The Bronze Horseman is the theme of power and the little man. The problem of personality and state in Alexander Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman". Compositional originality of the poem. Conversation on questions. Elements of the text analysis "Introduction"
A.S. Pushkin, like any other writer recognized by readers, put into his works the most acute problems and questions of the era, of all life.
In the poem "The Bronze Horseman" Pushkin turns to the historical past of Russia in order to find in it explanations for the events of the present. Therefore, the author compositionally combines two time periods in the poem (the era of Peter I and the days of the flood of 1824), confronts Eugene - the "little man" - with historical power and predetermined destiny.
The key figure of the lyric-epic work is Peter I, on the consequences of whose activities A.S. Pushkin ponders. Thus, in the introduction, the author turns to the historical past, creating the image of Peter I as a great reformer and wise autocrat.
Here the city will be founded ...
Nature is destined for us here
To cut a window to Europe ...
A.S. Pushkin praises the emperor, recognizes the need for the transformations he once made, including in the poem contrasting descriptions of the region and the city that later emerged in this place. "Out of the darkness of the forests, out of the swamp of blat", the capital appears, the beauty of which proves the rationality of the activities of Peter I.
O powerful lord of fate!
Are you not right above the abyss itself,
At a height, with an iron bridle,
He reared Russia!
It was the buildings of the city “under the sea” that predicted St. Petersburg to often endure floods, and the people who erected the future capital to perish.
The author reveals his idea on the example of a petty official Eugene. The city for the hero is presented by A.S. Pushkin differently: "beauty and diva" are replaced by poor outskirts, dilapidated houses, "belongings of poor poverty." Creating the image of an "ordinary man", the author writes about the unremarkable life of the hero, about his simplest human dreams: home, wife, children ...
But the aspirations of the "little" official collide with the state necessity of the past. According to the plot, the flood becomes the cause not only of the death of the bride Eugene, but also of all his dreams. So, although the main action of the poem takes place much later than the death of Peter I, when only the "proud idol" and the "idol on a bronze horse" remain, the emperor's violence still returns to the inhabitants in the form of the elements.
Therefore, according to the author's idea, Eugene blames everything on the Bronze Horseman - a symbol of the greatness of Peter I's deeds. And this "rebellion" of Eugene carries in itself the birth of yet another, more terrible, popular rebellion. It is no coincidence that A.S. Pushkin compares the elements with an uprising - it is just as uncontrollable, merciless and, most importantly, predetermined by the deeds of the first emperor.
Thus, the poem "The Bronze Horseman" covers not only the present time for A.S. Pushkin, but also the past with the future. The author in the work was able to reveal the contradictions of the personality of Peter I, to find in his affairs the basis for everything that happened, is happening and will happen in the history of Russia.
The poem by Alexander Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman" combined both historical and social issues. This is the author's reflection on Peter the Great as a reformer, a collection of various opinions and assessments about his actions. This poem is one of his perfect compositions with a philosophical meaning. We offer for acquaintance a brief analysis of the poem, the material can be used to work in literature lessons in grade 7.
Brief analysis
Year of writing- 1833
History of creation- During his "golden autumn", when Pushkin was forced to stay in the Boldin estate, the poet had a creative upsurge. During that "golden" time, the author created many brilliant works that made a great impression on both the public and critics. One of such works of the Boldin period was the poem "The Bronze Horseman".
Topic- The reign of Peter the Great, the attitude of society to his reforms - the main theme of the "Bronze Horseman"
Composition- The composition consists of a large introduction, it can be considered as a separate poem, and two parts, which deal with the main character, the devastating flood of 1824, and the meeting of the hero with the Bronze Horseman.
genre- The Bronze Horseman genre is a poem.
Direction - Historical poem describing actual events, direction- realism.
History of creation
At the very beginning of the history of the creation of the poem, the writer was in the Boldinsky estate. He pondered a lot about the history of the Russian state, about its rulers and autocratic power. At that time, society was divided into two types of people - some fully supported the policy of Peter the Great, treated him with adoration, and the other type of people found in the great emperor a resemblance to evil spirits, considered him a fiend of hell, and accordingly treated him.
The writer listened to different opinions about the reign of Peter, the result of his reflections and collection of various information, was the poem "The Bronze Horseman", which completed his heyday of creativity, the year of writing the poem - 1833.
Topic
In The Bronze Horseman, the analysis of the work displays one of the main topics- the power and the little man. The author reflects on the rule of the state, on the collision of a small man with a huge colossus.
Myself meaning of the name- "The Bronze Horseman" - contains the main idea of the poetic work. The monument to Peter is made of bronze, but the author preferred a different epithet, more ponderous and gloomy. So, through expressive artistic means, the poet describes a powerful state machine, for which the problems of small people suffering from the power of autocratic rule are indifferent.
In this poem, little man's conflict with power has no continuation, a person is so small for the state, when "the forest is cut - the chips fly."
It is possible to judge in different ways about the role of one person in the fate of the state. In his introduction to the poem, the author characterizes Peter the Great as a man of amazing intelligence, far-sighted and decisive. While in power, Peter looked far ahead, he thought about the future of Russia, about her power and invincibility. The actions of Peter the Great can be judged in different ways, accusing him of despotism and tyranny in relation to the common people. You cannot justify the actions of a ruler who built power on the bones of people.
Composition
The ingenious idea of Pushkin in the peculiarities of the composition of the poem serves as proof of the poet's creative skill. The long introduction dedicated to Peter the Great and the city he built can be read as an independent work.
The language of the poem has absorbed all the genre originality, emphasizing the author's attitude to the events he describes. In the description of Peter and Petersburg, the language is pretentious, stately, completely in harmony with the image of the emperor, the great and powerful.
The story of a simple Eugene is in a completely different language. The narrative speech about the hero goes in the usual language, reflects the essence of the "little man".
The greatest genius of Pushkin is clearly visible in this poem, it is all written in the same poetic meter, but in different parts of the work, it sounds completely different. The two parts of the poem following the introduction can also be considered a separate work. These parts tell the story of an ordinary person who lost his girlfriend in a flood.
Eugene blames the monument to Peter for this, implying in it the emperor himself - the autocrat. A person who dreams of simple human happiness has lost the meaning of life, having lost the most precious thing - he has lost his girlfriend, his future. It seems to Eugene that the Bronze Horseman is chasing him. Eugene understands that the autocrat is cruel and ruthless. Crushed by grief, the young man goes mad, and then dies, left without the meaning of life.
It can be concluded that in this way the author continues the theme of the "little man" developed at that time in Russian literature. By this he proves how despotic the government is in relation to the common people.
main characters
genre
The work "The Bronze Horseman" belongs to the genre of a poetic poem with a realistic direction.
The poem is large-scale in its deep content, it includes both historical and philosophical issues. There is no epilogue in the poem, and the contradictions between the little man and the whole state remain open.
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Analysis rating
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The key character of the work, along with the Bronze Horseman, is Eugene, represented by the poet in the form of a petty St. Petersburg official who is not distinguished by any talents and does not have any special merits.
Eugene has noble roots, but since he is currently poor, he avoids meeting with noble people of the aristocratic circle, showing cowardice and melancholy.
The life meaning of the hero is the dream of a good place of work, family, financial well-being, children. Evgeny connects his dream with an ordinary girl from a poor family called Parasha, who lives with her mother on the banks of the Neva in a dilapidated house.
One day the city is struck by the elements in the form of a flood, accompanied by a strong storm, as a result of which Parasha dies, and her dilapidated house is destroyed, like many others in the city. Heartbroken and having lost hope for happiness in the future, Eugene loses his mind and becomes an insane person, wandering the streets, collecting alms, sleeping on damp earth and sometimes enduring beatings by evil passers-by who treat the man with contempt and ridicule.
At some point, Eugene begins to think that the culprit of all his life upheavals is the monument to the founder of the city, Peter the Great, created in the form of the Bronze Horseman. It seems to the young man that the monumental creation mocks his grief, haunts him even in his sleep, mocking the suffering of a desperate person.
Despite the inclement weather, Eugene approaches the majestic monument, wanting only to look into his insolent eyes, uttering abusive statements in relation to the iron idol, not realizing that the monument cannot be to blame for the misfortunes that have occurred.
A small and insignificant man dares to threaten the autocrat in the form of a monument, cursing him and promising God's retribution in the future. During the monologue of Eugene, addressed to the founder of St. Petersburg, a new natural disaster occurs in the form of a destructive storm, as a result of which the hero finds peace, dying.
Telling about the life of the main character of the poem, the author, in the image of Eugene, reveals the transformation of an ordinary person who has experienced life upheavals into a protesting rebel who dared to raise a protest against the existing injustice, engaging in an unequal battle and expressing his unwillingness to tacitly accept the cruelty of evil fate and fate.
Essay about Eugene
The protagonist of Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" is Eugene. The main character - a typical resident of St. Petersburg, thinks only about material wealth and about how to quickly move up the career ladder upward.
Eugene is all in family troubles, does not think about the future, about his duty and the Motherland. If you put all these components together, you get the image of a small person. Alexander Sergeevich does not like such people.
This hero has no surname. In this element, in principle, the author's relationship to the character is manifested. With this technique, Pushkin is trying to prove to the reader that any resident of St. Petersburg is suitable for the role of the main character of this work.
During a flood in the city, Eugene does not try to help in any way in the situation, he just watches. This is the character's egoism, he does not think about anything except his own benefit and himself. All his thoughts are occupied with very commonplace things.
After the incident in the city, Evgeny becomes uncomfortable, it seems to him that he is slowly losing his mind. He constantly wanders the favorite streets of St. Petersburg. Thoughts about the past creep into my head, how good it was before. For Pushkin, this is a positive quality of a living and real person.
Against the backdrop of all this stress, nature stands out. The surrounding noise is in good harmony with the noise in Evgeny's soul. After the realization of everything that happened comes to him, a sound mind returns to Eugene. He begins to feel a tremendous loss.
Finally, patriotism awakens in the protagonist. He wants to avenge everything, that's why he raises an uprising. Reading the work, at this stage, you can notice a fundamental change in the characters.
Pushkino's main task was to show how ruthless a little man who started a riot can be. Although this case can be called a tragedy, but despite the emotions, people can and want to fight for the truth.
We can say that Eugene is the prototype of the Russian people, who are sometimes blind, but the main thing is to open their eyes in time. The Russian people can and wants to change their lives for the better. Probably, this is the main thing that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wanted to convey to his readers. With his work, he urged everyone to go to the end and fight for the truth.
Option 3
Eugene is the main character in the immortal poem by Alexander Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman". He is "young and healthy." Evgeny has an aristocratic origin: his pedigree originates from an old boyar family. Despite his honorable background, Eugene did not gain fame among the people of high society, because his once respected family will be forgotten.
The hero works in the public service. Eugene is a petty official whose financial situation leaves much to be desired. The hero is hardworking: in order to earn a living, Eugene is ready to work day and night. He rents a small room in one of the sleeping areas of St. Petersburg. The hero is in love with a girl named Parasha, with whom he sincerely hopes to create a strong and friendly family, but his plans, unfortunately, did not come true. The tragic death of Parasha negates all the plans of the lover for a happy family life.
Shocked by the death of his beloved, Eugene does not find a place for himself. There is no longer a spark in his eyes, and his heart and soul are broken with grief. Like a wild man, he is practically unconscious, wandering the streets of St. Petersburg. The once neat and full of vitality man, drags out a meaningless and miserable existence.
During a natural disaster, the hero holds on tightly to the Bronze Horseman. In this episode, the author emphasizes such a small detail as the hero's gaze: Eugene looks in the same direction as the rider. However, Peter's gaze is directed deep into the centuries (the horseman thinks about historical achievements, he does not care about human destinies), and the official looks at the dilapidated dwelling of his beloved, which, like hundreds of houses, is in the center of the raging elements.
Comparing Eugene and the Bronze Horseman, the author makes the reader understand that the hero, unlike the founder of St. Petersburg, has a loving heart: Eugene worries about the fate of a loved one, while Peter I (and in his person the state) is not capable of this.
The author, in the work "The Bronze Horseman", emphasizes the conflict between the state and an individual. The monument to Peter I, personifies the state, and Eugene is a simple poor official, a victim of circumstances. For all his troubles, the hero blames Russia, in particular the bronze horseman, who built the city in such a dysfunctional place.
The hero's fate is tragic. Evgeny's story is the personification of feudal Russia, a state where "historical necessity" prevails over hundreds of human lives.
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Topic: "Analysis of the poem" The Bronze Horseman "
Lesson objectives: to reveal the historical, literary and genre originality of the Bronze Horseman; determine the composition of the work; help to comprehend the main conflict of the poem; develop the ability to analyze the work; to educate in the reader a sense of beauty, the ability to feel and understand what he has read.
Methodological techniques: teacher's story, student messages, vocabulary work, text analysis elements.
During the classes
1. Homework check.
Implementation of an individual task: message "The image of Peter I in the poem" Poltava ".
2. Teacher's word.
The image of Peter I was brought out by Pushkin not only in the poem "Poltava", where he appears as an inspired military leader - the victor, but also in many other works: "The Feast of Peter the Great", "Arap of Peter the Great", etc. New facets are revealed in each of these works the character of the king, his state activities.
In the early 1930s, Pushkin had a desire to start work on The History of Peter. He gained access to the state archives and the Voltaire library stored in the Hermitage, and began searching for and collecting materials from Golikov's multivolume work "Acts of Peter the Great" and "Supplements .." to it. The materials collected by the writer have not come down to us in full, but they make up a whole volume in his collected works.
By this time, his ideas about Peter, his merits to the country, about his merits and demerits deepened. Pushkin has a note: “The difference between the state institutions of Peter the Great and his temporary decrees is worthy of surprise. The first is the essence of the fruit of a vast mind, full of goodwill and wisdom, the second often cruel, capricious and, it seems, written with a whip. The first were for eternity, or at least for the future, - the second escaped from impatient autocratic landowner ". Pushkin notes that the arbitrariness of Peter I grew from year to year.
What Pushkin realized as a historian, he wanted to reflect as an artist. This is how one of his best poems, The Bronze Horseman, was born in 1833. In it, Pushkin expressed an insoluble conflict, a contradiction between historical necessity and the life of living people who often become victims of this need. It is not Peter himself who acts in the poem, but his "idol", a monument. This image is inseparable from the image of St. Petersburg; it is a symbol of the northern capital.
3. Implementation of an individual task.
A report by a trained student about the history of the creation of St. Petersburg, the history of the creation of the monument to Peter I.
4. Expressive reading of a passage from the Bronze Horseman poem by a teacher.
5. Conversation on questions. Elements of the text analysis "Introduction".
1. Look up the definition of composition in the dictionary. Remember the elements of plot composition:
a) the outset (change in the initial situation, entailing the emergence of a conflict);
b) development of action;
c) culmination;
d) interchange;
e) obligatory framing elements - prologue and epilogue.
2. Is there a framing element in the composition of the plot of the work? What is it called?
uses epic ways of depicting a historical personality: a broad outlook on the world "strengthens" the personality of the hero: "... he, the thoughts of the greats are full ...", the king is shown against the background of a huge space that is to be transformed, conquered.
6. Find lexical and other means of artistic expression that show the author's attitude to Peter's activities as historically necessary and aimed at the good of the state.
The introduction is written in the tradition of the Lomonosov ode in a high syllable. In the text there are Slavisms (otssel, hail, dilapidated, porphyry-bearing), methods of oratory. The genre of the introduction to the story "The Bronze Horseman" chosen by the author emphasizes in the image of Peter his statesmanship and patriotism.
Let us explain the meaning of the words "full-bodied", "blat", "porphyry-bearing".
6. What he once “thought,” that is, Peter, standing on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, happened. What does Peter's Creation look like now?
6. Understanding the conflict of the work.
But at what cost did this city “ascend magnificently, proudly”? The idea was realized at the cost of violence against nature and people. The introduction to the story is intended to bring the reader to an understanding of its main conflict - history and personality.
Working with a dictionary. Find a definition of conflict.
A conflict in a literary work is a clash, a struggle on which the development of the plot is built.
Is the conflict in The Bronze Horseman unambiguous?
(The conflict in the poem is ramified, complex. It is a conflict between a "small" person and power, between nature and man, between city and elements, between personality and history, between the real and the mythological.)
7. Conversation on questions.
In the story, next to the image of the great statesman, the image of an ordinary person appears.
1) How is the image of Eugene revealed by comparing his “dooms” (“What was he thinking about?”) With Peter’s monologue (“And he was thinking ...”)?
Pushkin contrasts Peter, who personifies power, with an ordinary person whose fate depends on power.
2) How is this opposition emphasized stylistically?
The story about Peter is in the genre of an ode, about Eugene - in a reduced syllable, with a mention of many everyday details that recreate the way of life of an ordinary person.
8. The description of the flood takes the main place in the first part of the story.
Is it sudden for Eugene?
Suddenly. Falling asleep, he wishes "that the wind howl not so depressingly and that the rain knocks on the window not so angrily." The hero does not lose hope for a successful outcome of events.
And now let's compare the description of the raging elements with the author's double assessment of Peter's plan to build a city. How does the introduction show that Peter's will interferes with and alters the natural state of the world?
How does nature take revenge for human invasion of her environment? What does Pushkin note in her actions?
Siege! Attack! Evil waves
They climb into windows like thieves. Chelny
With a running start, the glass is beaten by the stern.
Trays under a wet blanket.
Commodity of thrifty trade,
Remnants of poor poverty
Bridges demolished by a thunderstorm,
Coffins from a washed-out cemetery
Float through the streets!
Sees God's wrath and awaits execution.
A flood should be understood as nature's retribution to man for the violence committed against her. This event serves as the setting for the action.
Eugene, fleeing the elements on a marble lion, is a tragicomic "double" of the guardian of the city, an "idol on a bronze horse" standing "in an unshakable height." The parallel between them emphasizes the sharp contrast between the greatness of the "idol" raised above the city and the miserable position of Eugene.
What terrifies Eugene after the death of the bride? Why is the Bronze Horseman pursuing him? What is the symbolic meaning of this scene?
In the minds of Eugene, this "miraculous builder", Peter, is the culprit of the misfortunes of ordinary Petersburg people. The rider, with his outstretched hand, seems to bless the inflamed element, but he cannot control it, tame it. Gradually, Eugene's “scary thoughts” “cleared up”, and he “became gloomy”.
The question that was asked before that: "Where are you galloping, proud horse? .." - it would seem, does not imply a simple, immediate answer, and suddenly the answer is received. The horse "lowered its hooves", the Rider breaks off the pedestal and begins to chase the poor rebel. The autocrat cannot forgive threats from the timid, confused "little man." Let it only seem to Eugene that the Horseman is following him on his heels, galloping across the square and the streets of the capital. Some great moral laws were not taken into account and even trampled by the reformer of Russia. That is why this monument is so lonely in the middle of the colorful life of a huge city.
Did the elements manage, in turn, to destroy what was created by the people at the will of a great man?
affirms the immortality of Peter's deeds as the deeds of the people and the state as a whole. But, fulfilling the law of historical necessity, the state breaks the destinies of ordinary people, destroys them, showing state egoism towards them. This is the outcome of events, the resolution of the conflict.
9. Definition of genre
What is the subtitle of The Bronze Horseman?
("Petersburg story")
However, in the writings of many literary scholars we find the designation of this work as a poem.
Read the definitions of story and poem in the dictionary. Which genre is closer to the work of "The Bronze Horseman" and why?
The story is one of the types of epic work. The story is more in scope and coverage of life phenomena than a story, and less than a novel.
Poem (column poiema - creation) - one of the types of lyrical epic works, which are characterized by plot and expression by the author or lyric hero of his feelings.
Pushkin calls the work a story, the authenticity of the events of which is emphasized by the Preface: “The incident described in this story is based on truth. The details of the flood are borrowed from the magazines of the time. The curious can cope with the piece of news. "
It was important for the author to emphasize that this is not just a poem like "The Gypsies", but something deeper and more ambitious. Very often, authors complicate the genres of their works. The definition of a genre according to a dictionary is only some basis, and true masterpieces, complex in design, often do not fit into the usual ideas of readers about genres, and the author thus gives them hints.
Homework:
1. Memorize an excerpt from The Bronze Horseman (student's choice).
2. Answer in writing the question: "How did Pushkin's attitude towards Peter change during the period of writing the poem" The Bronze Horseman "in relation to the image of Peter, which is given in the poem" Poltava "?
Like Poltava, The Bronze Horseman is a national-historical poem, but its action is timed to date and unfolds in St. Petersburg during the troubled days of the terrible November flood in 1824.
St. Petersburg of the Bronze Horseman is not only a realistically written place of narrative action associated with the flood and not only the capital of the Russian statehood transformed by Peter, created by Peter, but also the figurative and symbolic focus of its historical destinies, which are still largely problematic.
The image of the Bronze Horseman is as ambiguous as the image of St. Petersburg. But on top of that, it is frankly fantastic, because in the end it turns the monument to Peter into an active person, enraged by Evgeny's rebellion and pursuing him all night with its "heavy-ringing gallop".
Science fiction has a psychological, and thus a realistic motivation, being the fruit of Eugene's sick imagination. Like any realistic motivated fiction, it has a symbolic, completely logically indefinable meaning, prompted, however, by the symbolism of the Falconet's monument to Peter.
Its composition embodies the assimilation of the rider to the sovereign ruler, traditional for the art of the era of absolutism, but already known to the art of the Renaissance, and his horse - to the subordinate state or people.
In Pushkin's poem, the assimilation acquires a new, unconventional meaning due to its duality - apologetic, but far from completely applied to the rider, and hinting at the problematic nature of the future destinies of the horse spurred by him and rapidly rushing:
Where are you galloping, proud horse,
And where will you drop your hooves?
This question, to which the poem does not give an answer, is its problem epicenter. To whom is the question addressed? Essentially - to the Russian people and state, textually to the Horse, "reared up" by the Bronze Horseman - the symbolic double of Peter. In the confused and hostile perception of "poor" Eugene, the Bronze Horseman is a "proud idol"; in it he recognizes the one who, in the terrible hours of the flood, invariably and
Motionlessly towered
In the darkness, the head of brass,
The one whose fateful will
The city was founded under the sea ...
He is terrible in the surrounding darkness!
Terrible, but at the same time majestic and mysterious:
What a thought on your forehead!
What power is hidden in him!
And what a fire in this horse!
Where are you galloping, proud horse,
And where will you drop your hooves?
O powerful lord of fate!
Are you not right above the abyss itself
At the height of an iron bridle
Has he reared Russia?
But these are the impressions and thoughts no longer of the hero of the poem, but of its author. "Iron bridle", "Raised on its hind legs", and even "over the very abyss" - far from the best side characterize the case of Peter. In the introduction to the poem, Peter and his work are presented in a completely different light.
The introduction is written in the form of an excited lyrical monologue of the author, who admired the beauty and grandeur of the front facade of St. Petersburg, the "military capital" of the Russian Empire created by Peter.
The lyrical part of the Introduction ends with the apotheosis of Peter and his work, the inviolability of which is the guarantee of national dignity and greatness ("independence") of the Russia he renewed:
Flaunt, city of Petrov, and stay
Unwavering like Russia
Let it be reconciled with you
And the defeated element;
Your old enmity and captivity
Let the Finnish waves forget
And they will not be vain malice
Disturb the eternal sleep of Peter!
The following "sad story" about the "terrible time" of the St. Petersburg flood is a plot-figurative concretization of the "vain malice" hostile to Peter and defeated by Peter (Petersburg), the raging elements of the "Finnish waves".
What does this element mean? Is it just a blind and formidable natural force or something more and implied? If only the first, then how and in what sense was she defeated and captured by Peter? After all, the entire "sad story" about the "terrible time" of its destructive action testifies to the opposite.
In addition (and most importantly): if the flood, with which the plot frame of the narrative is inextricably linked, does not mean anything but himself, then The Bronze Horseman turns out to be not a national-historical poem, but something similar to the Petersburg stories of the “natural school”.
It should be noted that Pushkin's poem anticipates many elements of the "natural school" poetics - the principles of sympathetic depiction of the "little man" and the sharp exposure of social contrasts of St. Petersburg reality, the victim of which is the "little man", mostly a petty official.
But Yevgeny "The Bronze Horseman" is a "little man" and an official of a special sort. He is the same as the author, “a decrepit fragment of genera, And unfortunately, not alone” (“My pedigree”), but unlike the author, he forgot about his ancestral prerogatives and turned, like many others like him, into a real “bourgeoisie” ", An ordinary and humble Russian philistine of the era of Nikolaev reaction.
Evgeny's "bright dreams" of reaching the "shtetl" and finding a quiet family haven, having a legal marriage with Parasha, who is just as poor as himself and his beloved, speak about this. We do not know anything about Parasha, except that she is poor and lives with her widowed mother in a "dilapidated house" on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
But we know that the economic, political, spiritual degradation of the nobility was, in Pushkin's conviction, a direct and fatal consequence of Peter's reforms, which deprived Russia, which they renewed, of the social strength that could limit autocratic tyranny and lead further national progress.
It seems that it is precisely this contradiction of Peter's reforms, undeniable for Pushkin, that forms the problematic core of the symbolic conjugation of the plot-like fabric of Pushkin's Petersburg poem with the whole complex of problems of the present, past and future of Russia that worried him. The "philistine", philistine humility that characterizes Eugene at the beginning of the poem, in the days of the flood turns into his defenselessness. Before what? According to the direct, "natural" sense of the narrative - in front of the raging elements of "Finnish waves".
But their destructive element is terrible not only for the small Petersburg people, to which Yevgeny and his beloved belong, but also for the “new capital” of the Russian statehood transformed by Peter, Petersburg itself, which was founded “under the sea” by the “fateful will” of the same Peter.
Peter's "will", the contradictory nature of his actions, is the point of symbolic conjugation of all plot-like components of the story about the poor Petersburg official, both natural and fantastic, with the historical, largely mysterious fate of post-Peter the Great Russia.
In this regard, attention should be paid to the fact that the usually not taken into account the fact that the expressive image of the flood is sustained in the style of the traditional for Russian literature of the first third of the 19th century, including for the work of Pushkin, the metaphorical assimilation of historical upheavals - rebellion, rebellion, foreign invasion - "Thunderstorm", "storm", "sea waves" or simply "waves".
True, in The Bronze Horseman, it would seem, the opposite takes place - the assimilation of the raging natural element to a formidable historical upheaval. But the essence of the matter does not change from this, because the associative connection between the direct and figurative meaning of assimilation remains the same. And you cannot neglect it.
Among other things, she also clarifies the implied semantics of the “enmity” to Peter, the “vain malice” of the “Finnish waves” he had captured, mentioned in the Introduction to the poem. Finnish means foreign, which makes us recall the following lines of Pushkin's poem "Borodino Anniversary" (1831):
Is Russia strong? War and pestilence
And the riot, and external storms pressure
She was shocked, raging -
Look: everything is worth it!
And around her worries fell ...
In concept and style, these lines, addressed to the external "enemies of Russia" who threatened her with military intervention in the days of the Polish uprising of 1830, are consonant with one of the undoubted semantic shades of the symbolic imagery of Pushkin's Petersburg poem - indestructible, despite all military and internal shocks, international the relics of the Russian state renewed by Peter.
As for the metaphorical assimilation of the natural elements of a flood to an internal shock that is formidable for Russia, it is largely prompted by the lesson that Pushkin learned from the movement of Pugachev, which he studied in detail.
Awful day!
Neva all night
Tore to the sea against the storm
Not having overcome their violent foolishness ...
And she became unable to argue ...
And suddenly, like a furious beast,
She rushed to the city.
Siege! Attack! angry waves,
They climb into windows like thieves. Chelny
With a running start, the glass is hit by the stern.
Trays under a wet blanket
Wreckage of huts, logs, roofs,
Commodity of thrifty trade,
Remnants of pale poverty
Bridges demolished by a thunderstorm,
Coffins from a washed-out cemetery
Float through the streets!
Sees God's wrath and awaits execution.
All this, down to specific details, is very close to the "disasters" of Kazan, Saratov and other cities besieged or captured by the Pugachevites described in the "History of Pugachev". One way or another, but one thing is certain: catastrophic for Eugene and disastrous for the "city of Peter" the rampage of the elements in the poem is opposed in the poem by the indestructible, but heavy and formidable, frozen in metal power of the Bronze Horseman "with an outstretched hand", as if soaring "in the unshakable height Above indignant Neva ".
The last meeting with the monument cast in metal, "the sovereign of the half-world" awakens in Evgeny, who has fallen into madness, the memory of the horror he experienced during the flood on the same then flooded "Petrova Square" and for a moment turns the "poor madman" into a rebel full of hatred and indignation.
His chest was embarrassed. Brow
I lay down on the cold grate,
The eyes were covered with fog,
A flame ran through my heart,
Blood boiled. He became gloomy
Before the proud idol
And clenching his teeth, clenching his fingers,
As possessed by the power of black,
“Good, miraculous builder! -
He whispered, trembling angrily, -
Already you! .. "And suddenly headlong
He started to run.
It seems that the expressions “overwhelmed by the power of the black”, “trembling viciously” (cf. defeat, but a heroic revolutionary act. Evgeny's "rebellion" is futile and does not mean anything other than a powerless outburst of protest by a declassified nobleman against his own social and political "humiliation".
Here one of the most tragic for Pushkin his thoughts, to which he came in his work on The History of Pugachev, shines through - the idea of the exhaustion of the progressive role of the "enlightened" and "well-born" nobility in the history of Russia.
The thought of Pushkin as an artist always outpaced and, as it were, programmed his historical research and, in turn, was corrected and enriched by them. Such a correction and social concretization of the historical problematics of The Bronze Horseman was the last, unfinished work of Pushkin, The History of Peter.
Its idea arose back in 1827, but Pushkin began to implement it only in 1834, that is, after he wrote The History of Pugachev and created the Bronze Horseman.
Thus, here, as was the case with The History of Pugachev, which was preceded by both Dubrovsky and the idea of a story about a nobleman-Pugachev, Pushkin the artist is ahead of Pushkin the historian, stimulating his thought, putting before her the task of an analytical, documented study of those fundamental problems of national life, which were covered by the grandiose in idea and symbolic in its structure, the artistic synthesis of the Bronze Horseman.
Due to the exceptional volume of this synthesis, it can be called philosophical. But at the same time, one should be aware of the fact that Pushkin did not create his philosophy of history and did not strive to create.
Unlike the generation of Belinsky and Gogol and like the Decembrists, he was not interested in the general theory of the historical process, but in the specific socio-political history of Russia and other European countries, in which he was looking for equally specific and predominantly political answers to the most important problems of Russian life itself, generated by the general crisis of feudal relations, the defeat of the Decembrists and the subsequent brutal socio-political reaction.
The philosophical and historical comprehension of these problems, first felt and formulated by Pushkin, an artist and historian, became the work of subsequent literary generations, to which Pushkin himself did not reach.
But along with the problems themselves, Pushkin's successors, starting with Lermontov and Gogol and ending with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, inherit his concept of national progress, which presupposes, together with overcoming the feudal backwardness of national life and protecting it from the negative aspects of "European", that is, bourgeois, civilization ...
Pushkin was one of the first to notice its vices, and opposition to them is an essential aspect of the ideal of Russia's national “independence” bequeathed to its descendants - the guarantee of its great future.
History of Russian Literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983
