Russian symbolism

At first, Russian symbolism had basically the same prerequisites as Western symbolism: “a crisis of a positive world outlook and morality” (in Russia, in the context of a crisis of a populist cultural tradition). The main principle of the early Russian Symbolists is panesthetism ; aesthetization of life and the desire for various forms of substitution of the aesthetics of logic and morality. “ Beauty will save the world ” - receives new coverage. Russian symbolism, actively absorbing the modernist literature of the West, seeks to absorb and include in its circle of themes and interests all the phenomena of world culture, which, according to the Russian Symbolists, meet the principles of " pure ", free art. Antiquity , rebirth , romanticism - the era in which Valery Bryusov , Dmitry Merezhkovsky , Nikolai Minsky and others find artists and poets of symbolism. Art itself begins to be understood as a storehouse and preserver of the beautiful (pure experience and true knowledge). “Nature creates unfinished freaks, - sorcerers perfect Nature and give life a beautiful face” ( Konstantin Balmont ) But in Russian literature of the 2nd half of the 19th century certain principles prevailed, if not subordination, then the necessary connection of art with soil, people, the state, etc. Therefore, the first publications of Russian Symbolists, not yet adapted to the Russian spirit, met more than a cold welcome. The next generation, to some extent, continues hard work on interpretations of "panesthetism", but no longer dominates, mingling with increasingly relevant religious, philosophical and mythological searches.

The older Russian Symbolists ( 1890s ) at first met with criticism and the reading public mostly rejection and ridicule. As the most convincing and original phenomenon, Russian symbolism declared itself at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the advent of a new generation, with their interest in nationality and Russian song, with their more sensitive and organic appeal to Russian literary traditions.

Through the heads of their "teachers", largely imitators of the West, the younger generation of Symbolists "opens up" new domestic predecessors. Many works by Alexander Pushkin (The Prophet, The Poet, etc.), Fyodor Tyutchev (first of all, Silentium!, Which became a manifestation of Russian symbolism), the St. Petersburg stories by Gogol ^[1] receive a new interpretation in the light of symbolism; deeper, larger and more symbolic appears the legacy of Fedor Dostoevsky . The early "representative" of symbolism was also discerned in the "crazy" for contemporaries Konstantin Batyushkov (1787-1855).

Even more undoubted predecessors of symbolism are Russian poets of the 19th century, close to ideas about "pure poetry", such as Athanasius Fet , Yakov Polonsky , Apollon Maykov , Eugene Baratynsky . Tyutchev, who indicated the path of music and nuance, symbol and dream, led Russian poetry, according to Symbolist criticism, from the “Apollonic harmonies” of Pushkin’s time. But it was this path that was close to many Russian Symbolists.

Finally, it is impossible to imagine the worldview of the younger symbolists without the influence of the personality of Vladimir Solovyov . Sophiology , collegiality , the ideal of “whole knowledge”, the desire to combine epistemology with ethics and aesthetics, the cult of eternal femininity , Russia and the West , the possibilities of religious modernization and the prospects for uniting churches are some of the most important topics that the young generation of Symbolists in the first years of the twentieth century developed influenced by the heritage of Vladimir Solovyov.

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  Valery Bryusov. Portrait of Mikhail Vrubel

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  Konstantin Balmont. Portrait of Valentin Serov

Elder Symbolists

Russian symbolism declares itself in the first half of the 1890s. The starting points of his story are usually referred to as several publications; First of all, it is: “On the causes of the decline ...”, the literary and critical work of D. Merezhkovsky and the Russian Symbolists almanac, released at his own expense by student Valery Bryusov in 1894 . These three brochures (the last book was published in 1895 ) were created by two authors (often acting as translators in the framework of this publication): Valery Bryusov (as editor-in-chief and author of demonstrations and disguised as several pseudonyms) and his student friend A. L. Miropolsky .

Thus, Merezhkovsky and his wife, Zinaida Gippius , were at the source of symbolism in St. Petersburg, Valery Bryusov - in Moscow. But the most radical and vivid representative of early St. Petersburg symbolism was Alexander Dobrolyubov , a “ decadent way of life” in his student years that served to create one of the most important biographical legends of the Silver Age.

The myth about Alexander Dobrolyubov, which began to take shape already in the very early period of the development of Russian symbolism - no matter what it is called, whether it is “devilish” (Hansen-Leve) or “decadent” (I.P. Smirnov), was finally formed at the beginning of XX century, that is, when Dobrolyubov himself had already left literature and broke with his usual literary and artistic circle ... Of course, not only Dobrolyubov had the idea of ​​the inferiority of literary creativity in comparison with life. So, for example, Merezhkovsky, with whose name the emergence of symbolism as a direction is also associated, admitted in his autobiography that in his youth he “walked through villages, talked with peasants” and “intended to“ go to the people ”at the end of the university, to become a rural teacher.” The futurist poet Bozidar later dreamed of going to the ends of the world, to wild peoples not spoiled by civilization. But only Dobrolyubov (and after him - the poet Leonid Semenov) managed to show consistency and overcome the conventions of creativity. The second side of the myth is the feeling of the constant, as they would say now, virtual presence of the departed poet in everyday literary reality. The repeatedly cited memoirs of G. Ivanov describe how literary men going to a tram stop to go to the editorial office of Hyperborey magazine met a man in a cap, felt boots, and a short fur coat. His question: “Tell me, gentlemen, where is Apollo located?”, It shocks and recalls the image of Alexander Dobrolyubov.

“... This mysterious, semi-legendary man,” writes G. Ivanov. “According to rumors, he wanders somewhere in Russia - from the Urals to the Caucasus , from Astrakhan to Petersburg, - wanders like this, a man in a sheepskin coat, with a staff - like did we see him or how did he seem to us on a dark St. Petersburg street <...> somewhere, for some reason wanders - for a very long time, since the beginning of the nineties, - across Russia <...>

A strange and unusual life: something from the poet, something from Alyosha Karamazov, many more different “something”, mysteriously mixed up in this man, whose charm, they say, was irresistible. ”

- Alexander Kobrinsky Conversation Through Dead Space ^[2]

In Moscow, “Russian Symbolists” are published at their own expense and are met with a “cold welcome” by critics; Petersburg was more fortunate with modernist editions - already at the end of the century there were the Northern Herald , the World of Art ... However, Dobrolubov and his friend and fellow student at the gymnasium, V.V. Gippius , also publish their first cycles of poetry at their own expense; come to Moscow and get acquainted with Bryusov. Bryusov did not have a high opinion of the art of composing Dobrolyubov, but Alexander’s personality itself made a strong impression on him, leaving a mark on his future fate. Already in the early years of the twentieth century, as the editor of the most significant symbolist publishing house Scorpio , which appeared in Moscow, Bryusov will publish Dobrolyubov’s poems. By his own, later recognition, at the early stage of his work, Bruce took the greatest influence of all his contemporaries from Alexander Dobrolubov and Ivan Konevsky (a young poet whose work was highly appreciated by Bryusov; he died in his twenty-fourth year of life).

Independently of all modernist groups - apart, but one that cannot be overlooked - Fyodor Sologub (Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov) created his own special poetic world and innovative prose. The novel "Heavy Dreams" was written by Sologub as early as the 1880s, the first verses were marked in 1878 . Until the 1890s he worked as a teacher in the province, since 1892 he settled in St. Petersburg. Since the 1890s, a circle of friends has been gathering in the writer's house, often uniting authors from different cities and warring publications. Already in the twentieth century, Sologub became the author of one of the most famous Russian novels of this era - The Little Devil (1907), introducing the terrible teacher Peredonov into the circle of Russian literary characters; and even later in Russia he is declared the "king of poets" ...

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  Max Voloshin. Portrait of Boris Kustodiev

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  Vyacheslav Ivanov. Portrait of Konstantin Somov

But perhaps the works of Konstantin Balmont became the most readable, most sonorous and musical verses at an early stage of Russian symbolism. Already at the end of the nineteenth century, K. Balmont most distinctly declared the symbolist search for “correspondences” between sound, meaning and color (similar ideas and experiments were known by Baudelaire and Rimbaud , and later by many Russian poets - Bryusov, Blok , Kuzmin , Khlebnikov and etc). For Balmont, for example, for Verlaine , this search consists primarily in creating the sound-semantic fabric of the text - music that creates meaning. Balmont’s fascination with sound recording, colorful adjectives, crowding out verbs, leads to the creation of almost “meaningless” texts, according to ill-wishers, but this interesting phenomenon in poetry leads over time to the emergence of new poetic concepts (sound recording, zaum, meloeclamation); Balmont is a very fruitful author - more than thirty books of poetry, translations ( W. Blake , E. Poe , Indian poetry and more), numerous articles.

I am the sophistication of Russian slow speech,

Other poets are forerunners before me,

I first discovered biases in this speech,

Rehash, angry, gentle ringing.

C. Balmont

Young Symbolists (Second "Generation" of Symbolists)

The younger symbolists in Russia are called mainly writers who appear with their first publications in the 1900s. Among them were really very young authors, like Sergey Solovyov , A. Bely , A. Blok , Ellis , and very respectable people, like the director of the gymnasium I. Annensky , scientist Vyacheslav Ivanov , musician and composer M. Kuzmin . In the first years of the century, representatives of the young generation of Symbolists create a romantically painted circle where the mastery of future classics, which became known as the Argonauts or Argonautism, is ripening.

I emphasize: in January 1901, a dangerous “mystical” firecracker was laid in us, giving rise to so many rumors about the “Beautiful Lady” ... The composition of the Argonauts circle, in those years of students, is extraordinary ... Lev Lvovich Kobylinsky (Ellis), who joined those same years to us and became the soul of the circle; he was literally and sociologically educated; an amazing improviser and mime ... S. M. Solovyov, a sixth-grade schoolboy, surprising Bryusov, a young poet, philosopher, theologian ...

... Ellis called it a circle of Argonauts, confined to an ancient myth, telling about a trip of a group of heroes to a mythical country on the ship "Argo": beyond the Golden Fleece ... the "Argonauts" had no organization; “Argonauts” included those who became close to us, often without suspecting that they were “Argonauts” ... Blok felt like an “Argonauts” during his brief life in Moscow ...

... and nevertheless, the “Argonauts" left some mark in the culture of artistic Moscow in the first decade of the beginning of the century; they merged with the "Symbolists", considered themselves essentially "Symbolists", wrote in symbolic magazines (I, Ellis, Solovyov), but differed, so to speak, in the "style" of their identification. There was nothing of literature in them; and there was nothing of the external splendor in them; and meanwhile, a number of interesting personalities, original not in appearance, but essentially passed through argonautism ...

- Andrei Bely, “The Beginning of the Century”. - S. 20-123.

In St. Petersburg at the beginning of the century, the “tower” of Vyach is perhaps most suitable for the title of “center of symbolism” . Ivanova (see also the Academy of Poet ), is a famous apartment on the corner of Tavricheskaya Street, among the inhabitants of which at different times were Andrei Bely, M. Kuzmin, V. Khlebnikov , A. R. Mintslova , which was visited by A. Blok, N. Berdyaev , A. V. Lunacharsky , A. Akhmatova , the " worldly artists " and spiritualists , anarchists and philosophers. The famous and mysterious apartment: legends tell about it, researchers study the meetings of secret communities (Hafizites, Theosophists, etc.) here, the gendarmes conducted searches and surveillance here, in this apartment most of the famous poets of the era first publicly read their poems, here for several three completely unique writers lived at once at the same time, whose works often present fascinating puzzles for commentators and offer readers unexpected language models - this is unchanging "Salon, the wife of Ivanov LD Zinoviev Hannibal , Kuzmin composer (author of songs first, and later - novels and poetry books), and - of course the owner. The owner of the apartment, the author of the book "Dionysus and Dionysianism", was called "Russian Nietzsche ." With the undoubted significance and depth of influence in culture, Vyach. Ivanov remains a "semi-familiar continent"; this is partly due to his long stays abroad, and partly to the complexity of his poetic texts, in addition to requiring a rare erudition from the reader.

In Moscow in the 1900s, the editorial office of the Scorpion Publishing House, where Valery Bryusov became the permanent editor , did not hesitate to call the authoritative center of symbolism. This publishing house was preparing editions of the most famous symbolist periodical, Libra . Among the regular employees of Libra were Andrei Bely, K. Balmont, Jurgis Baltrushaitis ; other authors regularly collaborated - Fedor Sologub, A. Remizov , M. Voloshin , A. Blok, etc., many translations from the literature of Western modernism were published. There is an opinion that the story of Scorpio is the story of Russian symbolism, but probably this is an exaggeration.

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  Andrey Bely. Portrait of Lev Bakst

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  Alexander Blok. Portrait of Konstantin Somov ( 1907 )

“The content of Russian symbolism (especially in the younger generation) was noticeably influenced by the philosophy of Vl. Solovyov. As Vyach. Ivanov put it in a letter to A. Blok:“ We are mysteriously baptized with Solovyov. ”The image of Hagia Sophia often served as an inspiration for Russian symbolists. Hagia Sophia Solovyova - at the same time Old Testament wisdom and the Platonic idea of ​​wisdom, the Eternal Femininity and the World Soul, the “Virgin of the Rainbow Gate” and the Immaculate Wife - is a subtle invisible spiritual principle that pervades the universe. The cult of Sofia was reverently perceived A. Blok, A. Bely, S. Solovyov A. Blok called Sofia the Beautiful Lady, M. Voloshin saw her incarnation in the legendary Queen Taiah.The pseudonym A. Bely (B. Bugaev) suggested the dedication of Eternal Femininity. appeal to the invisible, “unspeakable” as the true source of life. Solovyov’s poem “Dear friend” was perceived as the motto of the “Argonauts”, as a set of their idealistic moods:

Dear friend, you don’t see,

That everything we see is

Only glare, only shade

From the invisible eyes?

Dear friend, you don’t hear

What everyday noise is crackling -

Only distorted response

Triumphant consonances?

Now we do not confuse these concepts, but for many in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, these were almost synonyms. In the largest encyclopedias of that time, trying to get clarifications about the concept of “ decadence ”, we can find a reference to the article “ Symbolism ” ^[3] . Similarly, the ESBE begins the article “Symbolists” with the words “(also“ decadents ”) - representatives of the newest trend ...” ^[4] .

Examples of poetic decadence in Russia can be found in the early works of V. Bryusov, for example, “Creativity” - a poem, which, according to Vl. Solovyov’s is a decadent pearl and completely devoid of any meaning -

Creation

Shadow of Uncreated Creatures

Swaying in a dream

Like blades of patches

On an enamel wall.

Purple hands

On an enamel wall

Drowsy sounds drowsy

In the sonorous sound of silence.

And transparent stalls,

In the sonorous sound of silence

Grow like sparkles

With the azure moon.

Rises month naked

With the azure moon ...

Sounds roar drowsily

Sounds fall to me.

Secrets of Creations

Affectionately kiss me

And the shadow of patches trembles

On an enamel wall.

and in many poems by Z. Gippius (they often quote the illustrative poem “Everything is Round”). Often, features of decadence are seen in the peculiar mythological symbolism of the poetic world of F. Sologub. It is often said about "overcoming decadence" by the younger Symbolists; however, strictly speaking, one can discern the features of romantics in them, but there is not a single decadent.

In Russia, as in France, symbolism, and especially decadence, give rise to myths and feed on legends. In Western Europe, decadence is formed mainly among the descendants of the representatives of the old feudal aristocracy . The legendary representative of French decadence can be called Count Robert de Montesquieu , who became the prototype for Desesent - the main character of the "decadence Bible", Guismans novel "On the contrary." In Russia, perhaps the only legendary figure of decadence was Alexander Dobrolyubov, the nephew of the famous figure of populist literature, from a family with strong populist, and even philanthropic-ascetic traditions (for example, Maria Dobrolyubova ). For several months of his life, as a student, he lived in a room with black walls, smoked opium and wrote appropriate poems under the influence of Western trends of that time. But Dobrolyubov soon felt the futility of such experiments and made a sharp turn in his worldview and in his life; in the next few decades of his life, he condemns decadence and never returns to it again. Dobrolyubov breaks with the world of literature and leaves for the people; and this only sharpens and accelerates the creation of the decadent myth; this allows contemporaries, basically not knowing anything about Alexander’s further fate, to create stories reminiscent of the literary myths of France, to call him “Russian Rimbaud”, etc. In reality, Dobrolyubov’s further destiny is religious and labor asceticism, which has nothing to do with decadence, not to symbolism; key details of this fate became known only in the 2000s ^[2] .

Symbolism was a multilateral cultural phenomenon and encompassed not only literature, but also music, theater, and visual arts. The main motives of this trend can be seen in the works of such prominent composers as Alexander Skryabin , Igor Stravinsky and others. The art magazine World of Art under the direction of S. P. Diaghilev becomes not only the brightest magazine about art in Russia, but also a powerful means of promoting Russian culture in Europe through the organization of international exhibitions and the publication of reproductions of works of Russian art in the European press. This magazine was based on the work of the founders - a group of young artists: A. Benois , L. Bakst , M. Dobuzhinsky . In addition to those named with this magazine, V. Borisov-Musatov , M. Vrubel and others collaborated at different times.

Each well-known representative of the Symbolist movement had his own path to it, and the work of all Symbolists can not always be united by any one characteristic feature. In their work, the Symbolists sought to create a complex, associative metaphor, abstract and irrational. This is the desire for “that which is not in the world” by Gippius, “sonorous-sonorous silence” by Bryusov, “And rebellion is dark with bright eyes” by Vyach. Ivanov, “the abyss torn to shreds of azure” by Blok, “dry deserts of shame” by A. Bely. Symbolists defined the concept of “symbol” as the sign that connects two realities, two worlds - the earthly and heavenly, and this connection is established only by feelings, intuitively, irrationally. Bryusov called symbolism "poetry of hints." Bely approached this phenomenon more broadly: he perceived symbolism as modus cogitandi (way of thinking) and as modus vivendi (way of life), and he devoted a number of articles to this, which were later included in the book “Symbolism as an Understanding of the World” . Representatives of this trend believed that only art helps to achieve ideals, to join the kingdom of the soul. The role of the symbolist poet they led to the fact that he is the creator of a new life, a prophet, he helps to create a new person. Symbolists considered the poet’s mission to be the highest on earth, since art for them was above all spheres of human life.

We are talking about the decline of symbolism as a single movement came in 1910 . All his representatives continued to work fruitfully, to create, but from about this time their paths, including creative ones, began to diverge: they began to focus more on their own creativity. But this did not become the death of symbolism, as many have suggested. Symbolism had a huge impact on the literature and art of subsequent generations and laid the many creative traditions that are followed to this day.

All sections up to “Symbolism in Russian Art” are written on the basis of the author’s lectures approved for use in higher education. This publication does not infringe anyone's copyright. All the facts cited in the article can be verified.

1. Literary heritage. - M .: 1937.- T. 27-28.
2. White A. Symbolism as an understanding of the world / Comp., Entry. Art. and approx. L.A. Sugai. - M .: Republic, 1994 .-- 528 s. - (Thinkers of the 20th century).
3. Cayman Avril . History of Russian Symbolism / Authorized Trans. from English V.V. Isaakovich. - M .: Republic, 2000 .-- 415 p.
4. Tukh B. I. Guide to the Silver Age: A brief popular essay on an era in the history of Russian culture. - M.: “Octopus”, 2005. - 208 p. - 2nd ed.
5. Encyclopedia of Symbolism, ed. Jean Cassou. - M., 1998.
6. Kolobaeva L.A. Russian Symbolism. - M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 2000 .-- 296 p.

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• D. S. Merezhkovsky "On the causes of decline and on the new trends of modern Russian literature"