Kozma Rods

Most of the information about Prutkov’s life became known from the “ Biographical Information about Kozma Prutkov ” (including the “Obituary of Kozma Petrovich Prutkov”), published after his “death”.

Kozma Petrovich Prutkov was born on April 11, 1803 in the village of Tenteleva near Solvychegodsk , and died on January 13, 1863. He had an estate in the farm "Pustynka" near the railway station Sablino ^[3] . According to the posthumous statement, the medium received home education from the parish priest, had good grades ^[1] .

He spent his whole life, except for childhood and early adolescence , in the public service. In 1820 he entered the military service in the hussar regiment “only for the sake of a beautiful uniform” and stayed in the service for two years with a little. On the night of April 10-11, 1823, after a friendly drinking party, Prutkov had a dream: he saw a naked brigadier general in epaulettes , who, without letting Prutkov get dressed, led him to the top of a high and pointed mountain, and there he began to be taken out of the ancient crypt different precious materials , showing them to him and even applying some of them to his body. Suddenly, at the touch of the most expensive material, Prutkov felt a strong electric shock, from which he woke up in sweat. It is not known what significance Kozma Petrovich Prutkov attached to this vision, but often talking about it afterwards, he always started to worry and ended his story with a loud exclamation: “That morning, barely waking up, I decided to leave the regiment and resigned; and when I retired, I immediately decided to serve in the Ministry of Finance , in the Assay tent , where I will stay forever! ”Indeed, settling in one of the Assay tents (which was part of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs in the Ministry of Finance ) in 1823, he remained in it forty years, until his death ^[3] .

In the Assay Tent, Prutkov rose to the rank of State Counselor and received the highest position - became its Director (in fact, there was no such position; the Assay Tent was run by the Chief Controller of the samples ^[1] ). He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 1st degree ^[3] .

Prutkov was very pleased with his service. Only during the preparation of the reforms of Alexander II he was confused: at first he began to grumble, everywhere declaring that any reforms were premature and that he was “the enemy of all the so-called issues!”. However, then, when reforms were inevitable, he tried to distinguish himself with transformative projects and was very indignant when these projects were rejected because of the obvious impossibility of their implementation. He explained this with envy, disrespect for experience and merit, began to fall into despondency and despair. At one such moment, he wrote to the mystery "The Affinity of the World Forces." Soon, however, he calmed down, felt the same atmosphere around him. He again began to write projects, but already restrictive in nature, and they were accepted with approval. This gave him reason to expect a significant promotion ^[3] .

The sudden apoplexy blow that befell him in his director's office led to the death of January 13, 1863 ^[3] .

One of the authors of Prutkov, Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov, in a letter to A. N. Pypin , explained in sufficient detail the image of Kozma Prutkov:

“<...> the type of Kuzma Prutkov, who is so pretended that no so-called malice of the day is available if neither his thoughts nor his feelings are available, unless attention is paid to it from the official point of view. He is therefore ridiculous because he is completely innocent. He kind of says in his creations: “everything human is alien to me.”

"<...> In aphorisms, everyday wisdom is usually expressed. Prutkov, for the most part of his aphorisms, either speaks of public, common places with importance; or breaks into open doors with energy; or expresses thoughts, not only not related to his era and to Russia, but standing, so to speak, outside of any place and time. Being very limited, he gives wisdom advice. Not being a poet, he writes poetry. Without education and without understanding the situation in Russia, he writes “projections”. He is a contemporary of Kleinmichel , in whom zeal prevailed. He is a pupil of that era when everyone, without the slightest preparation, assumed all kinds of duties, if the authorities imposed them on him ” ^[1] .

The image of Kozma Prutkov is highly developed, which is a unique case for literary masks : he has a clearly defined biography, portrait, family and place of service ^{[4] [1]} .

The first work, which still did not have an established image of Prutkov, was the play (“ vaudeville joke” as Prutkov later called it) “ Fantasy ” written by Alexei Tolstoy and Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov in 1850. The play was staged on January 8, 1851 at the Alexandrinsky Theater ^[5] . Both authors at that time were young junk chambers who loved leprosy and the burdensome treasury that surrounded them. Their parody of the popular vaudevilles at that time passed through the censor, despite Nikolaev reactionism reigning at that time. In Fantasy (named after the dog of one of the heroines), banal vaudeville situations are brought to absurdity. During the premiere, a scandal erupted : the indignant emperor Nicholas I did not wait for the end and left the theater, saying: "I have seen a lot of stupid things in my lifetime, but I have never seen such a thing before." The next day the play was banned ^[1] .

The fable “ Forget-Me-Nots and Commas ” was written by Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov in 1851 and was so liked by the first two authors that other fables were written: “ Heron and Running Shake ”, “ Conductor and Tarantula ”, “ Camp and Voice ”, “ Worm and Fallows ” . All the fables, except the last, were published in the journal Sovremennik (pr. XI, in The Notes of the New Poet) in the same year without attribution. Jokingly putting these fables on a par with the work of Ivan Krylov , the authors decided to write similar works together under the name: “Kozma Prutkov” ^[1] .

By the summer of 1853, the image of Prutkov was formed and enough works were written (including the comedy " Blondes ") in order to transmit them for publication in the specially created section "Literary messy" of the journal Sovremennik. The originally intended publication of the collection of works by Kozma Prutkov did not take place.

After a six-year hiatus, Prutkov’s publications resumed in 1860.

January 13, 1863 Kozma Prutkov "died" from a stroke in the workplace. The article “Brief obituary and two posthumous works of Kozma Petrovich Prutkov” was published in Sovremennik: the comedy Rash Turk, or Is it Pleasant to Be a Grandson? And Project: On the Introduction of Unanimity in Russia . The obituary and notes on two previously unreleased works were signed allegedly by the nephews Sherstobitov and Voskoboinikov ^[3] . By whom time did the real authors live far from each other and it was difficult for them to coordinate their work and keep the image of Prutkov integral. In addition, the literary fakes that appeared under Prutkov and the works attributed to him made the authors think again about publishing the collected works, but again the printing of the book was postponed indefinitely. In 1863, F. M. Dostoevsky wrote in Winter Notes on Summer Impressions : “We now have one remarkable writer; the beauty of our time, one Kuzma Prutkov. His whole drawback is incomprehensible modesty: he still has not yet published a complete collection of his works ” ^[6] .

In 1875, Alexei Tolstoy died, and Vladimir and Alexei Zhemchuzhnikovs remained working on the publication of the collection. Vladimir had a clear idea of ​​the image of Prutkov and what should be included in the collection and what should not: “for Prutkov, just“ funny ”is not enough, but literary decoration and a certain kind of funny are needed.” For this reason, the comedy “Love and Silin”, written by Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov independently ^[1] was not initially recognized as “Prutkovskaya”.

In the early 1860s, the comedy “The Triumph of Virtue” (originally called the “Minister of Fertility”) was written, but royal censorship did not allow it to be published in The Whistle . The manuscript was lost for many years, and only in 1959 V.E. Bograd found it in the archives of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. The comedy was first published in the literary heritage publication ^[7] . It is estimated by the critic B. Ya. Bukhstab as “the most significant comedy of Kozma Prutkov, the only one containing politically sharp motives” ^[1] .

"The complete works of Kozma Prutkov with a portrait, fac-simile and biographical information" came out of the printing house of M. M. Stasyulevich in 1884 in a small print run of 600 copies. The book was quickly sold out and the next year it was reprinted already in a circulation of 2000 copies. Since then, the collection has been regularly reprinted, and in 1916 the 12th edition was published.

Name

According to contemporaries, as the basis for a pseudonym, the authors of Prutkov took the name of a real person - a serf butler at the Zhemchuzhnikovs Kuzma Prutkov (according to other sources, Frolova) ^[5] .

Works of Prutkov until 1863 were signed with the name “Kuzma Prutkov”, and after “death” - “Kozma Prutkov” (or senior glorification . Kozma Prutkovѣ ^[8] ), but in the “Obituary”, “Biographical Information” and other articles, the authors they emphasized Prutkov Ko with the fifth to enhance the grotesque of imaginary significance: "<...> he was always written: Cosma (and not Kuzma), like his other great namesakes - Cosma Minin , Cosma Medici , etc." ^{[1] [3]} . In private correspondence, the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers could call him Kozma, Kosma, and Kuzma.

The portrait is intentionally painted in such a way that the image of Kozma Prutkov is formed as a pompous and self-righteous person. In the portrait, he looks down at the viewer and smiles sarcastically. His hair was deliberately disheveled in an artistic mess ^[1] .

A pencil sketch of Kozma Prutkov was made by Lev Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov in 1853 while preparing to print a collection of works by Prutkov (now it is stored in the State Russian Museum in the collection of L. M. Zhemchuzhnikov ^[1] ). Then the sketch was handed over to the artists Alexander Yegorovich Beideman and Lev Feliksovich Lagorio , "who painted and redrawn on the stone ." The portrait was printed at Tyulin’s printing house to include it in a separate book, which never came out — instead, Prutkov’s works were published in the journal Sovremennik. Despite the fact that the portrait was created and ready for print in 1853, its publication was banned by censors on the grounds that it might turn out to be a cartoon for some real official. After 30 years, when the full collection of Prutkov’s works was being prepared for publication, Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov was forced to search for a lithographic copy of this portrait from his friends ^[1] .

After the official publication of the portrait, many interpretations, colorizations and cartoons came out to the original. For example, to publish the collection of Prutkov in 1961, the artist N. V. Kuzmin painted a series of portraits and illustrations ^[9] .

After the works of Prutkov became popular, a large number of satirical works by other authors were voluntarily published under this pseudonym. The Zhemchuzhnikov brothers in 1883 were forced to turn to the media to refute the involvement of the real authors of Kozma Prutkov in these works ^[1] .

According to several testimonies of contemporaries, Alexander Ammosov , who often performed under the pseudonym “Follower of Kozma Prutkov” in “Sovremennik”, played a part in creating the heritage of Kozma Prutkov. Peter Schumacher (in 1884) spoke most clearly about this.

“The Zhemchuzhnikov brothers dishonestly did not mention Alexander Ammosov, who more than Alexey Tolstoy participated in their circle:“ Zapyatki ”and“ Shepherd and milk ”- not them, but Ammosov. This is known to many, and if Count Aleksey were alive, he, as an honest, truthful person, would not have allowed this overexposure ” ^[10] .

- P.V. Schumacher from private correspondence with P.I. Schukin

Konstantin Aleksandrovich Bulgakov (fellow practitioner of Lermontov and the famous wit) spoke in a similar way in his letter of February 15, 1859 to the artist- sparkler Nikolai Stepanov ^[11] . In the notes to the “Complete Works of Kozma Prutkov” by B. Ya. Bukhstab , it is stated that the fable “Shepherd, Milk and the Reader” was sent anonymously to the editorial office of “ Whistle ” ^[1] . Nevertheless, both fables were included in the collection edited by the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers in 1884, in which only Aleksey Tolstoy, Aleksey Zhemchuzhnikov, Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov, Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov and Peter Ershov (several verses) were called involved in the work of Prutkov, and it was stated that “no one - Neither of the editors and employees of the journal Sovremennik, nor of all other Russian writers - had the slightest participation in the authorship of Kozma Prutkov ” ^[1] .

About the participation of his brother Alexander, Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov wrote as follows: “My brother Alexander does not have any literary talent and was never legible in the funny; therefore, he could never write anything alone, but sometimes we got off of the mass of his jokes and got off. So the first 3 fables are written, with his participation, by my brother Alexei; and the comedy "Blondes" - under the direct supervision of my brother and with some additions of brother Alexei " ^[1] .

There is a possibility that M. N. Longinov also took part in the circle of “Prutkovites”, often making “mischief” in St. Petersburg in company with Tolstoy, brothers Zhemchuzhnikovs and Pypin ^[5] .

According to the conviction of the literary critic P. N. Berkov, “Prutkov should be called what was written collectively by his circle of“ guardians ”or each of them individually signed by Prutkov or, finally, was supposed to be included in Prutkov ...” ( RGALI . F.103 Op. 1. Unit ridge 19. Ll 1-10) ^[12] .

• Looking at the world, one cannot help but be surprised.
• You can’t hatch one egg twice.
• The present is a consequence of the past, and therefore, constantly look at your asses, thereby saving yourself from notable mistakes.
• Many things are incomprehensible to us not because our concepts are weak; but because these things are not part of our circle of concepts.
• If you read the inscription “buffalo” on the elephant’s cage, do not believe your eyes.
• If you have a fountain, shut it up; give rest and a fountain.
• Watch out!
• What we have - do not store; lost - cry.
• What will others say about you if you cannot say anything about yourself?
• It is more useful to go the way of life than the whole universe.
• No one hugs the immense.
• I’ll say it again: no one hugs the immense!
• Spit in the eye of someone who says that you can hug the immense!
• If you want to be happy, be it.
• Where is the beginning of the end with which the beginning ends?
• If you want to be beautiful, go to the hussars.
• Who's stopping you from inventing waterproof gunpowder?
• Взирая на солнце, прищурь глаза свои, и ты смело разглядишь в нём пятна.
• Вакса чернит с пользой, а злой — с удовольствием.
• Усердие всё превозмогает! ^[13]
• Бывает, что усердие превозмогает и рассудок ^[13] .
• Если у тебя спрошено будет: что полезнее, солнце или месяц? — ответствуй: месяц. Ибо солнце светит днём, когда и без того светло; а месяц — ночью.
• Лучше скажи мало, но хорошо.
• Гони любовь хоть в дверь, она влетит в окно.
• Обручальное кольцо есть первое звено в цепи супружеской жизни.
• Легче держать вожжи, чем бразды правления.
• Не всё стриги, что растёт.
• В здании человеческого счастья дружба возводит стены, а любовь образует купол.
• Нет на свете государства свободнее нашего, которое, наслаждаясь либеральными политическими учреждениями, повинуется вместе с тем малейшему указанию власти.
• Держаться партии народной и современно, и доходно.
• И устрица имеет врагов.
• Не всякий генерал от природы полный.
• Под сладкими выражениями таятся мысли коварные: так от курящего табак нередко пахнет духами.
• Что есть хитрость? — Хитрость есть оружие слабого и ум слепого.
• Не ходи по косогору, сапоги стопчешь!
• Не в совокупности ищи единства, но более — в единообразии разделения.
• Единожды солгавши, кто тебе поверит?
• Мудрость, подобно черепаховому супу, не всем доступна.
• Знай, читатель, что мудрость уменьшает жалобы, а не страдания!
• Нет адъютанта без аксельбанта.

Зри в корень

Фраза «Зри в корень» приписывается Пруткову ошибочно — у него есть фраза «Смотри в корень!» (пятый афоризм в «Плодах раздумья») ^[14] . Авторство «Зри в корень» принадлежит А. С. Шишкову : одна из глав «Славянорусского корнеслова», изданного в 1817 году, носит название «Зри в корень: сын всегда говорит языком отца» ^[15] . Возможно, своей фразой Прутков высмеивал ретроградные идеи Шишкова (позже якобы отцом Пруткова была написана оперетта « Черепослов, сиречь Френолог » с главным персонажем Шишкенгольмом, идею и несколько куплетов для которой дали ссыльный декабрист Н. А. Чижов и поэт П. П. Ершов ^[16] ).

У Козьмы Пруткова, согласно опубликованным произведениям Толстого и братьев Жемчужниковых, были следующие родственники:

• В Брянском литературном музее ( Брянск ), в «Прутковском зале» размещена экспозиция, посвящённая Козьме Пруткову ^[18] .
• В Архангельске на проспекте Чумбарова-Лучинского перед городским Литературным музеем стоит памятник Козьме Пруткову ^{[19] [20]} .
• В Долгоруковском районе Липецкой области , около поворота на село Вязовое , установлен бюст Козьмы Пруткова ^[21] .
• Именем Козьмы Пруткова названы улица и два проезда в деревне Красненькая Тамбовской области ^{[22] [23] [24]} , а также аллея и фонтан в Тамбове ^[25] .
• Именем Пруткова назван астероид (5932) Прутков (Prutkov) , открытый Н. С. Черных 1 апреля 1976 в Крымской астрофизической обсерватории ^[26] .
• С 1998 года в середине июля в Сольвычегодске проходит региональный арт-фестиваль имени Козьмы Пруткова ^{[27] [28]} .
• 14 сентября 2013 года в Тосненском районе на территории усадьбы А. Толстова «Пустынька» прошёл «Первый международный фестиваль Козьмы Пруткова», в котором приняли участие около 170 литераторов из России, Болгарии и Китая ^{[29] [30]} . В 2017 году прошёл 5-й фестиваль ^[31] .
• Весной 2016 года в доме И. С. Остроухова в Трубниках , проводилась выставка митьков , на которой выставлялись полотна, созданные по мотивам афоризмов Пруткова ^[32] .

Сборники «Досуги» и «Пух и перья»:

• Стихотворения и басни
• «Плоды раздумья». Мысли и афоризмы

Эссе:

• «Выдержки из записок моего деда»
• «Проект: о введении единомыслия в России»
• «Выдержки из записок моего деда»

Драматические произведения:

• «Фантазия». Комедия в одном действии
• «Блонды». Драматическая пословица, в одном действии
• «Спор древних греческих философов об изящном». Драматическая сцена из древнегреческой классической жизни в стихах
• «Черепослов, сиречь Френолог». Оперетта в трех картинах (Сочинение Петра Федотовича Пруткова)
• «Опрометчивый Турка, или: Приятно ли быть внуком?» Естественно-разговорное представление
• «Сродство мировых сил». Мистерия в одиннадцати явлениях
• «Любовь и Силин». Драма в трех действиях
• «Торжество добродетели» («Министр плодородия»). Драма в четырех действиях из французской современной жизни

Collected Works

• Полное собрание сочинений Козьмы Пруткова с портретом, fac-simile и биографическими сведениями. - 1st ed. — С-Петербург: Типография М. М. Стасюлевича, 1884. — 253 с.
• Полное собрание сочинений Козьмы Пруткова с портретом, fac-simile и биографическими сведениями. — 12-е изд. — Петроград: Типография М. М. Стасюлевича, 1916. — 253 с ^[33] .
• Козьма Прутков . Полное собрание сочинений / Серия: «Библиотека „Иллюстрированная Россия“» — Париж, 1937. — 140 с. (том 1), 207 с. (том 2) ^[34] .
• Полное собрание сочинений Козьмы Пруткова / Серия: «Библиотека поэта. Большая серия» / Вступ. статья, ред. and note. Б. Я. Бухштаба. - M .: Owls. писатель, 1949. — 408 с., 7 л. ил ^[35] .
• Козьма Прутков . Сочинения... / Подготовка текста и примеч. А. К. Бабореко; Entry статья: Д. И. Заславский. — М.: Гослитиздат , 1955. — 420 с ^[36] .
• Козьма Прутков . Сочинения Козьмы Пруткова / Вступ. статья В. Сквозникова; Note А. Бабореко. — М.: Худож. лит., 1976. — 381 с ^[37] .
• Сочинения Козьмы Пруткова. / Comp. and after Д. А. Жукова ; Note А. К. Бабореко. - M .: Owls. Россия, 1981. — 304 с.
• Козьма Прутков. Сочинения / [сост. and auth. foreword С. Дмитренко ].. — М. : Эксмо, 2005. — 350 с. — (Самое лучшее, самое любимое). - 5,000 copies. — ISBN 5-699-14265-7 .

На иностранных языках

Козьма Прутков практически неизвестен за рубежом.

Первая книга, посвящённая Пруткову на английском языке: Barbara Heldt Monter , Koz'ma Prutkov — The Art of Parody, The Hague-Paris, 1972, p. 143 ^{[38] [39]} .

На немецкий язык перевёл некоторые произведения Пруткова, в том числе две пьесы — «Опрометчивый Турка, или Приятно ли быть внуком?» и «Сродство мировых сил», эссе «Проект: о введении единомыслия в России» и афоризмы. Была опубликована книга: Fehler des Todes. Russische Absurde aus 2 Jahrhunderten. Произведения Пруткова в переводе с русского Питера Урбана. Франкфурт-на-Майне: , 1990. — 506 с. — ISBN 978-3-88661-102-7 ^[40] .

В 2018 году февральский (90-й) номер немецкого журнала « », подготовленный , был посвящён Козьме Пруткову ^{[41] [42]} .

Сочинения по мотивам

• Жуков Д. А. Козьма Прутков и его друзья / Серия: Библиотека «Любителям российской словесности». — М.: Современник, 1976. — 382 с.
• Смирнов А. Е. Козьма Прутков. Жизнеописание + Приложение: Прутковиада. Новые досуги. — СПб.: Вита Нова , 2010. — 640 с. — ISBN 978-5-93898-287-1 — Серия: Жизнеописание ^[4] .
• Смирнов А. Е . Прутковиада // Новый мир . 2001. № 9. С.120—134 ^[43] .
• Достоевский Ф. М. Из дачных прогулок Кузьмы Пруткова и его друга , — Гражданин . Газета-журнал политический и литературный. SPb .: Type. А. Траншеля, 10 октября № 23/25.1878 ^[44] .

Пьеса «Черепослов, сиречь Френолог» ставилась в петербургских (ленинградских) театрах: в 1909—1911 годах — в « Весёлом театре для пожилых детей » (там же режиссёром Николаем Евреиновым вновь была поставлена комедия «Фантазия» ^[45] ) и театре «Фарс», в 1922—1923 годах — в « Свободном театре » Г. Юдовского ^[46] .

В 1913 году в театре пародий « Кривое зеркало » (и позже в кабаре « Бродячая собака » ^[47] ) состоялась премьера сатирической пьесы «Торжественное заседание в память Козьмы Пруткова» Н. Г. Смирнова и С. Щербакова ^[48] . Там же была поставлена миниатюра «Прутков и Антихрист» за авторством Д. Мережковского и З. Гиппиус ^[49] .

В 1975 году вышел радиоспектакль «Директор Пробирной палатки» с участием артистов ленинградских театров ^[50] .

Литературная программа «Козьма Прутков. Директор Пробирной палатки» вышла на Центральном телевидении СССР в 1989 году ^[51] .

На эстонском «Радио-4» вышел радиоспектакль «Опрометчивый Турка, или: Приятно ли быть внуком?» ^[52] .

В 2007 году ^[53] на « Радио России » вышел радиоспектакль «Фантазия» ^[54] .

В 2016 году на сцене Московского драматического театра имени М. Н. Ермоловой режиссёром Алексеем Левинским были поставлены две пьесы Козьмы Пруткова — «Фантазия» и «Опрометчивый Турка» ^[55] .

• Берков П. Н. Козьма Прутков. Директор пробирной палатки и поэт. К истории русской пародии. — М.: Издательство Академии наук СССР, 1933. — 226 с.
• Сукиасова И. М. Язык и стиль пародий Козьмы Пруткова. Тбилиси: Издательство АН Груз.ССР, 1961. — 266 с.
• Смирнов А. Е. Козьма Прутков. — М. : Молодая гвардия, 2011. — 406 с. — ISBN 978-5-235-03412-9 . — (Жизнь замечательных людей)

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