Pushkin anniversary of 1937

A decree of the All-Union Central Executive Committee of the USSR of December 16, 1935 established the All-Union Pushkin Committee, chaired by Maxim Gorky , whose task was the organization and management of events to perpetuate the memory of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin and popularize his work. Similar committees were also created in all union republics, as well as in regions, regions, cities, institutes, and schools. The composition of the All-Union Committee included the highest party and state officials - Voroshilov , Kuibyshev , Zhdanov , Enukidze , Bubnov . At the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, preparations for the anniversary events were conducted by the Pushkin Commission, chaired by Academician A.S. Orlov . Yu. G. Oksman was appointed deputy, the commission included M. P. Alekseev, D. D. Blagoy , S. M. Bondi , V. V. Veresaev , G. O. Vinokur , V. V. Gippius , L. P. Grossman , V. M. Zhirmunsky, T. G. Zenger , N. K. Kozmin , A. I. Malein , L. B. Modzalevsky , N. K. Piksanov , A. L. Slonimsky , B. V Tomashevsky , Yu. N. Tynyanov , A. M. Efros , D. P. Yakubovich . A separate Moscow branch of the commission was created, headed by academicians M. N. Rozanov , M. A. Tsyavlovsky and N. F. Belchikov .

On February 10, in the afternoon, a rally of many thousands was held at the Pushkin monument in Moscow. The meeting was timed to coincide with the opening of the updated record on the pedestal - a line was returned from the poem " Monument ": "That in my cruel age I glorified freedom." The festive decoration of Pushkin Square was led by the artist E. M. Mandelberg , the dominant feature was a giant portrait of Pushkin reading poetry, mounted on the building of the Holy Monastery ^[1] .

The main official event of the anniversary was a gala evening meeting at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow on February 10, 1937, in which all the leaders of the USSR, led by Stalin, took part. The meeting was broadcast on the radio throughout the country. Solemn meetings, meetings, conferences, performances, concerts and evenings were held on that day in many cities of the USSR. The square and buildings of the Bolshoi, Maly and Central Children's Theaters were decorated in the same way with giant panels on them and the use of illumination. The design project was led by theater artist F.F. Fedorovsky ^[2] .

In Leningrad, ceremonial meetings were held on February 10 at the museum - the last apartment of Pushkin and February 11 at the Kirov Theater . On February 10, a rally of many thousands was held on Birzhevaya Square, renamed Pushkinskaya on the anniversary, during which a stone-laying ceremony was held at the site of the future monument to the poet. In addition to the first party leaders, speeches during ceremonial meetings and rallies were made by writers Nikolai Tikhonov , Konstantin Fedin , Yuri Tynyanov, Academician Orbeli , People's Artist Boris Babochkin , and students of Leningrad schools ^[1] .

Pushkin rallies and ceremonial meetings, concerts and poetry evenings were held on the anniversary days in many cities of the Soviet Union and in every higher and secondary educational institution, in theaters, enterprises, military units. Carnivals on the themes of Pushkin's works were very popular. A separate commission was formed in the structure of the All-Union Pushkin Committee to conduct the anniversary in elementary and secondary schools. In many schools in Moscow, Leningrad, Nizhny Lomov , Uralsk and other cities of the country, special “Pushkin hours” were introduced into the schedule. School libraries were replenished with a large number of Pushkin's works and the scientific works devoted to him, published on the anniversary. Over 90 million specially designed school notebooks were printed - with drawings on the plots of Pushkin’s poems and fairy tales, texts of his poems and excerpts from poems. Readers ’contests and drawing contests took place everywhere ^[3] .

Particular attention was paid to celebrations in Pushkin memorial places: Mikhailovsky , Trigorsky , Boldin and others. In the days preceding the anniversary, articles from leading Pushkin scholars of the Institute of Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR were published from number to number in regional newspapers. On the day of the anniversary, a rally was held in Mikhailovsky, to which 15 thousand people from nearby regions were brought. On February 18, the Pushkin Museum was opened in the village of Mikhailovsky. In Boldino, events were held to organize the future museum of the poet, and the restoration of the manor park was carried out. New schools and a house of culture were built, which were named after Pushkin ^[4] .

Similar ceremonial events were also held in other places associated with the name of the poet: in the former estate of the Goncharovs in Kamenka, in the Wulfs estate in Bernov , in Orenburg and the village of Berdy , in Gurzuf in Crimea , in Georgia and many other places that he visited in his travels poet. In the village of Vyoshenskaya on the Don, the organization of all anniversary events was led by the Pushkin Committee under the leadership of Mikhail Sholokhov ^[5] .

On February 13, 1937, the Pushkin session of the USSR Academy of Sciences began its work in Moscow, inaugurated by the president of the academy, V. L. Komarov , who recalled in a speech that in 1832 Pushkin was elected a member of the Russian Academy . From the All-Union Pushkin Committee of Academics welcomed the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Bubnov. On the first day of work, the report “Pushkin in the History of the Russian Social Movement” by P. I. Lebedev-Polyansky and “Worldview of Pushkin” by V. Ya. Kirpotin were heard. In the following days, leading Pushkin scholars of the country spoke at the session. M. Nechkina in her report highlighted the relationship between Pushkin and his friends from the circle of the Decembrists, as well as about changes in his worldview in subsequent years. N.L. Brodsky devoted his report to the role of the French encyclopedists in shaping the poet's worldview. Professor Tsyavlovsky made a report on the ongoing work of literary scholars in the search, cataloging and preservation of Pushkin's manuscripts and autographs. Academician Orlov - “Pushkin - the creator of the Russian literary language” presented their reports; Professor V. A. Desnitsky - “Pushkin as the founder of new Russian literature”; Professor Zhirmunsky and Professor Alekseev - “Pushkin and World Literature”. One of the days of the session was devoted to the influence of Pushkin on the literature of the peoples of Russia, with the reports “Pushkin and Turkic literature” and “Pushkin and Georgian literature” made by academicians Samoilovich and Orbeli . The Pushkin session of the Academy of Sciences was completed by the speeches of academician Osinsky and writer Fedin ^[6] .

The national academies of the Union republics also held their Pushkin sessions: on February 6, the Belarusian Academy of Sciences; February 9 - Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR; February 16 - Georgian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. On February 11, representatives of Leningrad academic institutions and institutes gathered for a solemn meeting. On February 22, the Plenary Session of the Board of the Union of Soviet Writers was dedicated to Pushkin, where N. Tikhonov made a report, “Pushkin and Soviet Poetry,” Yu. N. Tynyanov, with a report, “Prose of Pushkin,” and I. Altman , with a report, “Pushkin's Drama” ^[7] .

The most important events of the anniversary were recognized by numerous editions of the works of A. S. Pushkin. By a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of December 30, 1936, the full academic publication of Pushkin's works in 16 volumes was included as a separate event in the planned celebrations. A prominent Bolshevik V. D. Bonch-Bruevich was appointed as the editorial staff . The 6-volume collections of publications of the Goslitizdat and Academia , separate works of Pushkin, including translations into many national languages ​​of the USSR, were also prepared for release, the total circulation of published works of Pushkin reached 14 million copies. A special illustrated book series was published, including the editions of “Poems”, “Tales”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Dramas”, “Belkin's Tales”, “The Queen of Spades” and “Dubrovsky”, to which artists Kibrik , Pakhomov were involved , Samokhvalov , Tyrsa , Khizhinsky , Jacobson ^{[8] [9]} .

In addition to Pushkin’s works, documentary and artistic versions of the poet’s biography - “Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin” by V. Ya. Kirpotin and the first two parts of the novel “Pushkin” by Yu. N. Tynyanov were also published for the anniversary. In addition to them, the illustrated textbook “Pushkin Places” (introductory article by D. P. Yakubovich , engravings by L. Khizhinsky) and the collection “Pushkin in memoirs and short stories of contemporaries” (introductory article by S. Ya. Hessen ) were published, and notes on Pushkin ”by I. I. Pushchin (edition, article and notes by S. Streich ), the tragedy in the poems by A. Globa “ Pushkin ”, volume of Belinsky’s works with articles about Pushkin (edited by N. Mordovchenko ). Among the scientific Pushkinians, in preparation for the jubilee, collections of "Pushkin in Russian Poetry", "Poets of the Pushkin Pore", "Prose of the Pushkin Pore", two volumes of the "Temporary of the Pushkin Commission" of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a description of Pushkin's manuscripts stored in the USSR Academy of Sciences were published (compiled by L. B. Modzalevsky and B. V. Tomashevsky ), “Pushkiniana” (1911-1917) (compiled by A. G. Fomin ), the work of B. S. Maylakh “Pushkin and Russian Romanticism”, V. Golubev “Pushkin in the image of Repin ” ^[10] .

By a February decision of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the name Pushkin was given to the State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, it was renamed Pushkinskaya Street Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Neskuchnaya Embankment in Moscow and Birzhevaya Square in Leningrad, the name Pushkin was given to Detskoe (formerly Tsarskoye) Village .

On the day of the duel on February 8, 1937, at the place of Pushkin's duel on the Black River, the granite obelisk was opened (architect E.I. Katonin ) with a bronze bas-relief of the poet's work by M. Manizer . The inscriptions were placed on the obelisk: “The place of the duel of A. S. Pushkin 26 / V — 1799 - 29 / I — 1837” and “Built in 1937” ^[11] .

One of the main events of the anniversary was to be the construction of a new monument to the poet in Leningrad. The sculptors B. Korolev , V. Lishev , M. Manizer , S. Merkurov , V. Sinaisky , I. Tchaikov , I. Shadr , L. Sherwood were invited to present their projects of the future monument. A lot of controversy arose about the place of the future monument. The architectural environment of the future monument, in turn, should have influenced its character. Among the proposed options for the place of the future monument were named the square at the Academy of Arts, the square in front of the Russian Museum, one of the Neva embankments, the square in front of the Exchange building on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. The jubilee Pushkin Committee initially preferred the square at the Academy of Arts, but then the opinion prevailed in favor of the square in front of the Exchange. On February 10, on the day of the celebration of the anniversary, a ceremonial laying of stone was made in Leningrad. The monument was supposed to be facing the Neva, it was assumed that it would not be lower than the Rostral columns surrounding it. However, during two contests - in the autumn of 1937 and at the end of 1938, the design of the monument on the square near the Exchange (during the jubilee that became Pushkinskaya) did not translate into a real project. The project of Shadr recognized as the best was taken as a basis after the war when the monument to Anikushin was erected in 1957 ^{[12] [13]} .

By the anniversary, restoration work was completed in the museum - the poet’s last apartment at Moika 12. The former architectural appearance of the apartment was restored, restoration work was led by a committee composed of museum director B. V. Shaposhnikov, artists and architects B. A. Almedingen , E. I. Katonina , N.E. Lansere , K.K. Romanova . The basis for the restoration project was the apartment plan, sketched by Zhukovsky in the last days of Pushkin’s life, and the apartment agreement signed by Pushkin in the autumn of 1936 with the house manager. Later, with the assistance of the Director of the Hermitage Orbeli, the museum was given a sofa on which Pushkin died . The opening of the updated museum took place on February 10, 1937. The opening ceremony was attended by the Glazunov Quartet ^[14] .

On February 16, 1937, the All-Union Pushkin Exhibition was inaugurated in the State Historical Museum in Moscow, in the organization of which the largest historians and Pushkin scholars — Tarle, Tsyavlovsky, Bondi and others — took part. Exhibits for the exhibition were presented by the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts , the Russian Museum , as well as the country's leading libraries and the Central Archive . The entire second floor of the Historical Museum was completely allocated for the exhibition - 17 halls were divided into three sections devoted to the poet's life, as well as to the memory and study of his work in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods. Among the exhibits dedicated to Pushkin’s childhood and youth were a genuine metric book of the Resurrection Church in Moscow with records of his birth and baptism, portraits of the poet’s ancestors, his children's watercolor portrait of an unknown artist, as well as children's portraits of his brother and sister L. S Pushkin and O. S. Pushkina , views of Moscow from the time of Pushkin's childhood, books of his children's library. The lyceum period was represented by portraits, drawings and caricatures of lyceum students, lifetime portraits of lyceum teachers, as well as Ilya Repin 's painting “Pushkin at the Lyceum Exam in 1815”. In the hall dedicated to the St. Petersburg years of leaving Lyceum, portraits of members of the literary societies Arzamas , Conversations of Russian Word Lovers and Green Lamp , correspondence and Pushkin epigrams to senior colleagues in the literary workshop were posted. The years of the southern exile were represented by Pushkin’s autographs with epigrams on Alexander I, Arakcheev, the original “The case of sending college secretary Alexander Pushkin to the main trustee of the colonists of the southern edge of Russia, Lieutenant General Inzov.” Pushkin's documents and correspondence with members of secret societies were accompanied by intravital portraits of the Decembrists Bestuzhev-Marlinsky , Ryleyev , Pushchin , Kyukhelbeker , Odoevsky . In the following rooms, Pushkin’s work and travels in 1826-1829, his autographs and the first editions of his works, portraits of Pushkin by Tropinin and Kiprensky were presented. A separate room was entirely dedicated to the Boldino autumn of 1830 . Family life and mature years were illustrated by portraits of N. N. Goncharova, her parents and relatives, F. I. Tolstoy-American , P. V. Nashchokin , portraits of Petersburg friends of this period, exhibits related to work on the “Pugachev History”, “ The Captain's Daughter ”and“ The History of Peter I ”, the last lifetime portraits of Pushkin - an engraving by Wright (1836), a portrait by Lenev (1836), busts by Vitali (1837) and Halberg (1837). In the hall dedicated to the duel with Dantes, one of the originals of the anonymous libel received by Pushkin, the original of the letter challenging Huckern and the note of Danzas and d'Arshiak with the conditions of the duel with Dantes , genuine Zhukovsky bulletins about the condition of the wounded Pushkin, paintings, drawings and lithographs were presented Kozlov, Zhukovsky, Bruni, a plaster posthumous mask of Pushkin by Halberg. The exhibits of subsequent halls accompanied illustrations to Pushkin’s works by major Russian artists - Fedorov, Trutovsky , Arkhipov, Perov , Repin, Korovin , Nesterov , Bilibin , Kustodiev , Serov , Benoit , Malyutin , Vrubel and many others. A complete collection of editions of the complete works of Pushkin and some of his works in the pre- and post-revolutionary periods, foreign editions and books in the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, portraits of Pushkin by A. Gerasimov , S. Gerasimov , P. Ulyanov, pieces by masters of Palekh, were presented Bogorodsky, as well as children's drawings ^[15] .

On February 22, the Pushkin anniversary exhibition was opened in Leningrad, for the exhibits of which the archives of the Pushkin House, the Hermitage , the Russian Museum , other museums of the city, as well as the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library were used . The exhibits were placed in 19 rooms of the Hermitage. In the section “Pushkin’s Life and Work”, the original manuscripts of the poet, his drawings, books of his library and lifetime editions of his works were presented. In the halls devoted to Pushkin's childhood and youth, visitors could see portraits of his parents, as well as his famous ancestors - Abram Petrovich and Ivan Abramovich Hannibalov , people directly related to the stages of Pushkin's biography - director of the Lyceum V.F. Malinovsky , writers G.R. Derzhavin, N. M. Karamzin, K. N. Batyushkov, paintings of the beginning of the 19th century with views of Moscow and Tsarskoye Selo, drawings by Pushkin’s comrades in the Lyceum. In the halls dedicated to the beginning of Pushkin's literary activity, intravital portraits of participants in the literary communities Beseda, Arzamas, Green Lamp, engravings and drawings with views of places of southern exile — the Caucasus, Crimea, Chisinau, Odessa, portraits of N. N. were presented . Raevsky , Countess E.K. Vorontsova . The events of December 14 were represented by the paintings of the artist V. Timm “Senate Square on December 14, 1825” and the painting by the unknown artist “The Sentry of the Moscow Life Guards Regiment”. A separate room was dedicated to the poet’s activities as a publisher of the Sovremennik magazine. In the hall dedicated to the duel and the death of the poet, portraits of representatives of secular Petersburg of those years were placed, including portraits of Pushkin by Gau , portraits of Nicholas I, Benkendorf, Dubelt and others, as well as Pushkin’s duel by A. Naumov and P. Sokolov . In a special section, “Pushkin in Fine Arts”, paintings and drawings by Russian artists were presented illustrating Pushkin’s works, including P. P. Sokolov , M. Mikeshin , M. A. Shishkov , Vrubel , Benoit , and works by artists of the Mariinsky and Alexandrinsky Theater. The organization of the exhibition and the selection of exhibits were carried out by well-known Pushkinists M. P. Alekseev , B. P. Gorodetsky , G. A. Gukovsky and many other workers of the Leningrad scientific institutions and the Hermitage ^[16] .

As part of the memorial events in preparation for the anniversary and in the anniversary of 1937, a large number of artists from Moscow, Leningrad, other cities of Russia and the Union republics enthusiastically took up the Pushkin theme. Portraits of Pushkin were presented by K. S. Petrov-Vodkin , I. I. Brodsky , N. P. Ulyanov , M. S. Saryan , B. V. Ioganson and many others. The Union of Soviet Artists announced a competition at which 208 works by artists from all over the country and in various genres - graphics, painting, sculpture were presented. According to the results of the competition, the first prize was not awarded to anyone, the second prizes were awarded to the artists Fedorov (“Pushkin’s Funeral”), V. Gorbov (“Duel”) and Pavlov (etching “Pushkin in Smirdin’s bookshop”). Third prizes were awarded to artists N.K. Shveda-Radlova and V.A. Zverev for portraits of Pushkin and sculptor N. Ya. Danko for the porcelain figurine "Pushkin on the couch" ^[17] .

Another event of the Pushkin anniversary was the release of a series of postage stamps, the preparation of which was entrusted to the artist V.V. Zavyalov in 1935. Initially, Zavyalov planned to create a series of stamps depicting the events of the poet's biography. Six engravings were prepared and proposed: a portrait of young Pushkin based on an engraving by Heitman (1822); Pushkin among the Decembrists according to the drawing of Kardovsky (1934); Pushkin, Pushchin and Arina Rodionovna according to the picture of Ge ; engraved by Thomas Wright ; duel with Dantes according to the picture of Naumov (1885); image of a monument in Moscow . The State Commission selected only two of the six subjects presented - with a portrait of Pushkin in the engraving of Wright and with a monument to the work of Opekushin . The Pushkin series was released in 1937 and has since been popular with philatelists ^[18] .

Among other events of the Pushkin anniversary is the first production by the factory “ Red October ” of chocolate brand “Tales of Pushkin”, which has since remained in their trading line. In the series of Soviet New Year's toys for the trees that were again allowed in the Soviet Union, the characters of Pushkin's tales also appeared - a goldfish, a squirrel, gnawing nuts, heroes. However, the anniversary Pushkin mania was not a communist invention. For the first time, Pushkin’s chocolates, cigarettes, and other products became popular back in 1880, after the monument to the poet was unveiled in Moscow ^[19]

Many scholars of the Soviet era celebrated the grand celebration of Pushkin’s most obvious date — the centenary of his death — as part of the general imperial Stalinist turn in state policy. In the framework of this policy, Pushkin, several years ago, overthrown by proletarian poets from a pedestal to the dustbin of history, was again elevated to the rank of idols. At the same time, the communist rhetoric hastened to mold the tsarism and the “ally” of the Bolsheviks from the poet’s ideological enemy, finally crystallizing this in an anniversary editorial truth article:

100 years have passed since the greatest Russian poet was shot dead with the hand of a foreign aristocratic scoundrel, a mercenary of tsarism. Pushkin is entirely ours, Soviet, for the Soviet government inherited everything that is best among our people. Ultimately, Pushkin’s work merged with the October Socialist Revolution as a river flows into the ocean

- The newspaper Pravda, February 10, 1937

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