh inclusive (anaphora) allows readers to focus on the pictures that create an accurate and vivid image of Russia. The intensity of the spiritual life of the lyrical hero required appropriate rhythms. Block often referred to dolnik, that is, he broke the lyrical work into parts with one percussion and several unstressed sounds. The size of the poem "Rus" - tripartite.

Composition

Compositionally, two parts can be distinguished: firstly, a wide panorama of the life of Russia with picturesque nature and poverty of the peoples inhabiting it is given, and, secondly, a lyrical hero is presented with his feelings, dramatic feelings about the fate of the motherland and his place in this world. Blok clearly “marked” the boundary between the two parts of the lyrical text, using the adverb SO at the beginning of the seventh stanza. This technique in the poetic text is called assimilation that is, the previous text is a figurative comparison to what will be said next. In general, the composition of the Rus poem can be called classical: at the end of the work, the lines of the beginning are repeated. The circle closes. Such a structure is called a ring.

Deliberate repetitions suggest that the poet wants to paint a large-scale picture of Russia in a few words in order to understand where and what her “secret” lies. If at first the rhythm from the repeated “where” constantly speeds up, then after the sixth stanza a break in intonation occurs: the rhythm slows down, forming, as it were, “conditions” for the thoughts of the lyrical hero. It seems that the author has calmed down, his soul has acquired a foothold. The poem is dynamic, but the external movement is a reflection of the intense inner life of the poet.

Means of artistic expression

Blok is a master of pictorial and musical beginnings in his work. He creates "pictures of life", using contrasting colors to display different moods, feelings, conditions of life. The colors are white, golden, blue, azure (favorite!) - and black, gray paint. The color in the word can be felt internally, associatively: “night”, “whirlwind”, “poverty”, “blizzard”, “rags” - the dark side of life, a gloomy attitude and perception of the environment. Bright feelings of hope for a better life, self-confidence "sound" in the words: "extraordinary", "passionate", "round dances", "songs".

An important place belongs to the symbolism. The “path”, “crossroads” at Blok is not only off-road, difficulties in moving “with a stick”, pilgrimage. This is a symbol of the choice of the road along which the development of the country will go. The road is not easy, often crossed by crossroads. It is also a symbol of the choice of one's fate as a lyrical hero, and indeed every person.

Why did the lyrical hero "trodden" the "sad" "night" path to the cemetery? The symbol of "night" is important not only from the point of view of an indirect synonym for the "dark" side of life. At night, time flows in a special way, it seems to stop, the space seems to expand, creating an intimate atmosphere for a person to think “about the fate of ... the motherland”, not allowing him to prevaricate in front of the ashes of the dead.

Referring to the homeland, Blok uses high solemn vocabulary and outdated, with a touch of respect: “you will rest” (and not just “sleep”), cereals in the fields “enchant” (that is, “make an irresistible impression”).

Vivid metaphors are used to create images: Russia is “girded with rivers”, “I won’t touch your clothes”. The transfer of the meaning of words in these examples unusually expands the space, the whole country opens before us. Or: "all the ways and all the crossroads are exhausted with a living stick." As accurately as possible to describe the difficult fate of the motherland!

A few tropes: epithets (the gaze is “muddy”, peoples are “diverse”, sweeps “violently”), personification (the whirlwind “whistling sings”), paraphrase (“in the rags of her rags”) - allow the reader to come closer to understanding the author’s cherished thoughts and empathize his feelings.

Each poem is like a song with its own sound. The poet "uses" the technique of assonance to convey a "live" picture: And a girl against an evil friend // Sharpens her blade under the snow.

main idea

Each person is well aware that his fate is closely intertwined with the fate of his homeland. These are the strongest and most reliable threads that allow people to build their lives correctly. Let the fate of a person not always develop smoothly (and this is hardly possible!), but it is impossible to be indifferent to the fate of the motherland: the most reliable bonds are torn, the soul becomes empty, collapse occurs. The motherland undividedly takes possession of Blok's soul, forcing out all sorrows and sorrows from it. Whatever trials may befall the country, Russia preserves its moral purity and tender soul. These are the sources that give strength, allow the heart to maintain morality, faith in the future and gain confidence in the present.

Born in the family of a prominent mathematician and Leibnizian philosopher Nikolai Vasilievich Bugaev, dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. Mother, Alexandra Dmitrievna, nee Egorova, is one of the first Moscow beauties.

He grew up in a highly cultured atmosphere of "professorial" Moscow. The complex relationship between the parents had a severe impact on the child's emerging psyche, subsequently predetermining a number of Bely's oddities and conflicts with those around him (see the memoirs At the Turn of Two Centuries). At the age of 15 he met his brother's family V. S. Solovyova- M. S. Solovyov, his wife, artist O. M. Solovyova, and son, future poet S. M. Solovyov. Their house became a second family for Bely, here they sympathetically met his first literary experiments, introduced him to the latest art (the work of M. Maeterlinck, G. Ibsen, O. Wilde, G. Hauptmann, Pre-Raphaelite painting, music by E. Grieg, R. Wagner) and philosophy (A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, Vl. Solovyov).

In 1899 he graduated from the best private gymnasium in Moscow, L. I. Polivanov, in 1903 - the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. In 1904 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology, but in 1905 he stopped attending classes, and in 1906 he filed a request for expulsion in connection with a trip abroad.

Literary activity, aesthetic position, environment

In 1901 he submits for publication his "Symphony (2nd, dramatic)" (1902). At the same time, M.S. Solovyov came up with the pseudonym "Andrei Bely" for him. The literary genre of "symphony", created by the writer [during his lifetime also published "Northern Symphony (1st, heroic)", 1904; "Return", 1905; The Blizzard Cup, 1908] immediately demonstrated a number of essential features of his creative method: an inclination towards the synthesis of words and music (a system of leitmotifs, the rhythmization of prose, the transfer of the structural laws of musical form into verbal compositions), a combination of plans for eternity and modernity, eschatological moods. In 1901-03, he enters the environment first of the Moscow Symbolists, grouped around the Scorpion publishing houses ( V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, Yu. K. Baltrushaitis), "Vulture" (S. Krechetov and his wife N. I. Petrovskaya, the heroine of the love triangle between her, Bely and Bryusov, reflected in the novel of the latter "The Fiery Angel"), then gets acquainted with the organizers of the St. Petersburg religious and philosophical meetings and the publishers of the magazine "New Way" D. S. Merezhkovsky and Z. N. Gippius. From January 1903 begins a correspondence with A. A. Blok(personal acquaintance since 1904), with whom he was connected by years of dramatic "friendship-enmity". In the autumn of 1903, he became one of the organizers and ideological inspirers of the life-creating circle of "Argonauts" (Ellis, S. M. Solovyov, A. S. Petrovsky, M. I. Sizov, V. V. Vladimirov, A. P. Pechkovsky, E. K. Medtner and others), who professed the ideas of symbolism as religious creativity (“theurgy”), the equality of “texts of life” and “texts of art”, love-mystery as a path to the eschatological transformation of the world. "Argonautic" motifs developed in Bely's articles of this period, published in World of Art, New Way, Scales, Golden Fleece, and also in the collection of poems Gold in Azure (1904). The collapse of the "Argonautic" myth in the mind of Bely (1904-06) occurred under the influence of a number of factors: the shift of philosophical guidelines from the eschatology of Nietzsche and Solovyova to neo-Kantianism and the problems of the epistemological substantiation of symbolism, the tragic ups and downs of Bely’s unrequited love for L. D. Blok (reflected in the collection Urna, 1909), the split and fierce magazine polemics in the symbolist camp. The events of the revolution of 1905-07 were perceived by Bely at first in line with anarchist maximalism, but it was during this period that social motives, “Nekrasov’s” rhythms and intonations actively penetrate into his poetry (collection of poems “Ashes”, 1909).

1910s

1909-10 - the beginning of a turning point in Bely's worldview, the search for new positive "ways of life." Summing up the results of his previous creative activity, Bely collects and publishes three volumes of critical and theoretical articles (Symbolism, 1910; Green Meadow, 1910; Arabesques, 1911). Attempts to find a "new soil", a synthesis of West and East, are palpable in the novel Silver Dove (1910). The beginning of the revival ("second dawn") was the rapprochement and civil marriage with the artist A. A. Turgeneva, who shared with him the years of wandering (1910-12, Sicily - Tunisia - Egypt - Palestine), described in two volumes of "Travel Notes" (1911 -22). Together with her, Bely also experienced a new period of enthusiastic apprenticeship with the creator of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner (since 1912). The highest creative achievement of this period is the novel Petersburg (1913; abridged edition - 1922), which concentrated the historiosophical problems associated with summing up the path of Russia between the West and the East, and had a huge influence on the greatest novelists of the 20th century. (M. Proust, J. Joyce and others).

In 1914-16 he lives in Dornach (Switzerland), participating in the construction of the anthroposophical temple "Goetheanum". In August 1916 he returned to Russia. In 1914-15 he wrote the novel Kotik Letaev, the first in a planned series of autobiographical novels (continued with the novel The Baptized Chinese, 1927). He perceived the beginning of the First World War as a universal disaster, the Russian Revolution of 1917 as a possible way out of the global catastrophe. The cultural and philosophical ideas of that time were embodied in the essay cycle "On the Pass" ("I. Crisis of Life", 1918; "II. Crisis of Thought", 1918; "III. Crisis of Culture", 1918), the essay "Revolution and Culture" (1917 ), a poem "Christ is risen"(1918), a collection of poems "Star" (1922).

Last period of life

In 1921-23 he lives in Berlin, where he experiences a painful separation from R. Steiner, a break with A. A. Turgeneva, and finds himself on the verge of a mental breakdown, although he continues his active literary activity. Upon returning to his homeland, he makes many hopeless attempts to find a living contact with Soviet culture, creates a novel dilogy "Moscow" ("Moscow eccentric", "Moscow under attack", both 1926), the novel "Masks" (1932), acts as a memoirist - " Memories of Blok "(1922-23); trilogy "At the Turn of Two Centuries" (1930), "The Beginning of the Century" (1933), "Between Two Revolutions" (1934), writes theoretical and literary studies "Rhythm as Dialectics and The Bronze Horseman" (1929) and "Gogol's Mastery" (1934). However, the “rejection” of Bely by Soviet culture, which lasted during his lifetime, continued in his posthumous fate, which was reflected in the long underestimation of his work, overcome only in recent decades.

D. M. Magomedova

Encyclopedia KM, 2000 (CD)

BELIY, Andrey [pseudonym; real name - Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev; 14(26).X.1880, Moscow, - 8.I.1934, ibid.] - Russian Soviet writer, theorist of symbolism. Born in the family of professor of mathematics N. V. Bugaev. In 1903 he graduated from the natural department of the mathematical faculty of Moscow University. The study of Charles Darwin, the positivist philosophers, was combined by Bely with a passion for theosophy and occultism, philosophy Vl. Solovyova, A. Schopenhauer, neo-Kantianism. Bely appeared in print with poetry in 1901. Belonged to the symbolists of the "younger" generation (together with A. Block, Vyach. Ivanov, S. Solovyov, Ellis). Bely's first collection of poems, Gold in Azure (1904), reflected the idealization of patriarchal antiquity and, at the same time, its ironic rethinking. In the four symphonies written in rhythmic prose and built as a major musical work (Heroic, 1900, published in 1903 under the title Northern Symphony; Dramatic, 1902; Return, 1905; Blizzard Cup, 1908), decadent features of Bely's poetry; mystical motifs in them are interspersed with parody of their own apocalyptic aspirations (2nd symphony). The Revolution of 1905 aroused Belono's increased interest in social problems. The poetry collection Ashes (1909) depicts pictures of people's grief, the tragedy of rural Russia, and sharply satirical portraits of those in power are given. In the future, Bely turns to philosophical lyrics ("Urn", 1909), returns to mystical motives ( "Christ is Risen", 1918, "The Queen and the Knights", 1919, "Star", 1919, "After parting", 1922). In Bely's prose, intellectual symbolism is peculiarly intertwined with the realistic traditions of N. V. Gogol and F. M. Dostoevsky. The novel The Silver Dove (1909) depicts the mystical quest of an intellectual, attempts to get closer to the people on the basis of sectarianism. Bely's best prose work is the novel Petersburg (1913-14, revised edition 1922), where a sharp satire on reactionary-bureaucratic Petersburg emerges through symbolist imagery. The personification of the deadening regime is the grotesquely pointed figure of Senator Ableukhov, a living dead man trying to “freeze” Russia, to suppress the recalcitrant proletarian “islands” of the capital. The revolutionary movement in the novel is portrayed in a distorted light. While abroad, Bely in 1912 was influenced by the head of the anthroposophists R. Steiner and was carried away by his teaching on self-improvement. In 1916 he returned to Russia. Bely welcomed the October Revolution.

In the post-revolutionary years, Bely conducted classes on the theory of poetry with young writers in Proletkult, published the journal Notes of Dreamers. In the autobiographical stories "Kotik Letaev" (1922), "The Baptized Chinese" (1927) and the historical epic "Moscow" (part 1 - "Moscow Eccentric", 1926, part 2 - "Moscow under attack", 1926; "Masks ”, 1932), he remained faithful to symbolist poetics with its plot dispersion, displacement of planes, utmost attention to the rhythm of the phrase, its sound meaning. Pictures of the aristocratic-bourgeois decay "broke through" in Bely's prose through apocalyptic visions and mystical delusions about the "advent". As a poetic theorist and literary critic, Bely published the books Symbolism (1910), Green Meadow (1910), Rhythm as Dialectics and The Bronze Horseman (1929) and others, in which he extensively developed the problems of poetry. Of considerable interest are Bely's memoirs: "At the Turn of Two Centuries" (1930), "The Beginning of the Century. Memories (1933) and Between Two Revolutions (1934), which give a broad picture of the ideological life of the Russian intelligentsia of the 20th century.

Op.: Sobr. soch., vol. 4, 7, [M.], 1917; Fav. poems, Berlin, 1923; Mastery of Gogol, M. - L., 1934; Petersburg, M., 1935; Poems. Intro. Art., ed. and note. Ts. Volpe, L., 1940; Alexander Blok and Andrey Bely. Correspondence, M., 1940.

Lit.: Bryusov V., Far and near, M., 1912; Ivanov-Razumnik, Peaks. A. Blok, A. Bely, P., 1923; Voronsky A., Literary portraits, vol. 1, M.,; Lit. inheritance, [vol.] 27-28, M., 1937; Mikhailovsky B.V., Rus. literature of the XX century., M., 1939; History of Russian. literature, vol. 10, M. - L., 1954.

O. N. Mikhailov

Brief literary encyclopedia: In 9 volumes - Vol. 1. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia, 1962

BELY Andrey (Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev) is a contemporary writer. His father, Nikolai Vasilyevich Bugaev, is an outstanding scientist, professor of mathematics at Moscow University. In 1891, Bely entered Polivanov's private gymnasium, where in the last grades he became interested in Buddhism, Brahmanism, and the occult, while simultaneously studying literature. Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Nietzsche had a special influence on Bely then. His hobby also belongs to the same time. Vlad. Solovyov. At the same time, Bely stubbornly reads Kant, Mill, Spencer. Thus, already from his youth, Bely lives, as it were, a dual life: he tries to combine artistic and mystical moods with positivism, with a desire for the exact sciences. It is no coincidence that Bely at Moscow University chooses the natural department of the Faculty of Mathematics, works on the zoology of invertebrates, studies Darwin, Vervorn, chemistry, but does not miss a single issue of the World of Art, keeps an eye on Merezhkovsky. Mysticism, Vlad. Solovyov, Merezhkovsky win in White Darwin and Mill. Bely writes poetry, prose, enters the Scorpion circle, graduates from university in 1903, becomes close to the Moscow Symbolists, Balmont, with Bryusov, later - from Merezhkovsky, Vyach. Ivanov, Alexander Blok. In the same year, he enters the Faculty of Philology, but then leaves it, collaborates in Libra. Bely repeatedly experiences disappointment in mysticism, ridicules it both in poetry and prose, tries to find a way out of it either in neo-Kantianism, or in special populism, but in the end returns again to religious and mystical teachings, which are fully reflected in his works.

In 1910-1911 Bely traveled to Italy, Egypt, Palestine, in 1912 he met with the head of the anthroposophists Rudolf Steiner, became his student, actually departed from the former circle of writers, worked on his prose things; he returned to Russia in 1916. After October, he taught classes in the theory of poetry and prose among young proletarian writers at the Moscow Proletkult. In 1921 he went abroad, to Berlin, where he lived for about two years, collaborating, among other things, in the Gorky magazine Beseda; then he returns to Moscow again, settles in the countryside and continues to work hard.

Bely as a poet wrote a number of books: "Gold in Azure", "Ashes", "Urn", "Christ is Risen", "The Princess and the Knights", "First Date", "Star", "After Parting". For all their rhythmic originality and richness, Bely's poems are less significant than his artistic prose. The beginning of Bely's artistic prose must be attributed to his Symphonies, which are, as it were, a transition from poetry to prose. Then follow: The Cup of Blizzards, the two-volume novel The Silver Dove, the novel Petersburg, the best work of all written by Bely, now carefully revised by him for the new edition of Nikitinskie Subbotniks. After "Petersburg" Bely printed: "Kotik Letaev", "Baptized Chinese" ("The Crime of Kotik Letaev"), "Epic", and finally - the novel "Moscow", not yet finished. Peru Bely also owns a number of theoretical works on the theory of art, on rhythm; he wrote a lot of literary and journalistic articles. His most important theoretical work is the book "Symbolism"; his articles "On the Pass", "Poetry of the Word", "Revolution and Culture", etc., should also be noted.

Bely in our literature is the forerunner of a special symbolism. Its symbolism is mystical symbolism. It is based on a religious and moral worldview. Bely's symbol is not an ordinary realistic symbol, but a Face-Symbol, otherworldly, although Bely tries to make it immanent in reality. A symbol is an ethical norm embodied in a living image - a myth. This image-myth is comprehended through mystical experience. Art here is clearly in contact with religion, even more - it becomes the religion of religions. “The Image of the Symbol,” says Bely, “in the revealed Face of a certain beginning; this Face appears in many ways in religions; the task of the theory of symbolism in relation to religions is to bring the central images of religions to a single Face.

The World of Bely is a world of delusions, fiery elements, red-hot masses of Saturn, menacing, constantly changing mythological images. It is in this form that Kotik Letaev perceives the surrounding reality: his first conscious states coincide with delusional visions, which he feels as a true reality. Hence - a feeling of instability, fragility of the universe, nonsense and confusion. Our consciousness is trying to master this "incomprehensibility", it streamlines, introduces regularity into the world of Thales and Heraclitus; empirical beingness arises, is established, but this “firmament” does not even differ in relative strength: the delusional, fiery, chaotic beginning at any moment threatens to break through, to flood the essentially miserable continent built by our consciousness. The real world is frightening, it is terrible and it is lonely and terrifying for a person. We live in the midst of constant collapse, in the grip of all-devouring passions, antediluvian myths. They are the true reality; on the contrary, our reality is something accidental, subjective, fleeting, unreliable. Such is man in his essence and all social life created by him. The threshold of consciousness is shaky, it can always be easily destroyed by any event: then the unconscious, delusions, myths take possession of consciousness. Progress, culture - instill in people new skills, habits, instincts, feelings, thoughts, but this is more of an appearance. “The prehistoric gloomy period,” thinks Professor Korobkin, “is not yet mastered by culture, the king in the subconscious; culture is just a touch: if you poke it, it will bounce off, finding a hole, from where, waving ax handles, people, damn it, sagging with antediluvian skin will jump out ... ”A man carries a gorilla in himself. Carpenter Kudeyarov, head of the Silver Dove sect, turns out to be a fanatic, a strangler, a murderer. Senator Ableukhov, his son Nikolai, only in appearance are cultured people: in fact, they are still the true descendants of the wild Mongol, they are barbarians, destroyers. Kotik Letaev is constantly in danger of losing reality: it can always be swallowed up by the world of delusions. Modern civilization is represented in Mandro's "Moscow": he is a scoundrel and at the same time a beast, a savage; the same beast sits in the most cultured Buddhistologist Donner. The struggle and the psychology of the masses are permeated with a savage, destructive principle. The poet Daryalsky in The Silver Dove, disappointed in the salons of the capital, goes to the village to the sectarians; there among the fields, in the forests, among the people, he seeks peace and a new truth. "Experience" leads Daryalsky to collapse: the inert power of the East is rushing to Russia, the "silver doves" sectarians are exuded by wild Khlyst, Rasputin zeal. Daryalsky is killed. The revolution of 1905 is perceived by Bely in "Petersburg" as an invasion of yellow Asian hordes, Tamerlane hordes, ready to drown Russia, the West, and culture in oceans of blood. Undoubtedly, these fears reflected influences on the writer and Vlad. Solovyova with his discourses on the Eastern danger, and sermons Merezhkovsky, stubbornly writing about the coming boor. Later, Bely saw savages “with ax handles” in the representatives of the bourgeois West, in Mandro, in Donner: it was they who “pierced the globe with war”, raised a criminal hand over science, over art, over everything cultural in mankind, it was they who threatened the destruction of the world. A blow is directed against them from the Bolshevik Kierko and his supporters, but it remains to be seen whether they will save the world from destruction, or whether Kierko is also destined to perish from the pre-temporal chaos that reigns all around. In any case, Bely sees so far only destruction in contemporary events; he only promises to tell about the creative forces of the revolution, but has not yet told.

The world as it is is catastrophic. It opens in hurricane, in whirlwind elements, in delirium, in confusion, in stupidity. Salvation from this "not-I" is in our "I", in the mind. Reason comprehends confusion, builds an empirical world of causality, it is the only bulwark against cosmic storms. “I remember: - I grew rooms, I left, right, put them away from me; in them - I postponed myself: in the midst of time; times - repetitions of wallpaper patterns: moment by moment - pattern by pattern; and now their line rested against my corner; under the line line and under the day a new day; I saved up times; put them aside with space ... "Of course, the testimony of Kotik Letaev should be treated with some caution: rather, they are indicative of Bely himself as a writer: Bely from "not-I" hides in "I", "I" projects time, space, things from itself , it entangles the world of delirium with lines, it weighs, it measures. The main characters of Bely are also solipsists and extreme individualists. Senator Ableukhov is afraid of the vast wild Russian spaces, the human street centipede, he opposes them, to himself - a circular, a carriage, a strict line of St. Petersburg avenues, a balanced, calculated home life. His son Nicholas suppresses the Mongol in himself with Kant. Professor Korobkin is moving away from the senseless stinking garbage heaps of which Moscow appears to him to the world of integrals, x's and y's. The revolutionary Kierko firmly believes in the meaningfulness of existence. Zadopyatov fences himself off from life's incomprehension with vulgar, hackneyed truths.

"I", mind, consciousness - as if curbing the elements. It would seem that a stronghold has been found, stability has been acquired. However, the continents of reality, formed by our "I" in the midst of the oceanic fiery elements, do not at all attract the writer. Our consciousness, our mind is cold, mechanical, linear. It is devoid of flesh, life, genuine creativity, it does not have an abundance of feelings, spontaneity, it is dry, dogmatic, it shines, but does not warm. Cognition gives us scattered knowledge about the world, but it is not able to answer the main question, what is the value of space, earth, people, our individual life for us. Therefore, in itself it is fruitless and creatively impotent. With Bely, the mind always turns out to be pitiful when confronted with life, which is incoherence, nonsense, barbarism, wild, unbridled force. A reasonable beginning in Darialskoye, in the Ableukhovs, in Dudkin, in Korobkin, in Zadopyatov is dead, insignificant. The endings of Bely's stories and novels are always tragic: "reasonable, kind, eternal" perishes from evil incomprehension, from chaos, from game, the "debris" world triumphs, the terrible and ridiculous sardine-bomb explodes in the most unexpected and terrible way. Korobkin is destroyed by a gorilla - Mandro. Thought, mental freedom, integral, root, game, line - illusion; “in the prehistoric abyss, my father, we are in the ice age, where we still have dreams about culture…”.

Between being and consciousness in this way is a tragic dualism: being is meaningless, chaotic, crushing, - reason is pitiful, barren, mechanical, creatively powerless. The contradiction is absolute: "scissors" do not close empirically. Obviously, reconciliation can be achieved in the transcendental world. Bely's symbolism also tries to close the "scissors" between being and consciousness in the other world. The Symbol-Face, according to the writer, is a living Unity, it comprehends the pre-temporal chaos of being and attaches reason, knowledge to the creative principle. Only in the Symbol is the highest synthesis of being and consciousness achieved. The symbol opens in mystical experiences. Anthroposophy teaches mystical experiences, it knows these secrets, it transmits them with the help of special exercises, they are fully revealed only to initiates. Art becomes theurgy.

Bely's symbolism is unacceptable to the progressive class that is rebuilding the world. He takes us back to the Middle Ages; it is characteristic that he is thoroughly rational in Bely. Bely's mystical symbolism is all "from the head." Bely himself is so intellectually lofty that every now and then he subjects his mysticism to critical revisions and even irony, sometimes deadly. Even before the revolution, he sent the Messiah to a lunatic asylum, caustically ridiculed his heralds, announcing that mysticism was taught in taverns. The village mystic Kudeyarov turns out to be a fanatic, a prototype of the cunning Rasputin; The supersensible comprehension of the terrorist Dudkin is deciphered by the author quite realistically: he is an alcoholic. The reader learns about Kotik Letaev that he was constantly ill in childhood with either measles, scarlet fever, or dysentery, etc. Bely himself did a lot to destroy his “St. John's Building” - the symbolism that should crown the writer's artistic world. The best verdict on symbolism lies in the experience that the writer himself has done. Mystical, symbolic passages in Bely's poetry and prose are the most far-fetched, unconvincing, artistically dubious. The artist in White begins where the mystical symbolist ends. This is understandable: it is impossible to grasp the immensity, and even more so in art, which is materialistic in its essence, by its nature.

Bely, with extraordinary, we would say, with the utmost distinctness and talent, reflected the crisis of life and the crisis of consciousness of the hitherto ruling class, which is steadily moving towards death. Loneliness, individualism, a sense of catastrophism, disappointment in reason, in science, a vague feeling that new, different, healthy, strong and vigorous people are coming - all this is very typical of the era of the decline of the bourgeoisie. However, Bely is a first-class artist. For all his imbalance and instability, his inclination towards occultism, Bely managed to create a number of plastically vivid types and images. The influence of Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy is undoubted here, but this does not interfere with Bely's originality. He perfectly sees the poles: delusional, chaotic, meaningless, on the one hand, and mechanical, cold and empty-rational, on the other. Here White is quite independent. Let him exaggerate, sometimes fall into a caricature, do not know how, cannot synthetically restore the world on this side and project some kind of super-foggy symbol that turns out to be a bunny on the wall at best - Bely's artistic merits are obvious. Sometimes Bely gets out of the black hole, from his gloomy labyrinths, forgets about chaotic visions, and then with wonderful, subtle skill he reproduces pictures of a distant and sweet childhood, skillfully tells about simple, naive and joyful things in nature and in life. A modern Soviet writer has nothing to learn from Bely when it is necessary to depict the revolutionary underground, factories, workers, rallies, barricades. Here White is helpless. Its revolutionaries are implausible, its workers and peasants are indefinite, pale and sketchy, they are really some kind of "long-winded subjects" or dullards, they speak some kind of absurd, jingoistic language. But Bely has the Ableukhovs, the Lippanchenkos, the Zadopyatovs, the Mandro, the Korobkins. This world is well known to the writer. Here he is fresh and original, his characteristics of these people are convincing and marks, they cannot be bypassed by either the writer or the reader. Here Bely has his own discoveries.

Bely owns the secret of artistic detail and, perhaps, sometimes even abuses this ability, his instinct to see the smallest, difficult to distinguish and catch. His metaphors and epithets are expressive, striking in their novelty, they are given to the writer as if jokingly. Despite the quirks, the heaviness and bulkiness of his works, they are always entertaining in terms of plot.

Bely's stylistic manner reflects the duality and inconsistency of his worldview. Bely has "scissors" between being, which is chaos, catastrophe, and consciousness, which is mechanical, linear and powerless. In accordance with this, Bely's style is also dual. Bely avoids indefinite verbal forms: “was”, “is”, “became”, “was”, nothing rests with him, does not remain, everything is in the process of continuous formation, active change. Hence his predilection for new word formations, not always appropriate and successful. In this part, Bely's style is "explosive", dynamic. But Bely also writes in rhythmic prose. Rhythmic prose introduces uniformity and monotony into his manner; in his rhythm there is something frozen, rational, too adjusted, mannered. This is often repulsive to the White reader. For all this, the merit of Bely is undoubted: that he emphasized with special insistence that in artistic prose the word is art, that it has its own musical, purely phonetic meaning, which complements the “literal meaning”; this meaning is comprehended in a special inner rhythm of a poem, novel, story. Bely's theoretical work on the inner rhythm of works of art deserves special careful analysis.

As a poet, Bely is also individual, but the prose writer is stronger in him. Feelings of loneliness, spiritual emptiness, despair, skepticism were reflected with special force in Bely's poems. "Civil motives" is dedicated to his book of poems "Ashes". Critics rightly saw in this book an attempt to return to a certain extent to Nekrasov. Some of the poems included in Ashes are marked by exceptional sincerity and pathos; Unfortunately, Bely's "Nekrasov" sentiments did not develop further.

Bely's influence on modern literature is still very strong. Suffice it to mention Bor. Pilnyak, Sergei Klychkov, Artyom Vesely, - the poets of the "Forge" of the first period. True, this influence is limited more to the formal side.

Bibliography: Vladislavlev IV, Russian writers, M. - L., 1924 (bibliography of the works of A. Bely).

Kogan P., About A. Bely, Krasnaya Nov, IV, 1921; Askoldov S. A., Creativity of A. Bely, almanac "Literary Thought", book. I, 1923; Voronsky A., Literary responses, "At the junction", M., 1923; Ivanov-Razumnik, Peaks (A. Blok, A. Bely), P., 1923; Trotsky L., Literature and Revolution (Ch. Non-October Literature), M., 1923; Gorbachev G., Capitalism and Russian Literature, L., 1925; His own, Essays on Modern Russian Literature, ed. 3rd, L., 1925.

A. Voronsky

Literary encyclopedia: In 11 volumes - [M.], 1929-1939.

The poem “Motherland” by Andrei Bely is interesting in that Russia is represented in it with almost no embellishment. A brief analysis of “Motherland” according to the plan will help 7th grade students understand what kind of poet saw his country. The material can be used in the literature lesson as the main or additional.

Brief analysis

History of creation- The year 1908 was marked by a wave of Russian patriotism, which also picked up Andrei Bely. It was then that the poem was written. It was published in the same year. In 1901, the collection Ashes was published, which included this work.

Theme of the poem- love for the motherland, despite its shortcomings.

Composition- monosyllabic, the poem from the first to the last stanza develops the consistent intention of the author.

Genre- civic poetry.

Poetic size- tripartite anapaest.

epithets – “reddish sunrise”, “cold rustling”, “starving, poor people”, “harsh lead edge”, “cold field”, “hopeless exclamations”, “fatal country, icy”.

Metaphors – “the rustle of the glade”, “the edge sends a cry”, “flocks of unsatiated deaths”, “the wind conveys”, “people are mowed over the slopes”.

History of creation

In 1908, when Russia was between two revolutions, many poets turned to the patriotic theme. Andrei Bely did not stand aside either, but he, unlike many fellow writers, did not write a laudatory ode, but a realistic, even a little cruel work. The poem "Motherland" was published in the same year, a little later it was included in the collection "Ashes", which was published in 1910.

Bely really worried about the fate of Russia, this is a work of suffering.

Subject

The verse is dedicated to the theme of the Motherland, Russia. The poet loves her, but sees her shortcomings - she treats her children not like a mother, but like a stepmother. The country is starving, people are dying in suffering. He looks around quite pessimistically and sees not beautiful palaces and monuments, but poverty.

Composition

The poem is one-part - from the very first stanza, Bely develops the theme of people's misfortunes. He describes a country where death reigns, where there is a lot of crying and a lot of complaining. At the end, he asks Russia a rhetorical question about who cursed her, implying that it is impossible to live in a country where every person is like an unloved child.

The poet does not embellish his homeland, it is obvious to him that changes are vital to her. He not only sees the problems, but also boldly declares them, shows Russia from an unattractive point of view, in an unusual way for the reader.

Genre

This is a civil lyric with philosophical elements - reflections on the fate of the motherland, which is deeply indifferent to the author. He writes harshly about her, but this is criticism caused by sincere empathy, pain for his country and his people. From year to year nothing changes - the poet sees this and suffers from it. He cannot be silent.

The poem is written in three-foot anapaest - thus Bely simultaneously pays tribute to Nekrasov and makes a reference to his civil lyrics .. Total ratings received: 299.

The fields of my meager land
Over there, filled with sorrow.
Hills of space away
Hump, plain, hump!

Shaggy, distant smoke.
Shaggy villages in the distance.
A shaggy stream of fogs.
Expanses of hungry provinces.

Expanses outstretched army:
Spaces hide in spaces.
Russia, where should I go?
From hunger, pestilence and drunkenness?

From hunger, cold here
Millions are dying and dying.
The dead were waiting and waiting
Gentle mournful slopes.

There Death trumpeted in the distance
In forests, towns and villages,
In the fields of my meager land,
In the open spaces of hungry provinces.

Analysis of the poem "Rus" by Andrei Bely

The work of Andrei Bely "Rus" is permeated with disappointment in the surrounding reality.

The poem was written in 1908. Its author at that moment was 28 years old, he had already resolutely chosen literature as the vocation of his life. Rapprochement with the family of A. Blok almost destroyed the marriage of the latter. A. Bely goes to the Silver Well estate, which his parent put up for sale. By genre - civil lyrics, by size - amphibrach with cross rhyming, 5 stanzas. The lyrical hero is the author himself. The composition is circular. The intonation is almost Nekrasovskaya. In the title itself, there is a hint that what is described in the poem has been going on for centuries. In the first lines, the reference to the poem is especially noticeable. Symbolism remained only in the twists and turns of the form, while the content is completely in the traditional, populist spirit. It is known that since the time of the first revolution, the poet became interested in Marxist teaching, he could be met at rallies. In 1917, from both revolutions, he expected the destruction of stability, similar, in his opinion, to a stagnant swamp, foresaw the birth of an era of new titans, the emergence of a spiritual culture that could finally satisfy his restless mind. Moreover, he will plunge headlong into the ebullient activity of proletarian artists, will suffer when he sees himself soon rejected by them. The fields seem mournful to him, he asks the plain to rise up into hills (“hump”, this is also a neologism), in order to emphasize how bitter the bread of the “hungry provinces” is. The repetitions of words are twisted (“stretched open spaces”), only in the 2nd stanza the epithet “shaggy” is used three times. Now the poet is not up to poetry - he is trying to say what disturbed him. Indeed, these years were lean - either because of the drought, or because of the harsh winter, which pushed spring to a later date. However, there were provinces with a good harvest. This pattern, by the way, was also observed in Europe as a whole. The government took measures, however, perhaps not always effective. “Where can I run from hunger, pestilence, drunkenness?” The poet counts the victims of famine in the millions. Death is capitalized, animated. Paradise on earth, faith in man and his undivided forces, the temptation of the bright future promised by the Marxists attracts A. Bely. A lot of repetitions, refrains - emphasizing the author's melancholy, making senseless everything that happens in Russia. Inversion: millions are dying (colloquial).

In the poem "Rus" A. Bely picks up Nekrasov's note in describing the people's share.