Do you love museums? I love those in which the spirit is preserved, the atmosphere - whether the time, whether the owners. Today, October 19, on the anniversary of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, it's time to take a walk through its corridors and classrooms.

The very creation of this extraordinary educational institution, its rules, and most importantly, of course, its students, still cause surprise and admiration.

An educational institution with a name borrowed from Ancient Greece, was opened on October 19, 1811 in the wing of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.

For 6 years, young nobles had to receive not only a gymnasium, but also a university education. In general, it is amazing what hopes were placed on them!

The emperor himself provided special patronage, and the first director was not a teacher, but a well-known Russian diplomat and educator V.F. Malinovsky.

It was the only educational institution the time when the Charter forbade corporal punishment. The main principle is respect for pupils, education of true sons of the Fatherland.

The list of students recruited for the very first year of the Lyceum is also amazing. I will name only a few - Pushkin, Pushchin, Kuchelbecker, Delvig, Matyushkin, Gorchakov, Korsakov, Volkhovsky. Not only their names went down in history, but also the ability to maintain lyceum friendship until the end of their days - an example that, perhaps, history does not know another. (Next, I will quote a lot of "Notes on Pushkin" by I.I. Pushchin, who, if not the first lyceum student, should have a conversation with us ?!)

Even in the summer, the parents of young nobles wrote petitions to the sovereign himself, and then those admitted to the exams underwent serious tests. Enrolled lucky ones then waited until October. Even at the exams, Pushchin met his future friend: “Some official came in with a paper in his hand and started calling out names. - I hear: Al. Pushkin! - a lively boy comes forward, curly-haired, quick-eyed, also somewhat embarrassed. [...] We all saw that Pushkin was ahead of us, he read a lot that we had not heard about, he remembered everything that he read; but his merit consisted in the fact that he did not at all think of showing off and putting on airs, as is very often the case in those years (each of us was 12 years old) with precocious ones who, for some reason, find a case for something earlier and easier. learn."

And then it came, the solemn day of the opening of the Lyceum.

“The celebration began with a prayer. Mass and a prayer service with blessing of water were served in the court church. We were present in the choirs during the service. After the prayer service, the clergy went with holy water to the Lyceum, where they sprinkled us and the whole institution.

In the lyceum hall, between the columns, a large table was placed, covered with red cloth, with a golden fringe. On this table lay the highest charter granted to the Lyceum. On the right side of the table we stood in three rows; with us - the director, inspector and tutors; on the left - professors and other officials of the lyceum administration. The rest of the hall, at some distance from the table, was all lined with rows of chairs for the public. All the highest dignitaries and teachers from St. Petersburg were invited. When the whole society gathered, the minister invited the sovereign.

This letter of amazing size and magnificence still lies on this table, only under a glass cover.

Everyone was shocked by the performance of the young teacher A.P. Kunitsyn.

Kunitsyn tribute of heart and wine!

He created us, he raised our fire,

They set the cornerstone

They lit a clean lamp ... *

Lyceum students will take exams in the same hall, in the presence of a high commission and their relatives.

Thanks to the notes of Pushchin and the memoirs of other lyceum students, the case went down in history when, in the presence of the famous, but then very elderly poet G.R. Derzhavin, the very young A. Pushkin read his poem “Memories in Tsarskoye Selo”. Pushchin writes about this: “Listening to familiar verses, a chill ran through my skin. When the patriarch of our singers was delighted, with tears in his eyes, he rushed to kiss him and dawned on his curly head, we all, under some unknown influence, were reverently silent. They wanted to hug our singer themselves, he was not there: he ran away! .. ”The same case is mentioned by Y. Tynyanov in the novel “Pushkin”, the same case is also in the picture by I.E. Repin.

And Pushkin himself would write many years later:

Old man Derzhavin noticed us

And, descending into the coffin, he blessed.

I. Pushchin describes in detail the premises of the Lyceum, the daily routine.

“The lower floor housed the economic department and the apartments of the inspector, tutors and some other officials serving at the Lyceum; in the second - a dining room, a hospital with a pharmacy and a conference room with an office; in the third - a recreational hall, classrooms (two with chairs, one for students after lectures), a physical study, a room for newspapers and magazines, and a library in the arch connecting the Lyceum with the palace through the choirs of the court church. At the top are dormitories. For them, along the entire structure, arches were cut through in the internal transverse walls. In this way a corridor was formed with stairs at both ends, in which rooms were separated on both sides by partitions: a total of fifty rooms. In each room there is an iron bed, a chest of drawers, a desk, a mirror, a chair, a table for washing, together with a night room. On the desk is an inkwell and a candlestick with tongs.

In all floors and on the stairs there was lamp lighting; the two middle floors have parquet floors. In the hall there are wall-to-wall mirrors, damask furniture.

This was our housewarming party!

With all these conveniences, it was not difficult for us to get used to the new life. After the opening, the right classes began. Walk three times a day, in all weathers. In the evening in the hall - a ball and running around.

We got up at six o'clock. We dressed, went to prayer in the hall. We read the morning and evening prayers aloud in turn.

From 7 to 9 hours - class.

At 9 - tea; walk - up to 10.

From 10 to 12 - class.

From 12 to one - a walk.

At one o'clock is lunch.

From 2 to 3 - either calligraphy or drawing.

From 3 to 5 - class.

At 5 o'clock - tea; up to 6 - walk; then a repetition of lessons or an auxiliary class.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays - dancing or fencing.

Bath every Saturday.

At half past 9 o'clock, the call for supper.

After dinner until 10 o'clock - recreation.

At 10 - evening prayer, sleep.

Nightlights were placed in all arches in the corridor at night. The uncle on duty walked down the corridor with measured steps.

There are always fresh flowers in Pushkin's room now.

The library was located in the transition from the wing to the Catherine Palace, it had 5 thousand copies, at that time the number was simply huge. We tried to write out all the new items. Literary creativity the lyceum students themselves prospered and were encouraged in every possible way. Several handwritten magazines were published.

“At the very beginning, he is our poet. As I now see that Koshansky’s afternoon class, when, having finished the lecture a little earlier than the school hour, the professor said: “Now, gentlemen, we will try feathers: please describe the rose to me in verse.” Our poems did not stick at all, and Pushkin instantly read two quatrains, which delighted us all.

But among best students practically never happened. No one will say where his place in the class was, because. Lyceum students moved along the rows depending on the current performance, and young Alexander often wandered from the first row to the last.

Pushchin writes touchingly about Pushkin: “In order to love him in a real way, you had to look at him with that complete benevolence that knows and sees all the unevenness of character and other shortcomings, puts up with them and ends up loving even them in a friend-comrade. . Between us somehow it quickly and imperceptibly settled down.

A.S. noted all his life. Pushkin’s lyceum anniversary, he has several poems with almost the same name “October 19”, but sometimes he had to celebrate alone, and then the lyceum students became less and less, some poems are no longer imbued with light sadness, but with real longing for the departed.

But this is forever

My friends, our union is beautiful:

He, like a soul, is inseparable and eternal,

Unshakable, free and carefree!

He grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.

Wherever fate takes us,

And happiness wherever it leads

We are all the same; the whole world is a foreign land for us,

Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.

Coming soon October 19th. Fast forward to a place where a lot reminds of Pushkin's youth: the walls of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, an old park, ponds and bridges, benches and alleys.

And also that closet - one and a half wide and five steps long - the doctoire "No. 14. Alexander Pushkin." Let's walk along the endless corridor: high vaults, dim light and doors, doors... Their upper half is glazed, covered with a green curtain. Above each door is a black plate: the room number and the name of the tenant - Matyushkin, Delvig, Yakovlev, Kuchelbecker, Danzas, Pushchin, Pushkin ...

Some doors are open. Narrow - half a window wide - small-cases. They are all the same: a desk, a white iron bed with a white woolen blanket, a chest of drawers, a washing table, a basin, a jug, one chair, a desk, a candlestick, an inkwell, a quill pen, and paper. Not the slightest difference, not a single sign of personality. However, no. Nikolai Korsakov has a guitar on his bed, and on Matyushkin's desk is his drawing: a winged sailing brig - the dream of a future navigator. Pushkin has several shabby books in a pile. The poet compared the bedroom with a “monastic cell”: the sun is a rare guest, since the palace wing is opposite.

All is quiet in the gloomy cell:
Latch on the door...
Chair dilapidated, unupholstered,
And a wobbly bed
A vessel filled with water...

From this window, in 1812, he will watch the departing army, which went to die for the Fatherland, and terribly envy those who bravely pace or ride a horse.

I hear stomping, I hear neighing.
Flashing with a patterned saddlecloth,
The hussar rushed under the window ...

Every year on this late autumn day, when “the forest drops its crimson dress”, friends-lyceum students gathered together for a circular bowl “to celebrate the day of the lyceum”. Alas, Pushkin was not always there. He dedicated five poems to this day - and all are full of thoughts about the past and the past. And the most poignant lines were formed in 1825...

Which one of us, in old age, is the day of the lyceum
Will you have to celebrate alone?

The last was Gorchakov, who outlived Pushkin by forty-six years. He will reach the highest level on the state ladder, will become a diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs, State Chancellor.

Pushchin will come out Senate Square December 14, 1825. He is waiting for arrest, prison, 30 years of Siberian hard labor exile.

On the day of the uprising, in the evening, Gorchakov would come to Pushchin at the very moment when he had finished burning dangerous papers. Gorchakov will offer him a foreign passport:

Run! In Kronstadt they will put you on a ship...

Pushchin will smile, touch the iron ring on his finger:

I must share the fate of my comrades. And if you want to help me, save this briefcase. Here are Pushkin's letters and poems. I couldn't burn it.

They all spent six years at the Lyceum without a break, not leaving even on holidays or due to illness. For holidays - an assembly hall, for illnesses - an infirmary. And many aspired to the doctor: not to be treated, but to feast on pies with broth and cakes with cream, which were supposed to be sick.

And the healthy regime is severe. We got up at seven o'clock. During the night, the high vaults of the third floor had time to cool down. Fresh rolls were served with morning tea. And that's it. Before tea - gymnastics, prayer, and after - lessons, lessons until lunch ...

But how good were the walks! In summer - in the emerald-fresh swaying of bushes, grasses, trees; in autumn - under frequent fine rain or in the clear cold silence of bronze-scarlet alleys; in winter - in the ermine snows that covered the palace, the Lyceum, the road ...

This school was amazing - Russia does not know another like it. The founder of the school, the famous educator M. M. Speransky, wrote about it: “This school was formed, and its charter was written by me, but without pride I will say that it combines incomparably more types than all our universities.”

The first director of the Lyceum, V.F. Malinovsky, sought to educate "new people" who would later become the reformers of Russia, and therefore the moral sciences were considered the main ones in the Lyceum, which build a personality, a unique character, a sense of honor, the desire to live for the Fatherland.

Lyceum students were taught not just knowledge of languages, but - “to compose correctly in German and French, but mainly in Russian language". They were taught to think, to create.

The lesson could be...

Professor Alexander Ivanovich Galich took out a book he had brought with him and forced one of them, say Matyushkin, to read it aloud. Most often it was some Latin classic, and the reading, of course, was in Latin. Suddenly he stopped the reader and offered:

Well, let's pat the old man's laurels!

The analysis began. Opinions poured in from all sides. It seemed that Horace - not ancient roman, but a modern Petersburg poet.

Galich encouraged them to compete with living poets.

Well, gentlemen! (The gentlemen are 15 years old, but this appeal is a sign of respect, a sign of equality.) Which of you will describe a rose in verse?

Many years later, Ivan Pushchin recalled that while everyone else was puffing over their stanzas, Pushkin had a poem ready in 15 minutes:

Where is our rose
My friends?
withered rose,
Dawn child.
Do not say:
This is how youth fades.
Do not say:
Here is the joy of life.
Tell the flower
I'm sorry, I'm sorry
And to the lily
Show us!

Everyone was amazed. We are also amazed. Not only by the depth, grace, exquisite musicality of the poems of the young man Pushkin, but by the very setting of the task: the whole class writes poetry. No one thought to refuse. It was the norm - that's what's amazing. No wonder there were so many poets in the Lyceum: Illichevsky, Delvig, Kuchelbecker, Pushkin ...

And there are 29 people in the class.

Many, and not only in the classroom at the lessons, wrote, translated, published handwritten magazines - "Inexperienced Pen" and "Lyceum Sage". Everyone worked on publishing magazines. Very far from writing, Konstantin Danzas, the owner of a wonderful handwriting, rewrote all articles and poems in calligraphy. The headman Misha Yakovlev had an amazing gift of parodic reincarnation, he knew how to draw caricatures. Sasha Gorchakov and Seryozha Lomonosov illustrated serious subjects. In the drawing class, these drawings were created on special tables with music stands.

Everything at the Lyceum was taught excellently, deeply, seriously. But most of all we love and appreciate the pupils was Alexander Petrovich Kunitsyn. Pushkin "always remembered him with admiration," P. A. Pletnev, a friend of the poet, later wrote.

Kunitsyn tribute of heart and wine!
He created us, he raised our fire,
They set the cornerstone
They lit a clean lamp.

Kunitsyn was the first to proclaim to them that “the preservation of freedom is common goal of all people... Every person is internally free and depends on the laws of the mind... Serfdom is an illegal act...”

Pushchin and Gorchakov vowed to each other in childhood to live and die for the Fatherland.

As soon as the Lyceum opened, the thunderstorm of 1812 struck. In the newspaper room, Delvig marked Napoleon's progress on the map. Lyceum students were being prepared for evacuation.

How they envied their elders and their peers, who joined the ranks of the soldiers! Nikolenka Raevsky, the son of the legendary general, entered Paris at the age of 14 with the rank of cornet, and in 1815 he returned to Tsarskoye Selo as part of the Life Guards Hussars with the Order of St. George's Cross on his chest. That was fate!

They rapidly grew out of the lyceum uniforms. They were rushing into adulthood. And then this day came - in early June 1817.

They were lined up. First on the left is Ivan the Great - Jeanno Pushchin, followed by Kuchelbeker - Kuhlya, Vilya. As soon as they didn’t call him yesterday! Behind him is a huge Myasoedov. Delvig is tall, ruddy, not at all like that fragile bespectacled Tosya, to whom this almost girlish name stuck. Volkhovsky and Pushkin closed the line on the right flank.

Lyceum uncles dragged the lyceum bell on a long pole, all these years calling them to dinner, classes, walks. The stoker Fyodor raised a huge cleaver - a copper groan hit his ears, was replaced by a miserable, loose tinkle. Someone stood there, squinting. But Pushchin and Pushkin saw the bell shatter into a thousand pieces.

Lyceum is over. Director Egor Antonovich Engelgardt conceived this action with a bell as a new ritual, which later the lyceum students of all editions will repeat. He ordered the iron fragments to be collected.

Gentlemen, in memory of the Lyceum, I will order to forge rings from them. Links of a single chain of brotherhood that has united you forever.

Farewell, brothers! Hand in hand!
Let's hug one last time!
Fate of eternal separation
Perhaps here we are related!
Keep, oh friends, keep
That friendship with the same soul...

In the center of the cast-iron rings distributed to the lyceum students by Engelhardt, there are two hands joined in a shake. But it was not so much a sign of farewell as a symbol of fidelity.

Six were awarded medals. Two gold - Bolshaya and Malaya - should have been divided between Alexander Gorchakov and Vladimir Volkhovsky. Equally excellent were their successes, and diligence, and zeal for the sciences.

Gorchakov is noble, rich, he has big connections. And a handsome man too. Typical lucky guy. Volkhovsky is an orphan. Proud, poor, fragile, mentally inflexible. No wonder the Lyceum called him - Suvorochka. The whole course appealed to the director and the council of professors: to award the Volkhovsky Big Gold Medal. The teachers took this request into account.

one of four silver medals received Küchelbecker. He held it in his palm, looking at it with pride and sadness. Behind study. On his medal, slightly larger than gold, the motto was also engraved along the upper arc: "For the common good." Owl - wisdom, lyre - poetry, wreaths, laurel and oak - glory and strength. These symbols flaunted on the front side above the scroll with the name of the recipient.

The artist O. Vernet painted portraits from the best students. Young men - in black tailcoats, in tight dazzling collars - look joyfully and proudly. Their hair is combed up, slightly powdered. Life seems to them a sparkling morning park, where the paths shimmer with splashes of quartz, and precious marble gods turn white in the flower beds.

Gorchakov and Pushkin love to excel. They love to be the best. Pushkin - in gymnastics, in poetry, in languages. Gorchakov - in everything. Gorchakov's notebooks are impeccable. Notes of the first student. Calligraphy teacher Kalinich argued that handwriting draws the personality of the pupil. Gorchakov's handwriting is clear, clean, a little self-satisfied. He is a calligrapher.

Do not compare with the sharp drop caps and Delvig's blots. That's really whose handwriting strangely did not resemble the slow and round Tosya. He was uneven, sharp, confused.

Pushkin's handwriting resembled the swift footprint of a bird gaining strength to fly over ridges and plains.

Lyceum created them. They immortalized him. And we repeat after them:

Wherever fate takes us,
And happiness, no matter where it leads,
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us,
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.

• Library Library
• Cool room Cool room
• Assembly Hall Assembly Hall
• Lyceum students' rooms Lyceum students' rooms

Wherever fate takes us,
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.

In the suburbs, 25 kilometers south of St. Petersburg, is the city of Pushkin (until 1918 - Tsarskoye Selo), named after the great Russian poet, whose talent is early years developed here, and life was inextricably linked with these places.

History of Tsarskoye Selo

Initially, on the site of Tsarskoye Selo, in the XVII - early XVIII century there was a Swedish manor (estate) "Sarskaya manor". After the expulsion of the Swedes and with its development, the estate (manor) turns into a village, and the name "Sarskoye" in Russian is transformed into "Tsarskoye". In the 18th century, churches and palaces were built here, parks were laid out and ornamental ponds were arranged. Under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, daughter of Peter I, Tsarskoye Selo develops and becomes the imperial residence, the center of the political and court life of the country.

Pushkin at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

At the age of twelve, in 1811, Pushkin was brought to Tsarskoye Selo to study at the Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Lyceum, a privileged higher educational institution for the education of noble children, which was opened on the orders of Emperor Alexander I. It was during the years of study at the Lyceum that Pushkin's poetic talent was discovered and appreciated, during this period Pushkin created a large number of poetic works.

In 1817, Pushkin was released from the Lyceum with the rank of collegiate secretary. Memories of the years spent in the lyceum, of lyceum friends, remained forever in the soul of the poet.

Pushkin at the Kitaeva House

In 1831, after the marriage of A.S. Pushkin with N.N. Goncharova, the young family moves to St. Petersburg, and then, for the summer, to Tsarskoye Selo. Here, in the study in the Kitaeva House, where Pushkin and his young wife stayed, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Onegin's letter to Tatyana, the poem "The more often the lyceum celebrates" and other works were written.

Tsarskoye Selo on the map

The State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoe Selo" is located at the address: Russia, St. Petersburg, Pushkin, st. Sadovaya, d.7.

Related materials:

Pushkin and Tsarskoye Selo. Speech by Innokenty Annensky at the Pushkin Feast at the Imperial Chinese Theater in Tsarskoe Selo.

"Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo"

"The lyceum was affirmed with bright hopes"

The author of the school project was Mikhail Speransky, the famous reformer of the “Alexandrov days”, who persistently inspired the society with the ideas of the Enlightenment, which had already passed. The legislator was especially inspired by the example of the ancient lyceum, once founded in Athens by Aristotle; it was not for nothing that the new educational institution received the same name. And in Tsarskoye Selo it was placed because it was supposed to train the grand dukes in it - however, this idea remained “on paper”, but the lyceum was located on the territory of Tsarskoye Selo for more than 30 years.

Teachers for the school were selected with special care: they were all like-minded people of Speransky, and some (such as the lawyer Kunitsyn) were his colleagues in the legal field. In his opening speech, Kunitsyn, addressing his future pupils, directly urged them to become Russian elite: “Would you like to mingle with the crowd of ordinary people ... every day being swallowed up by waves of oblivion? No!… Love for glory and Fatherland should be your leaders.”. It is interesting that the person of the sovereign, who was present with his family at the opening of the lyceum, was never mentioned in Kunitsyn's speech. This indicates the absence of loyalist sentiments among teachers, which were considered not particularly important for enlightened people. Furthermore, French lyceum students were taught by a brother Jean-Paul Marat- that is, even the presence in the school of people close to revolutionary circles was considered acceptable.

Among other sciences, the course of study included subjects United by the amazing for modern school called "moral sciences". They were treated political economy, ethics, logic, fundamentals of law and other disciplines. The fact is that the main task of lyceum education, the formation of the personalities of students, was considered precisely morality.

Classes were built in such a way as to exclude fatigue, dulling the attention of lyceum students. Any lessons requiring mental effort were replaced by rest, physical exercises or creative activity which was highly encouraged by teachers.

Cranberry duel and other pranks

Because the pupils lyceum free time was supposed, they used it on a grand scale both for creative pursuits (from drawing and poetry to publishing their own magazines) and for endless fun and pranks, and some of them serve as incomparable plots for historical anecdotes of that era.

The most innocent part of these constant pranks can be considered the assignment of comic nicknames to each of the lyceum students, one or even several pieces per brother. Pushkin was called Egoza for his liveliness of character, for his non-Slavic appearance and temper - Monkey with a tiger, for his excellent command of languages ​​- Frenchman. The clumsy tall Danzas was called the Bear for his indifference to everything that was happening around, suddenly replaced by outbursts of rage. Matyushkin, for his fanatical desire to serve in the Navy, came up with a strange nickname I want to swim. The sticky cunning Komovsky was called Chanterelle or Resin. But the absolute favorite in terms of the number of nicknames invented for him was the long, awkward, at first poorly speaking Russian Küchelbecker. As they just did not call him names: and Kühley, and Bechelkücher, and Worms, and Teuton, and Gezel. The young man suffered unspeakably and was terribly offended by his comrades, but that only provoked them more.

Do you know that…
Researchers at Newcastle University in England found that hanging posters with eyes in the dining room made students clean up after themselves twice as often as on days when there were no posters.

In general, Kuchelbecker became the object of ridicule and practical jokes more often than others. One of the stories about this is called the cranberry duel. The poet Zhukovsky, who taught at the Lyceum, once did not appear for dinner, where he was invited. He was asked why he missed the party, and he replied that he suffered from an upset stomach, and besides, Kuchelbecker came to him, and therefore he stayed at home. Upon learning of this, Pushkin immediately made an epigram:

I ate at dinner
Yes, Jacob closed the door by mistake -
So it was for me, my friends,
And kyukhelbekerno, and nauseating ...

Kuchelbecker, completely devoid of a sense of humor, demanded the author to the barrier. However, the duel turned into another farce as the comrades loaded both pistols with cranberries.

The older the lyceum students got, the more risky their antics became. Once, in a dark corridor, Pushkin embraced the elderly maid of honor Volkonskaya, mistaking her for the pretty maid Natasha. The lady indignantly went to complain to the sovereign, and the next morning he gave a dressing down to the director of the lyceum. Alexander noticed that the lyceum students were already stealing apples from his garden, beating the guards in the same garden, but molesting the ladies-in-waiting was too impudent. However, the legend says that the emperor soon softened and jokingly remarked that the old maid should be pleased with the young man's mistake.

"... what a variety in our everyday destinies!"

It would seem that lyceum students who received an excellent education expected complete success in the state field. But the fates of 29 young men of the first graduation were completely different. Some died so early that they simply did not have time to succeed in any occupation. In 1820, Silverius Broglio died and Nikolai Korsakov died of consumption in Florence. In 1831, the lyceum brotherhood lost two more comrades: Anton Delvig died of typhus and Semyon Esakov shot himself from unknown troubles in the service.

In two graduates, the free spirit of the lyceum took root so much that it led them to Senate Square along with the Decembrists. Ivan Pushchin was sentenced to indefinite hard labor for participating in the rebellion and returned from Siberia only 30 years later. Wilhelm Küchelbecker also served 15 years in hard labor, but never saw Moscow or St. Petersburg again - he died in Tobolsk from consumption.

Most lyceum students did not seek to make a career - they simply pursued their chosen profession or became landowners altogether, refusing military or civilian service. Fedor Matyushkin, as he dreamed, became a sailor and rose to the rank of admiral. Alexander Kornilov managed to serve as the governor of Kyiv, Vyatka and Tambov, earned the rank of administrative work Privy Councilor. Ivan Malinovsky served in the guards, but after the Decembrist rebellion in 1825 he retired and lived until the end of his days in his own estate Kamenka in the Kharkov province. Pushkin, as is well known, was engaged in literature, and in ranks he did not rise above the titular adviser.

Only two lyceum students achieved major success in their careers. Modest Korf served under Speransky, who greatly appreciated him for his ability to systematize any information, and in addition, for many years he served as director of the Imperial Public Library. Another lyceum graduate, Alexander Gorchakov, gained real political fame. He served as a diplomat, after the death of Karl Nesselrode succeeded him as head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1867 was appointed Chancellor Russian Empire He became the last dignitary to serve in this position.

Lyceum anniversary

But whoever the lyceum students are, the opening day of the lyceum - October 19 - has always remained a holiday dear to their hearts. Those who could, gathered that day in St. Petersburg for a gala dinner. Those who, for various reasons, could not join the fun, celebrated alone, remembering the Lyceum days and their comrades. Pushkin attended meetings of classmates for the first three years after graduation, and spent the next six years in exile, and therefore celebrated anniversaries with poetry. Here is what the poet wrote in the poem "October 19, 1825":

My friends, our union is beautiful!
He, like a soul, is inseparable and eternal -
Unshakable, free and carefree,
He grew together under the shadow of friendly muses.

Wherever fate takes us
And happiness wherever it leads
We are all the same: the whole world is a foreign land for us;
Fatherland to us Tsarskoye Selo.

It is enough to read these lines to understand how much the years spent within the walls of the Lyceum meant for each of Pushkin's fellow students. The minutes of the meeting of lyceum students from 1836 have been preserved, describing the completely youthful fun of 11 adult men who arrived at the meeting. According to the records, on October 19, 1836, members of the lyceum company "dined tasty and noisy", "read old protocols, songs, etc., papers stored in the Lyceum archive", "remembered Lyceum antiquity", "sang national songs". Only when Pushkin began to read poems for the quarter-century anniversary of the Lyceum, he could not read them to the end: tears interfered with him. He, like all his comrades, considered the lyceum years a wonderful time and yearned for them until the end of his life.

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“Fatherland to us is Tsarskoe Selo…”

Being a graduate Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Alexander Pushkin became the most brilliant singer of Tsarskoye Selo. "Gardens of the Lyceum" is repeatedly sung by the poet. If in Zakharov and Bolshiye Vyazyomy his lyre had just begun to awaken, then in Tsarskoye Selo it sounded louder and more beautiful every year.

Sakharova Elena. 9 years. Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

The name of the poem “Memories of Tsarskoe Selo” is symbolic, after listening to it at the translation lyceum exam, famous poet And statesman Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin "going down to the grave, blessed" young poet. In terms of speech, its inner melody, the poems resemble the solemn odes of the poets of the 18th century, and this is deeply justified. After all, we are talking about the glorious victories of Russian weapons in the era of Catherine II, immortalized in columns and obelisks. The night landscape of the “beautiful Tsarskoye Selo Garden”, sung in the poem, is both lyrical and majestic:

From the hills of flinty waterfalls

Flow down like a beaded river,

There, in a quiet lake, naiads are splashing

His lazy wave;

And there in silence are huge halls,

Leaning on the vaults, they rush to the clouds.

Is it not here that the earthly gods led peaceful days?

Isn't this a Russian church for Minerva?

The poem “Memories in Tsarskoye Selo” seems to emphasize the continuity of the work of Pushkin and his best predecessors, but in the lines of the young poet there is much more aphorism, lyricism and sincerity of feelings close to the Russian heart.

Sakharova Elena. 9 years. Chesme column

Tsarskoye Selo motifs often sound in Pushkin's works, captivating images of the Catherine and Alexander parks appear. In the poem "Tsarskoye Selo", composed in 1823, he admits:

And alien to the ghost of brilliant glory

To you, Tsarskoye Selo, beautiful oak forests,

From now on, a friend dedicated the obscure muse

And peaceful songs, and sweet leisure.

The pictures of parks that live in the poet's imagination enchant with their nostalgic beauty. Everything in them breathes with the memory of the lyceum youth:

Memory, paint in front of me

Magical places where I live with my soul

The forests where I loved, where the feeling developed,

Where infancy merged with the first youth,

And where, cherished by nature and dream,

I knew poetry, gaiety and peace.

Pushkin addressed Tsarskoye Selo memories in poems dedicated to lyceum anniversaries, in lyrical digressions of "Eugene Onegin" and other works. In 1829, the poet wrote a poem with the same title as the one for which Derzhavin blessed him - "Memories in Tsarskoye Selo." Pushkin, imagining himself "once again a tender youth, sometimes ardent, sometimes lazy," refers to the blessed lyceum years and to the glorious era of Catherine II:

And again I see before me

Days of the past are proud traces.

Still, filled with a great wife,

Her favorite gardens

They stand, inhabited by palaces, gates,

Pillars, towers, idols of the gods,

And the glory of marble, and copper praises

Catherine's Eagles.

Pushkin sees "the ghosts of heroes at the pillars dedicated to them", among which the famous commander P. A. Rumyantsev, "Perun of the Kagul shores", who won the battle of Cahul, and the great-uncle of the poet Ivan Abramovich - "Navarin Hannibal", who commanded all the artillery of the fleet in the naval battle of Navarino. The unfinished poem of 1829 resonates in content with that written in the lyceum years, but in a more concise and style no longer resembles the odes of the 18th century.

In 1816, when Pushkin was still a lyceum student, the Girl with a Jug fountain was opened in Tsarskoye Selo near the Great Pond of Catherine's Park. The beautiful statue, created by the sculptor Sokolov, brought a special charm to this cozy corner of the park, attracting the attention of artists and writers. A graceful girlish figure bent in bright sadness over a broken jug, from which a ringing stream of water flows. October 1, 1830, at the time of Boldin autumn, the famous fountain great poet sang in the poem "Tsarskoye Selo Statue":

Having dropped the urn with water, the maiden broke it on the rock.

The maiden sits sadly, idle holding a shard.

Miracle! Water will not dry up, pouring out of a broken urn;

The maiden sits eternally sad over the eternal stream.

The sadness of the Tsarskoye Selo maiden expresses the attitude of the poet himself to the eternal stream of being, so difficult, sometimes joyless and sinful, but at the same time so wise and initially beautiful.