The 19th century, which became a period of extraordinary rise in national culture and grandiose achievements in all areas of art, was replaced by a complex, full of dramatic events and turning points of the 20th century. The golden age of social and artistic life was replaced by the so-called silver one, which gave rise to the rapid development of Russian literature, poetry and prose in new bright trends, and subsequently became the starting point of its fall.
In this article, we will focus on the poetry of the Silver Age, consider it and talk about the main directions, such as symbolism, acmeism and futurism, each of which was distinguished by the special music of the verse and a vivid expression of the experiences and feelings of the lyrical hero.
Poetry of the Silver Age. A turning point in Russian culture and art
It is believed that the beginning of the Silver Age of Russian literature falls on 80-90 years. 19th century At this time, the works of many remarkable poets appeared: V. Bryusov, K. Ryleev, K. Balmont, I. Annensky - and writers: L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The country is going through difficult times. During the reign of Alexander I, first there is a strong patriotic upsurge during the war of 1812, and then, due to a sharp change in the previously liberal policy of the tsar, society experiences a painful loss of illusions and severe moral losses.
The poetry of the Silver Age reaches its heyday by 1915. Public life and the political situation are characterized by a deep crisis, a restless, seething atmosphere. Mass demonstrations are growing, life is being politicized and at the same time personal self-awareness is being strengthened. Society is making strenuous attempts to find a new ideal of power and social order. And poets and writers keep up with the times, mastering new art forms and offering bold ideas. The human personality begins to be realized as a unity of many principles: natural and social, biological and moral. During the years of the February, October revolutions and the Civil War, the poetry of the Silver Age is in crisis.
A. Blok's speech "On the appointment of the poet" (February 11, 1921), delivered by him at a meeting on the occasion of the 84th anniversary of the death of A. Pushkin, becomes the final chord of the Silver Age.
Characteristics of the literature of the XIX - early XX centuries.
Let's look at the features of the poetry of the Silver Age. Firstly, one of the main features of the literature of that time was a huge interest in eternal topics: the search for the meaning of the life of an individual and all of humanity as a whole, the riddles of the national character, the history of the country, the mutual influence of the worldly and spiritual, human interaction and nature. Literature at the end of the 19th century becomes more and more philosophical: the authors reveal the themes of war, revolution, personal tragedy of a person who, due to circumstances, has lost peace and inner harmony. In the works of writers and poets, a new, bold, extraordinary, resolute and often unpredictable hero is born, who stubbornly overcomes all hardships and hardships. In most works, close attention is paid to precisely how the subject perceives tragic social events through the prism of his consciousness. Secondly, a feature of poetry and prose was an intensive search for original artistic forms, as well as means of expressing feelings and emotions. Poetic form and rhyme played a particularly important role. Many authors abandoned the classical presentation of the text and invented new techniques, for example, V. Mayakovsky created his famous "ladder". Often, to achieve a special effect, the authors used speech and language anomalies, fragmentation, alogisms, and even allowed
Thirdly, the poets of the Silver Age of Russian poetry freely experimented with the artistic possibilities of the word. In an effort to express complex, often contradictory, "volatile" spiritual impulses, the writers began to treat the word in a new way, trying to convey the subtlest shades of meanings in their poems. Standard, formulaic definitions of clear objective objects: love, evil, family values, morality - began to be replaced by abstract psychological descriptions. Precise concepts gave way to hints and understatements. Such fluctuation, fluidity of verbal meaning was achieved through the brightest metaphors, which often began to be based not on the obvious similarity of objects or phenomena, but on non-obvious signs.
Fourthly, the poetry of the Silver Age is characterized by new ways of conveying thoughts and feelings of the lyrical hero. The poems of many authors began to be created using images, motifs from different cultures, as well as hidden and explicit quotations. For example, many word artists included scenes from Greek, Roman and a little later Slavic myths and traditions in their creations. In the works of M. Tsvetaeva and V. Bryusov, mythology is used to build universal psychological models that make it possible to comprehend the human personality, in particular its spiritual component. Each poet of the Silver Age is brightly individual. It is easy to understand which of them belongs to certain verses. But they all tried to make their works more tangible, alive, full of colors, so that any reader could feel every word and line.
The main directions of the poetry of the Silver Age. Symbolism
Writers and poets who opposed realism announced the creation of a new, contemporary art - modernism. There are three main poetry of the Silver Age: symbolism, acmeism, futurism. Each of them had its own striking features. Symbolism originally arose in France as a protest against the everyday display of reality and dissatisfaction with bourgeois life. The founders of this trend, including J. Morsas, believed that only with the help of a special hint - a symbol, one can comprehend the secrets of the universe. Symbolism appeared in Russia in the early 1890s. The founder of this trend was D. S. Merezhkovsky, who proclaimed in his book three main postulates of the new art: symbolization, mystical content and "expansion of artistic impressionability."
Senior and junior symbolists
The first symbolists, later named senior, were V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, F. K. Sologub, Z. N. Gippius, N. M. Minsky, and other poets. Their work was often characterized by a sharp denial of the surrounding reality. They portrayed real life as boring, ugly and meaningless, trying to convey the subtlest shades of their sensations.
Period from 1901 to 1904 marks the onset of a new milestone in Russian poetry. The poems of the Symbolists are imbued with a revolutionary spirit and a premonition of future changes. The younger symbolists: A. Blok, V. Ivanov, A. Bely - do not deny the world, but utopianly await its transformation, praising divine beauty, love and femininity, which will surely change reality. It is with the appearance of the younger symbolists on the literary arena that the concept of a symbol enters literature. Poets understand it as a multifaceted word that reflects the world of "heaven", the spiritual essence and at the same time the "earthly kingdom".
Symbolism during the Revolution
Poetry of the Russian Silver Age in 1905-1907. is undergoing changes. Most Symbolists, focusing on the socio-political events taking place in the country, are reconsidering their views on the world and beauty. The latter is now understood as the chaos of struggle. Poets create images of a new world that comes to replace the dying one. V. Ya. Bryusov creates the poem "The Coming Huns", A. Blok - "The Barge of Life", "Rising from the darkness of the cellars ...", etc.
The symbolism also changes. Now she turns not to the ancient heritage, but to Russian folklore, as well as Slavic mythology. After the revolution, there is a demarcation of the symbolists, who want to protect art from the revolutionary elements and, on the contrary, are actively interested in the social struggle. After 1907, the disputes of the Symbolists exhausted themselves, and imitation of the art of the past replaced it. And since 1910, Russian symbolism has been in crisis, clearly reflecting its internal inconsistency.
Acmeism in Russian poetry
In 1911, N. S. Gumilyov organized a literary group - the Workshop of Poets. It included the poets O. Mandelstam, G. Ivanov and G. Adamovich. This new direction did not reject the surrounding reality, but accepted reality as it is, asserting its value. The "Workshop of Poets" began to publish its own magazine "Hyperborea", as well as print works in "Apollo". Acmeism, originating as a literary school to find a way out of the crisis of symbolism, brought together poets very different in ideological and artistic settings.
Features of Russian futurism
The Silver Age in Russian poetry gave rise to another interesting trend called "futurism" (from Latin futurum, that is, "future"). The search for new artistic forms in the works of the brothers N. and D. Burlyukov, N. S. Goncharova, N. Kulbina, M. V. Matyushin became a prerequisite for the emergence of this trend in Russia.
In 1910, the futuristic collection "The Garden of Judges" was published, in which the works of such brightest poets as V. V. Kamensky, V. V. Khlebnikov, the Burliuk brothers, E. Guro were collected. These authors formed the core of the so-called Cubo-Futurists. Later, V. Mayakovsky joined them. In December 1912, an almanac was published - "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste". The verses of the Cubo-Futurists "Buch of the Forest", "Dead Moon", "Roaring Parnassus", "Gag" became the subject of numerous disputes. At first, they were perceived as a way to tease the habits of the reader, but a closer reading revealed a keen desire to show a new vision of the world and a special social involvement. Anti-aestheticism turned into a rejection of soulless, fake beauty, rudeness of expressions was transformed into the voice of the crowd.
egofuturists
In addition to cubofuturism, several other currents arose, including egofuturism, headed by I. Severyanin. He was joined by such poets as V. I. Gnezdov, I. V. Ignatiev, K. Olimpov and others. They created the publishing house "Petersburg Herald", published magazines and almanacs with original names: "Skycops", "Eagles over the abyss" , "Zasakhar Kry", etc. Their poems were distinguished by extravagance and were often composed of words created by themselves. In addition to the ego-futurists, there were two more groups: "Centrifuga" (B. L. Pasternak, N. N. Aseev, S. P. Bobrov) and "Mezzanine of Poetry" (R. Ivnev, S. M. Tretyakov, V. G. Sherenevich).
Instead of a conclusion
The Silver Age of Russian poetry was short-lived, but united a galaxy of the brightest, most talented poets. Many of their biographies developed tragically, because by the will of fate they had to live and work in such a fatal time for the country, a turning point in the revolutions and chaos of the post-revolutionary years, the civil war, the collapse of hopes and rebirth. Many poets died after the tragic events (V. Khlebnikov, A. Blok), many emigrated (K. Balmont, Z. Gippius, I. Severyanin, M. Tsvetaeva), some took their own lives, were shot or disappeared in Stalin's camps. But all of them managed to make a huge contribution to Russian culture and enrich it with their expressive, colorful, original works.
The Silver Age is most often associated with the poetry of this time. Such names as A. A. Fet, F. I. Tyutchev, A. A. Blok and others come to mind.
The Silver Age has become a powerful contrast with the previous and, moreover, with the time that followed it. The ideology of the populists, which actually relegated art to the background and pushed forward socio-political activity, "subordinating" each person to society, became the main prerequisite for making changes. And they were reflected in the activities of the Symbolists, who extolled the individual principle, shaped the aesthetic taste of society.
The development of art began as a powerful wave that swept across Russia. This century was marked by a huge number of cultural events: life was turbulent, acquaintance with domestic and foreign music took place, art exhibitions were organized everywhere, a huge number of poets preached the emergence of a new aesthetics, new ideals.
The exact date, as well as the exact place of origin of this era, cannot be determined. It arose everywhere, thanks to the simultaneous activity of a huge number of people who did not suspect the existence of each other. Many researchers associate the beginning of the Silver Age with the release of the first issue of the World of Art magazine, when a new aesthetics had already taken shape in people's minds.
Most scientists agree that the end of the century comes with the beginning of the Civil, i.e. in 1917. And, despite the fact that individual figures of the great era, such as Gumilyov, Blok still continued to live and give the world their work, the Silver Age itself has already sunk into oblivion.
Someone believes that the name of this period is given by analogy with the golden age of our culture, which took place in earlier periods (the 19th century).
The Silver Age is a century of contrasts. Every person who lived at that time was waiting for change. Only for some, these changes were presented in the form of a bright, cloudless future, and for others - impenetrable darkness. All the creative work of the great era is saturated with the same contradictions. Perhaps that is why such a short period of time gave the world such a huge number of cultural masterpieces.
From time immemorial, people have been informed about the coming changes by the sound of a bell. And so, by the way, A. Bely said in his poems: "... The silver bell struck ...". And later, N. Berdyaev called this century, the age of change and forebodings, silver. However, the exact authorship of this term has not yet been established. Along with the famous philosopher N. Berdyaev, S. Makovsky and N. Otsup also claimed it.
The Silver Age of Russia is characterized by an increase in the general literacy of the population, the emergence of well-informed and enlightened lovers of culture and art, it became possible to single out a fairly wide layer of educated people.
The expression "Silver Age" came into widespread use after the publication of Anna Akhmatova's collection "The Run of Time". It contained the following lines: "... And the silver month froze brightly over the silver age ...". It happened as early as 1965.
Religious and philosophical meetings (RFS) of representatives of the Russian intelligentsia and the Orthodox clergy opened in St. Petersburg on November 29, 1901 at the initiative of a group of writers.
For the first time the idea of their organization was expressed by Z.N. Gippius and picked up by her husband D.S. Merezhkovsky and V.V. Rozanov. On October 8, 1901, authorized founding members of the RFU - D.S. Merezhkovsky, D.V. Philosophers, V.V. Rozanov, V.S. Mirolyubov and V.A. Ternavtsev - were received by the chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev. In the evening of the same day, the founding members of the RFU - D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, V.A. Ternavtseva, N.M. Minsky, V.V. Rozanova, D.V. Filosofova, L.S. Bakst and A.N. Benois received Metr. Anthony (Vadkovsky).
The RFU took place in the building of the Geographical Society.
The permanent chairman of the RFU was Bp. Yamburgsky Sergiy (Stragorodsky), Rector of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The Council of Assemblies also included: a future participant in the Renovationist schism, Archim. Antonin (Granovsky), Protopresbyter I.L. Yanyshev, Archpriest S.A. Sollertinsky, D.S. Merezhkovsky, V.S. Mirolyubov (publisher of the journal Life for All), V.V. Rozanov, treasurer - V.A. Ternavtsev. Later, the original composition of the founding members was expanded to include Archim. Sergiy (Tikhomirov), V.M. Skvortsov (editor of the Missionary Review), M.A. Novoselov (publisher-editor of the "Religious and Philosophical Library"), Z.N. Gippius, D.V. Philosophers, A.V. Kartashev, V.V. Uspensky, N.M. Minsky, P.P. Pertsov, E.A. Egorov.
Many representatives of the literary and artistic elites of Russia of those times were visitors to the RFU, among them - I.E. Repin, A.N. Benois, V.Ya. Bryusov, L.S. Bakst, S.P. Diaghilev, A.A. Block.
A total of 22 RFU meetings took place. The following topics were discussed: “On the relationship of the Church to the intelligentsia”, “Leo Tolstoy and the Russian Church”, “On the relationship between the Church and the state”, “On freedom of conscience”, “On the spirit and flesh”, “On marriage”, “On dogmatic development Churches". The minutes of the meetings were published in the journal "New Way", then "Notes of the St. Petersburg Religious and Philosophical Meetings" (St. Petersburg, 1906) were published.
A common valuation of the RFS as manifestations of the religious and philosophical revival, the revival of Russian theological apologetic thought etc., does not coincide with the diatribe of St. rights. John of Kronstadt "On the Old and New Ways of Salvation" (March 1903). On April 5, 1903, by a decree of K.P. Pobedonostsev RFU were closed.
According to the plan of the organizers, during the RFU under the guise of discussing burning issues of religious and civil life of the Church it was proposed to reconsider the attitude to Orthodox dogmas, to heretical teachings, to state power and marriage, and thereby overcome a certain “internal crisis” that allegedly prevents the Russian Orthodox Church from fulfilling the “great task of public salvation”. In the first report of V.A. Ternavtsev called the Church give an answer not in word, but in deed to universal human requests. In subsequent speeches, the ideas of a religious renewal of society, "neo-Christianity", were put forward for the sake of saving Russia in its "hopeless" situation.
The results of the RFU, this meeting of the "two worlds", the participants, as a rule, evaluate negatively, noting the lack of dialogue, mutual understanding of the parties, the imminent closure of the meetings. Despite this imaginary disappointment with the results of the RFU, with t. sp. modernists, the action was a success in its own way. Representatives of the Orthodox clergy, with the exception of St. John of Kronstadt, did not give a church-canonical assessment of the new false teachings that were voiced during the RFU.
The consequences of the RFU, as a manifestation of modernism in the Russian Church, can be traced far ahead, right up to the beginning of the 21st century. Literally each of the ideas voiced at the RFU: Gnostic mixing of the Church and the world, dogmatic development, immorality, "collective salvation", speaking out against the foundations of Christian statehood and the public, etc. - received further development, both in the immediate period of the Renovationist split, and in subsequent years. This can be seen on the examples of the teachings of Mariology, the materials of the conference "The Sacrament of Marriage - the Sacrament of Unity" (St. Petersburg, 2008), the teachings of prof. A.I. Osipov, sectarian activity about. G. Kochetkova and others.
Quotes from speeches at the RFU:
D.S. Merezhkovsky: For us, theological science is not the last authority, not a peremptory instance. If it prevents us from going to Christ, then we recognize that it must be destroyed, not to leave stone unturned.
V.A. Ternavtsev: There is absolutely nothing to do with the dogmas preserved by the Church, either in the state, or in artistic creativity, or in the struggle for the organization of a good public life. Yes, with them one can renounce all this, but not build up... While Christianity is tragically divided into warring confessions and stands in conflict with the state and culture, we are told that everything is complete in the teachings of the Church. This is the most unfortunate mistake of our scholastic school theology.
D.V. Philosophers: In our doctors, female students, students, who went to the service of their neighbor in a famine year, there was an unconscious “religiosity”, since they were true to true love for the “earth”. But "religiosity" is not a religion. Faith in God was replaced by their faith in progress, civilization, in the categorical imperative. And now, before our eyes, the consciousness of society has grown, and the old ideals have ceased to satisfy it. Dostoevsky and Nietzsche clearly showed their futility, so as not to talk about spiritual writers. In the name of love for one's neighbor, without love for God, there can be no true work on earth. Without God, there can be no real culture that embraces the fullness of human existence… The Church, in contrast to an intelligent society, understood and consciously accepted only the first half of the commandment: “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” And unable to accommodate the second, she began to deny it, brought her love for God, her service to Him - to hatred of the world, to contempt for culture. Historical Christianity, right up to the 20th century, focused all its attention only on the ascetic side of the teaching of Christ, on serving God, neglecting in its one-sidedness that God's world, part of which are neighbors who work in the sweat of their faces.
Sources
1. St. John of Kronstadt. On the Old and New Ways of Salvation // Missionary Review. 1903. No. 5. SS. 690-692
2. Prot. G. Florovsky. Ways of Russian theology. Paris, 1937
3. S.M. Polovinkin. At the turn of the century (Religious and philosophical meetings in St. Petersburg in 1901-1903) // "Russia XXI". 2001. №6
A new stage in the development of Russian culture is conditionally, starting from the reform of 1861 to the October Revolution of 1917, called the "Silver Age". For the first time this name was proposed by the philosopher N. Berdyaev, who saw in the highest achievements of the culture of his contemporaries a reflection of the Russian glory of the previous "golden" eras, but this phrase finally entered the literary circulation in the 60s of the last century.
The Silver Age occupies a very special place in Russian culture. This contradictory time of spiritual searches and wanderings significantly enriched all kinds of arts and philosophy and gave rise to a whole galaxy of outstanding creative personalities. On the threshold of a new century, the deep foundations of life began to change, giving rise to the collapse of the old picture of the world. The traditional regulators of existence - religion, morality, law - could not cope with their functions, and the age of modernity was born.
However, sometimes they say that the "Silver Age" is a Western phenomenon. Indeed, he chose as his guidelines the aestheticism of Oscar Wilde, the individualistic spiritualism of Alfred de Vigny, the pessimism of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche's superman. The "Silver Age" found its ancestors and allies in various countries of Europe and in different centuries: Villon, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Novalis, Shelley, Calderon, Ibsen, Maeterlinck, d'Annuzio, Gauthier, Baudelaire, Verharne.
In other words, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries there was a reassessment of values from the standpoint of Europeanism. But in the light of the new era, which was the exact opposite of the one that it replaced, the national, literary and folklore treasures appeared in a different, brighter than ever light. Truly, it was the most creative era in Russian history, a canvas of greatness and impending troubles of holy Russia.
Slavophiles and Westernizers
The liquidation of serfdom and the development of bourgeois relations in the countryside exacerbated the contradictions in the development of culture. They are found, first of all, in the discussion that has engulfed Russian society and in the formation of two trends: "Western" and "Slavophile". The stumbling block, which did not allow the disputants to reconcile, was the question: in what way is the culture of Russia developing? According to the "Western", that is, bourgeois, or it retains its "Slavic identity", that is, it preserves feudal relations and the agrarian character of culture.
The “Philosophical Letters” by P. Ya. Chaadaev served as the reason for highlighting the directions. He believed that all the troubles of Russia were derived from the qualities of the Russian people, which, allegedly, are characterized by: mental and spiritual backwardness, underdevelopment of ideas about duty, justice, law, order, and the absence of an original “idea”. As the philosopher believed, "the history of Russia is a" negative lesson "to the world." A. S. Pushkin gave him a sharp rebuke, saying: “I would not want to change the Fatherland for anything in the world or have a different history than the history of our ancestors, such as God gave it to us.”
Russian society was divided into "Slavophiles" and "Westerners". The “Westerners” included V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. V. Stankevich, M. A. Bakunin, and others. The “Slavophiles” were represented by A. S. Khomyakov, K. S. Samarin.
The "Westerners" were characterized by a certain set of ideas, which they defended in disputes. This ideological complex included: the denial of the identity of the culture of any people; criticism of the cultural backwardness of Russia; admiration for the culture of the West, its idealization; recognition of the need for modernization, "modernization" of Russian culture, as a borrowing of Western European values. The Westerners considered the ideal of a European to be a businesslike, pragmatic, emotionally restrained, rational being, distinguished by “healthy egoism”. Characteristic of the "Westerners" was also a religious orientation towards Catholicism and ecumenism (a fusion of Catholicism with Orthodoxy), as well as cosmopolitanism. According to their political sympathies, the "Westerners" were Republicans, they were characterized by anti-monarchist sentiments.
In fact, the "Westerners" were supporters of industrial culture - the development of industry, natural science, technology, but within the framework of capitalist, private property relations.
They were opposed by the "Slavophiles", distinguished by their complex of stereotypes. They were characterized by a critical attitude towards the culture of Europe; its rejection as inhumane, immoral, unspiritual; absolutization in it features of decline, decadence, decay. On the other hand, they were distinguished by nationalism and patriotism, admiration for the culture of Russia, absolutization of its uniqueness, originality, glorification of the historical past. "Slavophiles" associated their expectations with the peasant community, considering it as the guardian of everything "holy" in culture. Orthodoxy was considered the spiritual core of culture, which was also considered uncritically, its role in the spiritual life of Russia was exaggerated. Accordingly, anti-Catholicism and a negative attitude towards ecumenism were asserted. The Slavophils were distinguished by their monarchical orientation, admiration for the figure of the peasant - the owner, the "owner", and a negative attitude towards the workers as a "ulcer of society", a product of the decomposition of its culture.
Thus, the "Slavophiles", in fact, defended the ideals of an agrarian culture and occupied a protective, conservative position.
The confrontation between "Westerners" and "Slavophiles" reflected the growing contradiction between agrarian and industrial cultures, between two forms of ownership - feudal and bourgeois, between two classes - the nobility and capitalists. But the contradictions within capitalist relations, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, were also implicitly aggravated. The revolutionary, proletarian direction in culture stands out as an independent one and, in fact, will determine the development of Russian culture in the 20th century.
Education and enlightenment
In 1897 the All-Russian population census was carried out. According to the census, in Russia the average literacy rate was 21.1%: for men - 29.3%, for women - 13.1%, about 1% of the population had higher and secondary education. In secondary school, in relation to the entire literate population, only 4% studied. At the turn of the century, the education system still included three levels: primary (parochial schools, public schools), secondary (classical gymnasiums, real and commercial schools) and higher education (universities, institutes).
In 1905, the Ministry of Public Education submitted a draft law "On the introduction of universal primary education in the Russian Empire" for consideration by the II State Duma, but this draft never received the force of law. But the growing need for specialists contributed to the development of higher, especially technical, education. In 1912, there were 16 higher technical educational institutions in Russia, in addition to private higher educational institutions. The university admitted persons of both sexes, regardless of nationality and political views. Therefore, the number of students increased markedly - from 14 thousand in the mid-1990s to 35.3 thousand in 1907. Higher education for women also received further development, and in 1911 the right of women to higher education was legally recognized.
Simultaneously with Sunday schools, new types of cultural and educational institutions for adults began to operate - work courses, educational workers' societies and people's houses - original clubs with a library, an assembly hall, a tea shop and a trading shop.
The development of the periodical press and book publishing had a great influence on education. In the 1860s, 7 daily newspapers were published and about 300 printing houses were operating. In the 1890s - 100 newspapers and about 1000 printing houses. And in 1913, 1263 newspapers and magazines were already published, and in the cities there were approximately 2 thousand bookstores.
In terms of the number of published books, Russia ranked third in the world after Germany and Japan. In 1913, 106.8 million copies of books were published in Russian alone. The largest book publishers A.S. Suvorin in St. Petersburg and I.D. Sytin in Moscow contributed to the familiarization of the people with literature, releasing books at affordable prices: Suvorin's "cheap library" and Sytin's "library for self-education".
The educational process was intense and successful, and the number of the reading public increased rapidly. This is evidenced by the fact that at the end of the XIX century. there were about 500 public libraries and about 3 thousand zemstvo folk reading rooms, and already in 1914 in Russia there were about 76 thousand different public libraries.
An equally important role in the development of culture was played by "illusion" - cinema, which appeared in St. Petersburg literally a year after its invention in France. By 1914 in Russia there were already 4,000 cinemas, which showed not only foreign, but also domestic films. The need for them was so great that between 1908 and 1917 more than two thousand new feature films were made. In 1911-1913. V.A. Starevich created the world's first three-dimensional animations.
The science
The 19th century brings significant success in the development of domestic science: it claims to be equal to Western European science, and sometimes even to be superior. It is impossible not to mention a number of works by Russian scientists that led to world-class achievements. D. I. Mendeleev in 1869 discovers the periodic system of chemical elements. A. G. Stoletov in 1888-1889 establishes the laws of the photoelectric effect. In 1863, the work of I. M. Sechenov "Reflexes of the brain" was published. K. A. Timiryazev founded the Russian school of plant physiology. P. N. Yablochkov creates an arc light bulb, A. N. Lodygin - an incandescent light bulb. AS Popov invents the radiotelegraph. A.F. Mozhaisky and N.E. Zhukovsky laid the foundations of aviation with their research in the field of aerodynamics, and K.E. Tsiolkovsky is known as the founder of astronautics. P.N. Lebedev is the founder of research in the field of ultrasound. II Mechnikov explores the field of comparative pathology, microbiology and immunology. The foundations of the new sciences - biochemistry, biogeochemistry, radiogeology - were laid by V.I. Vernadsky. And this is not a complete list of people who have made an invaluable contribution to the development of science and technology. The significance of scientific foresight and a number of fundamental scientific problems posed by scientists at the beginning of the century is only now becoming clear.
The humanities were greatly influenced by the processes taking place in the natural sciences. Scientists in the humanities, like V.O. Klyuchevsky, S.F. Platonov, S.A. Vengerov and others, fruitfully worked in the field of economics, history, and literary criticism. Idealism has become widespread in philosophy. Russian religious philosophy, with its search for ways to combine the material and the spiritual, the assertion of a "new" religious consciousness, was perhaps the most important area not only of science, ideological struggle, but of the whole culture.
The foundations of the religious and philosophical Renaissance, which marked the "Silver Age" of Russian culture, were laid by V.S. Solovyov. His system is an experience of the synthesis of religion, philosophy and science, “moreover, it is not the Christian doctrine that is enriched by him at the expense of philosophy, but, on the contrary, he introduces Christian ideas into philosophy and enriches and fertilizes philosophical thought with them” (V. V. Zenkovsky). Possessing a brilliant literary talent, he made philosophical problems accessible to wide circles of Russian society, moreover, he brought Russian thought to the universal spaces.
This period, marked by a whole constellation of brilliant thinkers - N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, D.S. Merezhkovsky, G.P. Fedotov, P.A. Florensky and others - largely determined the direction of development of culture, philosophy, ethics, not only in Russia, but also in the West.
spiritual quest
During the "Silver Age" people are looking for new grounds for their spiritual and religious life. All sorts of mystical teachings are very common. The new mysticism eagerly sought its roots in the old, in the mysticism of the Alexander era. As well as a hundred years earlier, the teachings of Freemasonry, flocks, the Russian schism and other mystics became popular. Many creative people of that time took part in mystical rites, although not all of them fully believed in their content. V. Bryusov, Andrei Bely, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, N. Berdyaev and many others were fond of magical experiments.
Theurgy occupied a special place among the mystical rites that spread at the beginning of the 20th century. Theurgy was conceived “as a one-time mystical act, which should be prepared by the spiritual efforts of individuals, but, having taken place, irreversibly changes human nature as such” (A. Etkind). The subject of the dream was the real transformation of each person and the whole society as a whole. In a narrow sense, the tasks of theurgy were almost understood in the same way as the tasks of therapy. We also find the idea of the need to create a "new man" in such revolutionary figures as Lunacharsky and Bukharin. A parody of theurgy is presented in the works of Bulgakov.
The Silver Age is a time of opposition. The main opposition of this period is the opposition of nature and culture. Vladimir Solovyov, a philosopher who had a great influence on the formation of the ideas of the Silver Age, believed that the victory of culture over nature would lead to immortality, since "death is a clear victory of meaninglessness over meaning, chaos over space." In the end, theurgy also had to lead to victory over death.
In addition, the problems of death and love were closely connected. “Love and death become the main and almost the only forms of human existence, the main means of understanding it,” Solovyov believed. The understanding of love and death brings together the Russian culture of the "Silver Age" and psychoanalysis. Freud recognizes the main internal forces that affect a person - libido and thanatos, respectively, sexuality and the desire for death.
Berdyaev, considering the problem of gender and creativity, believes that a new natural order should come, in which creativity will win - "the sex that gives birth will be transformed into the sex that creates."
Many people sought to break out of everyday life, in search of a different reality. They chased after emotions, all experiences were considered good, regardless of their sequence and expediency. The lives of creative people were rich and filled with experiences. However, the consequence of this accumulation of experiences often turned out to be the deepest emptiness. Therefore, the fate of many people of the "Silver Age" is tragic. And yet, this difficult time of spiritual wandering gave rise to a beautiful and original culture.
Literature
Realistic trend in Russian literature at the turn of the 20th century. continued L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, who created his best works, the theme of which was the ideological search of the intelligentsia and the "little" man with his daily worries, and young writers I.A. Bunin and A.I. Kuprin.
In connection with the spread of neo-romanticism, new artistic qualities appeared in realism, reflecting reality. The best realistic works of A.M. Gorky reflected a broad picture of Russian life at the turn of the 20th century with its inherent peculiarity of economic development and ideological and social struggle.
At the end of the 19th century, when, in an atmosphere of political reaction and the crisis of populism, part of the intelligentsia was seized by moods of social and moral decline, decadence became widespread in artistic culture, a phenomenon in the culture of the 19th-20th centuries, marked by the rejection of citizenship, immersion in the sphere of individual experiences. Many motifs of this trend became the property of a number of artistic movements of modernism that arose at the turn of the 20th century.
Russian literature of the early 20th century gave rise to remarkable poetry, and the most significant trend was symbolism. For symbolists who believed in the existence of another world, the symbol was his sign, and represented the connection between the two worlds. One of the ideologists of symbolism D.S. Merezhkovsky, whose novels are permeated with religious and mystical ideas, considered the predominance of realism to be the main reason for the decline of literature, and proclaimed "symbols", "mystical content" as the basis of the new art. Along with the requirements of "pure" art, the Symbolists professed individualism, they are characterized by the theme of "elemental genius", close in spirit to Nietzsche's "superman".
It is customary to distinguish between "senior" and "junior" symbolists. "The Elders", V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, F. Sologub, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, who came to literature in the 90s, a period of deep crisis in poetry, preached the cult of beauty and free self-expression of the poet. "Younger" Symbolists, A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov, S. Solovyov, put forward philosophical and theosophical quests.
The Symbolists offered the reader a colorful myth about a world created according to the laws of eternal Beauty. If we add to this exquisite imagery, musicality and lightness of style, the steady popularity of poetry in this direction becomes understandable. The influence of symbolism with its intense spiritual quest, captivating artistry of a creative manner was experienced not only by the acmeists and futurists who replaced the symbolists, but also by the realist writer A.P. Chekhov.
By 1910, "symbolism had completed its circle of development" (N. Gumilyov), it was replaced by acmeism. The members of the group of acmeists were N. Gumilyov, S. Gorodetsky, A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, V. Narbut, M. Kuzmin. They declared the liberation of poetry from symbolist appeals to the “ideal”, the return to it of clarity, materiality and “joyful admiration of being” (N. Gumilyov). Acmeism is characterized by a rejection of moral and spiritual quests, a penchant for aestheticism. A. Blok, with his inherent heightened sense of citizenship, noted the main drawback of acmeism: "... they do not have and do not want to have a shadow of an idea about Russian life and the life of the world in general." However, the acmeists did not put all their postulates into practice, this is evidenced by the psychologism of the first collections of A. Akhmatova, the lyricism of the early 0. Mandelstam. In essence, the acmeists were not so much an organized movement with a common theoretical platform, but a group of talented and very different poets who were united by personal friendship.
At the same time, another modernist trend arose - futurism, which broke up into several groups: "Association of Ego-Futurists", "Mezzanine of Poetry", "Centrifuge", "Gilea", whose members called themselves Cubo-Futurists, Budtlyans, i.e. people from the future.
Of all the groups that at the beginning of the century proclaimed the thesis: “art is a game”, the Futurists most consistently embodied it in their work. In contrast to the symbolists with their idea of "life-building", i.e. transforming the world with art, the Futurists emphasized the destruction of the old world. Common to the futurists was the denial of traditions in culture, the passion for form creation. The demand of the Cubo-Futurists in 1912 to “throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy from the steamer of modernity” received scandalous fame.
The groupings of acmeists and futurists that arose in polemics with symbolism turned out to be very close to him in practice in that their theories were based on an individualistic idea, and the desire to create vivid myths, and predominant attention to form.
There were bright individualities in the poetry of that time that cannot be attributed to a certain trend - M. Voloshin, M. Tsvetaeva. No other era has given such an abundance of declarations of its own exclusivity.
A special place in the literature of the turn of the century was occupied by peasant poets, like N. Klyuev. Without putting forward a clear aesthetic program, they embodied their ideas (the combination of religious and mystical motives with the problem of protecting the traditions of peasant culture) in their work. “Klyuev is popular because he combines the iambic spirit of Boratynsky with the prophetic tune of an illiterate Olonets storyteller” (Mandelstam). With peasant poets, especially with Klyuev, S. Yesenin was close at the beginning of his journey, combining in his work the traditions of folklore and classical art.
Theater and music
The most important event in the social and cultural life of Russia at the end of the XIX century. was the opening of an art theater in Moscow in 1898, founded by K. S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. In staging plays by Chekhov and Gorky, new principles of acting, directing, and design of performances were formed. An outstanding theatrical experiment, enthusiastically received by the democratic public, was not accepted by conservative criticism, as well as representatives of symbolism. V. Bryusov, a supporter of the aesthetics of a conventional symbolic theater, was closer to the experiments of V.E. Meyerhold, the founder of the metaphorical theater.
In 1904, the theater of V.F. Komissarzhevskaya, whose repertoire reflected the aspirations of the democratic intelligentsia. Director's work of E.B. Vakhtangov is marked by the search for new forms, his productions of 1911-12. are joyful and entertaining. In 1915, Vakhtangov created the 3rd studio of the Moscow Art Theater, which later became the theater named after him (1926). One of the reformers of the Russian theater, the founder of the Moscow Chamber Theater A.Ya. Tairov strove to create a "synthetic theater" of a predominantly romantic and tragic repertoire, to form actors of virtuoso skill.
The development of the best traditions of the musical theater is associated with the St. Petersburg Mariinsky and Moscow Bolshoi Theaters, as well as with the private opera of S. I. Mamontov and S. I. Zimin in Moscow. The most prominent representatives of the Russian vocal school, world-class singers were F.I. Chaliapin, L.V. Sobinov, N.V. Nezhdanov. Ballet theater reformers were choreographer M.M. Fokin and ballerina A.P. Pavlova. Russian art has received worldwide recognition.
Outstanding composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov continued to work in his favorite genre of fairy-tale opera. The highest example of realistic drama was his opera The Tsar's Bride (1898). He, being a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the composition class, brought up a whole galaxy of talented students: A.K. Glazunov, A.K. Lyadov, N.Ya. Myaskovsky and others.
In the work of composers of the younger generation at the turn of the 20th century. there was a departure from social issues, increased interest in philosophical and ethical problems. This found its fullest expression in the work of the brilliant pianist and conductor, the outstanding composer S. V. Rachmaninoff; in the emotionally intense, with sharp features of modernism, the music of A.N. Scriabin; in the works of I.F. Stravinsky, which harmoniously combined interest in folklore and the most modern musical forms.
Architecture
The era of industrial progress at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. revolutionized the construction industry. Buildings of a new type, such as banks, shops, factories, railway stations, occupied an increasing place in the urban landscape. The emergence of new building materials (reinforced concrete, metal structures) and the improvement of construction equipment made it possible to use constructive and artistic techniques, the aesthetic understanding of which led to the approval of the Art Nouveau style!
In the work of F.O. Shekhtel, the main development trends and genres of Russian modernity were embodied to the greatest extent. The formation of style in the work of the master went in two directions - national-romantic, in line with the neo-Russian style and rational. The features of Art Nouveau are most fully manifested in the architecture of the Nikitsky Gate mansion, where, abandoning traditional schemes, an asymmetric planning principle is applied. The stepped composition, the free development of volumes in space, the asymmetric protrusions of bay windows, balconies and porches, the emphatically protruding cornice - all this demonstrates the principle of assimilation of an architectural structure to an organic form inherent in Art Nouveau. In the decoration of the mansion, such typical Art Nouveau techniques as colored stained-glass windows and a mosaic frieze with floral ornament encircling the entire building were used. The whimsical twists of the ornament are repeated in the interweaving of stained-glass windows, in the pattern of balcony bars and street fences. The same motif is used in interior decoration, for example, in the form of marble staircase railings. Furniture and decorative details of the interiors of the building form a single whole with the general idea of the building - to turn the living environment into a kind of architectural performance, close to the atmosphere of symbolic plays.
With the growth of rationalistic tendencies in a number of Shekhtel's buildings, features of constructivism were outlined - a style that would take shape in the 1920s.
In Moscow, the new style expressed itself especially brightly, in particular in the work of one of the founders of Russian Art Nouveau, L.N. Kekusheva A.V. Shchusev, V.M. Vasnetsov and others. In St. Petersburg, Art Nouveau was influenced by monumental classicism, as a result of which another style appeared - neoclassicism.
In terms of the integrity of the approach and the ensemble solution of architecture, sculpture, painting, decorative arts, modern is one of the most consistent styles.
Sculpture
Like architecture, sculpture at the turn of the century was freed from eclecticism. The renewal of the artistic and figurative system is associated with the influence of impressionism. The features of the new method are “looseness”, unevenness of texture, dynamism of forms, permeated with air and light.
The very first consistent representative of this direction P.P. Trubetskoy, abandons the impressionistic modeling of the surface, and enhances the overall impression of oppressive brute force.
In its own way, monumental pathos is alien to the wonderful monument to Gogol in Moscow by sculptor N.A. Andreev, who subtly conveys the tragedy of the great writer, the "fatigue of the heart", so consonant with the era. Gogol is captured in a moment of concentration, deep reflection with a touch of melancholy gloom.
The original interpretation of impressionism is inherent in the work of A.S. Golubkina, who reworked the principle of depicting phenomena in motion into the idea of awakening the human spirit. The female images created by the sculptor are marked by a sense of compassion for people who are tired, but not broken by life's trials.
Painting
At the turn of the century, instead of the realistic method of directly reflecting reality in the forms of this reality, there was an assertion of the priority of artistic forms that reflect reality only indirectly. The polarization of artistic forces at the beginning of the 20th century, the controversy of multiple artistic groups intensified exhibition and publishing (in the field of art) activities.
Genre painting lost its leading role in the 1990s. Artists in search of new themes turned to changes in the traditional way of life. They were equally attracted by the theme of the split of the peasant community, the prose of mind-numbing labor, and the revolutionary events of 1905. The blurring of boundaries between genres at the turn of the century in the historical theme led to the emergence of the historical genre. A.P. Ryabushkin was not interested in global historical events, but in the aesthetics of Russian life in the 17th century, the refined beauty of ancient Russian patterning, and emphasized decorativeness. Penetrating lyricism, a deep understanding of the originality of the way of life, characters and psychology of the people of pre-Petrine Russia marked the best canvases of the artist. Historical painting by Ryabushkin is a country of ideal, where the artist found rest from the "lead abominations" of modern life. Therefore, the historical life on his canvases appears not as a dramatic, but as an aesthetic side.
In the historical canvases of A. V. Vasnetsov we find the development of the landscape principle. Creativity M.V. Nesterov was a variant of a retrospective landscape, through which the high spirituality of the characters was conveyed.
I.I. Levitan, who brilliantly mastered the effects of plein air writing, continuing the lyrical direction in the landscape, approached impressionism and was the creator of the “conceptual landscape” or “mood landscape”, which has a rich range of experiences: from joyful elation to philosophical reflections on the frailty of everything earthly.
K.A. Korovin is the brightest representative of Russian impressionism, the first among Russian artists who consciously relied on the French impressionists, more and more departed from the traditions of the Moscow school of painting with its psychologism and even drama, trying to convey this or that state of mind with music of color. He created a series of landscapes, uncomplicated by either external plot-narrative or psychological motifs. In the 1910s, under the influence of theatrical practice, Korovin came to a bright, intense manner of painting, especially in his favorite still lifes. With all his art, the artist affirmed the inherent value of purely pictorial tasks, he forced to appreciate the “charm of incompleteness”, the “etude” of the pictorial manner. Korovin's canvases are a "feast for the eyes".
The central figure in the art of the turn of the century is V.A. Serov. His mature works, with impressionistic luminosity and dynamics of a free stroke, marked a turn from the critical realism of the Wanderers to "poetic realism" (D.V. Sarabyanov). The artist worked in different genres, but his talent as a portrait painter, endowed with a heightened sense of beauty and the ability for sober analysis, is especially significant. The search for the laws of artistic transformation of reality, the desire for symbolic generalizations led to a change in the artistic language: from the impressionistic authenticity of paintings of the 80s and 90s to the conventions of modernity in historical compositions.
One after another, two masters of pictorial symbolism entered Russian culture, creating an exalted world in their works - M.A. Vrubel and V.E. Borisov-Musatov. The central image of Vrubel's work is the Demon, who embodied the rebellious impulse that the artist himself experienced and felt in his best contemporaries. The art of the artist is characterized by the desire to pose philosophical problems. His reflections on truth and beauty, on the lofty purpose of art, are sharp and dramatic, in their characteristic symbolic form. Gravitating towards the symbolic and philosophical generalization of images, Vrubel developed his own pictorial language - a broad stroke of "crystal" form and color, understood as colored light. Paints, sparkling like gems, enhance the feeling of a special spirituality inherent in the works of the artist.
The art of the lyricist and dreamer Borisov-Musatov is a reality turned into a poetic symbol. Like Vrubel, Borisov-Musatov created in his canvases a beautiful and sublime world, built according to the laws of beauty and so unlike the surrounding world. The art of Borisov-Musatov is imbued with sad reflection and quiet sorrow with the feelings experienced by many people of that time, “when society was thirsting for renewal, and very many did not know where to look for it.” His style developed from impressionistic light and air effects to a pictorial and decorative version of post-impressionism. In Russian artistic culture at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. the work of Borisov-Musatov is one of the most striking and large-scale phenomena.
The theme, far from modernity, "dreamy retrospectivism" is the main association of St. Petersburg artists "World of Art". Rejecting the academic-salon art and the tendentiousness of the Wanderers, relying on the poetics of symbolism, the "World of Art" searched for an artistic image in the past. For such a frank rejection of modern reality, the "World of Art" was criticized from all sides, accused of fleeing into the past - passeism, decadence, anti-democratism. However, the emergence of such an artistic movement was no accident. The World of Art was a kind of response of the Russian creative intelligentsia to the general politicization of culture at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. and excessive publicity of the fine arts.
Creativity N.K. Roerich is drawn to pagan Slavic and Scandinavian antiquity. The basis of his painting has always been a landscape, often directly natural. The features of Roerich's landscape are connected both with the assimilation of the experience of the Art Nouveau style - the use of elements of a parallel perspective in order to combine in one composition various objects that are understood as pictorially equivalent, and with a passion for the culture of ancient India - the opposition of earth and sky, understood by the artist as a source of spirituality.
B.M. Kustodiev, the most gifted author of the ironic stylization of the popular popular print, Z.E. Serebryakova, who professed the aesthetics of neoclassicism.
The merit of the "World of Art" was the creation of highly artistic book graphics, prints, new criticism, extensive publishing and exhibition activities.
Moscow participants of the exhibitions, opposing the Westernism of the "World of Art" with national themes, and graphic stylism with an appeal to the open air, established the exhibition association "Union of Russian Artists". In the bowels of the Soyuz, a Russian version of impressionism and an original synthesis of the everyday genre with the architectural landscape developed.
The artists of the Jack of Diamonds association (1910-1916), turning to the aesthetics of post-impressionism, fauvism and cubism, as well as to the techniques of Russian popular prints and folk toys, solved the problems of revealing the materiality of nature, constructing a form with color. The initial principle of their art was the assertion of the subject as opposed to spatiality. In this regard, the image of inanimate nature - still life - was put forward in the first place. The materialized, "still life" beginning was also introduced into the traditional psychological genre - the portrait.
"Lyrical Cubism" R.R. Falka was distinguished by a peculiar psychologism, subtle color-plastic harmony. The school of skill, passed at the school with such outstanding artists and teachers as V.A. Serov and K.A. Korovin, in combination with the pictorial and plastic experiments of the leaders of the "Jack of Diamonds" I.I. Mashkov, M.F. Larionova, A.V. Lentulov determined the origins of Falk's original artistic style, a vivid embodiment of which is the famous "Red Furniture".
Since the mid-10s, Futurism has become an important component of the pictorial style of the Jack of Diamonds, one of the techniques of which was the “montage” of objects or their parts taken from different points and at different times.
The primitivist trend associated with the assimilation of the style of children's drawings, signs, popular prints and folk toys manifested itself in the work of M.F. Larionov, one of the organizers of the Jack of Diamonds. Both folk naive art and Western expressionism are close to the fantastically irrational canvases of M.Z. Chagall. The combination of fantastic flights and miraculous signs with everyday details of provincial life on Chagall's canvases is akin to Gogol's stories. The unique work of P.N. Filonov.
The first experiments of Russian artists in abstract art date back to the 10s of the last century; V.V. Kandinsky and K.S. Malevich. At the same time, the work of K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, who declared a continuity with ancient Russian icon painting, testified to the vitality of the tradition. The extraordinary diversity and inconsistency of artistic pursuits, numerous groups with their own program settings reflected the tense socio-political and complex spiritual atmosphere of their time.
Conclusion
The "Silver Age" became exactly the milestone that predicted future changes in the state and became a thing of the past with the advent of the blood-red 1917, which unrecognizably changed people's souls. And no matter how today they wanted to assure us of the opposite, it all ended after 1917, with the outbreak of the civil war. There was no "Silver Age" after that. In the twenties, inertia (the heyday of imagism) continued, for such a wide and powerful wave as the Russian “Silver Age” was, could not move for some time before collapsing and breaking. If most of the poets, writers, critics, philosophers, artists, directors, composers were alive, whose individual creativity and common work created the Silver Age, but the era itself ended. Each of its active participants was aware that, although people remained, the characteristic atmosphere of the era, in which talents grew like mushrooms after rain, came to naught. There was a cold lunar landscape without atmosphere and creative individualities - each in a separately closed cell of his creativity.
An attempt to "modernize" culture, associated with the reform of P. A. Stolypin, was unsuccessful. Its results were smaller than expected and gave rise to new controversy. The increase in tension in society was faster than the answers to emerging conflicts were found. Contradictions between agrarian and industrial cultures were aggravated, which was also expressed in the contradictions of economic forms, interests and motives of people's creativity, in the political life of society.
Deep social transformations were required in order to provide scope for the cultural creativity of the people, significant investments in the development of the spiritual sphere of society, its technical base, for which the government did not have enough funds. Patronage, private support and financing of significant public and cultural events did not save either. Nothing could fundamentally change the cultural face of the country. The country fell into a period of unstable development and found no other way out than a social revolution.
The canvas of the "Silver Age" turned out to be bright, complex, contradictory, but immortal and unique. It was a creative space full of sunshine, bright and life-giving, longing for beauty and self-affirmation. It reflected the existing reality. And although we call this time the “silver” and not the “golden age”, perhaps it was the most creative era in Russian history.
1. A. Etkind “Sodom and Psyche. Essays on the intellectual history of the Silver Age, M., ITs-Garant, 1996;
2. Vl. Solovyov, "Works in 2 volumes", v. 2, Philosophical heritage, M., Thought, 1988;
3. N. Berdyaev “Philosophy of freedom. The Meaning of Creativity”, From Russian Philosophical Thought, Moscow, Pravda, 1989;
4. V. Khodasevich "Necropolis" and other memories", M., World of Art, 1992;
5. N. Gumilyov, "Works in three volumes", v.3, M., Fiction, 1991;
6. T.I. Balakin "History of Russian culture", Moscow, "Az", 1996;
7. S.S. Dmitriev "Essays on the history of Russian culture early. XX century”, Moscow, “Enlightenment”, 1985;
8. A.N. Zholkovsky Wandering Dreams. From the history of Russian modernism”, Moscow, “Sov. Writer, 1992;
9. L.A. Rapatskaya "Artistic Culture of Russia", Moscow, "Vlados", 1998;
10. E. Shamurin "The main trends in pre-revolutionary Russian poetry", Moscow, 1993.
The “Silver Age” is, first of all, a literary metaphor, designed to designate a period favorable for creativity, the heyday of art, but marked by sad forebodings and longing for the “golden age” of humanity, as well as the fear of an imminent collapse of idealistic ideas.
The idea of "ages of mankind" from the point of view of the mythological tradition differs from the chronology in science. In mythology, it is believed that at first there was a happy and cloudless "golden age", followed by a "silver", and only after it the age of wars and disasters begins, i.e. "iron".
The "Silver Age" in Russia is called the end of the 19th century. and the first two decades of the 20th century. At this time, the entire national culture experienced a period of special upsurge, which, as it were, picked up the traditions of Pushkin's "golden age", this time of modernity, associated with a premonition of imminent upheavals, wars, revolutions that were supposed to sum up the era of classicism.
The Russian "Silver Age" was also called in the French manner "belle e?poque" - i.e. "beautiful era", associated with the gallant 18th century, the Rococo style, whose culture was also formed in anticipation of collapse and upheaval. Game, escape to a fictional world.
Stylization, the creation of one's own artistic reality on the basis of favorite examples of art, which is very far from real reality, are the main properties of idealistic art. This was the work of most artists of the association "World of Art" (in St. Petersburg) and poets of the "Silver Age".
The term "silver age" is most often used in combination with "poetry of the silver age". This concept covers not only famous poets, but also hundreds of amateurs who created an atmosphere conducive to their appearance.
In general, the Silver Age is characterized by the presence of a large layer of an enlightened society, the emergence of a large number of educated art lovers in the broad sense of the word. Some amateurs later became professionals themselves, while the other part of them made up the so-called audience - they were listeners, readers, spectators, critics.
Nikolai Berdyaev said that much of the creative rise of the "Silver Age" became the basis for the further development of Russian culture and is the property of all the cultural people of Russia. That time was characterized by novelty, struggle, tension, challenge.
The "Silver Age" was the era of the awakening of free philosophical thought in Russia, the flourishing of poetic creativity and the intensification of aesthetic sensibility, religious quest, and a high interest in the occult and mysticism. At this time, new figures appeared in art, previously unknown sources of creative life were discovered. But all this activity took place in a fairly closed circle.
The spiritual core of the poets of the "Silver Age" were:
Valery Bryusov, Innokenty Annensky, Fyodor Sologub, Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, Maximilian Voloshin, Anna Akhmatova, Konstantin Balmont, Nikolai Gumilyov, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Igor Severyanin, Georgy Ivanov, Boris Pasternak and many others.
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