K f ryleev biography briefly. Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev. Literary and social activities

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795 - 1826) - a member of the Decembrist movement, a public figure, an outstanding poet.

Brief biography - Ryleev K.

Option 1

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev - poet, Decembrist. He was born on September 18, 1795, in a place called Batovo. He grew up in a poor noble family. After completing his studies in the Cadet Corps, he went on foreign campaigns as part of Russian army. In 1818, he decides to leave military service, and goes to work in the criminal judicial chamber. He was characterized by a craving for justice and fair resolution of litigation in favor of disadvantaged people.

He was a member of various literary circles. But the most significant for the future fate of the poet was his membership in the Northern Society of the Decembrists. Ryleev was against the shedding of blood royal family during the uprising. He adhered to a constitutional monarchy, but over time, he nevertheless changed his views to the republican ones.

In organizing the Decembrist uprising. Ryleyev was one of the most active participants in the events on Senate Square. For which he was captured and sentenced to death. In the summer of 1826, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was hanged.

Option 2

Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the family of a retired army officer. His father was very fond of cards and lost two of his estates. He wanted to drill his son and sent him to the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps, where the young man studied for 13 years (1801 - 1814). Even in the cadet corps, he discovered a talent for writing poetry. In 1818, Kondraty Fedorovich decided to take up creativity. After 2 years, he married Natalia Tevyasheva and, inspired by this event, Ryleev wrote the famous ode "To the temporary worker."

The poet's wife's parents were wealthy Ukrainian landowners who kindly received him, despite his father's squandering and unenviable position. In 1821, he entered the service in the criminal state chamber of St. Petersburg, and after 2 years he transferred to the Russian-American Company, having received the position of the ruler of the office.

In 1823, Ryleev became a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, and until 1924 he was publishing the Polar Star together with Bestuzhev. Together with literary activities, Kondraty Fedorovich was engaged in political activities, entering the Northern Decembrist Society. He adhered to the Republican views. When the procession of the Decembrists was carried out on Senate Square, he was in the forefront. After the Decembrist uprising was suppressed, the poet was arrested, as well as his other participants.

He and his comrades were sentenced to death by hanging. Ryleev, together with Pestel, Kakhovsky, Muravyov - the Apostle, was hanged on July 13 (25), 1826. Moreover, the poet suffered suffocation twice, since the rope broke for the first time. The place of burial is unknown.

Option 3

Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich (1795 - 1826), poet. Born on September 18 (29 N.S.) in the village. Batovo, Petersburg province, in the family of an army officer, a poor landowner. He was educated in the cadet corps (1801 - 14) in St. Petersburg, released as an ensign in the artillery and sent to the army, which was on a foreign campaign. Staying in Germany, Switzerland and especially in France did not pass without a trace for the young officer.

The victory over Napoleon prompts him to take up the pen, odes appear: “Love for the Fatherland” (1813), “Prince of Smolensky” (1814).

Since 1817, transferred to Russia, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev served in the Voronezh province. Like other advanced officers, he was burdened by the Arakcheev orders in the army, so in 1818 he resigned and moved to; Petersburg (1820).

In 1821 - 24, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev served as an assessor of the criminal chamber, in 1824 he entered the Russian-American Company as the head of the office.

In St. Petersburg, he becomes close to the capital's writers, becomes a member of the "Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature". A special place in the poet's work is occupied by the poetic cycle "Dumas" (1821 - 23), the purpose of which was "to remind the youth of the exploits of their ancestors, to acquaint them with the brightest epochs of folk history ...".

In 1825 he wrote the poem "Voinarovsky", containing propaganda of the political ideas of the Decembrists; it expresses Ryleev's credo: "I am not a poet, but a citizen." In the same year he wrote the historical poem "Nalivaiko", the political elegy "Citizen".

In 1823 he was accepted as a member of the Northern secret society, soon becoming one of its leaders. In the days before the uprising, he showed exceptional energy, becoming the soul of the upcoming coup, insisting on the need for decisive action.

Arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, in a letter to the tsar, took all the blame on himself, trying to save his comrades.

Biography of Ryleev K. by years

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev chronological table of the life and work of the Russian poet, public figure, a Decembrist, one of the five executed leaders of the December uprising of 1825, is described in this article.

Chronological table Ryleeva

1795, September 18 - Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was born in the village of Batovo in the family of a small local nobleman

1801 - 1814 - studied at the St. Petersburg First Cadet Corps

1813 - wrote the ode "Love for the Fatherland"

1814 - wrote an ode to "Prince Smolensky"

1813 - 1814 - took part in foreign campaigns

1818 - resigns, having received the rank of second lieutenant

1820 - Marries Tevyasheva Natalya Mikhailovna, in a marriage with whom a daughter was born. Wrote a satire "To the temporary worker" on Arekcheev

1821 - received the post of assessor of the criminal chamber

1823 - Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev became a member of the revolutionary Northern Society of the Decembrists. He made his debut as a translator - he translated Nemtsevich's poem "Glinsky: Duma" from Polish

1823 - 1825 - together with Alexander Bestuzhev, he publishes the almanac " polar Star»

1824 - became a clerk in a Russian-American company. Headed the Northern Society

1825 - created the poem "Voynarovsky"

1826, July 13 - Kondraty Ryleev was executed in St. Petersburg for preparing the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825 on Senate Square

Full biography - Ryleev K.

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was born on September 18, 1795. His father, Fyodor Andreevich Ryleev, was a lieutenant colonel of the Estonian regiment and, having retired, served as the manager of the Kyiv estate of Prince. V. V. Golitsyna. family estate Ryleevs, a small village of Batovo, was located in the Sofia district of the St. Petersburg province. There Kondraty Fedorovich spent his early years. The poet's childhood was not bright and serene. Ryleev's parents did not differ in education. The father was a cruel and stingy man, his relationship with his son, as can be seen from their correspondence, always remained cold and formal. Ryleev’s mother, a person much closer to him, later wrote to her son: “Your truth is that I was not happy, your father did not know how to arrange my and your peace of mind. What to do! God wanted it that way." (Letter dated October 19, 1817 - K. F. Ryleev, Complete collection of works, vol. 2, ed. “Libraries of the Decembrists”, M., 1907, p. 110.)

In 1801, a six-year-old boy was sent to the First Cadet Corps, where he stayed for over twelve years. There he wrote his first works.

Although literary interests were strong in the First Cadet Corps, as in most educational institutions of that era, general level teachers and pupils was incomparable with the advanced educational institutions country, and the cadet corps did not become for Ryleev that favorable environment and literary school, which was the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum for Pushkin and his comrades.

The War of 1812 played a huge role in the ideological development of the future Decembrist. Like many of his peers, he rushes to the front, dreams of military exploits. Impressed by the victories of the Russian army, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev made his first attempts at writing in verse (“To the death of enemies” and “Love for the fatherland”) and in prose (“Victory song to the heroes”).

In February 1814, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was released from the corps as an ensign, sent to the 1st artillery brigade and took part in a foreign campaign, visiting Poland, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, France and Switzerland. All this certainly influenced the young officer, broadened his horizons. Abroad, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev continues to engage in literature, writes poetry and prose articles in the form of letters and diary entries. They showed his curiosity, and observation, and naivety. In "Letters from Paris" sympathy for the French and respect for Napoleon are noticeable, which already speaks of a critical perception of the official "settings".

At the end of 1815, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev returned to Russia and was sent along with a horse artillery company to the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh province, where he remained for several years. Ryleev's stay in the Ostrogozhsky district is a very significant stage in his biography.

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev forever fell in love with this steppe region, bordering on Ukraine, and the Ukrainian theme later became one of the leading ones in his work. Acquaintance with the family of the Ostrogozhsk landowner M. A. Tevyashev led to a significant event in personal life Ryleeva: Tevyashev's eldest daughter, Natalya Mikhailovna, soon became the poet's wife. In the Ostrogozh period, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev wrote a lot, but his poems, like letters to his mother, are sentimental and full of literary clichés. Here, for example, is how the poet describes his life in a letter dated August 10, 1817: “We spend our time very pleasantly: on weekdays we devote our free hours either to reading, or friendly conversations, or a walk; we ride in the mountains - and admire the delightful locations with which this country is rich; in the evening we wander along the banks of the Don, and with the quiet sound of water and the pleasant rustle of a forest growing on the opposite bank, we plunge into dreams, make plans for a future life, and in a minute destroy them; we reason, we argue, we reason, and finally, having laughed at everything, we each return to ourselves and in the arms of sleep we seek peace. (K. F. Ryleev, Poln. sobr. soch., Edition, introductory article and comments by A. G. Zeitlin, publishing house “Academia”, M.–L., 1934, pp. 438–439. Further references for this edition are abbreviated: Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, Poln. sobr. op.)

He writes madrigals to his fiancee, friendly messages on the model of Batyushkov's My Penates, songs, romances, charades, acrostics, and similar album trifles. Like his peers, the Decembrist poets VF Raevsky and Kuchelbeker, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev began as a student and imitator of the new poetic school associated with the names of Batyushkov and Zhukovsky. Young Ryleev, with more reason than Küchelbeker or Raevsky, can be called exactly an imitator. He has very little of his own. And the lack of education, and the lack of a highly developed cultural environment, certainly affected here. Ryleev's potential was very great, but so far he has been developing slowly, and his early work is an example of difficult growth.

In 1818, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev retired for reasons both personal (the bride's parents insisted on resignation) and public order. Disappointment in military service is typical of many front-line officers who resented the cane rules that began to dominate the army after the end of the war. Speaking about his resignation, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev wrote to his mother: “And so much time has already passed in the service, which did not benefit me, and no future is foreseen, and with my character I am not at all capable of her. Scoundrels are needed for the current service, but fortunately I cannot be one and I won’t win anything by that.” (Letter dated April 7, 1818 - Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, Complete collection of works, p. 446.)

In January 1819, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev married N. M. Tevyasheva and settled with his wife, first in Batov, and then in St. Petersburg.

Moving to St. Petersburg, which Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev dreamed of for so long and from which he expected so much, is a turning point in his whole life. Here he was born as a civil poet, here began his literary and political maturation.

Having got acquainted with the St. Petersburg writers A. E. Izmailov, V. K. Kyuchelbeker, F. V. Bulgarin, F. N. Glinka, having mastered the literary world of the capital, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev found that favorable environment, the absence of which slowed down his creative growth for so long . Since 1820, he began to be published in A. E. Izmailov's magazine "Blagonamerenny", and then in the "Nevsky Spectator". And although Ryleev's main printed matter is the same Batyushkov-style love letters, madrigals and charades, his civil and political growth is very fast. By the end of 1820, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was freed from idyllic moods.

1820 - milestone in the history of Russian social thought and a milestone in the development of Decembrism. This year includes a number of significant events in international and domestic life. In January, a revolution began in Spain, led by Rafael del Riego. Revolutionary performances took place in Naples, Portugal, Sicily. In Russia - the growth of peasant unrest and the uprising of the Semenovsky regiment, the expulsion of Pushkin from St. Petersburg. All this influenced the mindset of the progressive people of the era and members of secret societies. In 1820, at a meeting of the Indigenous Council of the Union of Welfare, the majority of those present spoke in favor of a republic as the best form of government in Russia. As a result of this meeting, a split occurred among the members of the Welfare Union. It soon disintegrated, but the Southern (1821) and Northern (1822) secret societies were organized instead. (In the historical literature, the opinion was expressed that the Northern Society was founded almost simultaneously with the Southern Society - in 1821. See: M.V. Nechkina, Movement of the Decembrists, vol. 1, M., 1955, p. 340.) 1820 in The history of Decembrism is also interesting in that its largest poet, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, came to Decembrist literature.

In the autumn of 1820, the famous satire “To the temporary worker” was published in the 10th book of the Nevsky Spectator, which brought Ryleev not only fame, but also fame. If the elegies and friendly messages printed simultaneously with it were signed by the poet with initials or printed anonymously, then the full signature of the poet appeared in the satire. It was a courageous challenge, an underlined readiness to answer for one's printed speech. N. A. Bestuzhev says in his memoirs: “This was the first blow inflicted by Ryleev’s autocracy.” (N. Bestuzhev, Memories of Ryleev. - “Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, M.–L., 1951, p. 12.) Traditional in literary terms (by the way, in many respects stylistically close to Milonov’s satire “To Rubellius”), Ryleev’s poem struck all with their civic courage and accusatory pathos. In a letter to M. G. Bedrage dated November 23, 1820, the author of the satire reported that Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, Poln. coll. op., p. 455.) Meanwhile, it was this letter, containing, moreover, an ironic characterization of members of the royal family, that was perused at the main post office. Obviously, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev aroused the suspicion of the authorities as a disgruntled and unreliable person.

His attitude to the surrounding reality becomes more and more critical. Inviting his Ostrogozh friend, artillery captain A.I. Kosovsky, to move to St. Petersburg, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev “did not stop,” as Kosovsky tells about it in his memoirs, “to repeat and convince that it is time for us to believe ourselves, to take a closer look at everything around us, because apart from evil, injustice and unheard-of covetousness, we have nothing, and therefore it is necessary to think, cherish every day and work for the future happiness of Russia. (“Literary heritage”, No 59, M.–L., 1954, p. 249.)

And Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev tried to work in the civil field. In January 1821, he was elected an assessor to the St. Petersburg Chamber of the Criminal Court and remained in this position until the spring of 1824. About honesty and civic courage of Ryleev, about his sympathy for the representatives of the common people, expressive memories have been preserved. (For example, the story of N. Bestuzhev about a tradesman who was glad that he would be put on trial by Ryleev (“Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, p. 13). On Ryleev’s defense of the serfs of Count Razumovsky, see: I. I. Ignatovich, Ryleev in “case” about the unrest of the serfs of Count Razumovsky - “Literary Heritage”, No 59, pp. 289–299;

Leading a stubborn fight against all sorts of violations and abuses in court, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev understood that the entire state apparatus is corruptible, that all officials live off bribes and harassment. In the summer of 1821, having visited the Ostrogozhsky district again, he no longer idyllicly, but sarcastically describes the provincial situation. “The cold envelops me,” he writes to Bulgarin, “when I remember that in addition to many different worries, the painful chicanery of the restless and insatiable kind of clerks awaits me in Petersburg ... You, dear friend, have experienced their shameless greed in Petersburg; but in the capitals, the clerks are still tolerable in some way ... If you saw them in the Russian provinces, they are real bloodsuckers, and I am sure that neither the predatory Tatar hordes during their invasions, nor your long-enlightened compatriots in the terrible time of the interregnum brought Russia so much evil , like this fierce offspring ... In the capitals they take only from the one who deals, here from everyone ... leaders, judges, assessors, secretaries and even copyists have constant income from their robbery ... ”(Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, Poln. sobr. op. , pp. 458–459.)

By the beginning of the 1920s, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev, not yet a member of a secret society, was already quite ready to join it. His participation in the years 1820–1821 in the Flaming Star Masonic lodge, as well as active cooperation in the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, where he was admitted in April 1821 on the recommendation of Delvig, brought Ryleev even closer to many representatives of the opposition-minded intelligentsia.

Thus, we can argue that out of the three factors named by Ryleev himself during the investigation into the Decembrists' case, they influenced. the development of his free-thinking - foreign campaigns, “reading various modern publicists, what are Bignon, Benjamin Constant and others”, “conversations with people of the same way of thinking”, (Ryleev’s Investigation File. - “The Decembrist Revolt. Materials”, vol. 1, M. – L., 1925, pp. 156. Further references to this edition are given in abbreviated form: “The Decembrist Revolt”, v. 1.) - it was the third, that is, communication with freedom-loving people, that played an almost decisive role.

And if in the first years of his stay in St. Petersburg, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev had not yet found himself as a poet, then he embarked on the path along which he came to the main cause of his life.

The evolution of Ryleev is indicative and typical of many of his contemporaries: Pushkin, Kuchelbeker, V. F. Raevsky and other poets of the era, representatives civil poetry. Semi-childish patriotic poems about 1812, associated with the traditions of the 18th century, then apprenticeship with Batyushkov or Zhukovsky, imitative poetry of youthful years and, finally, an appeal to the surrounding reality, criticism of it in civil freedom-loving verses.

Moreover, two lines, two schools (the rationalistic 18th century with its normativity and high pathos and the romantic poetry of the “new school” with its individualism, attention to the world of feelings and the smoothness of verse) coexist in the work of young poets. Either one or the other takes over (patriotic and civil themes entailed an odic mood, and intimate ones - an elegiac setting), but both of them are traditional, literary, and up to a certain point one does not interfere with the other.

In the 1810s, rationalistic ideas still prevailed in the literary mind, according to which there are different topics, requiring a different stylistic embodiment; the metaphysical division of themes and styles into high and low, socially significant and personal has been preserved. Turning to high topic, the poet used the appropriate stylistic means (high genre, “high calm” with Slavicisms, inversions, rhetorical figures); while creating a love elegy or a friendly message, he took care of the smoothness of the verse, used the appropriate vocabulary, a set of certain images, even traditional rhymes. We see all this in the work of F. N. Glinka, Vyazemsky, and the young Pushkin. The same is true in the poetry of the novice Ryleev. He writes his satire “To a temporary worker” in Alexandrian verse with seasoned caesuras and paired rhymes, abundantly using appeals, questions, exclamations, high and archaic vocabulary. Here already Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev uses words-symbols, words-signals - the most characteristic device of civil freedom-loving poetry. The words “tyrant”, “fatherland”, “compatriots”, as well as the ancient names of Brutus or Cato, surrounded by certain associations, told the reader a lot.

The powerful intensity of indignation, the threatening tone of satire distinguishes this poem by Ryleev from a number of other civil works of the era. At the same time, the satire “To the temporary worker”, like other works of early Decembrist poetry (“Tsinna's Tale” by P. A. Katenin or “Experiences of Tragic Phenomena” by F. N. Glinka), was quite traditional in its poetic design.

Simultaneously with civil satire, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev writes and prints love poems. Almost everything here is literary and conditional. All these Lidas, Delias and Dorids, these “imitations of Tibullus” and “imitations of the ancients”, this “hut” in which the hero “tasted” “voluptuousness and bliss” - all this speaks of imitation of Batyushkov, of the use of ready-made techniques and images that have become stamps.

But Ryleyev's lack of independence was temporary. In the years 1821-1823, increasingly imbued with a critical attitude to the surrounding reality, he focused mainly on civil poetry, enriching it with the experience of a new poetic school. The main thing that romantic poetry brings to the civil theme is the personal perception of the environment, the lyrical image of the author, contemporary or participant in ongoing historical events. Ryleev's merit before Russian poetry lies primarily in the fact that he created an individual, concrete, deeply lyrical image of a poet-citizen, a person capable of experiencing all the "disasters of his homeland", all world injustice as his personal suffering and striving to fight injustice to the end , giving this struggle all his strength, all his life. But such an organic, artistic image of a citizen did not appear in Ryleev immediately.

In 1821-1823, the poet turns directly to modernity and to modern material creates images of positive characters, in his opinion, worthy of emulation. Such is A.P. Ermolov, a talented commander who became famous in the war of 1812. In the poet's assessment, he is "the hope of fellow citizens, Russia's faithful son." In the year of the uprising in Greece, Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev appealed to Yermolov to help the Rebellious Greeks:

Yermolov! hasten to save the sons of Hellas,

You, the genius of the northern squads!

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev responded here to rumors about the appointment of Yermolov as commander-in-chief in the war for the liberation of Greece from Turkish rule. Mighty Russia must overcome Ancient Rome, who gave birth to “Brutes of two and two Catons,” Ryleev dreamed. If in 1814 the poet glorified love for the fatherland, which manifests itself primarily in the fight against an external enemy, now he puts “love for the public good” above all else, understanding it as the basis of patriotism. Ryleev persistently seeks around him carriers of political prowess, he pins his hopes on Yermolov and Mordvinov, but most of all he thinks about the civic education of the younger generation. Admiral N. S. Mordvinov, an old figure of Catherine, known for his opposition during the reign of Alexander I, was highly respected by the Decembrists, and it is no coincidence that Ryleev dedicates the ode “Civil Courage” to him.

Ryleev testified during the investigation that after the coup, Mordvinov, together with M. M. Speransky, as the supreme rulers, should have been transferred executive power. Preaching moral ideas on a specific example, Ryleev at the same time prepares public opinion, drawing the image of a person worthy to stand at the helm of state power.

Ryleev overestimated Mordvinov's "civil courage", but he did it deliberately. He hoped that his exaggerations would justify themselves in the future. What is attributed to Yermolov, Mordvinov, Ryleev believed, will undoubtedly develop, will manifest itself in the next generation, even if the civic merits of Yermolov and Mordvinov are not so great. He, in fact, did not try to elevate them themselves, but that noble civil position, which, according to the poet, they were obliged to follow. the best people countries. The ode “Civil Courage” reflected Ryleev’s short-term hopes for an “enlightened monarch”, with which he soon, in the spring of 1824, decisively parted.

In search of heroic plots and images, Ryleev turns to Russian history. And this appeal is not accidental. Interest in historical and national themes, generally characteristic of pre-romanticism and romanticism, in Decembrist poetry has always been associated with patriotic ideas of citizenship. Ryleev came up with the idea of ​​a whole cycle of poetic stories about various figures in Russian history, about their exploits or atrocities. Ryleev called these stories dumas, using the term of Ukrainian folklore.

Ryleev worked on the thoughts in 1821-1823. In 1824 he compiled them into a separate book, which appeared in 1825. "Dumas" revealed a new, already original face of Ryleev the poet and attracted the attention of critics.

The first thought - "Kurbsky", written in the summer of 1821, was essentially an elegy on a historical theme. In subsequent works of this kind, the genre of thought crystallizes with complete distinctness.

Ryleev's thoughts had several sources. He himself named as his predecessor the Polish poet Julian Nemtsevich, with whom he corresponded and whose composition “Spiewy hystoryczne” (“Historical Songs”) was well known. One of Ryleev's thoughts, "Glinsky", is a free translation of Nemtsevich's "song". However, as VI Maslov showed in his research, Nemtsevich's influence on the Dumas “was very insignificant: Ryleev borrowed only the general trend and form of thoughts from Nemtsevich; as for the choice of plots and their development - here Ryleev was independent and did not depend on his model. (V. I. Maslov, Literary activity of Ryleev, Kiev, 1912, p. 180.) V. I. Maslov also notes the superiority of Ryleev’s “Dums” over Nemtsevich’s “Songs” from the artistic and ideological side (the nationalist-minded Nemtsevich sang of “military prowess and the formidable appearance of the troops”, Ryleev “was captivated by broader ideals”, he was dearer to the “direct citizen”, “the faithful son of his homeland” (Ibid.)).

An important source of Ryleev's thoughts was N.M. Karamzin's "History of the Russian State", which he, like most of his contemporaries, read with great interest. Actually, reading Karamzin gave a direct impetus to the creation of poems on historical topics.

In the summer of 1821, Ryleev wrote from Ostrogozhsk to Bulgarin: “In my solitude I read the ninth volume of Russian History ... Well, Grozny! Well, Karamzin! “I don’t know what is more surprising, the tyranny of John, or the talent of our Tacitus.” And, sending the thought “Kurbsky” in a letter, he remarks: “Here is my trifle - the fruit of reading the ninth volume.” (Ryleev. Poln. sobr. soch., p. 458.)

The themes and even plots of a number of thoughts were borrowed by Ryleev from Karamzin's History. But the Decembrist poet also had other sources: history books by P. S. Zheleznikov, D. N. Bantysh-Kamensky, historical stories and legends by I. I. Golikov, N. I. Novikov, S. N. Glinka, F N. Glinka and others, as well as works of art on a historical theme (the tragedies of Sumarokov and Knyazhnin, Karamzin's story "Marfa Posadnitsa" and others). For all that, the originality of Ryley's thoughts as a phenomenon of art, imbued with a single pathos and a single thought, is beyond doubt. “To excite the valor of fellow citizens with the exploits of their ancestors” (A. A. Bestuzhev. A look at the old and new literature in Russia. - “Polar Star, published by A. Bestuzhev and K. Ryleev”, publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M.–L., 1960, p. 23.) - this educational, enlightening goal of the thoughts, successfully defined by A. A. Bestuzhev, fully corresponded to the views on fiction that dominated among the members of the Union of Welfare and were formulated in its charter - the Green Book. It said that the main thing in a work of art is thought, ideological and moral content, and not the pursuit of elegance of expression, that the goal of art is the education of worthy people, “consisting not in pampering feelings, but in strengthening, nobility and exaltation of our moral being”, (“Selected socio-political and philosophical works Decembrists”, vol. 1, M., 1951, p. 271.) in other words - the upbringing of an active, noble person, capable of serving public, civic interests.

And although Ryleev was not a member of the Welfare Union, all these ideas were known to him, since F. Glinka carried them out in his activities in the Free Society of Russian Literature Lovers led by him.

In thoughts, much comes from the romantic school: an appeal to the national tradition, Russian antiquity and folklore, which determined the genre design of Ryleev's poetic stories. Unlike sentimentalists, who are mainly engaged in such folklore genres as love song And fairy tale, romantics were interested in folklore primarily in epic tales, historical songs. It is noteworthy that in 1821 Ryleev was carried away by The Tale of Igor's Campaign, a monument that Russian romantics did not separate from folklore works and valued as an example of the originality and manifestation of the heroic spirit of the Russian people. A small fragment of Ryley's translation of the Lay has been preserved. It can be seen from it that it was the heroic principle that attracted the Decembrist poet in this ancient work:

In the soul burning with a thirst for glory,

Prince Igor from distant lands

A bloody feast hurries to the insidious Polovtsians

With a team of small brave northerners.

But despising death and flaming with battle,

The last warrior in it is a hero ...

These lines resonate with A. Bestuzhev's assessment of the Lay: "The inflexible, glorious spirit of the people breathes in every line." (A. A. Bestuzhev, A look at the old and new literature in Russia. - “The Polar Star, published by A. Bestuzhev and K. Ryleev”, p. 13.)

The search for a heroic principle in folklore and ancient literature, characteristic primarily of the Decembrists, led Ryleev to become interested in thoughts, that is, historical songs and tales of Ukrainian and Polish folklore. However, both the historicism and folklore of Ryley's thoughts were only given, indicated in the titles, names and subtitles, but not at all realized in the works themselves. Ryleyev's thoughts are in many respects transitional works. Enlightenment tendencies, rationalistic in them are combined with romantic ones. Of course, they differ sharply from the works of classicism on historical themes. They are dominated by a lyrical beginning, a passionate, emotional monologue of the hero, an outpouring of his feelings.

The general setting is designed to create a suitable background that accompanies the feelings of the hero. As a rule, this is a landscape as agitated as the soul of the hero: night, storm, rocks, a secluded place. There is undoubtedly the influence of Ossian poetry, which created a gloomy, disturbing image of wild nature, which perfectly reflected the tragic consciousness of the era of romanticism. Late evening or night haze, dark clouds through which the moon sparkles, and sometimes the howling of the wind and the brilliance of lightning - such is the landscape of many of Ryleev’s thoughts (“Olga at Igor’s grave”, “Svyatoslav”, “Rogneda”, “Kurbsky”, “”, “Natalya Dolgorukova”, “Derzhavin”, “Vadim”, “Marfa Posadnitsa”, “Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Rozhdestven”).

The harsh, tragic coloring of thoughts is due primarily to the fact that the poet's heroes are most often martyrs and sufferers, dying for a just cause or tormented by conscience for their sins. The calm, serene tone of elegiac lyrics is opposed by Ryley's stormy pictures of struggle and revenge, great passions, suffering and troubles. Catastrophic situations change one after another, Ryleev's heroes endure a difficult trial, for the sake of their cause they accept both exile and captivity; there are times when an entire nation falls under the yoke of conquerors and courageously endures captivity, saving up strength for liberation. Kurbsky yearns in a foreign land, Artemon Matveev languishes in exile, Yakov Dolgoruky is captured by the Swedes, the boyar Glinsky is thrown into prison, Bogdan Khmelnitsky is in chains in prison, the Russian patriot Artemy Volynsky is being led to execution.

Ryleev's heroes “with greatness of soul” accept the disasters that have befallen them, firmly stand for their beliefs and are not afraid of death. The most indicative in this respect is the thought "Volynsky" with its main motive: "... for the truth of the holy, and execution will be a triumph for me."

The image of a fighter for the national independence of the motherland occupies the first place in the thoughts. Ryleev is proud of his ancestors, who exalted the glory of Russia. He describes the exploits of Oleg, Svyatoslav, Mstislav Udaly, Dmitry Donskoy, Yermak, Yakov Dolgoruky, sings not only Russian patriots: among the heroes of thoughts we see Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who fought for the liberation of Ukraine from the Polish yoke. It is noteworthy that in the long list of fighters for the freedom and glory of the fatherland, Ryleev includes women who are not inferior in firmness to their husbands. Telling his son how glorious his grandfather was, Rogneda exclaims:

Let Rogvolodov spirit in you

Breathe my story;

Let it be in the chest of the young

Will kindle zeal for great deeds,

Love for your native country

And contempt for oppressors.

("Rogneda")

The lyrical emotional beginning of Ryleev's thoughts is subordinated to a specific educational task, and in this attitude to teaching, to education, the connection between Decembrist romanticism and the aesthetic ideals of the Enlightenment is seen as a positive example.

The moralizing idea of ​​thoughts was the main one for Ryleev. History is a collection of positive and negative examples. Differences of historical epochs, characters of people in themselves do not interest the poet. That is why there is so little in his thoughts of a specific historical “background”, of environment, of everyday life, that is why all his heroes speak the same sublimely declamatory language, that is why allusions and anachronisms are so frequent in his thoughts.

When Dmitry Donskoy addresses his army before the Battle of Kulikovo, he speaks the language of civil poetry early XIX century, in which the words "tyrant", "freedom", "ancient rights of citizens" sounded absolutely topical. The collection "Duma" can be considered one of the remarkable achievements of the Decembrist poetry, created in the period between the liquidation of the Union of Welfare and the organization of the Northern Society. Ryleev's patriotism and freedom-lovingness fully affected here, but the "Dumas" are not a reflection of the highest phase of his revolutionary spirit: there is no Republican Ryleev here.

Even before their publication as a separate book, the Dumas were greeted approvingly by contemporaries. P. A. Vyazemsky wrote on January 23, 1823 to Ryleev and Bestuzhev: “I read thoughts with lively pleasure, which constantly attracted my attention before. They bear a distinctive stamp, so unusual in the midst of our vulgar and monolingual or often impersonal poems. (“Russkaya Starina”, 1888, No 11, p. 312.) The Duma caused a positive assessment of F. V. Bulgarin in the “Northern Archive” (1823), N. I. Grech in “Son of the Fatherland” (1823), A. A. Bestuzhev in the "Polar Star" (1823), P. A. Vyazemsky in the "News of Literature" (1823) and a number of other reviews. Dumas became the subject of literary disputes, they were expected, they were asked about them. Their release in 1825 as a separate book also caused a flood of reviews, both printed and concluded in private correspondence of those years.

It is known that among the overwhelming majority of positive or even enthusiastic reviews of contemporaries, Pushkin's very skeptical opinion stands out sharply. This is quite understandable. For the majority of educated readers, the Dumas were just what they expected from literature: they satisfied the interest in national theme, to history, to the heroic, civic idea. They were sublime and sensitive, they had a romantic flavor of exceptional characters and circumstances. But the historicism and national character of the Dooms, more pronounced than realized, did not correspond to the artistic aspirations of Pushkin, who had already overcome romantic historicism.

He was not satisfied with Ryleev’s inattention to the accuracy of the depiction (“... you write that the ray of the morning light penetrated Khmelnitsky’s dungeon at noon. It was not Khvostov who wrote - that’s what upset me ...” (Letter to A. S. dated September 4, 1822 - Pushkin, Poln. sobr. soch., v. 13, publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M.–L., 1937, p. there was no Russian coat of arms - and the double-headed eagle is the Byzantine coat of arms and means the division of the Empire into Western<адную>and East<очную>- with us, it doesn’t mean anything” (Letter to A. S. Pushkin dated January 1–10, 1823 - Ibid., p. 54.)).

But most of all, Pushkin was not satisfied with Ryleev’s inability to comprehend the spirit of the depicted era and show the different characters characteristic of each era. actors. In May 1825, Pushkin wrote to Ryleyev that his thoughts were “weak in depiction and presentation. They are all on the same cut. Made up of common places (loci topici): a description of the scene, the speech of the hero - and moralizing. There is nothing national, Russian in them, except for names.” (Ibid., p. 175.)

Ryleev, who knew Pushkin's critical remarks even earlier, wrote to him in March 1825: “I know that you do not favor my thoughts, despite the fact that I asked Pushkin to send them to you. I myself feel that some are so weak that they should not be printed in full assembly. But on the other hand, I am sincerely convinced that Yermak, Matveev, Volynsky, Godunov and the like are good and can be useful not only for children. (Ryleev, Poln. sobr. soch., p. 489.) The dispute about thoughts took place at the beginning of 1825. Pushkin at that time finally established himself on the positions of strict historicism. “Ryleev’s thoughts are healing, but everything is out of place,” (Pushkin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 13, p. 167.) - Pushkin wrote to V. A. Zhukovsky at the end of April 1825. “Out of place” in the sense that poetry is at odds with history: Ryleev lacks objectivity, he tries to “convince” history into a prefabricated scheme of civil concepts.

The problem of Ryley's historicism is not the problem of truthfulness, fidelity of historical figures. Ryleyev boldly put his slogans and his own thoughts into the mouths of the heroes. However, it would be a mistake to assume that in his thoughts Ryleev deliberately distorted history. He turned to the history of the past, to domestic traditions and annals, and did all this in order to find access to the feelings of many, the entire nation, and to pass off the ideals for which the Decembrists fought for the ideals of the people, bequeathed by their ancestors. The sacred authority of the forefathers, on whom everyone should have been equal, was dear to Ryleev also because the question was not about an individual person, but about a people-nation, about their native country. The poet creates a kind of collective face that replaces individuals and the nation as a whole.

This happened because Ryleev, like most of the heirs of enlightenment ideas, was characterized by a metaphysical approach to history. The human personality, the national character seemed to them eternal and unchanging, with which, as was said, Pushkin no longer agreed.

However, Pushkin, an attentive reader of Dooms, noticed that while working on them, Ryleev did not stay in one place. He noted the last (by the time of writing) dumas “Ivan Susanin” and “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk” as successful exceptions. (Letter to Ryleev dated the second half of May 1825 - Pushkin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 13, p. 175.) In a letter to Vyazemsky dated November 4, 1823, Pushkin noted: “The first thoughts of Lamartine are hardly Isn't it better than Ryleev's "Dum"; I read the last ones recently and have not yet come to my senses - so he suddenly grew up. (Ibid., p. 381.)

Working on thoughts during 1821-1823, Ryleev changed as a poet. In his last thoughts, there is a closer attention to the background, which in the thought “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk” is not outlined schematically, but concretely and distinctively, with genuine knowledge of the area.

In Ivan Susanin, the truthful depiction of peasant life, the focus on the events and actions of the hero (rather than a declarative monologue, as in earlier thoughts) make the image of the Kostroma peasant alive and convincing. And yet the genre of thought - in the form in which it developed with Ryleev - did not make it possible to develop ethnographic or historical descriptions in it. The final stanzas of “Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk”, which Pushkin liked so much, actually already took the work beyond the limits of this genre, distinguishing feature which constituted heroic pathos.

Publishing "Dumas" in 1825 as a separate book, Ryleev changed almost nothing in them. Creatively, he had already outgrown them so much that he could not return to work on them. But at the same time he considered them useful and necessary for the reader. His view of literature as a socially significant phenomenon, the emphasis on its educational role, remained unchanged. Ryleev only accompanied his “Dumas” with a preface and historical commentary, mostly written by P. M. Stroev, partly by the poet himself.

Two editions of Ryleev's preface to the "Dumas" have been preserved. An earlier edition (1823 or the beginning of 1824) emphasizes the educational pathos of the entire collection. Judging by this preface, the "Dumas" were intended for the common people, and the author's goal was "to shed even a drop of light on our people." Sharp attacks against despotism and tyrants - enemies of enlightenment (“... only despotism is afraid of enlightenment, because it knows that its best support is ignorance ... The ignorance of peoples is the mother and daughter of despotism ...”) - show that this preface was created by a poet who saw in poetry means of combating despotism.

However, realizing that censorship would not let such a preface pass, Ryleev created another version of it, in which he discarded all arguments about despotism and enlightenment, reduced most of the references to Y. Nemtsevich and expressed very remarkable considerations about the folklore sources of his thoughts. “Duma, an ancient heritage from our southern brothers, our Russian, native invention. The Poles took it from us. Until now, Ukrainians sing the thoughts of their heroes: Doroshenko, Nechai, Sahaydachny, Paley, and Mazepa himself is credited with composing one of them ... Agreeing the mournful voice and body movements with the words, the Russian people sometimes accompanies their singing with the sad sounds of the flute.

This indication in the preface of 1824 of the connection with folklore, which had not been reflected in the thoughts themselves before, speaks of a new shift in Ryleev's work, when, like other romantics, he came close to the problem of the nationality of literature and from these positions turned to folklore. Interest in ethnography, historical color, folk life, which was hardly felt in later thoughts, is very noticeable in the subsequent work of the poet. The preface to the "Dumas" thus reflects Ryleev's position not at the time of the creation of the Dumas, but already during the period of his work on historical poems.

It must be assumed that Ryleev himself, already dissatisfied with the historicism of his thoughts, decided to supplement them with a historical commentary. Written for the most part in accurate prose language, containing dates, references to chronicles, significant factual material that is absent in the thoughts, these historical references sometimes diverged from literary texts in the interpretation of the behavior of historical heroes and their assessment (see, for example, the thoughts “Glinsky”, “Kurbsky”), but Ryleev has already realized his increased interest in historical details in works of other genres. He went to epic and drama.

1823 - the year of the end of "Dum" and the beginning of work on the poem "Voynarovsky" - marks the onset of a new period in Ryleev's work. In the same year, he enters a secret society, which determines the further direction of his work.

In the first half of 1823, I. I. accepts Ryleev into the Northern Society as a “convinced”, that is, a member of the so-called “upper circle”. From this we can conclude that, in terms of his political views, Ryleev was ready to immediately enter the “upper circle”.

In March 1825 he was elected to the governing body of the society - the Duma, and he ideologically led the movement. Ryleyev's activities in the secret society have been well studied by Soviet historians. In this case, we are interested, so to speak, in the psychological side of this activity: how much the personality of Ryleev himself was reflected in it, equally reflected in his poetic work, that is, what threads connected his revolutionary and poetic activity. Ryleyev the wrestler and Ryleyev the poet are inseparable from each other; in both respects he was the first among the St. Petersburg Decembrists.

An analysis of investigative materials and memoirs about the poet as a member of a secret society suggests that he enjoyed great influence, attracting hearts to himself with his enthusiasm, sincerity and purity of thought. In his political statements, Ryleev consistently pursued the idea of ​​democracy, sought to accept not only nobles into society, insisted on election and periodic replacement governing bodies secret society. (See Ryleev's testimony Investigative Committee. - “The Revolt of the Decembrists”, vol. 1, p. 166. See also the testimony of V. I. Shteingel. - “Literary Heritage”, No 59, p. 235.)

In this regard, his meeting with P.I. Pestel, which took place in April 1824, is indicative. During this conversation, various options for a legislative device for future Russia, moreover, both Pestel and Ryleev, in a frank exchange of views, naturally resorted to sharpening their thoughts, especially on controversial issues.

The most “convenient and decent for Russia” Ryleev considered “the form of government of the United States”, although with various deviations and changes. Pestel was, apparently, in agreement with him, but he strongly emphasized the expediency of personal dictatorship after the victory of the uprising. “We also talked about Napoleon,” Ryleev showed. - Pestel exclaimed: “That's true great person! In my opinion: if you have a despot over you, then have Napoleon. How he elevated France! How many new fortunes he created! He distinguished not nobility, but talents!” and so on. Realizing where all this was heading, I said: “God save us from Napoleon! Yes, but there is nothing to be afraid of. In our time, even the ambitious, if only he is prudent, would rather be Washington than Napoleon. - “Of course! Pestel answered. - I just wanted to say that one should not be afraid of ambitious plans, that if anyone took advantage of our coup, then he should be the second Napoleon ... ”(“ The Revolt of the Decembrists, vol. 1, p. 178.) ” Ryleev did not want, and when the Decembrist K. P. Torson proposed to elect an emperor, he “answered that now you can’t be Napoleon.” (Ibid., p. 183.)

Ryleev was an opponent of personal dictatorship and always said that all the fullness of legislative power after the uprising should be transferred to the Supreme Council. During the investigation, the poet testified: “From my very entry into society until December 14, I said one thing: that no society has the right to forcibly introduce a new form of government in its fatherland, no matter how excellent it may seem; that it should provide representatives chosen from the people, whose decision to obey unquestioningly is the duty of everyone. (Ibid., p. 175.)

However, Ryleev's hopes that after the uprising democratic forms of government would arise of their own accord were politically naive.

Pestel's arrival in St. Petersburg, which agitated the St. Petersburg secret organization, could not but affect Ryleev, whose anti-monarchist sentiments intensified. Perhaps, not without the influence of Pestel, Ryleev took the most left-wing position among other leaders of the Northern Society on the land issue. Ryleev becomes one of the leaders of Petersburg republicanism.

The desire to keep the entire movement pure, not to tarnish or humiliate it in any way, pervaded all of Ryleev's political activities. Trust in members (in the Northern Society, a special ritual of admission to membership was not practiced, all sorts of solemn oaths and oaths - “were content with an honest word” (Ryleev’s testimony of December 24, 1825 - Ibid., p. 159.)), the absence of any there was no material incentive, (“Military officials were not encouraged to revolt with money, and civil officials were not encouraged by the future elevation and separation of powers.” Ibid., p. 161.) emphasis on the fact that they can participate in the movement only from ideological, principled motives , - all this characterizes Ryleev's tactics in Northern society. He categorically rejected A. I. Yakubovich's plan - to excite the people with calls for robbery and destruction of taverns. (See “The Revolt of the Decembrists”, vol. 1, pp. 185, 188.) In his revolutionary activity, Ryleev strove to be at the height at which he put his poetic heroes.

Ryleev's political activities in a secret society had a great influence on his subsequent work. He not only continues to develop freedom-loving themes in poetry, he fills them with concrete historical material, already meaningful in a new way. Ryleev's poems marked his development not only in literary but also in political terms.

In Russian poetry of the 1920s, the genre of the romantic poem occupies an exceptionally important, leading place. Samples of this new genre in literature were given in Pushkin's southern poems. But the followers of Pushkin (Baratynsky, Ryleev) were not his imitators, they created their own original monuments of the romantic epic. (The question of the difference between Ryleev’s “narrative” poem and Pushkin’s lyrical poem is considered in V. Hoffmann’s article “Ryleev the Poet.” - Sat. “Russian Poetry of the 19th Century”, L., 1929, pp. 1–71.)

In the poem "Voynarovsky" (individual chapters began to be published in 1824, and it was published in its entirety in 1825), Ryleev solves a number of important general literary tasks. His work turned out to be more epic than Pushkin's southern poems: it was a coherent and detailed presentation of events, a narrative containing descriptions of nature, life, ethnographic and historical details. In this, the poem is decisively different from the thoughts, although the thoughts and poems of Ryleev have much in common. But already in "Voynarovsky" Ryleev overcomes the one-sidedness of thoughts, he strives for the breadth of the artistic conception, for the truthfulness of psychological characteristics.

Pushkin immediately appreciated Voinarovsky. Having become acquainted with excerpts from the poem based on the “Polar Star” of 1824, he wrote on January 12 of the same year to A. Bestuzhev: “Ryleev’s “Voinarovsky” is incomparably better than all his thoughts, his style has matured and becomes truly narrative, which we almost still do not have.” (Pushkin. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 13, pp. 84–85.) And in the future, everything written by Ryleev evoked Pushkin's approval (before returning from exile, he knew only his printed works).

And in the reviews of "Nalivaika" it is clear that Pushkin most of all valued in Ryleyev narrative, specific descriptions of the environment, actions and events ("sweeping in syllable"); he was much colder about the lyrical beginning, the civic pathos of Ryleev. Pushkin was not going to abolish civil poetry, but he demanded from the poet a plausible depiction of historical characters and artistic objectivity. Pushkin's own literary searches in the mid-twenties, his work on the novel in verse and historical tragedy show that he considered the mastery of large material, the ability to give deep generalizations, reflect the main phenomena of life and comprehend its laws, the most urgent task of Russian literature.

Ryleev's work on large poetic genres created on historical material, the desire for accuracy, for his poems to contain a large supply of information - all this impressed Pushkin very much. About "Voinarovsky" he said: "This poem was necessary for our literature." (Letter to Ryleev dated January 25, 1825 - Pushkin, Poli, collected works, vol. 13, p. 134.)

With all the romantic subjectivism of his method, Ryleev strove in Voinarovsky to give a lot of information that was new to the reader. Ethnographically accurate descriptions of Yakutsk and Siberian nature at the beginning of the poem were very popular with most readers. This manifested a passion for exotics and ethnography characteristic of romantics (reproduction of local color, description of folk life, rituals, etc.). Readers even considered the descriptions in Ryleev's poem short and insufficient.

P. A. Mukhanov wrote to Ryleev in April 1824, expressing not only his own opinion, but also that of other southern Decembrists, in particular M. F. Orlov, and Pushkin: “If you allow me to tell you what the southwestern Russian writers say about your child, then listen in cold blood and do not scold me, for I say what I overheard.

1. The description of Yakutsk is good, but too short. It is evident that you were afraid to stretch it out, while the episode with this piece of news would have been very original. Imagining Siberia strikingly, you would paint a completely new picture.
2. The description of Voinarovsky's hunting should also be somewhat more spacious, because you can depict the wild nature, the occupation of the exiles and residents who spend their days with animals, and even more so show the kind of life of Voinarovsky. Then a beautiful description of the running of a deer will be more appropriate. Now it seems to have been introduced onto the stage, as if on purpose, to make Miller and Voinarovsky get to know each other.
3. Pushkin finds the stanza “And wrapped himself in a wide cloak” as the only one expressing the perfect knowledge of the human heart and the struggle of a great soul with misfortune. Io the story of the captives, being very successful in itself, would require some introduction; for “I recently came from Baturin” could be preceded by a description of the captives and, in addition to this, present a picture of people crowding to learn about their fatherland ... In general, one finds a lot of ardor in your poem. The portrait of Voinarovsky is beautiful. All this stirs the soul; but there are many naked places that you should decorate with a description of the area. (Quoted from the book: A. G. Zeitlin, Ryleev’s work, M., 1955, pp. 128–129.)

Preparing Voinarovsky for a separate edition, Ryleev did not take into account the wishes of Mukhanov and Orlov, although he probably agreed with them in some respects. In his rapid creative development, he almost never returned to already created works in order to rework them.

Starting with “Voinarovsky”, all subsequent ideas of Ryleev’s poems and dramatic works are connected with the history of Ukraine, which was determined both by biographical circumstances (life in the regions bordering Ukraine, personal ties with many representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia) and by the political aspirations of the poet (episodes of the national liberation movements in Ukraine in the 16th-17th centuries).

To the history of Mazepa's struggle with Peter I, in which Active participation accepted by Voinarovsky, Ryleev approached it as “the struggle of freedom against autocracy”, which could not but cause criticism from many of his progressively minded contemporaries. (For example, P. A. Katenin, who did not approve of Ryleev’s poems at all, wrote to N. I. Bakhtin: “... the most wonderful thing for me is the idea of ​​presenting the scoundrel and rogue Mazepa as some kind of Cato.” - “Letters from P. A. Katenin to N I. Bakhtin”, St. Petersburg, 1911, p. 86.) Here, undoubtedly, Ryleev’s romantic subjectivism manifested itself, which did not allow him to fully and impartially study the historical era and draw objective conclusions from this study.

To a large extent, Ryleev was influenced by other people's concepts. As shown by V. I. Maslov, who studied in detail the question of the sources of the poem, Ryleev’s interpretation of the image of Mazepa could be influenced by the image of this hero in Byron’s poem of the same name (See: V. I. Maslov, Ryleev’s literary activity, pp. 279–289. ) as well as Ryleev's communication with the nationalist Ukrainian and Polish nobility. Neither the historical works used by Ryleev (“History of Little Russia” by D. Bantysh-Kamensky, as well as the works of other historians that Ryleev could read: I. Golikov, F. Prokopovich), nor Ukrainian folklore contained a positive assessment of Mazepa.

The Polish and Ukrainian landowners and the Cossack elite treated him differently. “While the common people despised the “cursed dog Mazepa”, the upper strata of Ukrainian society loved this hetman and associated memories of better days of its existence." (V. I. Maslov, Literary activity of Ryleev, p. 303.)

Ryleev at the time of the creation of Voinarovsky was interested in Ukrainian folklore, and these interests were reflected in the poem (separate descriptions, phraseological turns go back to Ukrainian folk songs). However, there is no deep understanding of the people's worldview, the perception of the people's point of view in Voinarovsky. Popular opinion exists in the poem, but it did not become the leading and determining one. Ryleev created the anti-historical nature of the hetman, which became especially obvious after Pushkin's "". Pushkin argued with Ryleev in his poem. In the preface to "Poltava" He wrote: "Mazeppa is one of the most significant figures of that era.

Some writers wanted to make him a hero of freedom, a new Bogdan Khmelnitsky. History presents him as an ambitious man, inveterate in deceit and atrocities, a slanderer of Samoilovich, his benefactor, the destroyer of the father of his unfortunate mistress, a traitor to Peter before his victory, a traitor to Karl after his defeat! 4, p. 605.)

However, it cannot be said that Ryleevsky Mazepa is an impeccable “hero of freedom, the new Bogdan Khmelnitsky”. The author's relationship to him is more complicated. The poem is scattered with individual remarks about Mazepa, which give reason to say that Ryleyev tried to overcome the one-sidedness in the image of the hetman, wanted to make his image more controversial, but did not fulfill his plan to the end. The poet instilled doubts about Mazepa into Voinarovsky's soul:

I don't know if he wanted

Save the people of Ukraine from troubles,

Or erect a throne for yourself in it, -

The hetman did not reveal this secret to me.

But perhaps the most severe condemnation of Mazepa is the words of two captured Ukrainians, included in the story of Voinarovsky:

“I am from Baturin recently, -

One of the prisoners replied:

The people of Peter blessed

And, rejoicing in the glorious victory,

He feasted noisily on the stognas;

Well, Mazepa, like Judas,

Ukrainians curse everywhere;

Your palace, taken on a spear,

Was betrayed to them for plunder,

And your glorious name

Now - and scolding and vilification!”

This popular point of view, as it were, corrects the characterization given by the ardent admirer of Mazepa - Voinarovsky.

Like the "Duma" "Voinarovsky" was equipped with historical commentaries and introductory articles. The articles written by A. Bestuzhev and the Decembrist-historian A. Kornilovich are equipped with significant factual material and give objective characteristics of both Mazepa and Voinarovsky, sometimes at odds with the characteristics contained in the poem. History, although studied by the author of "Voinarovsky" and penetrated into the fabric of the poem much more strongly than into thoughts, still did not organically merge with poetry. Historical facts often remained on their own, poetic fiction - on its own.

In the dedication to A. A. Bestuzhev, which opens the poem, Ryleev polemically sharpens the idea of ​​citizenship; "I'm not a Poet, but a Citizen." By this, Ryleev wanted to say that he does not recognize poetry for the sake of poetry, does not see a real poet outside of civil service. Ryleev quite independently solved the problem of a positive hero. He could not be satisfied with melancholic dreamers who had gone into the world of their dreary experiences, secular heroes who carelessly burnt their lives, lonely rebels who act independently of the nation and want freedom only for themselves.

Ryleev refuses all these variants of the hero and gives the image of a citizen living in the interests of his people, the interests of his homeland. The heroes of Ryleev, including Voinarovsky, are not renegades and proud individualists. Voinarovsky is alone by necessity, he is doomed to spiritual and physical death by exile, but this does not prevent him from remaining a heroic nature. Faith in the rightness of his cause never leaves him. With all the peculiarities of his position, Voinarovsky was and remains the bearer of the civic idea, he is a person with obligations to others, with a fate not so much personal as historical.

The poem was enthusiastically received by the reading public and critics. Positive feedback about the poem was given by the “Northern Archive” back in 1823 (it was about excerpts from the poem read at a meeting of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature), “Polar Star for 1825”, “Competitor of Education and Charity”, “Northern Bee” ; and in the private letters of contemporaries we also find many sympathetic and even enthusiastic reviews of Voinarovsky. Of particular interest were the descriptions of Ukrainian and Siberian nature, the originality of the poem, its national, Russian character. “Here is a truly national poem!” (“Northern bee”, 1825, March 14. Bulgarin’s moral reputation at that time was beyond suspicion, and many people maintained relations with him famous writers, among whom were Griboyedov, A. Bestuzhev and Ryleev.) - exclaimed Bulgarin.

Pushkin's review was especially dear to Ryleev. On February 12, 1825, he wrote to him: “I am very glad that you liked Voinarovsky. In the same vein, I began “Nalivaika” ... ”(Ryleev, Poln. sobr. soch., p. 483.)

Ryleev conceived the poem about Nalivaika as a historical narrative about the liberation struggle of the people. The poem, dedicated to the struggle of Ukrainian Cossacks against Polish rule at the end of the 16th century, was not completed by Ryleev. The poet published three excerpts from it in 1825 in the "Polar Star": "Kyiv", "Death of the Chigirinsky elder", "Confession of Nalivaika". Judging by these and other surviving fragments and sketches, the poem was conceived by Ryleev in a broad socio-political and historical context. Pictures of folk life, everyday life, Ukrainian nature, descriptions of historical events were supposed to create a broad epic background, perhaps even more detailed than in Voinarovsky.

Probably, the image of the masses and the reflection of the people's point of view in this poem should have been given much more space than in Voinarovsky. And - what is especially important - there was no longer such a discrepancy between history and the position of the author. Both artistically and politically, Ryleev's second poem is a significant advance in comparison with "Duma" and his first poem.

Nalivaiko is a real avenger for the desecrated honor of the people, he leads the fight against the foreign yoke and is elected hetman. He is ready to give his life for the salvation of his homeland, one feeling guides his actions; and friendship and love are subject to hatred of tyrants and enslavers. It was a lofty image of a fighter-hero suffering for his people:

Forgetting enmity magnanimously,

obedient to the secret movement,

Maybe I can still

Give a hand to a personal enemy;

But age-old insults

To forgive the tyrants of the motherland

And leave the shame of resentment

Without fair vengeance -

I can not: only one slave

So it can be mean and weak.

Can I see indifferently

Enslaved countrymen?..

No no! My lot: to hate

Equally tyrants and slaves.

But this image remained more of an expression of the author's civic disposition than the objective historical character of a Ukrainian of the 16th century. This is probably why Pushkin noted the epic passages of the poem as particularly successful and remained cold to the hero's monologues. Pushkin expected historicism and "narrative" from Ryleyev.

When Pushkin informed Ryleyev of his remarks about the “Death of the Chigirinsky headman,” Ryleyev wrote in response: “You don’t say a word about the “Confession of Nalivaika”, and I am much more pleased with it than with the “Death of the Chigirinsky headman”, which you liked so much. In “Confession” - thoughts, feelings, truth, in a word much more sensible than in the description of Nalivaika’s daring, although, on the contrary, there are more things in daring ”(Letter of May 12, 1825 - Ryleev, Poln. sobr. soch., p. 494.). From this we can conclude that this second passage, which Pushkin did not mention, was considered by Ryleev to be the most significant and successful for him. Indeed, "Nalivaika's Confession" is the highest achievement of Ryleev's agitational-romantic poetry; quoting an excerpt from Nalivaika's Confession, Herzen said: "This is the whole of Ryleyev." (Russian conspiracy of 1825. - A. I. Herzen, Collected works in thirty volumes, vol. 13, M., 1958, p. 138.)

It so happened that Ryleyev's poems were not only propaganda of Decembristism in literature, but also a poetic biography of the Decembrists themselves, including the December defeat and the years of hard labor. Reading a poem about the exiled Voinarovsky, the Decembrists involuntarily thought about themselves. Preparing for a fight with the autocracy, they knew that in case of failure, severe punishment awaited them. Ryleev's poem was perceived both as a poem of heroic deeds and as a poem of tragic forebodings.

The fate of a political exile, abandoned in distant Siberia, a meeting with a citizen wife - all this is almost a prediction. For the Decembrists, languishing in Siberian exile, "Voynarovsky" turned out to be a poem of results. The “Confession of Nalivaika” became the same mournful monument of Decembrism. According to Nikolai Bestuzhev, she impressed the Decembrists with her “prophetic spirit” so much that Mikhail Bestuzhev once said to Ryleev: “You wrote a prediction for yourself and for you and me.” (“Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, p. 7.)

In recent years, Ryleyev's talent has been rapidly gaining strength, which is confirmed by the poet's undoubted achievements in both lyrical and narrative genres.

He was going to write a big poem from the historical past of Ukraine or Zaporozhye. Separate rough drafts of the poem about Mazepa have been preserved in the poet's papers. Two excerpts from this poem (“Gaydamak” and “Paley”) were published at the beginning of 1825, and Pushkin drew attention to them, foreshadowing the change of the “ministry on Parnassus”: “If Paley goes on as he started, Ryleev will be a minister” . (Letter to A. S. Pushkin dated the end of January - the beginning of February 1825 - Pushkin, Poln. sobr. soch., v. 13, p. 143.)

At the same time, Ryleev conceived a historical tragedy about Bogdan Khmelnitsky (originally it was the idea of ​​a poem “in 6 songs.” “Otherwise, you won’t express everything,” Ryleev informed Pushkin. (Letter of February 12, 1825 - Ryleev. Full collection cit., p. 483.)). The excerpt from this tragedy that has come down to us gives reason to assume that, if completed, it would be the biggest event in Ryley's work.

By the mid-1820s, interest in dramatic genres was again growing in Russian literature. This interest even put aside for a while the passion for the romantic poem. Reflections on the course of the historical process, on the fate of man in this process, on the role of the people in history, on national character and original folk culture - all this was widely reflected in the genre of historical tragedy. Now history interests writers not as a collection of instructive examples, not as convenient material for expressing political allusions, but as a manifestation of national experience, of certain patterns of development. Almost all the important writers of the 1820s turned to dramaturgy, and above all to historical tragedy. P. A. Katenin translated Corneille, Zhukovsky - Schiller, Kuchelbecker - Aeschylus. Original historical tragedies were written or started to be written by F. Glinka, Katenin, Griboedov, Pushkin, Kuchelbecker. Moreover, the tragedy of the mid-20s acquires other features, being updated internally and externally. Now the three unities are almost never observed in it, in the language of the characters individual differences, playwrights depart from traditional Alexandrian verse. But these external changes are conditional. deeper internal changes in the genre: depicting important historical events, the tragedy shows the participation of the people in them, boldly includes mass scenes in which the people act not as silent extras, but are an active force. This leads to an increase in the number of characters, to the growth of event episodes, to the appearance of many scenes taking place in different time and in different settings.

This path, to one degree or another, has been done by many writers. The dramaturgy of the Decembrist type, however, is distinguished by a tendency to curtail love intrigue due to a more detailed and purposeful depiction of political and social conflicts. Kuchelbecker in 1822 wrote the tragedy "The Argives" about the enmity of two brothers - a tyrant and a republican - in ancient Corinth. The struggle of passions, feelings and duty is intertwined with a love affair - the rivalry of two heroes. In tragedy, much comes from the drama of the Schiller model. Soon Kuchelbecker began to create a tragedy in which ordinary people act on the stage, and the love motive fades to nothing, because the main place in it is occupied by the theme of the republican conspiracy against tyranny. But Kuchelbecker could not complete such a tragedy (the second edition of “Argivyan”). Pushkin, on the contrary, quickly abandoned the idea of ​​the tragedy about Vadim, which at first he apparently intended to write in the traditional spirit of the Ozero tragedies, concentrated his energies on the historical folk drama, creating Boris Godunov. The idea of ​​a drama of the same type matured in Griboyedov (plans and scenes of the tragedy "1812").

The path of Ryleev as a playwright is also very indicative. Although he did not create a single complete dramatic work, his search went in the same direction as that of his contemporary playwrights.

Back in 1822, before starting work on Voinarovsky, Ryleev conceived a historical tragedy about Mazepa. The sketches and smooth tragedies show that the theme of love passions and melodramatic effects almost prevailed here: the villain Mazepa takes revenge on Peter for the insult; Kochubey takes revenge on Mazepa for the desecrated honor of his daughter; Matryona Kochubeeva rushes between her father and her lover, goes crazy, dances around the scaffold on which her father was executed, and finally commits suicide on a stormy night with a flash of lightning and thunder. It is also interesting that Mazepa is depicted here as a cunning, unprincipled and treacherous person, far from the same as he is depicted later in Voinarovsky. Ryleev abandoned the idea of ​​the tragedy about Mazepa, using this material in part in the poem. But already in 1825 he again turned to tragedy, leaving the idea of ​​a poem about Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The tragedy "Bogdan Khmelnitsky" was not over. Only the prologue to it is known, showing how far Ryleev went forward along the path of nationality and historicism.

The tragedy begins with a prologue on Chigirinskaya Square. Before showing his hero, Ryleev depicts the environment in which the national liberation movement matured - an active folk background. Events of national significance take place on Chigirinskaya Square, history is being made on it. The peasants are ruined and oppressed, and they are ready to protest; peasants in the square - an unusual episode. The Cossacks make speeches full of indignation and protest.

This scene is evidence of Ryleev's outstanding skill and courage. Concerned more than ever about the historical authenticity of his drama, he, according to F. Glinka, “intended to travel around different places in Little Russia, where this hetman acted, in order to give historical credibility to his work.” (“Literary Heritage”, No. 59, p. 216.) The life and customs of the Ukrainian peasants, their language are reflected in the prologue to “Khmelnitsky”, written in white iambic pentameter. Ryleev's tragedy, judging by its beginning, was, in all probability, to approach the type of popular historical drama, the model of which was given by Pushkin.

N. A. Bestuzhev wrote in his memoirs that “the new compositions begun by Ryleev bore the stamp of the most mature talent. One could hope that experience in the literary field, purified concepts and great intelligibility would give us the most perfect works. I regret that my weak memory cannot provide clear proof of this from the firstfruits about “Mazepa” and “Khmelnitsky”. From the first, some excerpts were printed, the other was still, so to speak, in swaddling clothes, but already his birth promised the maturity of talent ahead. (“Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, p. 27. Ryleev read the prologue to “Khmelnitsky” in a circle of writers and members of a secret society at the end of 1825. See the testimony of V. I. Shteingel (“Literary Heritage”, No. 59, p. 234) .)

Ryleev's talent as a lyricist developed with special force in his poems of 1824-1825. Entry into the Northern society and active work in it filled the life of the poet with new content, high meaning. All this was reflected in the lyrics of Ryleev, affected the image of his lyrical hero. The positive hero in Ryleev's poems of the early 1920s was a generalized and abstract figure (“Il Cassius, or Brutus, or Cato, the enemy of the kings!”). Even bearing the specific names of the poet’s contemporaries (A.P. Ermolov, N.S. Mordvinov), this hero still remained an abstract image (“the hope of fellow citizens”, “favorite of glory”, “young knight” - it is said about Yermolov, who in this time was already, by the way, forty-four years). In the “Message to N. I. Gnedich” a generalized image of a high poet is drawn, in the ode “Civil Courage” - a selfless citizen. These heroes do not have individual features, their noble qualities are eternal at all times:

... A virtuous man has been given to us;

For half a century he has been Russia

Divit with civic courage;

Votshe treachery hisses around -

He stepped on his neck.

("Civil Courage")

The positive hero of civil lyrics at first was portrayed separately from the lyrical image of the poet, who looked rather conventional in elegies and friendly messages (both the love lyrics of the young Ryleev and the poem “Desert” are largely imitations of Batyushkov and variations of his themes of love, friendship and free life in quiet corner), In the future, the lyrical image of the author becomes more complicated, and more importantly, acquires individual features.

Civil themes begin to sound like personal in the work of a number of leading poets of the 1920s. The hero of Vyazemsky's "Despondency" or Pushkin's "Village" personally suffers deeply from all the injustices of the political system, he mourns for the oppressed people, although he could enjoy life. Each of the significant Russian poets contributes their individual features to the creation of the image of a lyrical hero - an advanced person of the era of the 20s. And we will not confuse the passionately excited hero Pushkin with the skeptic Baratynsky, the stern conspirator-revolutionary VF Raevsky with the eternally restless wanderer Kuchelbecker. (On the evolution of the lyrical hero in Russian poetry of the 1820s, see: L. Ya. Ginzburg, On the problem of nationality and personality in the poetry of the Decembrists. - Sat. “On Russian realism of the 19th century and questions of nationality in literature”, M.– L., 1960, pp. 74; see also History of Russian Poetry, vol. 1, L., 1968, pp. 293–297.)

Among the poets who created the lyrical image of a fighter and freedom lover, the first place belongs to Ryleev. Reflecting in his poems his rich inner world, his sufferings and doubts, he created an individualized, truthful and concrete image of a Decembrist revolutionary.

In "Stans", written in 1824 and dedicated to A. Bestuzhev, Ryleev develops the seemingly already traditional theme of the unfulfilled dreams of youth, disappointment and life fatigue. The “terrible experience” dispersed all youthful illusions, and the “sad world” appeared to the poet as a gloomy grave. People who seem to share the views of the hero are actually far from him. The stanza, which was not included in the printed text, explains the real reasons for the poet's sadness and anguish:

All of them with an insensitive soul

Just for your own benefit

Retain artificial heat

For the good of the people...

“They” are Ryleev’s contemporaries, able to talk about the “common good”, but completely incapable of sacrificing anything for the sake of this good. Indifference, coldness, selfishness of people become the tragic theme of Ryleev's lyrics.

This theme achieves special power in the best lyrical work of Ryleev - the poem “I will be at a fateful time ...”. It was first published in 8356 in Herzen's "Polar Star" under the title "Citizen", and although the title is unlikely to belong to Ryleev, it was assigned to the poem.

“Will I be in a fateful time…” written by Ryleev, apparently in 1824, although the testimonies of contemporaries indicated another time of its creation - December 1825. In any case, this is a work of a mature poet, in which the originality and originality of Ryleev's style manifested itself to the fullest.

Having embarked on the path of political poetry since 1820, in the last years before the Decembrist uprising, Ryleev reflected revolutionary and republican views in his works. This fully applies to "The Citizen" - a poem obviously illegal, written for propaganda purposes.

Having mastered the enlightening view of poetry, enshrined in the theoretical provisions of the charter of the Union of Welfare, Ryleev wrote in 1825 in the article “A Few Thoughts on Poetry”: not well known to him." (Ryleev, Poln. sobr. soch., p. 313.) The same thoughts are demonstratively emphasized in the dedication of “Voynarovsky” to A. Bestuzhev, whom the poet asks to accept the “fruits of labor”:

Like Apollo's strict son,

You will not see art in them;

But you will find living feelings;

I am not a Poet, but a Citizen.

The contrasting of “feelings” and “thoughts” with “art”, although it runs counter to the in-depth attention characteristic of the 1920s to the pictorial possibilities of poetic language, to the development of style and verse technique, does not mean that the problems of form did not or did not interest Ryleev. Along with other poets of the era, he created a style of new civil poetry, freeing itself from the archaic poetics of civil poetry of the 18th century and overcoming the limitations poetic style"Karamzinists", a style associated with the development of "intimate" themes. And the poem “Citizen” is the most striking manifestation of the new style. All the features of the high hero of civil poetry and the lyrical hero of many of Ryleev's works come together here, creating an integral and new image in Russian poetry. “The Citizen” is the pinnacle work in this respect, the poet's fundamental success both in ideological and literary terms.

The image of the author in the poem is the image of a citizen in the Decembrist sense of the word. (On the Decembrist phraseology, in particular on the understanding of the word “citizen”, see: V. Hoffman, Ryleev’s literary work. - K. F. Ryleev, Full collection of poems, “Poet’s Library” (B. s), L., 1934, pp. 41–43.) He embodies everything high virtues: love for the motherland, courage, determination, willingness to sacrifice oneself.

This is a fundamentally new literary image. First of all, it is deeply lyrical, given “from within”. Secondly, his feelings, his behavior, as they are described in the poem, come into sharp conflict with the feelings and behavior of the majority. As can be seen from the poem, the position of the Ryley hero, similar to the lonely position of Chatsky, is largely due to the actual loneliness of the revolutionary patriot in the then society. It is noteworthy that the virtues of the Citizen no longer corresponded to the literary tradition that the poet had recently been guided by, creating images of positive contemporary heroes (“Message to Gnedich”, “Civil Courage”, etc.).

Ryleev departs from the usual for civil poetry of the 1810s-1820s, the situation of clashes and struggles of tyrants with heroes or sublime poets with corrupt flatterers (“Poets”, “Yermolov” by Kuchelbecker, “To a temporary worker”, “Message to Gnedich” by Ryleev and many others) . The collision that Ryleev showed in The Citizen outwardly resembles the conflict between Cato and Caesar's supporters (Fragments from Pharsalia by F. Glinka), but in reality it is new, first "groped" by Ryleev and introduced by him into poetry. The lyrical image of the poem - Citizen - not so much fights with his enemies, but convinces Possible allies. “The pampered tribe of reborn Slavs” is not “tyrants”, not “flatterers”, not “slaves” and not even “fools”. These are young men with a “cold soul”. Coldness, indifference to everything, selfishness are their main features. This is that part of the noble society, which the most active Decembrists stubbornly, but in vain, sought to win over to their side. Many sympathized, but loners dared to enter into a decisive struggle. And this deeply worried the Decembrists, it was a constant topic of their conversations.

A.V. Poggio, in his testimony, spoke about the arrival in St. Petersburg in the summer of 1823 of Prince A.P. be responsible for them." (“The Decembrist Revolt”, Vol. II, p. 69.) To this, N. Muravyov answered him, “that young people are not inclined to that”, (Ibid., p. 72.) that it is difficult to promise anything definite . These “not inclined” young people were that part of the educated nobility that joined the Decembrists during a relative lull and the legalization of the forms of their activities (at the time of the Welfare Union), but moved away from the movement during a period of exacerbation of social contradictions. Thinking of indifferent, “not inclined to that” young people, Ryleev writes his lyrical appeal. It was how the Decembrists perceived the “Citizen” appeal. N. Bestuzhev says that the poem was written “for the youth of the Russian upper class”, (“Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, p. 28.) and in the list of M. Bestuzhev it is called “To the Young Russian Generation”. (See "Literary Heritage", No 59, p. 92.)

Setting a specific political task in a propaganda work, Ryleev solves it as an artist. It was thanks to the poetic embodiment of the theme that he managed to create a work of great generalizing power. It was brought to life by a certain historical moment, but it turned out to be relevant for many generations of Russian people. There are two images in the poem that oppose each other: the lyrical hero, “I”, and the “coddled tribe” of young men who neglect their civic duty. The opposition of these images and their correlation with the concepts of time, history, people constitute the ideological meaning of the poem and are clearly expressed in its entire composition.

The construction of the “Citizen” is distinguished by harmony and logic. Each of the five four-line stanzas consists of syntactically the same type of sentences, and the logical, syntactic and rhythmic articulations coincide everywhere (a stanza is a complete sentence, a couplet is a separate syntagm). The meter of verse - iambic, mostly six-foot - evokes associations with solemn verses imbued with oratorical intonation.

But for all the clarity and traditional construction, "Citizen" is different from the poems of the previous literary period. His intonation - passionate and excited - is achieved by rhythmic and melodic techniques (for example, rhythm fluctuations - alternating six-, five- and four-foot verses).

“Fateful time”, “heavy yoke”, “destiny of the century” - these words characterize general, abstract and sublime concepts. Along with this, Ryleev widely uses signal words common in freedom-loving civil poetry (“citizen”, “yoke of autocracy”, “oppressed freedom”, “fatherland”, “people”, “stormy rebellion”, “free rights”). At the same time, Ryleev carefully avoids archaisms. The Slavic words used (“idleness”, “heavy”, etc.) are the words of the spoken language, and the epithet “cold” was so common in the poetic speech of that time that it was not perceived as archaism. In the structure of phrases, there are absolutely no inversions alien to the Russian language. Ryleev writes in a high style, using only the means of the living Russian language.

The lexical composition of the poem is vividly characterized by the antithesis drawn through its entire text. She helps the poet to describe the two groups of images that are opposed in The Citizen. So, “boiling soul” (citizen) correlates with “cold soul” (young man), words that seem to denote incompatible concepts are rhymed: “voluptuousness - autocracy” (the first excites associations of light poetry, the second - a political word). The same antithesis is in the rhymes of the last stanza: “negi - Riegi”. Of the two rhyming words, the first is associated with elegiac, the second with political poetry.

The vocabulary of "The Citizen" evokes a number of historical associations. Speaking about the fact that his contemporaries are “a tribe of reborn Slavs,” Ryleev introduces the theme of the Russian past, which is very important for him. The image of a Slav as a bearer of heroic and patriotic feelings is constantly present in Decembrist poetry. For Ryleev, a Slav is not just an ancestor. This is also a kind of word-signal, entailing the idea of ​​national prowess, courage, severe simplicity of morals, love of freedom. (So ​​the theme of the past is revealed in the “Novgorod” images of V. Raevsky and Kuchelbeker, in the thoughts of Ryleev himself, in the poems of N. M. Yazykov and V. N. Grigoriev.) Young people are “reborn Slavs”, these words had a lot to say to the reader. The names of Brutus and Riega were also signal names. The first referred to ancient history, to the theme of ancient republics and tyranny, the second was connected with the topic of the Spanish uprising in the 1920s. Placed in the last line of the poem, these names were especially remembered and perceived as a military call.

If the theme of the Citizen is given in a high stylistic key, then the theme of “cold youths” is stylistically opposed to it. “Nega”, “voluptuousness”, “idleness” are words associated with the themes of intimate lyrics. Ryleev saturates with them the characteristic of “young men”. In the first stanza - “a pampered tribe”, in the second - “embraces of voluptuousness” and “shameful idleness” (it is interesting that the original in the autograph was: “careless idleness”, but Ryleev replaced the traditional epithet with his sharply evaluative definition - he judges idleness from the standpoint civil); in the last stanza - “embrace of idle bliss”, where these words are forced. "Voluptuousness", "bliss" and "idleness" lead to a terrible sin - to "coldness". The repetition of the epithet “cold” in the third stanza (“Let them cast a cold look with a cold soul”) (It is interesting that in the lists of M. Bestuzhev and N. Bestuzhev (see “Literary Heritage”, No 59, p. 92) this line sounded otherwise: "Let them cast a cold look with composure". It is difficult to say whether this was a mistake or an "correction" of the scribes or an earlier version of Ryleev himself. It is obvious that the expression "cold soul" in the text of the poem sounds much more expressive than the word "compoise ”) focuses the reader's attention precisely on this feature of the younger generation. The Decembrist poet attaches as much importance to the fight against "coldness", that is, against modern egoistic morality, as he once did to the denunciation of tyrants and temporary workers.

It can be said that the main contradiction revealed by Ryleev in the poem is the contradiction between the objective course of time and the delusions of people who do not understand this objective course of history. The “fatal time” - an image that already appears in the first verse - is developed in the subsequent stanzas of the poem: “the people, having risen”, will seek “free rights” in a “stormy rebellion”, that is, the time will come for inevitable popular indignation. A citizen understands where the course of events is directed, he is at one with history. The fate of those who do not want to "comprehend ... the destiny of the age" will be different.

The poem lacks the motifs of doubt, sadness and disappointment characteristic of some other works by Ryleev, and the theme of doom characteristic of him (“Nalivaika’s Confession”) is rethought. It is not the hero who is doomed, but those who do not understand him, do not go along with him, who are threatened with shame and a miserable fate. Therefore, Ryleev not only stigmatizes them, but also convinces them. This is the propaganda effect of the poem. There is no canonized conflict between good and evil. It is rather a conflict of faith with unbelief; conviction with indifference. Barely outlined by Ryleev, this theme became the leading one in classical Russian literature.

Subsequently, Herzen wrote with pain about the people of the 19th century, who had lost their ideals to every single one, from the crucifix to the Phrygian cap. He speaks of "stagnation", of the "Chinese dream" into which the "unclean philistinism" has plunged. (“Ends and Beginnings”. - A. I. Herzen, Collected works in thirty volumes, vol. 16, M., 1959, p. 178.)

Herzen wrote about the Europeans, but this was also a sore point in Russian life. Indifferent, who have lost their faith - this is the sad generation depicted by Lermontov, and partly a galaxy of "superfluous people", and the skeptics of Dostoevsky, and the rationalists of L. Tolstoy. Each writer interprets unbelief in his own way, but for each of them unbelief, indifference, coldness is one of the most dangerous ailments of the time.

Based on reality itself, Ryleev elevated the topical political satire to the level of an impeccable work of art, affecting the deepest problems of Russian national life.

The poetry of the Decembrists has never yet risen to such masculinity and strength that Ryleev achieved in The Citizen, as if the poet had sounded the alarm on the eve of December 14 in order to raise the fighters to battle. Echoes of the "Citizen" were heard on December 14 on the Senate Square. Leaving the house, the Decembrist A. M. Bulatov said to his brother: “And we will have Brutus and Riegs, and maybe they will surpass those revolutionists.” (M. V. Dovnar-Zapolsky, Memoirs of the Decembrists, Kyiv, 1906, p. 238.)

Other poems by Ryleev of this period show how many new themes he put in poetry, how the image of the lyrical hero became more complex and psychologized, while maintaining all the integrity and originality of the image of the poet-fighter.

Interesting created by him lyrical images women, as well as his love lyrics of recent years.

In the spring of 1825, a poem “Vera Nikolaevna Stolypina” was written, addressed to the daughter of N. S. Mordvinov on the death of her husband, Senator A. A. Stolypin, who was close to the Decembrist circles. This typically Decembrist didactic poem paints ideal images of a citizen and a citizen. Ryleev speaks of the high social purpose of a woman. He was one of the first in Russian literature to create the image of a heroine who is not inferior to a man either in her civic virtues or in her personal courage. Already outlined in thoughts (“Olga at Igor’s grave”, “Rogneda”), this image is developed in “Voinarovsky”, which shows the ideal woman-citizen who shared with her husband both his convictions and his fate. Vera Nikolaevna Stolypina is likened to the great women of the past. She must subordinate her personal grief to her “sacred duty” to society and raise her children as heroes and fighters against “untruth”.

In the winter of 1824–1825, Ryleev wrote a cycle of love elegies. This cycle is clearly autobiographical. Although the early lyrics of the poet carried echoes of really experienced feelings, they were limited to traditional motifs of longing in separation from a beloved or the joy of possession. Ryleev's mature poems are a story about a unique feeling, a love story, the joys and sorrows of which are concrete and individual. From Ryleev's elegies, we learn how the poet met a woman with whom he initially had ordinary secular relations: perhaps a slight coquetry on her part, an easy courtship on his part (“It’s expensive to visit you ...”).

But the charm of a woman, frequent meetings with her, common memories (she comes from the places where the poet used to live) and common interests plant a deep feeling in the poet’s soul, with which he tries to fight, because he does not want to violate his duty towards another woman (“To the T.S.K. album”). The feeling wins: the woman learns about the suffering of the hero and rewards him with reciprocal love (“My wishes came true”). But his happiness cannot be either complete or long. Love is perceived as forbidden and criminal (“Leave me, my young friend…”). This is a story of feeling divided, but at the same time unhappy, this is a story of doubts and hesitations between attraction to the woman he loves and the voice of conscience:

I'm afraid to meet you

I can't meet.

These doubts were reflected in the last poem of the cycle - "When the soul was exhausted ...". The reconciliation that came after disagreements and quarrels does not and cannot give the hero happiness. The thought of the doom of this feeling no longer leaves the poet.

This whole lyrical cycle was inspired, apparently, by Ryleev's deep passion for a certain Teofania Stanislavovna K. (See "Literary Heritage", No. 59, pp. 160-162.) There is vague information about her in the memoirs of N. Bestuzhev. T.S.K. - a beautiful young woman, a Pole by nationality, turned to Ryleyev in 1824 in the criminal case of her husband. According to N. Bestuzhev, she made a strong impression on the poet not only with her beauty and intelligence, but also with freedom-loving statements. Ryleev, not spoiled by the society of enlightened women, saw in K. his ideal.

Although Ryleev did not reach love lyrics of the depth and psychological subtlety that we see in the works of Pushkin or Baratynsky, nevertheless, in his poems, he began to express true feelings. But the poet-citizen's special perception of the world manifested itself here as well. The suffering of a lover, who is strongly influenced by ideas of duty, moral purity, fulfillment of obligations assumed, is intertwined with the suffering of a citizen and patriot. Evidence of this is the wonderful poem “You, my friend, wished to visit ...”, which, in our opinion, completes the love cycle of 1824. In this work, the love theme received new and unexpected coverage. The whole elegy speaks of the impossibility of personal happiness for the hero. Famous words:

Love never comes to mind

Alas! my homeland suffers,

Soul in the excitement of heavy thoughts

Now he longs for one freedom -

repeatedly cited to confirm the stoic severity of the hero, who rejects everything personal for the sake of a high goal. But I think this elegy reflects a more complex state of mind of a person.

The heroine is far from indifferent to him. He speaks of her with tenderness and gratitude. Her love could bring happiness and comfort. But this path is rejected by the hero:

I don't want your love

I cannot appropriate it;

I can't answer her

My soul is not worth yours.

And the reason for this forced but necessary discrepancy is the “dissimilarity of characters”, a motif widespread in later lyrics, but completely unexpected in the elegy of the 1920s:

Your soul is always full

Some great feelings

You are a stranger to my stormy feelings,

A stranger to my harsh opinions.

You forgive your enemies,

I'm not familiar with this tender feeling

And my offenders

I cry with inevitable revenge.

The reason for the discrepancy is not the betrayal of the beloved, not the cooling of the hero towards her, but the difference in their views on the world, the fact that the woman is “alien” to the aspirations of the beloved. Ryleev makes completely different demands on the woman he loves. Probably, common goals could become the key to lasting and happy love. The absence of this community does not cancel love, but introduces contradictions and suffering into it.

The interweaving of the most intimate feelings with political passions in verse speaks of the courage and innovation of Ryleev the lyricist. The depiction of the complexity and inconsistency of the hero’s state of mind shows that the psychologism, reflection, characteristic of late romanticism, did not pass by the Decembrist poetry either (cf. Kuchelbeker’s elegies of the 1920s or V. F. Raevsky’s poem “To my sleeping woman”). And yet, in the poetry of the Decembrists, and above all in the work of Ryleev, the emphasis is not on the struggle of contradictions, from which there is no way out, but on the image of the path that should be followed.

A special place in the poetic heritage of Ryleev is occupied by his propaganda songs, written by him together with A. A. Bestuzhev. Ryleev marked his entry into the Northern Society by the fact that in the fall of 1823, at one of the meetings of the secret society, he proposed to influence public opinion by spreading freedom-loving and anti-government songs. And Ryleev began to compose similar songs himself.

The satirical and “observant” songs of Ryleev and A. A. Bestuzhev should be considered as the most striking manifestation of the Decembrist secret poetry, marked by the stamp of the people. It should not be forgotten that these songs were written with an eye on the uprising of the Semyonovsky regiment.

There is a large literature on propaganda songs (the works of M. A. Briskman, Yu. G. Oksman, A. G. Tseitlin and others). It was found out that the songs are heterogeneous both in their political content and in the degree of their proximity to folklore, the orientation towards which is generally undoubted. Propaganda songs, as a rule, either imitate folk (“observant”) songs or are composed “to the voice” of popular romances.

Some of the satirical Decembrist songs were not intended for wide campaigning. Such is the song "Oh, where are those islands ...", in which there are many proper names and hints that are understandable only in a narrow circle of people.

Of particular note are the songs of Ryleev and Bestuzhev, created for distribution among the people. These are the songs “Our Tsar is a Russian German ...”, “Oh. how the blacksmith walked…” and “Ah, I feel sick…”. Here, reflections on the historical role of the people, political revolutionism, a literary attitude to folklore and spontaneous democracy of the "left" Decembrists merge together, especially in the last of these songs.

The song "Our Russian German Tsar ..." was intended for the soldiers and was written as if on their behalf. Like other propaganda songs, it has come down to us in different versions, shorter and longer, with a whole range of details. However, these details are mostly of a private nature (“Volkonsky woman is the Chief of Staff. And another woman is the Governor in Abo. And Potapov is a bad General on duty”), interesting only for the insiders. The song uses typical folklore techniques (song repetitions, intonations), but its vocabulary is not sustained in the folk spirit and there are words that do not correspond to soldier speech (“compliments”, “enlightenment”).

The song “How the blacksmith was walking ...” should be highlighted especially. In it, the king is called a tyrant and a scoundrel worthy of death. The weapon of vengeance is a peasant's knife, taken from folk-robber songs. Together with the king, princes and nobles, priests and saints are worthy of execution. The blacksmith is the bearer of social revenge.

The appearance of the song “How the blacksmith was walking ...” should be put in direct connection with the discussion in the Northern Society about regicide, it largely precedes this discussion, and perhaps is its echo.

Rejecting Yakubovich’s anarchist plan “to break up taverns, allow soldiers and mob robbery, then take banners out of some church and go to the palace,” (Ryleev’s testimony to the Investigative Committee. - “The Decembrist Revolt”, vol. 1, p. 188.) Ryleev and Bestuzhev also rejected his proposal of regicide out of personal revenge (Yakubovich personally hated Alexander I, but abandoned the plan of regicide when Nicholas came to power). However, the idea of ​​regicide as a necessary act of political struggle did not arouse Ryleev's resistance.

Unlike Nikita Muravyov, Ryleyev and Alexander Bestuzhev were supporters of the most resolute methods of struggle, and the very idea of ​​regicide excited them passionately. When in November 1825, in connection with the first oath to Konstantin, a plan for further actions was discussed, Ryleev was in favor of taking extreme measures.

“It was supposed, - said Kakhovsky during the investigation, - in the first days after the news of the death of the emperor, if the crown prince did not renounce the throne or if they did not have time here, then to exterminate the reigning family in Moscow on the day of the coronation; Ryleev also said this, and Baron Shteingel said: it would be better to capture them all at the wreath in the Church of the Savior behind the Golden Grid before that day. Ryleev picked up: “Glorious! Again the people will shout: it's nice! any!..””. (“The Decembrist Revolt”, vol. 1, p. 376.) At a meeting of a secret society, Ryleev spoke of regicide in words very close to the song “How the blacksmith was walking ...”:

And making a prayer -

The third knife on the king.

It is clear that moderately minded Decembrists like Nikita Muravyov, and even more so Fyodor Glinka, could not subscribe to the song “How the blacksmith was walking ...”.

V. I. Shteingel in his testimony quite accurately reproduced the struggle within the Northern Society, which lasted until December 14: “Frequent visits to Mr. Ryleev and reasoning began. I noticed that Alexander Bestuzhev and Kakhovsky, whom I only recognized at that time, were fiery terrorists. I remember that on the 12th, when I came to Ryleyev, I found Kakhovskiy and Nikolai Bestuzhev talking at the window, and the first one said: “You can’t do anything with these philanthropists; here you just need to cut, and only ... "". (“Literary Heritage”, No. 59, p. 235.)

In the song “How the blacksmith was walking…”, the connection with folklore is felt most of all. She is also known in several versions, which all imitate the songs of the “observant”. In the song of Ryleev and Bestuzhev, the folklore refrain-repeat “Glory!” is preserved, and such folklore techniques as triplet (“three knives”) and the consistent amplification of the motive (“The first knife On the boyars, on the nobles ... The second knife On the priests, on the holy man) are used. ... The third knife On the king”).

Otherwise, the nationality manifested itself in the song “Oh, I feel sick ...”. Here we have a case in which the Decembrist poets ideologically overcome the distance between themselves and the people, which is so fatal to their entire movement.

This song is an example of the closest convergence of Decembrist poetry with the people, with folk poetry in essence, in a broad ideological and political sense. It was the people who suggested this song to the Decembrist poets, in folk art one should look for its main source. In an 1820 soldier's proclamation on judicial lawlessness, it was said: “There is no justice for the poor in the courts. Laws are issued for the robbery of the judiciary, and not for the observance of justice.” (Quoted from the article: M. Semevsky, Unrest in the Semenovsky regiment in 1820 - “The Past”, 1907, No 2, p. 85.) In the song of Ryleev and Bestuzhev, the same judicial places are spoken of almost in the language of a soldier’s proclamation:

And the truth is nowhere

Do not look, man, in court:

No cyanosis

Judges are deaf

Without guilt, you are guilty.

There is no stylization of a folk song here, and it was written “to the voice” of the popular sentimental romance by Neledinsky-Meletsky. But, sounding on behalf of the peasants, this song truthfully and versatile depicts the people's life "from the inside", depicted by the peasants themselves. And this popular point of view is expressed in the song with amazing accuracy. The people here are not idealized, they are deprived of that romantic halo that has been surrounded since the time of F. Glinka's Notes of a Russian Officer in all the Decembrist works. The people are shown oppressed, but not broken, full of humor and common sense. His life is shown concretely, but without unnecessary details that diminish the picture. Serfdom (“people are like cattle, how long will they trade?”), corvée, bribery of judges, soldiery, state taxes (“either roads, then taxes ruined us completely”), the dominance of taverns, priests-world-eaters - it seems, not a single the essential side of people's life is not left without attention. And the authors look at this life not "from above", from St. Petersburg, but "from below", from a serf village. For them, “a bar with a zemstvo court and with a parish priest” is the highest authorities and the arbiters of their fate.

In the song “Oh, I'm sick of…” there are no intonations and phraseology of lyrical and historical folk songs, there are no negative comparisons, no parallelisms, no constant epithets. Meanwhile, the folk character of the song is obvious. This is also achieved by the language of the song, in which common folk vocabulary is widely used (moreover, the authors tactfully avoided deliberate vernacular and vulgarisms), well-aimed folk expressions, sayings (“Two skins are pulled from us: We sow, they reap”, “Without bruising, the judges are deaf, Without guilt you are guilty”, etc.). They give the descriptions of the horrors of folk life a certain humorous tone. This ability of the people to laugh at their oppressors, to stand above them speaks most of all about the viability of the people, about their preservation of self-esteem. And although the song does not contain calls for an uprising, the destruction of the king and nobles, as in other propaganda songs, its end sounds very bold, hinting at many things. The entire last stanza is made up of folk proverbs and sayings:

And high to God

Far from the king

Yes, we ourselves

After all, with a mustache.

So shake your mouth.

Here and insolence, and craftiness, and faith in one's own strength, and hope for a better future.

The very attempt to write poetry separately for the people and for the progressive youth of the nobility testifies to the normativity of the Decembrist aesthetics. People were still understood by them in an abstract, romantic way, sometimes as external form. The song "Oh, I'm sick of it ..." is not a typical, but an exceptional manifestation of the Decembrist people. N. Bestuzhev's memoirs about the dreams of Ryleyev the revolutionary to equal the people in the first act of the struggle against the autocracy are indicative. On the morning of December 14, Ryleev said to N. Bestuzhev: “If someone comes to the square, I will join the ranks of the soldiers with a bag over my shoulder and a gun in my hands.” Nikolai Bestuzhev noticed that this cannot be done in a tailcoat. Ryleev continued: “Or maybe I’ll put on a Russian caftan in order to make the soldier and the peasant akin in the first act of their mutual freedom.”

However, Bestuzhev also advised against this: “A Russian soldier will not understand these subtleties of patriotism, and you will rather be in danger from a blow with a rifle butt than sympathy for your noble, but inappropriate act, why this masquerade?” After listening to Bestuzhev, Ryleev thought about it and said: “Indeed, this is too romantic.” (“Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, pp. 36–37.) A Decembrist revolutionary who was preparing to take to the square on the day of the uprising in a simple Russian caftan and with a gun in his hands, and a poet-citizen who creates revolutionary songs for the people in a folk, peasant-soldier style, - the phenomena are parallel and explaining each other.

On December 14, 1825, Ryleev went to Senate Square, and in the evening of the same day he was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The last months of his life, which he spent in custody, under trial and investigation, are deeply tragic in every respect. In the early days, Ryleev was at a loss, although he seemed ready to suffer for his convictions and foresaw his tragic fate in advance. His letters to the tsar and some testimonies speak of his brokenness, that he considered the cause of the secret society to be completely lost. Of all the feelings, his leading one was guilt - guilt before the comrades whom he led and led to death, before his wife, before his little daughter, even before the tsar, in whose justice for some time Ryleev believed, like many other Decembrists .

Therefore, he constantly asked the king for mercy, especially to his comrades, since "they are all people with excellent talents and wonderful feelings." (“Rebellion of the Decembrists”, vol. 1, p. 155.) At some stage of the investigation, Ryleev tried to lock himself up and deny his guilt when he was charged with plotting regicide. But his behavior was inconsistent and did nothing to help him. Later, the desire to blame oneself for everything and even for the "delusions" of one's comrades should, apparently, morally support Ryleev.

“I confess frankly that I myself consider myself the main culprit of the December 14 incident, because ... I could stop it and not only didn’t think to do it, but on the contrary, with my criminal jealousy I served for others, especially for my industry, the most disastrous example. In a word, if execution is needed for the good of Russia, then I alone deserve it, and I have long been praying to the Creator that the dog ends with me, and all the others to be returned to their families, fatherland and good sovereign by his generosity and mercy. (“The Decembrist Revolt”, vol. 1, p. 185.)

But not only these testimony of Ryleev, given in April 1826, reflect his main mood during the investigation. In the casemate of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the poet is reminded of legends and traditions about Christian martyrs executed by the Caesars, mercilessly persecuted and persecuted. And in the poems addressed to the Decembrist E. P. Obolensky, the poet comprehends his fate and the fate of his friends in a common cause as one of the episodes of the eternal extermination of the righteous by the powerful of this world:

“[And flesh and blood will set up barriers for you,

You will be persecuted and betrayed,

To ridicule and insolently dishonor,

Solemnly you will be killed,

But vain fear should not disturb you,

And are those terrible who have the power to take life

And it cannot harm you.

Happy is whom my Father chooses,

Who will preach the truth here;

That crown, that bliss awaits,

He is the heir to the kingdom of heaven.”

So in a religious form, Ryleev defended the rightness and sanctity of the cause to which he gave his life. In the prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the poet sees servants of the highest morality. He comprehends his path as the path of a preacher of the truth, and although “this feat is terrible for a mortal, but it is a straight path to immortality.”

Ryleev in his life carried out that high program romantic poetry, when a true poet is persecuted and dies for his convictions.

Many poets, both before and after Ryleyev, preached this ideal of courage and heroic self-sacrifice, wrote about persecution, prison, and block. But few could confirm this with their own life and activity: some adapted to circumstances and betrayed themselves, others reconciled and fell silent. Ryleev was destined to drink this cup of suffering to the bottom himself, and no matter how terrible and tragic such a fate, it had great meaning and great lesson for the next generation of revolutionaries.

Ryleev died on July 13, 1826. long excluded from official history literature, he was not forgotten, and his poems continued to be widely distributed. Not only poetry, but also the personality of the executed Decembrist became the object of an ideological struggle. Some tried in every possible way to belittle him and show him as a narrow-minded, almost insignificant person (N. I. Grech), others created an idealized image, a knight without fear and reproach (N. A. Bestuzhev). The image captured by the Decembrists turned out to be more vital, and so he entered the consciousness of many generations.

In the middle of the 19th century, in the assessments of Ryleev's poetry, there was a tendency to oppose civil pathos to the artistic significance of his poems. This view was sometimes manifested in the most contradictory opinions about Ryley's work. N. I. Grech in his old age wrote about Ryleev: “He had no poetic talent and wrote verses that were not smooth, but remarkable for their bile and audacity.” (N. I. Grech, Notes on my life, St. Petersburg, 1886, p. 366.) That is, Ryleev’s “bile” and “impudence” here look like purely individual signs of a human character, as if they do not have any poetic sound. Comparing Ryleev's and Pushkin's poems, N. Bestuzhev argued that Ryleev was superior "by consideration and course", "although by versification" "cannot be compared with any of Pushkin's weakest works". (“Memoirs of the Bestuzhevs”, pp. 25–26.) Separate consideration of content and form in this case proceeded from the recognition that Ryleev’s poems are much poorer than his “thoughts”, “feelings” and “spiritual heat”.

Only Soviet literary critics, having deeply and comprehensively studied the work of the Decembrist poet, were able to abandon the idea of ​​​​his poetic inferiority. But in our view, the opinion was established about some special literary path of Ryleev, about his exclusive mission. V. Hoffman, one of the most interesting researchers of Ryleev’s work, argued that the main feature of his poetry was “the feeling of an extra-literary goal, as a task resolved one way or another”, that this extra-literary goal, relegating to the background “signs of a syllable or genre signs”, and determined the exclusive position of Ryleev in the literature of his era. (See: Victor Hoffman. Ryleev-poet. - Sat. “Russian poetry of the XIX century”, L., 1929, p. 31.)

Undoubtedly, Ryleev the poet had an original voice, but his path in the hysteria of literature was not exceptional. He did a common thing together with other poets and writers who created great Russian literature at the beginning of the last century. Thoughts about the people and about the nationality of literature, the mastery of the diverse truth of life, the expression of a complex human personality, its inner world, the development of a literary language - in all these aspects Ryleev worked and left his mark. He paved the way for the great themes of later literature, which always sought to actively intervene in life and saw its goal in improving reality and fighting for justice. She always had this “non-literary” goal, and Ryleev’s formula: “I am not a Poet, but a Citizen” is deeply organic for Russian literature.

For a short period of his literary activity (1820-1825) K.F. Ryleev created a number of works of art that occupy one of the first places in the history of Russian civil poetry. A participant in the uprising on December 14, 1825, Releyev paid with his life for trying to put into practice those ideas that he served with his poetic work.

Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, Petersburg province. Ryleev's father, a small estate nobleman, a tough and quick-tempered man, was despotic in relation to the family and peasants. The years of Ryleev's teachings also passed in a harsh environment. As a six-year-old boy, he was sent to the St. Petersburg 1st Cadet Corps, which separated him from his family for thirteen years. Literary interests originate with Ryleev while still in the corps. In one of his letters to his father, he calls himself "a very great hunter of books." Cadet Ryleyev's own literary experiments have also been preserved. While still in the cadet corps, the young man, like many of his peers, dreamed of "the happiness of joining the ranks of the defenders of his fatherland." Released at the beginning 1814 from the corps as an ensign, Ryleev got the opportunity to fulfill his dream. He takes part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, which liberated Western Europe from Napoleon. In 1817 Ryleev ends up in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh province. One of the themes of Ryleev's lyrics was his love for the daughter of a local landowner N. M. Tevyashova, who soon became his wife. Asking for permission to marry and leave military service from his mother (his father had died by this time), Ryleev expressed the hope that in the new service he would "pay extra" to the Fatherland that "which he did not finish in the military." In one of the letters to his mother 1818 . he hints at internal motives for his refusal to serve in the military: "For the current service, scoundrels are needed, and fortunately I cannot be one."

The first poetic experiments of K. F. Ryleev, which saw the light, did not stand out in any way among the genres of “light poetry” popular at that time. The birth of a new poet with his own theme and his own intonation was the poem "To the temporary worker" ( 1820.), which appeared in the very first year of the entry of the future Decembrist poet into literature.

Having settled in St. Petersburg, Ryleev since 1821 serves as an assessor of the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber, which gives him the opportunity to defend the interests of the unjustly offended and oppressed.

In 1821 Ryleev is accepted as a member of the Free Society of Russian Literature Lovers. During this period, Ryleev wrote historical ballads, poems and became one of the largest literary figures of the Decembrist trend.

At the same time, Ryleev also develops vigorous social activities. He continues his civil service by going in 1824 to the position of the head of the office of the Russian-American Company. The publication of the almanac "Polar Star" undertaken by Ryleev together with A. A. Bestuzhev was also of great public importance. But the main direction in which she went social activity Ryleeva, became political struggle. Autumn 1823 I.I. Pushchin told the revolutionary-minded poet about the existence of a secret political society in St. Petersburg (the Northern Society of the Decembrists). The tasks of the Northern Society of the Decembrists corresponded to the political views and public temperament of Ryleev, and he became a member of it. Gradually, Ryleev becomes the soul of the Northern Society of the Decembrists. He possessed the qualities necessary for a public figure, a tribune: enthusiasm, the gift of a propagandist, the ability to attract hearts. The most radical members of the Northern Society of the Decembrists united around Ryleev: E. P. Obolensky, P. G. Kakhovsky, the Bestuzhev brothers, A. I. Odoevsky, A. O. Kornilovich, V. K. Kyuchelbeker. This group played a major role in preparing the uprising. December 14, 1825. Ryleev's apartment became a kind of headquarters for the St. Petersburg revolutionaries.

Ryleev embodied the image of a hero-citizen, who was sung by him in poetry. On the day of the uprising, Ryleyev was among its leaders on Senate Square. Shaken by the failure, Ryleev returned home. That same night he was arrested. After solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Ryleev, among the five most prominent Decembrists, was hanged in the early morning July 13 (25), 1826.

Keywords: Kondraty Ryleev, detailed biography of Ryleev, criticism, download biography, free download, abstract, Russian literature of the 19th century, poets of the 19th century, Decembrist poets

In the reader's mind, Ryleev is primarily a Decembrist poet, publisher of the almanac "Polar Star", a noble revolutionary, a man who, by martyrdom, confirmed his loyalty to freedom-loving ideals.

Biography of Kondraty Ryleev

K. F. Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, near St. Petersburg, in the family of a retired lieutenant colonel, and from the age of six he was brought up in the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. Here he fell in love with books and began to write. Thirteen years have passed in studies and drill, not without childish pranks, of course, but also with severe retribution for them. Ryleev's popularity was greatly facilitated by his poems.

Ryleev's youth coincided with a heroic era in the life of Russia, with a glorious twelfth year. He passionately waited for release into the active army and created "victory songs for the heroes", recalling the heroic past of his homeland. Already in the first samples of Ryley's pen, themes and poetic principles were outlined, to which he would remain faithful forever. In 1814, as an eighteen-year-old warrant officer-artilleryman, Ryleev entered the theater of operations. One can only guess how stunning was the contrast between the thirteen-year imprisonment in the corps walls - and foreign campaigns, when in two years Ryleev twice marched all over Europe.

Then came the days of the army. Ryleev's artillery company moved from Lithuania to the Oryol region, until in the spring of 1817 it settled in the Voronezh province, in the village of Podgorny, Ostrogozhsky district. Here Ryleev took up the education of the daughters of a local landowner and soon fell in love with the youngest of them, Natalya Tevyashova. Ryleev, having married and retired, rushes to the capital - where life is in full swing. In the autumn of 1820, Ryleev settled in St. Petersburg with his wife and daughter, and from the beginning of 1821 he began to serve in the St. Petersburg Chamber of the Criminal Court.

Creativity Kondraty Ryleev

Ryleev's poems have already appeared in St. Petersburg magazines. The satire on Arakcheev made the poet's name widely known overnight. Following “Kurbsky”, poems appear one after another in magazines and newspapers signed by Ryleev, in which the pages of Russian history are read as evidence of the ineradicably freedom-loving spirit of the nation. By the nature of his talent, Ryleev was not a pure lyricist; No wonder he constantly turned to various genres of both prose and dramaturgy.

Ryleev's thoughts belong to the genre of historical elegy, close to the ballad, widely used along with lyrical and epic-dramatic artistic means. It is impossible not to notice the educational foundations in Ryleev's worldview, and in his artistic method- a feature of civil classicism. At the beginning of 1823, Ryleev was accepted by I. I. Pushchin into the Northern Secret Society and soon became its leader. Alien to ambitious calculations and claims, Ryleev became the conscience of the Decembrist conspiracy.

Ryleev's poetry did not sing of the delight of victory - it taught civic courage. The poetic maturity of Kondraty Fedorovich had just become apparent to his contemporaries on the threshold of 1825 - with the release of Doom and Voinarovsky, with the appearance in print of excerpts from new poems. Directly linking his life with a secret society, with an organized struggle against autocracy and serfdom, Ryleev in the same 1823 began work on a poem about the Siberian prisoner Voinarovsky.

The epilogue of Ryleev's entire work was destined to become his prison poems and letters to his wife. On December 14, 1825, the first of the organizers of the uprising on Senate Square, Ryleev was arrested, imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and six months later he was executed.

• Thirty years later, A. I. Herzen and N. M. Ogarev began to publish abroad for the Russian reader an almanac of free Russian literature, giving it the glorious name - "Polar Star".
• The motives of Ryleev's lyrics will be developed in the poetry of Polezhaev, Lermontov, Ogarev, Nekrasov.

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795-1826) is known primarily as one of the participants, the head of the Northern Society, which was formed in St. Petersburg in 1822. Ryleev was also engaged in literary activities, but his work did not find much response from the public. Nevertheless, it is Ryleev who is assigned the status of the initiator of the so-called "civil poetry", to which his lyrical poems belong.

early years

Ryleev was born on September 18, 1795 in the family of an officer. Kondraty Fedorovich's father was fond of playing cards and, according to rumors, even managed to lose two of his estates at the card table. The future Decembrist was educated in the cadet corps in St. Petersburg, where he spent about 13 years (from 1801 to 1814). Next, Kondraty Fedorovich was waiting for service in the troops of the empire. Young Ryleev managed to take part in foreign campaigns, freeing Europe from Napoleonic rule. Ryleev left the ranks of the Russian army in 1818, rising to the rank of second lieutenant.

Ryleev the revolutionary

After the army, Ryleev devoted himself entirely to civil service. So, from 1821 to 1824, he sits in the criminal chamber of St. Petersburg, and since 1824, he has been participating in the Russian-American Trading Company. Ryleev's house became a haven for many young writers. Numerous meetings, meetings that took place in the poet's house helped people with the same views on creativity and life to get closer. However, one of the hottest topics at Ryleyev's evenings remained the current political situation in Russian Empire. In 1823, together with Alexander Bestuzhev, Ryleev began to publish the almanac "Polar Star". In the same year, the poet enters the Northern Decembrist Society. The meetings of the Society took place in the house of Kondraty Fedorovich, from which it can be assumed that he could easily “set the tone” for meetings of like-minded people, as well as determine the main directions of the activities of the secret organization.

14 December uprising

The news of the death of Emperor Alexander 1, which immediately spread throughout St. Petersburg, forced the members of the Northern Society to postpone the date of the alleged uprising. On December 14, 1825, the participants in the conspiracy entered the Senate Square. One of the leaders of the uprising was Ryleev, who then suddenly fell ill with a sore throat. Due to his illness, the poet was forced to spend most of his time at home, but this did not prevent him from preparing the uprising: Ryleev invited members of the society to visit him under the pretext of "visiting the sick." For organizing and participating in a rebellion against the tsarist government, Ryleev was arrested. He was supposed to serve his sentence in the Peter and Paul Fortress. A year later, namely on July 13 (25), 1826, Ryleev, along with other members of the revolutionary circles, was executed. The poet, who confidently held himself during the interrogation, did not wait for a pardon from the king.

It is widely believed that on the day of the uprising, Kondraty Fedorovich asked the Decembrist Kakhovsky to sneak into Winter Palace to deal with the new emperor.

Anna Tonitsa

"Life and work of K.F. Ryleev"

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1. Poets - Decembrists in Russian Literature…………………..........2
2. K.F. Ryleev. Life and work:……………………………..........4

2.1. brief information about life path poet and Decembrist;

2.2. Ryley's poems and their meaning;

2.3. social and literary significance of the thoughts of KF Ryleev;

2.4. the poems "Voynarovsky" and "Nalivaiko" - conductors of revolutionary ideas;

3. Creation of the almanac "Polar Star" and work in it .................... 35

4. Contribution of K.F. Ryleev to Russian literature…………………..........40

5. The memory of Ryleev is alive………………………………………...........41

References……………………………………………...........42

1. Poets - Decembrists in Russian literature

During the Patriotic War of 1812, in the face of the threat of foreign enslavement of Russia by France, all the forces of Russian society united.

The people endured all the hardships of the war, showed the greatest courage on the battlefield and in the rear, but remained in feudal captivity.

This could not but disturb the progressively minded noble intelligentsia, who dreamed of the liberation of the peasants. The result of this was the emergence of secret revolutionary societies of the Decembrists, who in their activities paid serious attention to literature.

They saw the main task of art in serving the progressive ideas of the century, in the struggle against the autocratic regimes prevailing in the country, in establishing national original literature.

Among the Decembrists were talented writers, critics, publicists, playwrights and, of course, poets.

Decembrist poets: Bestuzhev A.A., Kyuchelbeker V.K., Katenin P.A., Ryleev K.F., Glinka F.N., Raevsky V.F., Odoevsky A.I., - believed that the soul is brought up not so much alone with itself and not even in a narrow friendly, family, domestic or class circle familiar to it, but on historical and heroic examples.

Ryleev revealed his understanding of the tasks of "true poetry" in this way: "... let's make every effort to realize in our writings the ideals of high feelings, thoughts and eternal truths." Therefore, in the works of the Decembrists, a wide panorama of national history, the heroic past of different peoples is deployed. Although the Decembrists did not deny the self-education of the individual, they attached great importance public education.

IN literary creativity Decembrists, the theme of the poet-tyrant-fighter, the poet-tribune, the herald of high truths and holy civic duty appears. A close ally of the Decembrists, N.I. Gnedich, explained: “a pen in the hands of a writer can be /…/ a weapon more powerful, more effective than a sword in the hands of a warrior.”

Military glory, heroic feat for the good of the Motherland, denunciation of tyrants with a poetic word, fidelity to public duty - these are the themes of the Decembrist poetry.

It is not surprising that the Decembrist poets were primarily concerned with the themes of freedom, tyranny, and public good:

Leave other singers love!

Is it love to sing where blood splatters? -

Raevsky exclaimed, and Ryleev seemed to agree with him:

Love never comes to mind

Alas, my homeland suffers,

Soul in the excitement of heavy thoughts

Now he yearns for freedom.

It should be noted that the Decembrists are beginning to rework the characteristic genres of romantic poetry, based on their worldview. The elegiac message, the love elegy are invaded by civic themes, social and political vocabulary, words and phrases of the “high” style are widely included. Traditional genres are filled with new content, poetic language is changing. At the same time, the Decembrists reckon with the achievements of recognized authors, introducing a fresh spirit into literature.

In the work of the Decembrist poets, different stylistic trends can be traced: neoclassical, associated with an appeal to antiquity (P.A. Katenin), civil, oriented towards the educational ideas of the 18th century (Raevsky, Odoevsky, Ryleev).

The revolutionary pathos of the poetry of the Decembrists, their views and all their activities markedly increased the social tone of Russian literature. Taking a lively part in the creation of the Russian literary language, enriching poetry with new artistic means, developing new genres, types and themes of literature, improving Russian versification, the Decembrist poets made an invaluable contribution to the treasury of Russian poetry.

The fact that the Decembrist poets raised the ideological level of Russian poetry to a high level is their invaluable and unforgettable merit. They achieved a lot: they proclaimed and defended new humanistic values, questioned and revised the "rules" of classicism, destroyed the forced connection between genre and style, achieved the lexical and stylistic accuracy of the word. With all this, they paved the way for a free, sincere, direct expression of feelings, contributed to the creation of a literary language.

2. K.F. Ryleev. Life and art

One of the most, in my opinion, the brightest representatives of the galaxy of Decembrist poets is Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev.

He was born on September 18, 1795 in the village of Batovo, Petersburg province, in the family of a retired lieutenant colonel.

In 1814 he graduated from the First Cadet Corps and was enrolled in the army, which included Germany, Switzerland, and France. Returning to Russia, continued military service and then retired.

From 1821 to 1824 he served as an assessor in the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber, where he developed a vigorous activity. It is known that he defended the peasants of Count Razumovsky, who responded to oppression with unrest. Simple people they said about the Chamber of Court: “Ryleev is there, he does not allow the innocent to die!”.

Then Kondraty Fedorovich took the post of head of the office in the Russian-American company. Here Ryleev launched a patriotic activity: he fought against the destruction of Russian possessions in California, the closure of Fort Ross. For those smart and daring papers that Kondraty Fedorovich compiled, the directors of the company almost lost their jobs: Alexander the First was outraged that the "merchants" were teaching the government. The tsar easily handed over distant Russian industries for plunder, allowing English and American entrepreneurs to operate freely there.

In 1823, Ryleev joined the secret Northern Society and soon became one of its leaders. In 1823 - 1825, Ryleev, together with Bestuzhev, published the almanac "Polar Star". He also wrote several anti-government propaganda songs with him. He took an active part in preparing a speech on Senate Square, on December 14, 1825, Ryleev, like a simple soldier, joined the rebellious ranks. For several hours they breathed the "air of freedom" ... Circumstances were unfavorable for them. Nicholas I won time and hit the rebels from the cannons.

After the suppression of the uprising, Ryleev was arrested and imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was accused of "thinking of regicide", composing and distributing "outrageous", that is, revolutionary, inciting the people against the tsar, poetry. Being imprisoned for almost seven months, Kondraty Fedorovich wrote proud poems:

Prison is in my honor, not in reproach,

For a just cause, I'm in it,

And should I be ashamed of these chains,

When do I wear them for the Fatherland?

The leaders of the revolutionary uprising were sentenced to death penalty. Ryleev's dying letter to his wife and little daughter is sustained in a calm, courageous tone. Eyewitnesses said that at the time of the execution, Ryleev and his comrades behaved very worthily. "Put your hand on my heart," he said, "and see if it beats faster." The heart was beating smoothly. So courageously died for the freedom of the motherland, the "great citizen" and poet Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev.

He lived short life: on the day of his death, July 13, 1826, he was 31 years old. But this life is forever entered into the history of the Fatherland, the struggle for the people - for their freedom and well-being.

A short but fruitful life filled with struggle, work and literary creativity.

Ryleev began to write early, he left to his descendants a great creative heritage, which can be divided into three groups:

• Lyric poems;
• Lyro-epic "Thoughts";
• Poems, tragedy, etc.

The first group includes poems "" To a temporary worker", "To Kosovsky", "A.P. Yermolov", "Civil courage", "Citizen", "On the death of Byron", "Stans", "V.N. Stolypina" , "Bestuzhev", "To N.I. Gnedich", "Apology to N.M.T - howl" and a number of others. In these verses, Ryleev's personal life and poetic program, his path.

Kosovsky, he writes that he refuses the advice of a friend in the regiment to indulge in an epicurean life, “kill with a lazy sleep” “young years”, devote himself to a quiet provincial life, “serene” and “kindred love”. Ryleev says that in St. Petersburg he wants to devote himself to the struggle for freedom

In a letter to Stolypina, he refuses another, then fashionable, theme in poetry - the theme of love, intimate:

Love never comes to mind

Alas! My homeland suffers

Soul in the excitement of heavy thoughts

Now he yearns for freedom.

In his letters to Bestuzhev, Ryleev proclaims himself a poet-citizen and develops his literary program full of love for the "public good":

Accept the fruits of my labors.

The fruits of careless leisure;

I know friend you will accept them

With all the care of a friend.

Like Apollo's strict son,

You will not see art in them:

But you will find living feelings;

I am not a Poet, but a Citizen.

In another message to a friend and comrade-in-arms, an ardent confession sounds, practically repeating in spirit the previous one:

My soul will keep to the grave

High thoughts seething courage;

My friend! No wonder the young man burns

Love for the public good!

The author refers to Yermolov from a whole generation, from all the Decembrists: they knew about Yermolov's oppositional moods and that he was not favored at court, the Decembrists even counted on Yermolov's help during the uprising.

Of the closest examples of valor of pan-European significance, Byron was chosen, whose death in Greece among the rebellious people Ryleev devotes a special poem filled with frank sadness, regret for the loss of a great poet and man and the belief that the people will never forget this genius:

He figured everything out under the sun;

Indifferent to the persecution of fate,

He was only obedient to a genius,

He did not recognize other authorities.

In the poetic "Apology to N.M.T - howl" Ryleev assures:

Not the lyre was given to me as a lot by the gloomy Kron,

A sharp sword to be terrible to the enemy!

The love theme is alien to him. In the days when "the fatherland suffers", only battle anxieties can give consolation to the wrestler-poet.

In the "Message to N.I. Gnedich" Ryleev says that his eternal destiny is "fighting with a crowd of enemies and with prejudice and annoying envy", and in "The Way to Happiness" the author makes it clear that a true poet scornfully rejects lies and chooses deprivation in the name of truth. Full of dignity and honor, ready for any torment, he proudly pronounces:

No no! I will not yield for the blessings of this life,

Neither virtue nor my conscience!

In the poem "Stans" (1824-25), it is clear that Ryleev understands well and keenly experiences the contradictions of the Decembrist movement, primarily the contradiction between the struggle for public freedom and the passivity of the majority in society:

Everywhere meetings are joyless!

Looking for, vain, people,

And you meet cold corpses,

Ile senseless children.

As the author of freedom-loving poems, he became known from 1820, when he spoke out against the all-powerful Arakcheev in the satire "To the temporary worker." Arakcheev was hated by the people, they gave him the nicknames "Ogorcheev" and "Snake Gorynych". The Decembrist N. Bestuzhev testified: "The slightest murmur would hardly arise, and forever disappear in the deserts of Siberia and the stinking crypts of fortresses."

"To the temporary worker" is an angry diatribe of a speaker - a patriot, a champion of freedom. The satire was published in December 1820 in the Nevsky Spectator magazine. “It is impossible to imagine amazement, horror, even, one might say, stupor,” Nikolai Bestuzhev wrote, “how amazed the residents of the capital were at these unheard sounds of truth and reproach, at this struggle of a baby with a giant. Everyone thought that punishment would break out, exterminate both the daring poet and those who listened to him ... Ryleev loudly and publicly summoned the Vremyazhnik to the court of truth ... called his deeds, determined their price and boldly betrayed the curse of posterity.

The satire has the subtitle "Imitation of the Persian satire" To Rubelius ". Persia here, like the "Latin" coloring of the verses, is a disguise; Persia does not have such satire. Persia is present in these verses as a sign that reinforces the accusatory pathos of the poem.

An arrogant temporary worker, and vile, and insidious,

The monarch is a cunning flatterer and an ungrateful friend,

Furious tyrant of his native country,

A villain elevated to an important rank by tricks!

Ryleev cannot openly name the tyrant, in this case Arakcheev, but he recognized himself and made an inquiry to the Minister of Education about the censor and the author. A serious threat loomed over Kondraty Fedorovich, but he was helped by Alexander Turgenev, the brother of the Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev, who came up with such a letter on behalf of the minister to the temporary worker, which contained a request to indicate which lines of satire the count takes on his own account. Arakcheev fell silent, the threat was over.

Next to the image of a temporary worker in the poem, the image of a Poet, a Citizen, a proud independent personality appears. Ryleev's civic position is clearly manifested in the poem - to evaluate a statesman not by the rank he occupies, but by the benefit that he brought to the Fatherland, by what he did for the people:

When there are no direct virtues in me,

What is the use of my dignity and my honors?

Not a dignity, not a family - only virtues are honorable;

Seyan! And the kings themselves are contemptible without them...

Satire made a huge moral impact on society, that is, it achieved its main goal. This was the first blow dealt by Ryleev to autocracy. Many do not see the moral consequences of his satire, but she taught that one can speak the truth without fear, one can judge the actions of the authorities and call the mighty of this world to the people's court.

The poem "Will I be in a fateful time ..." was written in 1824. In Decembrist circles, it was called "Citizen". The poem, like the satire "To the temporary worker", is written in the form of an excited oratorical speech and is full of high civic pathos:

I'll be at the fateful time

To dishonor a san citizen

And imitate you, pampered tribe

Reborn Slavs?

No, I'm not capable in the arms of voluptuousness,

In shameful idleness to drag out your youthful age

And languish with a boiling soul

Under the heavy yoke of autocracy.

The poet considers the struggle “for the oppressed freedom of man” to be the “destiny of the century”, which he calls on every real citizen to fulfill. The generalized image of the poet-fighter in the poem is opposed by those young men who did not understand their duty and left the struggle. They will repent when the rebellious people "catch them in the arms of idle bliss." Rest, lethargy - states rejected by Ryleev, almost unnatural for him, which is revealed by a paradoxical combination of words: "to drag out one's life young." On the contrary, everything lofty, beautiful for the poet is associated with movement: "boiling soul", "stormy rebellion". Ryleev's opposition to society comes to tragedy because he enters a wider circle - the people - and the poet's gaze turns from the present to the future, gives rise to hope for a fair course of future events, saves from disappointment. The mood of the progressive circles of Russian society was reflected truthfully and profoundly in Grazhdanin. This poem is Ryleev's poetic manifesto, the pinnacle of Decembrist lyrics.

A completely independent cycle in the work of Ryleev is represented by his "Dumas".

The theme of the historical fate of the Fatherland, its ancient glory is actively developed by the Decembrist poets: Ryleev, Katenin, Kuchelbecker, Odoevsky, Glinka, Bestuzhev. Domestic history became the favorite science of the progressive youth of the 1920s. Inspired by lofty civic feelings, these young people looked in the past for lessons for real models needed for the coming reorganization of Russia.

The civic goal of the historical plots of poetry and prose of the Decembrists was especially clearly reflected in Ryley's "Dumas", where, according to Alexander Bestuzhev, one can see "an ardent desire to inspire in others the same love for their land, for everything national, to attach attention to the deeds of antiquity, to show that Russia is rich in role models.”

The first edition of the preface to "Duma" was found in the archive. In it, Ryleev openly proclaims the educational and propaganda direction of his cycle. He has no doubt that "the national interest is equally inherent in all social forces that create national history". Ryleev does not distinguish between historical deeds, political motives, which are characteristic of historical heroes. He develops the idea that only "despotism alone is afraid of enlightenment, because it knows that its best support is ignorance."

Reflecting on the present, dreaming about the future, Ryleev turned to the historical past of the Russian people. He was attracted by the patriotic images of his ancestors, the heroic events that have always lived in the memory of the people and made them proud. The historical range of thoughts is very wide - from the 10th to the beginning of the 19th century, from the exploits of Oleg the Prophet to the death of Derzhavin. Thus, a kind of Russian history in verse was created - a series of paintings that restore the heroic deeds of past centuries.

In the genre of the Ryley Duma, elements of a solemn ode and a historical story were combined. Here is a story about a feat, and a certain sermon of some civil principles and virtues in the odic style. The lyrical-epic genre of thought made it possible to do this.

The main components are correctly guessed: the plot and the situation - historical and local, the hero in the situation, the speech of the hero - a story about a feat and patriotic edification, a conclusion, a testament to posterity. Dumas, full of genuine drama, were a great achievement in depicting historical figures, a living person, of a large historical scale.

Each thought of Ryleev is dedicated to some historical figure and is titled with his name: “Rogneda”, “Boris Godunov”, “Mstislav Udaloy”, “Dmitry Donskoy”, “Ivan Susanin”, “Death of Yermak”, “Derzhavin”, “Bogdan Khmelnitsky " and others. The poet glorifies the masculinity shown in the struggle for national independence and the independence of the Motherland, for the liberation of the people from foreign domination. The thoughts aroused interest in strong, brave people who accomplished feats in the name of the Motherland and the people, evoked feelings of pride, sympathy, and could not leave the reader indifferent.

These works are written in a solemn style, sustained in a majestic, slow rhythm, and are distinguished by high civil pathos. However, they are characterized by the dramatic development of events.

At the same time, history is considered by Ryleev as a direct illustration of the problems of our time. A person is depicted not in his concreteness, but universally, the speech of the characters is not individualized and often indistinguishable from the author's speech. This did not disturb Ryleev, for the main thing for him in poetry was the expression of a strong and deep passion associated with the liberation of the people, with the prosperity of the Fatherland.

Ryleev has three groups of thoughts. The first is the historical-heroic reworking of chronicle tales, an instructive past in the most general patriotic sense. These are the thoughts "Oleg the Prophetic", "Svyatoslav", "Boyan", "Mstislav Udaloy", "Olga at Igor's grave" (although it is somewhat complicated by the teaching characteristic of the Decembrists), "Rogneda".

"Rogneda" is a poetic story, which the author included in the collection "Duma", published in Moscow in 1825. The Duma is dedicated to Alexandra Andreevna Veykova (1795 - 1829), niece of V.A. Zhukovsky, one of the most educated women of that time. It should be noted that the plot for the Duma was taken from the first volume of NM Karamzin's History of the Russian State. This is a story about a young woman, the daughter of the Varangian Rogvold, the wife of Prince Vladimir, the mother of Izyaslav. Severe trials fell to her lot, but did not break the spirit and will of Rogneda, who tried to avenge herself and her family:

The sword is up! Suddenly there was thunder!

The illuminated tower shook -

And the prince, embraced by a sound sleep,

Risen, awakened with a crash -

And he sees Rogneda in front of him ...

Her eyes are on fire...

Raised sword and formidable look

The criminal is exposed...

But there is not a drop of remorse, fear for her life in a proud woman who decided to despise her conjugal duty:

"Love! to whom?.. to you, destroyer?..

I forgot whose blood flows in me!

Have you forgotten who killed your parent?

The cruel prince decides to execute the obstinate wife, but Izyaslav's angry speech makes one think about the correctness of the decision made, Vladimir's soul rushes about:

Speech freezes on the lips

The breath stopped, the heart beats;

He trembles, in his bones

And fierce cold and flame pours!

The struggle of passions boils in the soul:

And mercy and vengeance...

But suddenly, with tears from the eyes -

From the heart escaped: forgiveness!

Duma "Mstislav Udaloy" was written in 1822. The plot is also borrowed from the "History of the Russian State" by N.M. Karamzin. It is interesting to note that the young Pushkin was going to write on this subject. The thought is dedicated to F.V. Bulgarin, a writer, journalist, who, before the uprising on Senate Square, maintained close friendly ties with the Decembrists. After the uprising, Bulgarin became a police informer, a militant reactionary. This is a story about the confrontation between the scythe Rededi and Prince Mstislav. Rededya, the mighty giant, almost won the victory, but Mstislav's ardent promise: "Holy maiden, I will build a temple for you!" - Adds strength to the prince and helps him to stand:

And marvelous power instantly

Merged into the prince ... he rebelled,

Rushed by a furious storm,

And the new Goliath fell!

True faith in one's own strength, the desire to protect the Motherland from a hated enemy always leads to victory.

After the release of the thought “Oleg the Prophet”, which tells about his courage, about how he nailed a shield to the gates of Constantinople, Pushkin wrote to Ryleev: “All of them (thoughts) are weak in invention and presentation. All of them are of the same cut: they are made up of common places ... a description of the scene, the speech of the characters and - moralizing. There is nothing national, Russian in them, except for names.

Despite such an assessment, K.F. Ryleev continued to work, put his thoughts and feelings into the mouths of the heroes.

The duma "Olga at Igor's grave" shows the prince as a dishonorable person who tried to collect a double tribute from the Drevlyans and paid for it with his life. The reader cannot sympathize with Igor, despite the terrible death, because he is wrong, he is a villain, an oppressor of the people. Meanwhile, the author is trying to arouse sympathy for the prince by painting the sad figures of his wife Olga and son Svyatoslav who came to Igor's grave. Olga avenged her husband. At the same time, Ryleev, through the mouth of Olga, gives some teaching that is useful for all rulers to know:

Here, Svyatoslav! What does it lead to

Injustice of power;

And the prince is unhappy, and the people

Where on the throne of passion.

The second group of thoughts are patriotic, telling about the fighters for national independence, about the heroes who helped the unification of Russian lands: "Dmitry Donskoy", "Bogdan Khmelnitsky", "The Death of Yermak" and especially "Ivan Susanin". Ryleev manages to put many strong poems into the mouths of the heroes, full of passionate calls to fight "for liberty, truth and law." The descriptive parts here are beautiful: battles, displays of courage, stamina - all this corresponds to the story and all this is poetically expressed.

In the duma "Dmitry Donskoy" the scenes of the Battle of Kulikovo are amazingly beautifully written. The protagonist exclaims, addressing the army before the battle:

We fly - and return to the people

Pledge of bliss in foreign countries:

Holy forefathers freedom

And the ancient rights of citizens.

He stands up for "the holy forefathers freedom" in order to return to the Russians the "ancient rights of citizens" trampled by the Tatars.

Duma "Ivan Susanin" was also written in 1822. It is already interesting and unusual that the protagonist of the work is not a prince, not a king or a nobleman, but a simple peasant - a patriot who led enemies into the forest jungle and destroyed them, dying himself. Before dying, he throws courageous words in the face of his enemies:

Kill! Torture! my grave is here!

But know and rush: I saved Mikhail!

A traitor, they thought, you found in me:

They are not, and will not be on Russian soil!

The national universality of Susanin's feat hides the shortcomings of Ryleev's civic worldview. Therefore, everything that Susanin says is reliable, both from the point of view of history and from the point of view of poetry. The peasant is not forced to pronounce those lofty "civilian" words that are not characteristic of him and do not exceed the plausibility of the image. He cares about the salvation of the king - father, and does not look further. But it was precisely the salvation of Tsar Mikhail Romanov that symbolized the national salvation of Russia, a blow to the "adversaries" who came to Russian soil:

The snow is clean, the purest blood stained,

She saved Mikhail for Russia!

Indeed, Susanin sacrificed his life for the Motherland, for the king.

The Duma was highly appreciated by A.S. Pushkin, the composer M.I. Glinka, inspired by Ryleev’s thought, wrote the opera A Life for the Tsar.

It was courage, love for the motherland and the young tsar, readiness for self-sacrifice that made Ivan Susanin folk hero, and Ryleev immortalized the memory of him in his thought.

The storm roared, the rain roared;

Lightning flew in the darkness;

Thunder rumbled incessantly

And the winds raged in the wilds ...

This is how the thought “Death of Yermak” begins, the text of which was soon set to music and dispersed in a free song throughout the country. They still sing the song, which confirms the opinion that she enjoyed nationwide fame.

The Duma tells about the Cossack leader Ermak Timofeevich, who conquered Siberia, brought this richest land as a gift to the tsar and Russia, but died on a dark rainy night on August 5, 1584 at the hands of the treacherous Khan Kuchum in the stormy waters of the Irtysh. But his image, his deeds live in the memory of the people, and this is a considerable merit of Ryleev, who sang about him in his thought. Like a number of other thoughts, this one also has a dedication, in this case to P.P. Mukhanov, a friend of Ryleev, a member of the Union of Welfare.

The third and most important group are political thoughts, in which there are themes of the struggle between "citizenship and autocracy", the glorification of heroic deeds in the name of freedom for the rights of "citizens". They are full of satire, accusations. Such are the thoughts "Volynsky", "Derzhavin", the unfinished thought "Vadim".

In the Duma "Derzhavin" Ryleev showed his ideal of a poet, for whom the public good is more important than the personal. This is not entirely true. Derzhavin not only attacked the nobles, but himself - the singer of Felitsa - greatly appreciated the royal favors, but Ryleev interpreted his hero in a civil-patriotic way. He acts as a citizen, a defender of "the people's goods, driven everywhere by defense." Successfully introducing quotes from Derzhavin into his work, Ryleev makes the poet a hero - a citizen. Derzhavin "knows no low fear", "he looks at death with contempt", and his creative task is to kindle "valor in young hearts with righteous verse."

There remains a certain number of thoughts, such as "Boris Godunov", "Mikhail Tverskoy", "Dmitry the Pretender", which contain the motives of all three groups, or cannot be directly attributed to any of them. Boris Godunov and Dmitry the Pretender confess their sins and themselves try to explain the dislike of the people for them and the reasons for their own inevitable death, therefore they should not be attributed either to the heroes of history or to the heroes - defenders of the Fatherland.

Intensive work on thoughts absorbed Ryleev. In 1822 alone, 13 dumas appeared in print, and some of them were reprinted 2-3 times. The publication of Ryley's thoughts in journals and the publication of the book attracted the attention of the literary community and received an almost unanimous favorable assessment. Contemporaries noted "the nationality and noble feelings contained in Ryleev's thoughts, his simple and natural story", "pure easy language, instructive truths" and other advantages of these works.

And yet it should be noted that K.F. Ryleev sang few heroes from the people. This is a feature of civil romanticism, when Ermak, Susanin, but not Razin or Pugachev, can be a hero. For Ryleev, as a revolutionary of the nobility, the people were one of the driving forces of history, but not the main one.

Ryleev took a new step in his development with the poem "Voynarovsky"

When this poem was created in 1824, everyone noticed how Ryleev's work was changing. The author no longer identifies himself with the hero, does not put his thoughts into his mouth, which was clearly seen in his thoughts. The poet and the hero look at the world differently, at the events taking place in it, give them different assessments. The historical plot here, as in thoughts, is used by Ryleev in order to carry out civil ideas (this, however, is a super task - Ryleev, as a true poet, first of all cared about the poetry of the work). He seeks, unlike thoughts, to draw an integral human character. We see Voinarovsky in a fight with the steppe nomads, and on the Poltava battlefield, and in exile, and in Siberia. The author created an image that captivated contemporaries - so it was in tune with the era of the pre-December years. Moreover, it turned out to be prophetic: through the figure of Voinarovsky, the Decembrist exiled to Siberia is clearly visible. And next to him is his wife, who came here voluntarily (who "knew how to be a citizen and wife") - this is Trubetskaya or Volkonskaya of 1826 ... The whole story is told by the hero on different stages his fate, with his different attitude to what happened, with deep introspection. The versatility of Voinarovsky's image is Ryleev's great achievement.

A.V. Nikitenko recalls that he, together with Baratynsky, listened to Voinarovsky. Ryleev made an indelible impression on him: “I didn’t know another person,” he wrote, “who would have such an attractive power as Ryleev ... It was worth a smile to light up his face, and you yourself look deeper into his amazing eyes, in order to irrevocably surrender with all your heart to him. In moments of great excitement or poetic excitement, these eyes burned and seemed to sparkle. It became terrifying: there was so much concentrated power and fire in them.

To this we must add that "Voynarovsky" was the only poem at that time that legally propagated - revolutionary - Decembrist - ideas. Soon after the publication of excerpts in the anthology "Polar Star", the poem in its entirety in the first version began to circulate in the lists.

However, "Voynarovsky" is a typical romantic poem, with all its inherent advantages and disadvantages.

Words about the duty of a citizen, about the homeland of a saint, about the struggle against the enemies of freedom, sounding sincerely from other heroes of Ryleev, from the lips of Voinarovsky, Mazepa's nephew and associate, are a stretch. It is difficult to accept Mazepa's statement:

And Peter and I - we are both right,

Like him and I live for the glory

For the benefit of my country.

Voinarovsky had doubts about Mazepa:

We loved our country in it.

I don't know if he wanted

Save the people of Ukraine from troubles...

Voinarovsky knew for sure, if the truth were completely revealed to him, how he should have acted:

I would have killed him first

When would he become an enemy of freedom.

It would be a truly great poem if this process of spiritual growth in Voinarovsky were completed, if he overcame illusions and took the side of Peter. The deepest drama of a person's transition from one belief to another would be taught, the image would receive a capacious ambiguity.

A.S. Pushkin highly appreciated the poem: “Ryleev’s “Voinarovsky” is incomparably better than all his “Dums”, his style has matured and becomes truly narrative, which we almost don’t have yet.”

A. Bestuzhev also praised: “Ryleev published his “Dumas” and a new poem “Voynarovsky”; modesty blocks my lips for praise, in this last, of high feelings and striking pictures of Ukrainian and Siberian nature.

Such assessments prompted Ryleev to create another poem, "Nalivaiko", which told about the struggle of Ukrainian Cossacks with pan-Poland at the end of the 16th century. The poem was not finished, but even from the surviving fragments it can be seen that a lot of space is devoted to depicting pictures of folk life, to the participation of ordinary people in the national liberation movement.

Pavel Nalivaiko is a real son of the freedom-loving Cossacks, one of those who

… age-old insults

To forgive the tyrants of the motherland

And leave the shame of resentment

No fair vengeance

Unable to...

He kills the Pole, the headman of Chigirinsky. And this is perceived as a signal for an uprising. It is headed by Nalivaiko. Before the campaign, he visits the Pechersk Lavra and confesses. The chapter "Nalivaika's Confession" is one of the most powerful and interesting in the poem. No, this is not a request for forgiveness of sins - this is a passionate call to fight against the oppressors of the homeland. For the "Confession of Nalivaika" the censor received a reprimand from Alexander the First through the Minister of Education A.S. Shishkov. If the almanac "Polar Star" had not been sold out so quickly, "Confession" would have been cut out of copies.

A.I. Herzen in the article “The Russian Conspiracy of 1825”, citing the retelling of the final lines of “Nalivaika’s Confession” and highlighting the theme of “great self-sacrifice” in them, writes: “And this is the whole of Ryleev”, somewhat identifying the poet with the lyrical hero.

How many questions that concern his friends does he raise in this historical poem Ryleev? Nalivaika's friend Colonel Loboda doubts the success of the uprising:

Often the thought hurts the heart,

Will blood be shed in vain?

The main character, hetman Nalivaiko, is close to the people, ready to give his life for the freedom of Ukraine from the Polish yoke, but he foresees a tragic outcome and, through the mouth of his hero Ryleyev, answers those Decembrist friends who could be disturbed by the same question:

I know that death awaits

The one who rises first

On the oppression of the people -

Fate has already doomed me.

But where, tell me when was

Is freedom redeemed without sacrifice?

I will die for my native land,

I feel it, I know.

Yes, the fighters walking in front may die, but those who follow them will win! It seems that the author himself speaks through Nalivaiko, since later in a conversation with Bestuzhev N.A. Ryleev said: "Believe me, every day he convinces me of the necessity of my actions, of the future death with which we must buy our first attempt for the freedom of Russia."

The obedience of the people, their fear of "slave chains" saddens the hero of the poem. But Nalivaiko (like the author of the poem) believes that the struggle for freedom will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people:

The peoples will take their rights;

Immortal love for the motherland,

The voice of holy freedom will be heard,

And the slave will wake up to life again.

It seemed strange to many that such a revolutionary essay could get into print. The rank-and-file members of the Northern Society, who, according to the rules of conspiracy, could not know about its strength and number, from this case concluded that there were important officials among them who had the power to silence censorship ...

In 1826, during the investigation, Steingel expressed sincere bewilderment in one of his letters: “It is incomprehensible how, at the very time when the strictest censorship was carefully attached to words that meant nothing ... articles like “Volynsky”, “Confessions of Nalivaika” were skipped.

An anonymous note on the draft censorship charter of 1826 has been preserved in the archives of the Third Branch of the Imperial Cabinet. Here is one of the remarks of this unknown person, undoubtedly loyal to the throne: “It is said in paragraph 151: “It is not allowed to skip passages that have a double meaning for publication, if one of them is contrary to censorship rules.” This gives rise to endless debate ... In justification of this new paragraph, he cites that censorship, on the basis of the previous rules, passed outrageous works: Confession of Nalivaika, Voinarovsky, and so on. It is not true. These works are by no means ambiguous: they clearly preach rebellion, an uprising against legitimate authority, expose rebels, robbers, etc., in a commendable form, and were skipped for publication due to the inexcusable stupidity of the censor, who read them and did not understand obvious malicious intent in them.

In Ryleev's thoughts there was one huge historical truth, which determined their exceptional success and significance. The author emphasized that history is not made by kings, but by other people, famous men, whose memory the people keep in their hearts. Genuine historical figure there can only be a tyrant-fighter, a progressive figure, a patriot, a favorite of the people. Ryleev’s friend and colleague A.A. Bestuzhev gave the following assessment to his work: “Ryleev, the writer of thoughts or historical hymns, broke a new path in Russian poetry, choosing to arouse the valor of fellow citizens with the deeds of their ancestors. The duty of modesty makes me keep silent about the dignity of his works. Kondraty Fedorovich turned to the past not to admire the old days. "Thoughts" evoked reflection not so much on the past, but on the present destinies of the motherland. Although the images of the freedom-loving people Vadim, Volynsky, Kurbsky did not correspond much to their historical prototypes, they served to promote the fight against tyranny and autocracy.

The propaganda masterpiece of K.F. Ryleev - several songs composed in collaboration with A.A. Bestuzhev and, possibly, other, unidentified authors: “You say, say ...”, “Ah, I feel sick ...”, “It’s like in heaven two rainbows…”; “Oh, where are those islands ...”, “Our Tsar is a Russian German ...”, “I played up ...” and others. Judging by the testimony of E.P. Obolensky: “No one was especially engaged in composing these songs ... but each verse had its own author, and in general they were the fruits of cheerful hours of leisure of our poets and writers, members and non-members of the Society during meetings with each other.” However, most of these songs were composed not for the sake of a joke, but consciously and purposefully, for mass agitation, which is also confirmed by the testimony of the Decembrists themselves: “At first we had the intention of dissolving them among the people, but then we changed our minds. What we most feared was the people's revolution; for it cannot be without bloodshed and not for a long time; and such songs could bring it closer.

These songs, created on the fly, impromptu, are one of the brightest and most effective works in the history of revolutionary poetry.

N.A. Bestuzhev in the memoir article “Reminiscence of Ryleev” wrote: “The intentions with which the songs were written, and the influence they produced in a short time are too significant. Although the government tried by all means to exterminate these songs, wherever they could find them, they were made in the spirit of the common people, were too close to his condition to be able to oust them from the memory of the common people, who saw in them a true image of their present position and an opportunity improvements in the future. The slavery of the people, the severity of oppression, the unhappy soldier's life were depicted in them with simple but true colors.

The songs were written to well-known tunes, and this contributed to their popularity and ease of assimilation. In the process of long existence among contemporaries and among the next generations (up to the 1880s), involuntarily, and often intentionally, their text changed, adapted to the most diverse episodes and facts of the social revolutionary struggle. Songs were sometimes combined or, conversely, split up and in this form were recorded and passed from hand to hand for decades. This took place immediately upon their addition. “... passing from hand to hand, a lot was added to them, and each turned in his own way,” A.A. Bestuzhev showed on May 10, 1826.

The originality of the songs is that they are close to folk ones in their structure. They convey the thoughts, feelings of the people, enslaved by the royal tyranny, nobles and officials. The people are looking for the truth and do not find it, but even in extremes, they believe in their own strength:

And what is taken by force

By force we will save that ...

Is this not sedition, not the beginnings of popular anger, an uprising, finally?!

The song "Oh, I'm sick of ..."- one of the propaganda songs written by the Decembrists. During the investigation on February 6, 1826, M.I. Muravyov-Apostol allegedly named Ryleev as the author. On April 24, 1826, Ryleev admitted that he was the only author of the song, but on May 10, Bestuzhev indicated that he had written it together with Ryleev. The rhythmic-intonational pattern of the opening lines of the song is borrowed from Yu.A. Neledinsky-Meletsky's romance “Oh! I feel sick on the other side…” (1791), performed to the tune of the Ukrainian song “My Girl…” and from 1796 included in all songbooks and popular prints. This source allowed the authors to "rehearse" the folk song with particular ease to popularize revolutionary ideas, as the investigators formulated: "... for the desired effect on the minds of the people." This is probably why the performance of the Neledinsky-Meletsky romance was banned in 1825.

The song was a deliberate link in the propaganda work of the Decembrists, therefore, probably, some motives of the widespread folk revolutionary song “The voice of one crying in military settlements ...” were also used in the song. Here are a number of historical materials and comparisons that convincingly testify to the close connection of the song with the political situation in Russia in the first half of the 1820s, in particular, with a handwritten proclamation thrown into the barracks of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment after the unrest of 1820. The speech in the song is on behalf of the serf, but often also on behalf of the people:

And high up to God

The king is far away.

Yes, we ourselves

After all, with a mustache

So shake your mouth.

The song taught to “wind on the mustache”, how to take away by force what was taken by the masters by force. She directly says that “God is high, the king is far away,” so we must rely only on ourselves.

The song "How the blacksmith was walking"written on behalf of the Russian peasants themselves - it resembles a folklore triple tale with a sharpness of content growing from episode to episode. The blacksmith carries three knives from the forge for reprisal: the first is over the boyars and nobles, the second is over the priests and saints, and finally the third is over the king. It is known that in Decembrist circles the question of the assassination of the tsar and the destruction of the entire royal family was discussed. The song pushed the consciousness of the soldiers in this direction:

Here is the first knife -

On the villains - the nobles.

Glory!

And another knife

On the priests, on the saints.

Glory!

And making a prayer -

The third knife on the king.

Glory!

Who will take out

That will come true.

Glory!

Who will come true

Doesn't pass.

Glory!

It is interesting that the two main pillars of the autocracy are accurately named in the song: the nobles and the church.

The song "Our Tsar, Russian German ..."also the fruit of the joint work of Ryleev and Bestuzhev, possibly with the participation of some other persons. It is performed to the melody of a very popular comic duet "Yak priihav zholnir ..." - from the vaudeville opera P.N. Semyonov "Luck from failure, or an adventure in a Jewish tavern" (1818). The testimony of N.D. Kiselyov has been preserved that Pushkin sang this song. The song has been circulated on multiple lists with a wide variety of variations, essentially a complete reworking of the song. In 1867, as can be seen from one denunciation, the song was common among political exiles in Narym with the following lines:

collects tribute,

The people are ripping off

Hey king...

He himself does not know

What commands

Hey king...

What is the king doing? According to the words from the song, he is “every day in the arena”, “loves teaching”, “distributes awards for parades”, “blue ribbons for compliments”. He compensates for the lack of zeal for the good of Russia with cruelty, greed, narcissism: “He presses his elbows, tidies up in his claws”, “All schools are barracks, all judges are gendarmes”, “He is a coward of the laws, he is a coward of the Masons”, “But for the truth- sends the uterus directly to Kamchatka.

The song "Oh, where are those islands ..." (1822 or 1823) - live picture meetings of a secret society at which royal dignitaries and police agents are ridiculed. By the names and hints contained in the text, this song could not be addressed to the general public, it was obviously aimed at a narrow circle of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia, who knew the people mentioned in the song and could properly appreciate the sharpness of judgments about them.

Where is Bulgarin Faddey

Not afraid of claws

Tanta.

Where Magnitsky is silent

And Mordvinov screams

At ease.

Where Grech does not think

That he will be whipped

Hurt.

Where is Speransky priests

Covers like bedbugs

Varom.

Where is Izmailov - an eccentric

Goes to every bar

For nothing.

Who are the people whom the Decembrists mention in the song?

Bulgarin F.V. (1789-1859) - a journalist, for some time he was close to the Decembrists, but later became an informant.

Tanta - E.I. Videman, the aunt of Bulgarin's wife, who had a difficult character.

Magnitsky M.L. (1788-1855) - a member of the Main Board of Schools, who carried out the defeat of Kazan University in 1819 and the following years.

Mordvinov N.S. (1754-1845) - admiral, member of the State Council, had a reputation for incorruptibility.

Grech N.I. (1787-1867) - journalist, writer and philologist, head of schools for the mutual training of guards soldiers (Lancaster schools), was suspected of participating in the drafting of a revolutionary appeal to the soldiers of the guard in connection with the uprising of the Semyonovsky regiment, according to rumors, he was carved in the Third Section.

Speransky M.M. (1722-1839) - prominent statesman, Member of the State Council and Acting Chairman of the Law Drafting Commission.

Izmailov A.E. (1799-1831) - translator, prose writer, poet-fabulist, was considered a drinker.

In addition, Ryleev and Bestuzhev wrote several subservient songs.

Podlyudnye songs - a genre of folk poetry used during folk divination. The Decembrists parodied this genre for the purpose of political propaganda.

The cycle of subservient songs in its structure and content is addressed to the masses of the people. There are good reasons to believe that it was written on the direct instructions of the Northern Society. The author of the cycle of subservient songs, apparently, is mainly A.A. Bestuzhev, but Ryleev’s participation is also very likely.

“Glory to God in heaven, and freedom on this earth!”written to the motive of a folk song, which was later quoted by A.A. Bestuzhev in the story “Terrible fortune-telling” published in 1831, but in the revision of Ryleev and Bestuzhev it sounded completely different:

So that her truth does not change,

Her first friends won't grow old

Their sabers, daggers do not rust,

Their good horses do not pamper.

Glory to God in heaven, and freedom on this earth!

Yes, and it will be given to the Orthodox. Glory!

The song "How a man walks from Novgorod"written to the motive of a folk song, available in the recording of A.A. Bestuzhev, but contains a direct threat:

He is neither a rogue nor a thief; he has an ax behind his back;

And to whom he comes, he will tear off his head.

Song "Along the Fontanka River"”, first published in the collection “The Decembrists and Their Time” in 1951, raises to a direct, open revolutionary uprising. In her fiery, burning lines, the power of great national anger, incinerating everything in its path, is concentrated, as it were. The song denounces the military drill, calls for a fight against the main driller - the "scoundrel tyrant":

Don't they have hands?

To get rid of pain?

Ain't no bayonets

On princes - jerks?

Ain't no lead

On a tyrant - a scoundrel?

The Semyonovsky regiment, which rebelled in 1820 against the Arakcheev regime, is set by Bestuzhev as an example to the soldiers of the St. Petersburg guard. The assassination of the king is depicted here as a heroic and holy feat.

The song "I've been playing ..."full of hope for freedom

I took a walk.

There is no need, friends,

It's with joy.

I am freedom's daughter

Away from thrones

Emperors.

On freedom cry

untie my tongue

The senators.

The last lines contain the intention of the Decembrists after the victory of the uprising to force the Senate to issue an appeal "To the Russian people."

"Like there are two rainbows in the sky"sings of the two joys of the Russian people:

Truth in court and freedom everywhere, -

Yes, and they will be given to the Russians.

The songwriters managed not only to skillfully imitate the tune of a folk song, but also to merge this folk poetics with a revolutionary content. The songs are saturated with specific historical realities, fanned by a wide popular breath, imbued with common sense, cunning and mockery of the king and masters.

The propaganda and satirical songs of Ryleev and Bestuzhev became in many ways an example and model for the subsequent development of the revolutionary song tradition embodied by A.I. Polezhaev (“Oh, so hot, oh, cheers”), V.I. departed”), N.P. Ogaryov (“Reflections of a Russian non-commissioned officer before the campaign”), V.S. Kurochkin (“For a long time the landowners strangled us”) and others.

3. Creation of the almanac "Polar Star" and work in it

One of their largest Decembrist affairs - the publication of the almanac "Polar Star" - Bestuzhev and Ryleev began even before joining the Northern Society - in 1822. They met and became friends at meetings of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

It is not known which of them was the first to come up with the idea of ​​publishing an almanac (the Decembrist Yevgeny Obolensky noted in his memoirs that it was to Ryleev), but already in April-May 1822 they sent a number of letters to the best Russian writers. Ryleev wrote to Vyazemsky: “Undertaking with A.A. Bestuzhev to publish a Russian almanac for 1823, we decided to compile it from the works of our first-class poets and writers.”

Poems and prose were received from Glinka, Kornilovich, Zhukovsky, Davydov, Gnedich, Voeikov, Somov, Senkovsky, Grech, Krylov, Pushkin, Delvig, Izmailov and other authors. Bestuzhev and Ryleev also provided a number of their works.

“To acquaint the public ... with native literature” (Bestuzhev) - this is the purpose of the publication. There was another goal, important, but, of course, not the main one: to solve the problem of literary fees, to set an example, for the first time in the almanac and magazine business, rewarding all authors for the work, and not just a few by choice, as happened before. However, Bestuzhev and Ryleev fully achieved this goal only in 1825, at the third issue of the Polar Star, getting rid of the bookseller Slyonin, who was in charge of the commercial side of the publication, who, paying the compilers, did not reward the authors with anything - according to tradition. When Ryleev wrote to Vyazemsky about the Polar Star that “this publication is the first of its kind with us,” he had in mind, of course, not the monetary side of the matter.

On November 30, 1822, the censor A. Birukov, with whom the publishers fought over many poems (as one memoirist recalled, Ryleev and Bestuzhev even had to “buy” him), signed the manuscript of the almanac for publication. It was printed at the Grech printing house and in December entered the bookstore Slyonin.

Ryleyev and Bestuzhev now and then went into the shop. Graceful small (in the 16th part of the sheet) volumes of the almanac quickly passed from the shelves into the hands of buyers. A week later, not a single copy remained. The success was complete. Only “The History of the State of the Russian Karamzin was sold – shortly before that – just as quickly.

“The talk about the Polar Star does not stop,” Bestuzhev noted. Soon there were responses to it in the magazines. Almanac excited not only literary world but also the entire reading society. There was a lot of praise, but there were also attacks.

In the autumn of 1823, Bestuzhev was on a business trip, Ryleev was engaged in the "Polar Star" alone. He negotiated with the censor, corresponded with the authors. The censor Birukov cut out whole pieces from the works of Pushkin, Vyazemsky.

Bestuzhev, thanks to his reviews, and Ryleev, thanks to the thoughts and excerpts from the poem published in the Polar Star, acted not only as compilers and publishers, but also as authors who determined the main, progressive ideas of this publication classic for Pushkin's time.

If the circulation of the first issue of the almanac was 600 copies, then the second - 1500, and this is a large circulation for that time. But it sold out quickly, in just three weeks.

In 1824, the peasant Agap Ivanovich (surname unknown) came to Ryleev as a messenger for the almanac. Years later, his stories were written down. “At Ryleev’s,” he recalled, “many of his acquaintances gathered at night; they sat for the most part in the back rooms, and, as a precaution, the front rooms were not even lit. They mostly spoke French, and if a Russian conversation began, then Kondraty Fedorovich sent me out of the room. This was going to "Ryleev's branch" - a determined part of the Northern society. Kakhovsky, Yakubovich, Pushchin, Batenkov, Bulatov, Shteingel and others went to Ryleev, who, although he was not distinguished by eloquence, knew how to convince and inspire with sincere and quiet speech.

“The liberation of the fatherland or martyrdom for freedom as an example for future generations was his every minute thought; this self-sacrifice was not an inspiration for one minute ... but constantly grew along with love for the fatherland, which finally turned into passion - into a high, enthusiastic feeling, ”wrote Nikolai Bestuzhev. All the Decembrists remembered Ryleev as an extraordinary person. Alexander Poggio called him "Great Citizen" in his notes.

The third issue of the almanac came out later than the publishers expected: only on March 21, 1825 (instead of December 1824). At that time, they had too much trouble with the Northern Society, which, thanks to Ryleev, was growing rapidly - new members appeared in all regiments of the guard and in the navy, and many of them called themselves "Ryleev's soldiers."

The third issue of the almanac was given to them with great tension. In 1825, they involuntarily began to think about stopping the publication. Already in a letter to Pushkin dated March 25, Ryleev speaks of Zvezdochka, conceived as the fourth and final issue of the almanac.

In January, Ryleev and Bestuzhev placed in the magazine "Son of the Fatherland" "Announcement of the publication of the" Polar Star "for 1825", where they reported an unforeseen delay. Finally the almanac came out. The following reviews appeared in the periodical press: “The current Polar Star is undoubtedly better than previous years: its poetic part has never been so rich in the merit of plays”; “Never before has the poetic part of the Polar Star been so rich, not in number, but in dignity”; “We will rejoice that even the most severe critic will give full justice to the prose department in the Polar Star” ... In the almanac they found “a desire for nationality”, that poetry and prose in it “tell us about our homeland”.

What was printed in the third issue of the almanac? Excerpts from Pushkin's "Gypsies", "Brothers of Robbers" and "Message to Alekseev", seven poems by Baratynsky, two by Vyazemsky, three by Glinka, one by Griboedov, one by Kozlov, two by V.L. Pushkin, three - Yazykov, two fables by Krylov, an excerpt from the 19th song of the Iliad translated by Gnedich. Poems by Grigoriev, Tumansky, Khomyakov, Pletnev, Ivanchin-Pisarev, Zaitsevsky. Ryleev placed three excerpts from the poem "Nalivaiko" and "Stans". In the prose department - N. Bestuzhev's travel notes "Gibraltar", a historical essay by Kornilovich, "oriental stories" (tales) by Senkovsky, the works of Glinka and Bulgarin, as well as a literary review "A look at Russian literature during 1824 and at the beginning of 1825" A Bestuzhev.

After the uprising, the almanac of Bestuzhev and Ryleev fell into the number of seditious books. So, for reading the "Polar Star", Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich sent the Bestuzhevs' younger brother, Peter, as a soldier to the Caucasus. The prince was especially angry at the fact that the almanac had been revealed at Nalivaika's Confession.

It was believed that Ryleev and Bestuzhev began preparing the fourth - a small final - almanac by the end of 1825. In early December 1825, Zvezdochka was handed over to the printing house of the General Staff.

By December 14, eighty pages had been printed. After the arrest of Bestuzhev and Ryleev, printing stopped - the finished sheets remained in warehouses and were burned in 1861. Luckily, two copies of the printed part of the almanac and the censored manuscript have been preserved.

The printed sheets contain A. Bestuzhev's story "Blood for Blood", O. Somov's story "Gaydamak", an excerpt from the third chapter of "Eugene Onegin" by A.S. Pushkin, poems by Kozlov, Oznobishin, Khomyakov, Tumansky, Yazykov. The censored manuscript contained poems by Baratynsky, V. Pushkin, Nechaev, Glinka, Obodovsky, Vyazemsky and other authors that had not yet entered the set. Ryleyev did not have time to give anything of his own to Zvyozdochka, and it was precisely because of this that her civil, freedom-loving mood was, as it were, muffled. But it is still there - it is felt in Somov's excellent story "Gaydamak", which tells about the legendary Ukrainian robber Garkush, in Tumansky's "Greek Ode", where the rebellious Greeks say: "And our waters will become blood, Until we redeem freedom ..."

In 1960, the full text of all issues of the Polar Star (with the addition of Zvezdochka) by Bestuzhev and Ryleev was republished by the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Literary Monuments series, which finally confirmed the enormous literary and artistic significance of the Decembrist almanac in the history of Russian literature.

4. Contribution of K.F. Ryleev to Russian literature

The historical feat of the Decembrists consisted primarily in the fact that they raised an uprising against tsarism and serfdom, they decided to take up arms, even without firm hopes of success. Ready not to hesitate to give their lives for the freedom of their homeland, they considered it a glorious destiny to die in the minute of the first battle, but to serve as an example for posterity. In other words, this thought of Ryleev was expressed on the eve of the uprising by Alexander Bestuzhev: “Pages will be written about us in history”

All Ryleyev’s thoughts about making literature a platform from which to talk about topical political issues, to teach young people true patriotism, he put into practice in all ways known to him: with an ardent word, a sharp sword, a courageous heart and love for the people, for Homeland, relatives and friends.

Ryleev hoped that his descendants would understand him, appreciate that he "inflamed jealousy in young hearts for the public good." And the descendants understood this. Herzen and Ogaryov placed portraits of five executed Decembrists on the cover of the magazine, which they called the same as the almanac of Bestuzhev and Ryleev was called: "Polar Star". The magazine was published in a free Russian printing house in London. Ogaryov dedicated poems to Ryleev. The civic pathos of Ryleev's poetry inspired M.Yu. Lermontov, N.A. Nekrasova.

5. The memory of Ryleev is alive

Such political poems as "Vision", "Civil Courage", "Will I be in a fateful time ...", the poems "Voinarovsky", "Nalivaiko", thoughts, propaganda songs, bring Ryleev to the first place in the literary movement 10-20- x years of the 19th century.

It also came true that another Decembrist poet, Alexander Odoevsky, prophesied in his poems: “A flame will ignite from a spark ...”. The cause of the Decembrists is not forgotten. Their names are remembered by descendants. And among these names, one of the most famous is the name of the poet-citizen K.F. Ryleev.

Bibliography

1. Collection "Native poets" "Children's literature", Moscow, 1958

1. Article by N.I. Yakushin "Soul in the cherished lyre". Collection "Russian poetry of the first half of the 19th century" "Veche", Moscow, 2002.
2. Article by S.S. Volk “Faithful sons of the Fatherland”. Collection "Their union with liberty is eternal ...", Sovremennik, Moscow, 1983.
3. "Literary and critical developments of the Decembrists", Moscow, 1978.
4. Article by A.A. Bestuzhev “A look at Russian literature during 1824 and early 1825”. Collection "Polar Star", "Soviet Russia", Moscow, 1982.
5. "Works in 2 volumes of Bestuzhev-Marlinsky A.A."
6. "Memoirs of the Bestuzhev-Marlinskys", Moscow, 1951
7. "Essays on Decembrist Literature" Bazanov V.G., Moscow, 1953.
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