Annensky Andrey Bely biography. Brief biography of Andrei Bely

, poet; one of the leading figures of Russian symbolism and modernism in general.

Biography

In 1899, at the insistence of his father, he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. From his youth, he tried to combine artistic and mystical moods with positivism, with the desire for exact sciences. At the university he works on invertebrate zoology, studies the works of Darwin, chemistry, but does not miss a single issue of the World of Art. In the fall of 1899, Boris, as he put it, “devotes himself entirely to the phrase, the syllable.”

In December 1901, Bely met the “senior symbolists” - Bryusov, Merezhkovsky and Gippius. In the fall of 1903, a literary circle called “Argonauts” was organized around Andrei Bely. In 1904, the “Argonauts” gathered in Astrov’s apartment. At one of the meetings of the circle, it was proposed to publish a literary and philosophical collection called “Free Conscience”, and in 1906 two books in this collection were published.

In 1903, Bely entered into correspondence with Alexander Blok, and a year later they met personally. Before that, in 1903, he graduated from the university with honors. Since the founding of the magazine “Libra” in January 1904, Andrei Bely began to work closely with him. In the fall of 1904, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, choosing B. A. Fokht as its director; however, in 1905 he stopped attending classes, in 1906 he submitted a request for expulsion and began to engage exclusively in literary work.

After a painful break with Blok and his wife Lyubov Mendeleeva, Bely lived abroad for six months. In 1909 he became one of the co-founders of the Musaget publishing house. In 1911 he made a series of trips through Sicily - Tunisia - Egypt - Palestine (described in “Travel Notes”). In 1910, Bugaev, relying on his mastery of mathematical methods, gave lectures on prosody to aspiring poets - in the words of D. Mirsky, “the date from which the very existence of Russian poetry as a branch of science can be counted.”

Since 1912, he edited the journal “Works and Days”, the main topic of which was theoretical issues of the aesthetics of symbolism. In 1912 in Berlin he met Rudolf Steiner, became his student and devoted himself to his apprenticeship and anthroposophy without looking back. In fact, moving away from the previous circle of writers, he worked on prose works. When the war of 1914 broke out, Steiner and his students, including Andrei Bely, were in Dornach, Switzerland, where construction of the Goetheanum was beginning. This temple was built with the own hands of Steiner's students and followers. Before the start of the First World War, A. Bely visited the grave of Friedrich Nietzsche in the village of Röcken near Leipzig and Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen.

In 1916, B. N. Bugaev was summoned to Russia “to check his attitude towards military service” and arrived in Russia by a roundabout route through France, England, Norway and Sweden. His wife did not follow him. After the October Revolution, he taught classes on the theory of poetry and prose at the Moscow Proletkult among young proletarian writers.

From the end of 1919, Bely thought about returning to his wife in Dornach; he was released abroad only at the beginning of September 1921. From the explanation with Asya, it became clear that the continuation of family life together was impossible. Vladislav Khodasevich and other memoirists remembered his broken, buffoonish behavior, “dancing” the tragedy in Berlin bars: “his foxtrot is pure Khlystyism: not even pandemonium, but Christ-dancing” (Tsvetaeva).

In October 1923, Bely unexpectedly returned to Moscow to pick up his girlfriend Claudia Vasilyeva. “White is a dead man, and in no spirit will he be resurrected,” wrote the all-powerful Leon Trotsky at that time in Pravda. In March 1925, he rented two rooms in Kuchina near Moscow. The writer died in the arms of his wife Claudia Nikolaevna on January 8, 1934 from a stroke - a consequence of sunstroke that happened to him in Koktebel. This fate was predicted by him in the collection “Ashes” (1909):

Believed in golden glitter
And he died from solar arrows.
I measured the centuries with the Duma,
But I couldn’t live my life.

Personal life

In the years when the Symbolists enjoyed the greatest success, Bely was in “love triangles” with two brothers along the stream - Valery Bryusov and Alexander Blok. The relationship between Bely, Bryusov and Nina Petrovskaya inspired Bryusov to create the novel “Fire Angel” (1907). In 1905, Nina Petrovskaya shot Bely. The triangle Bely - Blok - Lyubov Mendeleev was intricately refracted in the novel “Petersburg” (1913). For some time, Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok and Bely met in a rented apartment on Shpalernaya Street. When she informed Bely that she was staying with her husband, and wanted to erase him from her life forever, Bely entered a period of deep crisis, which almost ended in suicide. Feeling abandoned by everyone, he went abroad.

Upon his return to Russia in April 1909, Bely became close to Anna Turgeneva (“Asya”, 1890-1966, niece of the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev). In December 1910, she accompanied Bely on a trip to North Africa and the Middle East. On March 23, 1914 he married her. The wedding ceremony took place in Bern. In 1921, when the writer returned to her in Germany after five years in Russia, Anna Alekseevna invited him to separate forever. She remained to live in Dornach, devoting herself to serving the cause of Rudolf Steiner. She was called the "anthroposophical nun." Being a talented artist, Asya managed to develop a special style of illustrations, which she supplemented with anthroposophical publications. Her “Memories of Andrei Bely”, “Memories of Rudolf Steiner and the Construction of the First Goetheanum” contain interesting details of their acquaintance with anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner and many talented people of the Silver Age. Her image can be recognized in Katya from The Silver Dove.

In October 1923, Bely returned to Moscow; Asya remains forever in the past. But a woman appeared in his life who was destined to spend his last years with him. Claudia Nikolaevna Vasilyeva (nee Alekseeva; 1886-1970) became Bely’s last girlfriend. Quiet, caring Klodya, as the writer called her, became Bely’s wife on July 18, 1931.

Creation

Literary debut - “Symphony (2nd, dramatic)” (M., 1902). It was followed by “Northern Symphony (1st, heroic)” (1904), “Return” (story, 1905), “Blizzard Cup” (1908) in the individual genre of lyrical rhythmic prose with characteristic mystical motifs and a grotesque perception of reality. Having entered the circle of symbolists, he participated in the magazines “World of Art”, “New Path”, “Scales”, “Golden Fleece”, “Pass”.

The early collection of poems “Gold in the Azure” () is distinguished by its formal experimentation and characteristic symbolist motifs. After returning from abroad, he published collections of poems “Ashes” (1909; the tragedy of rural Rus'), “Urna” (1909), the novel “Silver Dove” (1909; separate edition 1910), essays “The Tragedy of Creativity. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy" (1911). The results of his own literary critical activity, partly of symbolism in general, are summed up in collections of articles “Symbolism” (1910; also includes poetry works), “Green Meadow” (1910; includes critical and polemical articles, essays on Russian and foreign writers), “ Arabesques" (1911).

In 1914-1915, the first edition of the novel “Petersburg” was published, which is the second part of the trilogy “East or West”. The novel “Petersburg” (1913-14; revised, shortened version 1922) contains a symbolic and satirical image of Russian statehood. The novel is widely recognized as one of the peaks of prose of Russian symbolism and modernism in general.

The first in the planned series of autobiographical novels is “Kotik Letaev” (1914-15, separate edition 1922); the series was continued with the novel “The Baptized Chinese” (1921; separate edition 1927). In 1915, Bely wrote a study “Rudolf Steiner and Goethe in the worldview of modern times” (Moscow, 1917).

Influence

Bely's stylistic style is extremely individualized - it is rhythmic, patterned prose with numerous fantastic elements. According to V.B. Shklovsky, “Andrei Bely is the most interesting writer of our time. All modern Russian prose bears its traces. Pilnyak is a shadow from smoke, if White is smoke." To indicate the influence of A. Bely and A. M. Remizov on post-revolutionary literature, the researcher uses the term “ornamental prose”. This direction became the main one in the literature of the first years of Soviet power. In 1922, Osip Mandelstam called on writers to overcome Andrei Bely as “the pinnacle of Russian psychological prose” and to return from weaving words to pure plot action. Since the late 1920s. Belov's influence on Soviet literature is steadily fading.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

• 01.1905 - Merezhkovsky’s apartment in the apartment building of A.D. Muruzi - Liteiny Prospekt, 24;
• 01. - 02.1905 - furnished rooms “Paris” in the apartment building of P. I. Likhachev - Nevsky Prospekt, 66;
• 12.1905 - furnished rooms “Paris” in the apartment building of P. I. Likhachev - Nevsky Prospekt, 66;
• 04. - 08.1906 - furnished rooms “Paris” in the apartment building of P. I. Likhachev - Nevsky Prospekt, 66;
• 30.01. - 03/08/1917 - apartment of R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik - Tsarskoe Selo, Kolpinskaya street, 20;
• spring 1920 - 10.1921 - apartment building of I. I. Dernov - Slutskogo Street, 35 (from 1918 to 1944 it was called Tavricheskaya Street).

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Notes

• (original in the ImWerden library)

Excerpt characterizing Andrei Bely

The adjutant looked back at Pierre, as if not knowing what to do with him now.
“Don’t worry,” said Pierre. – I’ll go to the mound, okay?
- Yes, go, you can see everything from there and it’s not so dangerous. And I'll pick you up.
Pierre went to the battery, and the adjutant went further. They did not see each other again, and much later Pierre learned that this adjutant’s arm was torn off that day.
The mound that Pierre entered was the famous one (later known among the Russians under the name of the kurgan battery, or Raevsky’s battery, and among the French under the name la grande redoute, la fatale redoute, la redoute du center [the great redoubt, the fatal redoubt, the central redoubt ] a place around which tens of thousands of people were positioned and which the French considered the most important point of the position.
This redoubt consisted of a mound on which ditches were dug on three sides. In a place dug in by ditches there were ten firing cannons, stuck out into the opening of the shafts.
There were cannons lined up with the mound on both sides, also firing incessantly. A little behind the guns stood the infantry troops. Entering this mound, Pierre did not think that this place, dug in with small ditches, on which several cannons stood and fired, was the most important place in the battle.
To Pierre, on the contrary, it seemed that this place (precisely because he was on it) was one of the most insignificant places of the battle.
Entering the mound, Pierre sat down at the end of the ditch surrounding the battery, and with an unconsciously joyful smile looked at what was happening around him. From time to time, Pierre still stood up with the same smile and, trying not to disturb the soldiers who were loading and rolling guns, constantly running past him with bags and charges, walked around the battery. The guns from this battery fired continuously one after another, deafening with their sounds and covering the entire area with gunpowder smoke.
In contrast to the creepiness that was felt between the infantry soldiers of the cover, here, on the battery, where a small number of people busy with work are white limited, separated from others by a ditch - here one felt the same and common to everyone, as if a family revival.
The appearance of the non-military figure of Pierre in a white hat initially struck these people unpleasantly. The soldiers, passing by him, glanced sideways at his figure in surprise and even fear. The senior artillery officer, a tall, long-legged, pockmarked man, as if to watch the action of the last gun, approached Pierre and looked at him curiously.
A young, round-faced officer, still a complete child, apparently just released from the corps, very diligently disposing of the two guns entrusted to him, addressed Pierre sternly.
“Mister, let me ask you to leave the road,” he told him, “it’s not allowed here.”
The soldiers shook their heads disapprovingly, looking at Pierre. But when everyone was convinced that this man in a white hat not only did nothing wrong, but either sat quietly on the slope of the rampart, or with a timid smile, courteously avoiding the soldiers, walked along the battery under gunfire as calmly as along the boulevard, then Little by little, the feeling of hostile bewilderment towards him began to turn into affectionate and playful sympathy, similar to that which soldiers have for their animals: dogs, roosters, goats and in general animals living with military commands. These soldiers immediately mentally accepted Pierre into their family, appropriated them and gave him a nickname. “Our master” they nicknamed him and laughed affectionately about him among themselves.
One cannonball exploded into the ground two steps away from Pierre. He, cleaning the soil sprinkled with the cannonball from his dress, looked around him with a smile.
- And why aren’t you afraid, master, really! - the red-faced, broad soldier turned to Pierre, baring his strong white teeth.
-Are you afraid? asked Pierre.
- How then? - answered the soldier. - After all, she will not have mercy. She will smack and her guts will be out. “You can’t help but be afraid,” he said, laughing.
Several soldiers with cheerful and affectionate faces stopped next to Pierre. It was as if they did not expect him to speak like everyone else, and this discovery delighted them.
- Our business is soldierly. But master, it’s so amazing. That's it master!
- In places! - the young officer shouted at the soldiers gathered around Pierre. This young officer, apparently, was fulfilling his position for the first or second time and therefore treated both the soldiers and the commander with particular clarity and formality.
The rolling fire of cannons and rifles intensified throughout the entire field, especially to the left, where Bagration’s flashes were, but because of the smoke of the shots, it was impossible to see almost anything from the place where Pierre was. Moreover, observing the seemingly family (separated from all others) circle of people who were on the battery absorbed all of Pierre’s attention. His first unconscious joyful excitement, produced by the sight and sounds of the battlefield, was now replaced, especially after the sight of this lonely soldier lying in the meadow, by another feeling. Now sitting on the slope of the ditch, he observed the faces surrounding him.
By ten o'clock twenty people had already been carried away from the battery; two guns were broken, shells hit the battery more and more often, and long-range bullets flew in, buzzing and whistling. But the people who were at the battery did not seem to notice this; Cheerful talk and jokes were heard from all sides.
- Chinenka! - the soldier shouted at the approaching grenade flying with a whistle. - Not here! To the infantry! – another added with laughter, noticing that the grenade flew over and hit the covering ranks.
- What, friend? - another soldier laughed at the man who crouched under the flying cannonball.
Several soldiers gathered at the rampart, looking at what was happening ahead.
“And they took off the chain, you see, they went back,” they said, pointing across the shaft.
“Mind your job,” the old non-commissioned officer shouted at them. “We’ve gone back, so it’s time to go back.” - And the non-commissioned officer, taking one of the soldiers by the shoulder, pushed him with his knee. There was laughter.
- Roll towards the fifth gun! - they shouted from one side.
“At once, more amicably, in the burlatsky style,” the cheerful cries of those changing the gun were heard.
“Oh, I almost knocked off our master’s hat,” the red-faced joker laughed at Pierre, showing his teeth. “Eh, clumsy,” he added reproachfully to the cannonball that hit the wheel and the man’s leg.
- Come on, you foxes! - another laughed at the bending militiamen entering the battery behind the wounded man.
- Isn’t the porridge tasty? Oh, the crows, they slaughtered! - they shouted at the militia, who hesitated in front of the soldier with a severed leg.
“Something else, kid,” they mimicked the men. – They don’t like passion.
Pierre noticed how after each cannonball that hit, after each loss, the general revival flared up more and more.
As if from an approaching thundercloud, more and more often, lighter and brighter, lightning of a hidden, flaring fire flashed on the faces of all these people (as if in rebuff to what was happening).
Pierre did not look forward to the battlefield and was not interested in knowing what was happening there: he was completely absorbed in the contemplation of this increasingly flaring fire, which in the same way (he felt) was flaring up in his soul.
At ten o'clock the infantry soldiers who were in front of the battery in the bushes and along the Kamenka River retreated. From the battery it was visible how they ran back past it, carrying the wounded on their guns. Some general with his retinue entered the mound and, after talking with the colonel, looked angrily at Pierre, went down again, ordering the infantry cover stationed behind the battery to lie down so as to be less exposed to shots. Following this, a drum and command shouts were heard in the ranks of the infantry, to the right of the battery, and from the battery it was visible how the ranks of the infantry moved forward.
Pierre looked through the shaft. One face in particular caught his eye. It was an officer who, with a pale young face, walked backwards, carrying a lowered sword, and looked around uneasily.
The rows of infantry soldiers disappeared into the smoke, and their prolonged screams and frequent gunfire could be heard. A few minutes later, crowds of wounded and stretchers passed from there. Shells began to hit the battery even more often. Several people lay uncleaned. The soldiers moved more busily and more animatedly around the guns. Nobody paid attention to Pierre anymore. Once or twice they shouted at him angrily for being on the road. The senior officer, with a frowning face, moved with large, fast steps from one gun to another. The young officer, flushed even more, commanded the soldiers even more diligently. The soldiers fired, turned, loaded, and did their job with tense panache. They bounced as they walked, as if on springs.
A thundercloud had moved in, and the fire that Pierre had been watching burned brightly in all their faces. He stood next to the senior officer. The young officer ran up to the elder officer, with his hand on his shako.
- I have the honor to report, Mr. Colonel, there are only eight charges, would you order to continue firing? - he asked.
- Buckshot! - Without answering, the senior officer shouted, looking through the rampart.
Suddenly something happened; The officer gasped and, curling up, sat down on the ground, like a shot bird in flight. Everything became strange, unclear and cloudy in Pierre’s eyes.
One after another, the cannonballs whistled and hit the parapet, the soldiers, and the cannons. Pierre, who had not heard these sounds before, now only heard these sounds alone. To the side of the battery, on the right, the soldiers were running, shouting “Hurray,” not forward, but backward, as it seemed to Pierre.
The cannonball hit the very edge of the shaft in front of which Pierre stood, sprinkled earth, and a black ball flashed in his eyes, and at the same instant it smacked into something. The militia who had entered the battery ran back.
- All with buckshot! - the officer shouted.
The non-commissioned officer ran up to the senior officer and in a frightened whisper (as a butler reports to his owner at dinner that there is no more wine required) said that there were no more charges.
- Robbers, what are they doing! - the officer shouted, turning to Pierre. The senior officer's face was red and sweaty, his frowning eyes sparkling. – Run to the reserves, bring the boxes! - he shouted, angrily looking around Pierre and turning to his soldier.
“I’ll go,” said Pierre. The officer, without answering him, walked in the other direction with long steps.
– Don’t shoot... Wait! - he shouted.
The soldier, who was ordered to go for the charges, collided with Pierre.
“Eh, master, there’s no place for you here,” he said and ran downstairs. Pierre ran after the soldier, going around the place where the young officer was sitting.
One, another, a third cannonball flew over him, hitting in front, from the sides, from behind. Pierre ran downstairs. "Where am I going?" - he suddenly remembered, already running up to the green boxes. He stopped, undecided whether to go back or forward. Suddenly a terrible shock threw him back to the ground. At the same instant, the brilliance of a large fire illuminated him, and at the same instant a deafening thunder, crackling and whistling sound rang in his ears.
Pierre, having woken up, was sitting on his backside, leaning his hands on the ground; the box he was near was not there; only green burnt boards and rags were lying on the scorched grass, and the horse, shaking its shaft with fragments, galloped away from him, and the other, like Pierre himself, lay on the ground and squealed shrilly, protractedly.

Pierre, unconscious from fear, jumped up and ran back to the battery, as the only refuge from all the horrors that surrounded him.
While Pierre was entering the trench, he noticed that no shots were heard at the battery, but some people were doing something there. Pierre did not have time to understand what kind of people they were. He saw the senior colonel lying with his back to him on the rampart, as if examining something below, and he saw one soldier he noticed, who, breaking forward from the people holding his hand, shouted: “Brothers!” – and saw something else strange.
But he had not yet had time to realize that the colonel had been killed, that the one shouting “brothers!” There was a prisoner who, in front of his eyes, was bayoneted in the back by another soldier. As soon as he ran into the trench, a thin, yellow, sweaty-faced man in a blue uniform, with a sword in his hand, ran at him, shouting something. Pierre, instinctively defending himself from the push, since they, without seeing, ran away from each other, put out his hands and grabbed this man (it was a French officer) with one hand by the shoulder, with the other by the proud. The officer, releasing his sword, grabbed Pierre by the collar.
For several seconds, they both looked with frightened eyes at faces alien to each other, and both were at a loss about what they had done and what they should do. “Am I taken prisoner or is he taken prisoner by me? - thought each of them. But, obviously, the French officer was more inclined to think that he had been taken prisoner, because Pierre’s strong hand, driven by involuntary fear, squeezed his throat tighter and tighter. The Frenchman wanted to say something, when suddenly a cannonball whistled low and terribly above their heads, and it seemed to Pierre that the French officer’s head had been torn off: he bent it so quickly.
Pierre also bowed his head and let go of his hands. Without thinking any more about who took whom prisoner, the Frenchman ran back to the battery, and Pierre went downhill, stumbling over the dead and wounded, who seemed to him to be catching his legs. But before he had time to go down, dense crowds of fleeing Russian soldiers appeared towards him, who, falling, stumbling and screaming, ran joyfully and violently towards the battery. (This was the attack that Ermolov attributed to himself, saying that only his courage and happiness could have accomplished this feat, and the attack in which he allegedly threw the St. George crosses that were in his pocket onto the mound.)
The French who occupied the battery ran. Our troops, shouting “Hurray,” drove the French so far behind the battery that it was difficult to stop them.
Prisoners were taken from the battery, including a wounded French general, who was surrounded by officers. Crowds of wounded, familiar and unfamiliar to Pierre, Russians and French, with faces disfigured by suffering, walked, crawled and rushed from the battery on stretchers. Pierre entered the mound, where he spent more than an hour, and from the family circle that accepted him, he did not find anyone. There were many dead here, unknown to him. But he recognized some. The young officer sat, still curled up, at the edge of the shaft, in a pool of blood. The red-faced soldier was still twitching, but they did not remove him.
Pierre ran downstairs.
“No, now they will leave it, now they will be horrified by what they did!” - thought Pierre, aimlessly following the crowds of stretchers moving from the battlefield.
But the sun, obscured by smoke, still stood high, and in front, and especially to the left of Semyonovsky, something was boiling in the smoke, and the roar of shots, shooting and cannonade not only did not weaken, but intensified to the point of despair, like a man who, straining himself, screams with all his might.

The main action of the Battle of Borodino took place in the space of a thousand fathoms between Borodin and Bagration’s flushes. (Outside this space, on the one hand, the Russians made a demonstration by Uvarov's cavalry in mid-day; on the other hand, behind Utitsa, there was a clash between Poniatowski and Tuchkov; but these were two separate and weak actions in comparison with what happened in the middle of the battlefield. ) On the field between Borodin and the flushes, near the forest, in an area open and visible from both sides, the main action of the battle took place, in the most simple, ingenuous way.
The battle began with a cannonade from both sides from several hundred guns.
Then, when the smoke covered the entire field, in this smoke two divisions moved (from the French side) on the right, Dessay and Compana, on fléches, and on the left the regiments of the Viceroy to Borodino.
From the Shevardinsky redoubt, on which Napoleon stood, the flashes were at a distance of a mile, and Borodino was more than two miles away in a straight line, and therefore Napoleon could not see what was happening there, especially since the smoke, merging with the fog, hid all terrain. The soldiers of Dessay's division, aimed at the flushes, were visible only until they descended under the ravine that separated them from the flushes. As soon as they descended into the ravine, the smoke of cannon and rifle shots on the flashes became so thick that it covered the entire rise of that side of the ravine. Something black flashed through the smoke - probably people, and sometimes the shine of bayonets. But whether they were moving or standing, whether they were French or Russian, could not be seen from the Shevardinsky redoubt.
The sun rose brightly and slanted its rays straight into the face of Napoleon, who was looking from under his hand at the flushes. Smoke lay in front of the flushes, and sometimes it seemed that the smoke was moving, sometimes it seemed that the troops were moving. People's screams could sometimes be heard behind the shots, but it was impossible to know what they were doing there.
Napoleon, standing on the mound, looked into the chimney, and through the small circle of the chimney he saw smoke and people, sometimes his own, sometimes Russians; but where what he saw was, he did not know when he looked again with his simple eye.
He stepped off the mound and began to walk back and forth in front of him.
From time to time he stopped, listened to the shots and peered into the battlefield.
Not only from the place below where he stood, not only from the mound on which some of his generals now stood, but also from the very flashes on which were now together and alternately the Russians, the French, the dead, the wounded and the living, frightened or distraught soldiers, it was impossible to understand what was happening in this place. For several hours at this place, amid incessant shooting, rifle and cannon fire, first Russians, sometimes French, sometimes infantry, sometimes cavalry soldiers appeared; appeared, fell, shot, collided, not knowing what to do with each other, screamed and ran back.
From the battlefield, his sent adjutants and orderlies of his marshals constantly jumped to Napoleon with reports on the progress of the case; but all these reports were false: both because in the heat of battle it is impossible to say what is happening at a given moment, and because many adjutants did not reach the real place of the battle, but conveyed what they heard from others; and also because while the adjutant was driving through the two or three miles that separated him from Napoleon, circumstances changed and the news he was carrying was already becoming incorrect. So an adjutant galloped up from the Viceroy with the news that Borodino had been occupied and the bridge to Kolocha was in the hands of the French. The adjutant asked Napoleon if he would order the troops to move? Napoleon ordered to line up on the other side and wait; but not only while Napoleon was giving this order, but even when the adjutant had just left Borodino, the bridge had already been recaptured and burned by the Russians, in the very battle in which Pierre took part at the very beginning of the battle.
An adjutant who rode up with a flush with a pale, frightened face reported to Napoleon that the attack had been repulsed and that Compan was wounded and Davout was killed, and meanwhile the flushes were occupied by another part of the troops, while the adjutant was told that the French had been repulsed and Davout was alive and only slightly shell-shocked. Taking into account such necessarily false reports, Napoleon made his orders, which either had already been carried out before he made them, or could not and were not carried out.
Marshals and generals, who were at a closer distance from the battlefield, but just like Napoleon, did not participate in the battle itself and only occasionally drove into the fire of bullets, without asking Napoleon, made their orders and gave their orders about where and where to shoot, and where to gallop on horseback, and where to run to foot soldiers. But even their orders, just like Napoleon’s orders, were also carried out to the smallest extent and were rarely carried out. For the most part, what came out was the opposite of what they ordered. The soldiers, who were ordered to go forward, were hit by grapeshot and ran back; the soldiers, who were ordered to stand still, suddenly, seeing the Russians suddenly appearing opposite them, sometimes ran back, sometimes rushed forward, and the cavalry galloped without orders to catch up with the fleeing Russians. So, two regiments of cavalry galloped through the Semenovsky ravine and just drove up the mountain, turned around and galloped back at full speed. The infantry soldiers moved in the same way, sometimes running completely different from where they were told. All the orders about where and when to move the guns, when to send foot soldiers to shoot, when to send horse soldiers to trample Russian foot soldiers - all these orders were made by the closest unit commanders who were in the ranks, without even asking Ney, Davout and Murat, not only Napoleon. They were not afraid of punishment for failure to fulfill an order or for an unauthorized order, because in battle it concerns what is most dear to a person - his own life, and sometimes it seems that salvation lies in running back, sometimes in running forward, and these people acted in accordance with the mood of the moment who were in the heat of battle. In essence, all these movements back and forth did not facilitate or change the position of the troops. All their attacks and attacks on each other caused them almost no harm, but harm, death and injury were caused by cannonballs and bullets flying everywhere throughout the space through which these people rushed. As soon as these people left the space through which cannonballs and bullets were flying, their superiors standing behind them immediately formed them, subjected them to discipline and, under the influence of this discipline, brought them back into the area of ​​fire, in which they again (under the influence of the fear of death) lost discipline and rushed about according to the random mood of the crowd.

Andrey Bely's brief biography is presented in this article.

Andrey Bely biography brief

Andrey Bely(real name Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev- Russian writer; one of the leading figures of Russian symbolism and modernism in general.

Born on October 14, 1880 in Moscow in the family of scientist, mathematician and philosopher Nikolai Bugaev.

In 1891-1899 graduated from the famous Moscow gymnasium of L.I. Polivanov, he developed an interest in poetry.

In 1899, at the insistence of his father, he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. Which he graduated with honors in 1903.

In 1902, Andrei Bely, together with his friends, organized the Argonauts literary circle. And after 4 years, members of the circle published two collections “Free Conscience”.

In 1903, Bely began correspondence with Alexander Blok, and a year later they met personally.

In 1904, Andrei Bely’s first poetry collection, “Gold in Azure,” was published.

In the fall, he re-entered Moscow University at the Faculty of History and Philology, but in 1905 he stopped attending lectures, and in 1906 he submitted a request for expulsion in connection with a trip abroad.

Two years later, Bely returned to Russia. And then he married Asa Turgeneva. He traveled a lot until one day he met Rudolf Steiner and became his student.

In 1909 he became one of the co-founders of the Musaget publishing house. Since 1912, he edited the magazine “Works and Days”.

In 1916, Andrei Bely returned to Russia, but alone, without his wife.

From the end of 1919, Bely thought about returning to his wife in Dornach; he was released abroad only in 1921. In 1921-1923, he lived in Berlin, where he experienced a break with Turgeneva,

In October 1923, Bely unexpectedly returned to Moscow to pick up his friend Claudia Vasilyeva. In March 1925, he rented two rooms in Kuchina near Moscow. The writer died in the arms of his wife Claudia Nikolaevna on January 8, 1934 from a stroke - a consequence of sunstroke that happened to him in Koktebel.

Andrey Bely(real name Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev; October 14 (26), 1880, Moscow, Russian Empire - January 8, 1934, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR) - Russian writer, poet, critic, poet ; one of the leading figures in Russiansymbolism.

Born into the family of Professor Nikolai Vasilyevich Bugaev, a famous mathematician and philosopher, and his wife Alexandra Dmitrievna, née Egorova. Until the age of twenty-six he lived in the very center of Moscow, on Arbat; In the apartment where he spent his childhood and youth, there is currently a memorial apartment. In 1891-1899 studied at the famous gymnasium of L. I. Polivanov, where in the last grades he became interested in Buddhism and the occult, while simultaneously studying literature. Dostoevsky, Ibsen, and Nietzsche had a special influence on Boris at that time. In 1895, he became close to Sergei Solovyov and his parents, Mikhail Sergeevich and Olga Mikhailovna, and soon with Mikhail Sergeevich’s brother, the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov.

In 1899 he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University (Natural Science Department). During his student years he met the “senior symbolists.” From his youth, he tried to combine artistic and mystical moods with positivism, with the desire for exact sciences. At the university he works on invertebrate zoology, studies Darwin, chemistry, but does not miss a single issue of the World of Art.

In the fall of 1903, a literary circle called the “Argonauts” was organized around Andrei Bely.

In our circle there was no common, stamped worldview, there were no dogmas: from now on we were united in quests, and not in achievements, and therefore many among us found ourselves in a crisis of our yesterday and in a crisis of a worldview that seemed outdated; we welcomed him in his efforts to give birth to new thoughts and new attitudes,” recalled Andrei Bely.

In 1904, the “Argonauts” gathered in the apartment of Astrov . At one of the meetings of the circle, it was proposed to publish a literary and philosophical collection called “Free Conscience”, and in 1906 two books in this collection were published.

In 1903, Bely entered into correspondence with A. A. Blok, and in 1904 a personal acquaintance took place. Before that, in 1903, he graduated from the university with honors, but in the fall of 1904 he entered the history and philology department of the university, choosing B. A. Fokht as the head; however, in 1905 he stopped attending classes, in 1906 he submitted a request for expulsion and began to collaborate in “Scales” (1904-1909).

Bely lived abroad for more than two years, where he created two collections of poems dedicated to Blok and Mendeleeva. Returning to Russia, in April 1909 the poet became close to Asya Turgeneva (1890-1966) and together with her in 1911 he made a series of trips through Sicily - Tunisia - Egypt - Palestine (described in “Travel Notes”). In 1912 in Berlin, he met Rudolf Steiner, became his student and devoted himself to his apprenticeship and anthroposophy without looking back. In fact, moving away from the previous circle of writers, he worked on prose works. When the war of 1914 broke out, Steiner and his students, including Andrei Bely, moved to Dornach, Switzerland. The construction of John's building, the Goetheanum, began there. This temple was built with the own hands of Steiner's students and followers. On March 23, 1914, in the Swiss city of Bern, a civil marriage was concluded between Anna Alekseevna Turgeneva and Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev. In 1916, B. N. Bugaev was called up for military service and arrived in Russia by a roundabout route through France, England, Norway and Sweden. Asya did not follow him.

After the October Revolution, he taught classes on the theory of poetry and prose at the Moscow Proletkult among young proletarian writers. From the end of 1919, Bely was thinking about going abroad to return to his wife in Dornach. But he was released only at the beginning of September 1921. He met with Asya, who invited him to separate forever. From the poems of that time, from his behavior (“Bely’s Christ-dancing,” in the words of Marina Tsvetaeva), one can feel that he took this separation very hard.

Asya decided to leave her husband forever and remained to live in Dornach, devoting herself to serving the cause of Rudolf Steiner. She was called the "anthroposophical nun." Being a talented artist, Asya managed to preserve a special style of illustrations, which were added to all anthroposophical publications. Her “Memories of Andrei Bely”, “Memories of Rudolf Steiner and the construction of the first Goetheanum” reveal to us the details of their acquaintance with anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner and many famous talented people of the Silver Age. White was left completely alone. He dedicated a large number of poems to Asa. Her image can be recognized in Katya from The Silver Dove.

In October 1923, Bely returned to Moscow; Asya remains forever in the past. But a woman appeared in his life who was destined to spend his last years with him. Claudia Nikolaevna Vasilyeva (nee Alekseeva; 1886-1970) became Bely’s last girlfriend, for whom he did not have loving feelings, but held on to her as if he were a savior. Quiet, submissive, caring Klodya, as the writer called her, became Bely’s wife on July 18, 1931. Before this, from March 1925 to April 1931, they rented two rooms in Kucine near Moscow. The writer died in her arms from a stroke, which was a consequence sunstroke , January 8, 1934 in Moscow. Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva outlived her former lover by five years.

Literary debut - “Symphony (2nd, dramatic)” (M., 1902). It was followed by “Northern Symphony (1st, heroic)” (1904), “Return” (1905), “Blizzard Cup” (1908) in the individual genre of lyrical rhythmic prose with characteristic mystical motifs and a grotesque perception of reality. Having entered the circle of symbolists, he participated in the magazines “World of Art”, “New Path”, “Scales”, “Golden Fleece”, “Pass”. The early collection of poems “Gold in Azure” (1904) is distinguished by its formal experimentation and characteristic symbolist motifs. After returning from abroad, he published collections of poems “Ashes” (1909; the tragedy of rural Rus'), “Urna” (1909), the novel “Silver Dove” (1909; separate edition 1910), essays “The Tragedy of Creativity. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy" (1911).

The results of his own literary critical activity, partly of symbolism in general, are summed up in collections of articles “Symbolism” (1910; also includes poetry works), “Green Meadow” (1910; includes critical and polemical articles, essays on Russian and foreign writers), “ Arabesques" (1911). In 1914-1915, the first edition of the novel “Petersburg” was published, which is the second part of the trilogy “East or West”. The novel “Petersburg” (1913-1914; revised, shortened version 1922) contains a symbolized and satirical image of Russian statehood. The first in the planned series of autobiographical novels is “Kotik Letaev” (1914-1915, separate edition 1922); the series was continued with the novel “The Baptized Chinese” (1921; separate edition 1927). In 1915 he wrote a study “Rudolf Steiner and Goethe in the worldview of our time” (Moscow, 1917)

The understanding of the First World War as a manifestation of the general crisis of Western civilization is reflected in the cycle “At the Pass” (“I. Crisis of Life”, 1918; “II. Crisis of Thought”, 1918; “III. Crisis of Culture”, 1918). The perception of the life-giving element of revolution as a salutary way out of this crisis is in the essay “Revolution and Culture” (1917), the poem “Christ is Risen” (1918), and the collection of poems “Star” (1922). Also in 1922, in Berlin, he published the “sound poem” “Glossolalia”, where, based on the teachings of R. Steiner and the method of comparative historical linguistics, he developed the theme of creating a universe from sounds. Upon returning to Soviet Russia (1923), he created the novel duology “Moscow” (“Moscow eccentric”, “Moscow under attack”; 1926), the novel “Masks” (1932), wrote memoirs - “Memories of Blok” (1922– 1923) and the memoir trilogy “At the turn of two centuries” (1930), “The beginning of the century” (1933), “Between two revolutions” (1934), theoretical and literary studies “Rhythm as dialectics and the Bronze Horseman” (1929) and "Gogol's Mastery" (1934).

Novels

• "Silver Dove. A Tale in 7 Chapters" (M.: Scorpion, 1910; circulation 1000 copies); ed. Pashukanis, 1917; ed. "Epoch", 1922
• “Petersburg” (in the 1st and 2nd collections “Sirin” (St. Petersburg, 1913; circulation - 8100 copies), ending in the 3rd collection “Sirin” (SPb., 1914; circulation 8100 copies) .; separate edition ([Pg.], 1916; edition 6000 copies); revised version in 1922 - parts 1, 2. M.: Nikitin Subbotniks, 1928; circulation 5000 copies.);
• “Kitten Letaev” (1915; ed. - St. Petersburg: Epoch, 1922; circulation 5000 copies).)
• “The Baptized Chinese” (as “The Crime of Nikolai Letaev” in the 4th issue of the alm. “Notes of Dreamers” (1921); ed., M.: Nikitinskie Subbotniki, 1927; circulation 5000 copies)
• “Moscow eccentric” (M.: Krug, 1926; circulation 4000 copies), also 2nd ed. - M.: Nikitin subbotniks, 1927
• “Moscow under attack” (M.: Krug, 1926; circulation 4000 copies), also 2nd ed. - M.: Nikitin subbotniks, 1927
• “Masks. Novel" (M.; Leningrad: GIHL; 1932; circulation 5000 copies), published in January 1933

Poetry

• “Gold in Azure” (M.: Scorpion, 1904), collection of poems
• “Ashes. Poems” (St. Petersburg: Rosehip, 1909; circulation 1000 copies; 2nd edition, revised - M.: Nikitinskie Subbotniki, 1929; circulation 3000 copies)
• "Urn. Poems" (M.: Grif, 1909; circulation 1200 copies)
• "Christ is risen. Poem" (Pb.: Alkonost, 1918; circulation 3000 copies), published in April 1919
• “First date. Poem" (1918; separate edition - St. Petersburg: Alkonost, 1921; circulation 3000 copies; Berlin, "Slovo", 1922)
• "Star. New poems" (M.: Alcyona, 1919; P., GIZ, 1922)
• "The Queen and the Knights. Fairy Tales" (Pb.: Alkonost, 1919)
• "Star. New poems" (Pb.: State Publishing House, 1922; circulation 5000 copies).
• "After Separation", Berlin, "Epoch", 1922
• “Glossolalia. Poem about Sound" (Berlin: Epoch, 1922)
• "Poems about Russia" (Berlin: Epoch, 1922)
• Poems (Berlin, ed. Grzhebin, 1923)

Documentary prose

• "Travel Notes" (2 volumes) (1911)

1. “Ofeira. Travel notes, part 1." (M.: Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow, 1921; circulation 3000 copies)
2. “Travel Notes, vol. 1. Sicily and Tunisia” (M.; Berlin: Helikon, 1922)

• “Memories of Blok” (Epic. Literary monthly edited by A. Bely. M.; Berlin: Helikon. No. 1 - April, No. 2 - September, No. 3 - December; No. 4 - June 1923)
• “At the turn of two centuries” (M.; Leningrad: Land and Factory, 1930; circulation 5000 copies)
• “The Beginning of the Century” (M.; L.: GIHL, 1933; circulation 5000 copies).
• “Between two revolutions” (L., 1935)

Articles

• "Symbolism. Book of Articles" (M.: Musaget, 1910; circulation 1000 copies)
• “The meadow is green. Book of Articles" (M.: Alcyona, 1910; circulation 1200 copies)
• “Arabesques. Book of Articles" (M.: Musaget, 1911; circulation 1000 copies)
• "The tragedy of creativity." M., "Musaget", 1911
• "Rudolf Steiner and Goethe in the worldview of modern times" (1915)
• “Revolution and Culture” (Moscow: Publishing House of G. A. Leman and S. I. Sakharov, 1917), brochure
• "Rhythm and Meaning" (1917)
• "On the Rhythmic Gesture" (1917)
• “At the pass. I. The crisis of life" (Pb.: Alkonost, 1918)
• “At the pass. II. Crisis of Thought" (Pb.: Alkonost, 1918), published in January 1919
• “At the pass. III. Crisis of culture" (Pb.: Alkonost, 1920)
• "Sirin of learned barbarism." Berlin, "Scythians", 1922
• “On the meaning of knowledge” (Pb.: Epoch, 1922; circulation 3000 copies)
• “Poetry of the Word” (Pb.: Epoch, 1922; circulation 3000 copies)
• “Wind from the Caucasus. Impressions" (M.: Federation, Krug, 1928; circulation 4000 copies).
• "Rhythm as dialectic and the Bronze Horseman." Research" (Moscow: Federation, 1929; circulation 3000 copies)
• "Gogol's mastery. Research" (M.-L.: GIHL, 1934; circulation 5000 copies), published posthumously in April 1934

Miscellaneous

• “The tragedy of creativity. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy" (M.: Musaget, 1911; circulation 1000 copies), brochure
• "Symphonies"

1. Northern Symphony (heroic) (1900; published - M.: Scorpion, 1904)
2. Symphony (dramatic) (M.: Scorpion, 1902)
3. Return. III Symphony (M.: Grif, 1905. Berlin, "Ogonki", 1922)
4. Blizzard Cup. The Fourth Symphony" (M.: Scorpion, 1908; circulation 1000 copies).

• “One of the abodes of the kingdom of shadows” (L.: State Publishing House, 1924; circulation 5000 copies), essay

Editions

• Andrey Bely Petersburg. - Printing house of M. M. Stasyulevich, 1916.
• Andrey Bely At the pass. - Alkonost, 1918.
• Andrey Bely One of the abodes of the kingdom of shadows. - L.: Leningradsky Gublit, 1925.
• Andrey Bely Petersburg. — M.: “Fiction, 1978.
• Andrey Bely Selected Prose. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1988. —
• Andrey Bely Moscow / Comp., intro. Art. and note. S.I. Timina. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1990. - 768 p. — 300,000 copies.
• Andrey Bely Baptized Chinese. — “Panorama”, 1988. —
• Bely A. Symbolism as a worldview. - M.: Republic, 1994. - 528 p.
• Andrey Bely Collected Works in 6 volumes. - M.: Terra - Book Club, 2003-2005.
• Andrey Bely Gogol's mastery. Study. — Book Club Knigovek, 2011. —
• Bely A. Poems and poems / Intro. article and comp. T. Yu. Khmelnitskaya; Prepare text and notes N.B. Bank and N.G. Zakharenko. — 2nd edition. - M., L.: Sov. writer, 1966. - 656 p. — (Poet's Library. Large series.). — 25,000 copies.
• Bely A. St. Petersburg / Edition prepared by L. K. Dolgopolov; Rep. ed. acad. D. S. Likhachev. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 696 p. - (Literary monuments).

Andrei Bely (real name - Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev) - poet, prose writer (10/26/1880 Moscow - 1/8/1934 ibid.). He was born into a highly educated noble family. Father is a professor of mathematics at Moscow University. Andrei Bely's first hobbies are related to German culture (Goethe, Heine, Beethoven); since 1897, he has been intensively studying Dostoevsky and Ibsen, as well as modern French and Belgian poetry. After graduating from high school in 1899, he became a follower of Vl. Solovyov and Nietzsche. In music, his love now belongs to Grieg and Wagner. Along with philosophy and music, Andrei Bely was interested in the natural sciences, which led him to the Faculty of Mathematics of Moscow University, where he graduated in 1903, but until 1906 he continued to attend the Faculty of Philology.

Around 1903, he met A. Blok and K. Balmont, became close to the circle of St. Petersburg symbolists led by D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius, until 1909 he collaborated with the magazine “Scales”. Numerous Bely publications begin with rhythmic prose" Symphony"(1902), which attracted attention due to the unusual language and structure of the author's thoughts. Andrei Bely collected the first poems in a collection" Gold in azure"(1904), followed by collections" Ash"(1908) and" Urn" (1909), which already reflected in the titles the phase of disappointment experienced by the author. In the magazine "Veda" Andrei Bely published his first novel entitled " Silver Dove" (1909).

In 1910, a new period of Bely’s creativity began, which lasted until approximately 1920, due to his philosophical interests. In 1910-11 he travels to Italy, Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine. From 1912 to 1916 he lived mainly in Western Europe, for some time in Dornach with Rudolf Steiner, whose anthroposophical teaching greatly influenced him. In Germany, Andrei Bely became friends with Christian Morgenstern.

His second novel" Petersburg"(1912) continues the spirit of the first. Upon returning to Russia in 1916, he published a third novel, " Kotik Letaev"(1917-18), more autobiographical. He joined the literary group "Scythians" (with R. Ivanov-Razumnik and A. Blok).

Andrei Bely perceived the October Revolution in a mystical way, as an opportunity for the religious and spiritual renewal of Russia. Bely taught at the Proletkult Studio. In November 1921 he went to Berlin, where he published many collections of poetry, prose and theoretical works. In October 1923, Andrei Bely returned to Russia. The experience was reflected in his essay " One of the abodes of the kingdom of shadows"(1924). What he wrote later is predominantly autobiographical, his works preserve the traditions of symbolism and stand apart in Soviet literature, but are still qualitatively different from earlier texts. Only perestroika created the preconditions for the work of Andrei Bely from the late 80s . began to be widely published in his homeland.

Bely is one of the most significant Russian symbolists, this concerns philosophy, the theory of creativity, as well as poetry and prose. He is one of the pioneers of Russian modernism. His art is largely determined by mystical experiences, and he insists on comprehensive renewal. Four " Symphonies"Bely (1902-08) are united by the desire, in the synthesis of poetry and music, to achieve renewal of the syntax and rhythmic structures of the language, to achieve its “liberation”. The first collection of his poems is " Gold in azure" - belongs to the “apocalyptic” phase of Russian symbolism with its threatening image of a big city. The following collections of this author are closer to Russian reality, although they remain faithful to magical ideas about the word. Bely’s studies in the occult are reflected in the novel " Silver Dove", where he develops the old cultural-philosophical problem of Russia's position between East and West on the example of a person raised by Western civilization and captured by the occult forces of the East. The author is primarily interested in the technique of image, imagery of language, musical principles of repetition and rhythmic construction. Andrei Bely continues the tradition Gogol's grotesque novel " Petersburg", arising in the same range of problems (the opposition of Eastern and Western worldviews), but associated with anthroposophy and showing the conflict between a father-senator and a son who fell under the influence of terrorists, "is focused on the reflection of consciousness, but consciousness distorted in grotesques and split into independent segments" (Holthusen). White violates the laws of poetic art, which traditionally strives for unity of form in macro- and microstructure in the poem." Christ is Risen"(1918) the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution is considered as a spiritual and mystical event of world-historical significance, and hopes for Russia are associated only with the recognition of the Resurrection of Christ. Bely's stylized prose achieves the greatest expressiveness in the novel" Kotik Letaev". The author shows the consciousness of a child, in which time borders on space, reality on myth. This is a work that “anticipated the most daring formal experiments of Joyce...” (Struve). One of the ways of philosophically anti-rationalistic deepening of what is depicted in accordance with anthroposophical principles is identification of characters with mythological images. Memoirs written in 1929-33, although stylistically brilliant, are historically unreliable.

Unlike Blok, who was most attracted by the past with its great romantics, Bely was entirely turned to the future and of the Symbolists was closest to futurists. In particular, his prose had a great influence, which revolutionized the style of Russian writers. Bely is a more complex figure than Blok, and all other symbolists; in this sense he can rival the most complex and disconcerting figures in Russian literature - Gogol and Vladimir Solovyov, who had no small influence on him. On the one hand, Bely is the most extreme and typical expression of symbolist views; no one went further than him in the desire to reduce the world to a system of “correspondences” and no one perceived these “correspondences” more concretely and realistically. But it is precisely this concreteness of his intangible symbols that returns him to realism, which, as a rule, is outside the symbolist way of self-expression. He is so master of the subtlest shades of reality, the most expressive, significant, suggestive and at the same time elusive details, he is so great and so original in this, that a completely unexpected comparison involuntarily arises with the realist of realists - with Tolstoy. And yet, Bely’s world, despite its more than life-like details, is an immaterial world of ideas into which our local reality is only projected as a whirlwind of illusions. This insubstantial world of symbols and abstractions appears to be a spectacle full of color and fire; Despite his completely serious, intense spiritual life, he strikes as a kind of metaphysical “show,” brilliant, funny, but not entirely serious.

Lecture by Nikolai Alexandrov “Poets of the Silver Age: Andrei Bely and Sasha Cherny”

Bely has a strange lack of sense of tragedy, and in this he is again the complete opposite of Blok. His world is the world of the elves, which is beyond good and evil; in it White runs around like Ariel, undisciplined and erratic. Because of this, some see Bely as a seer and prophet, others as a mystic charlatan. Whoever he was, he is strikingly different from all symbolists in his complete lack of sacramental solemnity. Sometimes he is involuntarily funny, but in general, with extraordinary audacity, he merged his outward comedy with mysticism and uses this with extraordinary originality in his work. He is a great humorist, probably the greatest in Russia since Gogol, and for the average reader this is his most important and attractive feature. But Bely’s humor is puzzling - it is too unlike anything else. It took the Russian public twelve years to appreciate it. But those who tasted it and got a taste for it will always recognize it as the rarest, most exquisite gift of the gods.

Bely's poetry

Andrei Bely is usually considered primarily a poet, and, in general, this is true; but his poems are smaller both in volume and in meaning than his prose. In poetry he almost always experiments, and no one has done more than him in discovering hitherto unknown possibilities of Russian verse, especially in its traditional forms. His first book is full of ancient Germanic associations (more in plots than in form). On many pages you will meet Nietzsche with his Zarathustra symbols, and Böcklin with his centaurs, but even here the first fruits of his humorous naturalism are visible. Ash, the most realistic of Bely’s poetry collections is a book that is also the most serious, although it contains some of his funniest things ( The priest's daughter And Seminarian). But the dominant note is gloomy and cynical despair. This book contains the most serious and powerful poem Russia (1907):

Enough: don’t wait, don’t hope, -
Scatter, my poor people!
Fall into space and break
Year after year, painful year.

And it ends with the words:

Disappear into space, disappear
Russia, my Russia!

Ten years later, from above second revolution, he rewrote these verses, ending them like this:

Russia! Russia! Russia! –
Messiah of the coming day.

Urn(written after Ashes and published at the same time) is a curious collection of pessimistic and bizarrely ironic reflections on the non-existence of the world of realities discovered by Kant’s philosophy. From that time on, Bely wrote some poetry; his last book of poetry ( After separation, 1922) - frankly speaking, a collection of verbal and rhythmic exercises. But one of his poems - First date(1921) – lovely. Like Three meetings Solovyov, this is a mixture of seriousness and fun, which for Bely are strangely inseparable. Most of it will again seem to the uninitiated an empty verbal and phonetic game. We must accept it as such - with pleasure, because it is incredibly fun. But the realistic part of the poem is something more. There are his best humorous portraits - portraits of the Solovievs (Vladimir, Mikhail and Sergei), and a description of a large symphony concert in Moscow (1900) - a masterpiece of verbal expressiveness, gentle realism and charming humor. This poem is closely related to Bely’s prose work and is also based on a very complex system of musical construction, with leitmotifs, “correspondences” and “references” to oneself.

Bely's prose

In the preface to his first prose work ( Dramatic Symphony) Bely says: “This thing has three meanings: a musical meaning, a satirical meaning and, in addition, a philosophical and symbolic meaning.” This can be said about all prose, except to note that the second meaning is not always purely satirical - it would be more correct to call it realistic. The last meaning, philosophical, is probably, according to Bely, the most important. But for the reader who wants to enjoy Bely's prose, it is important not to take his philosophy too seriously and not puzzle over its meaning. This will be useless, especially in relation to his later "anthroposophical" works, the philosophy of which cannot be understood without a previous long initiation in Dornach Rudolf Steiner. Besides, this is not necessary. Bely's prose will lose nothing if its philosophical symbols are perceived simply as an ornament.

His prose is “ornamental prose” - a prosaic text formed according to the principles of poetry, where the plot fades into the background, and metaphors, images, associations, and rhythm come to the fore. "Ornamental" prose is not necessarily marked by elevated poetic language, as in Vyacheslav Ivanov. On the contrary, it can be emphatically realistic, even aggressively rude. The main thing about it is that it draws the reader’s attention to the smallest detail: to the words, to their sound and rhythm. It is directly opposite to the analytical prose of Tolstoy or Stendhal. The greatest Russian ornamentalist was Gogol. Ornamental prose has a distinct tendency: to escape the control of a greater magnitude, to destroy the integrity of the work. This trend completely developed among almost all of Bely’s successors. But in Bely’s own work this tendency is balanced by the musical architectonics of the entire work. This musical architectonics is expressed in the name itself. Symphonies, which Bely gave to his works, and is carried out by a thoughtful system of leitmotifs and repetitions-links, “crescendo and diminuendo”, parallel development of independent, but (in their symbolism) interconnected themes. However, the centrifugal tendency of ornamental style usually overcomes the centripetal forces of musical construction and (with the possible exception of Silver dove) Symphonies and Bely’s novels do not present a perfect whole. In this sense, they cannot be compared with the highest unity Twelve Blok. Symphonies(especially the first one, the so-called Second, Dramatic) contain many wonderful pages, especially satirical ones. But I cannot recommend them to an inexperienced beginning reader. It’s better to start reading Bely with Memories of Alexander Blok or from the first novel - Silver Dove, which you can read about in a separate article on our website.

Bely's next novel, Petersburg, as well as Silver Dove The theme is the philosophy of Russian history. Subject Silver dove– confrontation between East and West; subject St. Petersburg– their coincidence. Russian nihilism, in both its forms - the formalism of the St. Petersburg bureaucracy and the rationalism of the revolutionaries, is presented as the intersection point of the devastating Western rationalism and the destructive forces of the “Mongolian” steppes. Both heroes St. Petersburg, bureaucrat father and terrorist son Ableukhova is of Tatar origin. How much Silver Dove comes from Gogol, just as Petersburg comes from Dostoevsky, but not from all of Dostoevsky - only from Double, the most “ornamental” and Gogolian of all “Dostoevsky” things. By style Petersburg is unlike previous things, here the style is not so rich and, as in Double, tuned to the leitmotif of madness. The book is like a nightmare, and it is not always possible to understand what is actually happening. It has great power of obsession and the narrative is no less fascinating than in Silver dove. The plot revolves around an infernal machine that is set to explode in twenty-four hours, and the reader is kept in suspense the entire time by detailed and varied accounts of these twenty-four hours and the decisions and counter-decisions of the hero.

Kotik Letaev- Bely’s most original and unlike anything else. This is the story of his own infancy and it begins with memories of life before birth - in the mother's womb. It is built on a system of parallel lines, one develops in the child’s real life, the other in the “spheres”. This is undoubtedly a work of genius, despite the confusing details and the fact that the anthroposophical explanation of childhood impressions as repetitions of previous racial experiences is not always convincing. The main line of the story (if we can talk about story here) is the gradual formation of the child’s ideas about the outside world. This process is conveyed using two terms: “swarm” and “formation”. This is the crystallization of chaotic endless “swarms” and clearly defined and ordered “formations”. Development is symbolically enhanced by the fact that the child’s father, a famous mathematician, is a master of “building”. But for the anthroposophist Bely, an unlimited “swarm” seems to be a truer and more meaningful reality.

Continuation Kotika Letaeva – The crime of Nikolai Letaev much less abstractly symbolic and can be easily read by the uninitiated. This is Bely's most realistic and funniest work. It unfolds in the real world: it deals with the rivalry between his parents - a mathematician father and an elegant and frivolous mother - over the upbringing of their son. Here Bely is in his best form as a subtle and insightful realist, and his humor (although symbolism is always present) reaches a special charm.

Notes from an eccentric, although they are brilliantly ornamental, it is better for the reader not initiated into the secrets of anthroposophy not to read. But his last work by Andrei Bely - Memories of Alexander Blok(1922) is an easy and simple read. There is no musical construction, and Bely is clearly focused on conveying the facts as they happened. The style is also less ornamental, sometimes even careless (which never happens in his other works). Two or three chapters devoted to the anthroposophical interpretation of Blok’s poetry can be skipped. The remaining chapters are deposits of the most interesting and unexpected information from the history of Russian symbolism, but, above all, this is a delightful read. Despite the fact that he always looked up to Blok, as a higher being, Bely analyzes him with amazing insight and depth. The story of their mystical connection in 1903–1904. unusually lively and convincing. But I think that the best thing about these Memories– portraits of minor characters, which are written with all the inherent wealth of intuition, subtext and humor inherent in White. The figure of Merezhkovsky, for example, is a pure masterpiece. This portrait is already widely known among the reading public and, probably, the slippers with tassels, which Bely introduced as Merezhkovsky’s leitmotif, will forever remain as an immortal symbol of their wearer.