The system of symbols in the poem "The Bronze Horseman. Symbolism of the poem "The Bronze Horseman". — Project BioSerge What does the image of the Bronze Horseman symbolize?

Poem by A.S. Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman" is the artistic result of the poet's reflections on the personality of Peter I, on the "Petersburg" period of Russian history. According to Pushkin, the maximum possibilities of autocratic power were embodied in the historical figure of the first Russian emperor. Along with other important philosophical issues, in his work the poet considers the consequences of the unlimited power of one person over many, the need to comply with the eternal laws of morality and morality by the "masters of the world", therefore Peter is one of the main characters of the poem.

In order to make the image of Peter "a pure embodiment of autocratic power", in other words, a symbolic image, the poet replaces the personality of the emperor himself with his statue, which is one of the most interesting artistic decisions of the poem. A real-life monument to the emperor by Etienne Maurice Falcone was erected on Senate Square in St. Petersburg by decree of Catherine II. The sculptor's work is based on an allegory: the horseman symbolizes autocracy, and the rearing horse symbolizes Russia, the Russian people, which Peter "bribed". It is noteworthy that the horse crushes a snake (a symbol of Russia's ill-wishers) with its hind legs, and thus Falcone compares the emperor with George the Victorious. Pushkin, on the other hand, turns the sculptor's allegory into a symbol: under the image of the "idol on a bronze horse" one cannot understand only the personality of Peter I. This image is much broader and carries "the contours of a great philosophical meaning" (V. G. Belinsky).

Despite the fact that the monument by Falcone is made of bronze, Pushkin calls the sculpture "The Bronze Horseman". The epithet "copper" is extremely important for revealing the image of Peter and understanding the ideological meaning of the poem as a whole. Copper has a reddish tint - the color of blood, testifying to the cruelty and tyranny of the emperor, his indifference to human sacrifices in solving problems of national importance. Literary critic Yu.B. Borev rightly remarked: “A plausible bronze would be out of place here. It is too sonorous, light and noble metal in comparison with heavy, deaf and base copper.

By the time the poem was written, Pushkin was fully aware of the destructiveness of absolutism for Russia. Despite the fact that Eugene does not interfere with either the undivided power of Peter or the course of history, he is destroyed by the state machine and the course of historical progress. The reader sees that absolute power overtakes and destroys the "little man". From this point of view, the episode of the persecution of Yevgeny by the “proud idol” is indicative: the hero “runs and hears behind him - as if thunder rumbles.” This is how the “little man” must feel under the pressure of a tyrant who owns his fate. Therefore, unlike the monument by Falcone, where Peter is majestic (heroic pathos), in the poem “The Bronze Horseman” he is also terrible and mysterious: “He is terrible in the surrounding darkness! What a thought on the forehead! In addition, Pushkin hints at the vagueness of the future fate of the spurred by Peter and the swiftly rushing horse (the symbol of Russia): “Where are you galloping, proud horse, and where will you lower your hooves?” In this question, the answer to which the poem does not give, is its main problem.

The Bronze Horseman is a symbol of the state will, the energy of power, freed from the human principle. Peter is a great reformer, a “wonderful builder”, at the wave of his hand Petersburg “ascended”. But the brainchild of the emperor is a miracle created at the cost of human sacrifice. The city, which has grown "out of the darkness of forests, from swamps of blat" is poorly adapted for life. A catastrophic flood is the result of a clash between civilization and nature, the victim of which is poor Eugene. And the tamer of the elements Peter becomes the culprit of this conflict. "Strict, slender" Petersburg, fraught with destructive power, personifies the personality of its creator.

So, the innovation of Pushkin's poem lies in the objective image historical figure Peter the Great. The main idea that guides the poet in comprehending the activities of the autocrat lies in the following statement: “The difference between the state statements of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees is worthy of surprise. The first are the fruits of a vast mind, full of benevolence and wisdom, the second are often cruel, capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. (“History of Peter the Great”, 1833). Such an understanding of the image of the king-reformer is reflected in his material embodiment - the majestic and "bloody" Bronze Horseman. Peter, like his "material face", really "raised Russia on its hind legs", but he did it with an "iron bridle", and even "above the very abyss". Thus, the heroic pathos of Falcone's allegory in Pushkin's poem materializes into a tragic one.

When getting acquainted with the vast scientific literature on Pushkin - articles and books written long ago and in recent years - a strange fact attracts attention - the lack of interest of the most diverse researchers in the extremely important area of Pushkin's poetics. What is not studied - moreover, systematically left in the shade - is what, as they say, lies on the surface, which is visible to anyone who reads Pushkin - those poetic images of a special nature in which the deepest, truly suffering and striving Pushkin's thought into the future. I mean Pushkin's symbolic images.

The use of symbols is characteristic of Pushkin's entire work. In the lyceum period, they were included in poetry as a tribute to the poetic tradition of the beginning of the century; in the years after the lyceum, romantic aesthetics prompted its symbols (the sea and thunderstorm as symbols of rebellious freedom - “Where are you, the thunderstorm is a symbol of freedom ...”) and determined the symbolization of biblical and mythological images to justify the high mission of the poet in the gloomy years of the Nikolaev action, which came ... immediately after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising (“The Prophet”, “Arion”, etc.). Symbols in realistic works - The Bronze Horseman, The Queen of Spades, The Tale of the Golden Cockerel - have special poetic power and deep content.

It is impossible not to notice Pushkin's symbols. But it turns out; they can be left unexplained, ignored when analyzing works, completely bypassing their symbolic origin, or limited to a simple statement of the fact of the presence of symbols in a particular work. works". Without this knowledge, the artist's creations cannot be understood. The use of symbols was Pushkin's "rule", which guided him in many of his works. Ignoring this Pushkin "rule" is unacceptable.

Meanwhile, ignoring it is an objective fact that requires its own explanation. And the first thing that turns out is that not only Pushkinists do not explain symbols, a similar situation is observed in the scientific literature devoted to realism in general. literature XIX century. The symbols of Gogol and Turgenev, Nekrasov and Tolstoy, Lermontov and Dostoevsky are not the subject of deep research. Why is this so?; Apparently, the point is in the very problem of the symbol, in the nature of its scientific understanding, in the history of its existence in various aesthetic systems over many centuries.

For everyone, the truth is obvious and indisputable, that already at the dawn of the formation of human thinking, symbols spontaneously formed, and this was a natural phenomenon, since it reflected a person’s desire to know reality. The same patterns determined the use of symbols in the field of art. In each new era, the very understanding of the symbol, its nature and function was determined by the nature of the knowledge achieved by mankind. That is why, for example, in the Middle Ages it was religious symbols that were the main means and weapon of the artist. There is a huge scientific literature on symbols in medieval art. On the nature of artistic symbols in Russian medieval literature, he wrote in detail and interestingly in Lately Academician D.S. Likhachev in the book "The Poetics of Old Russian Literature". In general, the high scientific level of the methodological approach to symbols in pre-realist literature is obvious. Yes, and the main works on the symbol refer specifically to literature and art before the establishment of realism.

The use of symbols in Romantic literature is recognized. True, the closer scientists come to realism, their restraint and wary attitude towards the symbol begin to manifest themselves more clearly. So - romanticism, although in a limited way, uses the symbol for both reactionary and progressive purposes. Author historical background avoided answering the question - what about the new artistic method related to the symbol? Is it characteristic of realism, a direction based on scientific knowledge, to use symbols, or is the appearance of symbolic images in one or another realist writer explained solely by the peculiarity of his artistic individuality?

Modernists gave the symbol a mystical function, adapted it for intuitive insight into the essence of truth, which, according to their ideas, is rationalistically incomprehensible, for the knowledge of "superbeing". That is why they began to treat the symbol with caution, believing that it was the modernists who revealed its secret essence. The symbol turned out to be separated from the image, devoid of the main content - to be a powerful means of knowing reality.

Of course, a symbol can also act as a trope and be closely related to its, so to speak, "neighbors" - a metaphor and an allegory (it is very important to establish a connection, and, above all, significant differences). But the reduction to the path practically deprives it of the function of a cognitive tool. True, the same dictionary says, as if by the way, that "a symbol is also called an artistic image that embodies with the greatest expressiveness the features of a phenomenon, its defining role." But not a word is said about the originality of the cognitive function of the symbol-image, everything is reduced to a definition - they call it an artistic image.

The system of symbols in the poem "The Bronze Horseman"

"Thunder Stone" [ | ]

The thunder stone was found in the vicinity of the village of Horse Lakhta. After it was removed from the ground, the pit was filled with water, and a reservoir was formed, which has survived to this day - Petrovsky Pond (since 2011 - a protected area). The path of the stone to the place of loading was 7855 meters.

Transporting the Thunder Stone

The winter months were chosen for transporting the stone, when the soil froze and was able to withstand the weight. This unique operation lasted from November 15 (26) to March 27 (April 7) of the year. The stone was delivered to the coast of the Gulf of Finland, where a special pier was built for its loading.

The transportation of the stone by water was carried out on a ship specially built according to the drawing of the famous shipbuilder Grigory Korchebnikov, and began only in the autumn. The giant "Thunder-stone" with a huge crowd of people arrived in St. Petersburg on Senate Square on September 26 (October 7) of the year. To unload the stone near the banks of the Neva, a technique already used during loading was used: the ship was sunk and sat on piles previously driven into the bottom of the river, which made it possible to move the stone to the shore.

The work on the trimming of the pedestal was carried out while the stone was moving, until Ekaterina, who visited Lakhta and wanted to look at the movement of the stone, forbade its further processing, wanting the stone to arrive in St. Petersburg in its “wild” form without losing volume. The stone acquired its final form already on the Senate Square, having significantly lost its original dimensions after processing.

Monument [ | ]

Opening of the monument to Peter the Great. Engraving by A. K. Melnikov from a drawing by A. P. Davydov, 1782

The monument to Peter I is already in late XVIII century became the object of urban legends and anecdotes, and in early XIX century - one of the most popular themes in Russian poetry.

Legend of Major Baturin[ | ]

There is an assumption that the legend of Major Baturin formed the basis of the plot of A. S. Pushkin's poem The Bronze Horseman.

"Poor Pavel!" [ | ]

In St. Petersburg folklore, there is a widespread legend about the vision of the ghost of Peter the Great to the future Emperor Paul I at the place where the Bronze Horseman is now located.

One evening, Pavel, accompanied by his friend Prince Kurakin, was walking through the streets of St. Petersburg. Suddenly a man appeared ahead, wrapped in a wide cloak. He seemed to be waiting for the travelers, and when they approached, he walked beside them. Pavel shuddered and turned to Kurakin: "Someone is walking beside us." However, he did not see anyone and tried to convince the Grand Duke of this. Suddenly the ghost spoke: “Paul! Poor Pavel! I am the one who takes part in you." Then the ghost went ahead of the travelers, as if leading them along. Approaching the middle of the square, he indicated the place for the future monument. "Farewell, Pavel," said the ghost, "you will see me here again." And when, as he was leaving, he raised his hat, Paul looked with horror at Peter's face.

As a textual analysis of the legend shows, it goes back to the memoirs of Baroness von Oberkirch. The baroness details the circumstances under which Paul himself publicly, albeit against his will, told the story. Bearing in mind the high reliability of memoirs based on many years of diary entries and the friendship between the baroness and Maria Feodorovna, Paul's wife, most likely, the future sovereign himself is the source of the legend.

Did Paul regard this story as an amusing anecdote invented by chance? From a memoirist's point of view, this is not the case. G. von Oberkirch reports that a month and a half after the memorable dinner, Pavel received a letter from St. Petersburg. The letter informed grand opening monument to Peter the Great, later known as the Bronze Horseman. According to G. von Oberkirch, although the sovereign tried to smile while reading the letter, a deathly pallor covered his face.

In culture [ | ]

The Bronze Horseman and the "mystical Petersburg text"[ | ]

The motif of the Bronze Horseman is placed by Russian literature at the very center of the "mystical Petersburg text", imbued with duality and surrealism.

The Bronze Horseman owes its name to the work of the same name by A. S. Pushkin. The official Eugene, who lost his beloved Parasha in the flood of 1824, wanders unconsciously around St. Petersburg. Having stumbled upon a monument to Peter the Great, the hero realizes that it is the sovereign who is to blame for his disasters - he founded the city on a place prone to floods and alien to humans. Eugene threatens the monument, and the Bronze Horseman jumps off his pedestal and rushes after the madman. Whether the bronze idol is carried in the sick mind of an official or in reality is unclear.

The same motif is conveyed in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "The Teenager": “But what if this fog will fly apart and go up, if this whole rotten, slimy city will go with it, it will rise with fog and disappear like smoke, and the former Finnish swamp will remain, and in the middle of it, perhaps for beauty, a bronze rider on a hot-breathing, driven horse? .

Finally, the famous mystic and visionary of the 20th century Daniil Andreev, describing one of the hellish worlds in The Rose of the World, reports that in infernal Petersburg the torch in the hand of the Bronze Horseman is the only source of light, while Peter sits not on a horse, but on creepy dragon.

Commemorative coins [ | ]

In 1988, the State Bank of the USSR issued a 5-ruble commemorative coin depicting the monument to Peter I (the Bronze Horseman) in St. Petersburg. The coin is made of copper-nickel alloy with a circulation of 2 million copies and weighs 19.8 grams

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - great person, property of Russia and the whole world. He repeatedly demonstrated his superiority and skill in various
Literary genres. The poem "The Bronze Horseman" is no exception. Small in size, it carries deep meaning, psychologism, mood, nerve.
In addition to the historical, it also has a socio-philosophical aspect.
The poem is based on two figurative lines: the first belongs to the monument to Peter I (“The Bronze Horseman”), and the second to a young man named Eugene. What
As for the image of the king, Peter I (the Bronze Horseman) appears in the poem in two opposite guises. More precisely, the author shows readers the great
The man who cut through the “window to Europe”. The man who raised from his knees and brought Russia to the world stage from the "darkness of forests and swamp blat."
From here we will threaten the Swede,
Here the city will be founded.
Nature here is destined for us
Cut a window to Europe
Stand with a firm foot by the sea.
Here on their new waves
All flags will visit us.
On the other side,

Alexander Sergeevich managed to masterfully show all the merciless cruelty of the transformations of Peter I, which are very deplorable and expensive.
Treated the people. Of course, one of the key problems is considered to be the foundation of the city on the water, more precisely, at the mouth of the Neva and on the coast of the Gulf of Finland.
As for Eugene, the author shows us a poor, but very industrious young man. Returning home, he thinks of his beloved
Parasha, whom I had not seen for several days. Eugene is thinking, should he marry him? Whether to start an adult life.
"Marry? To me? why not?
It is hard, of course;
But well, I'm young and healthy
Ready to work day and night;
I'll somehow arrange myself
Shelter humble and simple
And I will calm Parasha in it.
It may take a year or two -
I'll get a place, Parashe
I will entrust our family
And raising kids.
And we will live, and so on to the grave
Hand in hand we will both reach,
And our grandchildren will bury us.”
Unfortunately, the author had his own opinion about the further continuation of the poem. After the terrible flood that happened at night, Evgeny
He managed to find salvation by climbing onto a marble lion, on which he thought only of Parasha. It is noteworthy how Pushkin managed to brilliantly show
State of the night before.
Fragments of huts, logs, roofs,
thrifty commodity,
Relics of pale poverty,
Storm-blown bridges
A coffin from a blurry cemetery
Float through the streets!
The key moment in the poem is the events that begin to take place after the flood. Upon learning that beloved Parasha and her mother died,
Eugene loses his mind. At the same time, against the backdrop of Yevgeny's disappointments, the author manages to brilliantly show the state of the people who survived the flood.
Everything was in order.
Already through the streets free
With your insensibility cold
People walked. official people,
Leaving your nocturnal shelter
Went to the service. brave trader,
Reluctantly, I opened
New robbed basement
Gonna take your loss important
On the near vent. From yards
They brought boats.
Eugene did not manage to move away from the shock. After leaving the house, he begins to live on the pier, eating what is served. Over time, he heads for Medny
The horseman, in whom he sees the main reason for all the events that have occurred. It is noteworthy that Eugene was not afraid to put himself on a par with the Bronze Horseman.
Turning to the monument to Peter I, Eugene feels and realizes his significance, he is sure that the truth is behind him. Alas, Pushkin draws a hero who has gone mad,
To whom it begins to seem that the monument begins to haunt him, that the clatter of hooves is everywhere.
Instantly ignited with anger,
The face moved slowly.
And he's empty
Runs and hears behind him -
As if thunder rumbles -
Heavy-voiced galloping
On the shaken pavement.
And, illuminated by the pale moon,
Stretch out your hand above
Behind him rushes the Bronze Horseman
On a galloping horse.
Soon, Eugene tried to pass the monument as quickly as possible without noticing it.
And since then, when it happened
Go to that area to him
His face showed
Confusion. To your heart
He hurriedly pressed his hand,
As if pacifying his torment,
Worn-out symal cap,
I didn't raise my confused eyes
And walked to the side.
The island is small.
And a little later, Eugene was gone in general.
At the threshold
Found my madman
And then his cold corpse
Buried for God's sake.
Summing up, I would like to note that the poem "The Bronze Horseman" is a work for numerous disputes and reasoning. Some defend Peter I, his
reforms and political activity while others are strongly opposed. Alexander Sergeevich managed to show Peter I from both sides. history
Each of us creates. We all make mistakes.

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Who does the Bronze Horseman symbolize in Pushkin's poem of the same name? Three Jewish and three St. Isaac's temples. Who is the "little man" in Russian classical literature? The meaning of "Babylonian willow" and "crimson veiled lies." Who is Count Khvostov? What dream does Eugene see and who is Parasha? Dying and resurrecting god at the black bush.

And all night the poor madman
Wherever you turn your feet

Jumped with a heavy thud.

A.S. Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman"

As the Grand Inquisitor explained, the equations of motion of civilization can be understood as the law of universal attraction to "bread", "miracle" and "Caesar's sword". At the same time, the difference between the tasks of the “desert sower of freedom” and the paths of “temptations” becomes visible. The concept of "happiness" often does not coincide, and sometimes even directly opposite to the desire for freedom. The craving for "bread" can outweigh moral norms, "miracle" has more weight over objective science, and the "sword of Caesar" is always ready to eliminate the enemies of the people and dissidents in order to assert their "truth". To find out which side a person is on, he must be put in "critical conditions" when it is required to choose "Either - or".

Or beaches, vernissages or even
Steamboats, in them filled holds,
Crews, races, receptions, voyages…
Or simply - wooden suits.

The laws by which the material world lives cannot be changed, just as it is impossible to change, for example, the laws of higher mathematics. If useful changes are made to the system without a thorough analysis of the dynamic parameters, this is fraught with very backfire. What is true in a state of stability behaves in a completely different way when all stability flies into the trash. It is one thing to study an aircraft in a hangar, and quite another to control an aircraft in the air.

The flood that is described in the poem "The Bronze Horseman" occurred on November 7, 1824 ... In Soviet times, one of the most important holidays fell on this day - the day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. After the revolution of 1917, the entire infrastructure Russian Empire, which had been created for centuries, was destroyed. In place of the old state, something completely different arose. What was it? The Greatest Event Russian history, as they thought for seventy years, or vice versa, a terrible tragedy, as they think now?

How to classify the events at the beginning of our era, when Christianity arose? For the supporters of this religious direction, there was greatest event in the history of mankind. In the history of the Jews, this is the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish state and the final expulsion to the Diaspora. Islam, referring to biblical subjects, is critical of both the theology of Christianity and the Jews. In world history, there is a transition from " Ancient World to the Middle Ages. If you carefully consider the poem "The Bronze Horseman", you can find a very curious symbolism related to the events of that time.

In Dostoevsky's book The Teenager, Arkady Dolgoruky walks out onto the streets of St. Petersburg on a foggy morning and argues:

On such a St. Petersburg morning, rotten, damp and misty, the wild dream of some Pushkinian Hermann from The Queen of Spades (a colossal face, an extraordinary, completely St. Petersburg type - a type from the St. Petersburg period!), It seems to me, should be even more strengthened. A hundred times, in the midst of this fog, a strange but obsessive dream was asked to me: “What, how will this fog fly apart and go up, will not this whole rotten, slimy city go away with it, rise with the fog and disappear like smoke, and the former Finnish swamp will remain, and in the middle of it, perhaps, for beauty, a bronze rider on a hot-breathing, driven horse?

Why will the bronze horseman remain on the “driven” horse? What does this mean? In the view of Arkady, the whole city is a virtual and illusory world created by the Bronze Horseman. If the illusions dissipate, then the whole structure will disappear with them, like behind a rotten and damp fog. After all from heat, from human heat, even the fog rises. The Russian Empire disappeared after the 1917 flood. Soviet Russia disappeared after the flood initiated by Gorbachev. Won't a civilization built on the principles of "miracle", "bread" and "Caesar's sword" disappear if these principles suddenly stop working?

The poem begins with an introduction, which can be considered a kind of hymn to St. Petersburg. Peter I, repeating the feat of Akhenaten, from scratch, in the middle of the Finnish swamps, founded and built new town by making it new capital throughout the Russian Empire. Pushkin writes:

I love you, Peter's creation,
I love your strict, slender look
…
Show off, city of Petrov, and stop
Unshakable like Russia

If the introduction to The Bronze Horseman describes the real city of Peter, the main part of the poem uses the story of the flood in St. Petersburg purely symbolically and has only an indirect relation to the city of St. Petersburg itself. At the end of the first part of the poem, Eugene is shown sitting astride a " marble beast without a hat and clenching his hands in a cross. Where exactly is Eugene? Really, Senate square, for some time it was called "Petrova" in honor of the monument to Peter I located on it, created according to the project of Montferrand. On one side of this square, in 1817-1820, the house of Lobanov-Rostotsky was built, which in 1824, when the described flood occurred, could well be called “new” and, indeed, two guard lions stood as if alive above the elevated porch of this house . Some people think that Yevgeny climbed on one of the lions of the Lobanov-Rostotsky house, which looks rather strange. A simple analysis shows that Yevgeny's real position "on the marble beast" has nothing to do with this house. The monument to Peter "is turned back to him", and Peter's back is turned to St. Isaac's Cathedral. In 1824, St. Isaac's Cathedral was disassembled, which was the source of many ridicule in society. During the flood, it was only marble foundation surrounded by a fence. The old cathedral was dismantled, and the project of the new cathedral had not yet been approved.

The history of the cathedral is worth a detailed description. The first Temple of St. Isaac's Cathedral was built in 1707. It was the main church in the city. Here Peter I married Ekaterina Alekseevna. Only in St. Isaac's Church, by imperial decree, sailors could take the oath Baltic Fleet. Archaeological research on the territory of the city of David in Jerusalem does not reveal any traces huge buildings and it is likely that the Jewish temple of the time of Solomon was also a small church. The second Temple of St. Isaac's Cathedral was built in 1727. The temple was located on the very spot where the Bronze Horseman is today. In 1766, a decree was issued on the construction of the Third Temple on a new site. Renaldi's original project was never realized. Construction was stopped and the new project was significantly different from the original. The cathedral turned out to be squat, and artistically ridiculous - ugly brick walls rose on a luxurious marble base. This construction caused ridicule and bitter irony of contemporaries, who obviously included Pushkin. Naval officer Akimov, who arrived in Russia after a long stay in England, wrote an epigram:

This is a monument of two kingdoms,
Both so decent
On the marble floor
Brick top erected

When trying to attach a sheet with this quatrain to the facade of the temple, Akimov was arrested. They cut out his tongue and sent him to Siberia. The epigram had many modifications. There is a version of its folk origin.

This temple will show us
Who caress, who scourge,
It started with marble
Finished in brick.

When, under Alexander I, brickwork began to be dismantled to complete the final project of Montferrand, folklore responded to this with a new epigram:

This temple of the three reigns image:
Granite, brick and destruction.

By 1824, when the flood occurred, St. Isaac's brick church was completely destroyed and, therefore, Eugene was sitting on the marble foundation of the ruined building. Projecting this onto Jewish stories, it turns out that the action takes place after the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Roman Empire in 70 AD, and the flood can be compared to the Jewish wars. “News compiled by V.N. Berhom" is projected onto the works of Josephus Flavius. The modern version of St. Isaac's Cathedral resembles appearance St. Peter's Cathedral in St. Peter's Square, that is, "Peter's Square" in Rome. The very phrase "to sit on the beast" is associated with the Revelation of John the Theologian. The beast on which the harlot sits: “He was, and he is not, and will come out of the abyss, and will go to destruction” (Rev. 17:8). The harlot sitting on the beast is sometimes called the Catholic Church.

Eugene sits on the beast with "hands clenched in a cross." In Onegin's office there was a figurine of Napoleon in a hat and with his hands crossed. Such a gesture is called "fold your hands on your chest", and not "squeeze with a cross." A more accurate depiction of such a gesture can be found on the sculptures of Pharaoh Akhenaten. It is he who clasps his hands in a “cross”, and does not fold them on his chest, therefore the gesture “to clasp his hands in a cross” has an associative connection with Pharaoh Akhenaten and his great plans for the reorganization of mankind. True, it is already too late to clasp hands during a flood: even kings cannot cope with God's element.

At the beginning of the first part of the poem, Eugene is described as a variant of the "little man". He “serves somewhere”, when he comes home he takes off his “overcoat”. Gogol's story with this title appeared after Pushkin's death and describes limited approach to problem solving. It is possible that Gogol's story arose under the influence of Pushkin's image, and perhaps as an illustration to it. In the second part of the poem, Eugene, as a result of the lessons presented to him by the flood, confronts one on one with the "miraculous builder", whose fateful will created a city that allows such floods. Before the flood, Eugene dreamed of a quiet life, “Marry? Well… why not?” He thought to arrange for himself a "humble shelter", to receive " place”, to entrust the household and the upbringing of the children to their Parasha. The girl lives with her mother, a widow. The widow and daughter also appear in Pushkin's poem "The House in Kolomna" and in the novel "Eugene Onegin".

His girlfriend's name is remarkable. Parasha is a diminutive form of female name Parakseva. Paraxev's name is associated with Saint Paraxeva Friday in honor of which the icons "Simeon's Prophecy" and "Softener of Evil Hearts" were painted. "Parasha" is the name of a paragraph in a Torah scroll: in the Jewish tradition, the text of each of the books of the Pentateuch is divided into separate paragraphs of two types, called "parshiyot". For an unknown reason, "Parash" is also called today a vessel for defecation in prison cells. The thug jargon of Russia is known for its ingenuity and imagination, so it is possible that the "slop" came to prison precisely from Hebrew, in which this word means "excerpt", "portion". Another meaning of the word "parasha" is the battle ax of the gods in Hinduism. So… which way to look…

Eugene's dream lives in a "dilapidated house behind an unpainted fence", where stands " willow". Returning to his girlfriend after the flood, he remarks "here is a willow, there was a gate here." The Ishtar Gate was in Babylon. They were established by King Nebuchadnezzar in honor of the goddess Ishtar. In the Bible, the willow is associated primarily with the "Babylonian willow" from Psalm 136. The Jewish wedding symbolizes the marriage union of God and the people. During every wedding, Jews remember the Babylonian rivers.

By the rivers of Babylon,
We sat there and wept
when they remembered Zion.

On willows (willows), in the middle of it
we hung our harps.

There they captivated us
demanded from us the words of the song,
and our oppressors are joy:
"Sing to us from the songs of Zion."

How can we sing the song of the Lord
on a foreign land?

It should be noted that the Babylonian Talmud, the main religious book of Talmudic Judaism, was mainly created in Babylon and, according to Psalm 136, is not the song of the Lord if Babylon is a "foreign land." However, the interfluve was the native land for the extinct people of Sumer, and if the followers of the Talmud are a kind of reincarnation of the ancient Sumerians, then such a song may well be "God's" by definition. In the poem "The Bronze Horseman" Pushkin again appears the image of the "dead beloved girl." Vladimir Vysotsky in the song, which was often performed by his wife Marina Vladi, has the following lines:

And trouble from that day
Searching the world for me.
Rumors go along with her with Krivotolki.
And that I didn't die
Knew naked willow
Yes, even quail with quails.

Willow is a type of Babylonian willow. Further in the text appears the image " evil covered in scarlet»:

Morning beam
Because of the tired, pale clouds
Flashed over the quiet capital
And found no trace
The troubles of yesterday; scarlet
The evil was already covered up.

The etymology of the word "crimson" is remarkable. In ancient times, this was the name not only for the most expensive fabric, but also for the dye with which fabrics were dyed. The Phoenicians were the first to learn how to use purple as paint. The manufacture of purple was the most profitable trade in Phenicia and was carried out on a large scale, as evidenced by the remaining production waste. Perhaps they did not invent purple themselves, but adapted the technique of making it from other peoples. The very name "Phoenicia" comes from the Greek "red, crimson". According to one hypothesis, that part of the “ancient Jews” that made up the state of Israel came from the Phoenicians, in contrast to the inhabitants of Judea, who descended from the ancient Egyptian Old Believers who participated in the Exodus. It is possible that the Phoenicians arose as a fragment of Ancient Sumer.

At times ancient rome, a robe dyed crimson (blood red) meant the highest, royal distinction. The New Testament describes that when Jesus was mocked, the Roman soldiers put on him a scarlet, red cloak of Roman soldiers. So the soldiers created a caricature of the Roman emperor. Only the emperors wore the purple robe. Instead of a royal crown, they put a thorny one on his head. On many icons, Jesus is depicted in purple, so the phrase "evil covered with purple" can also be related to Christianity: its solemn and beautiful rites. The image of “Count Khvostov” is interesting in this context. An excerpt from the poem:

They brought boats. Count Khvostov,
Poet, beloved by heaven,
Already sang immortal verses
The misfortune of the Neva banks.

Can be simply changed to:

They brought boats and Mohammed,
Prophet beloved by heaven
Already sang immortal verses
The misfortune of the Neva banks.

A notable event in the biography of Count Khvostov was the marriage to A.I. Gorchakova, Suvorov's niece. As in the case of the Prophet Muhammad, marriage to a famous and wealthy woman significantly raised his social status. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to stand under Suvorov. In the 1820s, Count Khvostov served as a popular target for ridicule and the addressee of numerous epigrams. He considered Pushkin his successor.

As a result of severe mental stress caused by the death of his beloved, Eugene goes crazy.

Alas! his confused mind
Against terrible shocks
Didn't resist. Rebellious Noise
Neva and winds resounded
In his ears. Terrible thoughts
Silently full, he wandered.
Some kind of dream tormented him.

What kind of dream could be tormenting him? Dostoevsky has "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man". The protagonist wanted to commit suicide because he decided that already " never and nothing will". He falls asleep and in a dream is transferred to a distant planet, with which he experiences the development of its civilization. It all starts with the "Golden Age", when everyone lives like in Paradise, is happy and does not know any grief. Then people slowly “corrupt” and everything comes to a state where nothing can be restored, and the main character, an analogue of God, is considered to be a madman. The story demonstrates that the laws of the development of society are not at all as obvious as it might seem at first glance. When main character woke up, then instead of committing suicide, he decided to help the little girl on the “mute hailstacks”.

The clothes are shabby on him
It tore and smoldered. Evil children
They threw stones at him.

In the Bible, "evil children" appear in the story of the prophet Elisha:

And he went from there to Bethel. As he walked along the road, little children came out of the city and mocked him and said to him: “Go, bald! go, baldhead!" He looked around and saw them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two children out of them.

Angry children “throwing stones” appear in Dostoevsky in the episode about Ilyusha from the book The Brothers Karamazov. When Ilyusha, before his death, suggested to his father that he choose another boy and name him "Ilyusha", Captain Snegiryov quoted Psalm 136:

I don't want a good boy! I don't want another boy! - he whispered in a wild whisper, gnashing his teeth, - if I forget you, Jerusalem, let it cling ...

Either this is reality, or the delirium of a mad Evgeny, but after he threatened the Bronze Horseman with “Already for you”, he chased him through the streets of the city. Here an image appears similar to the "Stone Guest" from a small tragedy.

And, illuminated by the pale moon,
Stretch out your hand above
Behind him rushes the Bronze Horseman
On a galloping horse;
And all night the poor madman
Wherever you turn your feet
Behind him everywhere is the Bronze Horseman
Jumped with a heavy thud.

Valery Bryusov comments on the poem as follows:

When this Bronze Horseman gallops, a “heavy clatter” is heard, similar to “roaring thunder”, and the whole pavement is shocked by this galloping, for which the poet has long chosen a suitable definition - “heavy-dimensional”, “far-voiced”, “heavy-voiced”. Speaking of this idol towering over a fenced rock, Pushkin, always so restrained, does not stop at the most daring epithets: this is both “the lord of Fate”, and “the ruler of half the world”, and (in rough sketches) “terrible tsar”, “powerful king”, “husband of Fate”, “lord of half the world”.

Why "hard-voiced"? Pink Floyd's "Money" from the album "Dark Side of the Moon" comes to mind. In the "heavy-voiced" galloping, the ringing of money is heard. Copper symbolizes a cheap coin and the world of money in general, therefore, in the title of the poem, the rider is precisely “ Copper", not "Bronze". "The Bronze Horseman" is similar to "a terrible and intelligent spirit, the spirit of self-destruction and non-existence" and Eugene in the poem is in front of the monument, as in Dostoevsky someone who looks like Jesus is in front of the Grand Inquisitor in the midst of heretics burning at the stake. The end of Eugene is sad:

Desert island. not grown up
There is not a blade of grass. flood
There, playing, skidded
The house is dilapidated. Above the water
He remained like a black bush.
His last spring
They took it to the bar. He was empty
And all destroyed. At the threshold
Found my madman
And then his cold corpse
Buried for God's sake.

Parasha's house remained on the island, like a "black bush". Black bush in Russian folklore means "currant bush". Currant is a river connecting the world of the living and the world of the dead, the Kalinov bridge is laid across it. The Bronze Horseman was written after the end of Eugene Onegin, but it can logically be considered a prehistory of the novel. The character of Onegin could have arisen under the influence of the events of the poem "The Bronze Horseman" after he returned to a new life through the Kalinov Bridge. And the last eighth chapter of "Eugene Onegin" ends with a suddenly resounding (heavy-voiced) the sound of spurs Tatyana's husband, returning back to the Bronze Horseman.

She left. Worth Eugene,
As if struck by thunder.
In what a storm of sensations
Now he is immersed in his heart!
But spurs suddenly rang out,
And Tatyana's husband showed up,

Notes