The ideas of great Russian literature and its humanistic pathos are close and understandable to the broad masses of readers in all corners of the globe.
Realizing the importance of poetic form, Russian writers of the 19th century. strived to enhance the artistic expressiveness of the techniques used, but this did not become the end in itself of their creativity. Intensive improvement of artistic forms was carried out by writers on the basis of deep insight into the essence of the socio-economic and spiritual processes of life. This is the source of the creative insights of the leading writers of Russian literature. Hence its deep historicism, due primarily to the truthful depiction of social contradictions, a broad identification of the role of the masses in the historical process, and the ability of writers to show the interconnection of social phenomena. Thanks to this, historical genres themselves take shape in literature - the novel, drama, story - in which the historical past receives as truthful a reflection as the present. All this became possible on the basis of the widespread development of realistic trends dominant in Russian literature of the 19th century.
Realistic creativity of Russian writers of the 19th century. received high praise from the largest representatives of Western European culture and art. P. Merimee admired the laconicism of Pushkin's prose; G. Maupassant called himself a student of I. S. Turgenev; L. N. Tolstoy's novels made a strong impression on G. Flaubert and influenced the work of B. Shaw, S. Zweig, A. France, D. Galsworthy, T. Dreiser and other writers of Western Europe. F. M. Dostoevsky was called the greatest anatomist” (S. Zweig) of the human soul, wounded by suffering; the structure of polyphonic narration, characteristic of Dostoevsky’s novels, was used in many Western European prose and dramatic works of the 20th century. The dramaturgy of A.P. Chekhov with its gentle humor, subtle lyricism, and psychological overtones has become widespread abroad (especially in the Scandinavian countries and Japan).
Understanding the laws of life processes, advanced Russian writers of the 19th century. placed great demands on themselves. They are characterized by intense, sometimes painful thoughts about the meaning of human activity, about the relationship of surrounding phenomena with the spiritual impulses of the individual, about the secrets of the universe, about the purpose of the artist. Works of writers of the 19th century. is distinguished by its extreme saturation with socio-philosophical and moral problems. Writers sought to answer questions about how to live, what to do to bring the future closer, which was thought of as a kingdom of goodness and justice. At the same time, all major writers of Russian literature, despite individual differences in political and aesthetic views, were united by a decisive denial, sometimes sharp criticism of property, landownership and capitalist slavery.
Thus, the works of Russian literature of the 19th century, which captured “great impulses of the spirit” (M. Gorky), even today help to form an ideologically steadfast person who loves his Motherland, distinguished by nobility of moral motives, the absence of nationalistic prejudices, and a thirst for truth and goodness.
The nineteenth century is the golden age of Russian literature. During this period, a whole galaxy of literary geniuses, poets and prose writers was born, whose unsurpassed creative skill determined the further development of not only Russian literature, but also foreign literature.
The subtle interweaving of social realism and classicism in literature absolutely corresponded to the national ideas and canons of that time. In the 19th century, such acute social problems as the need to change priorities, rejection of outdated principles and confrontation between society and the individual began to arise for the first time.
The most significant representatives of Russian classics of the 19th century
Word geniuses like A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and A.S. Griboedov, in their works openly demonstrated contempt for the upper strata of society for their selfishness, vanity, hypocrisy and immorality. V.A. Zhukovsky, on the contrary, with his works introduced dreaminess and sincere romance into Russian literature. He tried in his poems to get away from the gray and boring everyday life in order to show in all its colors the sublime world that surrounds man. Speaking about Russian literary classics, one cannot fail to mention the great genius A.S. Pushkin - poet and father of the Russian literary language. The works of this writer made a real revolution in the world of literary art. Pushkin’s poetry, the story “The Queen of Spades” and the novel “Eugene Onegin” became a stylistic approach that was repeatedly used by many domestic and world writers.
Among other things, the literature of the nineteenth century was also characterized by philosophical concepts. They are most clearly revealed in the works of M.Yu. Lermontov. Throughout his creative career, the author admired the Decembrist movements and defended freedoms and human rights. His poems are imbued with criticism of imperial power and opposition calls. A.P. “lit up” in the field of drama. Chekhov. Using subtle but “prickly” satire, the playwright and writer ridiculed human vices and expressed contempt for the vices of representatives of the noble nobility. From the moment of his birth to the present day, his plays have not lost their relevance and continue to be staged on the stage of theaters all over the world. It is also impossible not to mention the great L.N. Tolstoy, A.I. Kuprina, N.V. Gogol, etc.
Group portrait of Russian writers - members of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine».
Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Leo Tolstoy, Dmitry Grigorovich, Alexander Druzhinin, Alexander Ostrovsky.
Features of Russian literature
In the nineteenth century, Russian realistic literature achieved an unprecedented level of artistic perfection. Its main distinguishing feature was its originality. The second half of the 19th century in Russian literature passed with the idea of a decisive democratization of artistic creation and under the sign of an intense ideological struggle. Among other things, the pathos of artistic creativity changed during this time frame, as a result of which the Russian writer was faced with the need for an artistic understanding of the unusually mobile and impetuous elements of existence. In such a situation, literary synthesis arose in much narrow temporal and spatial periods of life: the need for a certain localization and specialization was dictated by the special state of the world, characteristic of the era of the second half of the nineteenth century.
1. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
A novel about the tragic love of a married lady Anna Karenina and a brilliant officer Vronsky against the backdrop of the happy family life of nobles Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. A large-scale picture of the morals and life of the noble environment of St. Petersburg and Moscow in the second half of the 19th century, combining the philosophical reflections of the author’s alter ego Levin with advanced psychological sketches in Russian literature, as well as scenes from the life of peasants.
2. “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert
The main character of the novel is Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife who lives beyond her means and starts extramarital affairs in the hope of getting rid of the emptiness and ordinariness of provincial life. Although the plot of the novel is quite simple and even banal, the true value of the novel lies in the details and forms of presentation of the plot. Flaubert as a writer was known for his desire to bring each work to perfection, always trying to find the right words.
3. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
An epic novel by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, describing Russian society during the era of the wars against Napoleon in 1805-1812.
4. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn, who escaped from his cruel father, and the runaway black man Jim raft on the Mississippi River. After some time, they are joined by the rogues Duke and King, who eventually sell Jim into slavery. Huck and Tom Sawyer, who has joined him, organize the release of the prisoner. Nevertheless, Huck frees Jim from captivity in earnest, and Tom does it simply out of interest - he knows that Jim’s mistress has already given him freedom.
5. Stories by A.P. Chekhov
Over 25 years of creativity, Chekhov created about 900 different works (short humorous stories, serious stories, plays), many of which became classics of world literature. Particular attention was paid to “The Steppe”, “A Boring Story”, “Duel”, “Ward No. 6”, “The Story of an Unknown Man”, “Men” (1897), “The Man in a Case” (1898), “In the Ravine” , “Children”, “Drama on the Hunt”; from the plays: “Ivanov”, “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard”.
6. "Middlemarch" George Eliot
Middlemarch is the name of the provincial town in and around which the novel takes place. Many characters inhabit its pages, and their destinies are intertwined by the will of the author: these are the bigot and pedant Casaubon and Dorothea Brooke, the talented doctor and scientist Lydgate and the bourgeois Rosamond Vincey, the bigot and hypocrite banker Bulstrode, Pastor Farebrother, the talented but poor Will Ladislav and many, a lot others. Unsuccessful marriages and happy marital unions, dubious enrichment and fuss over inheritance, political ambitions and ambitious intrigues. Middlemarch is a town where many human vices and virtues are manifested.
7. "Moby Dick" Herman Melville
Moby Dick by Herman Melville is considered the greatest American novel of the 19th century. At the center of this unique work, written contrary to the laws of the genre, is the pursuit of the White Whale. A fascinating plot, epic sea scenes, descriptions of bright human characters in harmonious combination with the most universal philosophical generalizations make this book a true masterpiece of world literature.
8. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
“The novel “Great Expectations” - one of Dickens’s last works, the pearl of his work - tells the life story of young Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip in childhood. Pip's dreams of a career, love and prosperity in the “world of gentlemen” are shattered in an instant, as soon as he learns the terrible secret of his unknown patron, who is being pursued by the police. Money, stained with blood and marked with the seal of crime, as Pip is convinced, cannot bring happiness. And what is it, this happiness? And where will his dreams and great hopes lead the hero?
9. “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoevsky
The plot revolves around the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, in whose head a theory of the crime is ripening. Raskolnikov himself is very poor; he cannot pay not only for his studies at the university, but also for his own accommodation. His mother and sister are also poor; he soon learns that his sister (Dunya Raskolnikova) is ready to marry a man she does not love for money to help her family. This was the last straw, and Raskolnikov commits the deliberate murder of the old pawnbroker and the forced murder of her sister, a witness. But Raskolnikov cannot use the stolen goods, he hides them. From this time on, the terrible life of a criminal begins.
The daughter of a wealthy landowner and a big dreamer, Emma tries to diversify her leisure time by organizing someone else's personal life. Confident that she will never get married, she acts as a matchmaker for her friends and acquaintances, but life gives her surprise after surprise.
Mamin-Sibiryak was not the discoverer of a working theme in his native literature. Reshetnikov’s novels about the mining Urals, about the troubles, poverty and hopeless life of workers, about their search for a better life were the foundation on which Mamin’s “mining” novels arose (“Privalov’s Millions”, 1883; “Mountain Nest”, 1884; “Three end", 1890), and novels in which the action develops in the gold mines of the Urals ("Wild Happiness", 1884; "Gold", 1892).
For Reshetnikov, the main problem came down to depicting the whole “sober truth” about the working people. Mamin-Sibiryak, reproducing this truth, places a certain social mechanism (factory, mine) at the center of his novels.
The analysis of such a mechanism and the capitalist relations that have developed and developed in it is the main task of the author. This principle of depiction is partly reminiscent of some of Zola’s novels (“The Belly of Paris”, “Ladies’ Happiness”). But the similarity here is purely external.
In Mamin-Sibiryak’s novels, social issues overshadow biological problems, and criticism of capitalist relations and serfdom remnants leads to the idea of the urgent need for the reconstruction of life, which contradicts the principles of strict determinism, accepted as an unshakable postulate in the aesthetics of French naturalists. Pathos, criticism, and emphasized sociality - all this firmly connects the work of the “singer of the Urals” with the traditions of Russian revolutionary-democratic literature.
Mamin-Sibiryak did not escape the influence of populism (evidence of this in the novel “Bread”, 1895). However, an analysis of the facts of reality itself gradually convinced the writer that capitalism is a natural phenomenon and already established in Russian life, and therefore his novels are opposed to populist ideas.
Polemics with populist concepts are organically included in the novels “Privalov’s Millions”, “Three Ends” and other works. The main thing, however, is not polemics, but comprehension of complex socio-economic issues related to the problem of modern development of Russia.
Sergei Privalov, the main character of Privalov's Millions, “does not like factory work and considers it an artificially created branch of industry.” Privalov dreams of a rational organization of the grain trade, which would be useful to both the peasant community and the working people, but his endeavor fails, as he finds himself in the circle of the same inhumane capitalist relations.
The depiction of the struggle for Privalov's millions makes it possible to introduce into the novel many people who embody various features of a rapidly capitalizing life. Numerous journalistic digressions and historical excursions characterizing the life of the Urals serve as a kind of guide in this complex world of human passions, vanity and contradictory motives.
In the writer's subsequent novels, the emphasis gradually shifts to depicting the life of the people. In “The Mountain Nest” the main question becomes about the incompatibility of the interests of capitalists and workers, and in the “Ural Chronicle”, the novel “Three Ends”, it receives its greatest expression. This novel is interesting as Mamin-Sibiryak’s attempt to create a modern “folk novel”.
In the 80s Ertel made the same attempt, recreating a broad picture of the folk life of the south of Russia (“Gardenins”). Both writers strive to talk about the results of the post-reform development of the country and, recreating the history of their region, try to capture in the peculiar folk life of a particular region those patterns of the historical process that are characteristic of Russia as a whole.
In the novel by Mamin-Sibiryak, three generations succeed each other, the fate, thoughts and moods of which embody the transition from feudal Russia to capitalist Russia. The writer talks about the various intelligentsia, and about strikes, in which spontaneous protest against lawlessness and exploitation is expressed.
“Whoever wants to know the history of the existing relations in the Urals between two classes,” wrote the Bolshevik “Pravda” in 1912, “the mining working population and the predators of the Urals, possessionists and others, will find in the works of Mamin-Sibiryak a vivid illustration of the dry pages of history.” .
By their general tendency, the novels of Mamin-Sibiryak are opposed to the novels of Boborykin. His work developed in the general mainstream of democratic literature of the second half of the 19th century: it adopted its critical pathos and desire for the transformation of life. The concept of naturalism did not find its follower in the person of Mamin-Sibiryak.
At the same time, one cannot, of course, assume that acquaintance with the theory and work of Zola and his followers passed without a trace for Russian literature. In articles, letters, and statements recorded by memoirists, major writers responded to one degree or another to the propositions put forward by Zola, which undoubtedly had a creative impact on them.
The younger generation of writers decisively advocated expanding the scope of literature. All life, with its light and dark sides, had to be included in the writer’s field of vision. Chekhov’s 1886 response to a letter from a reader complaining about the “dirtiness of the situation” in the story “Tina” and the fact that the author did not find or extract a “pearl grain” from the dung heap that attracted his attention is very characteristic.
Chekhov replied: “Fiction is called fiction because it depicts life as it really is. Its purpose is unconditional and honest. To narrow its functions to such a specialty as obtaining “grains” is as deadly for it as if you forced Levitan to draw a tree, ordering him not to touch the dirty bark and yellowed foliage<...>For chemists, there is nothing unclean on earth.
A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must renounce everyday subjectivity and know that dung heaps in the landscape play a very respectable role, and evil passions are just as inherent in life as good ones.”
Chekhov talks about the right of a writer to depict the dark and dirty sides of life; this right was persistently defended by fiction writers of the 80s. This was drawn to the attention of R. Disterlo, who, characterizing the main tendency of the creativity of representatives of the new literary generation, wrote that they strive to paint reality “as it is, in the form as it manifests itself in a specific person and in specific cases of life.” The critic correlated this tendency with Zola's naturalism.
Fiction writers really turned to such themes and plots, to those aspects of life that Russian literature had not previously touched upon or hardly touched upon. At the same time, some writers became interested in reproducing the “underside of life,” its purely intimate sides, and this is what served as the basis for their rapprochement with naturalist writers.
Disterlo stipulated in his review that “the similarity is purely external,”106 other critics were more categorical in their judgments and spoke about the emergence of Russian naturalists. Most often, such judgments applied to works of a certain kind - to novels like “Stolen Happiness” (1881) by Vas. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko or “Sodom” (1880) by N. Morsky (N. K. Lebedeva).
In the article “On Pornography,” Mikhailovsky viewed both of these novels as a slavish imitation of Zola, as works that pandered to the base tastes of the philistinism.
However, the novels of Morsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko have nothing to do with naturalism as a literary movement and can be called naturalistic only in the most ordinary, vulgar sense of the word. This is the naturalism of piquant scenes and situations, which contain the main meaning of what is depicted.
Among the authors who paid great attention to the “life of the flesh” were writers who were not without talent. In this regard, criticism began to talk about “moral indifference”, which arose on the basis of “refined and depraved sensations”, as a characteristic feature of the timeless era. S. A. Vengerov, to whom these words belong, had in mind the work of I. Yasinsky and V. Bibikov. The latter’s novel “Pure Love” (1887) is most interesting in this sense.
In theme, it is close to Garshin’s “The Incident”: the provincial cocotte Maria Ivanovna Vilenskaya, the main character of the novel, herself establishes her spiritual kinship with Garshin’s heroine, but this kinship is purely external. Bibikov's novel is devoid of that acute protest against the social system that forms the basis of "The Incident".
The fate of Vilenskaya is depicted by the author as the result of a combination of special circumstances and upbringing. The father was not interested in his daughter, and the governess, one of the Parisian singers, aroused unhealthy feelings in the young girl; she fell in love with an assistant accountant, Milevsky, who seduced her and abandoned her, and her father kicked her out of the house. The heroine Bibikova has many rich and charming patrons, but she dreams of pure love. She fails to find her and commits suicide.
Bibikov is not interested in moral problems traditionally associated with the theme of “fall” in Russian literature. His heroes are people drawn by a natural feeling, and therefore, according to the author, can neither be condemned nor justified. Sexual attraction, debauchery and love can be both “pure” and “dirty”, but in both cases they are moral for him.
It was no coincidence that “Pure Love” was dedicated to Yasinsky, who also paid tribute to similar views. Yasinsky also explores love and passion as natural natural attractions, not burdened with a “moral burden”; his numerous novels are often built on precisely this motive.
Bibikov and Yasinsky can be considered the direct predecessors of decadent literature of the early 20th century. Art, according to their concepts, should be free from any “tendentious” issues; both proclaimed the cult of beauty as a cult of feeling, free from traditional moral “conventions.”
As already mentioned, Yasinsky stood at the origins of Russian decadence; Let's add to this that he was one of the first to aestheticize the ugly in Russian literature. Motives of this kind can be found in the novel “The Light Has Gone Out,” the hero of which paints the painting “Feast of Freaks.” Yasinsky wrote a novel with the characteristic title “Beautiful Freaks” (1900). But these processes also have no direct relation to naturalism as a movement.
Naturalism is a special literary and aesthetic movement that organically developed in a certain historical period and had exhausted itself as a system and as a creative method by the beginning of the 20th century. Its emergence in France was due to the crisis of the Second Empire, and its development was associated with the defeat of the Paris Commune and the birth of the Third Republic, this “republic without republicans.”
Conditions and features of the historical development of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. were significantly different. The fate of the bourgeoisie and the search for ways to renew the world were different. This created the preconditions for a negative attitude of Russian progressive aesthetic thought towards the theory and practice of naturalism.
It is no coincidence that Russian criticism was almost unanimous in its rejection of naturalism. When Mikhailovsky wrote that in Zola’s critical articles “there was something good and something new, but everything good was not new for us Russians, and everything new was not good,” he expressed precisely this general idea. The fact that in Russia naturalism did not find soil for its rooting and development was one of the evidence of the deep national originality of its literature.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.