Pushkin era. The greatness of Russia in the images of art of the Pushkin era The main historical and cultural events of the Pushkin era

Balls and theaters of the Pushkin era. The end of the 10s and the beginning of the 20s of the 19th century was a time of unprecedented, passionate passion for the theater. To be a young man "with a noble soul" meant to be a theatergoer! Talking about plays, actors, behind-the-scenes intrigues, about the past and future of the theater took as much time as arguing about politics ... And then they talked a lot about politics. People again wanted to plunge into the whirlpool of peaceful life: with its masquerades, balls, carnivals, new theatrical performances. Petersburgers were very fond of the theatre.

Engelgard's house on Nevsky Prospekt was the recognized center of public amusements in autumn and winter in St. Petersburg. Here, in a magnificent hall that could accommodate up to three thousand people, public masquerades, balls, and musical evenings were held. Concerts were given every Saturday. “They played Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven - in a word, serious German music,” recalls one of Engelhard's guests. Pushkin always visited them. »

Even more than concerts, the Engelhard Hall was famous for BALLS and MASQUERADES. In the evenings, a myriad of crews of all kinds flocked to the brightly lit entrance, lining up along Nevsky Prospekt. The balls usually started at 8-9 pm. The balls were reviews of the most expensive, bizarre and luxurious outfits. Future dates were arranged at the balls, balls were the bride of future brides (For the first time they were taken to the ball at the age of 16, and it was a huge event, both for the youngest person and for her parents) The most important thing for the balls was the ability not to stand out from the crowd. Society did not forgive anyone for this, just as it did not forgive A. Pushkin in his time.

Etiquette. We know the secular manners and etiquette of the Pushkin era mainly from the works of the classics of Russian literature of the 19th century and from their artistic adaptations. The aristocratic society condemned the widespread fashion for luxurious gifts that "outside" men made to their beloved ladies (Even the most innocent gift given to a lady by an "outside" man (not related to her) could cast a shadow on her reputation.) Refinement, emphasized politeness , polished gracefulness of gestures - the nuances of secular etiquette.

The generosity of the Russian nobles, their desire and ability to make gifts amazed many foreign travelers. The Russian emperors were not distinguished by stinginess either, in whose palaces entire rooms were set aside for gifts both to foreign guests and to their subjects. If subordinates could give gifts to superiors only in exceptional cases, then every nobleman could present a gift to the king and members of the royal family.

The tailcoat was the basis of the men's suit. They were plain, but patterned fabrics were allowed. The tailcoat collar was trimmed with velvet of a different color. A white shirt with a high tight collar was worn under the tailcoat. The men cut their hair short. Curled them and let go of sideburns. Fashion

Women's dresses still have a high waist. If at the beginning of the century they wore mostly white dresses, then by the 20s colored, but plain dresses appeared.

"Pushkin era"

The central position that Pushkin occupied in nineteenth-century Russian literature was determined not only by the uniqueness of his individual talent. Here, the general laws of the historical and literary process also acted - forces that united as in a single focus in the phenomenon of Pushkin and pushed him to this place. First third of the 19th century in Russia, it is not by chance that it is defined as the "Pushkin era" - and this term means not only the era that passed under the sign of Pushkin, but also the era that shaped him.

Pushkin's initial literary education was nourished by the sources of the Enlightenment of the 18th century. in its French and Russian versions. It is generally accepted that it was the French Enlightenment that dominated it - and this is generally true, but the role of national principles in it should not be underestimated. The Moscow literary environment, with which the family of the future poet was in close contact, was at that time at the forefront of the Russian literary movement: Karamzin and I.I. Dmitriev, and their closest circle included, in particular, Pushkin's uncle Vasily Lvovich, who was his first literary mentor. The best Russian literary magazines of the Karamzin orientation were published in Moscow; in Vestnik Evropy, founded by Karamzin, in the first decade of the 19th century. cooperate with V.A. Zhukovsky, brothers Andrei and Alexander Turgenev, young P.A. Vyazemsky, somewhat later K.N. Batyushkov and Pushkin himself.

By the time he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Lyceum (1811), Pushkin already had a fairly wide range of literary impressions and orientations. Of course, his sympathy belongs entirely to the future “Arzamas” and then to the organized circle; his literary work of the lyceum time is literally permeated with ideas and sayings from the arsenal of "Arzamas"; he closely follows the literary production of the "Conversations", responding to it with satires, messages and epigrams in the "Arzamas" spirit. He directly classifies himself as a member of the "Arzamas brotherhood", and this group is Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Al. Turgenev, D.V. Davydov - will later form his literary circle.

Two literary figures from this environment are put forward as Pushkin's direct literary teachers. These are Batyushkov and Zhukovsky. Traditionally, Batyushkov is put in the first place.

In the first post-lyceum years, new trends in Pushkin's literary relations were also noted. Most of all, he is captured by theatrical impressions. The theater brings him closer to the former opponents of Arzamas - A.A. Shakhovsky, P.A. Katenin, A.S. Griboyedov. These were not just personal contacts, but also the expansion of the aesthetic range.

A very special sphere, with which the work of the young Pushkin turned out to be correlated, was the sphere of civil poetry. In the broad and diverse social and literary movement of the 1810s-1820s. Literature played the role of not only a herald and propagandist of freedom-loving sentiments, but also a conductor of specific socio-political programs. This role was enshrined in the charter of the "Union of Welfare" - a secret society, from which the revolutionary organization of the Decembrists - the Northern Society - directly grew. K.F. Ryleev, the leader of the latter, was himself one of the most significant Russian poets of the 1820s. Directly or indirectly, St. Petersburg literary, theatrical and public associations, with which the young Pushkin was in close contact, were also connected with the Union of Welfare. The most significant of them was the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, which published the journal Competitor of Education and Charity.

In May 1820, Pushkin, whose political poems attracted the attention of the government, was expelled from the capital - into actual exile, formalized as a transfer to a new duty station. He lives in Kishinev, in Odessa, from where he is officially sent into exile, under police supervision, to his father's estate, Mikhailovskoye. For six and a half years, he is removed from the active literary life of both capitals. During this time, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” (1820), “The Prisoner of the Caucasus” (1822), “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray” (1824), the first chapter of “Eugene Onegin” (1825), finally, “Poems of Alexander Pushkin”, which concentrated the best part of his early lyrical work. At this time, the creative maturation of Pushkin ends. European and Russian political life makes adjustments to his ideas about the social mechanisms driving it; the radicalism of his social position, reaching its climax in the early 1820s, is replaced by the "crisis of 1823", the result of which was the growth of historical consciousness. This forces him to overestimate the problems of the individual and the environment, the activist and the masses - that is, in essence, the very foundations of the enlightenment worldview - and accordingly change the established axiological scale.

The southern period of Pushkin's work begins under the sign of Byron. The type of "modern man" represented by Byron's Childe Harold was reflected in "The Prisoner of the Caucasus" - a poem that gained particular popularity among liberal youth, whose mentality resonated with the spiritual image of a disillusioned hero, a voluntary exile, animated by "the cheerful ghost of freedom." "Prisoner of the Caucasus" opened a series of Pushkin's poems, typologically similar to Byron's oriental poems. Their problems and poetics were studied by V.M. Zhirmunsky (Byron and Pushkin, 1924, reprinted 1978), who also determined the role of Pushkin in the formation and development of the Russian Byronic poem; this effect is felt as in the early classical samples of the Chernets type by I.I. Kozlov and "Voynarovsky" Ryleev, and in the later poems of Lermontov, where Russian Byronism reaches its peak.

Pushkin's poems finally consolidated the victory of the romantic movement and gave a powerful impetus to theoretical thought. Already in 1822, P.A. Vyazemsky speaks with a detailed analysis of the "Prisoner of the Caucasus"; close at that time to the critics of the Decembrist wing of literature, Vyazemsky emphasizes the social significance of the “tale” and the very character of the Prisoner; close connection with the spiritual life of Russian society, according to Vyazemsky, makes Pushkin's work a purely national phenomenon. The publication of The Fountain of Bakhchisaray was preceded by an extensive preface by Vyazemsky "A Conversation between the Publisher and the Classic from the Vyborg Side or from Vasilevsky Island", written at the direct request of Pushkin. Here Vyazemsky raised the problem of the nationality of literature and with polemical harshness opposed the aesthetic normativism of the “classics”, whose stronghold was the journal Vestnik Evropy, which he did not directly name, edited by M.T. Kachenovsky.

"The era of the 1830s." matured in the bowels of the previous one, and the symptoms of an impending fracture sometimes showed up in private episodes in the history of the Pushkin circle. One of them was the conflict between the “older” and “younger” generations of the Delvig circle: Delvig (partly with Pushkin who supported him), on the one hand, and Podolinsky and Rosen, on the other; the latter, offended by the strict analysis of their writings (belonging to Delvig), both leave the Literary Gazette. The fundamental meaning of Delvig's speeches was the struggle against epigonism, the appearance of which is a symptom of the dying of literary schools and trends. In a letter to Pletnev around April 14, 1831, Pushkin defined the poetry of Delarue and Podolinsky as "art" in the absence of "creativity"; almost at the same time, Delvig wrote ironically about Podolinsky's "smooth" verses, composed with great "lightness". Both Pushkin and Delvig were aware of the danger of reproducing ready-made poetic models created by Pushkin; Pushkin himself clearly gravitated toward poets who were "not like" himself.

All these tendencies were fully manifested in the journal Sovremennik (1836), in which Pushkin made his last attempt to unite his circle of writers and establish his program in the difficult literary and social situation of the 1830s.

Having become the publisher of Sovremennik, Pushkin made a last attempt to unite his circle of writers and establish his aesthetic program. In 1836, his ability in this regard was limited by the existing ban on new periodicals. Sovremennik was allowed as a literary collection in four volumes, i.e. edition of the almanac type, and from the very beginning was under pressure from the increasingly toughened throughout the 1830s. censorship regime. In a certain sense, he followed the program outlined by Pushkin for the Literaturnaya Gazeta: to give the opportunity to publish to those writers who, for one reason or another, did not want to collaborate in other publications. Almost the entire Pushkin literary milieu gravitated towards such isolation; Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky participated in the Sovremennik, who published here, in addition to poetry, his most significant critical articles of the second half of the 1830s: Napoleon and Julius Caesar, E. Quinet's New Poem, The Inspector General, Comedy, Op. N. Gogol”; Baratynsky (poem "To Prince P.A. Vyazemsky"), D. Davydov (poems, articles "On the partisan war" and "The occupation of Dresden. March 10, 1813"), Pletnev, V.F. Odoevsky (articles “On hostility to enlightenment, noticed in the latest literature”, “How novels are written in our country”), N.M. languages. Pushkin also attracts new literary forces: A.V. Koltsova, N.A. Durov, Sultan Kazy Giray, and others. Pushkin himself published The Miserly Knight, The Captain's Daughter, and a number of important critical articles in Sovremennik.

Pushkin's death severed these ties. It coincided in time with the change of literary epochs and in many ways accelerated this change. The "Pushkin era" was gradually fading into the past. Already in the 1840s. put forward new names and new priorities - but all subsequent Russian literary life, now more, now less, correlates itself with this historical era, defined by it as the "golden age" of Russian literature.

Alas! friends! the years fly by
And with them after one another
Windy fashions flicker
A varied series...
A. S. Pushkin

The exhibition "Fashion of the Pushkin era" covers the most diverse areas of Russian life and culture in the first third of the 19th century. Its purpose is to show how the concept of "fashion" was reflected in the objects and phenomena of everyday life - material, moral and social. Following the great historical events that agitated Europe and Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, the aesthetic tastes of society also changed. The fashion for architecture and the interior of buildings, for literature and art, for the manner of behavior in society and, of course, for costumes and hairstyles changed. After all, the costume reflected the occupation, belonging to a certain class, the level of material well-being and the range of interests of its owner. Thus, fashion was not only a fad of dandies, but also a sign of a person's social affiliation, a sign of his political predilections and ideas prevailing in society.

The exposition is devoted to the daily routine of a secular person, whose life reflected the general desire for the ritualization of everyday life for the noble culture. During the day, a person was forced to change clothes several times, as the rules of good manners required a certain type of clothing for different etiquette situations. A frock coat, quite appropriate for a morning walk, was unacceptable for dinner or evening visits, and a secular lady could not appear in a turban or beret in the first half of the day - they were intended for a ball or theater. It is no coincidence that one of Pushkin's contemporaries referred "the art of dressing well" to the "number of fine arts", comparing it with the gift of being "a great musician or a great painter, and perhaps even a great person."

Sorry robe! an idle comrade of bliss,
Leisure friend, witness of secret thoughts!
With you I knew the monotonous world,
But a quiet world where lights shine and noise
It didn't occur to me in oblivion.
P.A. Vyazemsky

In their works, Russian writers of the 19th century often focused readers' attention on the morning dresses of their heroes. The hero of Pushkin's story "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman" Alexei Berestov, arriving at the Muromskys' house early in the morning, finds Lisa reading his letter, in a "white morning dress". The heroine of L. N. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" Natasha Rostova meets Prince Andrei, who came to visit them, in a "home blue dress", Tatyana Larina's mother, having married, "finally renewed her dressing gown and cap on cotton wool." A dressing gown, or a dressing gown - loose clothes without buttons, usually belted with a twisted cord - could be worn by both men and women. It was especially popular in the 1830s. In one of the issues of the magazine "Molva" for 1832 it was reported: "For men, the fashion for dressing gowns has become so established that patterns and fabrics have been invented for them. Shawls are most suitable for this."

However, the most attention of Russian writers was given to the dressing gown, which served from the 18th to the middle of the 19th century as a “ceremonial negligee”. In the poem "Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol noted with irony that the chairman of the chamber "received his guests in a dressing gown, somewhat oily." In "Eugene Onegin" the dressing gown accompanies the philistine and soulless life of Tatiana Larina's parents and is considered as one of the variants of Lensky's fate:

He would have changed a lot.
I would part with the muses, get married,
In the village, happy and horned.
I'd wear a quilted robe...

At the same time, P.A. Vyazemsky and N.M. Languages ​​glorified the dressing gown as "clothes of idleness and laziness", opposing the officer's uniform or "living room livery". It was in V.A. Tropinin portrayed A.S. Pushkin, A.I. Ivanov - N.V. Gogol, V.G. Perov - A.N. Ostrovsky, I.E. Repin - M.P. Mussorgsky. Thus, both in Russian poetry and in Russian painting, the dressing gown became a symbol of the freedom of a creative person.

One of the secular duties were visits. Like other etiquette situations, the custom of receiving visits was subject to fashion. During the time of Catherine II, it was considered fashionable to receive guests while dressing, but at the beginning of the 19th century, only elderly ladies adhered to this custom. In addition to visits, the purpose of which was to pay respect, there were congratulatory, thanksgiving, farewell visits and, finally, visits to express participation ... Congratulatory visits were made on New Year's Eve, Easter, on name day. After receiving an invitation to a ball or dinner, one should certainly pay a visit of thanks. The newlyweds made wedding visits in the first two weeks after the wedding, if they did not immediately go on a honeymoon trip. Participation visits were necessary when visiting a sick person or offering condolences after a funeral.

The accuracy of observing the rules of the visit unmistakably indicated that a person belonged to a secular society. In many houses there were days when they received visitors. It was customary to make morning visits between breakfast and lunch. If the doorman refused to accept the visitor without explaining the reasons, this meant that he was denied the house altogether.

The business suit was of great importance. The Moscow Telegraph magazine regularly reported on new business suits for men and women. A business suit for morning visits had to be elegant, smart, but not formal. This could be perceived in society as an embarrassment and become a topic of general ridicule. The men arrived in frock coats with waistcoats, the women in fashionable attires specially designed for morning visits. After an evening visit, one could go to a theater or a club, so the business suit differed little from evening attire. If a man paid a visit to the head of the service, he had to be dressed in a uniform. However, the hero of "Anna Karenina", Steve Oblonsky, going on a visit to the boss, found it necessary to put on a frock coat, since they were social acquaintances. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, A.P. Yermolov, who arrived in Moscow, could not "testify his respect" to the Grand Duke "having nothing but a tailcoat and a frock coat." The Grand Duke ordered to tell him "that he would see him with pleasure and in a tailcoat" .

Entered: and a cork in the ceiling,
The fault of the comet spurted current;
In front of him is a bloody roast-beef,
And truffles, the luxury of youth,
French cuisine best color,
And Strasbourg's imperishable pie
Between live Limburg cheese
And golden pineapple.
A.S. Pushkin

Secular etiquette required a certain costume for the guests. One of Pushkin's contemporaries, describing a dinner at the Moscow Governor-General D.V. Golitsyn, remarked: "Only the British are allowed to be such pigs; we were all dressed up in the parade, although not in uniform, but this eccentric appeared in a frock coat ...".

However, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, young people preferred a club or a restaurant to home-cooked meals. There were few good restaurants, each visited by a certain, stable circle of people. To appear in this or that fashionable restaurant (at Talon or later Dumas) meant to appear at the assembly point of single youth - "lions" and "dandies". In 1834, in one of his letters to Natalia Nikolaevna, Pushkin reported: "... I appeared to Dumas, where my appearance produced general joy ...", and a few days later: "I dine with Dumas at 2 o'clock, so as not to meet with a bachelor gang."

Of course, the dictates of fashion also extended to gastronomy. In the novel "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin mentions many fashionable novelties of the menu of the late 1810s and early 1820s. Among them - a dish of English cuisine "roast-beef bloodied" and "Strasbourg pie" - goose liver pate, brought in canned form. Pineapple, a dessert traditional for Pushkin's time, known in Russia since the middle of the 18th century, was no longer perceived as a curiosity, but still remained one of the favorite treats. Residents of both capitals, accustomed to having dinner at home, had only to send for a pineapple to a neighboring shop, and "secular lions" and "dandies" could order it in expensive restaurants in St. Petersburg or Moscow. "Comet wine" was also in great fashion - champagne of the 1811 harvest, which owes its name to the bright comet, which could be seen from the spring of 1811 to the beginning of the winter of 1812. Three war years made it difficult for him to reach Russia, but after the defeat of Napoleon, French wine merchants hurried to deliver him to the victorious country. For many years, "comet wine" did not lose its popularity, and in literary works it was sung so often that it turned into one of the poetic clichés.

Will I portray in a true picture
secluded office,
Where is the mod pupil exemplary
Dressed, undressed and dressed again?
A.S. Pushkin

They worked and rested in the office, received the manager and discussed the conditions of the duel with the seconds of their opponent. After a dinner party, the men, as a rule, went to the master's office to "smoke pipes", and gradually the office turned into a hall for men's receptions. Pipes with long stems exported from Turkey, as well as respectable men's accessories for them, were a necessary accessory for the front office. In Russia, they came into fashion in the first third of the 19th century in connection with the all-European passion for the East, with the work of Byron, who glorified oriental exoticism in the poem "Gyaur".

Each type of reception implied certain topics of conversation, regulated by secular rules. There were conversations in the office that were out of place at a ball or in a drawing room. Their diversity reflected the entire male world: the range of personal interests and political views, issues of family life and housekeeping, career and honor.

The theater is already full; lodges shine;
Parterre and chairs - everything is in full swing;
In heaven they splash impatiently,
And, having risen, the curtain rustles.
A. S. Pushkin

The theatrical space consisted of boxes, stalls and a district. The lodges were visited by the family public and, as a rule, were subscribed for the entire season. The parterre included 10-15 rows of seats and the parterre itself, where the performance was watched standing up. Seats in armchairs were expensive and, as a rule, they were occupied by noble and wealthy spectators. The ground tickets were much cheaper. Rayek - the uppermost tier of the balcony - was intended for the democratic public, which, according to a contemporary, "without taking off their top dress, poured into the galleries." This is explained by the fact that at that time there was no wardrobe in the theater, and the outerwear was guarded by lackeys.

For the rest of the visitors, secular etiquette made strict demands on the costume. Women could appear in the theater only in boxes - in evening dresses, in berets, in currents, in turbans, which were not removed either at the theater or at the ball. Men wore a uniform or tailcoat. There were also violations of etiquette in order to shock the public. “Ahead of the stalls, in the very middle, leaning back against the ramp, stood Dolokhov with a huge shock of curly hair combed up, in a Persian costume. He stood in the very sight of the theater, knowing that he was drawing the attention of the entire hall to himself, as freely as as if he was standing in his room. Near him, crowded, stood the most brilliant youth of Moscow, and he apparently excelled among them, "Leo Tolstoy wrote in the novel War and Peace.

For the St. Petersburg dandy of the first third of the 19th century, the theater was not only an artistic spectacle, but also a place of social meetings, love affairs and backstage hobbies. In this regard, the rules of good manners extended not only to the costume, but also to the demeanor of the theatergoer. It was customary to enter the hall at the last minute before the start of the performance, exchanging bows and greetings. So, for example, Onegin, being late for the beginning of the performance, "walks between the chairs on the legs." And one more detail of the dandy's behavior is to look at the auditorium in a lorgnette. Onegin "Double lorgnette slantingly directs / At the lodges of unfamiliar ladies."

The whole of Russia is reflected in the English Club as in a chambre obscure.
P.A. Vyazemsky

The fame that the English Club acquired in society from the beginning of the 19th century led to the fact that it became not only a fashionable institution, but also influenced the public opinion of the capital. The main activities of the club members were conversations, games and reading newspapers. However, conversations about politics - although they were conducted in the club - were forbidden by the charter.

The newspaper room, which received Russian and foreign periodicals, was an indispensable attribute of the club. Fresh newspapers and magazines were laid out on a special table, they could be freely taken and read. Editions of past years were deposited in the library, from where they could be taken home by signing in a special book. A special attendant supervised the observance of order in the newspaper room. But, as a rule, it was not crowded. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, once P.A. Vyazemsky "as usual traveled around all the balls and all the evening meetings in Moscow and finally turned into a club to read newspapers.<...>The waiter began to pace around him and cough. At first he paid no attention to this, but finally, as he began to noticeably express his impatience, he asked: "What is the matter with you?" "Very late, Your Excellency." “But you see that I am not alone, and they are still playing cards over there.” - "But those, Your Excellency, are doing the job."

Cards - "one of the immutable and inevitable elements of Russian life" - were bred in the English Club immediately after its establishment. For a long time, both commercial and gambling flourished in it - despite the fact that the latter were formally banned in Russia in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Unlike commercial games, characteristic of respectable people, gambling was in the nature of an "all-encompassing fashion." In addition, at one time there was even a "fashion to play." Repeated attempts were made to eradicate gambling, which could ruin the respectable members of the club, and, in the end, they were crowned with success.

On the occasion of significant events, dinners were arranged in the club. One of these dinners was described by L.N. Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace". In addition, there were daily club lunches and dinners. They were expensive, but there was always a select society here, and for unmarried people, the club replaced homeliness.

And all the Kuznetsk bridge, and the eternal French,
From there, fashion to us, and authors, and muses:
Destroyers of pockets and hearts!
When the Creator delivers us
From their hats! bonnets! and studs! and pins!
And bookstores and biscuit shops! ..
A.S. Griboyedov

In St. Petersburg, fashion stores were concentrated on Nevsky Prospekt. A columnist for the Severnaya Pchela newspaper noted the similarities and differences between the two capitals: “Kuznetsky Most is in full splendor: an abyss of shops of all kinds, fashionable shops; here you can spend an abyss of money in one day. There are no magnificent shops, which are not uncommon in St. Petersburg; the room is cramped, the rooms are dark and low, but the goods are grouped elegantly and are sold as expensively as in St. Petersburg. In the latter, the Kuznetsky bridge does not lag behind Nevsky Prospekt." However, according to the observation of foreigners, St. Petersburg stores were inferior to European ones. To an English traveler who visited Russia in 1829, they seemed "not as conspicuous as those in London," and the choice of goods in them was not so rich. Nevertheless, in St. Petersburg, trade offered the richest selection of products, including in terms of quality and price.

To be continued...

In the center of old Moscow, in the city estate of the XVII-XDC centuries. there is a museum of A.S. Pushkin. And although there was no information that the poet had been here, he knew this corner of the capital well. Here lived his friends and acquaintances, whom he visited, and addressed to others in his poems. The buildings of that time have also been preserved... The museum has more than 40 years of history, and it could be the subject of a separate publication. But we decided to acquaint the reader with his present day, especially since after the reconstruction and restoration of the building, the museum is experiencing, as it were, a second birth.

The doors of the mansion at 12 Prechistenka Street have reopened. On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the great poet, we have created a new exposition "Pushkin and His Era".

On the eve of the overhaul, restoration and reconstruction of the manor complex of buildings, it was necessary to re-understand the essence and purpose of the museum institution, its tasks, development prospects. Ultimately, the next "development" of the space of this house was designed to maximize the richest possibilities of the museum - the owner of national cultural values, a kind of research and cultural and educational institution. It should be noted that the multifunctionality of our museum has its own individual expression thanks to the collected unique collections, the established and constantly developing various forms of its activity. The theme "A. S. Pushkin" was initially seen in broad historical, literary, cultural ties with the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times, with the present. And just as the work of the poet is characterized by movement, open structures, dialogic connections, "worldwide responsiveness", the museum of A.S. Pushkin is characterized by a search, a desire to expand the scope of his activities, to enter into a dialogue with the world.

The first exposition - "The Life and Work of A.S. Pushkin" - was opened in 1961. Then the expositions "The World Glory of A.S. Pushkin", "A.S. Pushkin and Our Time" were created. They played a significant role in the museum's scientific understanding of the biography and creative heritage of the writer, in understanding his connection with modernity. The exposition materials were widely used in scientific and educational work, in the popularization of Pushkin's works, for many years they were the base for internships for museum workers in the country and became part of the "Pushkin House" - the scientific and cultural center of Moscow. And yet, paying tribute to their undoubted merits, one cannot but admit that by now they required replacement. This is necessary for many reasons. The museum building and its halls were in need of major repairs and restoration. Over the past time, the funds have significantly expanded, now amounting to about 200 thousand units of storage. This made it possible to abandon most of the copies of the materials. There was an opportunity to demonstrate previously unknown to the visitor wonderful works of fine and decorative art, rare books, manuscripts, documents of the 18th - the first third of the 19th centuries, paintings and watercolors by V. Tropinin, P. Sokolov, V. Gau, A. Molinari, S. Tonchi, other masters. Of course, the results of the work of recent decades on the study of Pushkin, numerous publications, which significantly supplemented and deepened our understanding of the poet and his time, were taken into account. A search was made for new forms of museum design. And one more reason that set the task of creating a new exposition for the museum staff:

over the past years, the very understanding of the museum has changed, which is now conceived not as a cultural and educational institution, but as an institution that occupies a special place in the system of modern culture: being a repository of national cultural values, performing research and educational functions, today, with the help of scientific knowledge of the art of exposition, which is of independent value, consolidates the cultural memory of society, carries out the continuity of cultural traditions.

The main exposition "Pushkin and his era" is located in 15 halls. It is intended, demonstrating the richness of our collection, to give a figurative understanding of those cultural values ​​that he inherited from Pushkin's time in the 20th century. and which will inherit the 21st century, reveal the world of the poet, the world of his work.

On the landing of the main staircase, the visitor is greeted by an ancient sculpture - the muse of lyrical poetry Euterpe. "In my infancy, she loved me," Pushkin wrote about the beginning of his journey into poetry. "By the command of God, O muse, be obedient," - with these words he completed his journey. In the halls of the museum there are other muses sung by the poet: Clio, Terpsichore, Polyhymnia... This is how one of the leading themes of the exposition is declared - the dialogue of Russian and world cultures embodied in Pushkin's works.

One of the most promising areas of modern science about Pushkin is the study of his work in the context of the history, literature, culture and life of his time. And we have biographical and creative themes given in a broad historical context. The first hall - "Prologue" - is dedicated to the 18th century, at the end of which the poet was born, the second - to the Pushkin era in its historical and ordinary, great and small, tragic and funny. Battle scenes and fashion pictures, government manifestos and letters from private individuals, the "Code of Laws of the Russian Empire" and books for children. Here, for the first time, chronicles for each year of Pushkin's life included in the exposition: Honore de Balzac and Adam Mickiewicz, Karl Bryullov and Avdotya Istomina were born in the year of his birth. In 1799 it was forbidden to dance the waltz and wear whiskers. In 1799 A.V. Suvorov won victories in the Italian and Swiss campaigns. In the chronicles, "strange rapprochements" that always interested the poet make themselves felt: it was no coincidence that he drew attention to the fact that he wrote the playful poem "Count Nulin" in Mikhailovsky on December 14, 1825, not knowing what happened in St. Decembrist revolt. So the museum begins a journey into the Pushkin era, a story about the life and work of Pushkin.

The interiors of the rooms on the mezzanine represent images of an office, a nursery, a living room - they could be in the Moscow Pushkin house, which has not survived to this day, where the great poet spent his childhood (recent studies, in particular the work of V.D. Berestov, allow us to abandon the myth of his bleak childhood of a child unloved by his parents). An attempt was made in the museum to recreate the atmosphere of the hospitable Pushkins' house, to tell about family relationships, about the literary interests of Sergei Lvovich and Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, about their friendly and literary ties with N.M. Karamzin, V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, I.I. Dmitriev, about the world of ordinary people, which the boy got acquainted with, listening to the tales of his grandmother and nanny, taking walks around Moscow with the serf uncle Nikita Kozlov.

On a table of Karelian birch next to the works of Homer and Plutarch, a candlestick with a swollen candle - a miniature by an unknown artist (according to the hypothesis of a researcher at the museum, candidate of art criticism E.V. Pavlova - possibly Xavier de Maistre): a blue-eyed boy of two or three years. This portrait, like many museum items, has its own interesting fate. It was presented by the people's artist B.C. Yakut, who played the role of Pushkin on the stage of the Moscow Theater. M.N. Yermolova, attributed to the deputy director of the museum for scientific work N.V. Baranskaya. There are other portraits of Pushkin in the museum, created during his lifetime - this is a special pride of our collection. Books, children's magazines, copybooks, split alphabets, toys - they are almost two centuries old - allow you to look into the world of the poet's childhood.

The exposition "Pushkin and his era" is built on a combination of chronological and thematic principles. Separate halls are devoted to the novel "Eugene Onegin", the poem "The Bronze Horseman", the story "The Queen of Spades", the novel "The Captain's Daughter".

"Eugene Onegin", Pushkin's favorite creation, which was destined to become one of the main works of Russian culture, was given a large living room - the central hall of the front suite. The authors of the exposition tried to see "through the magic crystal" of his poetry the realities of that era. A kind of museum commentary on the novel in verse is given in the hall. And the point is not only that the views of St. Petersburg, Moscow, the provinces are presented here; portraits of unknown young people and ladies; various objects of long-gone life - and the double lorgnette mentioned in the novel, and the signet for letters, and "amber on the pipe of Tsaregrad", and "the album of the county young lady". Another thing is more important - in the exposition "Eugene Onegin" is comprehended not only as an encyclopedia of Russian life, but also as a universal novel of culture, which corresponds to the level of modern studies of the work. So, the dialogue of Russian and world cultures that sounds in Pushkin's text is conveyed by portraits and books of those poets whose names are mentioned in the novel, whose poems are included in the text with quotations or reminiscences - these are Homer, Ovid, Tasso, Petrarch, Byron, Guys, Delvig, Yazykov , Baratynsky, Mitskevich.

Exposition complexes: dressing table of a dandy, on which "porcelain and bronze"; a fashionable picture and a book with Ovid's poem "The Science of Love" (for Onegin succeeded in the "science of tender passion"); the bureau of the poet Lensky, where books by Schiller and Goethe are kept; a fireplace, on which a collection of Onegin's books, described by Pushkin, and "Lord Byron's portrait", and "a column with a cast-iron doll" (a small sculptural image of Napoleon) reveal the world of Pushkin's heroes, the spiritual quest of the poet's contemporaries, while corresponding with the text of the novel. It is significant that the exposition attempts to interpret the poetics of the "free novel", where lyrical digressions are the compositional principle. In vertical showcases - the main first edition of "Eugene Onegin"; the center of each showcase is a reproduction of Pushkin's autograph with one or another digression. Here the voice of the author sounds, reflecting on life and its values, on poetry, on the immortality of the poet. The word presented in this way is connected with a thing, an object, which, in turn, tells about the reality embodied in Pushkin's word.

The design of the hall dedicated to "The Captain's Daughter" is also based on a modern interpretation of Pushkin's prose. The pathos of this last completed novel by Pushkin is seen not in the approval of the popular uprising and its leader Pugachev, but in the kindness and nobility that saved Masha Mironova and Grinev in the terrible storm of bloody rebellion and, according to the writer, can save Russia from fratricidal war.

The front suite ends with a solemn hall dedicated to the last years of Pushkin's life. The portraits, books, manuscripts and documents collected here tell about his courageous resistance to circumstances, about the triumph of his mighty spirit, about the eternity of the art he created.

The exposition "Pushkin and his era" is, in essence, a new collective monograph on the stated topic. It introduces into circulation a lot of unknown materials studied by the museum staff - portraits, books, documents, manuscripts. Among them are lifetime portraits of Pushkin and his contemporaries, an autograph of the great poet, autographs of other writers, rare books and documents. Moreover, the study of the collection collected by the museum allows not only to comprehend the life and work of the poet in the broad context of his era, but also to trace the Pushkin tradition in the history of culture of the 19th-20th centuries. The exposition will be continued by halls that tell about Pushkin in the movement of epochs, rooms where individual collections will be presented - a unique library of Russian poetry by I.N. Rozanova; collection on the history of Russian noble families Yu.B. Shmarova; collection of portraits in engravings and lithographs by Ya.G. Zach; the rarest materials of P.V. Gubara - books of the 18th-19th centuries, the iconography of St. Petersburg of the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin times.

The museum has big plans, in which exposition work is given as one of the priority areas of activity. "There are miracles..." - this is the name of the exhibition dedicated to Pushkin's fairy tales, addressed to children. The history of the Moscow Pushkin Museum, its contribution to national culture will also receive an exhibition solution. There is also a partial re-exhibition in the memorial apartment of Pushkin on the Arbat ... Plans are in place to create a memorial house on Basmannaya for Vasily Lvovich Pushkin - the uncle of the great poet, a well-known poet at the beginning of the last century, the headman of the Arzamas literary circle, a theatergoer and bibliophile, a Muscovite who has become a kind of landmark of the capital...

November 30, 1998 at the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin Museum (The Pushkin Museum) opened the exhibition "Eugene Onegin", "... The Distance of the Free Novel" (created by our museum together with the Pushkin Museum with the participation of 14 other museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Klin). Other projects are conceived: "Pushkin in the Moscow archives", "Pushkin and world culture" ... On the threshold of the XXI century. the museum continues its creative search.

Doctor of Philology, full member of the Russian Academy of Education N.I. MIKHAILOVA, Deputy Director for Research of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin

Lesson summary in grade 9 teacher

home education Pronina Lidia Vladimirovna

Topic: Pushkin's era in the novel. "Eugene Onegin" as an encyclopedia of Russian life. The realism of the novel.

Goals: generalize and deepen knowledge about the novel "Eugene Onegin", its author as a spiritually rich, harmonious personality; show the breadth of the image of Russian reality in the novel; find lyrical digressions, find out how they are connected with the events depicted and the heroes of the work.

Lesson objectives:

Subject:

* introduce the concept of "realism";

* present a general description of the novel;

* review the content of the novel;

* find lyrical digressions.

Metasubject:
*implementation of a systematic - activity approach: development of skills and abilities of project activities;

Personal:
education of communication, independence.
developing students' interest in the subject
Universal learning activities:
Regulatory: formulate the topic and objectives of the lesson, look for ways to solve them. Determine the degree of success of your work.
Cognitive: development of skills to analyze, compare, generalize;

development of skills to formulate questions on the text of the work, the ability to participate in a dialogue;

the ability to analyze various forms of expression of the author's position;

formation of skills orally or in writing to answer a problematic question;

development of the ability to formulate a problem.

Communicative:

* create conditions for real self-assessment of students, the realization of it as a person;

* to cultivate a culture of educational work, self-education skills;

* fostering a value attitude to the word.

Lesson type: learning new material.

Forms of student work: independent, individual work

During the classes

Epigraph to the lesson:

... The first Russian realistic novel, which, in addition to its unfading beauty, has for us the price of a historical document, more accurately and truthfully depicting an era than dozens of thick books reproduce to this day.

A. M. Gorky

I. Organizing time

II. Knowledge update

Today we begin to study the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".

Teacher's word about the history of writing a novel.

Roman A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" is a very strong poetic work that tells about love, character, selfishness and, in general, about Russia and the life of its people. It was created for almost 7.5 years (from May 9, 1823 to September 25, 1830), becoming a real feat in literary creativity for the poet. Initially, it was assumed that the novel would consist of 9 chapters, but later Pushkin reworked its structure, leaving only 8 chapters. He excluded the chapter "Onegin's Journey" from the main text of the work. The novel "Eugene Onegin" reflected the events of the first quarter of the 19th century, that is, the time of creation and the time of the novel approximately coincide.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin created a novel in verse similar to Lord Byron's poem Don Juan. The novel became truly an encyclopedia of Russian life in the 1820s, since the breadth of the topics covered in it, the detailing of everyday life, the multi-plot composition, the depth of description of the characters' characters are the features of the life of that era.

This is what gave grounds to V. G. Belinsky in his article "Eugene Onegin" to conclude:

“Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an eminently folk work.”

Conversation on the content of the novel

How does the author present his character to us? ? (One of the main characters is Eugene Onegin. A reserved young man with a complex character. His life was as empty as that of a million of the same lordly offspring of that time, filled with revelry, senseless burning of life. Meanwhile, our hero is not without positive traits: for example, throughout the entire novel, the author shows us how much Onegin gravitates towards science and knowledge. We can observe his personal growth, while his friends inevitably degrade one by one, turning into flabby landowners. The attitude of the author to the hero of the novel, Eugene Onegin, is rather reverent. He tenderly describes his image, forgives mistakes, confronts difficult situations).

What other characters are found on the pages of the novel?

What kind of metropolitan and provincial nobility appears before us? (Satire on high society. Limited interests, vulgarity, empty life. The life of the Larin family is a classic example of provincial simplicity. Life is made up of ordinary sorrows and ordinary joys: housekeeping, holidays, mutual visits.)

What is the picture of folk life ? (The author clearly sympathizes with the Larins because of their closeness to Russian national traditions. The best moral qualities of Tatiana were brought up not by a French governess, but by a serf nanny. In the story “Filipyevna the gray-haired” we find Pushkin’s condemnation of serfdom, which takes away from people even the right to love. The soul of the people lives in the song that the yard girls sing, “picking berries in the bushes”, in fairy tales, customs, rituals.)

What is the role of describing nature? (The landscape is always realistic. The landscape is of great importance in revealing the emotional experiences of the characters. Pictures of nature are imbued with a feeling of love for the motherland.)

III. Setting goals and objectives.

If we return to the words of V. Belinsky, then Onegin can be called an encyclopedia of Russian life and an extremely folk work. Why did the critic say so?

(From the novel, as from an encyclopedia, you can learn almost everything about the era: about how they dressed and what was in fashion, what people talked about, what interests they lived. All Russian life was reflected in "Eugene Onegin." Briefly, but clearly , the author showed a fortified village, aristocratic Moscow, secular St. Petersburg... Pushkin truthfully depicted the environment in which the heroes of his novel live - Tatyana Larina and Evgeny Onegin.)

Lesson topic: Pushkin's era in the novel. "Eugene Onegin" as an encyclopedia of Russian life. The realism of the novel.

Based on the topic of the lesson, let's try to formulate its purpose. What are we going to meet today?

So, during the lesson, we should get acquainted with the concept of "Russian realistic novel" or "realism", as well as see the historical facts captured in the novel "Eugene Onegin".

IV. Assimilation of new knowledge.

1. Realism

Realism is a literary trend that appeared in Europe and Russia in the 30s of the 19th century. Realism is understood as a truthful attitude to reality in a work of art of a particular period. The main features of realism:

Teacher question:

Is it possible to call the novel "Eugene Onegin" a Russian realistic novel. Why?

2. The historicism of the novel.

Eugene Onegin "- the founder of the Russian realistic novel, the first social and psychological novel in Russia.

The realistic background of the novel is a broad picture of life in Russia in the 20s of the 19th century. More than fifty images emerge from the pages of the novel, embodying the spirit and mood of the era - either bright and exciting with the depth of their experiences (Onegin, Tatiana, Lensky), or flashing before us like silhouettes, sometimes directly related to the development of intrigue (Tatiana's mother, Tatiana's husband, her nanny, Zaretsky, etc.), sometimes appearing only in separate episodes of the novel (guests at Tatyana's birthday party, representatives of the Moscow and St. Petersburg world, etc.), and sometimes simply mentioned in the novel (Onegin's father and uncle, Tatyana's father, writers Derzhavin, Baratynsky, Yazykov, Bogdanovich and others.

The plot of the novel unfolds realistically smoothly. The action continues for about 3 1/2 years. The composition of the novel everywhere reveals traces of the author's stubborn struggle with romantic traditions and with the pursuit of the amusement of the plot. The knot of intrigue is pushed back: in the novel to the third chapter (“It's time to come - she fell in love”), and instead of a sudden and spectacular plot, we find in the first two chapters the everyday background and characteristics of the characters.

There are three climaxes in the development of the intrigue: Onegin's rebuke to Tatyana in the garden, Tatyana's name day with a tragic ending - Onegin's duel with Lensky - and Tatyana's last explanation with Onegin. All three moments - including the duel scene - are revealed in the novel in a purely realistic way. The novel also lacks an effective ending. The heroes parted, harboring grief in their souls, and the novel ends there.

Lyrical digressions.

It is customary to call lyrical digressions extra-plot inserts in a literary work, moments when the author departs from the main narrative, allowing himself to reflect, recall any events that are not related to the narrative. However, lyrical digressions are separate compositional elements, like landscapes, characterizations, dialogues.

Work with text

The fourth part of the novel is occupied by lyrical digressions. What are they about? What role do they play?

1) Characteristics of Pushkin's creative path (stanzas 1-5 from chapter 8).

2) On the meaning of love in the life of a poet (stanzas 55-59 from chapter 1).

4) Farewell to readers and your novel (stanzas 49-51 from chapter 8).

In these lyrical digressions, the poet introduces us to his spiritual world. In the lines generously scattered in the novel, Pushkin's interests, his love of freedom, and patriotism are reflected.

5) About the theater, playwrights and artists in stanzas 18-19 from chapter 1.

6) About writers and poets - contemporaries of Pushkin in stanza 30 of chapter 3, in stanza 3 of chapter 5, in stanza 22 of chapter 7.

7) About literary trends in stanza 55 of chapter 7, in stanza 26 of chapter 1.

Pushkin drew the ideological currents of that era, the figures of the Decembrist movement, the state of literature and art, various economic theories, etc. All this allowed V. G. Belinsky to call Pushkin's novel "an encyclopedia of Russian life."

V.Consolidation of the studied material

VI. Reflection of activity.

Continue text

Onegin is a hero of time or _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

VII. Homework.

2. The task of a creative nature. They will write a short essay “Onegin is a “suffering egoist”, who is strangled by “the inactivity and vulgarity of life?” V. Belinsky (optional)