The culprit died. Lermontov Mikhail - on the death of the poet
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov
Revenge, my lord, revenge!
I will fall at your feet:
Be fair and punish the killer
So that his execution in later centuries
Your right judgment proclaimed to posterity,
To see the villains in her example.
The poet died! - slave of honor -
Pal, slandered by rumor,
With lead in my chest and a thirst for revenge,
Hanging your proud head!
The soul of the poet could not bear
The shame of petty insults,
He rebelled against the opinions of the world
Alone, as before ... and killed!
Killed! .. Why sob now,
Empty praise unnecessary choir
And the pathetic babble of excuses?
Fate's verdict has come true!
Didn't you at first so viciously persecuted
His free, bold gift
And for fun inflated
Slightly hidden fire?
Well? have fun ... He is tormented
I couldn't take the last one.
Faded like a beacon, wondrous genius,
Withered solemn wreath.
His killer in cold blood
He struck a blow ... there is no salvation:
Empty heart beats evenly
The pistol did not waver in his hand.
And what a marvel? ... from afar,
Like hundreds of fugitives
To catch happiness and ranks
Abandoned to us by the will of fate;
Laughing, he defiantly despised
Land foreign language and customs;
He could not spare our glory;
I could not understand at this bloody moment,
What did he raise his hand to?
And he is killed - and taken by the grave,
Like that singer, unknown, but sweet,
The prey of jealousy is deaf,
Sung by him with such wondrous power,
Struck, like him, by a ruthless hand.
Why from peaceful bliss and simple-hearted friendship
He entered this light envious and stifling
For a free heart and fiery passions?
Why did he give his hand to the insignificant slanderers,
Why did he believe the words and caresses false,
He, who from a young age comprehended people? ..
And removing the former wreath - they are a crown of thorns,
Wreathed in laurels, they put on him:
But secret needles are harsh
They wounded a glorious brow;
Poisoned his last moments
Insidious whisper of mocking ignoramuses,
And he died - with a vain thirst for revenge,
With the annoyance of the secret of deceived hopes.
The sounds of wonderful songs were silenced,
Do not give them away again:
The singer's shelter is gloomy and cramped,
And on the lips of his seal.
_____________________
And you, arrogant descendants
By the well-known meanness of the illustrious fathers,
Fifth slave corrected the wreckage
The game of happiness offended childbirth!
You, a greedy crowd standing at the throne,
Freedom, Genius and Glory executioners!
You hide under the shadow of the law,
Before you is the court and the truth - everything is silent! ..
But there is also God's judgment, the confidants of debauchery!
There is a formidable judgment: it waits;
He is not available to the sound of gold,
He knows both thoughts and deeds in advance.
Then in vain will you resort to slander:
It won't help you again
And you won't wash away with all your black blood
Poet's righteous blood!
It is no secret that Mikhail Lermontov admired the work of his contemporary, Alexander Pushkin, and considered him one of the brightest representatives of Russian literature. Therefore, the death of the idol made a very strong impression on Lermontov. Moreover, he was one of the few who spoke truthfully about this tragic event, dedicating to Pushkin one of his most powerful and striking works - the poem "The Death of a Poet".
It consists of two different parts both in size and mood. The first of them is a sad elegy in which Lermontov describes the tragic events of January 1837. However, from the first lines, the subtext of the poem is clear, in which Mikhail Lermontov calls Pushkin's direct killer not the duellist Dantes, but high society, which mocked the poet and humiliated him at every opportunity. Indeed, direct or indirect insult to Pushkin during his lifetime was almost a national entertainment of secular society, which was indulged not only by princes and counts, but also by the first persons of the state. What is worth the mere assignment to the poet by Tsar Nicholas I of the rank of chamber junker in 1834, when Pushkin was already 34 years old. In order to understand the full extent and depth of the humiliation of the poet, one must take into account that such a rank, as a rule, was awarded to 16-year-old boys who were assigned the role of court pages.
In the poem "The Death of a Poet", Mikhail Lermontov openly speaks of the hypocrisy of people who, during their lifetime, humiliated Pushkin, and after his death put on a mask of universal sorrow. “... why now sobs, empty praises, an unnecessary choir and a pitiful babble of justification?” Lermontov tries to expose the secular society. And then he hints at the fact that Pushkin's death was inevitable, since, according to legend, a fortune-teller predicted the poet's death in a duel in his youth, accurately describing the appearance of the one who would make the fatal shot. Therefore, a rather mysterious line appears in the poem that "fate has come to pass."
Lermontov does not justify Dantes, on whose conscience is the death of one of the most talented Russian poets. However, he emphasizes that the killer of Pushkin "impudently despised the land of a foreign language and customs." Nevertheless, the people who fomented the conflict between Pushkin and Dantes were well aware that the life of a man who had already managed to glorify Russian literature was at stake. Therefore, it is them that Lermontov considers the true killers of the poet.
The second part of the poem, shorter and more capacious, is filled with caustic sarcasm and is directly addressed to all those who are guilty of the death of the poet. Lermontov portrays them as "arrogant descendants", whose only merit is that they were born to illustrious fathers. The author is convinced that the so-called "golden youth" is reliably protected by the "shadow of the law", and therefore will escape punishment for Pushkin's death. But at the same time, Lermontov recalls that there is still God's judgment, which is "inaccessible to the ringing of gold." Before him, all the explicit and implicit killers of the poet, sooner or later, will still have to appear, and then justice will surely prevail. Let not according to the laws of the earth, but according to the laws of heaven, which the author considers more honest and fair. “And you will not wash away the righteous blood with all your black blood of a poet!” Lermontov is convinced, unaware that in a few years he himself will become a victim of a duel. And just like Pushkin, he will die not from a bullet, but from the contempt and indifference of a society in which prophets are equated with lepers, and poets - with court jesters who do not have the right to their own opinion.
Lermontov's poem was the first response to the death of A.S. Pushkin and quickly spread throughout the city. I.I. Panaev wrote: "Lermontov's poems<…>were copied in tens of thousands of copies and learned by heart by everyone. V.A. Zhukovsky saw in "The Death of a Poet" "a manifestation of a mighty talent", and at the Court they repeated the opinion of the emperor himself: "This one, what good, will replace Pushkin in Russia!"
However, the "high society" for the most part was on the side of the killer of the poet officer-cavalry guard Georges Dantes. Among the high-ranking ill-wishers of Pushkin were the Minister of Foreign Affairs K.V. Nesselrode and the chief of staff of the gendarmerie corps L.V. Dubelt. By decision of the emperor, Dubelt was assigned to the papers of the late Pushkin, Lermontov knew this. It is no coincidence that Lermontov drew Dubelt's profile on a draft autograph of the poem "Death of a Poet". The ladies of the "light" argued that Pushkin "had no right to demand love from his wife." Even Lermontov’s grandmother, Elizaveta Alekseevna, and she believed that Pushkin himself was to blame for everything: “he didn’t sit in his sleigh and, sitting in them, did not know how to deftly control the wayward horses that raced him and finally rushed to that snowdrift, from which there is only one road was only in the abyss. Lermontov did not try to argue with his grandmother, but only bit his nails and left the yard for a whole day. Grandmother, understanding his feelings, stopped talking about secular talk in front of him. But these rumors had such an effect on Lermontov that he fell ill again. E.A. Arsenyeva invited Dr. N.F. Arendt, who was with Pushkin in his last days. According to N.D. Yuriev (a distant relative and classmate of Lermontov at school), Arendt, “without prescribing any drugs, completely reassured the patient with his conversation, telling him the whole sad epic of those two and a half days that the wounded Pushkin had suffered<…>Lermontov loved his idol even more after this frank message, abundantly and artlessly poured out of the kind soul of Arendt.
At this time, the sick Mikhail Yuryevich came to visit the chamber junker Nikolai Arkadyevich Stolypin (brother of A.A. Stolypin-Mongo). N.D. Yuryev, who witnessed their meeting, said: “Stolypin praised Lermontov's poems on the death of Pushkin; but he only said that in vain did Michel, apotheosis of the poet, attach too much importance to his involuntary murderer, who, like any noble person, after everything that had happened between them, could not help but shoot himself<…>Lermontov said to this that a Russian person, of course, is pure Russian, and not Frenchized and spoiled, no matter what offense Pushkin did to him, he would take it down, in the name of his love for the glory of Russia, and would never raise this great representative of all intellectuality of Russia of their own hands. Stolypin laughed and found that Michel's nerves were irritated.<…>But our Michel had already bitten the reins, and his anger knew no bounds. He looked angrily at Stolypin and threw to him: "You, sir, are the antipode of Pushkin, and I will not answer for anything if you do not leave here this very second." That same evening On February 7, "a well-known addition was written, in which the whole dispute was clearly expressed".
Around the duel Laskin Semyon Borisovich
Chapter Five "Haughty DESCENDANTS". WHO ARE THEY?
Chapter Five
"HARRY DESCENDANTS". WHO ARE THEY?
So, let's try to touch on another seemingly unexpected mystery. Why, for almost a century and a half, have literary disputes around the textbook poem “The Death of a Poet” not subside? What “flagrant inconsistencies” does Irakli Andronikov talk about when he writes about Lermontov's masterpiece?
Why do scientists continue to confuse the inconsistency of the beginning and end, the epigraph and the sixteen famous lines of the addition?
But aren't there enough questions? Let's turn to the well-known texts.
Revenge, my lord, revenge!
I will fall at your feet:
Be fair and punish the killer
So that his execution in later centuries
Your right judgment proclaimed to posterity,
To see the villains in her example.
Last sixteen lines, addition:
And you, arrogant descendants
By the well-known meanness of the illustrious fathers,
Fifth slave corrected the wreckage
The game of happiness offended childbirth!
You, a greedy crowd standing at the throne,
Freedom, Genius and Glory executioners!
You hide under the shadow of the law,
Before you, the court and the truth - all be silent! ..
But there is also God's judgment, the confidants of debauchery!
There is a formidable judgment: it waits;
He is inaccessible to the sound of gold,
And he knows his thoughts and deeds in advance.
Then in vain you resort to slander -
It won't help you again
And you won't wash away with all your black blood
Poet's righteous blood!
So what stands out when compared?
Indeed, if in the epigraph the author, addressing the monarch, requires him to show justice (“Vengeance, sovereign! .. Be fair ...”), then the addition appears completely unexpected: there is no place to expect truth and, moreover, justice in this world (“Before you judge and the truth - all be silent! ..”).
The murderer-outlander, whose execution could serve as a warning to the "villains", in the final lines turns into criminals of a completely different kind, into executioners, executors of someone's evil will. And the "shadow of the law", the "throne", the state serve as a reliable shelter for these people.
In other words, the murderer becomes an executioner, or rather, executioners; possible justice on earth turns out to be impossible; punishability turns into impunity; instead of a Frenchman who came to a foreign country "to catch happiness and ranks", the addition contains "arrogant descendants" with a dubious pedigree, whose fathers were glorified by some "well-known meanness ...".
What is it, a metaphor or an unsolved concreteness? The killer is known to everyone, he has a name, but who are the "descendants" if the conversation, suppose, is about different people? And what kind of "well-known villainy" is Lermontov talking about?
Questions have not yet been answered...
Helplessness in front of the text, oddly enough, forced more than once to make an almost anecdotal decision: they removed the epigraph. Why leave lines that confuse the meaning, make people wonder?
For one hundred and fifty years of the life of the poem and more than one hundred and twenty-five years since its first publication, about every thirty years the epigraph was placed, then removed.
It won and, unfortunately, wins up to the present time one position, then another. So, from 1860 (the first publication) to 1889, the epigraph was decided not to be printed. It is assumed that the epigraph was added for reasons of censorship, "someone's idle hand."
In 1889, the publisher of the collected works of Lermontov, P. Viskovatov, restored the epigraph, then the poem with the epigraph was reprinted in all editions until 1917.
From 1924 to 1950, Soviet publications also published The Death of a Poet with an epigraph, but from 1950 to 1976, the opinion “that the epigraph was put in order to reduce the political harshness of the final lines” triumphs again, albeit by Lermontov himself. And since, as I. Andronikov concludes, this is a “trick” of the poet himself, it is better to transfer the epigraph to the notes.
“In many complete copies, the epigraph is missing,” wrote Irakli Andronikov in reprinted notes to various collected works of Lermontov, in particular, to the collected works of 1983. “From this it follows that it was not intended for everyone, but for a certain circle of readers related with "yard". There is no epigraph in the copy made by the poet's relatives for A. M. Vereshchagina and, therefore, quite authoritative. But the copy provided with an epigraph appears in the investigative file. There are reasons to think that Lermontov himself sought to bring the full text with the epigraph to the III Section. The mention of the throne, surrounded by a greedy crowd of executioners of freedom, a reminder of the coming reckoning concerned not only court dignitaries, but also the emperor himself. The epigraph was supposed to soften the meaning of the last stanza: after all, if the poet turns to the emperor with a request to punish the murderer, therefore, Nikolai does not need to take the poem at his address. At the same time, among the general public, the poem went without an epigraph.
Based on the above considerations, in this edition of Lermontov, the epigraph was not reproduced before the text of the poem.
But The poet did not achieve his goal: the epigraph was understood as a way to mislead the government, and this aggravated Lermontov's guilt."
In fairness, it should be said that in some recent editions the epigraph appears again in the text of the poem.
An explanation is introduced in the notes of these collected works: “By its nature, the epigraph does not contradict the sixteen final lines. Appeal to the king with a demand to severely punish the murderer was an unheard-of impudence ... Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the epigraph was written with the aim of softening the sharpness of the final part of the poem. In this edition, the epigraph is introduced into the text.
The variability of opinions in relation to the epigraph suggests that disputes may still continue, that the truth has not been found, that the explanations in the comments for either the removal of the epigraph or its restoration occur without sufficient evidence, according to the internal feeling of the publishers. The poem "The Death of a Poet" occupies an exceptional, one might say, a turning point not only in Lermontov's creative biography, but also in his fate.
Why did Lermontov need an epigraph? Maybe even now our knowledge is not perfect enough? It seems to us that we know more about the classics than their contemporaries, and sometimes even more than they themselves, but it is impossible not to understand that we will always lack what contemporaries knew and what the classics knew about themselves. Hence, the search for truth will be endless.
Ah, if only to be near Lermontov, to take part in his dispute with Stolypin, when the poet, “biting the pencil, breaking the stylus”, without waiting for the opponents to leave, begins to write angry final lines about the “confidants of debauchery” guilty of Pushkin’s death. And Stolypin, trying to reduce Michel's anger to a joke, will say: "La po?sie enfante!" (Poetry is released from the burden! - fr.) If!..
Yes, if we were to fill the void of our ignorance with new facts, then perhaps the poem “The Death of a Poet” would amaze us not with its contradictions, which Lermontov scholars still continue to note to this day, but with its integrity.
But it was precisely twice - both without an epigraph and without an addition, and then with an epigraph and with an addition - that Benckendorff and Nicholas I read the poem, in the final version it was delivered to them by agents of the III Department, to such list and there are their tough resolutions-sentences.
Let's try, having collected eyewitness accounts, to imagine the situation in which Lermontov was in those distant days ...
The history of the creation of "The Death of a Poet" is known. Fifty-six lines of the elegy were written by Lermontov on January 30–31, 1837. The found list, dated January 28, is probably erroneous: it is unlikely that the poems appeared during the life of the poet. However, rumors about the death of Pushkin already disturbed St. Petersburg.
"Lermontov's poems are wonderful," A. I. Turgenev wrote in his diary.
“Of the poems that have appeared on his death, Lermontov is more remarkable than the others,” N. Lyubimov wrote on February 3.
“I have now received a poem on the Death of Push[kin], written by one of our classmates, Life Hussar Lermontov. It is written in haste, but with feeling. I know that you will be glad, and I am sending it to you ... ”- M. Kharenko wrote on February 5.
“... Here are the poems that a certain Mr. Lermantov, a hussar officer, composed on his death. I find them so beautiful, there is so much truth and feeling in them that you need to know them.<…>Meshchersky brought these poems to Alexandra Goncharova, who asked them for her sister, who was eager to read everything about her husband, eager to talk about him, blame herself, cry.
But not only the world accepts Lermontov's elegy kindly, they are loyal to poetry and power. Here is how A. I. Muravyov records a conversation with Mordvinov, his brother, head of the office of the III Department:
“Late in the evening, Lermontov came to me and enthusiastically read his poems, which I really liked. I did not find anything particularly sharp in them because I did not hear the last quatrain, which raised a storm against the poet<…>He asked me to speak in his favor to Mordvinov, and the next day I went to my relative.
Mordvinov was very busy and out of sorts. "You're always with old news," he said. “I read these poems to Benckendorff for a long time, and we did not find anything reprehensible in them.” Delighted by this news, I hurried to Lermontov to calm him down, and, not finding him at home, wrote to him word for word what Mordvinov had told me. When I returned home, I found his note in which he again asked for my intercession, because he was in danger.
So, the attitude of the authorities towards the "Death of a Poet" instantly changes with the appearance of the added lines. The response from the reading public is also growing sharply.
The first mention of new lines in the poem "The Death of a Poet" we meet in a letter from A. I. Turgenev to the Pskov governor A. N. Peshchurov.
“I send poems that are worthy of their subject. Other stanzas also go hand in hand, but they are not of this author and have already brought trouble, they say, to the true author, ”wrote A. I. Turgenev on February 13.
“How beautiful it is, Katish, isn’t it? - writes M. Stepanova in Tyutcheva's album, rewriting Lermontov's poems. “But, perhaps, too free-thinking.”
Finally, the assessment of E. A. Arsenyeva, Lermontov's grandmother:
“Mishynka, out of his youth and frivolity, wrote poems on the death of Pushkin and in the end he wrote indecently on the courtiers’ brush.”
But among the listed evidence, a document of exceptional importance stands out - these are the resolutions of Count A. Kh. Benckendorff and Nicholas I on the list of poems delivered to the III Department on February 17–18.
“I have already had the honor to inform Your Imperial Majesty that I sent a poem by the hussar officer Lermontov to General Weimart, so that he would interrogate this young man and keep him at the General Staff without the right to communicate with anyone from outside until the authorities resolve the issue of his further fate and about taking his papers both here and at his apartment in Tsarskoye Selo. The introduction to this work is impudent, and the end is shameless free-thinking, more than criminal. According to Lermontov, these poems are distributed in the city by one of his comrades, whom he did not want to name.
A. Benkendorf.
The emperor writes his own opinion:
“Pleasant poetry, nothing to say, I sent Weimarn to Tsarskoe Selo to examine Lermontov’s papers and, if more suspicious ones were found, to arrest them. In the meantime, I have ordered the senior medic of the guards corps to visit this gentleman and make sure that he is not crazy; and then we will deal with him according to the law.”
An investigation begins in the case of "inappropriate verses." Lermontov is interrogated "without the right to communicate with anyone", he is detained as a dangerous "freethinker".
But Lermontov's poems were not the only ones in those days. More than twenty poets, among whom were Vyazemsky, and Tyutchev, and Zhukovsky, and Yazykov, and Koltsov, responded with mournful lines. Yet only The Death of a Poet was destined for such a fate.
"The introduction ... is bold, and the end is shameless free-thinking, more than criminal."
“… is he crazy?”
These words will be written by people who remember well the “impudent” and “criminal freethinkers” who came to Senatskaya Street. It turns out that it is impossible to stop the spread of free-thinking writings.
Then A. I. Turgenev will inform his brother abroad:
"Here are the verses with the criminal stanza, which I learned about much later than the verses."
So, both the introduction and the addition are considered by the emperor and Benckendorff as a crime. And yet, for more than a century, the opinion periodically triumphs that only the last lines of the “Death of a Poet” are “criminal stanzas”.
“The pistol shot,” Herzen wrote in 1856, “that killed Pushkin, awakened the soul of Lermontov. He wrote an elegiac ode in which, denouncing the low intrigues that preceded the duel, the intrigues started by ministers of letters and spy journalists, he exclaimed with youthful indignation: “Vengeance, sovereign, vengeance!” This one inconsistency the poet atoned for his exile to the Caucasus.
In 1861, the collection "Russian Hidden Literature" was published in London, in which the poem is printed without introductory lines. The epigraph was removed by the publishers as contradicting the democratic idea ... of Lermontov himself.
Strange conclusion! It turns out that Lermontov wanted to hide behind the loyal lines of the epigraph, but his compromise seemed insufficient to the government, and Benckendorff ordered Lermontov to be arrested, and Nikolai wanted to make sure that Lermontov was “not crazy”?
No, something is wrong! Why did the arrested Lermontov and Raevsky not use their, one might say, witty trick during interrogations, did not ask for indulgence for themselves, but seemed to forget about the saving lines? Was it not because it was clear to them how little “saving” was in them?!
The absence of an epigraph in Vereshchagin's copy, I think, explains little. Poems were distributed in two periods, it is enough to recall the words of A. I. Turgenev. Did not have an epigraph and a list of S. N. Karamzina.
If we talk about Odoevsky's copy, then it was self-censoring. Odoevsky hoped to publish The Death of a Poet and, of course, as an experienced journalist, he would never have offered the latter version to the censors. However, the proposed elegiac text was not allowed to print.
It is hardly possible to agree with the opinion that Lermontov, using the epigraph as a "trick", counted on the circle of readers associated with the court.
The distribution of poetry is an uncontrolled act, it does not depend on the will of the author. The poem was much more rewritten by a democratic reader, officials and students. If we talk about the court, then it was there that Lermontov's poem was called "an appeal to the revolution."
But maybe we do not have enough facts to explain the poem "The Death of a Poet"? Maybe we are not aware of some circumstances that forced Lermontov to not only write the sixteen final lines, but also resort to an epigraph?
Let's try once again to dwell on Lermontov's dispute with the chamber junker N. A. Stolypin, who brought echoes of high-society conversations to the poet's house ...
... The singer's shelter is gloomy and cramped,
And on the lips of his seal.
Seal- a symbol of eternal silence ... "The Chrysostom stopped" - as if the dictionary of V. Dahl is talking about Pushkin.
There is no call for retribution yet, there is hopeless grief. On January 29, Lermontov writes the same thing that many of his contemporaries write in poetry and in letters.
“Dear Alexander!
I will tell you some unpleasant news: yesterday we buried Alexander Pushkin. He fought a duel and died of his wound. A certain Mr. Dantes, a Frenchman, an ex-page of the Duchess of Berry, who was favored by our government, who served in the cavalry guards, was received everywhere with Russian cordiality and paid for our bread and salt and hospitality with a murder.
One has to be a soulless Frenchman to raise a sacrilegious hand against the inviolable life of a poet, which sometimes is spared by fate itself, the life that belongs to an entire people.<…>
Pushkin made a mistake by getting married because he remained in this pool of great light. Poets with their vocation cannot live in parallel with society, they are not created that way. They need to create a new parnassus for living. Otherwise, they will stumble upon a bullet, like Pushkin and Griboyedov, or even worse, a mockery!!”
BESTUZHEV: "You have to be heartless french, to raise a blasphemous hand on the inviolable life of the poet ... "
LERMONTOV: "His killer coolly He struck a blow ... there is no salvation: empty the heart beats evenly, The pistol did not flinch in the hand.
BESTUZHEV: « <…>the life of a poet<…>a life that belongs to a whole people."
LERMONTOV: “Laughing, he defiantly despised the Earth for a foreign language and customs; He could not spare our glory, I could not understand at this bloody moment, What did he raise his hand to! .. "
BESTUZHEV: "Poets with their vocation cannot live in parallel with society<…>. Otherwise they'll run into a bullet<…>or worse, for a laugh!"
LERMONTOV: “His last moments are poisoned by an insidious whisper mocking ignoramuses…”,"AND for fun kindled a little lurking fire.
Before the appearance of the added lines, the elegy reflected those general conversations that arose everywhere in the days of Pushkin's death.
But in a few days, the “song of sadness,” as Nestor Kotlyarevsky calls The Death of a Poet, will turn into a “song of anger.”
Lermontov and Raevsky are arrested. In prison, they write detailed "explanations".
Most researchers consider the "explanations" of Lermontov and Raevsky sincere, while others, although they confirm sincerity, still see them as "self-defense".
But if the arrested person pursued defensive goals, he had to think about how not to give the enemy dangerous facts. And already caution itself ruled out sincerity. And what sincerity is in the clutches of the police? Both Lermontov and Raevsky understood that each of their sincere words would make the punishment heavier, tougher the sentence. Raevsky's note to Lermontov's valet requires Lermontov not to trust feelings, not to be sincere.
Andrey Ivanovich! Raevsky turned to Lermontov's valet. - Pass this note and papers quietly to Michel. I submitted to the Minister. Need to that he should answer according to her, and then it will end in nothing. And if he starts talking differently, it could be worse.”
Let's compare the texts of "explanations" by Lermontov and Raevsky.
Lermontov:
“I was ill when the news of Pushkin's unfortunate duel spread throughout the city. Some of my acquaintances brought her to me disfigured by various additions, alone, adherents our best poet, they told with lively sadness what petty torments, ridicule, he was persecuted for a long time and, finally, he was forced to take a step contrary to the laws of earth and heaven, defending the honor of his wife in the eyes of a strict world. Others, especially ladies, justified Pushkin's opponents, called him (Dantes. - S. L.) the noblest man, they said that Pushkin had no right to demand love from his wife, because he was jealous, bad-looking - they also said that Pushkin was a worthless person and so on ... Without, perhaps, having the opportunity to protect the moral side of his character, no one did not respond to these latest accusations.
An involuntary but strong indignation flared up in me against these people who attacked a man who had already been slain by the hand of God, who had done them no harm and had once been praised by them: and the innate feeling in the soul of an inexperienced, to defend anyone innocently condemned, stirred in me even more strongly. caused by an irritated nerve disease. When I began to ask on what grounds they rose up so loudly against the murdered man, they answered me: probably in order to give themselves more weight, that the entire upper circle of society is of the same opinion. I was surprised - they laughed at me. Finally, after two days of restless waiting, the sad news came that Pushkin had died; Along with this news came another, comforting for the heart of the Russian: the Sovereign Emperor, despite his previous delusions, generously extended a helping hand to his unfortunate wife and his little orphans. The wonderful contrast of His action with the opinion (I was assured) of the highest circle of society enlarged the former in my imagination and blackened still more the injustice of the latter. I was firmly convinced that state officials shared the noble and merciful feelings of the Emperor, the God-given protector of all the oppressed, but nevertheless I heard that some people, solely through family ties or as a result of seeking, belonging to the highest circle and enjoying the merits of their worthy relatives - some did not cease to darken the memory of the murdered and dispel various rumors unfavorable to him. Then, as a result of a thoughtless impulse, I poured out the bitterness of my heart on paper, expressed in exaggerated, incorrect words the discordant clash of thoughts, not believing that he wrote something reprehensible, that many may mistakenly take into account expressions that are not intended for them at all. This experience was the first and last of its kind, harmful (as I thought before and still think) for others even more than for myself. But if there is no excuse for me, then youth and ardor will at least serve as an explanation, for at that moment passion was stronger than cold reason ... "
The dispute, it turns out, was with the ladies, supporters of Dantes, and Lermontov, full of delight and gratitude to the king for the "wonderful opposite of His act," did not at all think ... "reprehensible."
Let's look at Raevsky's "explanation":
“... Lermontov has a special penchant for music, painting and poetry, why did both of us have hours free from service in these classes, especially in the last three months when Lermontov did not leave due to illness.
Pushkin died in Genvar. When on the 29th or 30th this news was communicated to Lermontov with the city's rumors about anonymous letters that aroused Pushkin's jealousy and prevented him from writing compositions in October and November (the months in which Pushkin, according to rumors, wrote exclusively), - then on the same evening Lermontov wrote elegiac verses that ended with the words:
And on the lips of his seal.
Among them are the words: "Did you not persecute his free wonderful gift" - the nameless letters mean - which is completely proved by the second two verses:
And for fun excited
Slightly lingering fire.
These verses appeared before many and were the best that I learned from the review of the journalist Kraevsky, who told them to V. A. Zhukovsky, princes Vyazemsky, Odoevsky and others. Lermontov's acquaintances incessantly said greetings to him, and there was even a rumor that V. A. Zhukovsky read them to His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Heir and that He expressed his high approval.
This success pleased me, out of love for Lermontov, and turned Lermontov's head, so to speak, out of a desire for fame. Copies of poems were distributed to everyone, even with the addition of 12 (16) verses containing a trick against persons not subject to Russian court - diplomats and foreigners, and their origin is, as I am convinced, the following:
Lermontov was visited by his brother, a chamber junker, Stolypin. He spoke unfavorably about Pushkin, saying that he behaved indecently among people of high society, that Dantes was obliged to do what he did. Lermontov, being, so to speak, indebted to Pushkin for fame, involuntarily became his partisan and, out of innate ardor, behaved ardently. He and half of the guests they argued, among other things, that even foreigners should spare remarkable people in the state, that Pushkin, despite his insolence, was spared by two sovereigns, and even showered with favors, and that then we should no longer judge his obstinacy.
The conversation got hotter the young chamber junker Stolypin communicated opinions that gave rise to new disputes - and in particular insisted that foreigners do not care about Pushkin's poetry, that diplomats are free from the influence of laws, that Dantes and Gekkern, being noble foreigners, are not subject to either laws or Russian court .
The conversation took a legal direction, but Lermontov interrupted him with words, which he later almost completely placed in verse: “if there is no law and earthly court over them, if they are the executioners of a genius, then there is God’s judgment.”
The conversation stopped, and in the evening, returning from the guests, I found Lermontov's well-known addition, in which the entire dispute was clearly expressed.
Once it occurred to us that the verses are obscure, that one could suffer for them, because they can be reinterpreted at will, but, realizing that the name Lermontov fully subscribes to them, that the highest censorship would have stopped them long ago if they considered it necessary and that the Sovereign Emperor showered the Pushkin family with favors, next. valued him - they assumed that, therefore, it was possible to scold Pushkin's enemies - they left it to go on as it was<…>.
<…>Political thoughts, and even more so contrary to the order established by age-old laws, we did not have and could not have.
<…>We are both Russian souls and even more loyal subjects: here is another proof that Lermontov is not indifferent to the glory and honor of his Sovereign ... "
So, Lermontov's "ladies", who defended Dantes' right to love, turned into Raevsky's chamber junker Stolypin, who defends the right of noble foreigners not to reckon with Russian laws.
Lermontov speaks of some people, “only by family ties or as a result of searching, belonging to the highest circle and enjoying the merits of their worthy relatives." (But what about those glorified by “a certain meanness”?!)
Even more revealing are the drafts of Raevsky's "explanation" attached to the "case":
“He [and his desk] proved by the way. And half of the guests argued among other things that [everyone] even a foreigner [should] even foreigners should spare people who are remarkable in the state.
“The young chamber junker Stolypin [and who else I don’t remember] [transmitted]<…>»
"The conversation took a [sex] legal direction<…>».
Raevsky's drafts are self-revealing. Which "half" of the guests? Who was with Lermontov except Stolypin? What “political<…>direction" accepted the dispute between Lermontov and his opponents? What does "Lermontov's party" mean? Isn't this a circle of "dangerous freethinkers" just like him and Raevsky? And what does it mean: “Who - I don’t remember” ?!
There are enough reservations to expand the "case", for additional interrogation of Stolypin, but ... the investigation ends quickly.
Raevsky is expelled to the Olonets province, Lermontov - to the Caucasus, which is not considered too severe a punishment.
Let us remember the caution of those arrested, their forced, understandable repentance, in this situation, of course, trick.
Why didn't the III Section seem to notice the discrepancy between the testimonies of those arrested and the content of The Death of a Poet?
Literary critic V. Arkhipov finds the easiest explanation - he calls Benckendorff a "narrow-minded" person. But, firstly, it is well known that Benckendorff was the most experienced and cunning policeman, and he would have had the sense to detect insincerity in his testimony, to reduce the explanation to insignificant particulars, to a harmless conversation with "ladies" about love. Yes, and not only Benckendorff was in the III Department - it is no coincidence that Lermontov draws a wolf profile of Dubelt on the margins of the list of "Death of a Poet".
But if we assume that the III Division - in that acute situation of January-February 1837 - was simply disadvantageous continue the trial of an unknown poet, it is unprofitable to expand the investigation, attract new faces, make confrontations, but vice versa, where more profitable regard the trick of a twenty-two-year-old cornet unknown to anyone as a trifle, try to stop the trial as soon as possible, send both arrested people from Petersburg, and thereby calm down public opinion? And is concretization necessary - who did the poet suspect in each line of the addition? Where to put the lines about the "confidants of debauchery", "standing at the throne"? Who are they, "the executioners of Freedom, Genius and Glory"? Lermontov did not speak about secular "ladies". It is not at all a secret that knowledge of the particular, the concrete, can in some cases more deeply and more clearly reveal the extent of the general evil. But, moreover, the path of the artist to the truth lies in different ways. And for Lermontov, the move from the particular to the general, from the concrete to the broad generalization is quite possible.
I. Andronikov in the well-known work “Lermontov and the Party ...” cites an entry on the list “The Death of a Poet”, owned by an employee of Moscow University, N. S. Dorovatovsky. This list, Andronikov points out, "came from the circle of people close to Herzen."
N. S. Dorovatovsky, pondering who Lermontov meant when speaking of “confidants of debauchery” and “arrogant descendants”, lists a number of possible surnames:
“Favorites of Catherine II: 1) Saltykov. 2) Poniatowski. 3) Gr. Orlov (Bobrinsky, their son, brought up in the house of a stoker, and then chamberlain Shkurin). 4) Vysotsky. 5) Vasilchikov. 6) Potemkin. 7) Zavadovsky. 8) Zorich - 1776.
Elizabeth and Razumovsky have a daughter, Princess Tarakanova.
Assassins of Peter III: Orlov, Teplov, Baryatinsky. Roman Vorontsov has three daughters: 1) Ekaterina, mistress of Peter III. 2) Dashkova. 3) Buturlina ...
Pavel's mistress Sofya Osipovna Chartoryzhskaya, she has a son Simeon - 1796. The murderers of Ivan Antonovich are Vlasyev and Chekin, the conspirator Mirovich.
I. Andronikov does not stop at a single name. Dorovatovsky's list was also considered by other researchers and declared it "accidental".
Meanwhile, the list contains the name of the regicide (more precisely, the regicide). The life paths of their direct descendant repeatedly intersected with the life paths of Lermontov.
I'm talking about Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky, the future Field Marshal, Lermontov's classmate in the school of guards ensigns and cavalry cadets, Lermontov's worst and long-term enemy.
The malicious attitude of Baryatinsky towards Lermontov throughout Baryatinsky's long life still seems incomprehensible.
Let us turn to the biography of the “conqueror of the Caucasus”. Wouldn't memories of him help to unravel the riddle of a few added lines of the poem "Death of a Poet"?
Baryatinsky's personal biographer Zisserman wrote about his hero this way:
“All the junkers (at the school of guards ensigns. - S. L.) there were two hundred and forty-five people, but only two of them gained general, high-profile fame: one is Lermontov, as a wonderful poet, who unfortunately died early, the other is a natural talent, conqueror of the Caucasus and a statesman.
The military careers of both junkers are somewhat similar in their beginnings. But if Lermontov, having studied at Moscow University, decides to enter the school of guards ensigns, then Baryatinsky is only being prepared for the university, however, without entering there, he changes his mind.
Unlike Lermontov, Baryatinsky studies at the junker school extremely poorly, however, it is not knowledge, but other qualities that provide Baryatinsky leadership in the military environment. Here is how Insarsky, manager of his estates, tells about these years of A.I. Baryatinsky:
“Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky told me that he studied at the guards school in the most disgusting way. Time passed in revelry and pranks, mostly intricate inventions. Dragging was also not the last occupation<…>. When the time came for graduation, the prince turned out to be completely untenable, and he was asked to enter the army or, if he wanted, to serve in the guards, but remain for another year at the guards school<…>. Thus, at the end of 1833, he entered the Gatchina Life Cuirassier Regiment, but this step did not in any way destroy his shortest ties with his former comrades, so that he only belonged to the Cuirassier Regiment in form, but in soul and heart - to the Cavalier Guard. The interests of not the Cuirassier, but the Cavalier Guard Regiment were dear to him. Everything that was done in this regiment was incomparably more expensive for him than what happened in Cuirassier. He considered himself belonging to the society of cavalry guard officers and shared their views, convictions and various demonstrations. Everything that pleased the Cavalier Guard Regiment also pleased him; everything that the cavalry guard officers liked - and he liked it. In a word, he was the most zealous member of the cavalry guard family.
Insarsky's testimony is not much different from Zisserman's characterization.
“The two-year service in the Gatchina cuirassiers was, in accordance with the then cavalry rules, a series of revelry, pranks of idle secular life. All this, however, was not considered anything reprehensible, not only in the eyes of comrades and acquaintances, but also in the eyes of the highest authorities, on the contrary, as the consequences of youth, daring, characteristic of a young man in general, and a cavalryman in particular, all these revels and hangings did not contain anything dishonorable, they gave the highest authorities a special kind of pleasure, hidden under the guise of severity ... "
Of the famous pranks of the young Baryatinsky, two cases of cheerful “burials” of people are known, something unpleasant for the whole “company” of his friends, cavalry guard officers. One “funeral” is an organized procession towards the cemetery with an empty coffin, as if the deceased commander of the cavalry guard regiment Yegor Grunwald, who calmly dined on his veranda and looked at this fun with indignation.
The second "funeral" was arranged for the chamber junker Borch, the same "non-replaceable secretary of the order of cuckolds." However, I wrote about Borja in previous chapters.
The punishment of Baryatinsky, his arrest, turns out to be only an excuse for the continuation of high-society amusements.
“Having examined the room,” Insarsky said, “assigned for him, the prince at the same hour ordered that furniture makers, upholsterers, etc., come the next day and clean the room in the most luxurious and magnificent way. One of the famous restaurants was ordered to prepare an elegant dinner for ten to twenty people every day ... The prince said that the time of his arrest was the most fun and ruinous for him ... "
The guardhouse did not turn out to be a hindrance to communication with the "mothers" of the neighboring educational house.
Here is an excerpt from the artist Gagarin's letter to his parents:
"March 6, 1834. You often talk to me about the society of young people. I would not like you to get the wrong idea about him, firstly, I devote little time to them, but sometimes I go to spend the rest of the evening at the Trubetskoys, where a small company of exceptionally kind and honest young men gathers, very friendly with each other. Everyone here brings his little talent and, to the best of his ability, contributes to having fun and free fun, much better than in all prim salons ... Sometimes we do gymnastics, wrestling and various exercises. I discovered here that I am much stronger than I thought. After a ten-minute intense struggle, with the loud approval of the rest of society, I threw Alexander Trubetskoy, who was considered the strongest of the entire company, to the floor.<…>.
Members of this circle Alexander and Sergey Trubetskoy, officers of the Cavalier Guard Regiment, Baryatinsky - officer of the Cuirassier Regiment<…>, sometimes Dantes, the new cavalry guard, who is full of wit and very funny.
Trubetskoy's "eternal" commitment to the history of Pushkin's duel, his friendship with Georges d'Anthes, and the Empress' undeniable affection for him make Trubetskoy's figure not only exceptionally important, but also make us take a closer look at Lermontov's acquaintance with Trubetskoy and his closest friends, among whom the personality of the prince is especially noticeable. Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky.
As a characteristic of the relationship between A. I. Baryatinsky and M. Yu. Lermontov - an event that took place in the house of the Trubetskoy. I will cite a curious episode described by the biographer of Prince Alexander Ivanovich.
“In 1834 or 1835, once in the evening, Prince T[rubetskoy] had a fairly large meeting of young officers, cavalry guards and from other regiments. Among them were Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky and Lermontov, former comrades in the cadet school. The conversation was lively, about various subjects, by the way, Lermontov insisted on his constant thought that a person who has the strength to fight mental ailments is not able to overcome physical pain. Then, without saying a word, Baryatinsky took off the cap from the burning lamp, took the glass in his hand and, without adding speed, with quiet steps, pale, walked across the whole room and put the lamp glass on the table whole; but his hand was burned to the bone, and for several weeks he wore it in a sling, suffering from a severe fever.
In the spring of 1835, Baryatinsky leaves as a “hunter” for the Caucasus, where he is seriously wounded. The situation is critical. Baryatinsky draws up a will in which he bequeaths a ring to Alexander Trubetskoy, a horse to Sergei Trubetskoy.
However, the wounded man recovers and, like a hero, returns to St. Petersburg. Thanks to the friendship of Baryatinsky’s mother, Baroness Keller, with the Empress, to whom she “went whenever she wanted, easily,” Baryatinsky is visited by the Tsarevich and enlisted in his personal retinue. By this time, Baryatinsky was already a staff captain.
Together with the appointment to the retinue, “constituting (according to Dolgorukov. - S. Ya.)<…>the object of the ardent desires of all guards officers, ”Baryatinsky’s circle of friends is significantly narrowing. The closest are Trubetskoy, Kurakin, Nesselrode, Dantes, "ultra-fashionable", children of dignitaries.
Baryatinsky's position after the duel is extremely important to us. Like Trubetskoy, Baryatinsky is not embarrassed by the "sobbing" and "pathetic" babble of the secular crowd; he publicly proclaims the act of d'Anthes chivalrous.
Baryatinsky's letters to Dantes in the guardhouse, published by Shchegolev, are striking in their cynicism.
“I am missing something since I have not seen you, my dear Gekkern, believe me that I did not of my own free will stop my visits, which brought me so much pleasure and always seemed to me too short, but I had to stop them due to the severity of guard officers.
Think about it, twice outrageously I was sent away from the gallery under the pretext that this was not a place for my walks, and two more times I asked permission to see you, but I was refused. Nevertheless, continue to believe in my sincere friendship and the sympathy with which our entire family treats you.
Your devoted friend
Baryatinsky.
Of course, Baryatinsky's position seems defiant to many. In the salon of Nesselrode, in the circle of his friends, Baryatinsky speaks openly in support of Dantes. The light is “silent”, but rather sympathetically silent, realizing what power this person has behind him.
Before deciding whether the name of Baryatinsky is connected with the well-known words of the Lermontov addition, let's try to evaluate in more detail the relationship between Lermontov and Baryatinsky after January 1837.
The first biographer of Lermontov, P. A. Viskovatov, who spent about two years with Prince A. I. Baryatinsky, more than once heard the sharply negative reviews of the prince about the great poet.
P. A. Viskovatov, and after him other biographers, suggested that Baryatinsky could not forget the classmate of his Junker poem.
“Ulansha, the most modest of these poems,” wrote P. A. Viskovatov, “depicts the transition of the cavalry squadron of the cadet school to Peterhof and a nightly halt in the village of Izhora. The protagonist of the adventure is the uhlan cadet "Lafa" (Polivanov. - S. L.) sent forward by the lodger. The heroine is a peasant girl.
The "Hospital" describes the adventures of fellow junkers: the same Polivanov, Shubin and Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky.
All these works of Lermontov, of course, were intended only for a close circle of comrades, but they penetrated, as we said, beyond the walls of the “school”, walked around the city, and those of the heroes mentioned in them, who had to play an uncommendable, funny or offensive role, resented Lermontov. This indignation grew along with the fame of the poet, and, thus, many of his school comrades turned into his worst enemies. One of those - a person who later achieved an important state position - became indignant every time we spoke to him about Lermontov. He called him "the most immoral man" and "a mediocre imitator of Byron" and wondered how anyone could be interested in him for collecting materials of his biography. Much later, when our poet's school works fell into our hands, we understood the reason for such malice. These people even hindered him in his service career, which they themselves successfully passed.
Baryatinsky, being in the retinue of the Tsarevich, could, of course, do a lot of harm to the "disgraced" Lermontov.
Viskovatov repeats his assumption about the reasons for the offense of Prince A.I. Baryatinsky more than once.
“Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky,” Viskovatov wrote in Russian Antiquity, “played a very unenviable role in a Don Juan adventure of a very unattractive nature, offered by a boastful young man on a bet for half a dozen champagnes ...”
And here is the commentary of one of the first publishers of the collected works of Lermontov - Efremov, who placed some lines of the "Hospital" in the second volume.
“At M. I. Semevsky, we saw one number of the handwritten journal No. 4 “Magazine School Dawn”. This number begins with Lermontov's poem "Ulansha" and ends with his own poem "Hospital", under which he also signs "Count Darbeker".
The last poem describes the adventures of two school comrades Lermontov: Prince A. I. Baryatinsky and N. I. Polivanov (Laf).
Prince Baryatinsky in the dark mistakenly hugs a blind, decrepit old woman instead of a beautiful maid, she screams, a servant runs in with a candle, rushes at the prince and beats him. Polivanov, who was with the beauty, comes to the rescue and rescues the prince.
On the pages of Russian Thought, P. A. Viskovatov again repeats Baryatinsky’s opinion about Lermontov:
"Field Marshal Prince Baryatinsky, Mongo's comrade in the school of guards ensigns<…>spoke very unfriendly of him, as well as of Lermontov. But there were other reasons for that.
Already at the beginning of our century, a student of Viskovatov, E. A. Bobrov, published excerpts from Viskovatov's letter to him about the relationship of Prince Baryatinsky to Lermontov. The letter, according to Bobrov, was of a personal nature and was not subject to "publication in its entirety," so most of it is set out in retelling.
“A more important issue is the attitude of Lermontov ... towards Prince Baryatinsky. Viskovatov knew the latter very closely, because for more than one year he was with him as a personal secretary.
Baryatinsky, according to Viskovatov, was very smart and out of the ordinary talented. But if a person has “a fathom of mind and a fathom with an inch of pride, then in the end the fool in him will defeat the smart person.” All such overly conceited people did not tolerate Lermontov. There was another special reason for Baryatinsky's dislike of Lermontov.
Lermontov and Stolypin (Mongo, - S. L.) managed to save one lady from the importunity of a certain dignitary. The latter was suspected of Baryatinsky's trick, because he was courting this lady. Both personal failure and the indignation of a high-ranking person at him prompted Baryatinsky to hate Stolypin and Lermontov. But the main reason for Baryatinsky's inextinguishable hatred of Lermontov must still be considered the description of the prince's failures in the erotic poem "Hospital". With this poem, Baryatinsky was wounded in the very Achilles' heel, because the incident was conveyed, although cynically, but quite truly, only minor juicy details were added. Could Baryatinsky ever forget and forgive, with his immense pride, this poem, placed in a handwritten journal and made Baryatinsky a laughing stock in the eyes of his comrades.
From what has been said, it is clear how unpleasantly surprised the prince was, who very much wanted Viskovatov to compose his biography, which had already been started, when one day his secretary, having talked with him about Lermontov, informed him that he was going to write a biography of the great poet. Baryatinsky was sincerely surprised at how there are people who consider collecting materials about such a person, about Lermontov. He did not imagine that posterity could judge Mikhail Yuryevich differently than his schoolmates ridiculed. Baryatinsky began to persistently dissuade his young secretary from this enterprise, saying that Lermontov's biography should not be written. “Here, talk to Smirnova about this,” he advised. "I'll introduce you to her." “He introduced me to Smirnova,” writes Viskovatov. “And she, of course, at the request of Baryatinsky, also dissuaded me from writing a biography of Lermontov.”
Baryatinsky explained the dislike for Lermontov on the part of Nikolai Pavlovich himself with such an original comparison, allegedly at that time they looked at the country as at billiards, and did not like anything that exceeded the monotonous expanse of the billiard surface, and Lermontov, although he himself was highly unpleasant personality, but still stood out above the level. This was recognized by Baryatinsky with all his sincere hatred for the great poet. In the same way, that is, by the fact that he “stands out”, Baryatinsky explained his well-known dislike for himself ... "
Baryatinsky's friends also treated Lermontov badly. So, Count Adlerberg, adjutant of the Tsarevich, like Baryatinsky, spoke extremely badly about Lermontov. “I will never forget,” D. Merezhkovsky wrote, “how in the eighties, during my own youthful passion for Lermontov, my father gave me a review of him by Count Adlerberg, Minister of the Court under Alexander II, an old man who was personally acquainted with Lermontov : "You can't imagine what a dirty man he was!"
Let's look at fragments of the "Hospital", a Junker poem, published either in separate lines, or with abbreviations in various editions.
In fact, Lermontov's poem was completely remembered only by Lermontov's junker classmates, one of whom it was transferred to the Lermontov Museum.
Here are the lines about Baryatinsky:
One day, after a long discussion
And having drained three bottles,
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From the book Favorites. Young Russia author Gershenzon Mikhail Osipovich From the book The French at Home author Rubinsky Yuri Ilyich Commentary on the poem:First published (under the title "On the Death of Pushkin") in 1858 in the "Polar Star for 1856" (book 2, pp. 33 - 35); in Russia: without 16 final verses - in 1858 in the "Bibliographic Notes" (vol. I, No. 2, st. 635 - 636); in full - in 1860 in the collected works edited by Dudyshkin (vol. I, pp. 61 - 63).
The poem was written on the death of Pushkin (Pushkin died on January 29, 1837). The autograph of the full text of the poem has not been preserved. There are also the first part of it up to the words "And you, arrogant descendants." The second part of the poem has been preserved in copies, including in a copy attached to the investigative file "On the impermissible verses written by the cornet of the Life Guards Hussars regiment Lermantov, and on the distribution thereof by the provincial secretary Raevsky." Only in copies is there an epigraph to the poem, taken from the tragedy of the French writer Rotru "Venceslav" in the alteration of A. A. Gendre. With an epigraph, the poem began to be printed in 1887, when the investigative materials on the case “On Inadmissible Poems ...” were published, and among them a copy of the poem. By its nature, the epigraph does not contradict the 16 final lines. An appeal to the tsar with a demand to severely punish the murderer was an unheard-of impudence: according to A. Kh. There is no reason to believe, therefore, that the epigraph is attributed with the aim of softening the sharpness of the final part of the poem. In this edition, the epigraph is introduced into the text.
The poem had a wide public response. The duel and death of Pushkin, slander and intrigues against the poet in the circles of the court aristocracy caused deep indignation among the advanced part of Russian society. He expressed these sentiments in courageous, poetic verses, which were sold in many lists among his contemporaries.
The name of Lermontov, as a worthy heir to Pushkin, received national recognition. At the same time, the political poignancy of the poem caused alarm in government circles.
According to the stories of contemporaries, one of the lists with the inscription "Appeal to the Revolution" was delivered to Nicholas I. Lermontov and his friend S. A. Raevsky, who participated in the distribution of poetry, were arrested and brought to justice. On February 25, 1837, by the highest command, a sentence was pronounced: “L-Gussar regiment of cornet Lermantov ... transfer the same rank to the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment; and the provincial secretary Raevsky ... to be kept under arrest for one month, and then sent to the Olonets province for use in the service, at the discretion of the local civil governor. In March, Lermontov left St. Petersburg, heading to the active army in the Caucasus, where at that time the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment was located.
In the verses “His killer in cold blood” and the following, we are talking about Dantes, the killer of Pushkin. Georges Charles Dantes (1812 - 1895) - a French monarchist who fled to Russia in 1833 after the Vendée rebellion, was the adopted son of the Dutch envoy in St. Petersburg, Baron Gekkeren. Having access to the salons of the Russian court aristocracy, he participated in the persecution of the poet, which ended in a fatal duel on January 27, 1837. After Pushkin's death, he was exiled to France.
In verse "Like that singer, unknown, but cute" and the following Lermontov recalls Vladimir Lensky from Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" .
"And you, arrogant descendants" and the next 15 verses, according to S. A. Raevsky, were written later than the previous text. This is Lermontov's response to an attempt by government circles and the cosmopolitan nobility to denigrate Pushkin's memory and justify Dantes. The immediate reason for the creation of the last 16 poems, according to Raevsky, was Lermontov’s quarrel with a relative, a chamber junker, who, having visited the sick poet, began to express to him the “unfavorable” opinion of the courtiers about Pushkin and tried to defend Dantes.
A similar story is contained in a letter from A. M. Merinsky to P. A. Efremov, the publisher of Lermontov's works. There is a list of the poem, where an unknown contemporary of Lermontov named a number of surnames, allowing you to imagine who the lines are talking about. "And you, the arrogant descendants of the famous meanness of the famous fathers". These are counts Orlov, Bobrinsky, Vorontsov, Zavadovsky, princes Baryatinsky and Vasilchikov, barons Engelhardt and Frederiks, whose fathers and grandfathers achieved a position at court only with the help of seeking, intrigue, love affairs.
"There is a formidable judgment: it awaits"- this verse in the edition of Lermontov's works edited by Efremov (1873) was first published with different interpretations: "There is a formidable judge: he is waiting." There is no reason to change the original reading of this verse. The obscure mention of the autograph, which allegedly formed the basis of the full text of the poem in this edition, is due to the fact that Efremov made a number of amendments to the text according to the letter of A. M. Merinsky, who kept a list of the poem, made by him from the autograph in 1837, immediately after Lermontov wrote it. Merinsky's letter to Efremov has been preserved, but it does not contain an amendment to the verse "There is a formidable judgment." Obviously, Efremov corrected it arbitrarily.
In some editions of Lermontov's works (edited by Boldakov in 1891, in several Soviet editions starting from 1924), the reading of Efremov was repeated - "judge" instead of "court". Meanwhile, in all copies of the poem that have come down to us and in the first publications of the text, “court” is read, and not “judge”. A poem by the poet P. Gvozdev, who studied with Lermontov at the cadet school, has also been preserved. Gvozdev wrote on February 22, 1837, containing lines confirming the correctness of the original reading of the controversial verse:
Didn't you say: "There is a terrible judgment!"
And this court is the court of offspring...
POETS DEATH
Revenge, my lord, revenge! I will fall at your feet: Be just and punish the murderer, So that his execution in the later centuries will proclaim Your righteous judgment to posterity, So that the villains see an example in it. The poet died! - A slave of honor - Fell, slandered by rumors, With lead in his chest and a thirst for revenge, Hanging his proud head! Murdered!.. Why sobs now, An unnecessary choir of empty praises And pitiful babble of justification? Fate's verdict has come true! Weren't you at first so viciously persecuting His free, daring gift And fanning the Slightly lurking fire for fun? Well? rejoice... He could not endure the torments of the last: The marvelous genius faded like a light, The solemn wreath withered. His killer cold-bloodedly Brought a blow ... there is no salvation: An empty heart beats evenly, The gun did not flinch in his hand. And what a marvel?... from afar, Like hundreds of fugitives, To catch happiness and ranks Abandoned to us by the will of fate; Laughing, he defiantly despised the Earth's alien language and customs; He could not spare our glory; I could not understand at this bloody moment, On Thu about he raised his hand! .. And he was killed - and taken by the grave, Like that singer, unknown, but dear, Prey of jealousy deaf, Sung by him with such wonderful power, Struck, like him, by a ruthless hand. Why, from peaceful bliss and simple-hearted friendship, did he enter this envious and stuffy light For a free heart and fiery passions? Why did he give his hand to insignificant slanderers, Why did he believe false words and caresses, He, who from a young age comprehended people? Poisoned his last moments Insidious whisper mocking ignoramuses, And he died - with a vain thirst for revenge, With annoyance secret deceived hopes. The sounds of marvelous songs have ceased, Do not be heard again: The singer's shelter is gloomy and cramped, And his seal is on his lips. _____________________ And you, the arrogant descendants of the well-known villainy of the glorified fathers, the Fifth slavishly corrected the wreckage with the Game of happiness of the offended families! You, greedy crowd standing at the throne, Freedom, Genius and Glory executioners! You lurk under the shadow of the law, Before you is the court and the truth - everything is silent! .. But there is also God's judgment, confidants of debauchery! There is a formidable judgment: it waits; He is not available to the ringing of gold, And he knows his thoughts and deeds in advance. Then in vain you will resort to slander: It will not help you again, And you will not wash away the righteous blood of the Poet with all your black blood! Mikhail Lermontov. Favorites.World Poetry Library.
Rostov-on-Don, "Phoenix", 1996. Lermontov Mikhail / Klassika.ru - Library of Russian Literature