Sergey Esin Selected places from the diary of 2002 January 1, Tuesday. I sat all day and put my diaries in order for the last quarter of last year, added notes, inserted missing quotes. It is very cold outside. Near the metro there are a bunch of unclaimed, unsold Christmas trees. This

Sergey Esin Selected places from the diary of 2001 January 7, Sunday. Christmas Day. The day before, I spent the entire evening watching on TV and listening to the broadcast of the patriarchal service from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. I really regretted that I didn’t go to the service “live” this year. Temple from inside

III. MEANING OF DISEASES

(From a letter to gr. A.P. T...mu)

My strength weakens every minute, but not my spirit. Never before have bodily ailments been so debilitating. It is often so hard, so heavy, such terrible fatigue is felt throughout the entire body, that you are glad, like God knows what, when the day finally ends and you get to bed. Often, in spiritual impotence, you exclaim: “God! where is the shore of everything? But then, when you look back at yourself and look deeper inside, your soul no longer emits anything except tears and gratitude. 0! how we need illnesses! Of the many benefits that I have already derived from them, I will tell you only one: now, whatever I am, I have nevertheless become better than I was before; If it weren’t for these ailments, I would have thought that I had already become what I should be. Not to mention the fact that health itself, which constantly pushes a Russian person to make some kind of leaps and the desire to show off his qualities in front of others, would force me to do a thousand stupid things. Moreover, now, in my fresh moments, which heavenly mercy gives me and in the midst of suffering itself, sometimes thoughts come to me that are incomparably better than before, and I see for myself that now everything that comes from my pen will be more significant than before. If it weren’t for severe painful suffering, where would I not be now! what a significant person he would imagine himself to be! But, hearing every minute that my life is in the balance, that an illness can suddenly stop my work, on which all my significance is based, and the benefit that my soul so desires to bring, will remain in one powerless desire, and not in fulfillment, and I will not give any interest on the talents God has given me, and I will be condemned as the last of the criminals... Hearing all this, I humble myself every minute and cannot find words how to thank the heavenly Provider for my illness. So, you too, meekly accept any illness, believing in advance that it is needed. Pray to God only that its wonderful meaning and the full depth of its lofty meaning will be revealed to you.

IV. ABOUT WHAT A WORD IS

Pushkin, when he read the following verses from Derzhavin’s ode to Khrapovitsky:

Let it gnaw at me for my words,
The satirist honors for deeds, -

VI. ABOUT HELPING THE POOR

(From a letter to A.O.S......oh)

I appeal to your attacks on the stupidity of the St. Petersburg youth, who decided to offer golden wreaths and cups to foreign singers and actresses at the very time when entire provinces in Russia are starving. This does not happen from stupidity or hardness of hearts, or even from frivolity. This comes from our common human carelessness. These misfortunes and horrors produced by hunger are far from us; they take place inside the provinces, they are not before our eyes - this is the solution and explanation of everything! The same one who paid a hundred rubles for a seat in the theater in order to enjoy Roubini’s singing, would have sold his last property if he had had a chance to actually witness even one of those terrible pictures of famine, before which all the fears and horrors exhibited are nothing. in melodramas. We won’t have a problem with donations: we are all ready to sacrifice. But donations actually for the benefit of the poor are now not very willingly made in our country, partly because not everyone is sure whether his donation will properly reach its destination, whether it will fall into exactly the hands into which it should fall. Most often, it happens that help, like some kind of liquid carried in a hand, is all spilled along the way before it arrives, and the person in need has to look only at one dry hand, in which there is nothing. Here's an item to think about before collecting donations. We will talk about this with you later, because this matter is not at all unimportant and is worth talking intelligently about. Now let’s talk about where we need help most quickly. You need to help, first of all, someone who has suffered a sudden misfortune, which suddenly, in one minute, deprived him of everything at once: either a fire that burned everything to the ground, or a death that wiped out all the livestock, or death that stole the only support, in a word - everything sudden deprivation, where poverty suddenly appears to a person, to which he has not yet had time to get used to. Bring help there. But it is necessary that this help be provided truly in a Christian way; if it consists only of issuing money, it will mean absolutely nothing and will not turn into good. If you have not first thought through in your own head the entire situation of the person you want to help, and have not brought with you teaching him how to lead his life from now on, he will not receive great good from your help. The price of assistance provided rarely equals the cost of loss; in general it is barely half of what a person has lost, often one quarter, and sometimes even less. A Russian person is capable of all extremes: seeing that with the little money he has received he cannot lead life as before, out of grief he can suddenly squander what was given to him for long-term maintenance. Therefore, instruct him how to get out of it with the very help that you brought him, explain to him the true meaning of misfortune, so that he can see that it was sent to him then, so that he changes his previous life, so that from now on he will no longer be the same, but as if he were a different person both materially and morally. You will be able to say this intelligently if you only delve deeply into his nature and his circumstances. He will understand you: misfortune softens a person; his nature then becomes more sensitive and accessible to understanding objects that surpass the concept of a person in an ordinary and everyday situation; It’s as if it all turns into heated wax, from which you can sculpt whatever you want. It would be best, however, if all help were provided through the hands of experienced and intelligent priests. They alone are able to interpret the holy and deep meaning misfortune, which, no matter how it appears to anyone on earth, whether he lives in a hut or a chamber, is the same cry from heaven, crying out to a person about a change in his entire previous life.

VIII. A FEW WORDS ABOUT OUR CHURCH AND CLERGY

(From a letter to gr. A.P.T.....mu)

It is in vain that you are embarrassed by the attacks that are now being made against our Church in Europe. It would also be unfair to accuse our clergy of indifference. Why do you want our clergy, hitherto distinguished by the stately calmness so befitting of them, to join the ranks of European loudmouths and begin, like them, to print reckless pamphlets? Our Church acted wisely. To protect it, you must first know it yourself. But we generally don’t know our Church well. Our clergy is not idle. I know very well that in the depths of monasteries and in the silence of cells, irrefutable works are being prepared in defense of our Church. But they do their work better than we do: they are in no hurry and, knowing what such a subject requires, they carry out their work in deep calm, praying, educating themselves, expelling from their souls everything passionate, similar to inappropriate, insane fever, elevating your soul to that height of heavenly dispassion at which it should remain in order to be able to speak about such a subject. But even these defenses will not yet serve to completely convince Western Catholics. Our Church must be sanctified in us, and not in our words. We must be our Church and we must proclaim its truth. They say that our Church is lifeless. - They told a lie, because our Church is life; but they deduced their lie logically, deduced it with the correct conclusion: we are corpses, not our Church, and after us they called our Church a corpse. How can we defend our Church and what answer can we give them if they ask us the following questions: “Has your Church made you the best? Does everyone among you fulfill his duty as he should?” What will we then answer them, suddenly feeling in our soul and conscience that we have been walking past our Church all the time and barely know it even now? We own a treasure that has no price, and not only do we not care to feel it, but we don’t even know where we put it. The owner is asked to show the best thing in his house, and the owner himself does not know where it is. This Church, which, like a chaste virgin, has been preserved alone from the times of the apostles in its immaculate original purity, this Church, which, with all its deep dogmas and the slightest external rituals, seems to have been carried straight from Heaven for the Russian people, which alone is able to resolve everything knots of bewilderment and our questions, which can produce an unheard of miracle in the sight of all of Europe, forcing every class, rank and position in us to enter their legal borders and limits and, without changing anything in the state, give Russia the power to amaze the whole world with the harmonious harmony of the same the very organism with which it had hitherto frightened us - and this Church is unknown to us! And we still have not introduced this Church, created for life, into our lives!

No, God bless us and protect our Church now! This means dropping it. There is only one propaganda possible for us - our life. With our life we ​​must defend our Church, which is all life; We must proclaim its truth with the fragrance of our souls. Let the missionary of Western Catholicism beat his chest, wave his arms, and with the eloquence of sobs and words, let out soon-drying tears. The preacher of Eastern Catholicism must speak before the people in such a way that just from his humble appearance, extinguished eyes and quiet, stunning voice emanating from a soul in which all the desires of the world have died, everything would move even before he explains the matter itself, and one voice would speak to him: “Don’t utter words, we hear the holy truth of your Church without them!”

IX. ABOUT THE SAME

The remark that the power of the Church is weak in our country because our clergy has little secularism and dexterity in dealing with society is as absurd as the assertion that our clergy is completely removed from any contact with life by the statutes of our Church and is bound in their actions by the government . Our clergy are shown legal and precise boundaries in their contacts with the light and people. Believe me, if they began to meet with us more often, participating in our daily meetings and walks or getting involved in family affairs, it would not be good. The spiritual will face many temptations, much more so than us: just those intrigues would start in the houses for which the Roman Catholic priests are accused. The Roman Catholic priests became bad precisely because they became too secular. Our clergy have two legitimate fields in which they meet with us: confession and preaching. In these two fields, of which the first happens only once or twice a year, and the second can be every Sunday, a lot can be done. And if only the priest, seeing a lot of bad things in people, knew how to remain silent about it for a while and think for a long time in himself how to say it in such a way that every word would reach straight to the heart, then he will already speak about it so forcefully in confession and sermon , as never to tell him in daily conversations with us. It is necessary that he speak to a person standing in the middle of the light from some elevated place, so that it is not his presence that the person hears at this time, but the presence of God Himself, listening equally to both of them, and mutual fear from His invisible presence would be heard. No, it’s even good that our clergy is located at some distance from us. It’s good that even with their very clothes, not subject to any changes and whims of our stupid fashions, they separated from us. Their clothes are beautiful and majestic. This is not the meaningless, leftover from the eighteenth century rococo and not the patchwork, non-explanatory clothing of Roman Catholic priests. It makes sense: it is in the image and likeness of the clothes that the Savior Himself wore. It is necessary that even in their very clothes they carry for themselves an eternal reminder of Him, Whose image they must represent to us, so that even for one moment they do not forget and become confused among the entertainments and insignificant needs of the world, for from them a thousand times more will be exacted than from each of us; so that they can constantly hear that they are, as it were, different and superior people. No, while the priest is still young and life is unknown to him, he should not even meet people except at confession and sermon. If we enter into a conversation, then only with the wisest and most experienced of them, who could introduce him to the soul and heart of a person, depict life to him in its true form and light, and not in the way it appears to an inexperienced person. The priest also needs time for himself: he needs to work on himself. He must follow the example of the Savior, who spent a long time in the desert and not before, after a forty-day preparatory fast, came out to the people to teach them. Some of today's wise men have invented that you need to jostle among the world in order to recognize it. This is just nonsense. The refutation of this opinion is provided by all secular people who are always jostling among the world and for all that are the emptiest of all. They are brought up for the light not in the midst of the light, but far from it, in deep inner contemplation, in the exploration of their own soul, for there are laws for everything and everyone: just first find the key to your own soul; when you find it, then with this same key you will unlock the souls of everyone.

X. ABOUT THE LYRISM OF OUR POETS

(Letter to V.A. Zh.......mu)

Let's talk about the article over which the death sentence was pronounced, that is, about the article entitled: “On the lyricism of our poets.” First of all, thanks for the death sentence! This is the second time I have been saved by you, O my true mentor and teacher! Last year your hand stopped me when I was about to send my stories about Russian poets to Pletnev in Sovremennik; now you have again destroyed the new fruit of my folly. You're the only one stopping me, while everyone else is rushing me for unknown reasons. How many stupid things I could have done already if I had only listened to my other friends! So, first of all, here is my song of thanks! And then let's look at the article itself. I’m ashamed when I think how stupid I still am and how I don’t know how to talk about anything smarter. The most absurd thoughts and rumors about literature come out. Here somehow everything especially becomes pompous, dark and incomprehensible for me. My own thought, which I not only see with my mind, but even feel with my heart, I am unable to convey. The soul hears a lot, but I can’t retell or write anything. The basis of my article is fair, and yet I explained myself in such a way that every expression provoked contradiction. I repeat the same thing again: in the lyricism of our poets there is something that the poets of other nations do not have, namely, something close to the biblical, that highest state of lyricism, which is alien to the movements of passionate ones and is firmly flying in the light of reason, the supreme triumph of spiritual sobriety. Not to mention Lomonosov and Derzhavin, even in Pushkin one can hear this strict lyricism everywhere he touches lofty objects. Just remember his poems: to the Shepherd of the Church, “The Prophet” and, finally, this mysterious escape from the city, published after his death. Go through Yazykov’s poems and you will see that every time he somehow becomes immeasurably higher than both passions and himself when he touches something higher. I will cite one of his even young poems, called “Genius”; it's not long:

When, thundering and flaming, the Prophet flew to heaven,
The mighty fire penetrated
The living soul of Elisha.
Full of holy feelings
She matured, grew stronger, rose,
And I was filled with inspiration,
And she heard God.
So the genius trembles joyfully,
Knows his greatness
When it thunders and shines before him
Another genius's flight.
His resurrected power
Instantly ripe for miracles,
And new luminaries for the world -
Deeds of the chosen one of heaven.

What light and what severity of greatness! I explained this by saying that our poets saw every lofty subject in its legitimate contact with the supreme source of lyricism - God, some consciously, others unconsciously, because the Russian soul, due to its Russian nature, already hears this somehow by itself, no one knows why. I said that two subjects evoked in our poets this lyricism, close to the biblical. The first of them is Russia. With just this name, our poet’s gaze suddenly brightens, his horizons expand further, everything becomes broader for him, and he himself seems to be clothed with greatness, becoming higher than an ordinary person. This is something more than ordinary love for the fatherland. Love for the fatherland would sound like cloying boasting. Our so-called leavened patriots are proof of this: after their praise, however quite sincere, you will only spit on Russia. Meanwhile, Derzhavin starts talking about Russia - you hear an unnatural strength in yourself and, as it were, you yourself breathe the greatness of Russia. One simple love to the fatherland would not have given the strength not only to Derzhavin, but even to Yazykov, to express himself so broadly and solemnly every time he touched Russia. For example, at least in poetry, where he depicts how Batory stepped on her:

Sovereign Stefan
To one mighty camp
Already gathering thick crowds -
Let him overthrow the Pskovites,
Let Russia be destroyed!
But you, love for the fatherland,
You, what our grandfathers were proud of,
You're up in arms. Blood for blood -
And he didn't celebrate the victory!

This heroically sober power, which at times is even combined with some kind of involuntary prophecy about Russia, is born from an involuntary touch of thought to the supreme Providence, which is so clearly heard in the fate of our fatherland. In addition to love, there is a hidden horror involved here at the sight of those events that God commanded to take place in the land destined to be our fatherland, the insight of a beautiful new building, which is not yet being visibly built for everyone and which can be heard with the all-hearing ear of poetry by a poet or such a seer who has already its fruit may appear in the grain. Now other people are beginning to hear this little by little, but they express themselves so unclearly that their words sound like madness. You are wrong to think that today’s youth, raving about Slavic principles and prophesying about the future of Russia, are following some kind of fashionable fad. They don’t know how to nurture thoughts in their heads, they are in a hurry to announce them to the world, not noticing that their thoughts are still stupid children, that’s all. And among the Jewish people, four hundred prophets suddenly prophesied: of them, only one was the chosen one of God, whose legends were entered into the holy book of the Jewish people; all the others probably said a lot of unnecessary things, but nevertheless they heard vaguely and darkly the same thing that the chosen ones were able to say sensibly and clearly; otherwise the people would have stoned them. Why is neither France, nor England, nor Germany infected with this epidemic and do not prophesy about themselves, but only Russia prophesies? - Because, more than others, she hears God’s hand on everything that happens in her, and senses the approach of another Kingdom. That is why the sounds become biblical among our poets. And this cannot be the case with poets of other nations, no matter how much they love their homeland and no matter how ardently they know how to express such love. And don’t argue with me on this, my beautiful friend!

But let’s move on to another subject, where our poets also hear that high lyricism we are talking about, that is, love for the king. From the many hymns and odes to kings, our poetry, already from the times of Lomonosov and Derzhavin, received some kind of majestic and regal expression. That their feelings are sincere - there is nothing to say about that. Only those who are endowed with petty wit, capable of only instantaneous, easy considerations, will see here flattery and the desire to get something, and such consideration will be based on some insignificant and bad odes of the same poets. But the one who is more than witty, who is wise, will stop before those odes of Derzhavin, where he outlines the ruler wide circle his beneficial actions, where he himself, with tears in his eyes, tells him about those tears that are ready to flow from the eyes, not only of Russians, but even of the insensitive savages living at the ends of his empire, from just the touch of that mercy and that love that One powerful government can show the people. Much is said here so powerfully that even if there were a sovereign who would forget his duty for a while, then, having read these lines, he would remember it again and be moved by the holiness of his title. Only the cold-hearted would reproach Derzhavin for excessive praise of Catherine; but whoever is not a stone at heart will not read without emotion those wonderful verses where he says that if his marble idol passes on to posterity, it will be because

Nor will he read these almost dying verses without unfeigned emotional emotion:

Old age is cold in spirit, it takes away the eye from the lyre:
Catherine's muse is dozing.
...Sing
I really can't. For other singers to thunder
I'll leave mine as old strings.
May the Peruns draw from them again
Those pure fiery lights,
How I sang of the three kings.

The old man at the door of the coffin will not lie. During his life, he carried this love like a shrine, and carried it beyond the grave as a shrine. But that's not what we're talking about. Where did this love come from? - that's the question. That the whole people hears it with some kind of heartfelt feeling, and therefore the poet, as the purest reflection of the same people, should have heard it to the highest degree - this will explain only one half of the matter. A complete and perfect poet does not indulge in anything unconsciously, without testing it with the wisdom of his full mind. Having an ear to hear ahead, containing within himself the desire to recreate in full the same thing that others see fragmentarily, from one or two sides, and not from all four, he could not help but see the development of the fullest of this power. How cleverly Pushkin defined the meaning of a full-powered monarch and how clever he was in general in everything he said in the last period of his life! “Why is it necessary,” he said, “for one of us to become above everyone else and even above the law itself? Because the law is a tree; in the law a person hears something harsh and unbrotherly. Just literal fulfillment of the law will not get you far; none of us should violate or fail to fulfill it; This is why the highest mercy is needed, softening the law, which can appear to people only in one full-powered power. A state without a full-powered monarch is an automaton: a lot, a lot, if it achieves what the United States has achieved. What is the United States? Carrion; the person in them has weathered to the point that they are not worth a damn. A state without a full-powered monarch is the same as an orchestra without a conductor: no matter how good all the musicians may be, if there is not one among them who would signal everything with the movement of a baton, the concert will not go anywhere. But it seems that he himself does nothing, does not play any instrument, just waves his stick slightly and glances at everyone, and just one look from him is enough to soften, in this and that place, some rough sound that another fool would have let out a drum or a clumsy tulumbas. With him, even a masterful violinist does not dare to go too wild at the expense of others: he maintains the general order, the revitalizer of everything, the leader of the supreme agreement! How aptly Pushkin put it! How he understood the meaning of great truths! He even partially expressed this inner being - the power of an autocratic monarch - in one of his poems, which, by the way, you yourself published in the posthumous collection of his works, you even corrected the verse in it, but did not guess the meaning. Now I will reveal his secret. I'm talking about an ode to Emperor Nicholas, which appeared in print under the modest name: “To N***.” Here is its origin. It was an evening at the Anichkov Palace, one of those evenings to which, as you know, only a select few from our society were invited. Pushkin was among them then. Everyone in the halls has already gathered; but the sovereign did not come out for a long time. Having moved away from everyone to the other half of the palace and taking advantage of the first idle minute from business, he unfolded the Iliad and was insensitively carried away by reading it all the time when music had long been thundering in the halls and dancing was in full swing. He went to the ball a little late, bringing traces of other impressions on his face. The rapprochement of these two opposites slipped unnoticed by everyone, but in Pushkin’s soul it left a strong impression, and its fruits were the following majestic ode, which I will repeat here in its entirety, it is all in one stanza:

You talked to Homer alone for a long time,
We've been waiting for you for a long time.
And bright you came down from the mysterious heights
And they brought us their secrets.
So what? You found us in the desert under a tent,
In the madness of a vain feast,
Singing a riotous song and galloping around
An idol created from us.
We were confused, alienated from your rays,
In a fit of anger and sadness
You cursed us, senseless children,
Having broken the sheets of his secret.
No, you didn't curse us. You love from above
Go under the shadow of a small valley,
You love the thunder of heaven, and you also listen
The murmur of bees over a scarlet rose.

Let's leave the personality of Emperor Nicholas and analyze what a monarch is in general, as God's anointed, obliged to strive for the people entrusted to him to the light in which God dwells, and did Pushkin have the right to liken him to the ancient God-seer Moses? One of the people upon whose shoulders the fate of millions of his brothers has fallen, who, by the terrible responsibility for them before God, has already been freed from all responsibility before people, who is sick with the horror of this responsibility and sheds, perhaps invisibly, such tears and suffers such suffering, about which the man standing below cannot think, who, in the midst of entertainment itself, hears the eternal cry of God, incessantly resounding in his ears, incessantly crying out to him - he can be likened to the ancient seer of God, can, like him, break the leaves of his secret, cursing the wind-whirling tribe, which, instead of striving for what everything on earth should strive for, vainly jumps around its own idols, created by itself. But Pushkin was stopped by the even higher significance of the same power, which the weak powerlessness of humanity begged from heaven, begged for it not with a cry for heavenly justice, before which not a single person on earth could resist, but with a cry for the heavenly love of God, which would be able to forgive us everything - and the oblivion of our debt, and our very murmur - everything that man on earth does not forgive, so that one then only gathers his power into himself and separates himself from all of us and becomes higher than everything on earth, so that through this he becomes closer to equal to everyone, to descend from above to everything and listen to everything, from the thunder of heaven and the poet’s lyre to our unnoticed amusements.

It seems as if in this poem Pushkin, having asked himself the question of what this power is, fell into the dust before the greatness of the answer that arose in his soul. It does not hurt to note that this was a poet who was too proud of both the independence of his opinions and his personal dignity. No one said about himself like he did:

I erected a monument to myself, not made by hands,
The folk path to it will not be overgrown:
He ascended higher with his rebellious head
Napoleon's Pillar.

Although Napoleon's Pillar is, of course, your fault; but let us suppose that even if the verse had remained in its original form, it would still have served as proof, and even greater, as Pushkin, feeling his personal advantage as a person over many of the crown bearers, heard at the same time all the smallness of the title his before the title of crown bearer and knew how to reverently bow before those of them who showed the world the majesty of their title.

Our poets have glimpsed the supreme significance of the monarch, hearing that he must inevitably finally become all one love, and thus it will become clear to everyone why the sovereign is the image of God, as our whole earth recognizes, as long as by instinct. The importance of the sovereign in Europe will inevitably approach the same expression. Everything leads to this, to bring out the highest in sovereigns. Divine love for peoples. The cries of mental suffering of all mankind are already being heard, with which almost every one of the current European peoples , and rushes about, poor thing, not knowing how or how to help himself: any outside touch to his severely aching wounds; every means, every help invented by the mind is rude to him and does not bring healing. These cries will finally intensify to the point that the insensitive heart will burst with pity, and the power of hitherto unprecedented compassion will evoke the power of another, hitherto unprecedented love. A person will burst into flames with love for all humanity, such as he has never lit up before. None of us, private people, can have such love in all its strength; it will remain in ideas and thoughts, and not in action; Only those who have already made it an indispensable law to love everyone as one person can be fully imbued with it. Having loved everything in his state, down to a single person of every class and rank, and having converted everything that is in it, as if into his own body, he was sick in spirit for everyone, grieving, weeping, praying day and night for his suffering people, the sovereign will acquire that omnipotent voice of love, which alone can be accessible to sick humanity and whose touch will not be harsh to its wounds, which alone can bring reconciliation to all classes and turn the state into a harmonious orchestra. Only there will the people be completely healed, where the monarch will comprehend his highest meaning - to be the image of Him on earth, Who Himself is love. In Europe, it never occurred to anyone to define the highest significance of a monarch. Statesmen, lawyers and jurists looked at one side of it, namely, as the highest official in the state, appointed by the people, and therefore do not even know what to do with this power, how to indicate the proper boundaries to it, when, due to daily changing circumstances, Sometimes it is necessary to either expand its limits or limit it. And through this, both the sovereign and the people are placed in a strange position among themselves: they look at each other in almost the same way as at opponents who want to use power at the expense of the other. Our poets, not lawyers, saw with trepidation the will of God to create it in Russia in its legal form; That’s why their sounds become biblical every time the word king comes out of their mouth. It is heard here even by non-poets, because the pages of our history speak too clearly about the will of Providence: may this power be formed in Russia in its full and perfect form. All events in our fatherland, starting from the enslavement of the Tatars, apparently tend to gather power into the hands of one, so that one would be able to carry out this famous revolution of everything in the state, shake everything and, having awakened everyone, arm each of us with that highest a look at oneself, without which it is impossible for a person to disassemble, condemn himself and raise in himself the same battle against everything ignorant and dark that the king raised in his state; so that later, when everyone is already aflame with this holy war and everyone comes to the consciousness of their strength, he could also, alone, in front of everyone, with a lamp in his hand, direct, as one soul, his entire people towards that supreme light to which Russia is asking. See also, by what wonderful means, even before it could be explained full meaning This power has already planted the seeds of mutual love in the hearts of both the sovereign himself and his subjects! Not a single royal house began as unusually as the house of the Romanovs began. Its beginning was already a feat of love. The last and lowest subject in the state brought and laid down his life in order to give us a king, and with this pure sacrifice he inextricably linked the sovereign with the subject. Love entered our blood, and we all developed a blood relationship with the king. And so the ruler merged and became one with the subject that we all now see a common misfortune - whether the sovereign will forget his subject and renounce him, or the subject will forget his sovereign and renounce him. How clearly it also turns out to be the will of God - to choose the Romanov surname for this, and not another! How incomprehensible is this elevation to the throne of an unknown youth! Right next to them stood the most ancient families, and, moreover, men of valor who had just saved their fatherland: Pozharsky, Trubetskoy, and finally the princes who descended in a direct line from Rurik. All of them were elected, and not a single vote was against: no one dared to present their rights. And this happened in that troubled time, when anyone could quarrel, and argue, and gather gangs of adherents! And who did they choose? The one who was a relative of the king through the female line, from whom the recent horror spread throughout the whole earth, so that not only the boyars oppressed and executed by him, but even the people themselves, who suffered almost nothing from him, for a long time repeated the saying: “It was good head, thank God the earth has been cleaned up.” And with all this, everyone unanimously, from the boyars to the last noble, decided that he should be on the throne. This is how we do things! How do you want the lyricism of our poets, who heard the full definition of the king in the books of the Old Testament and who at the same time so closely saw the will of God in all events in our fatherland - how do you want the lyricism of our poets not to be fulfilled biblical echoes? I repeat, simple love would not have been able to invest their sounds with such stern sobriety; for this, a complete and firm conviction of the mind is required, and not just an unconscious feeling of love, otherwise their sounds would come out soft, like in your previous young works, when you indulged in the feeling of only one loving soul his. No, there is something strong, too strong, in our poets, which the poets of other nations do not have. If you don’t see it, that doesn’t prove that it didn’t exist at all. Remember for yourself that you do not have all aspects of Russian nature; on the contrary, some of them rose to such a high level in you and developed so extensively that through this they did not give room to others, and you have already become an exception to all-Russian characters. You contain completely all the soft and gentle strings of our Slavic nature; but those thick and strong strings of it, from which secret horror and shudder pass through the entire makeup of a person, are not so well known to you. And they are the springs of the lyricism we are talking about. This lyricism can no longer ascend to anything other than its one supreme source - God. He is stern, he is timid, he does not like verbosity, everything that is on earth is cloying to him, unless he sees the imprint of God on it. Anyone who has even one grain of this lyricism, despite all the imperfections and shortcomings, contains within himself a stern, highest spiritual nobility, before which he himself trembles and which makes him flee from anything resembling an expression of gratitude from people. He will suddenly become disgusted with his own best feat if some reward follows for it: he feels too much that everything higher should be higher than the reward. It was only after Pushkin’s death that his true relationship to the sovereign and the secrets of his two best works were revealed. During his lifetime, he did not tell anyone about the feelings that filled him, and he acted smartly. After, as a result of all sorts of cold newspaper exclamations, written in the style of lipstick advertisements, and all sorts of angry, untidy and passionate antics produced by all sorts of leavened and unleavened patriots, we in Rus' stopped believing in the sincerity of all printed outpourings, it was dangerous for Pushkin to go out: he would they just called him a corruptible person or someone looking for something. But now, when these works appeared only after his death, it is true that there will not be found in all of Russia such a person who would dare to call Pushkin a flatterer or a pleaser to anyone. Through this, the shrine of high feeling was preserved. And now everyone who is not even able to comprehend the matter with their own mind will take it on faith, saying: “If Pushkin himself thought so, then surely this is the absolute truth.” The royal hymns of our poets amazed the foreigners themselves with their majestic composition and style. Not long ago, Mickiewicz said this at lectures in Paris, and he said it at a time when he himself was irritated against us, and everything in Paris was indignant at us. Despite, however, he solemnly declared that in the odes and hymns of our poets there is nothing slavish or base, but, on the contrary, something freely majestic: and right there, although none of his fellow countrymen liked it, he gave honor to the nobility of the characters of our writers. Miscavige is right. Our writers, for sure, contained within themselves the traits of some higher nature. In moments of their consciousness, they themselves left their spiritual portraits, which would have echoed with self-praise if their lives had not supported this. This is what Pushkin says about himself, thinking about his future fate:

And for a long time I will be kind to those people,
That I awakened good feelings with my lyre,
That the charm of living poetry was useful to me
And he called for mercy for the fallen.

One only has to remember Pushkin to see how true this portrait is. How he became animated and flushed when it came to alleviating the fate of some exile or giving a hand to the fallen! How he waited for the first minute of the royal favor towards him in order to start talking not about himself, but about another unfortunate, fallen one! The trait is truly Russian. Just remember the touching spectacle of a whole nation visiting exiles going to Siberia, when everyone brings food, some money, some Christian comforting words. There is no hatred for the criminal, nor is there a quixotic impulse to make a hero out of him, to collect his facsimiles, portraits, or to look at him out of curiosity, as is done in enlightened Europe. There is something more here: not a desire to justify him or snatch him from the hands of justice, but to raise his fallen spirit, to console him, as a brother consoles his brother, as Christ commanded us to console each other. Pushkin valued too highly any desire to raise up the fallen. That’s why his heart trembled so proudly when he heard about the sovereign’s arrival in Moscow during the horrors of cholera - a trait that hardly any of the crown bearers showed and which evoked these wonderful verses from him:

Heaven
I swear: who with his life
Played before the gloomy illness,
To cheer up the faded gaze, -
I swear, he will be a friend to Heaven,
Whatever the verdict
The earth is blind.

He also knew how to appreciate another feature in the life of another crown bearer, Peter. Remember the poem “Feast on the Neva,” in which he asks with amazement about the reason for the extraordinary celebration in the royal house, which resounds with shouts throughout St. Petersburg and along the Neva, shocked by the firing of cannons. He goes through all the cases that were joyful to the king, which could be the reason for such a feast: whether the sovereign’s heir to the throne was born, whether his birthday girl was his wife, whether an invincible enemy was defeated, whether the fleet that was the favorite passion of the sovereign arrived, and to all this he answers:

No, he makes peace with his subject,
To the guilty wine
Forgetting, having fun,
Charka is alone with him.
That's why the feast is fun,
The speech of the guests is intoxicating, noisy,
And the Neva fires heavily
Far shocked.

Only Pushkin alone could feel the beauty of such an act. To be able to not only forgive one’s subject, but also to triumph over this forgiveness as a victory over the enemy, is a truly Divine trait. Only in heaven can they do this. There they only rejoice at the conversion of the sinner even more than at the righteous man himself, and all the hosts of invisible forces participate in the heavenly feast of God. Pushkin was a connoisseur and true appraiser of everything great in man. And how could it be otherwise, if spiritual nobility is already a characteristic of almost all our writers? It is remarkable that in all other lands the writer is in some kind of disrespect from society regarding his personal character. It's the opposite here. In our country, even someone who is simply a doer and not a writer, and who is not only not handsome in soul, but even at times downright mean, is by no means revered as such in the depths of Russia. On the contrary, everyone in general, even those who have barely heard of writers, already has some kind of conviction that a writer is something higher, that he must certainly be noble, that many things are indecent for him, that he should not even allow to oneself what is forgiven to others. In one of our provinces, during the noble elections, one nobleman, who was also a writer, cast his vote in favor of a man whose conscience was somewhat stained - all the nobles turned to him immediately and reproached him, saying reproachfully: “And also a writer!”

XI. DISPUTES

(From a letter to L***)

Disputes about our European and Slavic origins, which, as you say, are already making their way into living rooms, only show that we are beginning to wake up, but are not yet fully awake; and therefore it is not surprising that there is a lot of talk on both sides. All these Slavists and Europeanists, or Old Believers and New Believers, or Easterners and Westerners, but I can’t say what they really are, because for now they seem to me only caricatures of what they want to be - they all talk about two different sides of the same subject, without realizing that they are not arguing or contradicting each other in the least. One has come too close to the building, so that he can see one part of it; the other has moved too far away from him, so that he sees the entire facade, but does not see parts. Of course, there is more truth on the side of the Slavists and Easterners, because they still see the whole facade and, therefore, still talk about the main thing, and not about the parts. But there is also truth on the side of the Euro-ists and Westerners, because they speak in some detail and clearly about the wall that stands before their eyes; Their only fault is that because of the cornice crowning this wall, they cannot see the top of the entire structure, that is, the dome, the dome and everything that is on high. We could advise both - one to try, albeit temporarily, to come closer, and the other to retreat a little further. But they will not agree to this, because the spirit of pride has overcome both of them. Each of them is sure that he is definitively and positively right, and that the other is definitively and positively lying. Puffiness is more on the side of the Slavs: they are boasters; Each of them imagines that he has discovered America, and the grain he finds swells into a turnip. Of course, with such obstinate boasting they arm the Europists even more against themselves, who would have long ago been ready to give up a lot, because they themselves are beginning to hear a lot that they had not heard before, but they persist, not wanting to give in to a person who is too boastful. All these disputes are nothing, if only they remained in living rooms and in magazines. But the bad thing is that two opposing opinions, being in such an immature and uncertain form, are already passing into the heads of many official people. I was told that it happens (especially in those places where position and power are divided in the hands of two) in such a way that at the same time one acts completely in the European spirit, and the other tries to strive decisively in the Old Russian spirit, strengthening all the previous orders, opposite to those that his brother is plotting. And that is why trouble comes to both the affairs and the subordinate officials themselves: they do not know whom to listen to. And since both opinions, despite all their harshness, have not finally decided everything, they say that all sorts of scoundrels take advantage of this. And the rogue now had the opportunity, under the guise of a Slavicist or a Europeanist, depending on what the boss wants, to get a profitable position and perform tricks on it as both a champion of antiquity and a champion of novelty. In general, disputes are things of this kind that smart and elderly people should not pester for the time being. Let the youth shout out loudly first: this is their business. Believe me, it’s already established this way and it is necessary that the leading loudmouths shout out to their hearts’ content then, so that the smart ones can think enough at this time. Listen to disputes, but do not interfere in them. The idea of ​​your essay, which you want to do, is very clever, and I am even sure that you will carry out this task better than any writer. But I ask you one thing: do it in as many minutes as possible, cool and calm. God bless you from passion and fever, even in in the slightest way. Anger is inappropriate everywhere, and most of all in a matter of justice, because it obscures and muddies it. Remember that you are not only a middle-aged person, but even quite advanced in years. The young man still somehow got angry; By at least, in the eyes of some, it gives it some kind of picture-perfect appearance. But if the old man starts to get excited, he becomes simply disgusting; the youth will just pick on him and make him look funny. Be careful that they don’t say about you: “Eh, you nasty old man! I’ve been lying on my side all my life, doing nothing, and now I’ve come out to reproach others for why they’re doing things wrong!” A kind word should come from the mouth of an old man, and not noisy and controversial. The spirit of the purest kindness and meekness should permeate the majestic speeches of the elder, so that the youth would not be able to say anything to object to him, feeling that her speeches would be indecent and that gray hair is already a sacred thing.

XII. THE CHRISTIAN GOES FORWARD

(Letter to Shch.....v)

My friend! consider yourself nothing more than a schoolboy and student. Do not think that you are already too old to learn, that your powers have reached real maturity and development, and that your character and soul have already received their real form and cannot be the best. There is no finished course for a Christian; he is an eternal student and a student to the grave. According to the ordinary, natural course, a person reaches the full development of his mind at thirty years of age. From thirty to forty his forces still somehow advance; Nothing progresses in him beyond this period, and everything he produces is not only no better than before, but even weaker and colder than before. But for a Christian this does not exist, and where for others the limit of perfection is, for him it is just beginning. The most capable and most gifted of people, having passed the age of forty, become dull, tired and weak. Go through all the philosophers and the world's foremost geniuses: best time theirs was only during their full courage; then they gradually lost their minds, and in old age they even relapsed into infancy. Remember Kant, who in recent years became completely unconscious and died like a child. But review the lives of all the saints: you will see that they grew stronger in mind and spiritual strength as they approached decrepitude and death. Even those of them who by nature did not receive any brilliant gifts and were considered simple and stupid all their lives, later amazed them with the intelligence of their speeches. Why is this? Because they always had that striving force that usually happens to every person only in the years of his youth, when he sees in front of him feats for which the reward is universal applause, when he imagines a rainbow-colored distance that has such an allure for the young man. The distance and exploits faded away before him - the striving power also faded away. But before a Christian the distance shines forever, and eternal deeds are seen. He, like a young man, hungers for the battle of life; he has something to fight with and where to struggle, because his view of himself, constantly enlightened, reveals to him new shortcomings in himself, with which he needs to carry out new battles. That is why all his forces not only cannot fall asleep or weaken within him, but are also constantly aroused; and the desire to be the best and to earn applause in heaven gives him such spurs as his most insatiable ambition cannot give to the most ambitious. This is the reason why a Christian then goes forward when others go back, and why he becomes smarter the further he goes.

The mind is not our highest ability. His position is no more than that of a police officer: he can only put in order and put in its place everything that we already have. He himself will not move forward until all the other abilities that make him smarter move in us. Distracted readings, reflections and incessant listening to all courses of science will only make him go too far ahead; sometimes it even suppresses him, interfering with his original development. He is incomparably more dependent on mental states: as soon as passion rages, he suddenly acts blindly and stupidly; if the soul is calm and no passion is boiling, he himself becomes clear and acts wisely. Reason is an incomparably higher ability, but it is acquired only by victory over passions. Only those people who did not neglect their inner education had it in themselves. But the mind does not give a person full opportunity to strive forward. There is still a higher ability; its name is wisdom, and Christ alone can give it to us. It is not given to any of us at birth, it is not natural to any of us, but is a matter of the highest grace of heaven. Anyone who already has both mind and understanding can receive wisdom in no other way than by praying for it day and night, asking God both day and night for it, raising his soul to the level of dove-like kindness and removing everything within himself to the greatest possible purity, so that to accept this heavenly guest who is afraid of dwellings where the spiritual economy has not been put in order and there is no complete agreement in everything. If she enters the house, then heavenly life begins for a person, and he comprehends all the wonderful sweetness of being a student. Everything becomes a teacher for him; the whole world is a teacher for him: the most insignificant of people can be a teacher for him. From the simplest advice he will extract the wisdom of advice; the stupidest subject will become its wise side to him, and the whole universe will become before him like one open book of learning: he will draw more treasures from it than anyone, because he will hear more than anyone that he is a student. .

But if he only imagines for a moment that his teaching is over, and he is no longer a student, and he is offended by anyone’s lesson or teaching, wisdom will suddenly be taken away from him, and he will remain in the dark, like King Solomon in his last days .

XV. SUBJECTS FOR THE LYRIC POET IN THE PRESENT TIME

(Two letters to N.M. I.....y)

Your poem “Earthquake” delighted me. Zhukovsky was also delighted with him. This, in his opinion, is the best not only of yours, but even of all Russian poems. To take an event from the past and bring it to the present - what a smart and rich idea! And the application to the poet, which concludes the ode, is such that each of us, whatever his field, should apply it to himself in this difficult time of the global earthquake, when everything is clouded with fear for the future. Friend! A life-giving spring opens before you. In your words to the poet:

And bring prayers to the trembling people from the heights above! -

the words are for yourself. The secret of your muse is revealed to you. The present time is precisely the field for the lyric poet. You can't gain anything by satire; a simple picture of reality, looked back through the eyes of a modern secular person, will not wake anyone up: he fell asleep like a hero present century. No, find in a past event something similar to the present one, make it appear brightly and strike it in the sight of everyone, just as it was struck by the wrath of God in its time; strike the present in the past, and your word will be clothed with double power: the past will come out alive through it and the present will scream with a cry. Open the book of the Old Testament: you will find each of the current events there, you will see as clearly as day in what way it transgressed before God, and the Last Judgment of God that took place over it is so clearly depicted that the present will awaken. You have the tools and means for this: in your verse there is power, both reproaching and uplifting. Both are exactly what is needed now. Some need to be raised, others need to be reproached: to raise those who are confused by the fears and outrages surrounding them; reproach those who, in holy moments of heavenly wrath and suffering everywhere, dare to indulge in a riot of all sorts of cavorting and shameful rejoicing. It is necessary that your poems become in the eyes of everyone like the letters written in the air that appeared at Belshazzar’s feast, from which everyone was horrified even before their very meaning could penetrate. And if you want to be even more understandable to everyone, then, having gained the biblical spirit, descend with it, like a torch, into the depths of Russian antiquity and in it strike the shame of the present time and at the same time deepen deeper into us that which will make the shame even more shameful our. Your verse will not be sluggish, do not be afraid; the old man will give you colors and just by himself will inspire you! She is alive and moving in our chronicles. The other day I came across a book: “Royal Exits.” It seemed that it could be more boring, but even here the words and names of royal decorations, expensive fabrics and stones are real treasures for the poet; every word fits into verse. You marvel at the preciousness of our language: every sound is a gift; everything is grainy, large, like the pearl itself, and, truly, another name is even more precious than the thing itself. Yes, if you only remove your verse with such words, you will completely take the reader into the past. After reading three pages from this book, I saw everywhere the king of ancient, former times, reverently walking to vespers in his ancient royal attire.

I am writing to you under the influence of the same poem of yours: “Earthquake.” For God's sake, don't abandon what you started! Re-read the Bible strictly, absorb Russian antiquity and, in their light, take a closer look at the present time. There are many, many objects ahead of you, and it would be a shame for you not to see them. It was not for nothing that Zhukovsky hitherto called your poetry delight, not directed anywhere. It’s a shame to waste lyrical power in the form of blank shots into the air, when it was given to you to blow up stones and move cliffs. Look around: everything is now an object for a lyric poet; every person demands a lyrical appeal to him; Everywhere you turn, you see that you need to either reproach or refresh someone.

First of all, reproach smart but despondent people with a strong lyrical reproach. You will get them through if you show them the matter in its present form, that is, that a person who has given himself over to despondency is rubbish in all respects, whatever the reasons for despondency, because despondency is cursed by God. You will lead a truly Russian man into battle even against despondency, you will raise him above fear and vibrations of the earth, as you raised the poet in his “Earthquake.”

Call, in the form of a lyrical strong appeal, to a beautiful but dormant person. Throw him a board from the shore and shout at the top of your voice to save your poor soul: he is already far from the shore, the insignificant top of the world is already carrying him and carrying him, carrying dinners, the feet of dancers, daily sleepy intoxication; He insensitively puts on flesh and has become all flesh, and there is almost no soul in him. Scream and show him the witch of old age, coming towards him, who is all made of iron, before whom iron is mercy, who does not give back a crumb of feeling back and forth. Oh, if you could tell him what my Plyushkin has to say if I get to the third volume of Dead Souls!

In an angry dithyramb, disgrace the newest covetous of these times and his damned luxury, and his vile wife, who destroyed both herself and her husband with dandy and rags, and the despicable threshold of their rich house, and the vile air that they breathe there, so that, like the plague, from They all ran away at a run and without looking back.

Exalt in a solemn hymn the unnoticed worker, who, to the honor of the high breed of Russian, are among the bravest bribe-takers who do not take even when everything around them takes. Exalt him, his family, and his noble wife, who would rather wear an old-fashioned cap and become the subject of others’ ridicule than allow her husband to commit injustice and meanness. Display their beautiful poverty so that, like a shrine, it shines before everyone’s eyes and each of them would want to be poor themselves.

Please with a hymn that giant who emerges only from the Russian land, who suddenly awakens from a shameful sleep, suddenly becomes different; spitting in front of everyone on his abomination and most vile vices, he becomes the first warrior of good. Show how this heroic deed is accomplished in a truly Russian soul; but show it in such a way that the Russian nature in everyone will involuntarily tremble and so that everyone, even in the rude and lower class, will cry out: “Eh, well done!” - feeling that such a thing was possible for him too.

There are many, many subjects for a lyric poet that cannot be contained in a book, not just in a letter. Anything true Russian feeling it stalls and there is no one to call it! Our prowess is dormant, our determination and courage to do something is dormant, our strength and strength are dormant, our mind is dormant among the sluggish and feminine social life, which was instilled in us, under the name of enlightenment, empty and petty innovations. Shake the sleep from your eyes and strike the sleep of others. Kneel before God and ask Him for Wrath and Love! Anger - against what destroys a person, love - for the poor soul of a person, which is being destroyed from all sides and which he himself is destroying. You will find words, there will be expressions, lights, not words, will fly from you, as from the ancient prophets, if only, like them, you make this matter your dear and dear cause, if only, like them, sprinkle ashes on your head, unwind your vestments, and sob You will ask God for the strength to do this and you will love the salvation of your land as much as they loved the salvation of God’s chosen people.

XVII. EDUCATION

(Letter to V.A. Zh.......mu)

Once again I am writing to you from the road. Brother, thank you for everything! I will ask the Lord from the Sepulcher to help me give you at least part of the intelligent goodness that you endowed me with. Believe, and let not your heart be troubled! You will come to Moscow as if you were visiting your own family. It will appear to you as a welcome haven, and you will feel more at ease in it than here. Neither the empty noise of the bustle, nor the thunder of the carriage will disturb you: they will carefully drive around the street in which you will live. If anyone comes to visit you, whether your old friend or a previously stranger, he will ask you not to give him a visit, fearing that even a minute of your time will be lost. We know how and even know how to honor someone who has done his whole job. Who so impeccably, so honestly used all his gifts, not allowing his abilities to slumber, not being lazy for a minute throughout his life, who preserved the freshness of his old age, as if youth, while everyone around him wasted it on empty temptations and when the young turned into frail old men, he has the right to reverent attention. As a patriarch you will be in Moscow, and young men will accept your old words from you as worth their weight in gold. Your “Odyssey” will bring a lot of good to everyone, I predict that. It will bring you back to freshness modern man, tired of the chaos of life and thoughts; she will renew in his eyes a lot of what he has abandoned as old and unnecessary for everyday life; she will return him to simplicity. But not less good, if not more, will bring those works that God Himself led you to and which you keep under wraps as long as you reasonably do. There will also be a general need for them. Don’t be embarrassed and look forward firmly! Let no discord in whatever you encounter frighten you. There is a reconciler of everything within our land itself, which is not yet visible to everyone - our Church. She is already preparing to suddenly enter into full rights yours and shine with light throughout the whole earth. It contains everything that is needed for a truly Russian life, in all its relations, from the state to the simple family, the mood for everything, the direction for everything, the right path for everything. To me, the idea of ​​introducing some kind of innovation into Russia, bypassing our Church, without asking her blessing for it, is also insane. It is absurd even to instill any European ideas into our thoughts until she christens them with the light of Christ. You will see how suddenly, and in your own eyes, this will be recognized by everyone in Russia, both believers and non-believers, how our Church will suddenly emerge as recognized by everyone. It was the will of Providence that incomprehensible blindness would fall on the eyes of many. When I closely examine the thread of events in the world, I see all the wisdom of God, which allowed the temporary division of the Churches, commanded one to stand motionless and, as it were, away from people, and the other to worry along with people; one - not to accept any innovations, except those that were introduced by the holy people of the best times of Christianity and the original fathers of the Church, the other - changing and applying to all the circumstances of the time, the spirit and habits of people, to introduce all innovations made even by vicious unholy bishops; one - for a time, as it were, to die for the world, the other - for a time, as it were, to take possession of the whole world; one - like the modest Mary, having put aside all worries about earthly things, to sit at the feet of the Lord Himself, in order to better listen to His words before applying and passing them on to people, the other - like the caring housewife Martha, hospitably fuss around people, passing on more to them. the words of the Lord not weighed by all reason. The good part was chosen first, because it listened to the words of the Lord for so long, enduring the reproaches of its short-sighted sister, who already dared to call her a dead corpse and even lost and apostate from the Lord. It is not easy to apply the Word of Christ to people, and she should first have been deeply imbued with it herself. But in our Church everything that is needed for the now awakening society has been preserved. It was the helm and helm of the coming new order of things, and the more I enter into it with my heart, mind and thoughts, the more I am amazed at the wonderful possibility of reconciling those contradictions that the Western Church is now unable to reconcile. The Western Church was still sufficient for the former simple order, it could still somehow govern the world and reconcile it with Christ in the name of the one-sided and incomplete development of humanity. Now, when humanity has begun to reach its fullest development in all its powers, in all its properties, both good and bad, it only pushes it away from Christ: the more it bothers about reconciliation, the more it brings discord, being unable to illuminate with a narrow light every present object from all its sides. Everyone admits that by this very introduction of many human decrees, made by bishops who have not yet reached the holiness of their lives to the full and multifaceted Christian wisdom, she has narrowed her view of life and the world and cannot embrace them. A complete and comprehensive view of life remained in its Eastern half, apparently saved for the later and complete education of man. It contains space not only for the soul and heart of a person, but also for the mind, in all its supreme powers; in it is the road and the path, how to direct everything in a person into one consonant hymn to the Supreme Being. Friend, don't be embarrassed by anything! If the current circumstances were sevenfold more complicated, our Church would reconcile and unravel everything. By some unknown instinct, even our secular people, jostling among us, begin to hear that there is some treasure from which salvation is among us and which we do not see. The treasure will shine, and its shine will shine on everything. And the time is near. We now repeat the word “enlightenment” even more meaninglessly. They didn’t even think about where this word came from and what it means. This word is not in any language, it is only in ours. To enlighten does not mean to teach, or instruct, or educate, or even illuminate, but to completely illuminate a person in all his powers, and not in just his mind, to carry his entire nature through some kind of purifying fire. This word is taken from our Church, which has been pronouncing it for almost a thousand years, despite all the darkness and ignorant darkness that has surrounded it everywhere, and knows why it is saying it. It is not for nothing that the bishop, in his solemn service, raising in both hands both the three-candle, signifying the Trinity of God, and the two-candle, signifying His Word descending to earth in His dual nature, both Divine and human, illuminates everyone with them, saying: “The Light of Christ illuminates everyone! » It is not for nothing that in another place of the service the words thunder fragmentarily, as if from Heaven, out loud to everyone: “The light of enlightenment!” - and nothing more is added to them.

XIX. YOU NEED TO LOVE RUSSIA
(From a letter to gr. A.P.T.....mu)

Without love for God, no one can be saved, but you do not have love for God. You won’t find her in the monastery; Only those who have already been called there by God Himself go to the monastery. Without the will of God it is impossible to love Him. And how can one love Him Whom no one has seen? With what prayers and efforts can I beg this love from Him? Look how many kind and wonderful people there are now in the world who eagerly strive for this love and hear only callousness and cold emptiness in their souls. It's hard to love someone whom no one has seen. Christ alone brought and told us the secret that in love for our brothers we receive love for God. One has only to love them as Christ commanded, and in the end love for God Himself will come naturally. Go into the world and first acquire love for your brothers.

But how to love brothers, how to love people? The soul wants to love only the beautiful, but poor people are so imperfect and have so little beauty in them! How to do this? Thank God first of all for the fact that you are Russian. For the Russian this path is now opening, and this path is Russia itself. If only a Russian loves Russia, he will love everything that is in Russia. God Himself is now leading us to this love. Without the illnesses and suffering that had accumulated in such abundance inside her and which were our own fault, none of us would have felt compassion for her. And compassion is already the beginning of love. Already the cries against outrages, lies and bribes are not just the indignation of the noble against the dishonest, but the cry of the whole earth, which heard that foreign enemies had invaded in countless numbers, scattered to their homes and imposed a heavy yoke on every person; Even those who voluntarily accepted these terrible spiritual enemies into their homes want to free themselves from them, and do not know how to do this, and everything merges into one stunning cry, even the insensitive ones are already moving forward. But direct love has not yet been heard in anyone, and you don’t have it either. You don’t yet love Russia: you only know how to be sad and irritated by rumors about everything bad that happens in it, all this produces in you only callous annoyance and despondency. No, this is not love yet, you are far from love, this is perhaps just one too distant harbinger of it. No, if you really love Russia, then by itself that short-sighted thought that has now arisen in many honest and even very intelligent people will disappear in you, that is, that at the present time they can no longer do anything for Russia and that they are already not needed at all; on the contrary, only then will you feel with all your strength that love is omnipotent and that you can do anything with it. No, if you really love Russia, you will be eager to serve her; You will not go to governor, but to police captain; you will take the last place that you find in it, preferring one grain of activity on it to your entire present, inactive and idle life. No, you don't love Russia yet. And if you don’t love Russia, you won’t love your brothers, and if you don’t love your brothers, you won’t be kindled with love for God, and if you don’t kindle with love for God, you won’t be saved.

XXIX. WHOSE PLACE ON EARTH IS HIGHER
(From a letter to U.........mu)

I just can’t tell you whose lot on earth is higher and who is destined for a better fate. Before, when I was stupider, I preferred one title to another, but now I see that everyone’s fate is equally enviable. Everyone will receive an equal reward - both the one who was entrusted with one talent and brought another, and the one who was given five talents and who brought another five for them. Even, I think, the fate of the former is even better, precisely because he did not enjoy fame on earth and did not taste the charming drink of earthly glory, like the latter. Wonderful is the mercy of God, which determines equal reward for everyone who honestly fulfills his duty, whether he is a king or the last beggar. They will all be equal there, because they will all enter into the joy of their Master and will abide equally in God. Of course, Christ Himself said in another place: “In My Father’s house are many mansions”; but as I think about these abodes, as I think about the fact that God should have abodes, I cannot restrain myself from tears and I know that I would never have decided which one to choose for myself, if only I had really been awarded the Kingdom of Heaven and was asked: “Which one do you want?” I only know that I would say: “The last one, Lord, but if only it was in Your house!” It seems that I would like nothing more than to serve those chosen ones who have already been worthy to contemplate His glory in all its greatness. If only I could lie at their feet and kiss their holy feet!

The idea of ​​the book dates back to the spring of 1845, to the period of a protracted attack of illness and mental depression of the writer. From the preface we learn that, being near death, he wrote a will, which is part I of the book. The will does not contain any personal, family details, it consists of an intimate conversation between the author and Russia, i.e. the author speaks and punishes, and Russia listens to him and promises to fulfill it. The testament was permeated with religious and mystical sentiments, and the pretentious preaching tone of the address to compatriots corresponded to the general pathos and ideological concept of “Selected Places.” The preface and testament are followed by letters. In these letters, the author portrays himself as having regained his sight as a result of his illness, filled with the spirit of love, meekness and especially humility...

Their content corresponds to this spirit: these are not letters, but rather strict and sometimes threatening admonitions from the teacher to his students... He teaches, instructs, advises, reproaches, forgives, etc. Everyone turns to him with questions, and he leaves no one unanswered. He himself says: “Everything, by some instinct, turned to me, demanding help and advice: “Recently I have even happened to receive letters from people almost completely unfamiliar to me, and give answers to them that I would not have been able to give before.” . And by the way, I’m no smarter than anyone.”

He himself recognizes himself as something like a rural priest or even the pope of his Catholic world. In his book, he argued that the Orthodox Church and the Russian clergy are one of the saving principles not only for Russia, but also for Europe. He even began to say about the Russian autocracy that it had a national character. He began to justify the enslavement of the peasants. The release of “Selected Places...” brought upon its author a real critical storm.

The book was subjected to sharp and fundamental criticism by Belinsky in a review by Sovremennik and especially in a letter to Gogol dated July 15, 1847. from Salzburg. The advice and teachings of the “Correspondence” were so far in content from what Gogol’s previous creations conveyed, and Belinsky immediately responded to them. He publishes an article in Sovremennik about “Selected Places” immediately after the book’s publication, almost hastily, feeling the need to immediately respond to its author. Belinsky finds Gogol’s self-flagellation, calling all his previous works “rash and immature,” unforgivable; in the mouth of the author of “The Inspector General”, the naive assurances that bribery in Russia would have decreased if the wives of officials had not vied with each other to shine in the world are ridiculous. The advice “concerning village court and reprisals” and attempts to teach the landowner to swear with men for “educational” purposes look wild.” "What it is? Where are we?" - Belinsky asks, and it seems that these cries of despair forced Gogol to object to Belinsky in a letter written (June 20, 1847 and which provoked Belinsky’s response.

The letter to Gogol occupies a very special place in Belinsky’s legacy, and in the entire history of Russian social thought. Since the letter was not intended for publication, the critic could speak with complete frankness. Belinsky appears in it preaching the need for Russia to abolish serfdom and autocracy, for the education of the people. He rejects Gogol's view of the Russian people as a fundamentally religious people and ridicules the belief in the salvific and educational role of the clergy. At the risk of increasing Gogol’s dislike for him and not knowing how deep the roots of the main ideas of the “Correspondence” are, Belinsky tries to return Gogol to his previous path. “Letter to Gogol” was Belinsky’s true political and literary testament. In it, with a certain clarity and frankness, with withering passion and the deepest lyricism, he developed his views on the historical destinies of the Russian people and literature, on serfdom and religion. “Here we are talking,” he wrote, “not about my or your personality, but about an object that is much higher not only than me, but even you, here we are talking about truth, about Russian society, about Russia.” Belinsky emphasizes that the future of Russia, the fate of the Russian people, lies in resolving urgent issues related to the fight against serfdom. “The most lively, modern national issues in Russia now: the abolition of serfdom, the abolition of corporal punishment, etc.”

In a response letter to Belinsky, partially admitting the failure of his book, for his part he reproached the critic for being one-sided and intransigent to other people’s opinions, for ignoring religious and moral issues. It seems to Gogol that his mistake was not in the direction of the book itself, but in the fact that he was in a hurry to publish it, was not ready for this task and therefore wrote a lot of it hastily, not deeply and thoughtfully enough, and wants to understand the mistakes he made. In the author’s confession, Gogol says: “And what is most remarkable, which has not happened, perhaps, before in any literature, the subject of discussion and criticism was not the book, but the author. Every word was examined with suspicion and distrust, and everyone vying with each other hurried to declare the source from which it came. Over the living body of a still living person, that terrible anatomy was performed, from which it throws you into a cold sweat... Never before have I neglected advice, opinions, judgments and reproaches, becoming more and more convinced that if only you destroy in yourself those ticklish strings that capable of becoming irritated and angry...

As a result, I heard three different opinions: first, that the book is a work of unheard-of pride of a man who imagines that he has become higher than all his readers, has the right to the attention of all of Russia and can transform an entire society; secondly, that this book is the creation of a good man, but one who has fallen into delusion and seduction, who has become dizzy from praise, from self-indulgence in his merits; third, that the book is the work of a Christian, looking at things from the right point of view and putting every thing in its rightful place... They began to say almost to the author’s face that he had gone crazy, that there was nothing new in his book, what was new in it , then false. Be that as it may, it contains my own confession; in it there is an outpouring of both my soul and heart. But, despite the “Correspondence,” Gogol remained for Belinsky a great Russian realist, who, together with Pushkin and Griboedov, put an end to the “false manner of depicting Russian reality.”

GOGOL Nikolai Vasilievich, Russian writer.
Gogol's literary fame was brought to him by the collection "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" (1831-1832), rich in Ukrainian ethnographic material, romantic moods, lyricism and humor. The stories from the collections “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques” (both 1835) open the realistic period of Gogol’s work. The theme of humiliation" little man" was most fully embodied in the story "The Overcoat" (1842), with which the formation of natural school. Grotesque beginning" Petersburg stories"("The Nose", "Portrait") was developed in the comedy "The Inspector General" (production 1836) as a phantasmagoria of the bureaucratic and bureaucratic world. In the poem-novel " Dead Souls"(1st volume - 1842) the satirical ridicule of landowner Russia was combined with the pathos of the spiritual transformation of man. The religious and journalistic book "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends" (1847) evoked a critical letter from V. G. Belinsky. In 1852, Gogol burned the manuscript the second volume of Dead Souls, Gogol had a decisive influence on the establishment of humanistic and democratic principles in Russian literature.

Family. Childhood
The future classic of Russian literature came from a middle-income landowner family: the Gogols had about 400 serfs and over 1000 acres of land. The writer's ancestors on his father's side were hereditary priests, but the writer's grandfather Afanasy Demyanovich left the spiritual career and entered service in the hetman's office; It was he who added another one to his surname Yanovsky - Gogol, which was supposed to demonstrate the origin of the family from Colonel Evstafy (Ostap) Gogol, famous in Ukrainian history of the 17th century (this fact does not find sufficient confirmation). Father, Vasily Afanasyevich, served at the Little Russian Post Office. Mother, Marya Ivanovna, who came from the landowner Kosyarovsky family, was known as the first beauty in the Poltava region; She married Vasily Afanasyevich at the age of fourteen. In addition to Nikolai, the family had five more children. The future writer spent his childhood years in his native estate Vasilyevka (another name is Yanovshchina), visiting with his parents the surrounding places - Dikanka, which belonged to the Minister of Internal Affairs V.P. Kochubey, Obukhovka, where the writer V.V. Kapnist lived, but especially often in Kibintsy, the estate of a former minister, a distant relative of Gogol on his mother’s side - D. P. Troshchinsky. With the Kibins, where there was an extensive library and home theater, the early artistic experiences of the future writer are connected. Another source of the boy’s strong impressions were historical legends and biblical stories, in particular, the prophecy told by his mother about the Last Judgment with a reminder of the inevitable punishment of sinners. Since then, Gogol, in the words of researcher K.V. Mochulsky, has constantly lived “under the terror of retribution from beyond the grave.”
“I started thinking about the future early...” Years of study. Moving to St. Petersburg
At first, Nikolai studied at the Poltava district school (1818-1819), then took private lessons from the Poltava teacher Gabriel Sorochinsky, living in his apartment, and in May 1821 he entered the newly founded Nizhyn Gymnasium of Higher Sciences. Gogol was a fairly average student, but excelled in the gymnasium theater as an actor and decorator. The first literary experiments in poetry and prose belong to the gymnasium period, mainly “in the lyrical and serious kind,” but also in a comic spirit, for example, the satire “Something about Nezhin, or the law is not written for fools” (not preserved). Most of all, however, Gogol was occupied at this time by the thought of public service in the field of justice; This decision arose not without the influence of Professor N. G. Belousov, who taught natural law and was subsequently dismissed from the gymnasium on charges of “freethinking” (during the investigation, Gogol testified in his favor).
After graduating from the gymnasium, Gogol in December 1828, together with one of his closest friends A. S. Danilevsky, came to St. Petersburg, where he was met with a series of blows and disappointments: he failed to get the desired place; the poem "Hanz Küchelgarten", written, obviously, while still in high school and published in 1829 (under the pseudonym V. Alov), meets with murderous responses from reviewers (Gogol immediately buys up almost the entire circulation of the book and sets it on fire); to this, perhaps, were added the love experiences that he spoke about in a letter to his mother (dated July 24, 1829). All this makes Gogol suddenly leave St. Petersburg for Germany.
Upon returning to Russia (in September of the same year), Gogol finally managed to decide on a service - first in the Department of State Economy and Public Buildings, and then in the Department of Appanages. Official activity does not bring Gogol satisfaction; but his new publications (the story “Bisavryuk, or the Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, articles and essays) are paying more and more attention to him. The writer makes extensive literary acquaintances, in particular, with V. A. Zhukovsky, P. A. Pletnev, who introduced Gogol to A. S. Pushkin at his home in May 1831 (apparently the 20th).

"Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"
In the autumn of the same year, the 1st part of the collection of stories from Ukrainian life “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” was published (the 2nd part appeared the following year), enthusiastically received by Pushkin: “This is real gaiety, sincere, relaxed, without affectation, without primness . And in places what poetry!...". At the same time, the “gaiety” of Gogol’s book revealed various shades - from carefree banter to dark comedy, close to black humor. Despite the completeness and sincerity of the feelings of Gogol’s characters, the world in which they live is tragically conflicted: natural and family ties are dissolved, mysterious unreal forces invade the natural order of things (the fantastic is based mainly on folk demonology). Already in “Evenings...” Gogol’s extraordinary art of creating an integral, complete artistic cosmos that lives according to its own laws was revealed.
After the publication of his first prose book, Gogol became a famous writer. In the summer of 1832 he was enthusiastically greeted in Moscow, where he met M. P. Pogodin, S. T. Aksakov and his family, M. S. Shchepkin and others. Gogol's next trip to Moscow, equally successful, took place in the summer of 1835. By the end of this year, he left the field of pedagogy (from the summer of 1834 he held the position of associate professor of general history at St. Petersburg University) and devoted himself entirely to literary work.

"Mirgorodsky" and "Petersburg" cycles. "Inspector"
The year 1835 is unusual in the creative intensity and breadth of Gogol's plans. This year the next two collections of prose works are published - "Arabesques" and "Mirgorod" (both in two parts); work began on the poem "Dead Souls", the comedy "The Inspector General" was mostly completed, the first edition of the comedy "Grooms" (the future "Marriage") was written. Reporting on the writer’s new creations, including the upcoming premiere of “The Inspector General” at the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater (April 19, 1836), Pushkin noted in his “Contemporary”: “Mr. Gogol is moving forward. We wish and hope to have frequent opportunities to speak about him in our magazine." By the way, Gogol actively published in Pushkin’s magazine, in particular as a critic (article “On the movement of magazine literature in 1834 and 1835”).
"Mirgorod" and "Arabesque" marked new artistic worlds on the map of Gogol's universe. Thematically close to "Evenings..." ("Little Russian" life), the Mirgorod cycle, which united the stories "Old World Landowners", "Taras Bulba", "Viy", "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", reveals a sharp change in perspective and pictorial scale: instead of strong and sharp characteristics - the vulgarity and facelessness of ordinary people; instead of poetic and deep feelings - sluggish, almost reflexive movements. Ordinariness modern life was set off by the colorfulness and extravagance of the past, but deep internal conflict was all the more strikingly manifested in it, in this past (for example, in “Taras Bulba” - the clash of an individualizing love feeling with communal interests). The world of the “St. Petersburg stories” from “Arabesques” (“Nevsky Prospekt”, “Notes of a Madman”, “Portrait”; they are joined by “The Nose” and “Overcoat” published later, in 1836 and 1842, respectively) - this is the world modern city with its acute social and ethical conflicts, character fractures, and an alarming and ghostly atmosphere. Gogol's generalization reaches its highest degree in "The Inspector General", in which the "prefabricated city" seemed to imitate the life activity of any larger social association, up to the state, Russian Empire, or even humanity as a whole. Instead of the traditional active engine of intrigue - a rogue or an adventurer - an involuntary deceiver (the imaginary inspector Khlestakov) was placed at the epicenter of the collision, which gave everything that happened an additional, grotesque illumination, enhanced to the limit by the final “silent scene”. Freed from the specific details of the “punishment of vice”, conveying first of all the very effect of general shock (which was emphasized by the symbolic duration of the moment of petrification), this scene opened up the possibility of a variety of interpretations, including the eschatological one - as a reminder of the inevitable Last Judgment.

main book
In June 1836, Gogol (again together with Danilevsky) went abroad, where he spent a total of more than 12 years, not counting two visits to Russia - in 1839-40 and 1841-42. The writer lived in Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, the Czech Republic, but most of all in Italy, continuing work on “Dead Souls,” the plot of which (like “The Inspector General”) was suggested to him by Pushkin. The generality of scale characteristic of Gogol now received spatial expression: as the Chichikov scam (purchase of the “revision souls” of dead people) developed, Russian life was to reveal itself in a variety of ways - not only from the “lowest ranks”, but also in higher, more significant manifestations. At the same time, the full depth of the key motif of the poem was revealed: the concept of “dead soul” and the resulting antithesis “alive” - “dead” from the sphere of concrete word usage (dead peasant, “revision soul”) moved into the sphere of figurative and symbolic semantics. There was a problem of death and revival human soul, and in connection with this - society as a whole, the Russian world first of all, but through it all modern humanity. Associated with the complexity of the design genre specificity“Dead Souls” (the designation “poem” indicated the symbolic meaning of the work, the special role of the narrator and the positive ideal of the author).

The second volume of "Dead Souls". "Selected passages from correspondence with friends"
After the release of the first volume (1842), work on the second volume (started back in 1840) was especially intense and painful. In the summer of 1845 in heavy state of mind Gogol burns the manuscript of this volume, explaining his later decision precisely by the fact that the “paths and roads” to the ideal, the revival of the human spirit, did not receive sufficiently truthful and convincing expression. As if compensating for the long-promised second volume and anticipating the general movement of the meaning of the poem, Gogol in “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” (1847) turned to a more direct, journalistic explanation of his ideas. The need for internal Christian education and re-education of each and every person was emphasized with particular force in this book, without which no social improvements are possible. At the same time, Gogol was also working on works of a theological nature, the most significant of which was “Reflections on the Divine Liturgy” (published posthumously in 1857).
In April 1848, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to the Holy Sepulcher, Gogol finally returned to his homeland. He spent many months of 1848 and 1850-51 in Odessa and Little Russia, in the fall of 1848 he visited St. Petersburg, in 1850 and 1851 he visited Optina Pustyn, but most currently lives in Moscow.
By the beginning of 1852, the edition of the second volume was re-created, chapters from which Gogol read to his closest friends - A. O. Smirnova-Rosset, S. P. Shevyrev, M. P. Pogodin, S. T. Aksakov and members of his family and others . The Rzhev archpriest Father Matvey (Konstantinovsky), whose preaching of rigorism and tireless moral self-improvement largely determined Gogol’s mentality in the last period of his life, disapproved of the work.
On the night of February 11-12, in the house on Nikitsky Boulevard, where Gogol lived with Count A.P. Tolstoy, in a state of deep mental crisis, the writer burns the new edition of the second volume. A few days later, on the morning of February 21, he dies.
The writer's funeral took place with a huge crowd of people at the cemetery of the St. Daniel's Monastery (in 1931 Gogol's remains were reburied at Novodevichy Cemetery).

"Four-Dimensional Prose"
From a historical perspective, Gogol's creativity was revealed gradually, revealing its deeper and deeper levels with the passage of time. For his immediate successors, representatives of the so-called natural school, social motives, the removal of all prohibitions on the topic and material, everyday concreteness, as well as humanistic pathos in the depiction of the “little man” were of paramount importance. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Christian philosophical and moral problematics of Gogol’s works were revealed with particular force; subsequently, the perception of Gogol’s work was supplemented by a sense of the special complexity and irrationality of his artistic world and the visionary courage and unconventionality of his pictorial manner. “Gogol’s prose is at least four-dimensional. He can be compared with his contemporary, the mathematician Lobachevsky, who blew up the Euclidean world...” (V. Nabokov). All this determined the enormous and ever-increasing role of Gogol in modern world culture.

In the minds of most of his contemporaries, Gogol was a classic figure of a satirical writer - an exposer of human and social vices, a brilliant humorist, and finally, simply a comic writer who entertained and amused the public. He himself was bitterly aware of this and wrote in “The Author's Confession” (1847) : “I didn’t know then that my name was being used only to reproach each other and laugh at each other.”

Contemporaries never recognized another Gogol - an ascetic writer, a successor of the patristic tradition in Russian literature, a religious thinker and publicist, and an author of prayers. With the exception of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” published with significant censorship exceptions and misperceived by most readers, Gogol’s spiritual prose remained unpublished during his lifetime. True, subsequent generations were already able to get acquainted with it, and by the beginning of the 20th century, Gogol’s literary appearance was to some extent restored. But here another extreme arose, religious-mystical, “neo-Christian” criticism of the turn of the century and most of all famous book D. S. Merezhkovsky “Gogol. Creativity, Life and Religion" built Gogol's spiritual path according to their own standards, portraying him as an almost morbid fanatic, a mystic with a medieval consciousness, a lonely fighter against evil spirits, and most importantly - completely divorced from the Orthodox Church and even opposed to it - which is why the image of the writer appeared in a bright, but completely distorted form.

The reader - our contemporary - in his ideas about Gogol is thrown back a century and a half: he again knows only Gogol the satirist, the author of "The Inspector General", "Dead Souls" and the "tendentious" book "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends." Gogol's spiritual prose practically does not exist for our contemporaries; partly they are in an even sadder position than the writer’s contemporaries: they could judge him on their own, and the current public opinion about Gogol is imposed - by numerous articles, scientific monographs and teaching in schools and universities. Meanwhile, it is impossible to understand and appreciate Gogol’s work as a whole outside of spiritual categories.

Gogol's genius still remains completely unknown not only to the general reader, but also to literary criticism, which in its current form is simply unable to comprehend the fate of the writer and his mature prose. This can only be done by a deep connoisseur of both Gogol’s work and patristic literature - and certainly one who is in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, living church life. We dare to say that we do not yet have such a researcher. We do not undertake this task either: this article is just an attempt to outline milestones spiritual path Gogol.

In Gogol's letters from the early forties one can find hints of an event that, as he later said, “made a significant revolution in the work of creativity” for him. In the summer of 1840, he experienced an illness, but rather not a physical one, but a mental one. Experiencing severe attacks of “nervous disorder” and “painful melancholy” and not hoping for recovery, he even wrote a spiritual will. According to S.T. Aksakov, Gogol had “visions” about which he told N.P., who was caring for him at that time. Botkin (brother of the critic V.P. Botkin). Then came the “resurrection”, “miraculous healing”, and Gogol believed that his life was “necessary and would not be useless.” opened up to him new way. “From here,” writes S.T. Aksakov, “begins Gogol’s constant desire to improve the spiritual person in himself and the predominance of the religious direction, which subsequently reached, in my opinion, such a high mood that is no longer compatible with the physical shell of a person.”

P.V. also testifies to the turning point in Gogol’s views. Annenkov, who states in his memoirs: “A great mistake will be made by the one who confuses Gogol of the last period with the one who then began life in St. Petersburg, and decides to apply to the young Gogol moral traits, developed much later, already when an important revolution in its existence took place.” Annenkov dates the beginning of Gogol’s “last period” to the time when they lived together in Rome: “In the summer of 1841, when I met Gogol, he stood at the turn of a new direction, belonging to two different worlds.”

Annenkov's judgment about the sharpness of the turning point is hardly fair: in the 1840s, Gogol's spiritual aspiration only became clearer and acquired specific life forms. Gogol himself always emphasized the integrity and immutability of his path and inner world. In “The Author's Confession,” he wrote, responding to the reproaches of critics who claimed that in “Selected Places...” he betrayed his purpose and invaded boundaries alien to him: “I did not stray from my path. I walked the same road"<…>- and I came to the One who is the source of life.” In the article “A few words about the biography of Gogol,” S.T. Aksakov authoritatively testifies: “Let them not think that Gogol changed his beliefs; on the contrary, from his youth he remained faithful to them. But Gogol constantly moved forward; his Christianity became purer, stricter; the high significance of the writer’s goal is clearer and the judgment on himself is more severe.”

Gogol gradually develops ascetic aspirations and the Christian ideal emerges more and more clearly. Back in April 1840, he wrote to N.D. Belozersky: “Now I am more suited for a monastery than for a secular life.” And in February 1842 he confessed to N.M. Yazykov: “I need solitude, decisive solitude<…>I was not born for worries and I feel every day and hour that there is no higher destiny in the world than the title of monk.” However, Gogol's monastic ideal has a special appearance. We are talking about purifying not only the soul, but also artistic talent along with it. At the beginning of 1842, he planned a trip to Jerusalem and received the blessing for this of His Eminence Innokenty (Borisov), a famous preacher and spiritual writer, at that time the Bishop of Kharkov. S. T. Aksakov talks about it this way: “Suddenly Gogol enters with the image of the Savior in his hands and a radiant, enlightened face. I have never seen such an expression in his eyes. Gogol said: “I kept waiting for someone to bless me with an image, and no one did it; Finally, Innocent blessed me. Now I can announce where I am going: to the Holy Sepulcher.” Gogol never parted with this image, and after his death it was kept by Anna Vasilyevna Gogol, the writer’s sister.

When Aksakov’s wife, Olga Semyonovna, said that she now expected him to describe Palestine, Gogol replied: “Yes, I will describe it to you, but for that I need to cleanse myself and be worthy.” Continuation literary work he now cannot think without first renewing his soul: “My soul must be purer than the mountain snow and brighter than the heavens, and only then will I have the strength to begin exploits and great endeavors, then only will the mystery of my existence be resolved” (from a letter to V.A. Zhukovsky , June 1842).

An indirect reflection of Gogol’s spiritual life of this time can be found in the second edition of the story “Portrait”. The artist who created the portrait of the moneylender decides to leave the world and becomes a monk. Having purified himself by the ascetic life of a hermit, he returns to creativity and paints a picture that amazes viewers with the holiness of what is depicted. At the end of the story, the monk-artist instructs his son: “Save the purity of your soul. He who has talent within himself must have the purest soul of all. Much will be forgiven to another, but it will not be forgiven to him.”

The second edition of “Portrait,” which appeared in 1842, shortly before the release of “Dead Souls,” remained unnoticed by critics, except for Belinsky’s disapproving review. But Shevyrev, who read Gogol’s reworked “Portrait,” wrote to him in March 1843: “You revealed in it the connection between art and religion in a way that it has not been revealed anywhere else.”