Bunin's life path. The creative and life path of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Other biography options

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870 - 1953) - Russian writer and poet. Ivan Bunin was born into a poor noble family on October 10, 1870. Then, in Bunin’s biography, he moved to an estate in the Oryol province near the city of Yelets. Bunin spent his childhood in this very place, among the natural beauty of the fields.

Bunin's primary education was received at home. Bunin's first poems were written at the age of seven. Then the young poet entered the Yelets gymnasium to study. However, he did not finish it when he returned home. Further education in biography

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was obtained thanks to his older brother Julius.

Bunin's poems were first published in 1888. The following year, Bunin moved to Orel, starting to work as a proofreader in a local newspaper. Bunin's poetry, collected in a collection called "Poems", became the first book published. Soon Bunin's work gained fame. Bunin's following poems were published in the collections “Under the Open Air” (1898), “Leaf Fall” (1901).

Meeting the greatest writers (Gorky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc.) leaves a significant imprint on Bunin’s life and work. The best come out

Bunin's stories "Antonov Apples", "Pines". Bunin's prose was published in the Complete Works (1915).

The biography of Ivan Bunin consists almost entirely of relocations and travels (Europe, Asia, Africa). The writer in 1909 became an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences. Having met the revolution abruptly, he leaves Russia forever. In 1933, Bunin’s work “The Life of Arsenyev” received the Nobel Prize.

The main themes and images of poetry. Bunin entered literature through poetry. He said: “I am a poet more than a writer.” However, for Bunin, a poet is a person with a special view of the world. Speaking about his lyrics, we cannot clearly distinguish the themes of his poetry, because Bunin’s poetry and prose seem to go side by side. His lyrics are a collection of subtle thematic facets. In Bunin's poetry one can distinguish such thematic facets as poems about life, about the joy of earthly existence, poems about childhood and youth, about loneliness, and melancholy. That is, Bunin wrote about life, about man, about what touches a person.

One of these facets is poems about the natural world and the human world. The poem “Evening” is written in the genre of a classic sonnet. The human world and the natural world are sung here.

We always only remember about happiness.

And happiness is everywhere. Maybe it's

This autumn garden behind the barn

And clean air flowing through the window.

In the bottomless sky with a light, clean cut

The cloud rises and shines. For a long time

I keep an eye on him... We see and know little.

And happiness is given only to those who know.

The window is open. She squeaked and sat down

There's a bird on the windowsill. And from books

I look away from my tired gaze for a moment.

The day is getting dark, the sky is empty,

The hum of a threshing machine is heard on the threshing floor.

I see, I hear, I am happy. Everything is in me.

This poem says that we chase happiness, look for it, but do not realize that it is around us (“We only remember about happiness...”). People cannot always look at ordinary things with an unusual eye; they don’t notice them, they don’t notice happiness. (“We see little, we know little, and happiness is given only to those who know”). But neither a cloud nor a bird, these everyday things that bring happiness, will escape the poet’s keen eye. Bunin’s formula of happiness is expressed in the last line of the poem: “I see, I hear, I am happy. Everything is in me."

The image of the sky dominates the poem. In Bunin’s lyrics, the sky is the leitmotif, it personifies life, it is extraordinary and eternal (the poem “The Sky Opened”).

In Bunin’s poetry, “star lyrics” are especially emphasized; this is the focus of the themes of the sky, stars, eternity and beauty. He wrote magnificent night, twilight poems, as if filled with shimmer. This can be explained by his special perception of the world. Bunin said: “I will not tire of chanting you, stars.” One of these songs to the stars was the poem “Sirius”. The star Sirius is white, hundred-colored, the brightest star in the night sky. In Ancient Egypt, Sirius was considered a sacred star. This poem intertwines admiration for the beloved star and the philosophical reflections of the lyrical hero. The star is a symbol of fate; it is associated with life, youth, and homeland. Bunin considers the star a philosophical concept, since both man on earth and the star in the sky have a high mission - to serve eternal beauty.

The intimate lyrics of I. A. Bunin are tragic; they contain a protest against the imperfections of the world.

So, the main features of the lyres. Bunin's poetry - aspirations to describe. details, brightness specific details, classic simplicity, laconicism, poeticization of eternal people. values, and first of all, native nature. The richness of subtext, frequent reference to symbolism, close fusion with Russian. prose, in particular with Chekhov's novels; attraction to the philosophical, frequent echoes of one’s own. stories, a tendency towards the philosophical, frequent echoes of his own. stories.

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Composition

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 10 (22), 1870 in Voronezh into the family of Oryol landowners Alexei Nikolaevich and Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Bunin. Four years later, his parents and their children moved to their Ozerki estate on the Butyrki farm in the Yeletsky district of the Oryol province, where the future writer spent his childhood. Bunin received his initial education at home - his teacher was a student at Moscow University. At the age of eleven, the boy entered the first grade of the Yeletsk gymnasium, but in 1886 he was expelled from it for poor academic performance. Bunin spent the next four years on the Ozerki estate. He successfully completed the gymnasium course at home, under the guidance of his beloved older brother Julius. Bunin’s arrival in Kharkov in 1889, where he briefly became close to the populists, was also caused by his affection for his brother. In the fall of the same year, he returned to Orel and collaborated with the newspaper Orlovsky Vestnik.

At the same time, he met Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, whose love left a deep mark on the writer’s work. The young people lived together until 1894, but their civil marriage broke up, V.V. Pashchenko left and soon got married. Bunin had a hard time with the breakup with his beloved, his despair reached the point of thoughts of suicide. This early and such deep suffering did not pass without leaving a mark on his work: every beautiful moment of earthly existence he sang was always filled with both extreme joy and endless torment. Bunin's literary activity began with the publication of poetry. His first collection of poetry was published as a supplement to the Orlovsky Messenger in 1891, and already in 1903 one of the next poetic cycles, Falling Leaves, was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences. By that time, the writer had already gained fame both as the author of stories published in leading Russian magazines and as the translator of “The Song of Hiawatha” by G. Longfellow. The end of the 1890s was marked in Bunin’s life by his friendship with A.P. Chekhov, loyalty to which he carried throughout his entire writing career. In the house of A.P. Chekhov, Bunin met Maxim Gorky, who introduced him to the circle of realist writers grouped under the Znanie publishing house. The years of close creative and human friendship between these two writers ended in mutual cooling and rupture: the attitude of Bunin and Gorky to the events of the social and political life of Russia was too different.

In 1898, Bunin married actress Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni, who became the mother of his only son. However, this marriage was not successful: the couple separated a year later, and their child died in early childhood. A new stage in the writer’s creative biography began in 1900 with the release of the story “Antonov Apples,” recognized as the pinnacle achievement of prose at the beginning of the century. Over the next few years, Bunin traveled a lot throughout Europe and made a trip to the Caucasus. He was irresistibly attracted to the East, and in 1907 he traveled to Egypt and visited Syria and Palestine. The creative result of this journey was the cycle of travel essays “The Shadow of a Bird” (1907-1911). Bunin's pilgrimage to the countries of the East was preceded by his marriage to Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva (this marriage was consecrated by the church only in 1922). By the end of the first decade of the century, the name Bunin became widely known. The Gorky publishing house "Znanie" published the first collected works of Bunin in five volumes. He was awarded the second Pushkin Prize, the writer was elected an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The year 1910 can be considered the beginning of Bunin’s period of creative maturity. His first major prose work, “The Village,” is published. The story aroused great interest among readers and heated debate among critics: for the first time, it touched on topics that were almost never touched upon in the literature of the previous era. Having traveled with his wife to France, Algeria, Capri, a trip to Egypt and Ceylon, upon his return he published the story “Sukhodol”. In the last decade before October, Bunin created such masterpieces of Russian prose as “The Cup of Life”, “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, “Easy Breathing”, “Chang’s Dreams”. An event in the cultural life of Russia was the publication of the Complete Works of Bunin (1915) by the publishing house A. F. Marx.

Bunin experienced the October Revolution tragically. The premonition of a close and inevitable catastrophe resulted in a spiritual and creative crisis. In 1920, Bunin left Russia forever, carrying his endlessly beloved and lost homeland into his heart.

Speaking about the emigrant period of Bunin’s life, it is necessary to remember that he came to a foreign land as an already established artist with defined tastes and preferences. In the writer's pre-revolutionary prose, as in his poetic works, the main themes and motives, features of writing and the forms of his entire work were quite clearly visible. His personality itself had long been formed, the passion of his nature was combined in him with aristocratic restraint, with an amazing sense of proportion, intolerance to any kind of posture and pretense. Bunin had a strong character and at the same time was distinguished by his willful changeability of moods. He introduced into Russian foreign culture the unique aura of the last “village” nobility with its increased commitment to the family, with its memory of the life of previous generations, and an organic sense of the unity of man and nature. At the same time, Bunin’s worldview was almost always imbued with the experience of the imminent and inevitable collapse of this way of life, its end. Hence the eternal Bu-ninsky desire to overcome the boundaries of the circle of life, to go beyond the limits destined by it. The need for spiritual liberation made the writer himself an eternal wanderer, and filled his artistic world with the “light breath” of self-regenerating life.

The entire second half of Bunin’s life was spent in France. In March 1920, the writer and his wife, V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina, found themselves in Paris. The main trips and the external impressions of life associated with them are a thing of the past. Bunin spent the next three decades in painstaking and exacting work at his desk. While in exile, he wrote ten books, which, however, did little to help fight poverty. Even the writer’s collaboration with the leading “thick” magazine of the Russian diaspora - “Modern Notes” - did not relieve the Bunin family from constant lack of money. Having settled in Grasse, in the south of France, the writer found a semblance of his own home. At his modest villa “Zhannetta” literary friendships were struck with new people, including young writers M. Aldanov and L. Zurov. For several years, “Zhannetta” was a haven for G.N. Kuznetsova, whose love inspired Bunin to create his best, as he himself repeatedly said, book “Dark Alleys.” In the 1920-1930s, the Bunins' old acquaintances were renewed - with writers B. Zaitsev, V. Khodasevich, G. Adamovich, philosophers F. Stepun, L. Shestov, G. Fedotov. Of those outstanding contemporaries who ended up in France, Bunin was not close to D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius and A. Remizov. In 1926, Grasse visited one of Bunin’s dearest friends, S. Rachmaninov, the great Russian composer, pianist and conductor, with whom the writer especially valued his spiritual kinship.

In 1933, Bunin became the first Russian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature - “for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in fiction.” The writer received such high recognition after the publication of the book “The Life of Arsenyev,” which was a significant milestone in the literary process of the 20th century. The short period of material well-being was overshadowed for Bunin by the premonition of a new historical catastrophe - a world war. The fact that the writer was detained and humiliatingly searched during his trip through Germany is widely known. In 1940, after the German occupation of France, the Bunins tried to escape from Grasse, but soon returned. During the Second World War, living in poverty, in constant anxiety about the fate of Russia, the writer turned to the theme of love, writing his “Book of Results” - “Dark Alleys”. The first edition was published in 1943 in New York, and three years later its expanded Paris edition appeared, recognized as the final version.

At the end of the 1940s, Bunin moved from Grasse to Paris. For some time he became close to Soviet representatives in France, the possibility of publishing Bunin’s works in the USSR and even his return was discussed. However, Bunin ultimately refused to return to his homeland. The writer devoted the last years of his creative work to working on the book “Memoirs” and on the remaining unfinished book about Chekhov. On November 8, 1953, Bunin died in his Paris apartment and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….2

Chapter I . The life and creative path of I. A. Bunin………………………...5

1.1.The writer’s childhood and youth…………………………………… 5

1.2. The beginning of creativity……………………………………………6

1.3.Creative growth and growth of popularity………………………8

1.4. Emigration……………………………………………………………… 9

1.5. The main themes of I. A. Bunin’s creativity……………………11

Chapter II . Russia and Moscow in the stories of Bunin I. A………………………..13

2.1.Bunin I.A. about Russia in the 1920s…………………………………13

2.2.The image of Moscow in the story “Clean Monday”…………… 14

2.3.The image of Moscow at its beginning XX centuries in the stories of Bunin I. A………19

2.4.The image of Moscow in “Cursed Days”…………………………………21

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………25

List of sources and literature……………………………………………………..27

Introduction.

Moscow has long attracted the gaze and attention of writers and poets of various eras and trends. This is connected not only with the special role of this city in the history of our country, but also with the special Moscow spirit and the beauty of the national capital.

Many authors have been able to create unique images of Moscow that will forever remain in the souls of readers; it is enough to recall Bulgakov’s Moscow. In this sense, Bunin also managed to create his own, absolutely amazing and unique image of Moscow, which still inspires and attracts readers.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is one of the most talented and prominent Russian writers. He was a man of a complex and interesting destiny, whose main dream until his last days was to return to his homeland, which he was forced to leave.

It is not surprising that, among other themes, one of the leading themes of his work was the motif of his homeland, Russia and Moscow. At the same time, Bunin’s images of Russia and Moscow have a number of specific features that are closely related to the biography and worldview of the author himself.

Due to this circumstance, speaking about the image of Moscow in his stories, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the biography of Ivan Alekseevich in order to understand some of the features and changes in the image of Moscow over the course of the writer’s life.

Despite I. A. Bunin’s great love for Moscow and his frequent description of it in his works, even while in exile, there is very little special research on this issue. Much more often in research literature and literary criticism other aspects of Bunin's work are considered.

That is why the study of the problem of depiction and features of the image of Moscow in the stories of I. A. Bunin seems not only an extremely interesting, but also a promising topic.

The main goal of this study is to identify the features of I. A. Bunina’s image of Moscow, as well as to trace how his approach to the formation of the image of Moscow changed, as well as Ivan Alekseevich’s attitude to the city over the course of his life and under the influence of life circumstances.

In accordance with the stated topic and goal, the proposed study was divided into two chapters. The first one examines a brief biography of the writer, the features of his character and life principles, as well as creativity, closely related to them. The main objectives of the first chapter are to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of life and creativity, character, characteristic of Ivan Alekseevich himself, as well as the circumstances under the influence of which they were formed.

In the second chapter of this work, a fairly detailed study of individual stories by I. A. Bunin is carried out in the context of this topic. Among the main tasks here we can name: the need to analyze the text of Bunin’s stories, designating the image of Moscow in each of them, as well as in the aggregate, changing the image of Moscow in his works.

It should be noted that along with a detailed analysis of the text of some of I. A. Bunin’s stories, the second chapter also contains a fairly detailed analysis of “Cursed Days”, which is necessary in the context of this topic to understand the change in Bunin’s attitude towards Moscow, as well as the features of its depiction in his later works.

As noted above, there are practically no special studies on this issue.

It is worth noting, however, that some aspects of the topic under consideration are touched upon in the works of critics and researchers of Ivan Alekseevich’s work dedicated to his work.

Important in the context of the topic under study are also works about the life of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, from which biographical information can be gleaned.

Chapter I . The life and creative path of I. A. Bunin.

1.1.The writer’s childhood and youth.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich (1870–1953) was a great Russian prose writer and poet, an outstanding translator.

He was born on October 10 (22), 1870 in Voronezh into an old noble, but impoverished family. Ivan Alekseevich was distantly related to the brothers Kireevsky, Grot, Yushkov, Voikov, Bulgakov and Soimonov.

Speaking about the writer’s parents, it is worth noting that his father was a very extravagant man who went bankrupt due to his addiction to wine and cards. In his youth, he participated in the Crimean War of 1853–1856, where he met with L. Tolstoy. Ivan Alekseevich’s mother was a deeply religious woman and had a sad, poetic soul. According to family legends, she came from a princely family.

It is precisely his origin and the characteristics of the characters of his parents that Bunin owes much of to the main themes of his early work - the theme of dying noble nests.

When Bunin was three years old, the family was forced to move from Voronezh to Yeletsky district, to an ancestral estate on the Butyrki farm, where the writer spent his childhood. Among the first childhood impressions were the stories of the mother, the servants, wanderers, the elements of folk tales, songs and legends, the living flesh of the original Russian speech, the blood connection with nature and the Central Russian landscape and, finally. At the same time, the future writer experiences a great emotional shock - the death of his younger sister. It is from these childhood impressions that all the main themes of the writer’s future work grow.

In 1881, Bunin entered the first grade of the Yeletsk gymnasium, from where he was expelled in 1886 for failure to appear from the holidays. At the age of 19, he left his father’s house, according to his mother, “with one cross on his chest.”

The further fate of Ivan Alekseevich was largely determined by two important circumstances. Firstly, being a nobleman, he did not even receive a high school education, and secondly, after leaving his parents’ shelter he never had his own home and spent his entire life in hotels, other people’s houses and rented apartments.

The simultaneous attraction to noble traditions and repulsion from them largely determined not only the features of his work, but his entire lifestyle. Bunin himself wrote about this period of his life in one of his works: “Do I have a homeland now? If there is no work for the homeland, there is no connection with it. And I don’t even have this connection with my homeland - my own corner, my own refuge... And I quickly grew old, weathered morally and physically, became a tramp in search of work for a piece of bread, and devoted my free time to melancholic reflections about life and death, greedily dreaming of some kind of indefinite happiness... That’s how my character developed, and that’s how my youth passed simply.”

1.2.The beginning of creativity.

A very special influence on the development of Bunin’s personality was exerted by his elder brother Yuli, a populist publicist, under whose leadership Ivan Alekseevich studied the gymnasium program.

In 1889, I. A. Bunin moved to his brother in Kharkov, where he found himself in a populist environment, which he later sarcastically described in the novel The Life of Arsenyev (1927–1933).

Speaking about the beginning of the creative path of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, it is worth noting that he began writing his first poems at the age of 7–8 years, imitating Pushkin and Lermontov. Bunin’s debut as a poet took place in 1887, when the capital’s newspaper Rodina published his poem “Over the Grave of Nadson,” and in 1891 his first poetry book, “Poems of 1887–1891,” was published.

In the 1890s, Bunin experienced a serious passion for Tolstoyism and “got sick” with the ideas of simplification. He visited Tolstoyan colonies in Ukraine and even wanted to “settle down” by taking up the cooper’s craft. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy himself dissuaded the young writer from such a step, meeting with him in Moscow in 1894. It is worth saying that despite the ambiguous assessment of Tolstoyism as an ideology, the artistic power of Tolstoy the prose writer forever remained an unconditional reference point for Bunin, as did the work of A.P. Chekhov.

At the beginning of 1895 in St. Petersburg, and then in Moscow, Bunin gradually entered the literary environment, met A. P. Chekhov, N. K. Mikhailovsky, became close to V. Ya. Bryusov, K. D. Balmont, F. Sologub.

In 1901, Bunin even published a collection of lyrics “Falling Leaves” in the symbolist publishing house “Scorpion”, but this was the end of the writer’s closeness to modernist circles, and in the future his judgments about modernism were invariably harsh. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin recognized himself as the last classic, defending the legacy of great literature in the face of the “barbaric” temptations of the “Silver Age”.

1.3.Creative growth and growth in popularity.

The 1890s–1900s were a time of hard work and rapid growth in Bunin's popularity. During this period, his book “To the End of the World and Other Stories” (1897) and the poetry collection “Under the Open Air” (1898) were published.

Having independently learned English, Bunin translated and published in 1896 the poem by the American writer G. Longfellow “The Song of Hiawatha.” This work was immediately assessed as one of the best in the Russian translation tradition, and for it in 1903 the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Bunin the Pushkin Prize, and already in 1902–1909. The publishing house "Znanie" publishes his first collected works in five volumes.

In November 1906, Bunin met V.N. Muromtseva (1881–1961), who became his wife. In the spring of 1907, Bunin and his wife set off on a trip to Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Impressions from travels over the years were subsequently compiled into the book “Shadow of a Bird” (1931). It is worth noting that by this time, in the minds of readers and critics, Bunin was one of the best writers in Russia. In 1909, he was again awarded the Pushkin Prize and was elected an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The outbreak of the First World War was perceived by Bunin as the greatest shock and an omen of the collapse of Russia. He met both the February Revolution and the October Revolution with sharp hostility, capturing his impressions of these events in the diary-pamphlet Damned Days, published in 1935 in Berlin.

1.4. Emigration.

In January 1920, Bunin left Russia and settled in Paris. It is worth saying that in the pre-revolutionary period I. A. Bunin never participated in political events. Nevertheless, during the emigrant period he was actively involved in the life of Russian Paris. So, from 1920, he became the head of the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists, made appeals and appeals, and wrote a regular political and literary column in the newspaper “Vozrozhdenie” in 1925–1927. In Grasse, he created a kind of literary academy, which included young writers N. Roshchin, L. Zurov, G. Kuznetsova.

Bunin I.A. turned out to be the only emigrant writer who, despite the creative damage he suffered, managed to overcome the crisis and continued to work in unusual, extremely unfavorable conditions for any writer, improving his own artistic method.

During the years of emigration, Bunin wrote ten new books in prose, including “The Rose of Jericho” (1924), “Sunstroke” (1927), “The Tree of God” (1931), and the story “Mitya’s Love” (1925). In 1943, the pinnacle book of his short prose, a collection of short stories “Dark Alleys”, was published, which was published in its entirety in 1946.

Finding himself in a foreign land in his mature years, in the eyes of the first generation of Russian emigration, Bunin became the personification of loyalty to the best traditions of Russian literature. At the same time, even during Bunin’s lifetime they started talking about him as a brilliant master not only of Russian, but also of world level. It was he who, in 1933, was the first of our compatriots to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded on December 10.

In the Nobel diploma, made especially for Bunin in the Russian style, it was written that the prize was awarded “for artistic mastery, thanks to which he continued the traditions of Russian classics in lyrical prose.”

At the same time, it is worth noting that not everyone reacted so unequivocally and favorably to the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Bunin. Thus, A. Tolstoy emphasized: “I read Bunin’s last three books - two collections of short stories and the novel “The Life of Arsenyev.” I was depressed by the deep and hopeless fall of this master...his work becomes an empty shell, where there is nothing but regrets about the past and misanthropy.”

Bunin spent the years of World War II in Grasse, experiencing extreme poverty. After 1917, Bunin always remained an irreconcilable opponent of Soviet power, but, nevertheless, unlike many eminent Russian emigrants, he was never on the side of the Nazis.

Returning to Paris after the war, Bunin visited the Soviet embassy, ​​gave an interview to the pro-Moscow newspaper “Soviet Patriot” and resigned from the Paris Union of Russian Writers and Journalists when it decided to expel from its ranks all those who had accepted Soviet citizenship. Largely thanks to these steps, the gradual return of I. A. Bunin’s books to their homeland became possible back in the 1950s. At the same time, the Russian emigration perceived Bunin’s demarche as apostasy, and then many close people turned away from him.

However, Ivan Alekseevich did not return to Soviet Russia, despite the pain of separation from his homeland, which had not left him all these years. Most likely, this was due, first of all, to the fact that Bunin perfectly understood that his life had already been lived and he did not want to find himself a stranger in his beloved homeland. He himself said: “It is very difficult and painful to return as a very old man to his native places, where he once jumped like a goat. All friends, all relatives are in the grave. You’ll walk like you’re walking through a cemetery.”

The last years of Bunin's life, an internally lonely, bilious and biased person, were imbued with the desire to condemn everything that seemed alien to him, and therefore deceitful and vulgar. Bunin died on November 8, 1953 in Paris and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

1.5. The main themes of I. A. Bunin’s creativity.

Spanning more than sixty years, Bunin's work testifies to the constancy of his nature. All of Bunin’s works, regardless of the time of their creation, are filled with interest in the eternal mysteries of human existence and are marked by a single circle of lyrical and philosophical themes. Among the main themes of his works (both lyrical and prosaic) one should highlight the themes of time, memory, heredity, love and death, man’s immersion in the world of unknown elements, the doom of human civilization, the unknowability of the final truth on earth, as well as the homeland.

I. A. Bunin went down in history as a unique “archaic innovator.” He managed to combine in his work the high tradition of the Russian word with the subtlest transfer of experience of a tragically fractured, irrational, but seeking integrity of the human personality of the 20th century. At the same time, this experience did not decompose the language of the classics, but was subordinated to it and trusted by them.

Chapter II . Russia and Moscow in the stories of Bunin I.A.

2.1.Bunin I.A. about Russia in the 1920s.

The pain of separation from his homeland and the reluctance to come to terms with the inevitability of this separation led to the flowering of Bunin's creativity during the period of emigration; his skill reached the utmost filigree. Almost all the works of these years are about the former, pre-revolutionary Russia.

At the same time, in his works there is no nostalgic oil and memories of “golden-domed Moscow” with the ringing of bells. In Bulgakov's prose there is a different sense of the world, a different perception of Russia.

Rupture I.A. Bunin's relationship with Russia was quite concrete, like a break with Soviet Russia. The ideas of socialism, which remained absolutely alien to I.A. Bunin theoretically, turned out to be even more unacceptable in their practical implementation. The established statehood claimed to lead culture, to create a new type of culture, but the canons of proletarian culture were absolutely far from I.A. Bunin, as well as the very principle of state management of literary creativity.

Domestic and foreign literary studies have always been appreciated by I.A. Bunin as a Russian writer, but it was the writer’s commitment to the ideals of old Russia that turned out to be unclaimed in Soviet Russia. Even the presentation of the Nobel Prize to Bunin was a blow to the Soviet leadership.

Therefore, the Russianness of I.A. Bunin turned out to be in demand outside of Russia, in the West. To some extent, the Nobel Prize, which the writer received, was a kind of political protest of the cultural community in Europe against Bolshevism and Sovietism, but at the same time the prize was given to a truly brilliant writer.

The writer adhered to one of the main principles outlined by Ivan Alekseevich in “The Life of Arsenyev”: “From generation to generation, my ancestors told each other to remember and take care of their blood: be worthy of your nobility in everything.” In many ways, it was precisely because of this attitude to life that, perhaps, the leading theme of his work during the emigrant period was Russia - its history, culture and environment.

In “Cursed Days” I.A. Bunin recalls the preservation of memory and a real assessment of the events that preceded the establishment of Soviet power in Russia. In “The Life of Arsenyev” the writer is trying to say that one cannot build the future by destroying the past, he wants the people to remember Russia as it was before the revolution, so as not to forget their past, because without it there is no future.

2.2.The image of Moscow in the story “Clean Monday”.

In the story by I.A. Bunin's "Clean Monday" Moscow appears to the reader as a city, temptingly mysterious and enchanting with its beauty. This mystery influences its inhabitants; it is no coincidence that the image of Moscow is connected with the inner world of the main character of the story.

It is worth saying that many specific Moscow addresses that are indicated in “Clean Monday” determine its geographical space. Such a definition, at the same time, creates a detailed image of the era and helps the reader understand the culture and life of Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century.

The artistic space of the story is heterogeneous and includes repeating realities that form unique plot “rings”, reflecting two images of Moscow. The first of them is the image of Moscow as the ancient capital of Holy Rus', and the second - as the center of literary and artistic bohemia. In addition, the designated geographical space of the story greatly contributes to the revelation of the heroine’s inner world, showing the fullness and complexity of her nature: “You are a gentleman, you cannot understand this whole Moscow the way I do.”

In one of the final episodes of the story, the hero and heroine ride on a sleigh through snowy Moscow at night: “For a full month I was diving in the clouds above the Kremlin,” “some kind of luminous skull,” she said. The clock on the Spasskaya Tower struck three, and she also said:

What an ancient sound - something tin and cast iron. And just like that, with the same sound, three o’clock in the morning struck in the fifteenth century. And in Florence there was exactly the same battle, it reminded me of Moscow there...”

Bunin's relatively short story is extremely rich in Moscow place names. So, in “Clean Monday” the following are mentioned one and sometimes several times: the Red Gate, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the restaurants “Prague”, “Hermitage”, “Metropol”, “Yar”, “Strelna”, a vegetarian canteen on Arbat , Art circle, Okhotny Ryad, Iveron Chapel, St. Basil's Cathedral, Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, Art Theatre, Novodevichy Convent, Rogozhskoe Cemetery, Egorova Tavern, Ordynka, Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent, Conception Monastery, Miracle Monastery, Spasskaya Tower, Arkhangelsky Cathedral.

It should be noted that the “set” of Moscow addresses indicated in the story by the author cannot be called random; it was selected and carefully thought out by him to create the image of Moscow.

All of the listed architectural motifs are quite simply divided into three groups. The first group is formed by toponyms that encourage the reader to remember the pre-Petrine, “Old Believer” capital: Red Gate, Okhotny Ryad, Iverskaya Chapel, St. Basil's Cathedral, Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, Arbat, Novodevichy Convent, Rogozhskoe Cemetery, Ordynka, Conception Monastery, Chudov Monastery, Spasskaya Tower, Archangel Cathedral. The second group contains toponyms - symbols of the newest look, modernist Moscow: “Prague”, “Hermitage”, “Metropol”, Art Circle, Art Theater. And finally, the third group consists of buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries, stylized as Russian “Byzantine” antiquity: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent.

In addition to the already indicated semantic, associative load, most of the architectural motifs included in the first group are also closely linked in the story with the East.

The motives of the second, “modernist” group are invariably associated with the West. It is worth noting that it is no coincidence that the author of “Clean Monday” selected for his story the names of those Moscow restaurants that sound exotic, “foreign.” In this selection, Ivan Alekseevich was guided by the famous book by V. Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”, which, along with Bunin’s personal memories, served as the basic source for the Moscow component of the story.

Speaking about the motives of the third group, it should be noted that they appear in the story as the material embodiment of attempts of the modernist and pre-modern era to reproduce the style of Byzantine Moscow antiquity. As an example of this statement, one can cite the not very warm description of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior: “the too new bulk of Christ the Savior, in the golden dome of which the jackdaws eternally hovering around it were reflected with bluish spots...”

Speaking about the differences between these motives, it is also worth noting that the motives of all three groups not only coexist side by side in urban space, but reflect each other.

For example, in the name of the Moscow tavern “Yar”, given in 1826 in honor of the French restaurateur who bore that name, ancient Slavic overtones are clearly heard. A very striking example, in this sense, will also be the episode when the hero and heroine go to eat the last pancakes at Egorov’s tavern on Okhotny Ryad, where smoking is not allowed, because it is kept by an Old Believer. The heroine’s own remark on this matter is very accurate: “Good! There are wild men below, and here are pancakes with champagne and the Mother of God of Three Hands. Three hands! After all, this is India!

“Wild men”, French champagne, India - all this coexists whimsically and absolutely naturally in eclectic Moscow, which absorbs a wide variety of influences.

Speaking about the features of the image of Moscow in the stories of I.A. Bunin, and, in particular, in the story “Clean Monday”, one cannot ignore the fact that a number of researchers note that the image of the heroine of the story represents a metonymy of Russia. It is no coincidence that it is her unsolved secret that the hero-narrator demonstrates to the reader: “... she was mysterious, incomprehensible to me, and our relationship with her was strange.”

It is interesting that at the same time, in a similar way, Bunin’s Moscow appears as a metonymy for the image of the heroine, endowed with “Indian, Persian” beauty, as well as eclectic tastes and habits. The heroine of “Clean Monday” has been rushing around for a long time, trying to choose between the ancient Russian East and the modernist West. A clear indication of this is the constant movement of the heroine from monasteries and churches to restaurants and skits, and then back.

At the same time, even within the framework, so to speak, of her Byzantine, religious line of behavior, the heroine behaves extremely inconsistently. So, for example, she quotes the Lenten prayer of Ephraim the Syrian on Forgiveness Sunday, and then, a few minutes later, violates one of the instructions of this prayer, condemning the hero: “...I, for example, often go in the mornings or evenings when you are not carrying me to restaurants, to Kremlin cathedrals, and you don’t even suspect it.”

At the same time, he reproaches the hero for idleness, when choosing entertainment, he takes the initiative: “Where are we going today? Maybe at Metropol? "; “We’ll drive a little more,” she said, “then we’ll go eat the last pancakes at Yegorov’s...”; “Wait. Come see me tomorrow evening no earlier than ten. Tomorrow is the “cabbage show” of the Art Theater.”

At the same time, the hero himself, with a slight degree of dissatisfaction and irritation, speaks about these tossings of the heroine, between the Eastern and Western principles: “And for some reason we went to Ordynka, drove for a long time along some alleys in the gardens.” Such an attitude of his is quite natural, since it is he who, in the finale of “Clean Monday,” will have to make a decisive moral choice, filled with “eastern” stoicism: “I turned around and quietly walked out of the gate.”

Speaking about the metonymic similarity between the heroine and Moscow, it should be noted that it is especially clearly emphasized by the author in the hero’s internal monologue: “Strange love!” - I thought and, while the water was boiling, I stood and looked out the windows. The room smelled of flowers and for me it connected with their smell; outside one window, a huge picture of the snow-gray Moscow across the river lay low in the distance; in the other, to the left, the very new bulk of Christ the Savior loomed white, in the golden dome of which the jackdaws, forever hovering around it, were reflected with bluish spots... “Strange city! - I said to myself, thinking about Okhotny Ryad, about Iverskaya, about St. Basil the Blessed. - St. Basil the Blessed - and Spas-on-Bor, Italian cathedrals - and something Kyrgyz in the tips of the towers on the Kremlin walls...”

Thus, the author seems to emphasize the inconsistency, but at the same time, the integrity of Moscow, in its eclecticism in architecture, traditions, and history. It is precisely thanks to its eclecticism, and partly and despite it, that Moscow appears before the readers of the story as a mysterious, enigmatic and alluring city, the secrets of which can never be unraveled.

2.3.The image of Moscow at its beginning XX centuries in the stories of Bunin I.A.

Speaking about the image of Moscow in Bunin’s different stories, it is worth noting that in each of them, there is a certain focus in the description of the city, associated with the artistic necessity in a specific plot, as well as a close relationship between the most diverse strokes to the Moscow portrait and the inner world of the main characters, events happening in the story.

At the same time, there are a number of common features that are steadily emphasized by the author in various intonation and semantic strokes, which creates a multifaceted, subtle and charming image of Moscow. At the same time, you can most fully understand and experience it only by reading a fairly large number of Ivan Alekseevich’s stories, since in each of them the author adds necessary and important touches to the portrait of Moscow.

Speaking about the general features of the description of Moscow in various stories, we can give the following example. As noted above, in “Clean Monday” Bunin repeatedly emphasizes the idleness of the life of the main characters (at least at the beginning of the story). The writer describes the various amusements of the heroes, among which trips to restaurants and theaters occupy a prominent place. One gets the impression of a certain amount of frivolity and ease of life of the heroes. At the same time, considering and analyzing the text of the story as a whole, it becomes clear that in this way the author showed not only mental anguish and the heroine’s attempt to choose the path between the West and the East, but also a certain lifestyle of Muscovites.

This becomes fully clear after reading the story “The River Inn,” where I. A. Bunin also points out: “It was empty and quiet - until the new revival at midnight, before leaving theaters and dinners in restaurants, in the city and outside the city " Thus, Moscow appears to us, to a certain extent, as an idle city, whose residents spend a lot of time in amusements and entertainment.

Nevertheless, perceiving the stories of I. A. Bunin as an integrity, complementary works, it should be said that, despite such a seemingly negative trait as idleness, Moscow is still attractive - it is not depraved in its idleness, but in its - kindly sweet and charming.

In this work, it has been repeatedly emphasized that I. A. Bunin’s descriptions of Moscow and its inhabitants largely reflect the inner world, state and events happening to the main characters. A striking example of this can also be the story “Caucasus”, where Moscow appears as a real prison for the main characters, from where they flee in an attempt to find happiness.

The description of Moscow in the story is fully consistent not only with its circumstances, but also with the state of the characters and in every possible way emphasizes their desire to escape from the city: “It was cold rains in Moscow, it looked like summer had already passed and would not return, it was dirty, gloomy, the streets the open umbrellas of passers-by and the raised, trembling tops of cabbies shone wet and black.”

2.4.The image of Moscow in “Cursed Days”.

“Cursed Days” is a kind of diary, which reflects the reality that surrounded the writer in his last years of life in his homeland. The narration in the diary is in the first person, the entries are dated and appear in sequential order, one after another, but sometimes there are quite long breaks (up to a month or more).

It is worth noting that “Cursed Days” were the writer’s personal notes and were not originally intended for publication. Because of this, the diary is primarily addressed to events in personal and public life that are of particular importance to the writer.

Here Bunin is not only an observer, but also a participant in all the events that take place. He could also have suffered at the hands of an outrageous people, like any other person; he felt the first consequences of the revolution (division of property, prohibition of using electricity, inflation, unemployment, hunger, destruction of historical monuments, robbery, drunkenness, criminality, dirt and blood on the streets). “There was no longer any life in Moscow, although on the part of the new rulers there was an imitation, crazy in its stupidity and fever, of some supposedly new system, a new rank and even a parade of life.” The work is dominated by a feeling of unreality, creepiness, and the writer’s rejection of everything that is happening. In the Fatherland.

“Cursed Days” consists of two parts, in the first of them, the Moscow part, the records are dominated by descriptions of the events seen: street incidents, rumors, dialogues, newspaper articles. Reading these notes, one gets the impression that the writer has not yet fully realized the scale and danger for him personally of the events taking place in the city and country. In the second, Odessa part, the author mostly reflects on what he saw, on dreams, premonitions, experiences, which results in a dispute about the fate of Russia.

Speaking directly about the author’s perception of Moscow during this period, as well as about the image of the city that appears before the readers of “Cursed Days,” it is worth noting that this image is not entirely unambiguous and, in some way, strange. Throughout all the Moscow records, Moscow appears to us as an awkward combination of the old - that which ended so suddenly and senselessly for Ivan Alekseevich, and the new - that so unceremoniously invaded and destroyed his old life.

At the beginning of his Moscow notes, Bunin, in his description of Moscow, is still, one might say, cautious, since he himself has not yet fully realized what had happened: “On Red Square, the low sun is blinding, the mirror-like beaten snow... Near the artillery depot, a soldier in a sheepskin coat, with a face as if carved out of tree. How unnecessary this guard now seems! " Bunin speaks not only about external changes in the city, in particular on Red Square, but emphasizes the very essence of what is happening - the absurdity of the guard in the current situation, and also notes the absurdity of the guard himself.

Further, throughout the Moscow part of “Cursed Days,” I. A. Bunin’s formulations change significantly, becoming more harsh and intolerant. At the same time, the change in tone of the recordings relates to a variety of topics covered in them, including the topic of changing the city itself. At the same time, it is worth noting that these notes cannot be called harsh - rather, they show bewilderment, confusion and irritation from the inability to change anything, as well as from the absurdity and absurdity of what is happening.

“From the mountain beyond the Myasnitsky Gate - a bluish distance, piles of houses, golden domes of churches. Ah, Moscow! The square in front of the station is melting, the whole square glitters with gold and mirrors. Heavy and strong type of crowbar with drawers. Is there an end to all this power and excess? A lot of men, soldiers in different, random overcoats and with different weapons - some with a saber on their side, some with a rifle, some with a huge revolver at their belts... Now the owners of all this, the heirs of this entire colossal inheritance, they...”

Reading “Cursed Days,” it becomes clear how, over time, the feeling of the inevitable gradually accumulated in the writer, but he was not yet fully aware of what was happening and did not fully understand its consequences. Having already decided on the need to leave Moscow, he writes: “Get out of Moscow!” It’s a pity. During the day she is now surprisingly disgusting. The weather is wet, everything is wet, dirty, there are potholes on the sidewalks and pavements, there is bumpy ice, and there’s nothing to say about the crowd. And in the evening, at night, it is empty, the sky turns dull and gloomy from the rare streetlights. But here you are walking along a quiet alley, completely dark, and suddenly you see an open gate, behind them, in the depths of the yard, a beautiful silhouette of an old house, softly darkening in the night sky, which here is completely different than above the street, and in front of the house is a hundred-year-old tree, black the pattern of his huge spreading tent."

Thus, sadness and timid hope for a return to old times were fully expressed in the description of Moscow. In “Cursed Days” the city appears to us frightened and perplexed. Throughout the text of the notes, we see how at first Moscow was still itself - old Moscow, when against the background of its ancient splendor the “new element” looked ridiculous, out of place. By the end of the Moscow part, old Moscow becomes the exception rather than the rule - gradually reminding itself of itself through all the dirt and repulsive reality of what is happening.

Conclusion.

Having examined in detail not only the stories of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin in the context of this topic, but also his biography, tracing his creative path, a number of important conclusions can be drawn.

First of all, it should be noted that his attitude towards Moscow and Russia as a whole was formed under the influence of a number of very different factors in his biography. In general, all of his work was to some extent autobiographical and based on his life principles and experiences.

Speaking about the features of Bunin's image of Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century, it should be noted that in fact it did not change in his stories over time, but was only supplemented and honed in each of Bunin's stories.

This state of affairs is connected with the writer’s life attitudes. Here it is worth once again emphasizing his great love in Russia and Moscow, as well as his deepest hostility towards the new Bolshevik government and revolution. In this sense, the image of Moscow presented by I. A. Bunin in “Cursed Days” is very indicative, where a “disheveled” city appears before the readers - not yet completely freed from its former greatness, pathos and scope, with difficulty getting used to new conditions.

In “Cursed Days” Moscow is inhospitable, more gloomy and unsightly. But through this “accumulated” dirt, traces of the past are constantly visible, of what Ivan Alekseevich loved so much.

In all likelihood, it was precisely because of this, because of his boundless devotion to old Russia and Moscow, that in the subsequent years of emigration the writer in his numerous stories wrote the image of Moscow from memory - from how he remembered it in the pre-revolutionary period. Bunin does not want to remember or describe the horror and anarchy that reigned in Moscow before his departure from Russia.

In the stories of I.A. Bunin, Moscow is a magical place that attracts people to itself; it is a mysterious and alluring city for people from all over the world. The soul of this city is incomprehensible, like the soul of a woman - you can only love it, but it is impossible to fully understand it. She is woven from contradictions, bright and expressive, funny and arrogant, friendly and cruel, diverse and constant. In this inconsistency and the presence of often opposing qualities in the spirit of Moscow lies, in part, its secret.

Bunin I.A., speaking about the impossibility of unraveling Moscow, woven from contradictions and mysteries, he still gives some explanation for his reverent attitude towards this city. The secret of Moscow and its attraction lies, first of all, in its eclecticism, the combination of eastern and western principles. In this sense, Moscow is very similar to Russia itself, located at the junction of European and Asian civilizations.

These two principles, which at first glance are incompatible, create a special atmosphere in the city, giving its appearance a special mystery and uniqueness.

List of sources and literature:

Sources:

1. Bunin I. A. Without family and tribe. / Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978.

2. Bunin I. A. Diaries./Collected works in 6 volumes. T.VI. M.; Fiction, 1988.

3. Bunin I. The Life of Arsenyev. Collected works in 6 volumes. T.V., M.; Syntax, 1994.

4. Bunin I. A. Caucasus. / Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978.

5. Bunin I. A. Damned days./ Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991.

6. Bunin I. A. Handmade tavern. / Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978.

7. Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Stories and Stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985.

8. Tolstoy A. N. Collected works in 10 volumes. T. X. M.; Hood. Lit.-ra, 1961.

Literature:

1. Arkhangelsky A. The last classic./Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991.

2. Baboreko A.K. Bunin. Materials for biography (from 1870 to 1917). M.; Hood. Lit.-ra, 1983.

3. Dolgopolov L.K. The story “Clean Monday” in the system of creativity of I. Bunin of the emigrant period./Dolgopolov L.K. At the turn of the century. About Russian literature of the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. M.; Soviet writer, 1985.

4. Emelyanov L. I. A. Bunin (1870-1953)./I. A. Bunin Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985.

5. Lekmanov O. Florence in Moscow (“Italian” architectural motifs in “Clean Monday” by I. Bunin). http://www.library.ru/help/guest.php?PageNum=2438&hv=2440&lv=2431

6. Mikhailov O. About Ivan Bunin and this book./I. A. Bunin. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978.

7. Polonsky V. Encyclopedia “Around the World”./ http://www.krugosvet.ru/articles/104/1010414/1010414a1.htm

8. Saanyakyants A. A. About I. A. Bunin and his prose./Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; True, 1983.

Bunin I. A. Without family and tribe. / Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. Bunin I. A. Diaries./Collected works in 6 volumes. T.VI. M.; Fiction, 1988. Bunin I. The Life of Arsenyev. Collected works in 6 volumes. T.V., M.; Syntax, 1994.

Tolstoy A. N. Collected works in 10 volumes. T. X. M.; Hood. Lit.-ra, 1961.

Bunin I. A. Caucasus./ Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. Bunin I. A. Damned days./ Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991. Bunin I. A. Handmade tavern / Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Stories and Stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985.

Lekmanov O. Florence in Moscow (“Italian” architectural motifs in “Clean Monday” by I. Bunin). http://www.library.ru/help/guest.php?PageNum=2438&hv=2440&lv=2431

Saanyakyants A. A. About I. A. Bunin and his prose./Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Pravda, 1983. Dolgopolov L.K. The story “Clean Monday” in the system of creativity of I. Bunin of the emigrant period./Dolgopolov L.K. At the turn of the century. About Russian literature of the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. M.; Soviet writer, 1985. Emelyanov L. I. A. Bunin (1870-1953)./I. A. Bunin Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985.

Mikhailov O. About Ivan Bunin and this book./I. A. Bunin. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. Baboreko A.K. Bunin. Materials for biography (from 1870 to 1917). M.; Hood. Lit.-ra, 1983. Arkhangelsky A. The last classic./Russian writers-Nobel Prize laureates. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991.

Mikhailov O. About Ivan Bunin and this book./I. A. Bunin. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. pp. 6-7.

Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. pp. 614-615.

Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. P. 618.

Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. P. 617.

Dolgopolov L.K. The story “Clean Monday” in the system of creativity of I. Bunin of the emigrant period. / Dolgopolov L.K. At the turn of the century. About Russian literature of the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. M.; Soviet writer, 1985. pp. 321-322.

Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. P. 611.

Bunin I. A. Clean Monday./Bunin I. A. Novels and stories. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. pp. 613-614.

Bunin I. A. Handmade tavern. / Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. P. 273.

Bunin I. A. Caucasus./ Bunin I. A. Stories. M.; Soviet Russia, 1978. P. 166.

Bunin I. A. Damned days./ Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991. P. 122.

Bunin I. A. Damned days./ Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991. P. 65.

Bunin I. A. Damned days./ Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991. P.76.

Bunin I. A. Damned days./ Russian writers-Nobel Prize winners. Ivan Bunin. M.; Young Guard, 1991. pp. 84-85.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) “Russian classic of the turn of two centuries” was called Bunin by K. Fedin, speaking in 1954 at the Second All-Union Congress of Writers, Bunin was the greatest master of Russian realistic prose and an outstanding poet of the early 20th century.

The realist writer saw the inevitable destruction and desolation of the “noble nests”, the onset of bourgeois relations penetrating into the village, truthfully showed the darkness and inertia of the old village, and created many unique, memorable characters of Russian peasants. The artist writes penetratingly about the wonderful gift of love, about the inextricable connection between man and nature, about the subtlest movements of the soul.

Bunin's literary activity began in the late 80s of the last century; the young writer, in such stories as “Kastryuk”, “On the Other Side”, “On a Farm” and others, depicts the hopeless poverty of the peasantry. In the story “To the End of the World” (1894), the author depicts episodes of the resettlement of landless Ukrainian peasants to the distant Ussuri region, the tragic experiences of migrants at the moment of separation from their native places, the tears of children and the thoughts of old people.

The works of the 90s are distinguished by democracy and knowledge of people's life. There is an acquaintance with Chekhov and Gorky. During these years, Bunin tried to combine realistic traditions with new techniques and principles of composition, close to impressionism (blurred plot, creation of a musical, rhythmic pattern). Thus, the story “Antonov Apples” (1900) shows seemingly unrelated episodes in the life of a fading patriarchal-noble life, colored with lyrical sadness and regret. However, the story is not only about longing for the deserted “nests of the nobility.” Beautiful pictures appear on the pages, covered with a feeling of love for the homeland, affirming the happiness of merging man with nature.

And yet social problems do not disappear in his works. Here is the former Nikolaev soldier Meliton ("Meliton"), who was driven with whips "through the gauntlet", having lost his family. In the stories "Ore", "Epitaph", "New Road" there are pictures of hunger, poverty and the ruin of the village. This social accusatory theme seems to be pushed into the background; “eternal themes” come to the fore: the greatness of life and death, the unfading beauty of nature (“Fog”, “Silence”). On this occasion (“On the fall of leaves”) Gorky wrote: “I love to rest my soul on that beautiful thing in which the eternal is embedded, although there is no pleasant indignation to me in life, there is no today, which is what I mainly live with...”

In 1909, Bunin wrote to Gorky from Italy: “I returned to what you advised me to return to, the story about the village (the story “The Village”). Village life is given through the perceptions of the brothers Tikhon and Kuzma Krasov. Kuzma wants to study, then he writes about life, about the laziness of the Russian people. Tikhon is a big fist, mercilessly deals with peasant unrest. The author has a noticeable combination of a bleak picture of village life with disbelief in the creative powers of the people, there is no light in the future of the people. But in “The Village” he truthfully shows the inertia, rudeness, negative, difficult sides of village life, which were the result of centuries-old oppression. This is the strength of the story. Gorky noticed this: “This modestly hidden, muffled groan about my native land is dear to me. The road is noble sorrow, the fear for it is painful, and all this is new. They haven’t written like that before.”

"Village" is one of the best works of Russian prose of the early 20th century. In 1911-13 he increasingly embraces various aspects of Russian reality: the degeneration of the nobility ("Sukhodol", "The Last Date"), and the ugliness of petty-bourgeois life ("The Good Life", "The Cup of Life"), and the theme of love, which is often destructive ("Ignat ", "On the road"). In an extensive series of stories about the peasantry ("Merry Yard", "Everyday Life", "Sacrifice" and others), the writer continues the theme of "Villages".

The story "Sukhodol" decisively reconsiders the tradition of poeticization of estate life, admiration for the beauty of the fading "nests of the nobility." The idea of ​​​​the blood union of the local nobility and the people in the story "Sukhodol" is combined with the author's thought about the responsibility of the masters for the fate of the peasants, about their terrible guilt before them.

The protest against false bourgeois morality is noticeable in the stories "Brothers" and "Mr. from San Francisco." The story “Brothers” (written after a trip to Ceylon) depicts images of a cruel, jaded Englishman and a young “native” rickshaw puller in love with a native girl. The end is disastrous: the girl ends up in a brothel, the hero commits suicide. Colonizers bring destruction and death.

In the story "Mr. from San Francisco" the writer does not give a name to the hero. An American millionaire, who has spent his entire life in pursuit of profit, in his declining years travels to Europe with his wife and daughter on the Atlantis, a luxurious steamship of those years. He is self-confident and anticipates in advance the pleasures that can be bought with money. But everything is insignificant before death. In a hotel in Capri he suddenly dies. His corpse, in an old soda box, is sent back to the ship. Bunin showed that the gentleman from San Francisco (“a new man with an old heart,” as Bunin put it) belongs to the ranks of those who, at the cost of poverty and the death of many thousands of people, acquired millions and now drink expensive liqueurs and smoke expensive Havana cigars. As a kind of symbol of the falseness of their existence, the author showed a couple in love, whom the passengers admired. Only one captain of the ship knows that these are “hired lovers” who play love for money for a well-fed audience. And here is the contrast between the lives of the rich and people from the people. The images of workers are covered with warmth and love (the bellboy Luigi, the boatman Lorenzo, the mountaineer bagpipers); they oppose the immoral and deceitful world of the well-fed. But he condemns this world from the same abstract positions as in the story “Brothers”.

Bunin contrasts the horrors of war with the beauty and eternal power of love - a single and enduring value ("The Grammar of Love"). But sometimes love also brings doom and death (“Son”, “Dreams of the Ganges”, “Easy Breathing”). After 1917, Bunin found himself in exile.

In Paris he writes a series of stories "Dark Alleys". The female images are especially attractive. Love is the highest happiness, but it can be short-lived and fragile, love can be lonely, abandoned ("Cold Autumn", "Paris", "In a Foreign Land").

The novel "The Life of Arsenyev" (1924-28) was written on autobiographical material (the theme of the homeland, nature, love, life and death). The past of monarchical Russia is sometimes poeticized here.

The heroic war between Russia and Nazi Germany worried the artist; he loved his homeland.

Bunin is close to Chekhov and wrote Russian short stories. He is a master of detail and an excellent landscape painter. Unlike Kuprin, Bunin did not strive for highly entertaining plots; he is distinguished by the lyricism of the story.

A recognized master of prose, Bunin was also an outstanding poet. In the 80-90s. The favorite theme of the poems was nature (“Falling Leaves”). Here is the image of autumn, a “quiet widow” entering the forest mansions:

The forest looks like a painted tower,
Lilac, gold, crimson,
A cheerful motley crowd
Standing above a bright clearing.

Decadent motifs also appeared, but not for long. Civil poems "Giordano Bruno", "Ormuzd", "Wasteland" and others. Realistic pictures of village and estate life are given, the images of ordinary people are outlined with sympathy ("Plowman", "Haymaking", "On Plyushchikha", "Song"). Bunin was an excellent translator ("Cain" and "Manfred" by Byron, "Crimean Sonnets" by Mickiewicz, "The Song of Hiawatha" by Longfellow; translations from Shevchenko "Testament"). What is important for us is Bunin’s high poetic culture, his mastery of the treasures of the Russian language, the high lyricism of his artistic images, the perfection of the forms of his works.

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Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a representative of a noble family that dates back to the 15th century and had a coat of arms included in the “General Arms of Arms of the Noble families of the All-Russian Empire” (1797). Among the writer’s relatives were the poetess Anna Bunina, the writer Vasily Zhukovsky and other figures of Russian culture and science. Ivan Alekseevich’s great-great-grandfather, Semyon Afanasyevich, served as secretary of the State Patrimonial Collegium.

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The writer's father - landowner Alexei Nikolaevich Bunin (1827-1906) - did not receive a good education: after graduating from the first grade of the Oryol gymnasium, he left his studies, and at the age of sixteen he got a job in the office of the provincial noble assembly. As part of the Yelets militia squad, he participated in the Crimean campaign. Ivan Alekseevich recalled his father as a man who possessed remarkable physical strength, ardent and generous at the same time: “His whole being was... imbued with the feeling of his lordly origin.” Despite a dislike for learning that had been ingrained since adolescence, until old age he “read everything that came to hand with great eagerness”

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Ivan Alekseevich was born on October 10, 1870 in Voronezh, in house No. 3 on Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street, which belonged to the provincial secretary Anna Germanovskaya, who rented out rooms to tenants. The Bunin family moved to the city from the village in 1867 to give their eldest sons Yuli and Evgeniy a high school education. As the writer later recalled, his childhood memories were associated with Pushkin, whose poems were read aloud by everyone in the house - both parents and brothers. At the age of four, Bunin and his parents moved to the family estate in the Butyrki village of Yeletsk district.

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In the summer of 1881, Alexey Nikolaevich brought his youngest son to the Yeletsk boys' gymnasium. In a petition addressed to the director, the father wrote: “I wish to educate my son Ivan Bunin in the educational institution entrusted to you”; in an additional document, he promised to promptly pay the fee for the “right to study” and notify about changes in the boy’s place of residence. After passing the entrance exams, Bunin was enrolled in 1st grade.

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Studying at the gymnasium ended for Ivan Alekseevich in the winter of 1886. Having gone on vacation to his parents, who had moved to their Ozerki estate, he decided not to return to Yelets. At the beginning of spring, the teachers' council expelled Bunin from the gymnasium for failure to appear “from Christmas leave.” The older brother, realizing that the younger brother was disgusted by mathematics, concentrated his main teaching efforts on the humanities. In January 1889, the publisher of the Orlovsky Vestnik, Nadezhda Semyonova, invited Bunin to take the position of assistant editor in her newspaper. Before giving consent or refusing, Ivan Alekseevich decided to consult with Julius, who, having left Ozerki, moved to Kharkov. Thus began a period of wanderings in the writer’s life. In Kharkov, Bunin settled with his brother, who helped him find an easy job in the zemstvo government. Having received his salary, Ivan Alekseevich went to Crimea and visited Yalta and Sevastopol. He returned to the editorial office of the Oryol newspaper only in the fall

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At that time, Varvara Pashchenko (1870-1918), whom researchers call the writer’s first “unmarried” wife, worked as a proofreader at Orlovsky Vestnik. She graduated from seven classes of the Yelets girls’ gymnasium, then entered an additional course “for the special study of the Russian language.” In a letter to his brother, Ivan Alekseevich said that when he first met Varvara - “tall, with very beautiful features, wearing pince-nez” - he seemed to be a very arrogant and emancipated girl; he later described her as an intelligent, interesting conversationalist.

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Bunin did not hide his annoyance at the poor attention of critics to his early works; Many of his letters contained the phrase “Praise, please, praise!” Without literary agents capable of organizing reviews in the press, he sent his books to friends and acquaintances, accompanying the mailing with requests to write reviews. Bunin’s debut collection of poems, published in Orel, aroused almost no interest in the literary community - the reason was outlined by one of the authors of the Observer magazine (1892, No. 3), who noted that “Mr. Bunin’s verse is smooth and correct, but who would writes in rough verses? A certain recognition came to Bunin after the release of the poetry collection “Falling Leaves,” published by the symbolist publishing house “Scorpion” in 1901 and which, as Vladislav Khodasevich noted, became “the first book to which he owes the beginning of his fame.”

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In 1898, Bunin met the editor of the Southern Review publication, Odessa resident Nikolai Tsakni. His daughter, nineteen-year-old Anna, became the first official wife of Ivan Alekseevich. In a letter to Julius, talking about his upcoming marriage, Bunin said that his chosen one was “a beauty, but an amazingly pure and simple girl.” In September of the same year, the wedding took place, after which the newlyweds went on a trip by boat. Despite joining a family of wealthy Greeks, the writer’s financial situation remained difficult - so, in the summer of 1899, he turned to his older brother with a request to send “immediately at least ten rubles,” noting: “I won’t ask Tsakni, even if I die.” After two years of marriage, the couple separated; their only son Nikolai died of scarlet fever in 1905. Subsequently, already living in France, Ivan Alekseevich admitted that he did not have “special love” for Anna Nikolaevna, although she was a very pleasant lady: “But this pleasantness consisted of this Langeron, big waves on the shore and also the fact that Every day we had excellent trout with white wine for dinner, after which we often went to the opera with it.”[

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On October 18, 1903, the commission voting to award the Pushkin Prize took place (the chairman was literary historian Alexander Veselovsky). Bunin received eight electoral votes and three non-elective votes. As a result, he was awarded half the prize (500 rubles), the second part went to translator Pyotr Weinberg

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The evening, held on November 4, was attended by twenty-five-year-old Vera Muromtseva, who was friends with the hostess of the house. After reading poetry, Ivan Alekseevich met his future wife. Since Anna Tsakni did not give Bunin a divorce, the writer could not formalize his relationship with Muromtseva (they got married after leaving Russia, in 1922; Alexander Kuprin was the best man). The beginning of their life together was a trip abroad: in April-May 1907, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna toured the countries of the East. Nikolai Dmitrievich Teleshov gave them money for the voyage.

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Bunin's first nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature took place shortly after the writer's arrival in France. At the origins of the Nobel “Russian project” was the prose writer Mark Aldanov, who wrote in one of his questionnaires in 1922 that the most authoritative figures among the emigrants were Bunin, Kuprin and Merezhkovsky; their joint nomination for the award could raise the prestige of “exiled Russian literature.” The official text of the Swedish Academy stated that "The Nobel Prize in Literature...is awarded to Ivan Bunin for the rigorous mastery with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose."

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In October 1953, Ivan Alekseevich’s health condition deteriorated sharply. Family friends were almost always in the house, helping Vera Nikolaevna care for the sick person, including Alexander Bakhrakh; Doctor Vladimir Zernov came every day. A few hours before his death, Bunin asked his wife to read Chekhov’s letters aloud to him. As Zernov recalled, on November 8 he was called to the writer twice: the first time he carried out the necessary medical procedures, and when he arrived again, Ivan Alekseevich was already dead. The cause of death, according to the doctor, was cardiac asthma and pulmonary sclerosis. Bunin was buried at the Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery. The monument on the grave was made according to a drawing by the artist Alexandre Benois.

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“Cursed Days” is an artistic, philosophical and journalistic work that reflects the era of the revolution and the civil war that followed it. Thanks to the accuracy with which Bunin managed to capture the experiences, thoughts and worldviews that reigned in Russia at that time, the book is of great historical interest. Also, “Cursed Days” are important for understanding Bunin’s entire work, since they reflect a turning point both in the life and in the creative biography of the writer. The basis of the work is Bunin’s documentation and understanding of the revolutionary events unfolding in Moscow in 1918 and in Odessa in 1919, which he witnessed. Perceiving the revolution as a national catastrophe, Bunin had a hard time experiencing the events taking place in Russia, which explains the gloomy, depressed intonation of the work.