In Kazan, the poet Velimir Khlebnikov spent his gymnasium and student years, and therefore the city, which influenced the formation of so many talents, could not but leave a mark on his development.
When studying the biography or creativity of a bright personality, researchers and admirers are always interested in the environment in which a person lived and worked, what streets he walked along, what landscape he saw from the window. Alexandra BIRYALTSEVA, a well-known Kazan researcher of the Kazan biography and creativity of Velimir Khlebnikov, offers to make a correspondence tour of Khlebnikov's places in our city.
Velimir Vladimirovich Khlebnikov (real name Viktor) (1885-1922), Russian poet and prose writer. The ancestor of Russian futurism (a group of "budetlyans"). Creator of the Utopian Society of Chairmen of the Globe (1916).
Reformer of poetic language (experiments in the field of word creation, zaumi, "star language"). The pacifist poem about the First World War "The War in the Mousetrap" (1919), the monumental revolutionary poems (1920-1922) "Ladomir", "Night Search", "Zangezi", "The Night Before the Soviets".
A series of historical and mathematical articles devoted to the nature of time "Boards of Fate" (1922). Stories. Drama. He had an impact on the Russian and European avant-garde, including in the field of painting and music.
The original poet of the Silver Age Viktor (Velimir) Vladimirovich Khlebnikov was born on October 28 (November 9), 1885 in the Kalmyk steppe ulus of the Astrakhan province (now Kalmykia) in the family of an ornithologist.
He visited his parents in Astrakhan, where his parents lived, during his long travels around the country and the world.
Philologists at Astrakhan University have long been studying the work of this poet (by the way, in Soviet time it was practically not studied), but also regularly gather researchers from all over Russia. The only Velimir Khlebnikov museum in the country operates in Astrakhan. It is located in the former apartment of his parents.
Does Kazan remember Khlebnikov? The Museum of the History of KSU has a small stand with his portrait of the gymnasium, a book of poems published in the 80s, a copy of the student Khlebnikov's apartment certificate. The funds have a folder with his photographs and publications about him.
There is no street named after the poet in the city, there is not a single memorial plaque dedicated to him. Of the three houses in which his family lived, only one remained. But we can walk through the streets he walked, see the houses through whose doors he entered.
In Kazan, everything starts from the Kremlin
We will start our route through the Khlebnikov places of our city from the Tainitskaya tower of the Kazan Kremlin. It is located on the northern side of the fortress on the banks of the Kazanka River. In the photograph, it is in the foreground on the left, square, squat, with a three-tier hipped roof topped with the symbol of a UNESCO cultural heritage site (a diamond inscribed in a circle).
To the right of the tower we see an old two-tier building of the palace church, and further and higher - the beautiful Syuyumbike tower - the symbol of the city of Kazan.
This panorama was seen by the young gymnasium student Viktor Khlebnikov upon his arrival in Kazan from Simbirsk in 1898, since it is this panorama that opens up to a traveler arriving in our city from the west or south.
And we have the right to assume that Khlebnikov's lines are dedicated to her:
And the view of the Volga Kremlin?
Although they can also be attributed to the Astrakhan Kremlin.
If we begin to bypass the Kremlin hill to the right of the Tainitskaya Tower (counterclockwise), then soon the next panorama will appear before us. In the center of the panorama we see the round corner South-West Tower, on the right - the expressive stepped Spasskaya Tower with a clock - the southern entrance to the Kremlin, and on the left, behind the tent of the Voskresenskaya Tower - the dome and six minarets of the Kul Sharif mosque.
Khlebnikov could not see this mosque, since it was built at the turn of the 20th century in memory of the mosque destroyed here by the troops of Ivan the Terrible. But even during the Kazan period of his life, Viktor Khlebnikov could observe at least 15 mosques in our city. Therefore, his following lines could well have been inspired by Kazan impressions:
Mosque and temple are lowlands
And sees sorrow in our inheritance
Beautiful and wild, the call of the muezzin
Calling the peoples to new cereals.
With cobblestone there is henbane
I was friends on the clear square,
And towers slender wall
She surrounded the city and the hill.
And about the beautiful Syuyumbike tower, which we can get close to by going to the Kremlin, the poet says in plain text:
Kazan guard - Sumbeki's needle,
Rivers of tears and blood flowed there.
If you come to Kazan, then you will definitely be told romantic legends about this tower, which all Kazan citizens have known since childhood.
The name of the tower is associated with the name of the Kazan queen Syuyumbike, the daughter of the Nogai Murza Yusuf and the wife of the last three Kazan kings: Jan-Ali, Safa-Girey and Shah-Ali. She was brought to Kazan in 1532 and stayed there until 1551, when she was sent to Moscow together with her young son Utyamysh-Girey. According to the description of eyewitnesses, “the people of Kazan with great sorrow saw off the queen”, the mosque, where her husband Safa-Girey, mourned by her, was buried, was called the Syuyumbike mosque. Perhaps the remains of the mosque were located next to the later built tower, to which the name traditionally passed.
There are more poetic legends about the name of the tower. One of them says that Ivan the Terrible, having heard about the beauty and charm of the Kazan queen Syuyumbike, sent ambassadors to Kazan with an offer to become the Moscow queen. But the proud Syuyumbike rejected the royal hand. The angry king came with a huge army under the city, laid siege to it. Then the beauty agreed to get married, but as a wedding gift she asked to build the highest tower in Kazan in seven days. Hasty construction began: on the first day they built the first, largest in size, tier, on the second day the second, etc.
Finally, by the end of the seventh day, the tower was completed, and the wedding feast began. Syuyumbike asked permission to climb to the very top of the tower in order to survey the city and say goodbye to its citizens. When the queen climbed the tower, not having the strength to part with the city that had become close and dear to her, she threw herself down on sharp stones. In memory of the last Kazan queen, the people named the tower after her.
Nowadays, the silhouette of the tower is often used as an architectural emblem of the city: we see it on postcards, badges, and souvenirs. The tower of the Kazansky railway station in Moscow more or less accurately reproduces the Syuyumbike tower, which, obviously, according to the architect's intention, was to indicate the direction of the railway.
Near the Syuyumbike tower are the ruins of the tombs of Kazan khans (“At the tomb - the ancestors of the tomb” V. Khlebnikov).
If we return to the square in front of the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin (now called May Day Square), then one of historical events that took place here was also reflected in Khlebnikov's poems:
Dear, dear Pugachevshchina,
Cossack with an earring and a dark ear.
She is familiar to us.
Then militantly stabbing
Fought with a German and a trio.
It was on this square in July 1774 that the fierce battle of Pugachev's army for the Kazan Kremlin took place. The walls of the Kremlin were fired upon with cannons, prisoners were taken out of the casemate (now the building of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan), among whom was Pugachev's wife with three children. The eldest son Trofim, aged 11, recognized his father. And Pugachev, posing as Tsar Peter III, loudly ordered: “Take the family of the Cossack Pugachev to the Arsk field and treat them kindly.”
From here, the next day, the defeat of the Pugachev army began, and soon after his capture and execution, a civil execution took place in Kazan on this square. In 1833, A.S. Pushkin came here, examined the walls and towers of the Kremlin, questioned the surviving eyewitnesses, collecting material for The History of Pugachev and The Captain's Daughter.
Could Khlebnikov the high school student and Khlebnikov the student know about all this? Recall that in 1899, when Victor was in the 4th grade of the gymnasium, all of Russia celebrated Pushkin's 100th anniversary, and since Pushkin spent only 3 days in Kazan in 1833 with a specific goal, the gymnasium teachers should have been in their conversations mention both the visit of Pushkin and the “Pugachevshchina” in Kazan.
Now let's move from the Spasskaya Tower in the same direction - counterclockwise. Under the eastern Kremlin wall we will meet a two-story building of the city cancer hospital.
City Cancer Hospital (former city transit prison)
This building housed the city transit prison, where Velimir Khlebnikov had to spend one month at the end of 1903 due to participation in student unrest. Here is what he wrote to his parents while here:
“Dear mother and dear father! I didn't write because I thought someone would come to the date. Now there is not much left - five days - or maybe even less and time goes by quickly ... I recently took up painting on the wall and copied a portrait (indecipherable) and two more heads from Life, but since this turned out to be a violation prison rules, I erased them... I studied physics the other day and read more than 100 pages, today I'm reading Minto.... I read more than half of the analysis... Kisses to everyone - Katya, Shura, Vera - see you soon. Vitya. Kazan, transit prison, 3.12.03. (E.R. Arenzon, a modern researcher of Khlebnikov's work, deciphered an illegible word in a letter from an arrested student, and claims that Khlebnikov painted a portrait of Herzen on the cell wall).
Not far from the eastern wall of the Kazan Kremlin is the place where the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was found. On this site in the 16th century, the Kazan Bogoroditsky Convent was founded.
The famous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the savior of Russia from the Poles in 1612, was kept in this monastery from the moment it was found until its daring abduction in 1904. Khlebnikov at that time was a student at Kazan University, although in the summer of 1904 he left for Moscow.
The abduction and destruction of the icon stirred up the whole city, and do not these events echo the lines written in 1922:
... And if Vila sped away the golden chuvals of Kazan,
Look for it in Wil and Leshem
The instructions given by me in time ...
We assume that under the “golden chuvals” one can mean the precious salary of the Kazan miraculous icon.
The icon of the Kazan Mother of God was kept in this cathedral
One of the lists of the icon, donated by Pope John Paul II, is kept in the Exaltation of the Cross Cathedral in Kazan
When Pugachev was in Kazan, here, on the porch of the monastery, the elderly Major General Kudryavtsev was brutally murdered by the Pugachevites, as A.S. Pushkin mentions in the “History of Pugachev”:
“The state of Kazan was terrible: out of two thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven houses located in it, two thousand and fifty-seven burned down. Twenty-five churches and three monasteries also burned down. Gostiny Dvor and other houses, churches and monasteries were looted. Found up to three hundred dead and wounded inhabitants; about five hundred were missing. Among those killed were the director of the Kanitz gymnasium, several teachers and students, and Colonel Rodionov. Major General Kudryavtsev, an old man of one hundred and ten, did not want to hide in the fortress, despite all sorts of exhortations. He prayed on his knees in the Kazan maiden monastery. Several robbers ran in. He began to exhort them. The villains killed him on the church porch.
And now let's read the lines of Velimir Khlebnikov about the "slender, white city" with a continuation:
You see the city is slender, white,
And the view of the Volga Kremlin?
The ground is covered with blood,
There, an old man is abandoned,
Listen to the terrible alarm.
Although a similar story happened in Astrakhan during the uprising of Stepan Razin, it seems to us that the events of the poet's childhood city, which coincided with Pushkin's anniversary, should be closer to him.
So, we examined the objects located in the Kazan Kremlin and around it, one way or another connected with the work of Velimir Khlebnikov, and now let's go along those streets of the city that this amazing person stepped on.
Along Voskresenskaya street to the university
The square in front of the Spasskaya Tower is now called May Day Square, and 100 years ago it was called Alexander II Square. Approximately where we now see a monument to the poet-hero Musa Jalil, there was a monument to the liberator Tsar Alexander II.
In the corner building of the former Gostiny Dvor from 1898 to this day there is local history museum. In those days when the Khlebnikov family lived in Kazan (1898-1908), this museum was called the city museum, now it is the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, uniting many branches located in Kazan, in cities and villages of the republic.
Opposite the museum is the building of the former City Council (with a balcony above the entrance), and further, through the house, a long two-story corner building - a house in which, at the beginning of the 20th century, the doctor "on skin and venereal diseases" Ivan Evgrafovich Damperov, a close friend Khlebnikov family.
The location of the house was established by us using the analysis of address calendars. In the Kazan address book for 1899, Damperov Ivan Evgrafovich is listed at the address: Voskresenskaya street, Boldyrev's house. He is the manager of the Kazan hunting society and a teacher of the Kazan Zemsky paramedic school. The address book for 1906 indicates that I.E. Damperov in the same Boldyrev's house on Voskresenskaya Street conducts a reception for skin and venereal diseases from 9 to 10 o'clock in the morning and from 5 to 6 o'clock in the evening.
Boldyrev's house on Voskresenskaya street has been preserved, now it has the address Kremlevskaya street, house 7. Currently, one of the buildings of the executive committee of Kazan is located there.
Boldyrev's house on Voskresenskaya - the building today
Currently, this building houses the personnel policy department of the Executive Committee of Kazan. The inhabitants of this house are shown in the following photo.
And you and I are moving along Kremlevskaya Street, moving away from the Kremlin, we pass by the building of the National Museum, we look at opposite side the house where the Damperovs lived, we pass the intersection and move along the long building that occupies the entire block.
This is the building of the former theological seminary. Now it houses the Faculty of Geology of KSU. Outwardly, this building has hardly changed over the past 100 years.
The building of the Theological Seminary (now the Faculty of Geology of KSU). Modern look
This was the building when the Kazan Theological Seminary worked in it
Turning the corner and walking a few steps, we come to the old Peter and Paul Cathedral, built in honor of the arrival of Peter the Great in Kazan in 1722.
Peter and Paul Cathedral
Petropavlovsky Lane departs from the cathedral (now Sh. Rakhmatullina Street), at the very beginning of it there is the building of the Mariinsky Gymnasium, where Katya and Vera Khlebnikov, Varya and Olya Damperov studied.
Mariinsky Gymnasium
Velimir's younger sister, Vera, did not like to study at the gymnasium, she, later a well-known artist, wrote about this:
“in the big dead classrooms with whitewashed windows, it suddenly became eerie after the green lily-of-the-valley forest, strawberry, summer, so oncoming, so smiling.”
During the lessons it was given: "Khlebnikova, where are you, in the clouds?". The answer was calm: "I draw."
In the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan, we found a report card with the marks of Vera Khlebnikova, as well as Varvara and Olga Damperovs.
From Vera Khlebnikova's report cards it follows that she entered the gymnasium in August 1899 in the senior preparatory class, then regularly moved from class to class until the fifth grade, and in the fifth grade she turned out to be uncertified due to frequent absences from classes and was left for the second year.
In August 1905, at the request of her mother, Vera was issued a certificate of completion of 4 classes of the gymnasium with an excellent mark in the Law of God, good in natural history and needlework, and satisfactory in Russian, mathematics, geography, history, French and calligraphy.
Thanks to the gymnasium report cards, we managed to clarify the date of birth of Vera Khlebnikova. It is March 20, 1890. Such a date is in the report card for the first and fifth grades, the report cards are filled with different handwriting, therefore, different cool ladies. We pay attention to Vera's date of birth because it does not match the date on her father's record.
The archives of the Mariinsky Gymnasium also contain the school report cards of the Damperov girls - Varvara and Olga. Varvara, who is called Velimir's first love, was born on November 29, 1887, entered the gymnasium the same year as Vera (1899). to the second grade. By decree pedagogical council on May 27, 1905, Varvara Damperova was issued a certificate of completion of seven classes of the gymnasium with fives in the Law of God, physics and geography; fours in Russian, mathematics, history, pedagogy, German, cutting and drawing, and threes in French, needlework and calligraphy.
Velimir's older sister, Katya, also graduated from the Mariinsky Gymnasium.
Currently, the lyceum at Kazan State University is located in the building of the Mariinsky Gymnasium.
Moving along Kremlyovskaya street, we are approaching the educational buildings of the Kazan state university. We first meet high building Faculty of Physics. At this place, at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a police station with a fire tower, into which students were taken - participants in the riots on November 5, 1903. Among them was Viktor Khlebnikov, a first-year student of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics (Khlebnikov wrote: “and we were taken to a building with a fire tower” ...).
Opposite the Faculty of Physics, the building of the Faculty of Chemistry of KSU is now located, and in the time of Khlebnikov, the majestic Resurrection Cathedral towered here, which gave the name of the current Kremlin Street - Voskresenskaya.
Chemical faculty
Resurrection Cathedral
Next we come to the quarter that occupies the university campus. On the left side we see a square with a monument to the great mathematician, rector of Kazan University, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky.
Monument to N. Lobachevsky
Opposite Lobachevsky Square is the main building of Kazan University - the alma mater of Kazan students of the last two centuries.
Kazan University
Velimir Khlebnikov studied here in 1903-1904 and in 1905-1908. The multi-columned portico of the main building of Kazan University has been preserved to this day in its classical harmony of Ionic columns.
In December, Khlebnikov successfully passed all the exams for the first semester, but did not want to study at the university anymore. On February 24, 1904, at his own request, he was dismissed from among the students, moved to St. Petersburg, where he was enrolled in the 3rd year of the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University. He was seized by a passionate desire to change places, which would be characteristic of his whole life: how many times, for no apparent reason, Khlebnikov suddenly left one city for another, or simply left on foot.
Soon Victor returns to Kazan. On August 28, 1904, he was restored at Kazan University, but already at the natural department.
In Kazan, he received an initial but solid training in a number of mathematical disciplines. And Velimir was engaged in mathematics, the search for the numerical laws of time until last day own life. Here "first hand" he got acquainted with the scientific heritage of N.I. Lobachevsky. The personality of Lobachevsky, who made a revolutionary revolution in geometry, and his theory deeply impressed Khlebnikov and became close to him. This is one of the key images of his poetic work.
In 1905, Khlebnikov, together with his brother Alexander, was sent on an expedition to the Urals, to the Pavdinskaya dacha to collect stuffed birds and bird skins. Skins and stuffed animals should be stored in the Zoological Museum of the University, which is located on the second floor in the left wing of the building.
There are memoirs about Khlebnikov by Ekaterina Neymayer, in which she recalls how she discussed with Khlebnikov in Kharkov her impressions of Kazan and, in particular, “cast-iron stoves of the university”:
“Having learned that I traveled along the Volga, I was in Kazan, I asked: what did I like there? I remember being struck by the cast-iron stoves of the university. The plates sang. As if on different notes there was a sound: from the steps of fast walking - in one key, under ladies' heels - in another. It all seemed unexpectedly magical.”
Now there are no such musical plates at the university.
So, if we turn back and take in the entire Kremlyovskaya Street that we walked through, we can imagine the impressions of this street of young Khlebnikov, which he expressed in the unfinished passage "Lion":
“... I remembered one street in Kazan, narrow, white from the sun, scorching the legs in the distance of the black cavalry rushing at us.”
The first academic semester ended with student unrest.
"A past that I'm proud of"
In October 1903, an event occurred that had important consequences. On the 26th, student S. Simonov died, who was kept in a psychiatric hospital in terrible conditions for 4 months. The first student protest took place on the day of his funeral, October 27, the second on November 5, the day the university was founded. Students gathered at the snow-white columns, sang " eternal memory» a victim of arbitrariness.
The text of the police report on the events of November 5, 1903 says that among the students there were shouts “To the theater, to the theater. We'll sing there" and some of the students went to the old clinic.
And this building still looks the same to this day, but it houses several research institutes that are part of the university. It is located opposite the left wing of the university.
Old university clinic
Khlebnikov was arrested for taking part in this demonstration. Here is how he writes about it:
“The whip did not beat us, but the whip whistled over our backs. On the fourth "November" of last year we were talking peacefully at that hour by the samovar, on the fifth we sang, we stood calmly at the door of our Alma mater, and on the sixth we were already in transit prison. Here is my past, which I am proud of.
The feet of the Cossack horses fell loudly on the frozen ground, when a detachment of Cossacks galloped measuredly at us ...
With bitches in their hands, in sheepskin coats, the janitors stood around us, impassive and motionless, forming around us a ring of inanimate human meat, with a soul in the dark, not illuminated by consciousness.
And then two huge clumsy hands, taking their armpits, almost led, and sometimes carried, to an old stone box with a black board above the entrance, next to which a fire tower rose.
The poet's mother, E.N. Khlebnikova, recalls:
"... He spent almost a month in prison ... Since then, an unrecognizable change has occurred to him: all his cheerfulness disappeared, he went to lectures with disgust."
From prison, Khlebnikov wrote to his parents:
“Dear mother and dear father! I didn't write because I thought someone would come to the date. Now there is not much left - five days - or maybe even less, and time goes by quickly.<....>I recently took up painting on the wall and copied from Life a portrait (indecipherable) and two more heads, but since this turned out to be a violation of prison rules, I erased them.<....>. I studied physics the other day and read more than 100 pages, today I'm reading Minto.<....>I have read more than half of the analysis.<....>Kisses to everyone - Katya, Shura, Vera - see you soon. Vitya. Kazan, transit prison, 3.12.03.
In Kazan, Victor survived the Russo-Japanese War, according to his mother, met the revolution of 1905 “with enthusiasm”, attended rallies, and took part in the work of a revolutionary circle. The Russo-Japanese War and the Battle of Tsushima that took place during it had a great influence on Khlebnikov and prompted him to start searching for the “basic law of time”, to try to find an excuse for deaths. Later Khlebnikov wrote: "We've thrown ourselves into the future since 1905."
Admitted in December 1906 to the Society of Naturalists of Kazan University as an associate member and published an article about the discovery of a new species of cuckoo during one of the expeditions, after 1906 Khlebnikov practically ceased to pay attention to both ornithology and studies at the university, focusing on literature .
Around this time, he wrote a large-scale prose work "Yenya Voeikov", which remained unfinished, but was an important stage in Khlebnikov's creative development. In addition, during this period he wrote a large number of poems. The "word-creating" period began in Khlebnikov's work.
In March 1908, Khlebnikov decided to send his poems to the symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov, whose article "On a cheerful craft and smart fun", published in 1907 in the magazine "Golden Fleece", made him great impression. In the spring of 1908, a personal acquaintance took place in Sudak. Khlebnikov, who fell under the influence of Ivanov, wrote about a hundred poems during this period and the play "The Sacrament of the Distant", full of allusions to ancient mythology. In these works, the influence of symbolism can be traced.
In September 1908, Khlebnikov was enrolled in the third year of the natural sciences department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University and moved to St. Petersburg. The main reason for the move was the desire to seriously engage in literature.
In 1916, Khlebnikov was called to military service. In the same year, Velimir once again, the last, comes to Kazan - to the hospital.
Now you and I will pass by the old university clinic and along Nuzhin Street, formerly Universitetskaya, we will go down to Pushkin Street. Along Pushkin Street, we will pass by the monument to the chemist Butlerov, who worked at Kazan University, past the building with a memorial plaque, where Gorky passed his “universities” in one of the Marusovka doss houses, we will pass by Leninsky Garden - the former Nikolaevskaya Square, about which Gorky wrote:
“If I had been offered: “Go, study, but for this, on Sundays, on Nikolayevsky Square, we will beat you with sticks,” I probably would have accepted this condition.”
Through the Leninsky Garden, laid out on the site of the former Nikolaevskaya Square, we pass to Pushkin Street, then, passing by the doss house in Marusovka, in which Gorky lived in his youth, we get to Gorky Street, we pass by the Gorky Museum. In the basement of this house there is a memorial bakery where the future writer Alexei Peshkov worked.
At the time of Khlebnikov, there were no memorial plaques on these buildings, but Gorky himself was already widely known and the student Khlebnikov sent him his play Elena Gordyachkina, addressing Alexei Maksimovich as follows: Dear and dear writer.
Vera Khlebnikova recalled that when Viktor received an answer from Gorky, “He looked proud and joyful,” despite the fact that his manuscript was crossed out in many places with a red pencil.
Moving along Gorky Street, we are approaching the building of the Art School on Karl Marx Street. Now it houses the Kazan Art School, in the 20th century there was an educational building of the Kazan Aviation Institute for a long time.
During the time of Khlebnikov, there was an Art School here. Here is how Vera Khlebnikova wrote about this building in her memoirs:
“There is a mysterious red building with pointed turrets in the city…”
Kazan Art School. Modern look
In the National Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan, the archives of volunteers for the years 1905-1906 of Khlebnikova Vera and Khlebnikov Alexander, sister and brother of the future poet, were found.
Vera was very happy to leave the gymnasium and study at an art school:
“... some kind of growing joy flows into the soul: paints, palette, brushes ... The sketches are huge with fearless strokes. Colors on the floor, on the cheeks, on the hands, on the shoes.”
From the report card it can be seen that the training took place in daytime and evening classes. In the evening classes, Vera studied in September in the “head contouring with plaster”, then she was transferred to the ink class. In the "head ink" in December, January, February and March, there are marks in the line "Portrait finished." and in the Outline line in February and March. Also, Vera's report card has marks in the "Daytime classes" section in the Natur mort line of the picturesque class in December and January.
There were four evening classes: head contouring, head inking, figure and natural (each of which is also divided into subclasses), and three daytime classes: architectural, painting and sculptural, also with subclasses.
She, like her brother, was taught by the famous Kazan artist P.P. Benkov. After graduating from the Mariinsky Gymnasium, which was located in the current building of School No. 6, Vera entered the Kazan Art School, where she studied until 1908, when the entire Khlebnikov family, except for Viktor, moved to Kiev.
Judging by the memoirs of V. Khlebnikova, the joy of being in an art school gradually passed. The teachers told her:
“Your work draws too much attention, it is necessary that the work of students does not differ from one another in terms of reception, your mosaicism is a bias ... Change your manner.”
Her report card for this academic year and the report card of her brother Alexander Khlebnikov.
The report card of the auditor of the Kazanskaya art school is a double-sided sheet of A4 size, drawn in the form of a complex table. The table shows that the training took place in daytime and evening classes. In the evening classes, Vera studied in September in the “head contouring with plaster” and had grades I-7 + II + II, and was transferred to the ink class. In the "head ink" in December, January, February and March, there are marks in the line "Portrait finished." and in the Outline line in February and March. Marks are a combination of Roman and Arabic numerals through the signs "+" and "-". Also, Vera's report card has marks in the "Daytime classes" section in the Natur mort line of the picturesque class in December and January.
There were four evening classes: head contouring, head inking, figure and natural (each of which is also divided into subclasses), and three daytime classes: architectural, painting and sculptural, also with subclasses. Nothing more could be found about Vera Khlebnikova. The columns about the date of birth, class, with what education she entered, remained blank.
Reading the memoirs of Vera Khlebnikova, one can try to guess that the Roman numerals mean a category or degree of quality of success. If she is unhappy with marks 2 and 3, then score 1 is the best. At Vera 1 it is found in the head contour class in September and in the "Sketches" line in the head ink class.
Alexander Khlebnikov, according to his report card for the same academic year, attended an evening figure class and a day painting class in September, and attended the same classes in December.
Viktor Khlebnikov was also a volunteer at the school, he was also fond of drawing, and in his letter from prison to his parents, he writes about her like this: “Did the Art School burn down?”
Gradually we are approaching the Arsk field. In Soviet times, the square was called the Field of Ershov. In this area, there was once a Russian Switzerland park, now it is the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture.
Opposite the park, behind a long fence, we see the building of the 6th city hospital, where the Theological Academy was located before the revolution. Judging by old maps, this area was called Academic settlement. Teachers of the Theological Academy and the university lived here.
What will we show to posterity?
In our city, until recently, there were three houses in which the Khlebnikovs lived. One of them is on Kalinina street. According to the directory "Republic of Tatarstan: monuments of history and culture", the poet Velimir Khlebnikov lived in this house in 1906-1908: "The two-story house is designed in the traditions of folk architecture with Empire motifs in the upper part of the house (mezzanine floor, stucco molding on the frieze)."
Interestingly, later, in 1929-1931, one of the first professional Tatar composers, Salih Saidashev, lived in this house.
The beginning of the modern Vishnevsky street retains its original color. Then the street takes on the appearance of a typical highway big city end of the 20th century. And you will not immediately find Kalinin Street going to the right - the former Third Mountain. Two steps to the right - and we are like in the 19th century. The street is narrow, with one- and two-story houses, with standpipes.
We passed several houses - and in front of us, against the background of the building of the Kazan Civil Engineering Academy, is a two-story yellow house, with a pilaster facade, at number 59. This is the former house of V.F. Maksimov, built in the second half of the 19th century. The Khlebnikov family lived in this house for 7 years - from 1898 to 1905. From here, Victor went to classes at the 3rd male gymnasium.
The poet's father worked at first as the manager of the first Kazan specific estate, which belonged to royal family, and since 1905 he led beekeeping courses in the Kaimar volost.
In fact, this house no longer exists. It was illegally demolished in 2004 and is now a wasteland.
Now this house is gone
Khlebnikov walked past the houses where Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Ulyanov had recently lived (the first has a memorial plaque, the second has a house-museum). Then turn right, onto the street Poperechno-Gorshechnaya (Mayakovskogo). A few steps along it to the winding and narrow Gymnasium Lane. In this lane, the future poet passed under the windows of the house where the famous orientalist Katanov lived since 1903, and walked to the very end of the lane (now Shkolny) to the building of his gymnasium, which was then located in former home landowner Chemezov.
This building was built in the 18th century. At first, the house belonged to the merchant Bogdanovsky, the mayor. In 1786, he sold the house to the State Councilor Vladimir Chemezov. The nobleman Chemezov demolished a wooden building, cut down part of the garden and built a large stone mansion, two-story, in a classical style, with a balcony on four columns. Greenhouses and greenhouses were smashed around the house, bridges were thrown across the ravines in the garden.
In the darkest and overgrown corners of the garden, Chemezov ordered to dig caves and build grottoes. In one of them he installed a marble statue of Richard Lion Heart in full growth, which was chained to the stone wall of the grotto. In a word, there was something to see in the garden.
Chemezov's garden was accessible to the Kazan public. Everyone could visit its caves and grottoes, relax in pavilions.
In 1880, the house was bought for the building of a new men's gymnasium, the third in a row. Chemezov's garden still existed, although at that time it was already 100 years old.
Currently, we can observe in its original form only the Chemezovsky house. Until 1999, classes were held in the former gymnasium, but then, due to major repairs, all the classrooms of the fourth school were transferred to a new building.
The future poet - then his name was Victor - studied here from the fourth grade (1898-1903). Vyacheslav Aristov wrote:
“Among ... V. Khlebnikov’s mentors in the gymnasium, the teacher of history and geography V.A. Belilin (a graduate of Kazan University, author of a historical note on the third gymnasium) and calligraphy and drawing teacher P.K. Vagin (from Vyatka peasants, at the Academy of Arts he received the title of "non-class artist"). The arrogant Frenchman A.Ya. knew his subject very well. Since.
However, with particular impatience, the students looked forward to the mathematics lessons in the senior classes, which were taught by Nikolai Nikolaevich Parfentiev (1877-1943), who had just graduated from Kazan University. It was thanks to him that Viktor Khlebnikov first became acquainted with the basic principles of Lobachevsky's non-Euclidean geometry, which struck him so deeply and sunk deep into his soul.
At home, with home teachers, Victor does a lot of painting. Khlebnikov's mastery of painting technique and artistic talent are noted by all those who knew him in later years.
Not far from house number 59 is another house in which Khlebnikov lived as a student (Volkova Street), house 46 (old address: Vtoraya Gora, Ulyanov's house), This is the address indicated on the student card in 1903, and it is indicated as in a letter from Khlebnikov to Vyacheslav Ivanov dated March 31, 1908.
The house is intact, it is the private property of several families. At present, the leadership of the Kazan branch of the Russian international academy Tourism is busy with the efforts to establish a memorial plaque on this house.
Another house - on Telman Street, No. 23 - has not survived to this day. In March 1998, it stood unharmed and people lived in it, in the winter of 1999 it had only walls, internal partitions and floors had already been destroyed. And at the end of January 2001, there was already a construction site on the site of the demolished and two neighboring houses.
Reading the guide again:
“A two-story house with a glazed covered veranda above the main entrance. Above the extreme windows, the cornice is raised above the figured tongs. The windows have carved architraves. The plucked piers are marked with pilasters. In the house of Chirkina in 1905-1906 lived the father of the poet Velimir Khlebnikov, as well as the famous pediatrician A. Agafonov and professor of history M.V. Brechkevich.
We also want to draw your attention to buildings related to other members of the Khlebnikov family.
This is the building of the second male gymnasium, where Velimir's father, Vladimir Alekseevich, studied around 1868-1873. Now it is the center children's creativity Vakhitovsky district. This building is located on the left bank of the Bulak canal.
Second Men's Gymnasium
On the same side of the Bulak is the building of the former Kazan real school, where Alexander Khlebnikov studied. Now it houses one of the educational buildings of the Pedagogical University.
Former Kazan real school. Modern look
original view
"People of my task, - the poet said sadly and calmly, often die at 37.”
In the spring of 1922, seriously ill, he went with his sister's husband, an artist, to the Novgorod province. There, in the village of Santalovo, Khlebnikov died on June 28. He was in his 37th year.
The material is posted on the website of the head of the department of special disciplines
Kazan branch of the Russian International Academy of Tourism, candidate pedagogical sciences
Alexandra Revmirovna Biryaltseva
Read in "Kazan stories":
BIOGRAPHY
KHLEBNIKOV Velimir (Viktor Vladimirovich)- poet, leading theorist of futurism.
Born in the family of a natural scientist, ornithologist and forester. Since 1903 - a student of Kazan, in 1908-1911 - St. Petersburg University (did not graduate).
In St. Petersburg, he attended literary "environments" in the "tower" Vyach. Ivanov and the "Academy of Verse" under the journal "Apollo". With the late symbolism X. brought together an interest in philosophy, mythology, Russian history, Slavic folklore (Slavic name Velimir the poet was "named" in the "tower").
However, despite the outward student-devotional adherence to the "precepts of symbolism", X. was internally alien to this trend, as well as to the emerging acmeism. The discrepancy was based on a fundamental difference in views on the nature of the Word (language) and Time. Symbolists and acmeists sought to reveal the encoded “eternal essences” in the abstract word and moved modernity into the context of the previous culture, led the present to the “primordial clarity of the past” (“clarism” by Vyach. Ivanov, “adamism” by S. Gorodetsky and N. Gumilyov) aesthetic orientation X. was fundamentally different. The poet counted the beginning of his work from 1905, an unusually powerful social charge: “We rushed into the future ... from 1905” (although some of their literary experiments he sent to M. Gorky back in 1904). Acutely experiencing a shameful defeat in the East and the strangulation of the first Russian revolution, intensely reflecting on the course of history, X. made a utopian attempt to find some universal numerical laws of Time, one way or another affecting the fate of Russia and all of humanity.
The past, present and future in his utopian system were only fragments of a single continuous Time, elastic and cyclically repeating in its circular development. The present, being together with the past a part of integral time, thus received the possibility of moving into a "scientifically predictable" future. X. approaches this issue as a research scientist, but, being a poet in his natural essence, he comprehends Time through a mythopoetic prism and turns the subject of study into his main and lifelong theme, along with another constant hero of his poetry - the Word, language.
The word in his philosophical and poetic system ceased to be only a means of transmitting cultural tradition in its semantic and aesthetic meanings, but became a self-significant and self-valuable sensual given, a thing and, therefore, a part of space. It was in this way, through Time (past as well as present), fixed by the Word (reified, materialized) and turned into a spatial fragment, that the desired philosophical unity of “space-time” was realized.
Unity, allowing the possibility of its re-formulation in the word and, therefore, amenable to active regulation at the will of the speech creator. An outwardly logically clear concept was created of overcoming physical time as space through the restoration (in the past) and reconstruction (in the present and future) of words-things and recreating on this basis the entire system of legalized artistic forms and social institutions frozen in space and time.
It was as if a single "book of being" was opened, the book of Nature - X.'s utopian dream, the poetic embodiment of which he devoted his whole life.
Quest X. quite consistent with the general path aspiring to the future of futurism, referring meanings, as opposed to symbolist, otherworldly abstractions, to sensual givens. This also happened in painting, which also sought the unity of "space-time" and saturates spatial depiction with the "fourth dimension", i.e. time.
It is no accident, therefore, after meeting with V. Kamensky, who contributed to the first publication of the poet (The Temptation of a Sinner // Spring. - 1908. - No. 10), and rapprochement with a group of poets and artists (D. and N. Burliuk, E. Guro, M. Matyushin) X. becomes "invisible", but the main "axis of rotation" of futurism.
In 1910, a joint collection of a group of futurists - “budetlyans” was published in a Slavic publicity invented by X. - “The Garden of Judges”. Later they were joined by A. Kruchenykh, B. Livshits and V. Mayakovsky. Another collection of “budetlyans” “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912) almost half consisted of the works of X.: the poem “I and E”, “Persecuted - by whom, how do I know? ..”, the famous “experimental” “Grasshopper” and “ Bobeobi sang lips ... ". On the last page of the collection was printed a table calculated by the poet with the dates of great historical upheavals. The last date was 1917. X., who called himself "the artist of the number of the eternal head of the universe", carried out such calculations constantly, testing his theory of circular Time and trying to "reasonably substantiate the right to providence" (see his book: "Teacher and Student", 1912; "Battles 1915 -1917 The new doctrine of war", 1915; "Time is the measure of the world", 1916; "Boards of fate", 1922; articles "Dispute about primacy" and "The law of generations", 1914. Some ideas of X. about "life rhythms ” are confirmed by modern chronobiology).
In 1910 books X are published. “Roar!”, “Creations 1906-1908”, “Izbornik verses. 1907-1914", the "primitive" Slavic-pagan utopias developed by him earlier are being developed: "The Serpent of the Train", 1910; "Forest Maiden", 1911; "I and E", 1912; "Shaman and Venus", "Vila and Goblin", 1912; "Children of the Otter", 1913; "The Trumpet of the Martians", 1916; “Swans of the Future”, 1918. They poetically formulated X.’s dream of a world-wide unity of “creators” and “inventors” (their antipodes are “nobles” and “purchasers”) in the bosom of a single and all-time Mother Nature, inspired by human labor. X. suggested: "Calculate every work with heartbeats - the monetary unit of the future, with which every living person is equally rich" (V, 157). (Disclosure of the topic of labor important for X., see: “We, Labor, the First and so on and so forth ...”, “Ladomir”, etc.) The supreme representative of the “creators”, according to X., is the poet, and art becomes project of life (the idea of life-building art). Poetic utopias and the poet's life behavior merge: X.'s lifelong wanderings around Russia begin as an expression of the special "extraordinary" existence of the creator.
By 1917, the understanding of art as a program of life is transformed into a generalized anarchic utopia about the messianic role of poets - mystics and prophets, who, together with other cultural figures, should create an international society of Chairmen of the Globe of 317 members (317 is one of the deduced X. "magic" numbers of time). The "Chairmen" are called upon to carry out the program of world harmony in the "superstate of the star" ("Proclamation of the Chairmen of the Globe", 1917).
Simultaneously with the creation of "primitive" and cosmo-mythological utopias, X. also acts as a rebellious author of anti-bourgeois and anti-technocratic grotesque prophecies about the "rebellion of things", which, according to the poet, is inevitable in an urbanized future if the community of "acquirers" and "nobles" becomes its manager (poem "Crane", 1909; play "Marquise Dezes", 1909-1911, etc.).
During the First World War, the social activity of X. increased significantly, his interest in the topic of modernity was clearly revealed (in 1916-1917 the poet served as a private in the army). This trend intensified during the years of the revolution and the civil war. X., merging in humanistic pathos with Mayakovsky, does not accept the imperialist slaughter (the poems “The War in the Mousetrap”, 1915-1922; “The Slave Coast”, 1921), but in the daring uprising of the “earth pit workers”, he, like A. Blok, sees the justice of historical retribution and, in the Slavonic style, the epic scale of the reorganization of the Universe on new scientific and labor human foundations (“Stone Woman”, 1919; “Night in the Trench”, “Ladomir”, 1920; “Night before the Soviets”, “The Present”, “Night search”, “Raspberry Checker”, 1921). X. actively cooperates with the Soviet government, works in the Baku and Pyatigorsk branches of ROSTA, in many newspapers, in the Political Education of the Volga-Caspian Flotilla.
However, even in these years the poet remains a utopian dreamer. The main force capable of overcoming the "earthly chaos" and uniting the "creators" of the whole world, X. still saw (along with the mastery of the "numerical" laws of Time) in the newly created, invented by him "stellar" language, suitable for the entire "star" - Earth. It is precisely this, and not only the unambiguously nihilistic outrageous outrageousness of the futurists, who rejected the entire complex of the culture of the past (including language), that explains the extensive poetic-linguistic experiments of X., accompanying all his work and which seemed to many contemporaries the only end in itself and the essence of Khlebnikov's poetry. X. undertook a reform of the poetic language in its entirety. The sound in his poetic system carries a value in itself, capable of saturating works with artistic meaning (see the article "Our Foundation", 1919). X. found the origins of meaning-bearing phonemes in folk spells and incantations (see the poem "Night in Galicia", 1913), which, according to the poet's definition, "as if abstruse language in the folk word" (V, 225), hence the term "abstruse "," abstruse language.
Words decomposed into "original" phonetic meanings, X. collects again on the basis of consonances, trying to form nests of neologisms of one root (he called this process at first "conjugation" of roots, and later - "shortening"). According to this technique, “experimental” works were built: “The Spell of Laughter”, “Lubho”, etc.
The experiment also extended to syntax (up to the rejection of punctuation marks), giving rise to a special associative structure of verse on the external basis of primitivist technique and the emphasized infantilism of poetics: raeshnik, lubok, anachronism, "graphomania", etc.
“A child and a savage,” Yu. Tynyanov wrote about X., “were a new poetic person who suddenly mixed the solid “norms” of meter and word” (Introductory Art., I, 23). X.'s anti-aesthetic "savagery" and "infantilism" were indeed a form of futuristic outrageousness in relation to the old bourgeois world frozen in generally accepted "norms". However, the holistic essence of poetic-linguistic experiments was wider and included not only destructive, but also creative pathos. With the departure of the nihilistic beginning in the post-October work of X., the poet abandons many of the extremes of his experiments in the field of "abstruse" poetics. At the same time, he continues to search for methods for updating the genre structure of lyrics, epic and drama on the way to creating a single "synthetic" genre formation. This should include Khlebnikov's unsuccessful attempts to create "super stories" ("Scratch on the Sky", 1920; "Zangezi", 1922), conceived as a kind of "book of fate", containing universal keys to mastering "new" knowledge and the laws of life creation.
Remaining in line with utopian idealistic concepts, X. in the conditions of the new time objectively could not unite a long-standing artistic movement around his philosophical and poetic teachings. However, his artistic contribution to the theory and practice of Soviet poetry is extremely significant (word and rhyme creation, development of intonational verse, polyphony of rhythms, philosophical problems, humanistic pathos, new genre formations, etc.). Mayakovsky, who considered the verses of X. a model of "engineering", "inventive" poetry, understandable "only to seven futurist comrades", said, however, that these verses "charged numerous poets." The action of Khlebnikov's "charge", in the force field of which Mayakovsky, N. Aseev, B. Pasternak, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetaeva, N. Zabolotsky and many others fell. etc., extends to modern Soviet poetry (V. Vysotsky, A. Voznesensky, E. Yevtushenko, representatives of the so-called "rock poetry", etc.).
Op.: Poems. - M., 1923; Sobr. prod. Velimira Khlebnikova: In 5 volumes - L., 1928--1933; Fav. poems. - M., 1936; Poems. - L., 1940; Poems and poems. - L., 1960; Poems. Poems. Drama. Prose. - M., 1986; Creations. -
Lit.: Stepanov N. Velimir Khlebnikov: Life and work. - M., 1975; Grigoriev V.P. Grammar of idiostyle: V. Khlebnikov, - M., 1983.
http://az.lib.ru/h/hlebnikow_w/text_0010.shtml
/jdoc:include type="modules" name="position-6" />The biography of Velimir Khlebnikov is striking and surprising, because how one person could literally change history in his short life. Now they talk about this poet and writer, write books, make films. And only a small fraction of people are familiar with the true biography of Velimir Khlebnikov. Let's find out how the Russian figure deserved such close attention and recognition from his admirers.
The beginning of the journey (childhood)
The biography of Velimir Khlebnikov contains a lot amazing facts, and one of them is his name. In fact, the poet's name was Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, but the figure often used the well-known pseudonym - Velimir. The prose writer also wrote under the name "E. Luneva".
The biography of Velimir Khlebnikov began in 1885 (November 9), when the future great poet was born into a family of scientists. His father was an ornithologist, and his mother studied and taught history. Maloderbetovsky ulus is considered his homeland, but now these lands are included in the territory of Kalmykia.
This is surprising, but the future prose writer and poet initially graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, but at the same time Velimir created small plays. So, as a 19-year-old student, he sent one of his works for publication to a publishing house that was supervised under the auspices of Maxim Gorky. However, the first attempt was not successful. On this, the creative biography of Velimir Khlebnikov did not end, but, on the contrary, began to gain an unusual turn.
Student years
It is almost impossible to compile a short biography of Velimir Khlebnikov, because he is a truly outstanding person. It seemed that he always wanted to succeed, but he constantly chose the wrong path. So, in 1904, the figure continued his studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, and four years later he decided to become a philologist and historian in one person. However, he could not continue his studies and after three courses he filed for dismissal.
During his studies, Viktor Vladimirovich was fond of ornithology, like his father, Vladimir Alekseevich. In 1903, the figure was able to visit Dagestan, and two years later he would go to the Northern Urals. It is possible that regular expeditions and the upbringing of his father developed a craving for writing in the poet, because even before the first plays he made a lot of notes that affected not only birds, but also psychology, biology, philosophy, and ethics. We can say that the first publications in the biography of Velimir Khlebnikov were articles about ornithology.
Symbolism as the beginning of a creative path
If you tell a short biography of Velimir Khlebnikov, you can see that the poet had a difficult and difficult fate. As a 22-year-old guy, the future prose writer entered the circle of symbolists. Symbolism is a direction in art, where certain symbolism is often used, giving a certain mystery to literature or painting.
Viktor Vladimirovich was fond of paganism and Russian culture, which is why he often used descriptions or details in his writings. The young figure managed to get acquainted with and with Alexander Blok. It can be said that the prose writer was inspired by symbolism as a special direction in art, which is why he created works where fictitious pagan deities were often mentioned, which never existed in the original.
Creativity in the biography of Velimir Khlebnikov plays a significant role, because the prose writer clearly mentions Slavic mythology in his works. This is evidenced by his works, such as "The Appeal of Slavic Students". But if symbolism was not eradicated in the Russian Empire, then pan-Slavism, which called people to military action in troubled times, could be punishable in relation to the poet. This ideology, which affected the biography and work of Velimir Khlebnikov, called for the forcible unification of all Slavs in Eastern Europe.
Love and craving for symbolism never left the Russian figure, only sometimes his interest switched to Eastern religion. Subsequently, this played a big role and after a number of popular works, such as "Zverinets", Viktor Vladimirovich began to study Sanskrit ( ancient language India) and entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages.
creative path
A striking event in the biography of Velimir Khlebnikov was a trip to the apartment of Vyacheslav Ivanov, where an event took place that literally made the pseudonym of the figure. Then Viktor Vladimirovich visited the famous "Tower" in St. Petersburg, where the poet V. Ivanov lived. Unique personalities gathered in this historical place, such as Alexander Blok, Nikolai Gumilyov, Sergey Gorodetsky, Anna Akhmatova, Asya Turgeneva. It was in this apartment that all future poets and writers, circus performers and artists, musicians and scientists dubbed Viktor the famous pseudonym throughout Russia - Velimir.
It was communication with outstanding personalities that began to create an unusual creative biography poet Velimir Khlebnikov. In the "Tower" the figure met Mayakovsky and Burliuk, and subsequently, together with them, published a collection of poems "The Garden of Judges". Unlike poets, Viktor Vladimirovich could not get used to the idea that he was dubbed a futurist, so he created a new word - "budetlyane", which is translated from personal language poet and meant "future".
Another unusual fact in the brief biography of Velimir Khlebnikov: the figure was seriously fond of creating new words, and some of them have reached the new generation in the 21st century. For example, the word "airplane" belongs to Viktor Vladimirovich.
Hard times
An interesting fact from the biography of Velimir Khlebnikov: the Russian poet and prose writer was a real rebel, which affected his lifestyle. Even at the peak of his creative career, the man was forced to wander through cold rooms, eating cheap cereals and stale bread. He lived only on the money that he received from his parents. Sometimes Khlebnikov gave history lessons or posted his works in magazines, but this income was not even enough to somehow improve his life and live like everyone else. These difficult periods are often reflected in the poems and articles of Viktor Vladimirovich.
Despite this, judging by the brief biography of Velimir Khlebnikov, we can say that the person was always true to his interests and did not succumb to other people's influence. For this, he could thank his rebelliousness and desire to constantly develop, experiment. His life is somewhat reminiscent of the fate of the hero Jack London in the book "Martin Eden", only Velimir's desire was caused by love for the creation of new words, for philosophical reflection, but not for a woman.
Unusual facts and events
Interesting facts from the biography and life of Velimir Khlebnikov will help the reader to know the character of the Russian leader and his way of life. For example, due to the fact that the poet often moved from one living space to another, many manuscripts were lost during the move. Despite the craving for creativity and love for records, Viktor Vladimirovich did not take care of his work, which is why it is still unknown how many poems and plays were actually created.
Friends of the figure spoke about absent-mindedness and negligence, recalling one incident from life: during the next expedition, Velimir had to kindle a fire in the steppe on a cold night, where there was not a single tree or bush. In order not to freeze, the writer calmly began to burn his work.
Other Interesting Facts:
- Viktor Vladimirovich was not of this world. If his craving for mysticism and myths could be understood, then how to explain the nicknames that the poet gave himself? He often called his person a Martian, and later, when he began to study Sanskrit, he called him a yogi.
- This is truly a unique person, of which there are very few in Russia. The outlook of the figure is so wide that it included such disciplines as chemistry, biology and mathematics. At the same time, Khlebnikov was fond of the Japanese language, studied in detail the works of Plato and Spinoza, and tried to become a musician.
- If we talk briefly about the biography and work of Velimir Khlebnikov, then this man had an unburned craving for adventure and travel. He was attracted by the Caucasus, Baku, Northern Iran. Behind the writer's shoulders lay a path through the Caspian steppes and Persia.
Strange behavior of the actor
There is still controversy over Khlebnikov's mental health. Some argued that the young prose writer was obsessed with his own interests, which justified his strange, eccentric behavior. Someone, on the contrary, said that this person is simply peculiar, which is why he managed to create truly masterpiece works.
The figure was described as follows: “He was impractical, but at the same time he burned with creativity. He was ready to sacrifice his last pants for the sake of creating new job". And indeed, many noted that they were stunned by the sudden appearance of the poet in burlap instead of pants, and sometimes even in the same underwear. He had practically no money for new clothes, so there were worn holes on all things, and the fabric some people were so surprised by this that out of pity they sewed things for the writer from old curtains.This act was done by Rita Wright, who could not watch Khlebnikov's hard life.
steel character
The biography of Velimir Khlebnikov (a photo of the writer is given in the article) shows that he had extraordinary mental abilities, as well as a rebellious spirit and absolute indifference to any moral principles. This man was always immersed in himself, was in constant reflection. Sometimes he spoke in such a way that he had to come close to Velimir in order to hear at least something from his speech.
Despite all the oddities, Viktor Vladimirovich created such talented and eloquent lines that many experienced poets and prose writers could envy. No one knew what worried the Russian leader. Perhaps his failed work or the inability to know the truth. Unfortunately, all creative way Velimira fell on civil war which led to even more chaos in the state.
All his life, even in spite of poverty, the writer, ornithologist, philologist and historian in one person tried to create a new discipline that would combine mathematics with history, linguistics with poetry. At first glance, such a task is impossible to accomplish, but Velimir Khlebnikov believed in his dream, and therefore he always tried to travel as soon as possible, communicate with unique and interesting people, study the history of his state and make predictions for the future.
Farewell to the author
IN last years Viktor Vladimirovich traveled a lot during his life. He managed to visit both Persia and Baku. At the same time, the figure created manuscripts, preparing one of the major books in his life, The Boards of Destiny. Ultimately, it was supposed to be a philosophical treatise, or a book with the author's reflections. Literally in two years, Velimir published such famous poems as "Chairman of the Cheka" and "The Night Before the Soviets", articles on radio and obituaries dedicated to Gumilyov and Blok.
At the end of 1921, the writer went to Moscow, and then went back to St. Petersburg. He lived there for a short time and six months later, for unknown reasons, he moved to live in Santalovo (village). His friends noted that already during this period appearance The author has changed a lot: he has become haggard, emaciated, became pale, like a shadow. When Velimir Khlebnikov reached the village, his condition was already unstable. The people around thought that the figure was suffering from consumption, because he had no appetite at all, but there was a constant strong cough. A few weeks later, the legs began to fail, and the doctor ruled that the nerves of the lower extremities were affected.
Subsequently, Viktor Vladimirovich began psychical deviations, and the symptoms resembled classic dementia: memory lapses were filled with false memories, confusion and hallucinations began to arise. But what kind of dementia appears in young people who are barely 36 years old? The writer raved that all his friends wanted to steal his manuscripts with poems, reflections and plays. No one was able to provide full-fledged treatment in the village, so over time, the figure began to swell the limbs and pressure sores began to appear. The author did not make it to the end of June and died on the 22nd in 1922.
Summing up
Those who were familiar with Velimir Khlebnikov claim that this is - unusual person and there are very few of them in the world. He dreamed of his desire to write, which is why he created hundreds of poems, which he then burned himself. This was a man under whose pen masterpieces were born, although Velimir himself sometimes did not know about it. An interesting fact, but the writer always kept the most valuable works in the pillow, because when moving, you always had to take it with you. However, Viktor Vladimirovich managed to lose his manuscripts.
His non-standard behavior was studied by metropolitan and St. Petersburg psychiatrists, because it was believed that a Russian leader deviates from military service only in such an unusual way. It was repeatedly recognized that Khlebnikov was mentally ill and fell under investigation, but he was never seriously treated.
Velimir Khlebnikov(in a number of lifetime publications - Velemir, Velemir, Velimir; real name Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov; October 28 (November 9), 1885 - June 28, 1922) - Russian poet and prose writer of the Silver Age, a prominent figure in Russian avant-garde art. He was one of the founders of the Russian futurism; reformer of poetic language, experimenter in the field of word creation and "zaum", Chairman the globe.
He was born on October 28 (November 9), 1885 in the Maloderbetovsky ulus of the Astrakhan province in the family of an ornithologist and forester, later the founder of the first nature reserve in the USSR. From early childhood, Khlebnikov accompanied his father on trips, kept phenological and ornithological records, later participated in scientific expeditions to Dagestan, and together with his brother in 1905 made an independent scientific trip to the Urals. The first of his surviving poems began with the line “What are you singing about, bird in a cage? ..” Mother Velimira Khlebnikov devoted herself to raising five children, who, thanks to her, received a good home education, acquired a taste for literature, painting and history.
In connection with official duties father's family moved frequently. In 1897 Khlebnikov went to the 3rd grade of the Simbirsk gymnasium, then the family moved to Kazan, where the future poet graduated from the gymnasium and in 1903 entered the university. During his studies, he wrote poetry and prose, studied painting, mathematics, biology, chemistry, philosophy, studied Japanese. University professors considered him a promising naturalist. Velimir Khlebnikov himself wrote about himself in 1904: “Let them read on the tombstone: “He found the true classification of sciences, he connected time with space, he created the geometry of numbers. He found the Slavs, he founded the institute for the study of the prenatal life of the child ... ".
In 1908, Khlebnikov arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the university - first at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, then at the Faculty of History and Philology (leaving his studies in 1911). He became close to the circle of symbolists, visited the “environments” of Vyach. Ivanov and the "Academy of Verse" under the journal "Apollo", where he met with acmeists. Khlebnikov was brought closer to the symbolists by his interest in mythology, Russian history and folklore (it was in the circle of Vyach. Ivanov that he received the ancient Slavic name Velimir). However, already in these years, Khlebnikov had different views on the nature of the word than the Symbolists and Acmeists. Since 1905, grieving the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War and the defeat of the First Russian Revolution, he tried to deduce the numerical laws of Time that affect the fate of mankind.
In 1908, the first poem by Velimir Khlebnikov, The Temptation of a Sinner, was published in the journal Vesna. At the same time, he became acquainted with V. Kamensky, D. Burliuk and other members of the Gilea group, who were later joined by V. Mayakovsky and B. Livshits. Soon Khlebnikov became the main theorist of Futurism, which he called "budetlyanism". His poems were included in the futuristic collection The Judges' Garden (1910), which declared itself a new literary movement. In the same year, several more poetic and theoretical books by Khlebnikov were published - “Roar!”, “Creations of 1906-1908”, etc. The famous collection of futurists “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912) half consisted of Velimir Khlebnikov's poems - “Grasshopper”, “ Lips were sung to Bobeobi…” etc. The rhythmic and sound structure of these poems, as well as the plays “Marquis Dezes” (1909-1911) written by that time and the poem “Crane” (1909) were oriented towards colloquial speech. In A Slap in the Face to Public Taste, Khlebnikov's table "A Look at 1917" was printed, in which, according to his calculations of the laws of time, he predicted the "fall of the state."
In 1912, Velimir Khlebnikov's book "Teacher and Student" was published, in which he outlined the foundations of bydulianism as a new art. His poetic-linguistic research formed the basis of the "abstruse language", developed by him together with the poet A. Kruchenykh and embodied in their common poem "Game in Hell" (1912). In the common collection of Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov, The Word as Such (1913), it was said about "zaumi" that she uses "chopped words, half-words and their bizarre cunning combinations." According to Khlebnikov's definition, in "zaumi" there is a "conjugation of the roots" of words that were originally decomposed into phonetic components.
With the outbreak of the First World War, Khlebnikov began to study the laws of past wars in order to predict the course of the current war. The result of this work was the book “Battles of 1915-1917. New Doctrine of War" (1915) and "Time is the Measure of Peace" (1916). The rejection of the world slaughter is the content of the poem "The War in the Mousetrap" (1915-1922) and other works of this period.
In 1916, Velimir Khlebnikov was drafted into the army and ended up in a reserve regiment in Tsaritsyn, where, in his words, "the whole hell of the poet's transformation into a mindless animal went through." With the help of a doctor he knew, he managed to achieve release from the army. At this time, the poet dreamed of creating a society of the Chairmen of the Globe, which could include anyone who feels his unity with humanity and responsibility for its fate. In the understanding of Khlebnikov, art has a life-building significance in the fate of the "creative" poet. The poet's wanderings around Russia are connected with the need for the extra-ordinary existence of a "creator". Khlebnikov believed that "poetry is like a journey, you need to be where no one has been before." Khlebnikov’s lifestyle is accurately described in the memoirs of the poet N. Aseev: “In the world of petty calculations and painstaking arrangements of his own destinies, Khlebnikov struck with his calm disinterest and non-participation in the bustle of people. Least of all, he looked like a typical writer of those times: either a priest at the top of recognition, or a petty rogue of literary bohemia. And he did not look like a person of any particular profession. He looked most of all like a long-legged pensive bird ... Everyone around him treated him tenderly and somewhat bewildered.
October 1917 Velimir Khlebnikov met in Petrograd. Subsequently, he described what he saw in the poem "Night Search" (1921). In 1918 he was in Astrakhan and described his impressions in the poem "The Night before the Soviets" (1921). In 1920-1921 in Ukraine, Khlebnikov witnessed the defeat of Denikin's army, which he described in the poems "Night in the Trench" (1920), "Stone Woman" (1919), in the story "Raspberry Checker" (1921) and other works. Then Khlebnikov came to the Caucasus, where he worked in various newspapers, in the Baku and Pyatigorsk branches of ROSTA, in the Political Education of the Volga-Caspian Fleet. Revolutionary events in the East became the theme of the poem "Tyrant without Te" (1921). The comprehension of the revolution as a universal phenomenon occurs in the poem "Ladomir" (1920), published in Kharkov. Its title is a neologism coined by Velimir Khlebnikov to denote universal harmony. In Ladomir, an image of indivisible humanity, united with nature, is created.
In December 1921 Velimir Khlebnikov returned to Moscow. To this time belongs his prophecy regarding his own fate: "People of my task often die at thirty-seven years." In 1922 he wrote “Zangezi”, defining the genre of this work as “super-narrative” and explaining its internal structure as follows: “The super-narrative, or commandment, is composed of independent passages, each with its own special god, special faith and special charter ... This is an epic of consciousness, an epic about the thought process that connects the past and the future of mankind. The name of the protagonist - a misunderstood prophet, the "second self" of the author - is derived from the confluence of the names of the Ganges and Zambezi rivers, symbolizing Eurasia and Africa. "Zangezi" uses an abstruse language, in addition to which, according to the author, the poem also uses the language of birds, the language of the gods, the stellar language, the decomposition of the word, sound writing, and insane language. The "Boards of Destiny" - compiled by Khlebnikov - numerical ratios between historical events, were introduced into the structure of the super story.
In the spring of 1922, already seriously ill, Khlebnikov went to the Novgorod province with the artist P. Miturich.
The work of Velimir Khlebnikov had a huge impact on many major poets of the 20th century. - V. Mayakovsky, O. Mandelstam, M. Tsvetaev, B. Pasternak, N. Zabolotsky and others, and on the development of new - rhythmic, word-creative and prophetic - possibilities of poetry.
A star of futurism and Russian avant-gardism, the brightest reformer of poetic language, a bold experimenter in word creation, one of the few compatriot poets who used morphological absurdity in writing, "the chairman of the globe."
And this is all about him, Velimir Khlebnikov, who stands apart even among such extraordinary, talented poets as, and.
The largest linguist of the twentieth century, Russian-American literary critic Roman Yakobson called Khlebnikov "the greatest world poet of the present century."
Childhood and youth
The future poet was born in the late autumn of 1885 in the Kalmyk village of Malye Derbety, at that time the administrative center of the Maloderbetovsky ulus of the Astrakhan province. Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov himself called the place where he spent his childhood "the camp of the Mongolian nomads professing Buddha" and said that he was born "in the steppe - the dried-up bottom of the disappearing Caspian Sea."
Parents - educated people with a rich pedigree, impoverished aristocrats. Father is a prominent botanist and ornithologist, founder of the first state reserve at the mouth of the Volga. Velimir Khlebnikov's grandfather was an honorary citizen of Astrakhan and a merchant. On the paternal side, Russian and Armenian blood mixed in the veins of the poet.
Mom - nee Ekaterina Verbitskaya - was educated at the Smolny Institute, a historian. She came from a wealthy family, whose roots went back to the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Thanks to her, five offspring (Velimir is the third child) understood literature, history and painting.
At the age of 4, the future futurist poet read in Russian and French, and his drawings spoke of the talent of the artist. The poet's sister, Vera Khlebnikova, became an avant-garde artist.
Because of his father's service, the family often changed their place of residence. When Victor was 6 years old, the Khlebnikovs moved to the Volyn province, and 4 years later - in 1895 - to Simbirsk. The 10-year-old boy went to the gymnasium. He studied for 3 years and again changes: the head of the family was sent to Kazan.
In 1903, Viktor Khlebnikov became a student at Kazan University, where he chose the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. The student studied at the mathematical department until November and ended up in jail for a month for participating in a demonstration. The young man did not want to continue his studies at the mathematical department, so in the summer he transferred to the natural department of the same faculty.
Professors praised the capable student and predicted a career as a brilliant naturalist. The spread of Khlebnikov's interests and talents was enormous: he studied mathematics, physics, made progress in chemistry, biology and philosophy. Independently studied Japanese and Sanskrit.
The literary debut of the future futurist is called the work in prose - the play "Elena Gordyachkina", which Khlebnikov sent to the St. Petersburg publishing house "Knowledge", but did not approve the publication.
Since 1904, the novice writer participated in ornithological expeditions in Dagestan and the north of the Urals. In 1906, he was accepted into the university society of natural scientists: on the expedition, Khlebnikov found the new kind cuckoos. But this was the end of scientific research in the field of ornithology - the young man focused on literature.
Literature
The creative biography of Velimir Khlebnikov received a new impetus in St. Petersburg, where the young man arrived in 1908. He again joined the university fraternity, by inertia choosing the natural faculty, which soon, having become close to the symbolist poets, changed to historical and philological.
Visiting the poetic "environments" of Vyacheslav Ivanov, he met acmeists and received the creative pseudonym Velimir.
Lyubov Sidorova reads poems by Velimir KhlebnikovIt fell to Khlebnikov to live in an era of change, the destruction of the old state system. He keenly felt and grieved at the defeat of Russia in the war with Japan, the First Russian Revolution. The mass death of compatriots prompted the young scientist and writer to search for the numerical laws of time that affect the fate of mankind.
In 1908, Velimir Khlebnikov published his first poem entitled "The Temptation of a Sinner". At the same time, he met David Burliuk and the poets of the Gilea group, whom he soon joined. Soon, the "Hileans" called Khlebnikov the main theorist of futurism, the founder of its offshoot - "budetlyanstvo" (from the word "will be").
In 2010, the poet's works were included in the collection "The Garden of Judges", to which the futurists loudly announced the birth of the poetic movement.
The sensational collection of futurists "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste", published in 1912, included Velimir Khlebnikov's poems "Grasshopper" and "Bobeobi sang lips." On the last page of the collection, they printed a table for calculating the laws of time, invented by the poet, in which Khlebnikov mathematically predicted the fall of the state in 1917.
Veniamin Smekhov reads a poem by Velimir Khlebnikov "Bobeobi sang lips"The scientist's poetic-linguistic research formed the basis of zaumi, an abstruse language that Khlebnikov developed in tandem with his friend and colleague Alexei Kruchenykh. Together, using zaum, they composed the poem "Game in Hell".
Started First World War prompted Khlebnikov to continue studying past wars in the digital dimension. The result of the research was 3 books. In 1916, Velimir Khlebnikov was drafted into the army. Later he wrote that, being in the Tsaritsyn reserve regiment,
"the whole hell of the reincarnation of the poet into a mindless animal has passed."
A familiar doctor helped the poet to free himself from the service, using Khlebnikov's mental illness as the reason. The poet constantly wanders around Russia and dreams of creating a society of "Chairmen of the globe", a member of which could be anyone who "hurts" the fate of mankind.
Velimir Khlebnikov witnessed the October events of 1917 with his own eyes in Petrograd, describing his impressions in verses and poems. He visited Astrakhan, Ukraine, where he saw the defeat of Denikin's army, the Caucasus and Northern Iran. Passed through the Caspian steppes.
In 1920 he composed the poem "Ladomir", in which he brought out the image of humanity united with nature, opposing the war. In the last years of his life, these were the main themes of Khlebnikov's work.
Victor Persik reads a poem by Velimir Khlebnikov "Once again, once again ..."The peculiarities of the avant-garde artist's work were the use in one, even short poem different sizes. He allowed the "dance of sizes" intentionally, but he especially liked vers libre. Resorting to such rare tricks as a palindrome (he called it "inverted") and the zaumi language, Velimir Khlebnikov gained both admirers and fierce critics.
Personal life
Khlebnikov did not marry, but there were women in his life. He, like many poets, was amorous. Anna Akhmatova, with whom Velimir was unrequitedly in love, is put among the muses that inspired Khlebnikov. She also called the poet "crazy, but amazing."
The futurist had tender feelings for his Kharkov colleagues - the Sinyakov sisters, for Vera Budberg and Ksana Boguslavskaya. About love, his poems “People, when they love”, “The body of lace is the inside out ...”, “Experience of the cutesy”.
There was no woman who would love Khlebnikov - homeless, unsettled and impoverished. His lyrics were admired, called a genius and an eccentric, but they did not dare to associate life with him.
Death
Death Velimir Khlebnikov prophesied himself. He once dropped that "people of my task" often leave at 37 years old.
And so it happened. Tired, undermined by wanderings and poverty, the poet was taken care of by Pyotr Miturich, the husband of Vera's sister. Khlebnikov dreamed of getting to his relatives in Astrakhan, but there was no money and strength for the long journey. Miturich took Velimir to Santalovo, a village near Novgorod, to restore his health, and then went to Astrakhan.
In Santalovo, the poet suddenly fell ill - his legs were paralyzed. He was taken by cart to the village hospital, but there they shrugged and sent him to die. Khlebnikov died in the summer of 1922. The cause of death was paresis.
He was buried in the cemetery of the neighboring village of Ruchy, but in 1960 he was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery. The grave of the poet is located next to the resting places of his mother and sister. In 1975, an unusual tombstone was installed on the grave - a “stone woman” - a memory of the place of his birth, his origins.
Shortly before his death, Velimir Khlebnikov seemed to “warn” his critics in the poem “Once again, once again” that woe to those who took the “wrong corner of the heart” to him:
"You will break on the stones,
And the stones will mock
How did you laugh
- Due to the fact that the poet often moved from one living space to another, many manuscripts were lost during the move. Friends of the figure spoke about absent-mindedness and negligence, recalling one incident from life: during the next expedition, Velimir had to kindle a fire in the steppe on a cold night, where there was not a single tree or bush. In order not to freeze, the writer calmly began to burn his work.
- Thanks to his father, Victor became interested in the natural sciences, together with him he spent hours in the forests and steppes, watching birds, visiting the camps of Kalmyk nomads. For the rest of his life, he was impressed by the Kalmyk astrologers zuharchi, who predicted the future using the zuharchin modi (boards of fate). One of the most mysterious of his works is called "The Boards of Destiny". In it, the poet says that in our world everything obeys certain numerical patterns. According to Khlebnikov's theory of time, all events occurring in the world are a multiple of 317.
- In a letter dated the end of 1916, Viktor Vladimirovich wrote: “It is only 1.5 years, while external war will not go into the dead swell of internal war. It all happened. The First World War, which shook the world, was predicted by Khlebnikov back in 1908. In his appeal to Slavic students, he wrote: "In 1915, people will go to war and will witness the collapse of the state."
- In 1920, Khlebnikov began the utopian poem Ladomir with the following words: “And the castles of world trade, where chains shine with poverty, With the face of gloating and delight You will one day turn to ashes.” In 2001, when the towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by terrorists in New York, these words of Khlebnikov were remembered especially often.
- In The Swans of the Future (1918), he quite accurately describes the Internet and LiveJournal under the name of "shadowbooks", where "the novelties of the Globe, the affairs of the United States of Asia, this great union of working communities, poems, sudden inspiration of their members, scientific novelties, notifications of relatives of their relatives, orders of councils. Some, inspired by the inscriptions of shadow books, retired for a while, wrote down their inspiration, and after half an hour, thrown by a glass of light, it, in shadow verbs, was shown on the wall.
- Everything that Khlebnikov writes in the autumn of 1921 in his Radio of the Future obviously predicts the advent of the Internet. Even the word "web" is guessed. “Let's imagine the main camp of the Radio: in the air there is a web of paths, a cloud of lightning, then fading, then rekindling, moving from one end of the building to the other. A blue ball of round lightning hanging in the air like a shy bird, tackles outstretched obliquely. From this point on the globe every day, similar to the spring migration of birds, flocks of news from the life of the spirit spread.
Bibliography (lifetime editions)
- 1912 - "Teacher and student"
- 1914 - “Khlebnikov, Velimir. Creations"
- 1922 - "Zangezi"
Khlebnikov Velimir (real name Viktor Vladimirovich) (1885-1922), poet.
In 1903 he graduated from a gymnasium in Kazan and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kazan University. For participation in student unrest, he was expelled, for some time he was under arrest; completed his education only in 1911 at St. Petersburg University.
In 1903 and 1903 as part of scientific expeditions he visited Dagestan and the Urals. Khlebnikov's first writings (1905) - articles on ornithology. literary works saw the light in 1908.
Soon (since 1910) Khlebnikov’s poems, published under the pseudonym Budetlyanin (“The Curse of Laughter”, “The Menagerie”, etc.), were talked about.
The poet entered the avant-garde community "Hilea" and became interested in reforming the poetic language. In 1916-1917. Khlebnikov was in the rank of private in the reserve regiments; anti-war poems of this period were included in the poem "War in a Mousetrap" (1919), imbued with a dream of world brotherhood. The poet welcomed the revolutionary events of 1917, but sharply criticized the "Red Terror".
In 1919, in Kharkov occupied by the Whites, he evaded conscription into the army, for which he went to a psychiatric hospital for examination. Despite hunger and twice suffering from typhus, he did not stop working hard.
In 1920, he created the poems "Night in the Trench", "Ladomir", "Scratch in the Sky", in 1921 - "Night Search", "Chairman of the Cheka", "Night before the Soviets".
In 1921, as a correspondent for the Krasny Iran newspaper, Khlebnikov visited Persia with units of the Red Army. At the end of the year, the poet moved to Moscow, where he would have died of exhaustion if not for the help of his friends.
In his youth, impressed by the sinking of the battleship Petropavlovsk in 1904, Khlebnikov swore an oath to find the "basic law of time" that governs people's destinies. It was the discovery of such a law, made in 1920, that he considered his main achievement.
The results of the search are summed up in the book "Boards of Fate" (1922). Soon a new trouble came - malaria. Hopes to receive medical treatment in the Novgorod province did not come true.
In 1960, the remains were reburied at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
