Gilyarovsky Vladimir Alekseevich: biography, activities and interesting facts. Vladimir Gilyarovsky: man is time Burlak from the gymnasium
The main "writer of Moscow's everyday life", reporter and athlete. An amazing man of rare love of life, talent and will. Uncle Gilay's books are still bestsellers to this day.
Burlak from the gymnasium
Vladimir Gilyarovsky was born in the Vologda province, in the village of Syamy, in the family of an estate manager. The mother died when the child was 8 years old. The father, busy with a large household and friendships with exiled revolutionaries, could not devote much time to the child, and sent him to the Vologda gymnasium in 1865, since all home education boiled down to raising his son “a hunter and an athlete.” However, his studies did not work out: in the first grade, Gilyarovsky stayed for the second year, instead of the main lessons he devoted time to equestrian training in the arena - horseback riding and vaulting, and even wrote “dirty tricks on mentors” - parody poems and epigrams on teachers. As a result, after reading Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” Gilyarovsky left the gymnasium without finishing a year and went to the people, starting his career as a barge hauler on the Volga.
Circus performer, poet and soldier
Having reached Yaroslavl with the barge haulers, Gilyarovsky decided to become a military man and entered the Nezhinsky regiment. The young man’s successes were noted by his superiors, and he was enrolled in the Moscow Junker School, but he was soon expelled from there for a complete lack of discipline. But Gilyarovsky, who by that time had already published several poems in Vologda newspapers, was not upset. He changed several professions: from a trainer of young horses to a circus performer, played in provincial theaters, and even mastered the craft of a fireman. Gilyarovsky returned to the army only in 1877, when the war with Turkey began. For courage and faithful service to the fatherland, Vladimir Gilyarovsky was awarded the Order of St. George, IV degree.
Capital Reporter
In 1881, Gilyarovsky arrived in Moscow, staying at the Golyashkin Hotel (to which he would later devote many lines in his book “Moscow and Muscovites”). His acquaintances, actors, also lived in the hotel. So Gilyarovsky began to conquer the capital from the stage of the Anna Brenko Theater. At the same time, Gilyarovsky began publishing poems in the magazine “Alarm Clock” and being published in Moscow newspapers. During this period, his friendship with Anton Chekhov began, which lasted throughout his life. Gilyarovsky was so fascinated by literature that he left the stage for writing and reporting work in the newspaper Moskovsky Listok.
"King of Reporters"
Gilyarovsky soon became a living legend - one of the best and famous Moscow reporters. He was always the first to arrive at the scene of an incident, plunging into the thick of events, and described everything quickly, talentedly and, as they say, “with a spark.” He wrote reports from fires, conducted journalistic investigations about the lives of workers in Moscow factories, was the first to raise the topic of homeless animals and raise the question of this problem and its solution, but his main topic was reporting for criminal chronicles. Gilyarovsky's physical strength, courage and risk-taking found their application here. His report about the tragedy on the Khodynskoye Field in 1896 brought him great fame. Gilyarovsky was there personally and saw the whole disaster with his own eyes.
Two writers
The friendship between Chekhov and Gilyarovsky was the most sincere, and lasted until the death of Anton Pavlovich. He highly valued Gilyarovsky as a writer and as a person. For his part, the big man Gilyarovsky treated the writer’s poor health with tenderness, especially in the last years of his life. The communication between the two writers also led to the emergence of new stories: for example, Chekhov wrote his famous story “The Intruder” after visiting Gilyarovsky at his dacha. And here’s how the writer’s brother, actor Mikhail Chekhov, described the first appearance of the “king of reporters” in Chekhov’s house: “He was then still a young man, of average height, unusually powerful and stocky, wearing high hunting boots. He was bursting with cheerfulness in all directions. He immediately became familiar with us, invited us to feel his iron muscles in his arms, rolled a penny into a tube, twisted a teaspoon with a screw, gave everyone a sniff of tobacco, showed several amazing tricks on cards, told many of the riskiest jokes and, leaving Not a bad impression in itself, I left. From then on, he began to visit us and every time he brought with him some special revival.”
"Uncle Gilyai"
As a writer, Gilyarovsky wrote about the same people he encountered in his reporting work, whom he knew and loved: inhabitants of the city’s “bottom,” workers from poor neighborhoods and other ordinary residents of the capital. His book “Slum People” was banned from publication for, as they would say today, “negativity.” But the main and favorite among readers of the works of “Uncle Gilay” (as he was called in the editorial offices of Moscow newspapers) was “Moscow and Muscovites” - a collection of essays about life in the capital of Russia, in which Gilyarovsky, with love and amazing colorfulness, painted a picture of the city of the late 19th - early 20th century. There were countless amazing rumors, anecdotes and action-packed stories about Gilyarovsky. Gilyarovsky himself never refuted the rumors; on the contrary, chuckling into his mustache, he tossed out new, even more incredible stories of his adventures.
Muscovite by vocation
Everyone who knew Gilyarovsky noted his sincerity, truthfulness and cheerful character. When Gilyarovsky wrote his essays and reports, the main thing for him was to convey the truth, and he, carried away, sometimes sacrificed the artistic merits of his works for the sake of this truth. At the end of his life, Gilyarovsky became blind. But even here his character showed - Vladimir Alekseevich did not give up writing, and he wrote on his own, having mastered the technique of writing blindly. He was buried in his beloved Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Biography
Main works
Literature about Gilyarovsky
(December 8 (November 26) 1855, estate in the Vologda province - October 1, 1935, Moscow) - writer, journalist, writer of everyday life in Moscow.
Year of birth
For a long time it was believed that Gilyarovsky was born in 1853, but in 2005 it became known that it was 1855 that was listed in the registry register of the church in the village of Syama, where Vladimir was baptized, who was born on November 26 according to the old style and was baptized on November 29. According to archivists, the error in reference books and encyclopedias could be caused by an article that Gilyarovsky published in 1928 for what he believed or claimed to be his 75th birthday.
Biography
Born in a forest farm in the Vologda province. In 1860, Gilyarovsky's father received a position as an official in Vologda. Gilyarovsky's father served in the police (police officer). In August 1865, Gilyarovsky entered the first grade of the Vologda gymnasium and remained in the first grade for the second year. In the gymnasium, Vladimir Alekseevich began to write poems and epigrams against teachers (“dirty tricks on mentors”), and translated poetry from French. While studying at the gymnasium, I studied circus art for two years: acrobatics, horse riding, etc. He communicated with exiled populists. One of the exiles gave Gilyarovsky Chernyshevsky’s book “What to do?”.
In June 1871, after a failed exam, Gilyarovsky ran away from home without a passport or money. In Yaroslavl he started working as a barge hauler: for 20 days he walked with a harness along the Volga from Kostroma to Rybinsk. Then in Yaroslavl he worked as a hookman in the port. In the fall of the same year he entered the volunteer service in the Nezhinsky regiment. In 1873 he was sent to the Moscow Junker School, where he studied for about a month, after which he was expelled to the regiment for violating discipline. However, he did not continue his service any further and wrote a letter of resignation. Afterwards he worked as a stoker, at the bleaching plant of the merchant Sorokin in Yaroslavl, as a fireman, in the fisheries, in Tsaritsyn he was hired as a herdmaster, and in Rostov-on-Don he became a rider in a circus. In 1875 he began working as an actor in the theater. He performed on the stages of Tambov, Voronezh, Penza, Ryazan, Saratov, Morshansk, Kirsanov, etc. With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, he again joined the army as a volunteer, served in the Caucasus in the 161st Alexandropol regiment in the 12th company, then transferred to the hunting team, was awarded the Badge of Distinction of the Military Order of St. George, IV degree, the light bronze medal “For the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878,” the medal “In memory of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov.”
All this time, Gilyarovsky wrote poems, sketches, and letters to his father. The father kept his son's manuscripts. Gilyarovsky's first poem was published in Vologda in 1873. Gilyarovsky learned about this only in 1878.
In 1881, Vladimir Alekseevich settled in Moscow and worked at the A. A. Brenko Theater. On August 30, 1881, Gilyarovsky’s poems about the Volga were published in the magazine “Alarm Clock”. In the fall of 1881, Vladimir Alekseevich left the theater and took up literature. At first he published in the Russkaya Gazeta, and then began working as a reporter in the Moskovsky Listok newspaper. In 1882, the famous Kukuevka disaster occurred (as a result of soil erosion, an entire train fell under the railway track). Gilyarovsky was the first to rush to the crash site and participated in clearing out the rubble for two weeks, sending reports to Moskovsky Listok.
After Gilyarovsky's reports about the fire at the Morozov factory, the newspaper editor was forced to hide the author's real name. Eventually, Gilyarovsky was forced to leave the newspaper and in 1884 began working for Russkie Vedomosti. In 1885, Gilyarovsky’s essay “The Doomed,” written back in 1874, was published. The essay is about the Sorokin bleaching plant; the names in the essay have been changed, some characters have been rewritten so that it is impossible to understand that one of them is the author. In 1887, in his report “Dog Catching in Moscow,” he first raised the topic of stray animals in the city in the media.
Vladimir Alekseevich also wrote for Russian Thought and humorous publications Oskolki, Alarm Clock, and Entertainment.
In 1887, Gilyarovsky prepared his book “Slum People” for publication. All the stories and essays included in the book have already been published once in various newspapers and magazines, with the exception of the essay from working life “The Doomed.” However, the book was not destined to see the light of day: the entire edition, not yet bound, in sheets, was seized at night during a search of the printing house by a press inspector. The proofs of the type were ordered to be distributed directly to the printing house. The book was banned by the censorship committee, and the pages were burned in the Sushchevskaya police station of Moscow. As the assistant to the head of the main department put it in response to Gilyarovsky’s request to allow the book to be published: “Nothing will come of your troubles... Complete darkness, not a single glimmer, no justification, only an accusation of the existing order. Such truth cannot be written.”
In 1894, Gilyarovsky published a collection of poems, “The Forgotten Notebook.” After this, Vladimir Alekseevich continued to work as a reporter for Russkie Vedomosti, writing reports from the Don, from Albania, and articles about the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1896, during a public festivities on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, he was an eyewitness to the disaster on the Khodynskoye field, where he miraculously survived. He published a report about this tragedy a day after the incident. Gilyarovsky touched on this topic in his “Memoirs”.
In 1915, at the beginning of the First World War, he wrote the text of the “March of the Siberian Riflemen.”
After the October Revolution, Gilyarovsky wrote for the newspapers Izvestia, Evening Moscow, Searchlight, and Ogonyok. In 1922 he published the poem “Stenka Razin”. His books were published: “From the English Club to the Museum of the Revolution” (1926), “Moscow and Muscovites” (1926), “My Wanderings” (1928), “Notes of a Muscovite” (1931), “Friends and Meetings” (1934). “People of the Theater” were published only after the death of Vladimir Alekseevich - in 1941. In old age, Vladimir Alekseevich was almost completely blind, but continued to write independently.
In Moscow, Gilyarovsky lived at 9 Stoleshnikov Lane.
Gilyarovsky was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Memory
- In 1966, a street in the Meshchansky district of Moscow (formerly 2nd Meshchanskaya) was named after Gilyarovsky.
- One of the streets of Vologda bears the name of the writer.
Main works
- Slum People (1887).
- Negatives (1900) - collection of short stories.
- In Gogol's homeland (1902).
- Were (1909) - collection of stories.
- Moscow and Muscovites (1926).
- My Wanderings (1928).
- People of the Theater (published 1941).
- Moscow newspaper (published 1960).
Literature about Gilyarovsky
- Gura V.V. Life and books of “Uncle Gilay”. - Vologda, 1959.
- Morozov N.I. Forty years with Gilyarovsky. - M., 1963.
- Kiseleva E. G. V. A. Gilyarovsky and artists. 2nd ed. - L., 1965.
- Lobanov V. M. Uncle Gilay’s table tops. - M., 1972.
- Kiseleva E. Stories about Uncle Gilyai. - M., 1983.
- Esin B.I. Reports by V.A. Gilyarovsky. - M., 1985.
- Mitrofanov A. Gilyarovsky. M.: Young Guard, 2008. P. 336. ISBN 978-5-235-03076-3 (ZhZL series).
Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky
Gilyarovsky Vladimir Alekseevich (1853/1935) - Russian writer, publicist, poet. One of the significant aspects of Gilyarovsky’s work is associated with journalistic work: he was a regular contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers. The other side of creativity is artistic prose, in which Gilyarovsky showed pictures of contemporary Moscow life, often turning to its unsightly sides (“Slum People”, “Moscow and Muscovites”, “Negatives” and others).
Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary / T.N. Guryev. – Rostov n/d, Phoenix, 2009, p. 65-66.
Gilyarovsky Vladimir Alekseevich (pseud. Uncle Gilyai) (11/26/12/8/1853-10/1/1935), prose writer, poet, journalist. In 1871 he fled from his father's house to the Volga. His wanderings around Russia last for ten years: he walks as a barge hauler, works as a loader, a fireman, a factory worker, a horse trainer, and a provincial actor.
During the Russian-Turkish War of 1877 - 78 he served as a volunteer reconnaissance officer. Awarded the order. After the army he returns to the theater. Since 1881 - in Moscow. From this time he began to regularly publish in Moscow publications as a poet and reporter. Gilyarovsky’s reports, who have studied Moscow well, are distinguished by their reliability, and he becomes recognized as the “King of Reporting.”
After the revolution, Gilyarovsky published the poems “Petersburg” (1922) and “Stenka Razin” (1928), a number of books about the life and customs of old Moscow, including “Moscow and Muscovites” (1926), “Notes of a Muscovite” (1931) , “Friends and Meetings” (1934).
Gilyarovsky Vladimir Alekseevich (11/26/1853-10/1/1935), writer. Born on an estate in the Vologda province. in the family of an employee. In 1871 he went to the Volga “to serve the people.” Gilyarovsky's wanderings around Russia lasted 10 years. He became closely acquainted with the life and way of life of the people, worked as a barge hauler, a hookmaker, a fireman, a worker at a white lead factory, a wild horse buster, a circus performer, and a provincial actor. As a volunteer soldier he participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78. He first appeared in print in 1873, and began writing regularly in 1881. Great life experience determined the themes of Gilyarovsky’s literary work. The first book of his stories, “Slum People” (1887), depicts the lower classes and the tragic disorder of their lives. By order of the censorship, the entire circulation of this book was burned before publication. Gilyarovsky worked a lot in journalism. His main works were created after 1917. From the pages of the books “Moscow and Muscovites” (1926), “My Wanderings” (1928), “People of the Theater” (published 1941), “Moscow Newspaper” (published 1960), etc. Old Russia emerges brightly and vividly: the life of barge haulers, the urban slum poor, the theater stage, the life, morals and customs of old Moscow. Gilyarovsky was a talented writer of everyday life; his works bore the imprint of his remarkable, “heroic” nature, reflecting his stormy life, rich in events, meetings, and adventures. Gilyarovsky's books are characterized by imagery, brevity, and natural conversational intonation.
Materials from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian People were used.
GILYAROVSKY Vladimir Alekseevich - journalist, prose writer, poet.
G. was born into the family of an employee: his father, Alexey Ivanovich, graduated from a theological seminary and served as an assistant manager of a forest estate; mother - Nadezhda Petrovna - the daughter of a descendant of Zaporozhye Cossacks, loved literature and wrote poetry herself. “My very birth was an adventure,” G. wrote in autobiographical passages. “I was born in a barn, where my mother went to milk her beloved cow, and they brought me, covered in snow, into the kitchen.” The boy's upbringing was initially carried out by his grandfather's cousin, the fugitive sailor Kitayev, who lived for a long time in China and Japan, a strong man and a good-natured man who taught G. swimming, gymnastics, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu techniques; after the death of his mother, G. was raised by his father’s second wife, the well-born noblewoman Maria Ilyinichna Raznatovskaya, “kind, affectionate, educated” (G.’s words). She taught G. French and tried to instill “secular manners.” In the 1860s, the family moved to Vologda, where G. entered the gymnasium. Here his home teachers were his father’s friends, exiles brought in in the case of N.G. Chernyshevsky, participants in the Polish uprising of 1863, students of St. Petersburg University, under whose influence G.’s attitude towards the world took shape.
Without graduating from high school, G. ran away from home, wanting to “serve the oppressed people,” and for 10 years (1871-81) wandered around Russia, was a barge hauler, a hooker, a volunteer, a fireman, a worker at a white lead factory, a circus performer, and a provincial actor. , an undocumented tramp, a claymore hunter in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, where he received a soldier’s “George” for his bravery. Already in these years, G. tried to capture what he saw: he wrote a poem about the Volgarians “Hookman”, “Barge Haulers”, an essay from the life of workers “The Doomed” (published at the insistence of G. Uspensky in 1885), notes about the acting life “The Ravings of Vladimir Sologub "(Sologub is G.'s theatrical pseudonym). G. was first published in the Vologda gymnasium collection. (1873); it was a verse. "Leaf".
Since 1881, G. settled in Moscow, where he published poetry. “I still dream about the wide Volga” signed “Vl. G-th" in w. “Alarm Clock” began its lit. activity. G. wrote poetry throughout his life. The origins of his poetry can be found in the works of N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Nikitin, S. D. Drozhzhin and others. There is a verse in the center. G. is the theme of the people: the poet writes about their troubles (“In the North”, “Vladimirka - the Great Road”), thirst for will (“Kuzma the Eagle”), the centuries-old struggle for happiness (“Cossacks”, poem “Stenka Razin” (1888 ), about the two published chapters of which M. Gorky said: “Razin is great! and beautiful!”). G.'s first book of poems, “The Forgotten Notebook,” was published in 1864. A collection of books was published before October. poem. G. “Tailor Eroshka and the cockroaches.
True story in verse" (1901); three books about the war - “Cossacks. 1914" (1914), "The Year of War. Thoughts and Songs" (1916), "The Terrible Year" (1916); after October - “Stenka Razin” in its entirety, poem “Petersburg” (both 1922), verse. “The Future”, “Niva”, etc.
G. was a recognized master of rhymed impromptu and epigrams; they showed his “feuilleton” talent. For example, he responded to a performance based on L.N. Tolstoy’s play “The Power of Darkness” with the lines: “There are two misfortunes in Russia: / Below is the power of darkness, / And above is the darkness of power.”
For several years - in the 1880s - G. collaborated in humorous films. “Spectator”, “Alarm Clock”, “Entertainment”, where he became close to A.P. Chekhov, who became his friend for many years.
From pre-revolutionary art. G.'s creativity was of greatest interest to the collection. stories "Slum People" (1887). By order of the tsarist censorship, the circulation was burned, only a few copies were preserved. A.P. Chekhov said that, collected together, the stories produce “a hopeless impression,” since they tell the story that “everything is dying” and vividly show “how it is dying” (see about this in the book G. "Moscow and Muscovites"). G. was the predecessor of M. Gorky in depicting people who end up in slums not because of their own passivity, but because, in G.’s words, they “do not get along with living conditions.” G. did not romanticize his “tramps” and the “charms of the slum,” he argued that “the slum is not a favorite place, but inevitable... Here is the extreme degree of decline, an irrevocable fall.”
G. became famous as the “king of Moscow reporters” (Chekhov’s words). He worked mainly in Moscow newspapers: Moskovsky Listok (1882-83), Russkie Vedomosti (1883-89 and later), Russkoe Slovo (1900-13). Readers appreciated G.'s reports for truthfulness, efficiency, and a wealth of accurate and multifaceted information about events in Moscow life - from fires and murders to news of theatrical life. The reporter wrote about the political events that worried Russia: the fire at the Morozov factory in Orekhovo-Zuyevo (1882), the train accident at Kukuy station (1883), the situation of match factory workers (1883), the cholera epidemic (Don, 1892), swindlers from the commissary in the Japanese war, etc. G. was the only one who managed to publish the difficult truth about the Khodynka disaster during the coronation of Nicholas II (1896). In 1889-1902, G. was in charge of the Moscow department of the St. Petersburg gas company. “Russia”, led by A. V. Amfitheatrov and V. M. Doroshevich. His materials were published here, revealing the true reasons for the assassination attempt on the Serbian king Milan Obrenovic. As a result, a scandal broke out and the king was expelled from Serbia. Personally participating in many events about which he wrote, G. was sometimes exposed to serious danger, as was the case during Khodynka, or the acute political story of exposing the intrigue of Milan Obrenovic. Fearlessness, heroic physical strength, and a merciless word made G.’s work extraordinary, and made him one of the newspaper magicians.
His reports on theater and literature gained all-Russian fame. life, including a review of the play based on M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” (1902) at the Moscow Art Theater. G. took some part in the theater’s work on the play: using his acquaintances, he took K. S. Stanislavsky and the artist V. A. Simov around the slums of the Khitrov market; this gave them material to design the performance. His reportage-feuilleton “People of the Fourth Dimension” with the subtitle “An Evening of Laughter and Fun” (1903), containing criticism of a number of metropolitan decadent poets, was enthusiastically greeted by A.P. Chekhov.
Major works of art. Literatures were created by G. after October. These are books of memories about their time, about a stormy life lived, rich in impressions, a lot of acquaintances and friends, making up an autobiographical trilogy. In his first book, “My Wanderings” (1928), he talked about his wandering life in his youth. The second book is “People of the Theater” (1935, published in 1941) - about famous metropolitan and provincial actors, theater workers: carpenters, copyists of plays and roles, huddled in the flophouses of Khitrovka - about everyone who lived in the theater. Among them are the famous comedian A. D. Kazakov and the tragedian N. X. Rybakov - the prototype of Neschastlivtsev in A. N. Ostrovsky’s play “The Forest”, A. A. Brenko, creator of the Pushkin Theater in Moscow, V. P. Andreev-Burlak , A. I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin, K. S. Stanislavsky, M. N. Ermolova. The third book is “Moscow Newspaper” (1934, published in 1960). Here G. depicted the world of pre-revolutionary journalism: publishers, whose main interest was to increase the retail of the newspaper and make a profit, behind-the-scenes intrigues, and the life of the reporter fraternity.
G. was a kind of Moscow landmark. With the extraordinary appearance of a typical Cossack - “grey-haired, with slightly mocking, penetrating eyes, in a smushka gray hat and zhupan” (description by K. G. Paustovsky, who saw G. as an old man), he more than once inspired artists and sculptors. It is known that I. E. Repin drew from him one of the characters in the painting “The Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan,” and the sculptor N. A. Andreev sculpted Taras Bulba for the bas-relief on the monument to N. V. Gogol. G. was attracted by the Cossack freemen, he traveled a lot around Ukraine, he has the honor of establishing the exact date and place of birth of N.V. Gogol (article “In Gogolism,” 1900; book “In the Footsteps of Gogol,” 1902). G. pl. For years he was a member of the community of Moscow artists “Sreda”. He spoke about his countless acquaintances with people of art in the books “Friends and Meetings” (1931, published in 1934), “Stories and Sketches” (1934) and, most importantly, in the book “Moscow and Muscovites” (1935), over which G. worked from 1912 to 1931. Being a great connoisseur of the Russian capital, its writer of everyday life, welcoming the new culture, he still felt like Pushkin’s Pimen and with extraordinary warmth described the life of the old, irretrievably gone Moscow, its morals and customs. G. collected and preserved for generations the most interesting stories about the city itself and its people. G. himself was part of Moscow. “I would rather imagine Moscow without the Tsar Bell and without the Tsar Cannon than without you. You are the navel of Moscow!” - A.I. Kuprin wrote to him.
Many aspects of G.’s diverse activities are already half-forgotten today, but the book “Moscow and Muscovites”, as well as the autobiographical trilogy, occupy a prominent place in the literature and give us a vivid idea of the past.
M. A. Telyatnik
Materials used from the book: Russian literature of the 20th century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographical dictionary. Volume 1. M., 2005, pp. 474-476.
V.A. GILYAROVSKY
I
Twenty-fifth anniversary of V.A. Gilyarovsky as the “king of reporters” was in the fall of 1905 1 .
This was not the time for royal anniversaries!
Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the novelist Gilyarovsky 2 .
In 1883, his first work of fiction was published in Sovremennye Izvestia. 3 .
It’s tempting to write a biography of Gilay!
Burlak, Cossack, worker, actor, athlete, reporter, poet.
What colors! Volga, war, old Moscow, Slavic lands.
A whole series of exciting feuilletons would come out. It would be possible to cut off at the most interesting places, with the most tempting:
To be continued.
Gilyarovsky’s biography would read like the most fascinating “adventure novel.”
But today is the fiction writer’s anniversary.
We will only talk about the fiction writer.
Thank God, there is something to be said about the fiction writer Gilyarovsky!
II
What do you have? - asks the editorial secretary.
Frozen corpse! - the reporter answers.
There was an attempted murder of a janitor.
This is a building 4 . Injured?
Ten lines!
But the man who wrote about these frozen corpses, about attempted murders, was not a pathetic artisan.
This was a man who himself had gone through the hard school of life, who had experienced and suffered a lot. This was a man with literary talent. Even a poet lived in his soul.
And these sufferings he experienced, and this literary talent, and this poet, who “makes even stones speak,” protested in his soul:
Is it possible to treat people like that?
For two years he “cut down the dead.”
He made four lines out of a human tragedy.
Investigating the “incidents,” he inevitably found out how and what made a “frozen corpse” out of a person.
But he had to ruthlessly throw it all away.
After all, you can’t write 300 lines about every frozen person!
Meanwhile, his talent, and the suffering he saw and experienced himself - everything was indignant in him in the gloomy pursuits of “reducing the dead”:
After all, we need to tell people what is hidden behind these four lines that they “run through” in the incident department. What a lot of human grief, tears and unheard groans!
And the writer could not stand it...
I wrote this “frozen corpse” in fictional form.
And these “corpses” came to life under his pen and in the feuilletons of that, another, third newspaper, in a separate book they became before us a terrible and heavy string.
Disturbing the conscience, frightening the sleep of the soul.
So, naturally, like a butterfly from a chrysalis, the fiction writer V.A. was born from the reporter Gilyarovsky 25 years ago. Gilyarovsky.
He was born from the experience of need, deprivation, suffering, from observation, from a kind, sensitive, responsive heart.
This is the process of the birth of the fiction writer Gilyarovsky.
He himself probably had no idea about this process at that time.
He himself saw it differently:
I need income, that’s what I wrote.
But why did you write “to make money” this and not the other? Why did you start writing this way and not otherwise?
A lot has accumulated in the writer’s soul that was not included in the “four dead lines.”
And this resulted in fiction.
Tolstoy recently said to a young man who had decided to take up literature:
Write when you feel like it. When you feel the need to write, write. A man is like a teapot. Close the kettle and steam will come out through the spout.
Once the tea is hot!
So, naturally, Gilyarovsky began to write according to Tolstoy’s recipe. Him:
Steam came out of the spout.
III
When you read Gilyarovsky's stories, it seems as if you are looking at the work of roofers.
Somewhere on a five-story building. People work on the very, very edge.
You look and your spirit freezes.
It's about to break!
When you read Gilyarovsky’s stories, you are present, you see how first one, then the other, breaks down.
It hits the ground with a dull thud.
And on the ground lies a torn bag of meat and broken bones, from which blood flows.
Gilyarovsky's stories are stories about hard work.
Raftsmen, waist-deep in icy water, bleaching factory workers poisoned by lead...
Stories about such hard work that you are amazed:
Why are these people afraid of “hard labor”?
There is no such hard labor for thieves, robbers, or murderers.
How do they hold up?
And it takes your breath away.
They're about to break!
Must break! They can't help but fall apart!
Gilyarovsky's stories are stories about how a man froze because he was not allowed into the shelter, how a man died because his sheepskin coat was stolen.
When you read them, you remember a story about one professor who dissected the corpse of a suddenly deceased tramp during an anatomy lesson:
Here is a man who was born to live a hundred years. Bogatyr. He died only because he didn’t have five kopecks to get over his hangover.
Gilyarovsky's stories are anatomical theater.
Where tragedies are revealed to you all the time.
Due to the fact that there were no five kopecks.
How people turn into “former people.” How “former people” turn into “frozen corpses”, which are reported in four lines:
Petit. This is all:
Former people.
And if we didn’t know that the first of these stories was published in 1883, we might think:
This is a follower of Gorky.
But Gilyarovsky began writing his “former people” in 1883. This:
Gorky's predecessor.
IV
To avoid misunderstandings, let's make a reservation. Let's agree.
I’m not composing an anniversary praise, but writing an analysis. I'm not comparing:
Who is bigger?
It would be a stupid question.
They don't hang you for your thoughts (they hang you for your thoughts). Words are not measured by a yardstick. I don't compare writers. I compare two literary movements.
V
P.I. Weinberg, clutching his head, moaned:
But that’s all it was! Was! All this was written! It was written! Where does this obsession with Gorky come from? How to explain?
L.N. Tolstoy, speaking about Gorky’s “vagrant” stories, said:
He has them all in cloaks, with swords, and hats with feathers!
Chekhov, Chekhov is a realist, Chekhov is the most truthful of Russian writers, Chekhov, who never lied in literature, Chekhov, as a physician, who built everything on experiments, on facts, on the “sorrowful pages” of life, Chekhov, in whose works even “portrait images” were found similarities." Chekhov is the truth itself.
Chekhov, who loved Gorky very much, spoke with a groan about the play “At the Lower Depths”:
But this is all made up! It's all made up!
And you should have seen the truly painful expression on Chekhov’s face at that moment! He suffered. To this extent:
It's all made up!
Here is the answer to the question.
The darkness of low truths is dearer to us, the deception that elevates us 5 .
VI
“At the Lower Depths” was staged at the Art Theater 6 . After pictures of dirt, falling, horror, stench. After this calm:
My wife had a lover, he played checkers very well.
After this bestial:
I don't want anything, I don't desire anything.
Satin spoke.
Human! It sounds proud! A person is not you, not me. Man is you, me, Napoleon, Mohammed...
My hair stood out at these words.
The grave opened, and the dead was resurrected in front of me.
The dead man I was thinking about:
Three days old and already stinking!
I will never forget Gorky these moments of delight, these minutes of sacred horror, these minutes of enthusiasm that gripped me.
According to my profession, I had to write a review.
I named it:
"Hymn to Man" 7 .
It had the honor of being reprinted from the Russian Word in the Neue Freie Presse.
Gorky gave this title to his next work 8 .
And two, three days later, after the portrait, I wanted to see the original.
I told Gilyarovsky:
Let's go to Khitrovka 9 .
We walked in the scenery of “At the Lower Depths”.
The Art Theater took Romeiko's house and yard for its scenery 10 .
Everything was similar before the deception.
The same!
The same furnishings, the same walls, the same bunks, the same clothes.
It was as if the Art Theater rented “costumes” here.
Only the people were not the same!
I dealt with the slum world a lot. Gilyarovsky knows him.
We started everything.
Do you know Khitrovka like the back of your hand? - I turned to my Virgil 11 .
That sort of thing.
Where can I find anything similar to Satin?
We went to the “intelligent” cell where the “scribes” live. People of the same class as Satin.
They complained to us about entrepreneurs who were fleecing them:
Instead of seven kopecks they pay five per sheet, taking advantage of our position.
They talked about their “room”, where they huddled together:
They asked for vodka. We drank vodka.
But sober, but drunk, but in the most friendly conversation - with V.A. This world does not speak to Gilyarovsky otherwise than in a friendly manner - at least one word, at least one thought, at least one hint of a thought - one hint on which one could build such a magnificent tirade:
Man - that sounds proud!
We found a drunken writer there, who the next day sent me a letter with a request:
Send a jacket and trousers to be reborn.
And a day later there was a new letter saying that the suit they had sent had been stolen:
I'm sitting naked. Send me a jacket and trousers too. Let me be reborn. “Nice, intelligent workers” also sent a letter, asking simply for vodka, and so they signed:
Nice workers.
But you can’t come to Khitrovka and ask:
Where is Satin?
And wait for them to come out now, bow and say:
We are Satins!
A smile is reasonable in relation to someone else.
But such a grin cannot apply to me, who was not amateurishly involved in the “world of the outcast,” nor, especially, to Gilyarovsky, who really knows this world like the back of his hand.
Are we lacking sensitivity?
Failed to notice?
But Gilyarovsky was sensitive enough to write several stories that even a seasoned person cannot read without feeling that spasms are squeezing his throat and sobs are ready to pour out!
When I left the play “At the Lower Depths,” it sounded in my soul:
Hymn to man.
When I left the real “bottom,” a memorial service was performed in my soul for the deceased “man.”
It was a portrait.
It was the original.
That is Gorky’s “bottom”.
This is Gilyarovsky’s “bottom”.
VII
They both described the same life. And both knew him, because they both lived by him.
From Gilyarovsky’s “tramp novel of life” you can make a couple of Gorky’s “tramp novels”, and even written by F.I. Chaliapin will remain.
But their descriptions of this life were different.
At one time it seemed to us that this “deception” “elevates us”:
Here, even at the bottom, there lives a hero, an overestimater of values, a Protestant, a strong man!
We applauded Gorky, who came to us from this world:
He explained it to us!
That’s where she comes from, “Stenka Razin’s freewoman”!
And he is a most talented liar...
Not a liar, I think, but a liar.
He himself, probably intoxicated by his own lies, lied and lied to us, smartly dressing life in colorful rags of lies.
He dressed his tramps in cloaks, put on their swords and tidied up their hats with multi-colored feathers.
He turned gray life into a motley harlequin. And we were delighted:
Ah, what an interesting life! Gilyarovsky could not do this.
Here again we meet in a fiction writer with a reporter.
He says proudly:
I have been working for twenty-eight years, and there has not been a single refutation.
Gilyarovsky reported that not a single editor has any doubts:
What if this is not true?
In his figurative language he explains this:
They said: “he died”, don’t believe it: look at the corpse. If you see a corpse, don’t believe it: try it with your finger. Cold? What if he’s pretending!
This “reporter conscientiousness”, to write only what he saw himself, without adding anything, was what hindered the fiction writer Gilyarovsky, making it impossible for him:
Invent.
No matter how the constant and changing “demands of the time” insist on this.
And he has as much imagination as he wants! He's a poet! Read his lyrical digressions. What breadth, what flight! Read his poems! 12
The damned integrity is stuck!
Hence the difference in writing the same thing.
The romantic is a liar.
From a realist.
In Gorky, Satin proudly “declares”:
The person pays for everything himself.
He asks Gilyarovsky:
Piglet.
“Otherwise I’ll die.”
And the professor in an anatomy lesson, dissecting the corpse of a tramp who was born to be a hero and died because he did not have a spot, “records”:
This is true.
This is the truth.
VIII
Again. Again I make a reservation. I'm not going to say:
Gilyarovsky defeated Gorky.
One direction defeated the other direction. One thing, forgotten for a while, turned out to be durable.
The other, like fireworks, sensational, like fireworks, burned out and went out. Are you currently reading Gorky's tramp stories? 13 ? Is it possible now for such a “tramp story” to appear? Yes, until 1905 we believed, we wanted to brew:
That’s where she came from, “Stenka Razin’s freewoman”!
In 1905, all the motley and bright rags fell from Harlequin, like autumn leaves from a tree.
Satin went to the pogroms for fifty dollars.
Satin, for fifty dollars, tied with a white towel, beat a tambourine and danced at the funeral...
Satin received a Browning “against the revolutionaries” and immediately sold it to the revolutionaries for five rubles 14 .
And when, after 1905, one of the “sub-maxims” 15 , Mr. Skitalets, tried again to write something vagabond in the old spirit: “Cinders” 16 - and say that on “autumn days” cinders:
They declared themselves with honor - he, his “cinders”, his story about their exploits, were greeted with whistles by the entire Russian press, the entire Russian public:
They lied, and that’s enough!
When you have to re-read these “tramps in a hat with feathers, cloaks and a sword” by Gorky, you feel nothing but annoyance.
Why did you lie?
What did you believe?
Re-reading Gilyarovsky’s descriptions of life - his lyrical digressions are good, but the life is excellent, life is alive, you immediately feel that it has been copied from life, the spoken language is bright, typical, the scenes sparkle, live - re-reading Gilyarovsky’s life, you feel that it is alarming your conscience stirs, you experience the most painful of human feelings - shame that people are dying next to you because there are no five kopecks, you feel guilty about these “dead petites”, alone with yourself you twist and writhe like an eel in a frying pan.
Are you doing better?
What did you want!
From a book?
The greatest of books - the four Gospels - did not make people better.
But “good feelings” are “awakened by the lyre” in you 17 .
You, almost a venerable hero of the day, - you, my old comrade, you “fought the good fight” 18 .
To the best of your ability, you did the same “great work of Russian literature”, the same thing that our god, our father, the father of us all, the father of Leo Tolstoy did, just like yours, the “sun” of Gogol, the sun of all Russian literature.
- “He called for mercy for the fallen” 19 .
And he did it in the only way worthy in literature:
He wrote the truth.
Quoted here from the edition: Doroshevich V.M. Memories. M., 2008, p. 582-591.
(November 26, old style) 1853 (according to other sources - 1855) in a forest farm in the Vologda province. His father was an assistant manager of a forest estate.
In 1860, the family moved to the provincial city of Vologda, where the father received a position as an official.
In August 1865, Gilyarovsky entered the first grade of the Vologda gymnasium, where he remained for the second year. In the gymnasium, Vladimir Alekseevich began to write poems and epigrams against teachers (“dirty tricks on mentors”), and was engaged in translations of poems from French. While studying at the gymnasium, I studied circus art for two years.
In 1871, without completing his education, Gilyarovsky ran away from home. He was a barge hauler on the Volga, a hooker, a worker, a herdsman and even an actor.
In the early 1870s, Vladimir Gilyarovsky first came to Moscow and studied at the cadet school in Lefortovo for about a month.
During the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 he volunteered for the army. He served in intelligence and was awarded the St. George Cross.
All this time, Gilyarovsky wrote poems, sketches, and letters to his father. The work of Vladimir Gilyarovsky was first published in the Vologda gymnasium collection in 1873. It was the poem "Leaf".
In 1881, Gilyarovsky, having settled in Moscow, worked at the Anna Brenko Theater. In the autumn of the same year, he left the theater and took up literature.
For about a year, Vladimir Gilyarovsky wrote articles for various periodicals, at first he was published in the Russian Newspaper, from 1882 he worked as a reporter in the Moscow List, and in 1883-1889 in the Russian Vedomosti. In 1889-1891 he was listed as a staff member at the Rossiya newspaper. Published in the newspapers “Russian Thought”, “Petersburg Listok”, “New Time”, “Osa”, “Russian Word”, “Alarm Clock”, etc.
He wrote stories, essays and reports, covering various aspects of Moscow life: the fire in Khamovniki, the tragedy on Khodynskoye Field, openings of exhibitions and theater premieres, meetings of the Literary and Artistic Circle, Khitrov Market and hangouts of Grachevka. He was called the "King of Reporters."
In 1887, Gilyarovsky prepared his book “Slum People” for publication. The book was banned by censorship and the circulation was destroyed, but stories from it were included in the writer’s later collections.
In 1894, Gilyarovsky published a collection of poems, “The Forgotten Notebook.” And in subsequent years, throughout his life, he did not give up poetry.
Gilyarovsky published essays on his travels under the title “Negatives” (1900). He published the brochures “Tailor Eroshka and the Cockroaches” (1901), “Shipka Before and Now” (1902), “In the Homeland of Gogol” (1902), “Were” (1908), “Jokes” (1912).
In 1914, Gilyarovsky received an offer to publish his works. Work on the seven-volume collection was interrupted by the First World War. After the October Revolution, Gilyarovsky wrote for the newspapers Izvestia, Evening Moscow, Searchlight, and Ogonyok. In 1922, the poem "Stenka Razin" was published.
His books “From the English Club to the Museum of the Revolution” (1926), “Moscow and Muscovites” (1926), “My Wanderings” (1928), “Notes of a Muscovite” (1931), “Friends and Meetings” (1934) were published. "People of the Theater" were published only after the death of Vladimir Gilyarovsky - in 1941.
With Moscow expert Andrei Tutushkin, we walked through Gilyarovsky’s Moscow - places not only described in the book “Moscow and Muscovites”, but also connected with the life of the writer
Labor Exchange and City People's Canteen on Khitrovskaya Square. 1917
Vladimir Gilyarovsky born in 1855 in Vologda. Before moving to Moscow, he changed a dozen professions. He worked as a stoker, fireman, circus rider, cattle herder and barge hauler on the Volga. And in his reporting activities, Gilyarovsky continued to “try himself in different roles,” transforming himself, for the sake of a good story, into a bailiff, a swindler, or a fireman. Exorbitant physical strength, big and generous, Uncle Gilyai (as the Muscovites called him) belonged everywhere - from high society to the very bottom.
Having settled in Moscow in 1881, Gilyarovsky worked for some time at the Anna Brenko Theater, but very soon left the theater and took up journalism. He was published in many newspapers - from "Moscow leaf" before "Russian Gazette"- and wrote hundreds of essays and reports. Based on his reporting activities, he published several books, the most popular of which was "Moscow and Muscovites". Gilyarovsky wrote a collection of essays about the life and customs of Moscow in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries from 1912 until the end of his life.
The genre of the book is quite unusual: the basis of the artistry here is a city guide. The opportunity to look at the Moscow of the past, accurate and colorful descriptions, a gloomy coloring - all this attracts the modern reader in Moscow and Muscovites. In addition, the popularity of the collection was facilitated by the constant reprinting during Soviet times: the authorities were interested in the depiction of slums and the city bottom in Tsarist Russia.
With a Moscow expert Andrey Tutushkin we walked through Gilyarovsky's Moscow - places not only described in the book, but also connected with the life of the writer.
Gilyarovsky posed as a Cossack for Repin’s painting “The Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan.”
Gilyarovsky's house in Stoleshnikovovo
Stoleshnikov Lane, 9
Vladimir Gilyarovsky rented an apartment in this house for 50 years, from 1886 to 1935. The address was a common one; it was enough to say to the cab driver: “We’re going to Uncle Gilyai!”, and he understood that we were talking about Stoleshnikov Lane. Gilyarovsky's frequent guests were Chekhov, Chaliapin, Kuprin, Bunin, Levitan and other secular people who made up his social circle. A rolled-up poker hung over the entrance to Uncle Gilay’s apartment. Chekhov advised Gilyarovsky to hang it there after he, demonstrating his extraordinary physical abilities, bent the poker in front of his eyes. So the poker hung over the entrance for half a century.
Stoleshnikov Lane
Chekhov's House
Sadovo-Kudrinskaya, 6 b.2
Not only Chekhov visited Gilyarovsky, but vice versa. Anton Pavlovich lived in this house with his mother, sister and younger brother Mikhail. According to Chekhov, Gilyarovsky visited here often: “He still comes to see me every evening and overwhelms me with his doubts, struggles, volcanoes, torn nostrils, atamans, free will and other nonsense that God forgives him.” Literary scholars suggest that Chekhov could portray his friend Gilyarovsky in the story "Two Newsboys" in the guise of a journalist Shlepkina.
Tverskaya Square
Gilyarovsky, having a childish character, was a master at jokes and practical jokes. Uncle Gilay's watermelon prank went down in history. Somehow, while driving through Tverskaya and having bought a soaked watermelon sealed in paper along the way, Gilyarovsky realized that he did not want to eat it. And he gave it to the policeman with the words: “There’s a bomb!” The frightened law enforcement officer went to the police station, which was then located on Tverskaya Square, opposite the current city hall. There was a commotion in the department until a brave soul was found to unfold the paper.
Tverskaya Square. Modern look.
The building of the Sushchevskaya police station
Seleznevskaya st., 11, p. 1
Since the mid-19th century, this building housed the Sushchevskaya police station, as well as a fire station. It was in this place that books banned by censorship were burned. Gilyarovsky's first collection of stories "Slum People" The authorities did not like it, and in January 1888 the entire circulation of the book was burned in the backyard of the house.
The author’s memories of this episode have been preserved: “In the large courtyard, near the kindergarten, there were several firefighters and boys standing. The snow was covered with soot and pieces of burnt paper. I saw a tall grated stove in which the fire was burning out.”
Later, already under Soviet rule, Gilyarovsky was even proud of this fact, saying that “if the tsarist government burned my books, then there was something worthwhile in them.”
The former building of the Sushchevskaya police station
Khitrovka
Gilyarovsky’s favorite chapters of the book “Moscow and Muscovites” are related to Khitrovka, where at the end of the 19th century there was a labor market. A wide variety of people flocked here in search of work, including criminals and the homeless. Many of them, unable to find work, settled in local shelters. Gilyarovsky in his essays calls these inhabitants of Khitrovka "moles" And "crayfish" due to the fact that they never showed themselves on the street in daylight.
Khitrovskaya Square. Modern look.
Sukharevskaya Square
Before the revolution, here, as on Khitrovka, there was also market. It is noteworthy that, after the end of the war with Napoleon, it was allowed to sell stolen goods on Sukharevka, “no matter where it came from.” This place was attractive to Gilyarovsky as a reporter. Here he visited taverns and observed local customs. After the revolution, the market was closed and a park was built in its place.
Malaya Sukharevskaya Square. Modern look.
Tsvetnoy Boulevard - Trubnaya Square (Neglinka)
Gilyarovsky descended several times into the underground reservoir of the Neglinka River, thus acting as a Moscow digger. He describes his first descent in detail in the book “Moscow and Muscovites”, mentioning that he had read a lot of novels Victor Hugo. He was helped then by “the plumber Fedya and a respectable, thorough janitor.” By modern standards, they traveled a small distance - from Tsvetnoy Boulevard before Trubnaya Square, but Gilyarovsky had enough impressions! Foul-smelling slurry, mud, human remains (at that time there were many criminal and crime-ridden areas nearby). The City Duma drew attention to the subsequent publication in the newspaper. The authorities allocated money for clearing and rebuilding the sewer. The last time the writer descended underground was already in old age. Then he caught a bad cold and became deaf in one ear.
A section of the Neglinnaya River, called the “Gilarovsky Path”.
Monument to Gogol
Nikitsky Boulevard, 7A
Monument to Gogol, which is now at the end Nikitsky Boulevard, in the courtyard of the writer’s house-museum, was created in 1909 by the sculptor Nikolai Andreev. The pedestal of the monument is decorated with a bas-relief depicting the heroes of Nikol Vasilyevich. The prototype of Taras Bulba in the bas-relief was Vladimir Gilyarovsky, who looks very similar to a Cossack: mustache, mocking, penetrating gaze, hat. In addition, among writers Gilyai put Gogol above all, and even traveled to all the places near Poltava where Nikolai Vasilyevich had been.
Gilyarovsky as Taras Bulba
