The Silver Age as a cultural and historical integrity. Lesson-presentation "The Silver Age as a cultural and historical era
The Silver Age as a socio-cultural era. Artistic life of the era.
To dwell on the historical features and specifics of this period in the development of Russia.
Note the diversity and diversity of artistic life.
Introduction.Silver Age Silhouette
“Silver Age” of Russian poetry - this name has become stable to refer to Russian poetry late XIX- the beginning of the XX century. It was given by analogy with the Golden Age - that was the name given to the beginning of the 19th century, Pushkin's time.
The phrase "Silver Age" has become a permanent definition of Russian culture of the late XIX - early XX centuries; it began to be used as a designation for the entire artistic and, more broadly, the entire spiritual culture of the beginning of the 20th century in Russia.
The concept of "Silver Age" cannot be reduced to the work of one or even dozens of significant artists - it characterizes the "spirit of the era": bright individuals. The very spiritual atmosphere of the time provoked a creative person to artistic self-thinking. It was a borderline, transitional, crisis era: the development of capitalism, the revolutions that swept the country, Russia's participation in the First World War ...
Late XIX - early XX century. represents a turning point not only in the socio-political, but also in the spiritual life of Russia. The great upheavals that the country experienced in a relatively short historical period could not but be reflected in its cultural development. An important feature of this period is the intensification of the process of Russia's integration into European and world culture.
Russian poetry of the "Silver Age" was created in the atmosphere of a general cultural upsurge as a significant part of it. It is characteristic that at the same time such brightest talents as A. Blok and V. Mayakovsky, A. Bely and V. Khodasevich could create in one and the same country. This list goes on and on. In the history of world literature, this phenomenon was unique.
Late XIX - early XX century. in Russia - this is a time of change, uncertainty and gloomy omens, this is a time of disappointment and a sense of the approaching death of the existing socio-political system.
The attitude towards the West for Russian society has always been an indicator of landmarks in its forward historical movement. For centuries, the West was presented not as a certain political, much less geographical space, but rather as a system of values - religious, scientific, ethical, aesthetic, which can either be accepted or rejected. The possibility of choice gave rise to complex collisions in the history of Russia (let us recall, for example, the confrontation between the "Nikonians" and the Old Believers in the 17th century). The antinomies "own" - "foreign", "Russia" - "West" were especially acute in transitional epochs. Russian culture, without losing its national identity, increasingly acquired the features of a pan-European character. Its ties with other countries have increased. This was reflected in the widespread use of the latest achievements of scientific and technological progress - telephone and gramophone, automobile and cinema. Many Russian scientists conducted scientific and pedagogical work abroad. The most important thing is that Russia has enriched world culture with achievements in the most diverse fields.
An important feature of the development of culture at the turn of the century is the powerful rise of the humanities. The "second wind" was given to the story, in which the names of V.O. Klyuchevsky, S.F. Platonov, N.A. Rozhkov and others. Philosophical thought reaches true peaks, which gave rise to the great philosopher N.A. Berdyaev called the era "religious and cultural renaissance".
The Russian cultural Renaissance was created by a whole constellation of brilliant humanitarians - N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, D.S. Merezhkovsky, S.N. Trubetskoy, I.A. Ilyin, P.A. Florensky and others. Mind, education, romantic passion were the companions of their labors. In 1909 S.N. Bulgakov, N.A. Berdyaev, S.L. Frank and other philosophers published the collection "Milestones", where they called on the intelligentsia to repent and renounce the destructive and bloodthirsty revolutionary plans.
The Russian "Renaissance" reflected the attitude of people who lived and worked on the verge of centuries. According to K.D. Balmont, people who think and feel at the turn of two periods, one completed, the other not yet born, debunk everything old, because it has lost its soul and has become a lifeless scheme. But, preceding the new, they themselves, having grown up on the old, are unable to see this new with their own eyes - that is why in their moods, next to the most enthusiastic outbursts, there is so much sick melancholy. The religious and philosophical thought of that period painfully searched for answers to the "sick questions" of Russian reality, trying to combine the incompatible - material and spiritual, the denial of Christian dogmas and Christian ethics.
The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century is often called the "Silver Age" today. This name also belongs to N.A. Berdyaev, who saw in the highest achievements of the culture of his contemporaries a reflection of the Russian glory of the previous "golden" eras. Poets, architects, musicians, artists of that time were the creators of art, striking with the intensity of premonitions of impending social cataclysms. They lived with a sense of dissatisfaction with "ordinary dullness" and longed to discover new worlds.
The main features and diversity of the artistic life of the period " Silver Age».
realistic direction in Russian literature at the turn of the 20th century. continued L.N. Tolstoy("Resurrection", 1880-99; "Hadji Murad", 1896-1904; "The Living Corpse", 1900); A.P. Chekhov(1860-1904), who created his best works, the theme of which was the ideological quest of the intelligentsia and the "little" man with his daily worries ("Ward No. 6", 1892; "House with a mezzanine", 1896; "Ionych", 1898; " Lady with a Dog, 1899; The Seagull, 1896, etc.), and young writers I.A. Bunin(1870-1953; collection of stories "To the Ends of the Earth", 1897; "Village", 1910; "The Gentleman from San Francisco", 1915) and A.I. Kuprin(1880-1960; Molokh, 1896; Olesya, 1898; Pit, 1909-15).
There were bright individualities in the poetry of this time that cannot be attributed to a certain trend - M. Voloshin (1877-1932), M. Tsvetaeva(1892-1941). No other era has given such an abundance of declarations of its own exclusivity.
The artistic culture of the turn of the century is an important page in the cultural heritage of Russia. Ideological inconsistency and ambiguity were inherent not only in artistic trends and trends, but also in the work of individual writers, artists, and composers. It was a period of renewal of various types and genres of artistic creativity, rethinking, "general reassessment of values", in the words of M. V. Nesterov. The attitude towards the heritage of the revolutionary democrats became ambiguous even among progressively thinking cultural figures. The primacy of sociality in the Wanderers was seriously criticized by many realist artists.
In the Russian artistic culture of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, when, in the context of political reaction and the crisis of populism, part of the intelligentsia was seized by moods of social and moral decline, in artistic culture, decadence([from Late Latin decadencia-decline] , denoting such phenomena in art as the rejection of civic ideals and faith in reason, immersion in the sphere of individualistic experiences. These ideas were an expression of the social position of a part of the artistic intelligentsia, which tried to "get away" from the complexities of life into the world of dreams, irreality, and sometimes mysticism. But even in this way, she reflected in her work the crisis phenomena of the then social life.
Decadent moods captured the figures of various artistic movements, including the realistic one. However, more often these ideas were inherent in modernist movements.
The concept of "modernism" (French temerne - modern) included many phenomena of literature and art of the twentieth century, born at the beginning of this century, new in comparison with the realism of the previous century. However, new artistic and aesthetic qualities also appeared in the realism of this time: the “framework” of a realistic vision of life was expanding, and the search for ways of self-expression of the individual in literature and art was under way. The characteristic features of art are synthesis, a mediated reflection of life, in contrast to the critical realism of the 19th century, with its inherent concrete reflection of reality. This feature of art is associated with the wide spread of neo-romanticism in literature, painting, music, the birth of a new stage realism.
Russian literature continued to play an exceptionally important role in the cultural life of the country.
Directions opposed to realism began to take shape in artistic culture in the 1990s. The most significant of them, both in time of existence and in terms of distribution and influence on social and cultural life, was modernism. Writers and poets, different in their ideological and artistic appearance, their further fate in literature, united in modernist groups and trends.
The strengthening of reactionary-mystical ideas in the public consciousness led to a certain revival of anti-realist trends in artistic culture. During the years of reaction, various modernist searches intensified, naturalism spread with its preaching of eroticism and pornography. The “rulers of souls” of a significant part of the bourgeois intelligentsia, the bourgeoisie, were not only the reactionary German philosopher F. Nietzsche, but also Russian writers like M. P. Artsybashev, A. A. Kamensky and others. These writers saw the freedom of literature, the priests of which they themselves are proclaimed, first of all, in the cult of the power of the "superman", free from moral and social ideals.
Deep hostility to revolutionary, democratic and humanistic ideals, reaching cynicism, was clearly manifested in Artsybashev's novel Sanin (1907), which was very popular as the most "fashionable" novel. His hero mocked those who are "ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the constitution." A. Kamensky was in solidarity with him, saying that "every social feat has lost its attractiveness and beauty." Writers like Artsybashev and Kamensky openly proclaimed a break with the heritage of the revolutionary democrats, the humanism of the progressive Russian intelligentsia.
SYMBOLISM
Russian symbolism as a literary trend took shape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The theoretical, philosophical and aesthetic roots and sources of creativity of writers-symbolists were very diverse. So V. Bryusov considered symbolism a purely artistic direction, Merezhkovsky relied on Christian teaching, V. Ivanov sought theoretical support in the philosophy and aesthetics of the ancient world, refracted through the philosophy of Nietzsche; A. Bely was fond of Vl. Solovyov, Schopenhauer, Kant, Nietzsche.
The artistic and journalistic organ of the Symbolists was the journal Scales (1904 - 1909). “For us, representatives symbolism, as a coherent world outlook, - wrote Ellis, - there is nothing more alien than the subordination of the idea of life, the inner path of the individual - to the external improvement of the forms of community life. For us, there can be no question of reconciling the path of an individual heroic individual with the instinctive movements of the masses, always subordinated to narrowly selfish, material motives.
These attitudes determined the struggle of the symbolists against democratic literature and art, which was expressed in the systematic slander of Gorky, in an effort to prove that, having become in the ranks of proletarian writers, he ended as an artist, in an attempt to discredit revolutionary democratic criticism and aesthetics, its great creators. - Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky. The Symbolists tried in every possible way to make “their own” Pushkin, Gogol, called by V. Ivanov “a frightened spectator of life”, Lermontov, who, according to the same V. Ivanov, was the first to tremble “with a premonition of the symbol of symbols - Eternal Femininity”.
A sharp opposition between symbolism and realism is also connected with these attitudes. “While realist poets,” writes K. Balmont, “view the world naively, as mere observers, obeying its material basis, symbolist poets, recreating materiality with their complex impressionability, rule over the world and penetrate into its mysteries.” The Symbolists seek to oppose reason and intuition: "... Art is the comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways," asserts V. Bryusov and calls the works of the Symbolists "mystical keys of secrets" that help a person to reach freedom.
The legacy of the Symbolists is represented by poetry, prose, and drama. However, the most characteristic is poetry.
The poetry of V. Bryusov of this time is characterized by the desire for a scientific understanding of life, the awakening of interest in history. A. M. Gorky highly valued the encyclopedic education of V. Ya. Bryusov, calling him the most cultured writer in Rus'. Bryusov accepted and welcomed the October Revolution and actively participated in the construction of Soviet culture.
The ideological contradictions of the era (one way or another) influenced individual realist writers. In the creative fate of L. N. Andreev (1871 - 1919), they affected a well-known departure from the realistic method. However, realism as a trend in artistic culture retained its position. Russian writers continued to be interested in life in all its manifestations, the fate of the common man, and the important problems of social life.
The traditions of critical realism continued to be preserved and developed in the work of the largest Russian writer I. A. Bunin (1870 - 1953). His most significant works of that time are the stories The Village (1910) and The Dry Valley (1911).
1912 was the beginning of a new revolutionary upsurge in the social and political life of Russia.
It is customary to distinguish "senior" And "junior" symbolists. "Seniors" ( V. Bryusov. K. Balmont, F. Sologub, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius), who came to literature in the 90s, a period of deep crisis in poetry, preached the cult of beauty and free self-expression of the poet. "Junior" symbolists (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov, S. Solovyov) brought philosophical and theosophical quests to the fore. The Symbolists offered the reader a colorful myth about a world created according to the laws of eternal Beauty. If we add to this exquisite imagery, musicality and lightness of style, the steady popularity of poetry in this direction becomes understandable. The influence of symbolism with its intense spiritual quest, captivating artistry of a creative manner was experienced not only by the acmeists and futurists who replaced the symbolists, but also by the realist writer A.P. Chekhov.
The platform of the "younger" symbolists is based on the idealistic philosophy of V. Solovyov with his idea of the Third Testament and the advent of the Eternal Feminine. V. Solovyov argued that the highest task of art is “... the creation of a universal spiritual organism”, that a work of art is an image of an object and phenomenon “in the light of the future world”, which explains the understanding of the role of the poet as a theurgist, a clergyman. This, according to A. Bely, "combines the heights of symbolism as an art with mysticism."
Symbolists strive to create a complex, associative metaphor, abstract and irrational.
The last pre-October decade was marked by searches in modernist art. The controversy surrounding symbolism that took place in 1910 among the artistic intelligentsia revealed its crisis. As N. S. Gumilyov put it in one of his articles, "symbolism has completed its circle of development and is now falling." By 1910, “symbolism had completed its circle of development” (N. Gumilyov), it was replaced by acmeism .
Acmeism~(from the Greek "acme" - the highest degree of something, the flowering time). N. S. Gumilyov (1886 - 1921) and S. M. Gorodetsky (1884 - 1967) are considered the founders of acmeism. The new poetic group included A. A. Akhmatova, O. E. Mandelstam, M. A. Zenkevich, M. A. Kuzmin and others.
Acmeists, in contrast to the symbolist nebula, proclaimed the cult of real earthly existence, "a courageously firm and clear outlook on life." But at the same time, they tried to affirm, first of all, the aesthetic-hedonistic function of art, evading social problems in their poetry. In the aesthetics of acmeism, decadent tendencies were clearly expressed, and philosophical idealism remained its theoretical basis. However, among the acmeists there were poets who, in their work, were able to go beyond this “platform” and acquire new ideological and artistic qualities (A. A. Akhmatova, S. M. Gorodetsky, M. A. Zenkevich).
Acmeists considered themselves the heirs of a "worthy father" - symbolism, which, in the words of N. Gumilyov, "... completed its circle of development and is now falling." Approving the bestial, primitive principle (they also called themselves Adamists), the Acmeists continued to “remember the unknowable” and in its name proclaimed any refusal to fight for changing life. “To rebel in the name of other conditions of being here, where there is death,” writes N. Gumilyov in his work “The Heritage of Symbolism and Acmeism,” “is just as strange as a prisoner breaking a wall when there is an open door in front of him.”
S. Gorodetsky also claims the same: “After all the “rejections”, the world is irrevocably accepted by acmeism, in the totality of beauties and ugliness.” Modern man felt like a beast, “devoid of both claws and wool” (M. Zenkevich “Wild Porphyry”), Adam, who “... looked around with the same clear, vigilant eye, accepted everything he saw, and sang hallelujah to life and the world ".
And at that same time, the acmeists constantly sound notes of doom and longing. The work of A. A. Akhmatova (A. A. Gorenko, 1889 - 1966) occupies a special place in the poetry of acmeism. Her first poetry collection "Evening" was published in 1912. Critics immediately noted the distinctive features of her poetry: restraint of intonation, emphasized intimacy of themes, psychologism. Akhmatova's early poetry is deeply lyrical and emotional. With her love for man, faith in his spiritual powers and capabilities, she clearly departed from the acmeist idea of "original Adam." The main part of the work of A. A. Akhmatova falls on the Soviet period.
Acmeists sought to return to the image its living concreteness, objectivity, to free it from mystical encryption, about which O. Mandelstam spoke very angrily, assuring that the Russian symbolists “... sealed all words, all images, destining them exclusively for liturgical use. It turned out to be extremely uncomfortable - neither pass, nor stand up, nor sit down. You can't dine on a table, because it's not just a table. You can’t light a fire, because maybe it means something that you yourself won’t be happy about later. ”
And at the same time, acmeists argue that their images are sharply different from realistic ones, because, in the words of S. Gorodetsky, they "... are born for the first time" "as hitherto unseen, but now real phenomena." This determines the sophistication and peculiar mannerism of the acmeistic image, in whatever deliberate bestial savagery it appears. For example, Voloshin:
People are animals, people are reptiles,
Like a hundred-eyed evil spider,
They entwine their glances."
Significant in its artistic value is the literary heritage of N. S. Gumilyov. His work was dominated by exotic and historical themes, he was a singer of a "strong personality". Gumilyov played a large role in the development of the form of verse, which was distinguished by its sharpness and accuracy.
In vain did the Acmeists dissociate themselves so sharply from the Symbolists. We meet the same "other worlds" and longing for them in their poetry. Thus, N. Gumilyov, who hailed the imperialist war as a “holy” cause, asserting that “seraphim, clear and winged, visible behind the shoulders of warriors,” a year later wrote poems about the end of the world, about the death of civilization:
Monsters are heard peaceful roars,
Suddenly, the rain is pouring down,
And everyone tightens up the fat ones
Light green horsetails.
The once proud and brave conqueror understands the destructiveness of the enmity that has engulfed humanity:
Not all equals? Let the time roll
We understood you, Earth:
You're just a gloomy porter
At the entrance to God's fields.
This explains their rejection of the Great October Socialist Revolution. But their fate was not uniform. Some of them emigrated; N. Gumilyov allegedly "took an active part in the counter-revolutionary conspiracy" and was shot. In the poem "Worker" he predicted his end at the hands of the proletarian, who cast a bullet, "which will separate me from the earth."
And the Lord will reward me in full
For my short and short century.
I did it in a light gray blouse
A short old man.
Such poets as S. Gorodetsky, A. Akhmatova, V. Narbut, M. Zenkevich could not emigrate.
For example, A. Akhmatova, who did not understand and did not accept the revolution, refused to leave her homeland. She did not immediately return to creativity. But the Great Patriotic War again awakened in her a poet, a patriotic poet, confident in the victory of his Motherland (“My-zhestvo”, “Oath”, etc.). A. Akhmatova wrote in her autobiography that for her in verse "... my connection with time, with the new life of my people."
FUTURISM
Simultaneously with acmeism in 1910 - 1912. arose futurism, divided into several groups . Like other modernist currents, it was internally contradictory. The most significant of the futuristic groups, which later received the name of cubo-futurism, united such poets as D. D. Burliuk, V. V. Khlebnikov, A. Kruchenykh, V. V. Kamensky, V. V. Mayakovsky, and some others. A variety of futurism was the ego-futurism of I. Severyanin (I. V. Lotarev, 1887 - 1941). The Soviet poets N. N. Aseev and B. L. Pasternak began their creative career in a group of futurists called "Centrifuge".
Futurism proclaimed a revolution of form, independent of content, the absolute freedom of poetic speech. Futurists abandoned literary traditions. In their manifesto with the shocking title "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste", published in a collection with the same name in 1912, they called for Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy to be thrown off the "Steamboat of Modernity". A. Kruchenykh defended the poet's right to create an "abstruse" language that does not have a specific meaning. In his writings, Russian speech was indeed replaced by a meaningless set of words. However, V. Khlebnikov (1885 - 1922), V.V. Kamensky (1884 - 1961) managed in their creative practice to carry out interesting experiments in the field of the word, which had a beneficial effect on Russian and Soviet poetry.
Among the futurist poets, the creative path of V. V. Mayakovsky (1893 - 1930) began. His first poems appeared in print in 1912. From the very beginning, Mayakovsky stood out in the poetry of Futurism, introducing his own theme into it. He always spoke not only against "all kinds of junk", but also for the creation of a new one in public life.
In the years leading up to the Great October Revolution, Mayakovsky was a passionate revolutionary romantic, an accuser of the realm of the "fat", anticipating a revolutionary thunderstorm. The pathos of denying the entire system of capitalist relations, the humanistic faith in man sounded with great force in his poems "A Cloud in Pants", "Flute-Spine", "War and Peace", "Man". Mayakovsky later defined the theme of the poem "A Cloud in Pants", published in 1915 in a truncated form by censorship, as four cries of "down": "Down with your love!", "Down with your art!", "Down with your system!", " Down with your religion!" He was the first of the poets who showed in his works the truth of the new society.
In the Russian poetry of the pre-revolutionary years there were bright individualities that are difficult to attribute to a particular literary trend. Such are M. A. Voloshin (1877 - 1932) and M. I. Tsvetaeva (1892 - 1941).
Futurism sharply opposed itself not only to the literature of the past, but also to the literature of the present, which entered the world with the desire to overthrow everything and everything. This nihilism manifested itself in external design futuristic collections that were printed on wrapping paper or the reverse side of the wallpaper, and in the titles - "Mare's Milk", "Dead Moon", etc.
In the first collection A Slap in the Face to Public Taste (1912), a declaration signed by D. Burliuk, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov, and V. Mayakovsky was published. In it, the Futurists asserted themselves and only themselves as the only spokesmen for their era. They demanded “Give up Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and so on. and so on. from the Steamboat of our time", they denied at the same time "Balmont's perfumery fornication", talked about the "dirty mucus of books written by the endless Leonid Andreevs", indiscriminately discounted Gorky, Kuprin, Blok, etc.
Rejecting everything, they affirmed "The lightning of the new coming Beauty of the Self-valuable (self-sufficient) Word." Unlike Mayakovsky, they did not try to overthrow the existing system, but only sought to update the forms of reproduction of modern life.
The basis of Italian futurism with his the slogan "war is the only hygiene of the world" in the Russian version was weakened, but, as V. Bryusov notes in the article "The Meaning of Modern Poetry", this ideology "... showed up between the lines, and the masses of readers instinctively shunned this poetry."
“For the first time, the Futurists raised the form to its proper height,” says V. Shershenevich, “giving it the value of an end in itself, the main element of a poetic work. They completely rejected the verses that are written for the idea. This explains the emergence of a huge number of declared formal principles, such as: “In the name of freedom of personal chance, we deny spelling” or “We have destroyed punctuation marks, than the role of the verbal mass is put forward and realized for the first time” (“The Judges' Garden”).
Futurists oppose deliberate de-aestheticization to the emphasized aestheticism of the poetry of the Symbolists and especially the Acmeists. So, in D. Burliuk, “poetry is a frayed girl”, “the soul is a tavern, and the sky is a dud”, in V. Shershenevich “in a spitting park”, a naked woman wants to “squeeze milk out of her saggy breasts”. In the review “The Year of Russian Poetry” (1914), V. Bryusov, noting the deliberate rudeness of the Futurists’ poems, rightly notes: “It is not enough to vilify with swear words everything that was, and everything that is outside your circle, in order to already find something new.” He points out that all their innovations are imaginary, because we met with some of them among the poets of the 18th century, with others at Pushkin and Virgil, that the theory of sounds - colors was developed by T. Gauthier.
It is curious that with all the denials of other trends in art, the futurists feel their continuity from symbolism.
A special place in the literature of the turn of the century was occupied by peasant poets (N. Klyuev, P. Oreshin). Without putting forward a clear aesthetic program, their ideas (combination of religious and mystical motives with the problem of protecting the traditions of peasant culture) they embodied in creativity. With peasant poets, especially with Klyuev, S. Yesenin (1895-1925) was close at the beginning of his journey, combining in his work the traditions of folklore and classical art (collection "Radunitsa", 1916, etc.).
Russian culture on the eve of the Great October Revolution was the result of a complex and long journey. Its distinctive features have always been democracy, high humanism and genuine nationality, despite periods of cruel government reaction, when progressive thought and advanced culture were suppressed in every possible way.
The richest cultural heritage of the pre-revolutionary period, the cultural values created over the centuries constitute the golden fund of our national culture.
Significance of the Silver Age for Russian culture.
The creators of art, who today are attributed to the "Silver Age", are connected by invisible threads with a renewed worldview in the name of freedom of creativity. The development of social conflicts at the turn of the century imperiously demanded a reassessment of values, a change in the foundations of creativity and means of artistic expression. Against this background, artistic styles were born in which the usual meaning of concepts and ideals shifted. "The sun of naive realism has set," A.A. Block. The historical-realistic novel, life-like opera, and genre painting were a thing of the past. In the new art, the world of fiction seems to have diverged from the world of everyday life. Sometimes creativity coincided with religious self-consciousness, gave room for fantasy and mysticism, free soaring of the imagination. The new art, whimsical, mysterious and contradictory, longed for either philosophical depth, or mystical revelations, or knowledge of the vast Universe and the secrets of creativity. Symbolist and futuristic poetry, music that claims to be philosophy, metaphysical and decorative painting, new synthetic ballet, decadent theater, architectural modernity were born.
At first glance, the artistic culture of the "Silver Age" is full of mysteries and contradictions that are difficult to logically analyze. It seems as if numerous artistic movements, creative schools, individual, fundamentally unconventional styles intertwined on a grandiose historical canvas. Symbolism and futurism, acmeism and abstractionism, "world art" and the "New School of Church Singing"... There were much more contrasting, sometimes mutually exclusive artistic trends in those years than in all previous centuries of the development of national culture. However, this versatility of the art of the "Silver Age" does not obscure its integrity, because from the contrasts, as Heraclitus noted, the most beautiful harmony is born.
The unity of the art of the "Silver Age" - in the combination of old and new, outgoing and emerging, in the mutual influence of different types of art on each other, in the interweaving of traditional and innovative. In other words, in the artistic culture of the "Russian Renaissance" there was a unique combination of the realistic traditions of the outgoing 19th century and new artistic trends.
The unifying beginning of the new artistic trends of the "Silver Age" can be considered super-problems that were simultaneously put forward in different types of art. The globality and complexity of these problems is amazing even today.
The most important figurative sphere of poetry, music, painting was determined by the leitmotif of the freedom of the human spirit in the face of Eternity. The image of the Universe, immense, calling, frightening, entered Russian art. Many artists touched the secrets of space, life, death. For some masters, this theme was a reflection of religious feelings, for others - the embodiment of delight and awe before the eternal beauty of Creation.
Artistic experimentation in the era of the "Silver Age" opened the way for new trends in the art of the 20th century. Representatives of the artistic intelligentsia of the Russian Diaspora played a huge role in integrating the achievements of Russian culture into world culture.
After the revolution, many figures of the "Russian cultural Renaissance" found themselves out of the fatherland. Philosophers and mathematicians, poets and musicians, virtuoso performers and directors left. In August 1922, on the initiative of V.I. Lenin was expelled the color of the Russian professorship, including opposition-minded philosophers of world renown: N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, N.0. Lossky, S.L. Frank, L.P. Karsavin, P.A. Sorokin (total 160 people). They left, scattered around the world I.F. Stravinsky and A.N. Benois, M.3. Chagall and V.V. Kandinsky, N.A. Medtner and S.P. Diaghilev, N.S. Goncharov and M.F. Larionov, S.V. Rachmaninov and S.A. Koussevitzky, N.K. Roerich and A.I. Kuprin, I.A. Bunin and F.I. Chaliapin. For many of them, emigration was a forced, essentially tragic choice "between Solovki and Paris." But there were also those who remained, sharing their fate with their people. Today, the names of the "lost Russians" are returning from the "zone of oblivion". This process is difficult, since over the decades many names have disappeared from memory, memoirs and priceless manuscripts have disappeared, archives and personal libraries have been sold.
Thus, the brilliant "Silver Age" ended with a mass exodus of its creators from Russia. However, the "disintegrated connection of times" did not destroy the great Russian culture, the multifaceted, antinomic development of which continued to mirror the contradictory, sometimes mutually exclusive trends in the history of the 20th century.
The Silver Age is usually called the period of development of Russian culture at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The term itself is applicable only to Russian culture; in the West and East, other definitions are used to refer to this period, for example, in France “belle-epoque” or modernism in English-speaking countries. Most often, speaking of the Silver Age, they mean artistic culture and mainly poetry.
The Silver Age is named after the Golden Age, the period early XIX century, when Pushkin and poets-lyceum students worked. In addition, the Silver Age is associated not with the flourishing of culture, as such, but rather with its decline, the era of decadence and nostalgia for bygone times.
Not all poets and artists who lived and worked during this period can be attributed to the culture of the Silver Age, in addition, many of those who are considered a classic representative of the Silver Age continued their creative career after its completion.
Most famous poets The Silver Age are: A. Akhmatova, N. Gumilyov, A. Blok, K. Balmont, M. Voloshin, M. Tsvetaeva, V. Bryusov, A. Bely, I. Severyanin, B. Pasternak, I. Annensky, etc. d.
The author of the term Silver Age is considered to be the philosopher N. Berdyaev, who, speaking of the period between the two centuries, called it the Russian Renaissance. Here is what the philosopher writes about him in his work “Self-Knowledge” (Berdyaev N. A. Self-Knowledge (the experience of a philosophical autobiography). - M, 1990): “Now it is difficult to imagine the atmosphere of that time. Much of the creative upsurge of that time entered into the further development of Russian culture and is now the property of all Russian cultured people. But then there was an intoxication with a creative upsurge, novelty, tension, struggle, challenge. During these years, many gifts were sent to Russia. This was the era of the awakening of independent philosophical thought in Russia, the flowering of poetry and the sharpening of aesthetic sensibility, religious anxiety and quest, interest in mysticism and the occult. New souls appeared, new sources of creative life were discovered, new dawns were seen, the feeling of decline and death was combined with the hope of the transformation of life. But everything happened in a rather vicious circle ... ".
N. Berdyaev Photo 1912
The culture of the Silver Age was essentially an elitist and intellectual culture, not designed for the mass reader. However, at that time the concept of mass literature did not exist at all. In this regard, it is impossible to apply the concept of the Silver Age to the entire Russian culture of this period. Therefore, some researchers warn against considering the Silver Age only as a chronological period, according to formal features.
The Silver Age is rather a way of thinking characteristic of certain poets and philosophers, who often argued among themselves and were carriers of completely opposite views. However, all this controversy, creative searches, the socio-political context in which they essentially took place and formed that specific atmosphere that is commonly called the Silver Age today, and which Berdyaev’s words quoted above so capaciously characterize.
At the turn of the century in Russian artistic culture, in particular in literature, a new artistic direction emerged - modernism. This was a global trend, since modernism is characteristic of both European and American cultures. Modern was a natural result of the search for a new way of knowing the world around us. Part of the Russian intelligentsia believed that it was possible to have a direct, naive view of nature. Rejecting the analysis of social relations and the complexity of the human psyche, this part sought solace in the "quiet poetry of everyday life." The other part believed that art should strive for the intensity of feelings and passions, that the artistic image in art should become a symbol that gives rise to complex associations. Symbolism arose as an artistic trend in Russian poetry. Its features appeared in the works of such symbolists of the early 20th century as V. Bryusov, A. Blok, Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely. Their credo: the material world is only a mask through which another world of the spirit shines through. Images of a mask, a mysterious stranger, a beautiful lady often appear in the poetry and prose of the Symbolists. The surrounding world in their works is depicted as something illusory, chaotic, as an inferior reality in relation to the world of ideas.
The onset of the Silver Age is strongly associated with the Symbolists. Indeed, culturologists propose to consider the beginning of this era in 1892, when the ideologist and oldest member of the Symbolist movement D. Merezhkovsky read the report “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature.” So for the first time the Symbolists declared themselves, so the Silver Age debuted.
From left to right: D. Filosofov, Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky
Early 20th century It was an era of prosperity for the Symbolists, but by the 1910s, crisis phenomena were ripe in it. The attempt of the Symbolists to lead the literary movement and dominate the artistic consciousness of the era failed. In society, the question again arises about the relationship of art to reality, about the meaning and place of art in the development of Russian national history and culture.
Saint Petersburg. Photo from the 1900s
The mood of pessimism, which intensified in society after the defeat of the revolution of 1905, was clearly manifested in the poetry of acmeists and futurists, in particular in the works of L. Andreev, N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova. The prose writers I. Bunin and A. Kuprin, who wrote in a realistic manner, introduced new forms of romanticism into literature.
In his famous article “The Heritage of Symbolism and Acmeism, N. Gumilyov wrote (Gumilev N. The Heritage of Symbolism and Acmeism // Gumilev N. Favorites. - M., 2001): “A new direction is replacing symbolism, no matter how it is called acmeism ( from the word acme ("acme") the highest degree of something, color, blooming time), or adamism (a courageously firm and clear outlook on life), in any case, requiring a greater balance of power and a more accurate knowledge of the relationship between subject and object, than it was in symbolism. In such a naming of themselves, the desire of the acmeists themselves to comprehend the heights of literary skill is reflected. Symbolism was very closely connected with acmeism, which its ideologists constantly emphasized, starting from symbolism in their ideas.
The traditions of the Symbolists, which laid the foundation for the Silver Age, were also reflected in painting, in particular in the work of artists M. Vrubel, V. Serov (itinerant artist), K. A. Korovin, N. K. Roerich and many others.
The Swan Princess. Hood. M. Vrubel, 1900, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Art Nouveau dominated this century in painting, sculpture and architecture. This was the name given to the modern style in European and American art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is distinguished by the poetics of symbolism, high discipline of composition, emphasized aestheticism in the interpretation of utilitarian details, the decorative rhythm of flexible, flowing lines, passion for social and romantic motives, emphasis on the individuality of the artist.
During the Silver Age in painting, instead of a realistic method of directly reflecting reality in the forms of this reality, the priority of artistic forms that reflect reality only indirectly is asserted. The polarization of artistic forces at the beginning of the 20th century, the controversy of multiple artistic groups intensified exhibition and publishing (in the field of art) activities.
Genre painting in the 90s of the XIX century. loses its leading role. In search of new themes, artists turn to changes in the traditional way of life, which they themselves observe. Industrialization, which is replacing traditional agrarian relations, is reflected in artistic creativity. Artists are attracted by the theme of the split of the peasant community, the prose of stupefying labor and the revolutionary events of 1905. The blurring of boundaries between genres at the turn of the century in the historical theme led to the emergence of the historical genre. For example, the artist A.P. Ryabushkin was not interested in global historical events, and the aesthetics of Russian life of the 17th century, the refined beauty of ancient Russian ornament, emphasized decorativeness (Rapatskaya L.A. Russian artistic culture. - M., 1993).
They're coming! (The people of Moscow during the entry of a foreign embassy into Moscow at the end of the 17th century) Hood. A. P. Ryabushkin, 1901, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
In the philosophy of the Silver Age, there is a tendency towards cosmism, which means the desire for knowledge of man in his unity with the Universe, the activity of his spiritual world. Philosophers who adhere to this trend presented the Universe as a living organism, as an animated integral system, and spoke about the impossibility of separating the natural and the spiritual. Within the framework of the philosophy of the Silver Age and under the relentless influence of symbolism, the meaning of the theory of evolution was rethought, since it did not affect the spiritual essence of man.
Among the philosophers of the Silver Age, there were several directions: philosophical and theological, the brightest representatives of which were V. S. Solovyov and N. F. Fedorov; natural science, which was defended by A. L. Chizhevsky, V. I. Vernadsky and K. E. Tsiolkovsky; artistic, inspired by N. K. Roerich.
Theater and music at the turn of the century in Russia are also marked by the seal of the Silver Age. major event was the opening in Moscow art theater in 1898, founded by K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. In staging plays by Chekhov and Gorky, new principles of acting, directing, and design of performances were formed. An outstanding theatrical experiment, enthusiastically received by the democratic public, was not accepted by conservative criticism, as well as representatives of symbolism. V. Bryusov, a supporter of the aesthetics of a conventional symbolic theater, was closer to the experiments of V.E. Meyerhold - the founder of the metaphorical theater (Balakina T.I. History of Russian culture. Part 2. -M., 1994).
The building of the Moscow Art Theater in Kamergersky Lane. Photo 1900s
In 1904, the theater of V. F. Komissarzhevskaya arose in St. Petersburg, the repertoire of which reflected the aspirations of the democratic intelligentsia. E. B. Vakhtangov's directorial work is marked by the search for new forms, his productions of 1911-12. are joyful and entertaining. In 1915, Vakhtangov created the 3rd studio of the Moscow Art Theater, which later became the theater named after him (1926).
The building of the Komissarzhevskaya theater in St. Petersburg. Photo 1900s
Development of the best traditions musical theater associated with the St. Petersburg Mariinsky and Moscow Bolshoi Theaters, as well as with the private opera of S. I. Mamontov and S. I. Zimin in Moscow. The most prominent representatives of the Russian vocal school, world-class singers, true children of the Silver Age, were F. I. Chaliapin, L. V. Sobinov, N. V. Nezhdanova. Reformers ballet theater became choreographer M. M. Fokin and ballerina A. P. Pavlova. Russian musical art began to recognize and admire him all over the world.
Fyodor Chaliapin
The outstanding composer N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov continued to work in his favorite genre of fairy-tale opera. The highest example of realistic drama was his opera The Tsar's Bride (1898). In the work of composers of the Silver Age, there was a departure from social realistic issues, an increased interest in philosophical and ethical problems, in cosmism, the ideas of which occupied not only philosophers, but the entire layer of cultural relations of the era. This found its fullest expression in the work of brilliant pianist and conductor outstanding composer S. V. Rachmaninov; in the emotionally intense music of A. N. Scriabin, with sharp features of modernism; in the works of I. F. Stravinsky, which harmoniously combined interest in folklore and the most modern musical forms (Grushevitskaya T. G., Sadokhin A. P. Culturology. Textbook. 3rd ed. - M .: Unity, 2010).
The unity and integrity of the concept of the Silver Age and all Russian culture related to it lies in the combination of old and new, outgoing and emerging, in the mutual influence of different types of art, in the interweaving of traditions and innovation. In fact, the Russian Renaissance combined the realistic traditions of the 19th century, the outgoing, and the new directions of the nascent century - the 20th.
The Silver Age did not abolish realism in the general palette of Russian cultural creativity. It was in the era of the Silver Age that the later creations of L. N. Tolstoy (“Resurrection”, “The Living Corpse”), theatrical dramaturgy of A. P. Chekhov (“The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”), the works of V. G. Korolenko, V. V. Veresaeva, A. I. Kuprin, I. A. Bunin, early works of M. Gorky. Realist artists were also present on the cultural canvas of the Silver Age - Repin and Surikov wrote their works and exhibited everywhere. Rather, we can say that the Silver Age enriched the traditions of realism, giving them a new direction, which placed at the forefront a person with his spiritual quest and suffering.
In conclusion, it makes sense to say a few words about the impact that the culture of the Silver Age had on the further development of culture and, in general, to determine its cultural significance.
The culture of the Silver Age was the final stage in the formation and development of the Russian nation, which only by the end of the 19th century. acquired signs of an integral ethnic community. Russian national culture, the heyday of which was the Silver Age, played a consolidating role in the multinational Russian Empire which later became the Soviet Republic.
The upheaval that occurred in Russia at the turn of the century affected primarily its cultural and spiritual life. Artists, poets and philosophers of the Silver Age hastened to draw attention to man, to his place in the world and to the relationship that permeates all living space (cosmism), reducing attention to the problem of sociality. They certainly succeeded, since the era of the turn of the century is considered the heyday of Russian art and culture and can only be compared in scale with Pushkin's Golden Age.
The delimitation of creative forces provided the Silver Age with a wide variety of artistic activity, which did not stop even after its completion. And this is the defining influence of the Silver Age on the development of all subsequent socio-cultural activities. Artists in all areas of art became crowded within the established classical rules. All this led to the creation of new trends: symbolism, acmeism, futurism, cubism, abstractionism, etc. The artist of the universal type has become and remains the ideal of the time.
Chelyabinsk State Academy of Culture and Arts
Department of History
SILVER AGE OF RUSSIAN CULTURE
Chelyabinsk 2011
Introduction
1 The concept of "Silver Age"
2 Russian culture at the turn of the century
Chapter 3 Science
2 Humanities
Chapter 4. Philosophy
Chapter 5. Literature
1 Realistic direction
2 Russian modernism
3 Symbolism
4 Acmeism
5 Futurism
Chapter 6
2 Other theaters in Russia
Chapter 7. Ballet
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11 Architecture
Chapter 12. Sculpture
Chapter 13
Conclusion
Introduction
The work of the poets of the Silver Age has always attracted my attention. Getting acquainted with the works of brilliant creators of this era, I became interested in how art developed in addition to literature at such a difficult, critical moment in history. In order to study this issue in as much detail as possible, a research work was carried out on the topic “The Silver Age of Russian Culture”.
To better understand the art created during the Silver Age, it is necessary to know the historical background for the creation of great works. This is the significance of studying this topic. Based on the analysis of historical literature, one can determine the aspirations of artists of that time. Their work is still relevant. The poetry of the Silver Age touched on eternal themes that excite modern readers. Elements of the architectural style "modern" find their echoes in modern design. The cinema that is so beloved now was born precisely at the beginning of the 20th century. The discoveries made during that period served as the basis for the development of modern sciences. All this suggests that interest in the art of the Silver Age has not yet been lost.
The "Join of the Ages" turned out to be a favorable basis for the period called the "Silver Age" of Russian culture. The "century" did not last long - about twenty years, but it gave the world wonderful examples of philosophical thought, demonstrated the life and melody of poetry, resurrected the ancient Russian icon, gave impetus to new areas of painting, music, and theatrical art. The Silver Age became the time of the formation of the Russian avant-garde.
The period of "transitional" cultures is always dramatic, and the relationship between the traditional, classical culture of the past is always complex and contradictory - familiar, familiar, but no longer arousing much interest, and the emerging culture of a new type, so new that its manifestations are incomprehensible and sometimes cause a negative reaction. . This is natural: in the minds, the change of types of cultures occurs quite painfully. The complexity of the situation is largely determined by the change in value orientations, ideals of the norms of spiritual culture. The old values have fulfilled their function, played their roles, there are no new values yet. They just add up and the stage remains empty.
In Russia, the difficulty lay in the fact that public consciousness took shape under conditions that made the situation even more dramatic. Post-reform Russia was moving to new forms of economic relations. Traditional ties are torn, the process of marginalization captures more and more people. The Russian intelligentsia turned out to be almost helpless in the face of the new demands of political development: a multi-party system inevitably developed, and real practice was far ahead of the theoretical understanding of the principles of the new political culture. Russian culture as a whole is losing one of the fundamental principles of its existence - the feeling of the unity of a person with another person and social group.
In 1894, Emperor Nicholas II ascended the throne, who announced his intention to follow the conservative course of his father, Alexander III, and called on the public to abandon meaningless dreams on the expansion of the rights of local governments and the introduction of any forms of popular representation. Early 20th century was marked by the rise of the mass workers' and peasants' movement. The aggravation of socio-political contradictions in Russia was aggravated by the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. By the end of 1904, the country was on the verge of revolution.
Old noble Russia was hopelessly dilapidated. The ancient building was about to collapse. Those who are not lucky will die under the rubble, those who are lucky will remain homeless. Many have felt this. And this feeling penetrated into all aspects of the spiritual life of Russia - from science to religion.
People who retained a simple and clear worldview of the 19th century (primarily socialists, as well as extreme conservatives) did not understand this mood, they branded it as “decadent” (decadent). But, strangely enough, it was this mood that prompted a new rise in Russian culture at the beginning of the century. And another paradox: in the achievements of the culture of the early XX century. the smallest contribution was made by those “optimists” who exposed the “decadents”.
The Silver Age occupies a very special place in Russian culture. This contradictory time of spiritual searches and wanderings significantly enriched all kinds of arts and philosophy and gave rise to a whole galaxy of outstanding creative personalities. On the threshold of a new century, the deep foundations of life began to change, giving rise to the collapse of the old picture of the world. The traditional regulators of existence - religion, morality, law - could not cope with their functions, and the age of modernity was born.
However, it is sometimes said that the Silver Age is a Westernizing phenomenon. Indeed, he chose as his guidelines the aestheticism of Oscar Wilde, the individualistic spiritualism of Alfred de Vigny, the pessimism of Schopenhauer, the superman of Nietzsche. The Silver Age found its ancestors and allies in various countries of Europe and in different centuries: Villon, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Novalis, Shelley, Calderon, Ibsen, Maeterlinck, d'Annuzio, Gauthier, Baudelaire, Verharne.
In other words, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries there was a reassessment of values from the standpoint of Europeanism. But in the light of the new era, which was the exact opposite of the one that it replaced, the national, literary and folklore treasures appeared in a different, brighter than ever light. Truly, it was the most creative era in Russian history, a canvas of greatness and impending troubles of holy Russia.
This period in the development of Russian culture is associated with an upsurge in all spheres of the spiritual life of Russian society: hence the term "spiritual renaissance". The revival of the best traditions of Russian culture in the widest range: from science, philosophical thought, literature, painting, music and ending with the art of theater, architecture, arts and crafts.
How did culture reach such heights in its development at the most critical, most critical and most terrible moment in the history of Russia? The answer to this question is the aim of the work. Based on the goal, the research objectives were defined:
.Explore historical literature on this topic
2.Analyze the information received in terms of the question posed
.Having critically comprehended the material, develop your own view of the problem
.Draw appropriate conclusions based on the study.
.Answer the question posed at the beginning of the study
Chapter 1. The Silver Age of Russian Culture
1 The concept of "Silver Age"
Early 20th century - a turning point not only in the political and socio-economic life of Russia, but also in the spiritual state of society. The industrial era dictated its own conditions and norms of life, destroying the traditional values and ideas of people. The aggressive onslaught of production led to a violation of the harmony between nature and man, to the smoothing of human individuality, to the triumph of standardization of all aspects of life. This gave rise to confusion, a disturbing sense of impending disaster. All the ideas of good and evil, truth and falsehood, beauty and ugliness that previous generations had suffered through, now seemed untenable and required an urgent and radical revision.
The processes of rethinking the fundamental problems of mankind have affected, to one degree or another, philosophy, science, literature, and art. And although such a situation was typical not only for our country, in Russia spiritual quests were more painful, more piercing than in the countries of Western civilization. The flowering of culture during this period was unprecedented. He covered all kinds creative activity, gave rise to outstanding works of art and scientific discoveries, new areas of creative research, opened a galaxy of brilliant names that have become the pride of not only Russian, but also world culture, science and technology. This socio-cultural phenomenon went down in history under the name of the Silver Age of Russian culture. For the first time this name was proposed by the philosopher N. Berdyaev, who saw in the highest achievements of the culture of his contemporaries a reflection of the Russian glory of the previous "golden" eras, but this phrase finally entered the literary circulation in the 60s of the last century.
1.2 Russian culture at the turn of the century
russian culture silver age
Russian culture of the late XIX - early XX centuries is a complex and controversial period in the development of Russian society. The culture of the turn of the century always contains elements of a transitional era, which includes the traditions of the culture of the past and the innovative tendencies of a new emerging culture. There is a transfer of traditions and not just a transfer, but the emergence of new ones. All this is connected with the turbulent process of searching for new ways of developing culture, social development given time. The turn of the century in Russia is a period of major changes brewing: a change in the political system, a change in the classical culture of the 19th century to new culture XX century. The search for new ways of developing Russian culture is associated with the assimilation of progressive trends Western culture. The diversity of directions and schools is a feature of Russian culture at the turn of the century. Western trends are intertwined and complemented by modern ones, filled with specifically Russian content. A feature of the culture of this period is its orientation towards the philosophical understanding of life, the need to build a holistic picture of the world, where art, along with science, plays a huge role. The focus of Russian culture of the late 19th - early 20th centuries was a person who becomes a kind of connecting link in the motley variety of schools and areas of science and art, on the one hand, and a kind of starting point for analyzing all the most diverse cultural artifacts, on the other. Hence the powerful philosophical foundation that underlies Russian culture at the turn of the century.
Chapter 2. Education and enlightenment
In 1897 the All-Russian population census was carried out. According to the census, in Russia the average literacy rate was 21.1%: for men - 29.3%, for women - 13.1%, about 1% of the population had higher and secondary education. IN high school, in relation to the entire literate population, only 4% studied. At the turn of the century, the education system still included three levels: primary (parochial schools, public schools), secondary (classical gymnasiums, real and commercial schools) and higher education (universities, institutes).
In 1905, the Ministry of Public Education submitted a draft law "On the introduction of universal primary education in the Russian Empire" for consideration by the II State Duma, but this draft never received the force of law. But the growing need for specialists contributed to the development of higher, especially technical, education. In 1912, there were 16 higher technical educational institutions in Russia, in addition to private higher educational institutions. The university admitted persons of both sexes, regardless of nationality and political views. Therefore, the number of students increased markedly - from 14 thousand in the mid-90s to 35.3 thousand in 1907. Women's higher education also received further development, and in 1911 women's right to higher education was legally recognized.
Simultaneously with Sunday schools, new types of cultural and educational institutions for adults began to operate - work courses, educational workers' societies and people's houses - original clubs with a library, an assembly hall, a tea shop and a trading shop.
The development of the periodical press and book publishing had a great influence on education. In the 1860s, 7 daily newspapers were published and about 300 printing houses were operating. In the 1890s - 100 newspapers and about 1000 printing houses. And in 1913, 1263 newspapers and magazines were already published, and in the cities there were approximately 2 thousand bookstores.
In terms of the number of published books, Russia ranked third in the world after Germany and Japan. In 1913, 106.8 million copies of books were published in Russian alone. The largest book publishers A.S. Suvorin in St. Petersburg and I.D. Sytin in Moscow contributed to the familiarization of the people with literature, releasing books at affordable prices: Suvorin’s “cheap library” and Sytin’s “self-education library”.
The educational process was intense and successful, and the number of the reading public increased rapidly. This is evidenced by the fact that at the end of the XIX century. there were about 500 public libraries and about 3 thousand zemstvo folk reading rooms, and already in 1914 in Russia there were about 76 thousand different public libraries.
Chapter 3 Science
1 World contribution of Russian science
the century brings significant success in the development of domestic science: it claims to be equal to Western European, and sometimes even superior. It is impossible not to mention a number of works by Russian scientists that led to world-class achievements. DI. Mendeleev in 1869 discovered the periodic table of chemical elements. A.G. Stoletov in 1888-1889. establishes the laws of the photoelectric effect. In 1863, the work of I.M. Sechenov "Reflexes of the brain". K.A. Timiryazev founded the Russian school of plant physiology. P.N. Yablochkov creates an arc light bulb, A.N. Lodygin - an incandescent light bulb. A.S. Popov invents the radiotelegraph. A.F. Mozhaisky and N.E. Zhukovsky laid the foundations of aviation with his research in the field of aerodynamics, and K.E. Tsiolkovsky is known as the founder of astronautics. P.N. Lebedev is the founder of research in the field of ultrasound. I.I. Mechnikov explores the field of comparative pathology, microbiology and immunology. The foundations of the new sciences - biochemistry, biogeochemistry, radiogeology - were laid by V.I. Vernadsky. And this is not a complete list of people who have made an invaluable contribution to the development of science and technology. The significance of scientific foresight and a number of fundamental scientific problems posed by scientists at the beginning of the century is only now becoming clear.
2 Humanities
The humanities were greatly influenced by the processes taking place in the natural sciences. Scientists in the humanities, like V.O. Klyuchevsky, S.F. Platonov, S.A. Vengerov and others, fruitfully worked in the field of economics, history, and literary criticism. Idealism has become widespread in philosophy. Russian religious philosophy, with its search for ways to combine the material and the spiritual, the assertion of a "new" religious consciousness, was perhaps the most important area not only of science, ideological struggle, but of the whole culture.
The foundations of the religious and philosophical Renaissance, which marked the Silver Age of Russian culture, were laid by V.S. Solovyov. His system is an experience of the synthesis of religion, philosophy and science, and it is not the Christian doctrine that is enriched by him at the expense of philosophy, but vice versa: he introduces Christian ideas into philosophy and enriches and fertilizes philosophical thought with them. Possessing a brilliant literary talent, he made philosophical problems accessible to wide circles of Russian society, moreover, he brought Russian thought to the universal spaces.
Chapter 4. Philosophy
1 In search of a social ideal
Russia's entry into the new era was accompanied by a search for an ideology capable of not only explaining the changes that were taking place, but also outlining the prospects for the country's development. The most popular philosophical theory in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was Marxism. He bribed with his logic, apparent simplicity, and most importantly - versatility. In addition, Marxism had fertile ground in Russia in the form of the revolutionary tradition of the Russian intelligentsia and the originality of the Russian national character with his thirst for justice and equality, a penchant for messianism (belief in the coming of a savior, messiah).
However, part of the Russian intelligentsia very soon became disillusioned with Marxism, in its unconditional recognition of the primacy of material life over spiritual life. And after the revolution of 1905, the revolutionary principle of the reorganization of society was also revised.
2 Russian religious renaissance
The Russian religious revival of the early 20th century is represented by such philosophers and thinkers as N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, P.B. Struve, S.L. Frank, P.A. Florensky, S.N. and E.N. Trubetskoy. The first four, who are the central figures of God-seeking, went through a difficult path of spiritual evolution. They started out as Marxists, materialists and social democrats. By the beginning of the 20th century, they made a turn from Marxism and materialism to idealism, significantly limited the possibilities of a scientific explanation of the world and switched to liberalism. This was evidenced by their articles published in the collection Problems of Idealism (1902).
After the revolution of 1905-1907. their evolution was completed and they finally established themselves as religious thinkers. They expressed their new views in the collection Milestones (1909). S. Bulgakov became a priest.
The authors of the collection presented a cruel account of the Russian intelligentsia, accusing it of dogmatism, of adherence to obsolete philosophical teachings XIX century, in ignorance of modern philosophy, in nihilism, in low legal consciousness, in isolation from the people, in atheism, in oblivion and scolding of Russian history, etc. All these negative qualities, in their opinion, led to the fact that it was Russian the intelligentsia was the main instigator of the revolution, which brought the country to the brink of a national catastrophe. The Vekhi people concluded that the ideas of revolutionary transformation in Russia had no prospects, that social progress in the country was possible only through gradual, evolutionary changes, which must begin with the development of new religious and moral ideals based on Christian teaching. Russian religious philosophers believed that the official Orthodox Church, which had become too tied to the autocratic state, could not assume the role of the savior of Russian souls.
The concept of the Russian religious revival was the fruit of understanding the centuries-old history of Russia and the West. In many ways, it became a continuation and development of Slavophilism. Therefore, it can be defined as a new Slavophilism. It was also the development of the ideas and views of N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy and V.S. Solovyov.
N.V. Gogol influenced the representatives of God-seeking primarily with his book "Selected passages from correspondence with friends", where he reflects on the historical fate of Russia and calls for Christian self-deepening and self-improvement. As for F. M. Dostoevsky, his very life was an instructive example for the supporters of religious revival. The passion for the revolution had tragic consequences for the writer, so he devoted his work to the search for Christian ways to human unity and brotherhood. In this he saw the peculiarity of the Russian way.
Many ideas, and especially the doctrine of non-violence by Leo Tolstoy, were also consonant with the views of representatives of the religious renaissance. The teaching of Vl. Solovyov about unity, about Sophia - the World Soul and Eternal Femininity, about the final victory of unity and goodness over enmity and disintegration form the common spiritual basis of Russian religious revival and Russian modernism - especially symbolism. It is Vl. Solovyov developed the concept of the revival of Russia on Christian foundations. He devoted his life to the tireless struggle against the hostile attitude of the intelligentsia towards the Church, for overcoming the gap between them, called for mutual reconciliation.
Developing the ideas of their predecessors, representatives of the religious revival are very critical of the Western path of development. In their opinion, the West gives a clear preference for civilization to the detriment of culture. He concentrated his efforts on the external arrangement of being, on the creation of railways and communications, comfort and conveniences of life. At the same time, the inner world, the human soul, fell into oblivion and desolation. Hence the triumph of atheism, rationalism and utilitarianism. It is these aspects, as the representatives of God-seeking note, that were adopted by the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia. In its struggle for the welfare and happiness of the people, its liberation, she chose radical means: revolution, violence, destruction and terror.
Supporters of the religious renaissance saw in the revolution of 1905-1907. a serious threat to the future of Russia, they perceived it as the beginning of a national catastrophe. Therefore, they turned to the radical intelligentsia with a call to renounce revolution and violence as a means of fighting for social justice, to abandon Western atheistic socialism and non-religious anarchism, to recognize the need to establish the religious and philosophical foundations of the worldview, to reconcile with the renewed Orthodox Church.
They saw the salvation of Russia in the restoration of Christianity as the foundation of all culture, in the revival and affirmation of the ideals and values of religious humanism. The path to solving the problems of social life for them lay through personal self-improvement and personal responsibility. Therefore, they considered the development of a doctrine of personality to be the main task. As the eternal ideals and values of man, representatives of God-seeking considered holiness, beauty, truth and goodness, understanding them in a religious and philosophical sense. God was the highest and absolute value.
For all its attractiveness, the concept of religious revival was not flawless and invulnerable. While rightly reproaching the revolutionary intelligentsia for its tilt towards the external, material conditions of life, the representatives of God-seeking went to the other extreme, proclaiming the unconditional primacy of the spiritual principle.
Forgetfulness of material interests made a person's path to his happiness no less problematic and utopian. As applied to Russia, the question of the socio-economic conditions of life was of exceptional acuteness. Meanwhile, the locomotive of the history of the Western type has long been on the territory of Russia. Picking up speed, he rushed through its vast expanses. To stop it or change its direction, huge efforts and significant changes in the structure of society were required.
The call for the rejection of revolution and violence needed support, in the counter movement from the official authorities and the ruling elite. Unfortunately, all the steps taken in this regard did not fully meet historical requirements. The authorities did not feel the urgent need for change, they showed unshakable conservatism, they wanted to preserve the Middle Ages at any cost.
In particular, Tsar Nicholas II, being a highly educated person who knew five foreign languages, who had a delicate aesthetic taste, was at the same time, in his views, a completely medieval man. He was deeply and sincerely convinced that the social structure existing in Russia was the best and did not need any serious renovation. Hence the half-heartedness and inconsistency in the implementation of reforms. Hence the distrust of such reformers as S.Yu. Witte and P.A. Stolypin. The royal family focused its main attention on the problem of the health of the heir, for the solution of which they surrounded themselves with very dubious personalities like G. Rasputin. The outbreak of the First World War further aggravated the situation.
On the whole, it can be said that extreme radicalism was to a certain extent generated by extreme conservatism. At the same time, the social base of opposition to the existing state of affairs was very broad. The revolutionary version of resolving urgent problems and contradictions was shared not only by radical movements, but also by more moderate ones. Therefore, the appeal of the supporters of religious revival to embark on the Christian path of solving acute life issues did not find the desired support.
The release of the collection "Milestones" aroused great interest. It went through five editions in just one year. During the same time, more than 200 responses appeared in the press, five collections devoted to the discussion of the problems of "Vekhi" were published. However, the vast majority of reviews were negative. The new God-seekers were opposed not only by revolutionaries and the left opposition, but also by many right-wingers, including liberals. In particular, the leader of the Kadet party, P.N.
It should be noted that even in the Church-Orthodox circles there was no real and sufficiently wide counter movement. The Holy Synod at first supported the events held in 1901-1903. religious and philosophical meetings, and then banned them. The church was rather wary of many of the new ideas of the participants in the religious revival, doubted their sincerity, and considered criticism undeserved and painful.
In the course of meetings, a complete difference in the views of representatives of the secular and ecclesiastical worlds was often revealed, and some participants in the meetings only assured themselves of their mutual negative assessments. Thus, the reaction of contemporaries showed that the spokesmen for the religious and philosophical revival were far ahead of their time. However, their initiatives and appeals were not in vain. They contributed to the revival of spiritual life, increased the interest of the intelligentsia in the Church and Christianity.
Chapter 5. Literature
1 Realistic direction
Realistic trend in Russian literature at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. continued L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, who created his best works, the theme of which was the ideological search of the intelligentsia and the "little" man with his daily worries, and young writers I.A. Bunin and A.I. Kuprin.
In connection with the spread of neo-romanticism, new artistic qualities appeared in realism, reflecting reality. The best realistic works of A.M. Gorky reflected a broad picture of Russian life at the turn of the 20th century with its inherent peculiarity of economic development and ideological and social struggle.
The beginning of the revolutionary upsurge was marked by the desire to institutionalize the unity of realist writers. Created in 1899 in Moscow by N. Teleshov, the literary community Sreda became one of the centers of such rallying. Bunin, Serafimovich, Veresaev, Gorky, Andreev became members of the community. Meetings of Sreda were attended by Chekhov, Korolenko, Mamin-Sibiryak, Chaliapin, Levitan, Vasnetsov.
It is very important that in the culture of the beginning of the century the philosophical and ethical problem is extremely acute: what does a person need - a sweet lie or a harsh truth? It has long excited various thinkers and artists, and has been actively discussed in the last century. This theme sounds in the Gorky drama "At the Bottom" and forms a certain moral ideal of the time. The meaning of such an ideal is to find God in oneself, the inner self-improvement of the individual. The search for a new value orientation in the system of behavior, the priority of the personal principle, runs like a red thread through L. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" and A. Kuprin's "Duel".
At the beginning of the century, L. Andreev occupied a special place in the system of artistic culture. His philosophical criticism, turning from a criticism of the social situation into a criticism of being in general, is saturated with a kind of "cosmic pessimism". The growing notes of unbelief, despair and the related emergence in his work of elements of expressionism (fr. expression - expression, expressiveness) make L. Andreev related to the writers of Russian modernism (fr. modern - modern).
2 Russian modernism
Russian modernism became an important spiritual phenomenon of the Silver Age. It is part of the spiritual renaissance and embodies the Russian artistic revival. Like the religious renaissance, modernism set itself the task of reviving the self-worth and self-sufficiency of art, freeing it from a social, political or any other service role. He spoke out both against utilitarianism in the approach to art and against academicism, believing that in the first case, art dissolves into some non-artistic and non-aesthetic useful function: it must enlighten, educate, educate, inspire great deeds and deeds, and thereby justify their existence; in the second case, it ceases to be alive, loses its inner meaning.
From the point of view of modernism, art must move away from these two indicated extremes. It must be art for art's sake, "pure" art! Its purpose is to solve its internal problems, to search for new forms, new techniques and means of expression. His competence includes the inner spiritual world of a person, the sphere of feelings and passions, intimate experiences, etc.
Russian modernism has noticeable differences from the religious renaissance. If the latter gravitated toward Slavophilism, was preoccupied with the search for and preservation of Russian identity, then the former embraced the Europeanized part of the Russian intelligentsia. This is especially true of Russian symbolism, which arose under the direct influence of Western symbolism! Like Western, Russian modernism is marked by decadence and decadence. Many of its representatives were fond of mysticism, magic, the occult, fashionable religious sects. In general, Russian modernism is a complex, heterogeneous and contradictory phenomenon.
Russian modernism is a natural phenomenon, caused by the deep processes of Russian culture. Ripe questions further development Russian literature, fundamentally focused on three problems: attitude to the traditions of Russian literature, the definition of the novelty of content and form, the definition of a general aesthetic worldview. There was a need to find guidelines for the development of literature.
3 Symbolism
Russian literature of the beginning of the 20th century. gave rise to remarkable poetry and the most significant direction was symbolism. Russian symbolism arose at the turn of the 80s - 90s. 19th century and realized himself as a leading ideological-artistic and religious-philosophical trend. It absorbed all the achievements of the culture of the turn of the century, and therefore largely determined the largest philosophical, artistic and also indirectly scientific and socio-political achievements of the Silver Age, including the artistic avant-garde, Russian religious philosophy, for example, Russian cosmism. Symbolism in Russia claimed to perform universal, ideological functions in the social and cultural life of Russia (unlike French, German or Scandinavian symbolism, which remained literary and artistic phenomena).
The idea of synthesis of art, philosophy, the creation of a holistic style - became the apotheosis of Russian symbolism. It was this quality that distinguished him from other national types of symbolism. Unlike Western European symbolism, which evolved in the 1920s into expressionism, surrealism, etc., Russian symbolism formed the basis for post-symbolist phenomena of Russian culture, such as avant-garde, acmeism, turned into neoclassicism and futurism, which became one of the most important trends in revolutionary culture in together with typologically close phenomena - Imagism and constructivism.
For symbolists who believed in the existence of another world, the symbol was his sign, and represented the connection between the two worlds. One of the ideologists of symbolism D.S. Merezhkovsky, whose novels are permeated with religious and mystical ideas, considered the predominance of realism to be the main reason for the decline of literature, and proclaimed symbols, mystical content, as the basis of a new art. Russian symbolism asserted itself persistently and, according to many critics, suddenly. In 1892, an article by Dmitry Merezhkovsky “On the Causes of the Decline and on the latest trend in modern Russian literature”, and for a long time it was considered the manifesto of the Russian symbolists. In realism, this artistic materialism, Merezhkovsky sees the cause of the decline of modern literature.
The features of the originality of Russian symbolism manifested themselves most of all in the work of the so-called "junior symbolists" of the early 20th century - A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanova. It is in their work that the artistic method of the Symbolists receives an objective-idealistic interpretation. The material world is only a mask through which another world of the spirit shines through. Images of a mask, a masquerade constantly flash in the poetry and prose of the Symbolists. The material world is depicted as something chaotic, illusory, as an inferior reality in comparison with the world of ideas and entities.
Russian symbolism adopted from the Western a number of aesthetic and philosophical attitudes, refracting them through the teachings of Vl. Solovyov "on the soul of the world" (13, p. 245). Russian poets experienced with painful tension the problem of personality and history in their "mysterious connection" with eternity, with the essence of the universal "world process". The inner world of the individual for them is an indicator of the general tragic state of the world, including the “terrible world” of Russian reality, doomed to death, a resonator of natural historical elements, a receptacle for prophetic forebodings of imminent renewal.
Symbolism is a kind of magic key with which you can open the world and transform it. The whole history of symbolism, as V. Khodasevich wrote, represented: “a series of attempts to find a fusion of life and creativity, a kind of philosophical stone of art” (14, p. 132). Hence the syncretism of the culture of the Silver Age as a certain dominant principle on which all the cultural figures of the Silver Age based their activities: philosophers, artists, poets, writers, musicians, architects, theater workers.
The Silver Age strives for a new organicity - hence its unlimited desire for magical art, a kind of sacredness that purifies and transforms reality. These maxims about art in a very peculiar way merged into judgments about politics: “Only then will political freedom be realized,” Vyach believes. Ivanov, - when the choral voice of such communities will be a true referendum of the people's will" (9, p. 39).
The symbolic beginning was the main defining content of the world and even more real than its concrete manifestation in social reality. In certain specific artistic, moral, political, religious and other forms. Hence the confession of the motto of Vyacheslav Ivanov: movement, striving, breakthrough - “from the real to the more real” (9, p. 9).
For Russian symbolism, the phenomenon of theurgy was characteristic - the creative realization of the divine principle by a person, or the assimilation of oneself to God the Creator. Therefore, the creative orientation and realization of the personality come to the fore (in any field of activity - philosophy, art, science, etc.), hence the most important feature of Russian symbolism is not the knowledge of the world, but its transformation, not contemplation, but "life building" .
The idea of art expands to human activity in general, including everything: non-canonical religion, revolution, love, the “smart fun” of the people, etc. Symbolism, at the same time, largely relied on Dostoevsky’s position “beauty will save the world”, which was taken by Vl. Solovyov as a metaphysical basis for his concept of unity. It is the philosophy of the unity of Vl. Solovyov and his poetic work became the foundation of Russian symbolism.
The Symbolists offered the reader a colorful myth about a world created according to the laws of eternal Beauty. If we add to this exquisite imagery, musicality and lightness of style, the steady popularity of poetry in this direction becomes understandable. The influence of symbolism with its intense spiritual quest, captivating artistry of a creative manner was experienced not only by the acmeists and futurists who replaced the symbolists, but also by the realist writer A.P. Chekhov.
4 Acmeism
"Symbolism has completed its circle of development" it was replaced by acmeism (5, p. 153). Acmeism (from the Greek akme - the highest degree of something, blooming power). It arose as a poetic association "Workshop of Poets" (1911), opposing itself to symbolism, the center of which was the "Academy of Verse". Supporters of acmeism rejected ambiguity and hints, ambiguity and immensity, abstractness and abstractness of symbolism. They rehabilitated a simple and clear perception of life, restored the value of harmony, form and composition in poetry. We can say that the acmeists brought poetry down from heaven to earth, returned it to the natural, earthly world. At the same time, they retained the high spirituality of poetry, the desire for true artistry, deep meaning and aesthetic perfection. N. Gumilyov made the greatest contribution to the development of the theory of acmeism. He defines it as a new poetry that replaces symbolism, which does not aim to penetrate into the beyond worlds and comprehend the unknowable. She prefers to do things that are more accessible to understanding. However, this does not mean reducing it to any practical purposes. Gumilev brings together poetry and religion, believing that both of them require spiritual work from a person. They play a major role in the spiritual transformation of man into a higher type.
Acmeism is characterized by a rejection of moral and spiritual quests, a penchant for aestheticism. A. Blok, with his inherent heightened sense of citizenship, noted the main drawback of acmeism: “... they do not have and do not want to have a shadow of an idea about Russian life and the life of the world in general” (3, p. 592). However, the acmeists did not put all their postulates into practice, this is evidenced by the psychologism of the first collections of A. Akhmatova, the lyricism of the early 0. Mandelstam. In essence, the acmeists were not so much an organized movement with a common theoretical platform, but a group of talented and very different poets who were united by personal friendship.
5 Futurism
At the same time, another modernist trend arose - futurism, which broke up into several groups: "Association of Ego-Futurists", "Mezzanine of Poetry", "Centrifuge", "Hilea", whose members called themselves Cubo-Futurists, Budutlyans, i.e. people from the future.
Of all the groups that at the beginning of the century proclaimed the thesis: “art is a game”, the Futurists most consistently embodied it in their work. In contrast to the symbolists with their idea of "life-building", i.e. transforming the world with art, the Futurists emphasized the destruction of the old world. Common to the futurists was the denial of traditions in culture, the passion for form creation. The demand of the Cubo-Futurists in 1912 to “throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy off the ship of modernity” (12, p. 347) became notorious.
The groupings of acmeists and futurists that arose in polemics with symbolism turned out to be very close to him in practice in that their theories were based on an individualistic idea, and the desire to create vivid myths, and predominant attention to form.
There were bright individualities in the poetry of that time that cannot be attributed to a certain trend - M. Voloshin, M. Tsvetaeva. No other era has given such an abundance of declarations of its own exclusivity.
A special place in the literature of the turn of the century was occupied by peasant poets, like N. Klyuev. Without putting forward a clear aesthetic program, they embodied their ideas (the combination of religious and mystical motives with the problem of protecting the traditions of peasant culture) in their work. S. Yesenin was close to peasant poets at the beginning of his journey, combining in his work the traditions of folklore and classical art.
Chapter 6
1 Moscow Art Theater
The Silver Age is not only the rise of poetry, it is also the era of artistic discoveries in theatrical art. At the end of the XIX century. Theatrical art was going through a crisis, which manifested itself in the fact that the theater repertoire was mostly entertaining in nature, it did not touch upon the pressing problems of life, the acting was not distinguished by a wealth of techniques. Deep changes were needed in the theater, and they became possible with the advent of the plays of A.P. Chekhov and M. Gorky. In 1898, the Moscow Public Art Theater (since 1903, the Moscow Art Theater) was opened, the founders of which were the manufacturer S.T. Morozov, K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, innovators of theatrical art. To rebuild the whole life of the Russian theatre, to remove all the treasury, to captivate all the artistic forces with a community of interests - this is how the tasks of the new theater were defined.
The creators of the Moscow Art Theater set themselves three main goals. First, to attract the audience into the hall from common people who could not afford tickets to the imperial theaters. Secondly, to refresh the repertoire by banishing tabloid melodrama and empty comedy from it. Thirdly, to reform the theatrical business. At first, the new theater had a hard time. The income from the performances did not cover the expenses. Savva Morozov came to the rescue, having invested half a million rubles in the theater in five years. Thanks to him, a new building was built in Kamergersky Lane.
Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, using the domestic and world experience of the theater, asserted a new type of art that meets the spirit of the times. The plays by A.P. Chekhov ("The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters"), then M. Gorky ("Petty Bourgeois", "At the Bottom"). The best performances were the productions of "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov, “A Month in the Village” by I.S. Turgenev, "The Blue Bird" by M. Maeterlinck, "Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare. This repertoire required talented performers. K. Stanislavsky developed a system of acting and directing, speaking out against amateurism, seeking to educate an actor-citizen, whose performance would lead to the creation of an organic process according to the well-thought-out logic of the character of the stage hero, the actor should become the leading figure in the theater. The Art Theater very soon became the leading, advanced theater in Russia, which was primarily due to its democratic essence.
2 Other theaters in Russia
In 1904, the theater of V.F. Komissarzhevskaya, whose repertoire reflected the aspirations of the democratic intelligentsia. Director's work of E.B. Vakhtangov is marked by the search for new forms, his productions of 1911-12. are joyful and entertaining. In 1915, Vakhtangov created the 3rd studio of the Moscow Art Theater, which later became the theater named after him (1926). One of the reformers of the Russian theater, the founder of the Moscow Chamber Theater A.Ya. Tairov strove to create a "synthetic theater" of a predominantly romantic and tragic repertoire, to form actors of virtuoso skill.
Chapter 7. Ballet
New trends also affected the ballet scene. They are associated with the name of the choreographer M.M. Fokina (1880-1942). One of the founders of the association "World of Art" S.L. Diaghilev organized the Russian Seasons in Paris - performances by Russian ballet dancers in 1909-1911. The troupe included M.M. Fokin, A.L. Pavlova, D.F. Nezhinsky, T.P. Karsavina, E.B. Geltser, M. Mordkin and others. Fokin was a choreographer and artistic director. The performances were designed by well-known artists: A. Benois, L. Bakst, A. Golovin, N. Roerich. Performances of "La Sylphides" (music by F. Chopin), Polovtsian dances from the opera "Prince Igor" by Borodin, "The Firebird" and "Petrushka" (music by I. Stravinsky), etc. were shown. The performances were a triumph of Russian choreographic art. The artists proved that classical ballet can be modern, excite the viewer, if the dance carries a semantic load with appropriate dance means, organically combines with music and painting. Fokine's best productions were "Petrushka", "Firebird", "Scheherazade", "The Dying Swan", in which music, painting and choreography were united.
Chapter 8
Early 20th century - this time creative takeoff great Russian innovative composers A. Scriabin, I. Stravinsky, S. Taneyev, S. Rachmaninov. In their work, they tried to go beyond traditional classical music, to create new musical forms and images. The musical performing culture also flourished significantly. The Russian vocal school was represented by the names of outstanding singers - F. Chaliapin, A. Nezhdanova, L. Sobinov, I. Ershov.
Chapter 9
Early 20th century - this is the time of the emergence of a new art form - cinema. From 1903, the first "electrotheatres" and "illusions" began to appear in Russia, and by 1914 about 4,000 cinemas had been built.
In 1908, the first Russian feature film "Stenka Razin and the Princess" was shot, and in 1911 - the first full-length film "The Defense of Sevastopol". Cinematography developed rapidly and became popular. In 1914, there were about 30 domestic film companies in Russia. And although the bulk of film production was made up of films with primitive melodramatic plots, world-famous cinema figures appear in Russia: director Y. Protazanov, actors I. Mozzhukhin, V. Kholodnaya, V. Maksimov, A. Koonen and others.
The undoubted merit of cinema was its accessibility to all segments of the population. Russian films, created mainly as adaptations of classical works, became the first signs in the formation of mass culture, an indispensable attribute of bourgeois society.
Chapter 10
1 Association "World of Art"
At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, significant changes took place in Russian painting. Genre scenes faded into the background. The landscape lost its photographic quality and linear perspective, became more democratic, based on the combination and play of color spots. The portraits often combined the ornamental conventionality of the background and the sculptural clarity of the face. The beginning of a new stage of Russian painting is associated with the creative association "World of Art". At the end of the 80s of the XIX century. in St. Petersburg, a circle of gymnasium students and students, art lovers, arose. They gathered at the apartment of one of the participants - Alexandre Benois. Its permanent members were Konstantin Somov and Lev Bakst. Later, they were joined by Yevgeny Lansere, and Sergei Diaghilev, who came from the provinces. The meetings of the circle were a bit of a clownish character. But the reports delivered by its members were carefully and seriously prepared. Friends were fascinated by the idea of uniting all kinds of art and bringing together the cultures of different peoples. They spoke with anxiety and bitterness about the fact that Russian art little is known in the West and domestic masters are not familiar enough with the achievements of modern European artists. Friends grew up, went into creativity, created their first serious work. Diaghilev becomes the head of the circle.
In 1898, Diaghilev organized an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists in St. Petersburg. In essence, this was the first exhibition of artists of the new direction. This was followed by other exhibitions and, finally, in 1906 - an exhibition in Paris "Two centuries of Russian painting and sculpture." "Cultural breakthrough" of Russia in Western Europe happened thanks to the efforts and enthusiasm of Diaghilev and his friends. In 1898, the Benois-Dyagilev circle began to publish the journal "World of Art". Diaghilev's programmatic article stated that the purpose of art is the self-expression of the creator. Art, Diaghilev wrote, should not be used to illustrate any social doctrine. If it is genuine, it in itself is the truth of life, an artistic generalization, and sometimes a revelation.
The name "World of Art" from the magazine moved to creative association artists, the backbone of which was all the same circle. Such masters as V. A. Serov, M. A. Vrubel, M. V. Nesterov, I. I. Levitan, N. K. Roerich joined the association. They all had little resemblance to each other, worked in a different creative manner. And yet in their work, moods and views there was much in common.
The Miriskusniks were worried about the advent of the industrial era, when huge cities grew, built up with faceless factory buildings and inhabited by lonely people. They were worried that art, designed to bring harmony and peace to life, was increasingly being squeezed out of it and became the property of a small circle of "chosen ones". They hoped that art, returning to life, would gradually soften, spiritualize and unite people. "World of Art" believed that in pre-industrial times people came into closer contact with art and nature. The 18th century seemed especially attractive to them. But they still understood that the age of Voltaire and Catherine was not as harmonious as it seems to them, and therefore the unit of Versailles and Tsarskoye Selo landscapes with kings, empresses, cavaliers and ladies is shrouded in a light haze of sadness and self-irony.
The revival of book graphics, the art of the book, is connected with the work of the World of Art. Without limiting themselves to illustrations, the artists introduced cover sheets, intricate vignettes and endings in the Art Nouveau style into books. The understanding came that the design of the book should be closely related to its content. The graphic designer began to pay attention to such details as the size of the book, the color of the paper, the font, the edge. Many outstanding masters of that time were engaged in the design of books. Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman" is firmly connected with the drawings of Benois, and Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad" - with the illustrations of Lansere. Early 20th century deposited on library shelves with many high-quality examples of book art.
The artists of the "World of Art" paid a generous tribute to music. The scenery of the artists of that time - sometimes exquisitely refined, sometimes blazing like a fire - combined with music, dance, singing, created a dazzlingly luxurious spectacle. L. S. Bakst made a significant contribution to the success of the ballet Scheherazade (to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov). A. Ya. Golovin designed the ballet The Firebird (to music by I. F. Stravinsky) just as brightly and festively. Scenery N.K. Roerich for the opera "Prince Igor", on the contrary, are very restrained and severe. The ballet "Petrushka", which went around the theater stage in many countries, was a joint work of the composer Igor Stravinsky and the artist Alexander Benois. In the field of theatrical painting, the World of Art came closest to fulfilling their cherished dream - to combine different types of art into one work.
The fate of the association "World of Art" was not easy. The magazine stopped publishing after 1904. By this time, many artists had moved away from the association, and it was reduced to the size of the original circle. The creative and personal connections of its members continued for many years. The World of Art has become an artistic symbol of the border between two centuries. A whole stage in the development of Russian painting is associated with him. A special place in the association was occupied by M. A. Vrubel, M. V. Nesterov and N. K. Roerich.
2 Symbolism in Russian painting
In 1907, an exhibition entitled "Blue Rose" was opened in Moscow, in which A. Arapov, N. Krymov, P. Kuznetsov, N. Sapunov, M. Saryan and others, 16 artists in total, took part. It was a searching youth, dissatisfied with the state of art, familiar with the achievements of Western artists and striving to find their individuality in the synthesis of Western experience and national traditions.
Representatives of the "Blue Rose" were closely associated with symbolist poets, whose performance was an indispensable attribute of the vernissages. But symbolism in Russian painting has never been the same style direction. It included, for example, such different artists in their pictorial systems as M. Vrubel, K. Petrov-Vodkin and others.
3 Avant-garde direction in art
At the same time, groupings appeared in Russian painting, representing the avant-garde trend in art. In 1910, an exhibition called "Jack of Diamonds" was organized in Moscow, and in 1911 its participants united in a society with the same name. It lasted until 1917. P. Konchalovsky, I. Mashkov, A. Lentulov, R. Falk, V. Rozhdestvensky and others were among the activists of the Jack of Diamonds. In their work, they sought to finally free painting from the influence of social and political life, literary and other subordination, to return to her the ability to use in full force the means inherent only to her - color, line, plasticity. They saw beauty in the very surface of the canvas, covered with a layer of paint, in a unique mixture of colors. The most popular genre of "jacks of diamonds" was still life.
A number of major Russian artists - V. Kandinsky, M. Chagall, P. Filonov and others - entered the history of world culture as representatives of unique styles that combined avant-garde trends with Russian national traditions.
Chapter 11 Architecture
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the modernist trend was born in the architecture of a number of European countries. The "crisis of science" at the beginning of the century, the rejection of mechanistic ideas about the world gave rise to artists' attraction to nature, the desire to be imbued with its spirit, to display its changeable element in art.
The architecture of the “modern” era was distinguished by asymmetry and mobility of forms, the free flow of the “continuous surface”, the flow of internal spaces. Floral motifs and flowing lines predominated in the ornament. The desire to convey growth, development, movement was characteristic of all types of art in the Art Nouveau style - in architecture, painting, graphics, painting houses, casting lattices, on book covers. "Modern" was very heterogeneous and contradictory. On the one hand, he sought to assimilate and creatively rework folk principles, to create an architecture that was not ostentatious, as in the period of eclecticism, but genuine.
Setting the task even wider, the masters of the "modern" era ensured that everyday items bore the imprint of folk traditions. In this regard, a lot was done by the circle of artists who worked in Abramtsevo, the estate of patron S. I. Mamontov. V. M. Vasnetsov, M. A. Vrubel, V. D. Polenov worked here. The work begun in Abramtsevo was continued in Talashkino near Smolensk, the estate of Princess M. A. Tenisheva. Both in Abramtsevo and Talashkino there were workshops that produced furniture and household utensils according to samples made by artists. The theorists of "modern" contrasted the living folk craft with faceless industrial production. But, on the other hand, the architecture of "modern" widely used the achievements of modern building technology. A careful study of the possibilities of such materials as reinforced concrete, glass, steel led to unexpected discoveries. Convex glass, curved window sashes, fluid forms of metal bars - all this came to architecture from "modern".
From the very beginning, two directions emerged in the domestic "modern" - pan-European and national-Russian. The latter was perhaps the predominant one. At the origins of it is the church in Abramtsevo - an original and poetic creation of two artists who acted as architects - Vasnetsov and Polenov. Taking as a model the ancient Novgorod-Pskov architecture, with its picturesque asymmetry, they did not copy individual details, but embodied the very spirit of Russian architecture in its modern material.
The early "modern" was characterized by a "Dionysian" beginning, i.e. striving for spontaneity, immersion in the stream of formation, development. In the late "modern" (on the eve of the World War), a calm and clear "Apollonian" beginning began to prevail. Elements of classicism returned to architecture. In Moscow, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Borodino Bridge were built according to the project of the architect R.I. Klein. At the same time, the buildings of the Azov-Don and Russian commercial and industrial banks appeared in St. Petersburg. Petersburg banks were built in a monumental style, using granite cladding and "torn" masonry surfaces. This, as it were, personified their conservatism, reliability, stability.
The age of "modern" was very short - from the end of the 19th century. before the start of the world war. But it was a very bright period in the history of architecture. At the beginning of the century, his appearance was met with a flurry of criticism. Some considered it a "decadent" style, others considered it philistine. But "modern" has proved its vitality and democracy. It had folk roots, relied on an advanced industrial base and absorbed the achievements of world architecture. "Modern" did not have the rigor of classicism. It was divided into many directions and schools, which formed a multi-colored palette of the last flowering of architecture on the eve of the great upheavals of the 20th century.
For a decade and a half, coinciding with the construction boom, "modern" has spread throughout Russia. It can still be found today in any old city. One has only to look at the rounded windows, exquisite stucco and curved balcony grilles of any mansion, hotel or shop.
Chapter 12. Sculpture
Sculpture also experienced a creative upsurge during this period. Her awakening was largely due to the trends of Impressionism. Significant progress on this path of renewal was achieved by P. P. Trubetskoy. His sculptural portraits of L. N. Tolstoy, S. Yu. Witte, F. I. Chaliapin and others were widely known. They most consistently reflected the main artistic rule masters: to capture even a little noticeable instantaneous internal movement of a person. An important milestone in the history of Russian monumental sculpture was the monument to Alexander III, conceived as a kind of antipode to another great monument - “ Bronze Horseman» E. Falcone.
The combination of impressionist and modern tendencies characterizes the work of A. S. Golubkina. At the same time, the main feature of her works is not the display of a specific image or life fact, but the creation of a generalized phenomenon: “Old Age” (1898), “Walking Man” (1903), “Soldier” (1907), “Sleepers” (1912), etc. .
A significant mark in the Russian art of the Silver Age was left by S.T. Konenkov. His work has become the embodiment of the continuity of the traditions of realism in new directions. He went through Michelangelo's fascination with "Samson Breaking the Chains", antiquity "Nika", Russian folk wooden sculpture "Lesovik", "The Beggar Brotherhood", itinerant traditions "Stone Fighter", the traditional realistic portrait "A.P. Chekhov". And with all this, he remained a master of a bright creative individuality.
On the whole, the Russian sculptural school was little affected by avant-garde tendencies, and did not develop such a complex range of innovative aspirations, characteristic of painting.
Chapter 13
Against the rich background of Russian patronage, the period of the late XIX-early XX centuries. can rightly be called its "golden age", sometimes its true heyday. And this time was connected mainly with the activities of eminent merchant dynasties, who gave hereditary benefactors. Only in Moscow did they carry out such major undertakings in the field of culture, education, medicine, and the most diverse fields of science that it can be rightfully asserted: it was a qualitatively new stage charity.
Merchant P.M. Tretyakov (1838-1898), a collector of works of Russian painting, in 1892 donated his collection to Moscow (Tretyakov Gallery), his brother S.M. Tretyakov also bequeathed his collection of Western European painting to Moscow. In the phenomenon of P.M. Tretyakov is impressed by the loyalty to the goal. Such an idea - to lay the foundation for a public, accessible repository of art - did not arise from any of his contemporaries, although private collectors existed before Tretyakov, but they acquired paintings, sculpture, dishes, crystal, etc. first of all, for themselves, for their private collections, and few could see the works of art that belonged to collectors. It is also striking that he did not have any special art education, however, he recognized talented artists. Before many, he realized the invaluable artistic merits of the icon-painting masterpieces of Ancient Rus'.
S.D. Mamontov (1841-1918) founded the Private Russian Opera in Moscow, supported Russian painters; his estate Abramtsevo was an important center of artistic life; I.E. lived and worked here. Repin, M.A. Vrubel, K.A. Koroviy and others Mamontovsky art circle was a unique association. It can be said quite definitely that if all the achievements of the Mamontov Private Opera were limited only by the fact that it formed Chaliapin, the genius of the opera stage, then this would be quite enough for the highest appreciation of the activities of Mamontov and his theater.
The industrialist S.T.Morozov (1862-1905) was a patron of the Moscow Art Theater.
A. A. Bakhrushin (1865-1929), based on his collection, created a private literary and theater museum, now the Theater Museum. Bakhrushin.
M. Kl. Tenisheva (1867-1929) was an outstanding person, the owner of encyclopedic knowledge in art, an honorary member of the first Russian Union of Artists. The scale of her social activities, in which enlightenment was the leading principle, is striking: she created the School of Craft Students (near Bryansk), opened several elementary public schools, organized drawing schools together with Repin, opened courses for training teachers, and even created a real one in the Smolensk region. analogue of Abramtsev near Moscow - Talashkino. Roerich called Tenisheva “Creator and Collector” (11, p. 344).
In order to open your talent to the world, you need not only talent, but often money. Patrons provided invaluable assistance to Russian culture in this matter. All the wealth that our museums own, the very progressive movement of museum work in Russia, searches, discoveries, we owe to them - enthusiasts, collectors, patrons. Each collector was devoted to his circle of hobbies, collected the evidence of the past that he liked, the works of artists, as best he could, systematized them, sometimes researched and published them. But the consequences of this spontaneous activity turned out to be grandiose in the end: after all, all the funds of the museums of pre-revolutionary Russia were made up not so much of individual objects, but rather of collections, scrupulously selected. Having made a great contribution to the creation of the Russian cultural heritage, they immortalized their names.
Conclusion
Socio-political tension arises in Russia: a general conflict in which protracted feudalism intertwined, the inability of the nobility to fulfill the role of organizer of society and develop a national idea, the onslaught of the new bourgeoisie, the sluggishness of the monarchy, which did not want concessions, the age-old hatred of the peasant for the master - all this gave birth to the intelligentsia sense of impending upheaval. And at the same time a sharp surge, the flourishing of cultural life. After all, it is in critical, extreme situations that a person manifests extraordinary talents. Through their activities, creative people showed their own attitude to the surrounding reality. New magazines are being published, theaters are opening, artists, actors, and writers have unprecedented opportunities. Their impact on society is enormous. At the same time, Mass culture, designed for an unprepared consumer, and an elite culture that focuses on connoisseurs. Art is crumbling. At the same time, Russian culture is strengthening contacts with world culture. Unconditional authority in Europe of Tolstoy and Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Glinka. "Russian Seasons" in Paris enjoyed worldwide fame. The names of Perov, Nesterov, Korovin, Chagall, Malevich shine in painting; in the theater: Meyerhold, Nezhdanova, Stanislavsky, Sobinov, Chaliapin; in ballet: Nezhinsky and Pavlova; in science: Mendeleev, Tsiolkovsky, Sechenov, Vernadsky. Marina Tsvetaeva argued that “after such an abundance of talents, nature should calm down” (4, p. 154).
The Silver Age was precisely the milestone that predicted future changes in the state and became a thing of the past with the advent of the blood-red 1917, which unrecognizably changed people's souls. There was no Silver Age after that. In the twenties, inertia (the heyday of imagism) continued, for such a wide and powerful wave as the Russian Silver Age was, could move for some time before collapsing and breaking. Many poets, writers, critics, philosophers, artists, directors, composers were still alive, whose individual creativity and common work created the Silver Age, but the era itself ended. Each of its active participants was aware that, although people remained, the characteristic atmosphere of the era in which talents grew had come to naught.
An attempt to "modernize" culture, associated with the reform of P.A. Stolypin, was unsuccessful. Its results were smaller than expected and gave rise to new controversy. Tensions in society grew faster than the answers to emerging conflicts were found. Contradictions between agrarian and industrial cultures were aggravated, which was also expressed in the contradictions of economic forms, interests and motives of people's creativity, in the political life of society.
Deep social transformations were required in order to provide scope for the cultural creativity of the people, significant investments in the development of the spiritual sphere of society, its technical base, for which the government did not have enough funds. Patronage, private support and financing of significant public and cultural events did not save either. Nothing could fundamentally change the cultural face of the country. The country fell into a period of unstable development and found no other way out than revolution.
The culture of the Silver Age turned out to be bright, complex, contradictory, but immortal and unique. She reflected the existing reality. And although we call this time the “silver” and not the “golden” age, perhaps it was the most creative era in the history of Russia.
List of used literature
Balakina, T.I. History of Russian culture.-M.:Az, 1996
2. Philanthropists and patrons of the past and present: Dictionary - reference book from A to Z / ed.
Blok, A. Poems, poems, theater / A. Blok. - M., 1968
Memories of Marina Tsvetaeva: collection / comp. L.A. Mukhin, L.M. Turchinsky // Zapiski.- M.: Soviet writer, 1992
Gumilev, N. Works in 3 volumes / N. Gumilev // vol. 3 .- M .: Fiction, 1991
Danilov, A.A. History of Russia, XX century: textbook for grade 9 / A.A. Danilov, L.G. Kosulina.-7th ed.-M.: Enlightenment, 2001
Dmitriev, S.S. Essays on the history of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century. - Moscow, Enlightenment, 1985
Zholkovsky, A.N. Wandering dreams. From the history of Russian modernism.-M.: Soviet Writer, 1992
Ivanov, Vyach. About a cheerful craft and smart fun // Decorative art. - 1993. - No. 3.
Rapatskaya, L.A. Artistic culture of Russia.-M.: Vlados, 1998
Roerich, N. In memory of Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva / N. Roerich // Literary Heritage.- M., 1974
Sokolov A.G., Mikhailova M.V. Russian literary criticism of the late 19th - early 20th centuries: an anthology // Kubofuturists.- M .: Higher school, 1982
Solovyov, Vl. Philosophical heritage: Op. in 2 volumes / Vl. Solovyov // vol. 2.-M .: Thought, 1998
Khodasevich, V. "Necropolis" and other memories / V. Khodasevich. - M .: World of Art, 1992
Shamurin, E. The main trends in pre-revolutionary Russian poetry. - Moscow, 1993
Etkind, A. Sodom and Psyche. Essays on the intellectual history of the Silver Age. - M .: Garant, 1996
Tutoring
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Composition
to acquaint students with the poetry of the Silver Age; to define the basic principles of the poetry of modernism; reveal the social essence and artistic value of new trends in art of the late XIX - early XX centuries; improve skills expressive reading; educate moral ideals, awaken aesthetic experiences and emotions. equipment: a textbook, texts of poems, portraits of poets of the Silver Age, reference diagrams, photo presentation, literary (crossword) dictation (answers - on the board).
Projected
Results: students compose the abstracts of the teacher's lecture; participate in a conversation on previously studied material; define the basic principles of modernism; expressively read and comment on the poems of the poets of the Silver Age, revealing their artistic originality; interprets selected poems. lesson type: lesson learning new material.
DURING THE CLASSES
I. Organizational stage
II. Update basic knowledge
Reading a poem by a teacher B. a. Slutsky
THE HAPPENING CENTURY
Not cars - those cars were called motors, now easily with which - but then they were wonderful.
The pilot's aviator, the plane - an airplane, even light painting - the photo was called in that strange century,
What accidentally got stuck
Between the twentieth and nineteenth,
nine hundredth began
And ended seventeenth.
♦ What "century" does the poet mean? Why does he call less than two decades a century? With what inventions and scientific theories, besides those mentioned by B. Slutsky, is this era associated?
♦ Silver Age… What thoughts come into your mind when you hear these words? What associations does the sound of these words evoke? (Silver Age - brilliance, brightness, fragility, instantaneity, fog, mystery, magic, fragility, glare, reflection, transparency, glow, radiance, haze ...)
III. Setting goals and objectives for the lesson.
Motivation learning activities
Teacher. literature is a mirror of the world. It always reflects, to one degree or another, the processes taking place in society. At the beginning of the twentieth century. all spiritual life is imbued with comprehension and reflection of the world "in a new way", the search for new unusual forms in art ...
A century ago, the Silver Age was in full force. Its frosty dust is silver in our poetry, painting, theater, music to this day. To contemporaries, this time could seem like a time of decline and decline, but we see it from our present time as an era of violent growth, diversity and wealth, which the artists of the turn of the century generously, on credit with huge installments, endowed us with. A lot has been written about the Silver Age - and the more you read about it, the more you understand the fundamental impossibility of knowing it to the end. facets multiply, new voices are heard, unexpected colors appear.
And today in the lesson we will learn about the phenomenon of the Silver Age, reveal the artistic value of new trends in art of the late XIX - early XX centuries.
IV. Work on the topic of the lesson
1. teacher's lecture with confirmation of the main points by a photo presentation (on the blackboard)
(Students write abstracts.)
Reading by a pre-prepared student of K. Balmont's poem ""
I came into this world to see the sun
And blue vision.
I came into this world to see the sun
And the heights of the mountains.
I came into this world to see the sea
And the lush color of the valleys.
I made worlds in one glance,
I am the ruler.
I conquered cold oblivion
Created my dream.
Every moment I am filled with revelation,
I always sing.
My dream of suffering was defeated
But I love it.
Who is equal to me in my melodious power?
Nobody, nobody.
I came into this world to see the sun
And if the day is gone
I will sing, I will sing about the sun
At the hour of death!
So, we meet with the whole universe, the new richest and most interesting world - the Silver Age. There are many new talented poets, many new literary trends. often referred to as modernist or decadent.
The word "modernism" in French means "newest", "modern". Different trends were represented in Russian modernism: symbolism, acmeism, futurism, and other modernists denied social values and opposed realism. Their goal was to create a new poetic culture, contributing to the spiritual improvement of mankind.
The name "Silver Age" was firmly entrenched in the period of development of Russian art in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. It was a time, even for Russian literature, surprising by the abundance of names of artists who opened up truly new paths in art: a. A. Akhmatova and O. E. Mandelstam, a. A. Blok and V. Ya. Bryusov, D. S. Merezhkovsky and M. Gorky, V. V. Mayakovsky and V. V. Khlebnikov. This list (of course, incomplete) can be continued with the names of painters (M. A. Vrubel, M. V. Nesterov, K. A. Korovin, V. A. Serov, K. A. Somov, etc.), composers (A. N. Skryabin, I. F. Stravinsky, S. S. Prokofiev, S. V. Rakhmaninov), philosophers (N. A. Berdyaev, V. V. Rozanov, G. P. Fedotov, P. A. Florensky, L. I. Shestov).
What artists and thinkers had in common was the feeling of the beginning of a new era in the development of mankind and a new era in the development of culture and art. This is the reason for the intense search for new artistic forms that marked the Silver Age in the history of Russian literature, and above all the emergence of new trends (symbolism, acmeism, futurism, imagism), which claimed to be the most complete, perfect expression of the requirements imposed on art by time. How this time was perceived and evaluated by contemporaries can already be judged by the titles of the then extremely popular books: O. Spengler's "The Decline of Europe" (1918–1922), M. Nordau's "Degeneration" (1896), a sudden outbreak of interest in the "philosophy of ", at the origins of which is the name a. Schopenhauer. But something else is also characteristic: a foreboding, literally hovering in the air, of the inevitability of changes that will ultimately turn out to be beneficial for humanity. Today, the Silver Age of Russian culture is called a historically short period at the turn of the century, marked by an extraordinary creative upsurge in poetry, the humanities, painting, music, and theater. For the first time this name was proposed by N. a. Berdyaev. This period is also called the "Russian Renaissance". The question of the chronological boundaries of this phenomenon in literary criticism has not been finally resolved.
Symbolism is the first and largest of the modernist movements that arose in Russia. The beginning of the theoretical self-determination of Russian symbolism was laid by D. S. Merezhkovsky, in whose opinion the new generation of writers had to face "a huge transitional and preparatory work." The main elements of this work D. S. Merezhkovsky called "mystical content, symbols and the expansion of artistic impressionability." The central place in this triad of concepts was given to the symbol.
To a certain extent, similar features were also inherent in the works of M. Gorky, the most popular realist writer at that time. Being a sensitive observer, he extremely expressively reproduced in his stories, short stories, essays dark sides Russian life: peasant savagery, philistine indifferent satiety, unlimited arbitrariness of power (the novel Foma Gordeev, the plays The Philistines, At the Bottom).
However, from the very beginning of its existence, symbolism turned out to be a heterogeneous trend: several independent groups took shape in its depths. By the time of formation and by features worldview position It is customary to single out two main groups of poets in Russian symbolism. Adherents of the first group, who made their debut in the 1890s, are called “senior symbolists” (V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Z. N. Gippius, F. Sologub, and others). In the 1900s new forces poured into symbolism, significantly updating the appearance of the current (A. A. Blok, Andrei Bely, V. I. Ivanov, and others). The accepted designation for the "second wave" of symbolism is "young symbolism". The “senior” and “younger” symbolists were separated not so much by age, but by the difference in attitudes and the direction of creativity (Vyach. Ivanov, for example, is older than V. Bryusov in age, but showed himself as a symbolist of the second generation).
Symbolism has enriched Russian poetic culture with many discoveries. The Symbolists gave the poetic word a previously unknown mobility and ambiguity, taught Russian poetry to discover additional shades and facets of meaning in the word. Symbolism tried to create a new philosophy of culture, sought, after a painful period of reassessment of values, to develop a new universal worldview. Having overcome the extremes of individualism and subjectivism, the Symbolists at the dawn of the 20th century. raised the question of the social role of the artist in a new way, began to search for such forms of art, the comprehension of which could unite people again. The literary trend of acmeism arose in the early 1910s. and was genetically associated with symbolism. Close to symbolism at the beginning of their career, young poets visited in the 1900s. "Ivanovo environments" - meetings at the St. Petersburg apartment of Vyach. Ivanov, which received the name "tower" among them. In the bowels of the circle in 1906-1907. a group of poets gradually formed, calling itself a "circle of the young". The impetus for their rapprochement was opposition (still timid) to Symbolist poetic practice. On the one hand, the "young" sought to learn poetic technique from their older colleagues, but on the other hand, they would like to overcome the speculation and utopianism of symbolist theories.
Acmeism, according to N. S. Gumilyov, is an attempt to rediscover the value of human life, abandoning the "chaste" desire of the symbolists to know the unknowable.
The acmeists included N. S. Gumilyov, a. A. Akhmatova, S. M. Gorodetsky, O. E. Mandelstam.
Futurism, like symbolism, was an international literary phenomenon (lat. (uFumm - future) - the common name for the artistic avant-garde movements of the 1910s - early 1920s, primarily in Italy and Russia.
Unlike acmeism, futurism as a trend in Russian poetry did not originate in Russia at all. This phenomenon is entirely brought from the West, where it originated and was theoretically substantiated. The Futurists preached the destruction of the forms and conventions of art in order to merge it with the accelerated life process of the 20th century. They are characterized by admiration for action, movement, speed, strength and aggression; self-exaltation and contempt for the weak; the priority of force, the rapture of war and destruction were affirmed. Futurists wrote manifestos, held evenings at which these manifestos were read from the stage and only then were they published. These evenings usually ended in heated arguments with the public, turning into fights. this is how the current received its scandalous, but very wide popularity. Futurist poets (V. V. Mayakovsky, V. V. Khlebnikov, V. V. Kamensky) opposed themselves classical poetry, tried to find new poetic rhythms and images, to create the poetry of the future.
Poetic currents of the Silver Age
Symbolism (French, from Greek - sign, symbol) - European literary and artistic trend in art of 1870-1910, universal philosophy, ethics, aesthetics and lifestyle of this time.
Acmeism (Greek act - the highest degree of something, blooming power) - a modernist trend in Russian poetry of the 1910s.
Futurism (Latin - future) is one of the main avant-garde trends in European art early 20th century
2. Checking the level of perception of what was heard:
Literary (crossword) dictation
A comment. Unlike working with a real crossword puzzle, a crossword dictation does not require the preparation of special stencils. Conducted at the end of any topic. The teacher dictates the interpretation of the word, and the students write down only the word itself under the serial number. thus checking the level of assimilation literary terms.
1) This word means "modern", the latest. This is a new phenomenon in literature and art in comparison with the art of the past, its goal was to create a poetic culture that contributes to the spiritual rebirth of mankind. (Modernism)
2) This term is called the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. in Russian literature. (Silver Age)
3) A direction that considered the goal of art to be an intuitive comprehension of world unity. Art was seen as the unifying principle of such unity. Characterized by "secret writing of the inexpressible", understatement, replacement of the image. (Symbolism)
4) This direction proclaimed the cult of art as a skill; rejection of the mystical nebula; creating a visible, concrete image. (Acmeism)
5) This direction, which denied the artistic and moral heritage, preached the destruction of the forms and conventions of art for the sake of merging it with an accelerated life process. (Futurism)
6) This word means "decline", doom. (Decade)
Checking the spelling of words (checking with the writing on the board)
3. Creation and solution of a problem situation (in groups)
Task for the 1st group. Remember and comprehend the chronicle of the key events of the Silver Age.
Task for the 2nd group. List the main program works, literary manifestos, almanacs of Russian symbolists, acmeists and futurists. What is the meaning of their polemics with realistic literature?
Task for the 3rd group. “When the world splits in two, the crack goes through the heart of the poet…” (G. Heine). Prove this statement of the poet.
4. students reading poems by poets of the Silver Age (Acmeists, Symbolists, Futurists) with brief comments from the teacher
The goal is to get a general idea of the poetry of the Silver Age.
1) N. S. Gumilyov "Captains"
A comment. Modernist poets denied social values and tried to create poetry designed to promote the spiritual development of man. One of the most famous trends in modernist literature was acmeism. acmeists proclaimed the liberation of poetry from symbolist impulses to the "ideal" and called for a return from the ambiguity of images to material world, object, "nature". But even their poetry was characterized by a tendency to aestheticism, to the poeticization of feelings. This is clearly seen in the work of a prominent representative of acmeism, one of the best Russian poets of the early 20th century. N. S. Gumilyov, whose poems amaze us with the beauty of the word, the loftiness of the created images.
N. S. Gumilyov himself called his poetry "the muse of distant wanderings", the poet was faithful to her until the end of his days. The famous ballad “Captains” from the collection of poems “Pearls”, which brought N. S. Gumilyov wide popularity, is a hymn to people who challenge fate and the elements. The poet appears before us as a singer of the romance of distant wanderings, courage, risk, courage:
The swift-winged ones are led by captains - Discoverers of new lands, For whom hurricanes are not terrible, Who have known maelstroms and stranded. Whose not with the dust of lost charters - The chest is saturated with the salt of the sea, Who with a needle on a torn map Marks his impudent path.
2) V. Ya. Bryusov "Dagger"
The Silver Age of Russian culture turned out to be surprisingly short. It lasted for about a quarter of a century: 1898-1922. The starting date coincides with the year of the creation of the association "World of Art", the founding of the Moscow Art Theater (MKhT), where "The Seagull" by A.P. Chekhov, and the final one - with the year of expulsion from already Soviet Russia large group philosophers and thinkers. The shortness of the period does not detract from its significance. On the contrary, over time, this significance even increases. It lies in the fact that Russian culture - if not all, but only part of it - was the first to realize the perniciousness of development, the value orientations of which are one-sided rationalism, non-religiousness and lack of spirituality. The Western world came to this realization much later.
The Silver Age includes, first of all, two main spiritual phenomena: the Russian religious revival of the early 20th century, also known as "god-seeking", And russian modernism, covering mainly acmeism. To him belong such poets as M. Tsvetaeva, S. Yesenin and B. Pasternak, who were not part of these movements. The Silver Age should also include the artistic association "World of Art" (1898-1924), the founders of which were A. N. Benois and S. P. Diaghilev, who won fame for organizing the famous "Russian Seasons" in Europe and America.
As for it, it is a separate, independent phenomenon. In its spirit and aspirations, it diverges from the Silver Age. "Tower" Vyach. Ivanov and V. Tatlin's "Tower" are too different to be together. Therefore, the inclusion of the Russian avant-garde in the Silver Age, which many authors do, is due more to chronology than to more significant motives.
Expression and name "silver Age" is poetic and metaphorical, neither strict nor definite. It was invented by the representatives of the Silver Age themselves. A. Akhmatova has it in the well-known lines: “And the silver month cooled brightly over the silver age ...” It is used by N. Berdyaev. A. Bely called one of his novels "Silver Dove". The editor of the Apollo magazine, S. Makovsky, used it to designate the entire time of the beginning of the 20th century.
In the name itself there is a certain opposition to the previous, golden age, when Russian culture experienced a rapid flowering. She radiated a bright, sunny light, illuminating the whole world with it, striking it with its strength, brilliance and magnificence. Art then actively invaded public life and politics. It fully corresponded to the well-known formula of E. Yevtushenko: "a poet in Russia is more than a poet." On the contrary, the art of the Silver Age strives to be only art. The light it emits appears lunar, reflected, twilight, mysterious, magical and mystical.
Russian religious renaissance
Russian religious revival at the beginning of the 20th century. represented by such philosophers and thinkers as ON THE. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, P.B. Struve, S.L. Frank, P.A. Florensky, S.N. and E.N. Trubetskoy.
The first four, who are the central figures of God-seeking, went through a difficult path of spiritual evolution. They started out as Marxists, materialists and social democrats. By the beginning of the XX century. they made a turn from Marxism and materialism to idealism, significantly limited the possibilities of a scientific explanation of the world and moved to the positions of liberalism. This was evidenced by their articles published in the collection Problems of Idealism (1902).
After the revolution of 1905-1907. their evolution was completed and they finally established themselves as religious thinkers. They expressed their new views in the collection Milestones (1909). S. Bulgakov became a priest.
The concept of the Russian religious revival was the fruit of understanding the centuries-old history of Russia and the West. In many ways, it became a continuation and development of Slavophilism. Therefore, it can be defined as a new Slavophilism. It was also the development of the ideas and views of N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky. L.N. Tolstoy and B.C. Solovyov.
N.V. Gogol influenced the representatives of God-seeking primarily with his book Selected passages from correspondence with friends, where he reflects on the historical fate of Russia and calls for Christian self-deepening and self-improvement. As for F.M. Dostoevsky, his very life was an instructive example for the supporters of religious revival. The passion for the revolution had tragic consequences for the writer, so he devoted his work to the search for Christian ways to human unity and brotherhood. In this he saw the peculiarity of the Russian way.
Many ideas and especially the doctrine of non-violence L.N. Tolstoy were also consonant with the views of representatives of the religious renaissance. The teaching of Vl. Solovyov about unity, about Sophia - the World Soul and Eternal Femininity, about the final victory of unity and goodness over enmity and disintegration form the common spiritual basis of Russian religious revival and Russian modernism - especially symbolism.
Exactly Vl. Solovyov developed the concept of the revival of Russia on Christian foundations. He devoted his life to the tireless struggle against the hostile attitude of the intelligentsia towards the Church, for overcoming the gap between them, called for mutual reconciliation.
Developing the ideas of their predecessors, representatives of the religious revival are very critically assess the Western path of development. In their opinion, the West gives a clear preference for civilization to the detriment of culture. He concentrated his efforts on the external arrangement of being, on the creation of railways and communications, comfort and conveniences of life. At the same time, the inner world, the human soul, fell into oblivion and desolation. Hence the triumph of atheism, rationalism and utilitarianism.
It is these aspects, as the representatives of God-seeking note, that were adopted by the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia. In its struggle for the welfare and happiness of the people, its liberation, she chose radical means: revolution, violence, destruction and terror.
Supporters of the religious renaissance saw in the revolution of 1905-1907. a serious threat to the future of Russia, they perceived it as the beginning of a national catastrophe. Therefore, they turned to the radical intelligentsia with a call to renounce revolution and violence as a means of fighting for social justice, to abandon Western atheistic socialism and non-religious anarchism, to recognize the need to establish the religious and philosophical foundations of the worldview, and to agree to reconciliation with the renewed Orthodox Church.
They saw the salvation of Russia in the restoration of Christianity as the foundation of all culture, in the revival and affirmation of the ideals and values of religious humanism. The path to solving the problems of social life for them lay through personal self-improvement and personal responsibility. Therefore, they considered the development of a doctrine of personality to be the main task. As the eternal ideals and values of man, representatives of God-seeking considered holiness, beauty, truth and goodness, understanding them in a religious and philosophical sense. God was the highest and absolute value.
For all its attractiveness, the concept of religious revival was not flawless and invulnerable. While rightly reproaching the revolutionary intelligentsia for secrecy in the direction of the external, material conditions of life, the representatives of God-seeking went to the other extreme, proclaiming the unconditional primacy of the spiritual principle.
Forgetfulness of material interests makes a person's path to happiness no less problematic and utopian. As applied to Russia, the question of the socio-economic conditions of life was of exceptional acuteness. Meanwhile, the locomotive of the history of the Western type has long been on the territory of Russia. Picking up speed, he rushed through its vast expanses. To stop it or change its direction, huge efforts and significant changes in the structure of society were required.
The call for the rejection of revolution and violence needed support, in the counter movement from the official authorities and the ruling elite. Unfortunately, all the steps taken in this regard did not fully meet historical requirements. The authorities did not feel the urgent need for change, they showed unshakable conservatism, they wanted to preserve the Middle Ages at any cost.
In particular, Tsar Nicholas II, being a highly educated person who knew five foreign languages and had a delicate aesthetic taste, was at the same time a completely medieval person in his views. He was deeply and sincerely convinced that the social structure existing in Russia was the best and did not need any serious renovation. Hence the half-heartedness and inconsistency in the implementation of the proposed reforms. Hence the distrust of such reformers as S.Yu. Witte and P.A. Stolypin. The royal family focused its main attention on the problem of the health of the heir, for the solution of which they surrounded themselves with very dubious personalities such as G. Rasputin. The outbreak of the First World War further aggravated the situation.
On the whole, it can be said that extreme radicalism was to a certain extent generated by extreme conservatism. At the same time, the social base of opposition to the existing state of affairs was very broad. The revolutionary version of resolving urgent problems and contradictions was shared not only by radical movements, but also by more moderate ones.
Therefore, the appeal of the supporters of religious revival to embark on the Christian path of solving acute life issues did not find the desired support. This newer did not mean that he was not heard and remained a voice crying in the wilderness. No, he was heard, but not supported, rejected.
The release of the collection "Milestones" aroused great interest. It went through five editions in just one year. During the same time, more than 200 responses appeared in the press, five collections devoted to the discussion of the problems of Vekhi were published. However, the vast majority of reviews were negative. The new God-seekers were opposed not only by revolutionaries and the left opposition, but also by many right-wingers, including liberals. In particular, the leader of the Cadets party P.N. Miliukov toured the country with lectures in which he sharply criticized God-seekers, calling them reactionary.
It should be noted that even in the Church-Orthodox circles there was no real and sufficiently wide counter movement. The Holy Synod at first supported the events held in 1901-1903. religious and philosophical meetings, and then banned them. The church was rather wary of many of the new ideas of the participants in the religious revival, doubted their sincerity, and considered criticism undeserved and painful.
As Z. Gippius noted, in the course of meetings, a complete difference in the views of representatives of the secular and ecclesiastical worlds was often revealed, and some participants in the meetings only assured themselves of their mutual negative assessments. Thus, the reaction of contemporaries showed that the spokesmen for the religious and philosophical revival were far ahead of their time. However, their initiatives and appeals were not in vain. They contributed to the revival of spiritual life, increased the interest of the intelligentsia in the Church and Christianity.
